In an economic downturn more people are put onto the streets looking for jobs. This situation has happened before and every time it occurs we find that new job titles emerge while others become extinct. According to http://www.careerplanner.com, “Revolutions in technology continue to cause rapid, almost un-predictable changes in career demand. Changes in technology can obsolete your job causing you to be laid off, downsized, right sized, and just plain inconvenienced.”

Some of the jobs that have disappeared or are on their way to do so include typesetting, secretarial dictation, punch card operator, drafting technician, and telephone operator.

New technologies can create their own specialties, like how digital electronics grew and analog technology shrank. Both are necessary, yes, but as we’ve seen the number of job openings have swapped places. This, of course, takes us to how colleges prepare for the changes. According to a recent email from The World Future Society (http://www.wfs.org), “An increase in unusual college majors may foretell the growth of unique new career specialties. Instead of simply majoring in business, more students are beginning to explore niche majors that are capturing students’ imaginations: neuroscience and nanotechnology, computer and digital forensics, and comic book art.”

We see the same thing going on when only a year or two ago, Entertainment Engineering became a program of study at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas (UNLV). It might be suggested that as technology becomes more directed to a certain industry that even this broad subject may further narrow – or has it already done so?

We’ve seen this industry grow and expand into all areas of expertise in the last six years. We already know that there’s a huge difference between controlling the hydraulics on a theme park ride and the computer generated images created through software use. And there are dozens of other directions this comparison can go to, such as sound equipment, cell phones, automobile racing, theatre lighting. We could go on.

The idea here is that there are always new jobs opening up as technology and the applications of technology break open and expand. As long as you’re staying current on these changes, we believe that you’ll continue to see the trends and learn how to follow them. There are a lot of resources to help you do this, including our career network (http://www.EntertainmentEngineering.com/careers/). We believe that this magazine is one of those resources – something fun and interesting, and with content that is broad enough to expand your awareness. We want you to stay connected, and enjoy it while you do. Keep current to those technologies and jobs that are interesting to you, and you’ll adapt in the worst of times.

Terry Persun

terry@entertainmentengineering.com