It’s crucial to know when the “hot career” pendulum swings to a new area - particularly if your job or industry is out of favor.
In the not to distant past we had the swing of the dot-coms, companies were being started almost every bit of each day. Then came the swing of the pendulum, companies folded, jobs vanished, and now ten years later many of those buildings remain bare.
Then we entered the 21st century and the hot industries were bio-tech and health-care. The Silicon Valley saw a growth of schools training people in the medical field; even the EDD started training people for the medical field. Unfortunately, after a few years, the number of people looking for jobs far exceeded the needs of the industry and today many of these individuals are now seeking a new hot field.
The new buzzword for jobs in 2009-10…and maybe beyond…is “cleantech”. The government has injected huge sums of capital for companies in a variety of connected fields - like batteries, smart-grid, PV solar, small wind. These amounts are allowing these companies to expand and also helping new companies to get a start. According to CNN Money (11/18/2009), the government stimulus money has created 110,185 jobs in California. In discussions with Paul Davis, V.P. of Client Services here at the AA-Careers job hunting center, this year 25% of new clients are looking for vocation changes, and over 20% of them are taking “Green” jobs. The career openings cover the entire spectrum from engineering to hardware developers to customer service and marketing.
According to an article done by a major career website, hiring in the 2009 period in “Green” jobs increased nationwide by 13 %, and that will increment again in 2010. Clean Edge.(October 2009) states “President Obama and Chinese President Jintao have both made clean-tech development and deployment a cornerstone of their leadership, targeting the creation of millions of new clean-tech jobs”. “Many believe we are just at the beginning of the clean-tech job creation era.” It could be the largest growth area since the advent of the computer and the Net.
The top 5 industry sectors for clean-tech career activity, according to CleanEdge are:
1. PV solar
2. Bio fuels & Biomaterials
3. Conservation and Recycling
4. Smart Grid, and
5. Small Wind.
Making career changes has never been simple. Many people using the old “Tombstone Style” resume have little success and tend to give up, using statements like “they are only hiring people with prior experience”. Paul Davis and his staff at AA-Careers have been very successful for years using targeted resumes which contain more and highly specific information regarding the client’s ability to make the company money or save them money, based upon past accomplishments. Think about your own accomplishments and how could they apply to the new rapidly growing “green” jobs.
Stay tuned for more hiring trends with AA-Careers new job hunting blog!