In the modern world, science and technology are progressing at a rapid rate. Millions of workers, across a diverse range of sectors, are pushing the boundaries of the possibility to bring this ongoing technological revolution about. And they all worked hard in school, in university, and in their starter jobs to reach the level at which they could invent and work at the cutting edge of science. If that’s an idea that inspires you, read on to learn about some of the most exciting jobs you can work towards to position yourself at the crest of the innovation wave.
AI and Machine Learning
There’s a huge amount of buzz around artificial intelligence and machine learning. And it’s easy to see why: this is the key core technology that will revolutionize sectors and make our lives easier. There are so many ways in which AI can be used – and many more that we’re not even aware of at the moment. Indeed, it’s already being used in banking, healthcare, and in policing. But there’s so much more to expect from this exciting field and the workers within it.
To become a master of AI, working with other smart individuals on the base code and the neural networks that bring about machine learning and machine intelligence, you’ll need to study programming. Specifically, you’ll be using logic to map out different ways for machines to think on their own. You can study AI and programming in your own time, or else there are courses at university and college that’ll set you on the path to coding AI. You’ll then want to apply to a center whose work you admire – a technology company, usually – to join their cutting-edge team.
Healthcare Administration
Healthcare is developing at a rapid rate today. Pushed by the pandemic, governments, and private healthcare providers have come to realize the value of their data – especially internal data reading patients, symptoms, and health measurements. It’s this data that healthcare administrators and researchers tend to pick over, sometimes helping to come up with novel ways to diagnose diseases or treat the sick.
That’s an exciting prospect, considering that such advances might help save millions of lives. And with more and more healthcare data being generated across the world, there’s a huge need for healthcare administrators who are qualified to handle it properly. You can join this exciting field by studying for the relevant degree. You can find executive MHA programs that’ll help you do just that, gaining a master’s degree that will make you eligible for cutting-edge healthcare data analysis in the future.
Transport
We’re all now aware that the climate crisis is going to force us to change our habits. But one of the habits that’s perhaps most difficult to change is transportation – two we get ourselves from place to place. We’re now seeing electric cars, driverless vehicles, and other exciting innovations in the transportation sector that is designed to meet these changing demands and help us reduce the level of atmospheric warming worldwide.
Working in this industry means delving into elements like long-lasting lithium-ion batteries or finding ways to engineer a boat so that it uses less energy and produces less waste. It might be that you work on creating a sustainable aviation fuel, or you design a new metro system to help the public transport themselves from place to place. A career in engineering is your best route into roles in cutting-edge transportation – those chemistry degrees can also be useful when it comes to batteries and fuel.
Climate Research
This year’s Nobel prize in physics went not only to an incredible physicist but also to two climate researchers who have helped the world understand the gravity of the climate crisis – and what we can expect from further warming down the line. That’s a huge testament to the fact that researching the climate at the cutting-edge is perhaps one of the most important jobs that you can take on in the modern world. And it requires many different skills and sources of knowledge.
This is essentially an academic suggestion, given that modeling the climate is the preserve of centers that employ people with PhD qualifications. But if you’re a fan of academia, and you’re willing to keep on studying chemistry, physics, geography, and other such subjects, you could find yourself working on some of the most pressing and concerning issues of the day – contributing to mankind’s battle against climate change.
Entertainment
Anyone with a Netflix account will know that entertainment is changing. In fact, it already has changed – with on-demand streaming preferred to settling down in front of the television in order to watch a scheduled show. And these changes have, in turn, brought about some incredible new film, TV, and music – all of them at the cutting edge of the entertainment industry, which has been shaken up and overturned by new production companies using new technology to create incredible new entertainment.
If you’re a film buff, a music nerd, or a TV binger, a job in entertainment might be just what you’re after. You won’t necessarily need a degree to work on the best productions in the world – you’ll just need the relevant skills. So if that means starting out as a runner on the set of films, and trying to work up the hierarchy, then that’s what you should try. Often, a simple email to the cutting-edge production firm that you love, asking if they have any vacancies, is a brilliant way to get into this fast-paced industry.
Gaming
Another field that’s adjacent to TV and film is, of course, gaming – something that surged in popularity during the pandemic and that has been given new life by professional gaming leagues which offer huge prizes to winning individuals. And, with new consoles recently released, we’re now seeing just how exciting modern game design is becoming, with ultra-HD graphics and incredible storylines, all brought together by small creative teams. Gaming studios are working on competing against one another at the cutting edge of gaming – and if you’re a gamer yourself, a job at these places couldn’t be more attractive.
Happily, there are several different roles that you could choose to assume at a gaming studio. You could choose to be part of the storytelling team, or you could be in charge of how different creatures and features are designed. You could be a big-picture thinker guiding the narrative of the game, or you could be the developer who makes sure every blade of grass is looking bright and fresh before the game is released. This is a hugely rewarding area at the cutting edge, and it requires creative skills and gaming passion for joining these wonderful teams.
Hardware
It’s easy to forget that the innovations we’ve enjoyed in recent times are as much down to the hardware we use as they are due to the software that runs on it. That’s because hardware can only support a certain amount of processing – so older hardware simply cannot support modern software, which is more powerful than previous versions of that software. Essentially, you can have the most advanced software in the world, but you’ll need high-quality hardware to get it going.
And that means that hardware designers are naturally at the cutting edge of technology production. They’re the geniuses who engineer these electrical items in order to make them more efficient, compact, and powerful. Electrical engineering is the field you’ll need to study in order to build the hardware of the future – delivering to us, the consumers, ever-more-powerful machines upon which ever-more exciting software can operate. It’s a job that demands diligence as well as creativity.
Architecture
As with any art, the art of building homes and offices has changed with the tides of fashion and necessity. In today’s world, all architecture firms are working towards the cutting edge, and that edge is being dictated as much by stylistic concerns as it is by the need to make materials safer for humans and for the environment. Given these relatively new pressures, there’s plenty of innovation happening in the architectural space at the moment – and incredible, eco-friendly homes are popping up across the world as a result.
Clearly, if you’d like to be an architect, you’ll need to train like one. But there are other jobs in the field that you might prefer to work in, such as material engineers who carefully try to understand how to structure integrity can be achieved with different materials and combinations. Whichever entry route you choose, bear in mind that you’ll be in high demand: there’s a housing shortage in much of the western world, and cities are demanding new, eco-friendly abodes rather than those that preceded them.
Astronomer
We’ve all spent a night gazing up at the stars in wonder. But there are those who take this passion to the next level, using high-powered telescopes to scan the night sky in search of new phenomena to capture and investigate. Astronomers might seem like romantic star-gazers, but they deliver their findings to the wider scientific community, which may then discover something ground-breaking in their measurements and results. So astronomy isn’t an idle pastime, searching for colorful nebula in the night sky; it’s also incredibly important for the cutting edge of science.
Given the recent launch of the world’s most advanced telescope into space, this is also a field that’s trying to take its exploration and observation to the next level. Countries across the world are building sophisticated telescopes – some for Earth and some that will be thrust into Earth’s orbit – to help their astronomers see further. This is an exciting time for the field and, if you’re a fan of stars yourself, it’s a potential option for your university degree.
Space Exploration
While we’re up in the heavens, it’s worth pointing out that there are plenty of other cutting-edge things happening in space and in the race to make space useful for humanity. Whether it’s Elon Musk’s plan to beam the internet across the entire world, or the plan of various space agencies to increase their spending on rocket engines to get payloads into space, we’re looking at a new epoch in space travel that will rival the original space race in the 1960s. Again, this is a field that cannot but be placed firmly at the forefront of innovation.
The teams working on these projects are vast, and that means that you can get into space technology and the businesses that produce it without having to study a specific thing. But it’s worth bearing in mind that you’ll need to have something to bring to the party – be that technical skills, project management expertise, or any academic knowledge that can help get more and more rockets into space.
Conservation
Finally, let’s get ourselves firmly planted back on Earth with a more pressing job: the conservation of species that are endangered and at risk of becoming extinct. If you’re an animal-lover, this might be a job that you’ve long coveted but not understood how to get into. The good news is that you can volunteer as a conservation officer – getting started right away. But you can also contribute to the cutting edge of research and animal protection, using novel techniques to protect animals and plants.
While working in this field will require some biological know-how, it’s far more important to have a passion for animal protection and a desire to do all you can to help rescue teams, rehabilitation centers, and field scientists in their work. So, whether you contribute yourself scientifically or you follow the advice and tasks set by your managers, conservation is the final exciting job that we reckon is positioned at the very cutting edge of the possible in 2022.
If you love science and technology, you’ll yearn to work at the very peak of the innovation wave – where the most novel and exciting research and experimentation is conducted. That’s what we’ve offered up here, with 11 different fields that you might wish to explore further, learning how you can secure a job in some of the most exciting sectors in the world.
Learn more from technology and read What is Content Marketing?
One Comment