The career search pendulum is known to swing once in a while, and so it has swung again.
In the not to distant past we had the swing of the dot-bombs, companies were being started almost every bit of each day. Then came the swing of the pendulum, companies folded, jobs evaporated, and now ten years later many of those offices remain empty.
Then we entered the 2000’s 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 couple of years, the number of people looking for jobs far surpassed 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 “GREEN JOBS”. The administration has injected immense amounts of capital for companies in a variety of connected industries – like batteries, smart-grid, solar thermal, small wind. These sums 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 seeking career changes, and over 20% of them are taking “Green” jobs. The job openings cover the complete spectrum from engineering to engineering and testing developers to project planning and sales and marketing.
According to an article done by CareerBuilder, hiring in the 2009 period in “Green” jobs increased across the US by 13 %, and that will gain once 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 deepest growth area since the coming of the computer and the Internet.
The top 5 sectors for clean-tech job growth, according to CleanEdge are:
1. PV solar
2. Bio fuels & Biomaterials
3. Conservation
4. Smart Grid, and
5. Small Wind.
Making career changes has never been easy. Many people using the old “Historical Style” resume have no success and tend to give up, using statements such as “they are only hiring people with prior experience”. Paul Davis and his staff at AA-Careers have been extraordinarily successful for years using highly targeted resumes which contain more and highly specific information regarding the job hunter’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 our new job hunting blog!