Post: #1

I'm making this thread in response to someone asking a question on another thread - basically, what industries and careers would be in high demand and be facing rapid growth for years to come:


NUCLEAR

Despite the nuclear catastrophe at Fukushima, nuclear will continue to be a necessity in our world and will continue to experience growth. Current focus in the industry is being directed at disaster prevention and bolstering safety standards for existing plants, but eventually will be redirected towards new construction.

I have a friend who flew to Shanghai with no background in nuclear who, at age 26, is a senior project manager with a nuclear consultancy and brokers multimillion dollar deals between UAE consortiums, Korean construction groups, and Chinese manufacturers. Three years ago he was scraping around for English teaching opportunities.



For all the talk about the switch to renewable energy, oil (and gas) will remain a primary source of energy within our lifetimes. Getting involved in this field in one capacity or another will be a good call no matter how you cut the pie.

I would avoid solar. I've been turning down multiple offers in multiple countries to enter the renewables industry because the industry is heavily based on subsidies. I'm not passionate enough about it to wnt to get into that field anyway.

TELECOMS IN EMERGING MARKETS

A friend of a friend of mine met a director at McKinsey in a SE Asian office in a gogo bar in Indonesia. One thing led to another, and now he is a highly paid analyst for the telecoms industry in SE Asia, with a focus on Indonesia. You think that would EVER happen in New York? HELL NO.


WATER

Water is going to be a huge issue no matter where you are in the world, but particularly in densely populated countries such as Indonesia, China, and India. Skills will be in demand in this area.


Smart Grids, Energy Efficiency, Green Buildings. These will be HUGE. Green buildings in Asia in particular will do well. My former employer, a top 3 global environmental consultancy, is making an aggressive push to become the dominant service provider for LEED services in the entire region. If you can become LEED-certified as a green buildings expert, your skills will be in demand in the US, Europe, Asia, and Latin America.


Energy Efficiency is a no brainer. Cut costs, save energy. This is a broad field that can be applied to many different areas.

Again, I chose these particular industries due to my background in environmental management and engineering. There are many other areas which I would consider high-value and interesting.

MEDICAL TOURISM: I almost got involved in a medical tourism startup before it got really ugly with our potential partners. As healthcare costs skyrocket in developed western countries and standards in places like Thailand, Korea, Colombia, and Mexico continue to meet western standards for 30% of the price, you will see an exodus of westerners flocking to cheaper medical tourism destinations. Especially with the cash-rich and aging baby boomers, which represent some 60-70 million of the US population, medical tourism can only continue to expand.

I strongly suggest you look into the healthcare and medical tourism area. The plethora of different startup opportunities in this field are enormous and mindblowing. If anyone out there with significant tech and/or healthcare experience is interested in discussing this concept with me privately, feel free to message me - but please explain to me your relevant background in this field.

PREVENTATIVE MEDICINE / ORGANIC FOOD AND SUPPLEMENTS:

The focus is beginning to switch from popping pills to healthy living and preventative medicine. I think the fitness field will continue to do well - despite being crowded, this is something that every single person needs, regardless of their demographic.

I look at products like Zumba and P90X and just beam in entrepreneurial admiration. I think it's great that athletes can make fortunes from what they are truly passionate about.

If you can take traditional Asian medicine and rebrand/repackage it in such a way that it's appealing to American/Brazilian/European consumers, you can do well. Acupuncture is experiencing a renaissance of sorts. I was considering importing pu'er tea from Yunnan into the US and branding/packaging it for the US market - but decided that I didn't want to have to deal with Chinese suppliers, or Chinese businesspeople at all.




Hope that helps out some young guns trying to find their way.

And, as always, I suggest you choose an emerging market and become a full blown expat. You will live a much more vivid life.


Opportunities multiply as they are seized.

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Post: #2

interesting. i'm still kind of clueless on what to major in and all that to be able to travel around the globe.

Post: #3

STEM ( science, technology, engineering, and mathematics ) work in general does well around the world. Except academia.

Post: #4

Houston - yeah, it's a bit tricky. As an undergrad I focused on East Asian politics and economics, so studying and working in Seoul and China fit in very well in terms of fulfilling course credits.

My masters and post-masters programs were designed as a three-school partnership to take us through modules in the US, Europe, and Asia and collaborate with companies and governments to do projects.....sometimes I sort of felt like free labor but it was worth the experience.

You gotta find your way.

Post: #5

Depending on the criteria you use, there are between 500 million and 1.8 billion English speakers worldwide. To me that means there is a potential market of 5.2-6.5 billion people to sell English products and services to. Like it or not, English is the international language of business and will likely continue to be well into the future.

This is more or less my vision for English teaching.
1. Teach English for a school
2. Teach English privately
3. Teach at your own school
4. Have other teachers do all the teaching
5. Sell your teaching methodology to other schools
6. Develop a low cost online English course
7. Open up schools in other cities
8. Make a country specific English learning TV show
9. Open up schools in other countries
10. Make an English learning video game for popular video game consoles
11. Make an English learning TV show for each country

Post: #6

English teaching will do well internationally.

Make sure whatever you do is scale-able.

Think of products, not services.

E-learning will do well.

I know Korean parents in Seoul who will pay White people 200 dollars an hour to play basketball with their kids. NOT TEACH ENGLISH. JUST TO BE WHITE AND PHYSICALLY AROUND THEIR KID.

Unbelievable.

Post: #7

I always thought this was cool:

http://www.ihipo.com/graduate_programs

These graduate programs are generally European. I like the European system of students having apprenticeships, which is a sort of extended and well-financed period of time in which students are like somewhere between an intern and a full time employee. I did this for my industry and it was immensely beneficial.

Companies like Vestas will have graduate programs in which the new trainees spend 24 months, split into 3 modules of 8 month periods in different countries, working in different functions of the business. After that period, they move into a more senior role at a specific office.

Other companies with similarly cool travel/work policies are Swire Group and Statkraft.

Post: #8

Again this is great info YMG. Surely I am not alone in appreciation for the time you spend putting good info on here for us.

I want to see this thread go somewhere so I will put in what I know.

NUCLEAR

I know this is not going away any time soon. I would look at fields that also help service the research side of this field as well. CERN (Switzerland) TRIUMF (Vancouver) all have a massive amount of fields that support the research going on. From physics to machining, all is state of the art and heavily funded. I also know Riken in Tokyo (Wako-shi) is a major player in science fiction type experimentation. English is also the institute language as its a massive draw for international scientists.

Quote:I would avoid solar. I've been turning down multiple offers in multiple countries to enter the renewables industry because the industry is heavily based on subsidies. I'm not passionate enough about it to wnt to get into that field anyway.

Correct. But paired with

Quote:Smart Grids, Energy Efficiency, Green Buildings. These will be HUGE. Green buildings in Asia in particular will do well. My former employer, a top 3 global environmental consultancy, is making an aggressive push to become the dominant service provider for LEED services in the entire region. If you can become LEED-certified as a green buildings expert, your skills will be in demand in the US, Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

there is a huge potential. Not because of the solar as much (although solar works as a good addition to standard energy grids, like in Israel) but because our energy infrastructure is dated and prime for overhaul. Its like laying telephone lines in the days of 4g networks. In my field there will be enough work for the rest of life if I was to just focus on overhauling dated infrastructure. But we need to design better and more efficient ways to distribute energy.

Post: #9

Hi Laner, thanks for the compliment.

Yeah, you're right. When I was talking about solar I meant something like becoming an exporter of the panels out of China or something. A lot of upgraded infrastructure is going to rely on this, as you correctly pointed out.

I may have forgotten, are you an engineer?

Post: #10

I know that somewhere in this thread...data from the above has to be turned into "information" and stored somewhere digitally...and I plan to be like a vulture waiting on when "whatever" area needs it. :-)

Post: #11

What are your top languages to learn?

Post: #12

I've been to healthcare facilities and/or hospitals in France, Thailand, China, Korea, USA.

I can say without a doubt that France, Thailand, and Korea have incredible good healthcare systems. In Thailand and Korea I felt more like I was at a resort or mall than at a hospital. It was almost a retail experience.

Lots of potential for web startups in the medical tourism and elective procedures tourism field.

In addition to this, health and wellness tourism. Think spas, beautification, detox clinics, that kind of thing.

Traveling to Thailand to do muay thai and lose 20 pounds is arguably also health and wellness tourism.

Analyze the potential market segments in these areas. Is there a good system in place to connect the clients with service providers? What is missing? What "pain points" are potential clients having that are not being resolved?

What is being done poorly in these fields? Can you do it better? Can you make it faster or cheaper?

Explore every possible facet of these areas and see how you can solve people's problems.

If you can solve problems for millions of people, you will probably make millions of dollars.

Or, if you can solve highly specialized problems for a handful clients with boatloads of cash, you can probably make millions of dollars.

Read "The Millionaire Fastlane."

This advice is all more geared towards startups than careers, but still. I had to work in my industry before getting startup ideas and the necessary network to pull it off.

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Post: #13

(11-11-2011 10:30 PM)zoom Wrote:  What are your top languages to learn?

Zoom, this has to be done on a case by case basis. I learned Chinese for years, am still not fluent, and it turns out that I will not need it at all.

First figure out what goals you have in your life and career, or business, then decide what language you might need. Learning Turkish now might prove massively more valuable than learning Chinese if you never plan on going to China.

Seek opportunities first. Languages are just a bridge/tool, they are not the opportunity.

Post: #14

YMG i had to give you a plus one after reading this topic, you go hardddddddddddddddddddddd on this information thing, its crazy, thanks for all the contribution on here, in terms of a business/professional perspective, you are a GENERAL on this forum.

I liked the idea of these Korean cats paying american kids to play with their kids, i bet that shit can be applicable in other countries if the right people is being targetted as potential clients.

Also, i never knew about Thailand having a great medical system. I am looking to whiten up my teeth, i may just have to fly there. If you know about any article that particularly talks about Thailand health system, please feel free to share so i understand more about their health system.

To other users, i recommend you to study hard, get a great job and also develop your business skills. True freedom and success can only be achievable when you can run things on your own and without having to rely on anybody. You will also grow faster financially if you run your own businesses. I see a job as a source that gives you the right cash to start up your own business, you shouldnt rely on that for the rest of your life. Be free, be an entrepreneur.

Post: #15

Thanks Pitt.

You should definitely use Bumrungrad in Bangkok as your medical tourism destination. I strongly, strongly recommend it. It will be nicer, cleaner, more efficient, and more friendly than any hospital you've ever been to in your life. You will also see Arabs, Japanese, Canadians, Aussies, and every other nationality on earth flocking there for major operations and elective surgeries - this is how I came to the insight for medical tourism, and began researching the field. So far, it is a "sunrise" industry, still early and open for competitors.

I don't know where you're located right now. If you're in Europe and want dental work done then I suggest you go to Hungary, which is famous for that and takes a lot of clients from Germany.

We should start a new thread about medical tourism and getting great bargains on medical treatment.

Post: #16

I am in Angola. Medical services here are shit and hella expensive.

Yeah feel free to start the medical tourism thread when you ready.

Post: #17

Done, check it out.

Post: #18

Quote:I may have forgotten, are you an engineer?

Industrial design. I started out in engineering years back but I am more of a people person and like to solve problems as a part of larger applications and "blue sky" ideas. Engineering was just too focused for me.

But in terms of careers, you can not go wrong with engineering especially if it has anything to do with energy or resource extraction. The money is incredible.

One area that has been gaining lots of hype these days is User Interface applications, or UX (user experience). Automation is branching out from manufacturing and into the service sector, and the systems and software to support this are a huge growth industry. UX flies along very similar lines to industrial design but the systems design for UX is much more focused to particular platforms. Also being quite new, many firms are able to get away with extremely high billings.

Post: #19

Yeah with the explosion in consumer electronics that will heavily focus on this (smartphones, tablets) I can definitely see UX being a huge area.

I wish I was more computer savvy.

Post: #20

Software, obviously.

Not to mention compared to a lot of the other fields listed, there isn't as much schooling required to get a job in IT/Software Development/Programming.

That isn't to say it's easy, just that there is less of an emphasis on post-grad degrees for instance, than with the other science/technology related fields mentioned.


If you're mathematically oriented, there are other areas like statistical and other quantitative analysis, and risk management type jobs that are there for you.

And of course, no matter what industries are growing, there are always good prospects for people who know how to sell shit, network, and hustle hard.

Post: #21

Hello!

Another emerging market in the US is energy brokering... Huge sums of money will be made as individuals switch from their local energy companies to companies that offer better prices. I am an energy/telecom broker and I am looking forward to this! States are just being deregulated to begin the process of opening up energy sales as a competitive industry. I make a residual of 10% per monthly bill and just focus on growing my small/medium sized businesses. I work with individuals but I prefer to work with the larger monthly bills i.e. businesses!

(11-13-2011 07:59 PM)Newb#3 Wrote:  Software, obviously.

Not to mention compared to a lot of the other fields listed, there isn't as much schooling required to get a job in IT/Software Development/Programming.

That isn't to say it's easy, just that there is less of an emphasis on post-grad degrees for instance, than with the other science/technology related fields mentioned.


If you're mathematically oriented, there are other areas like statistical and other quantitative analysis, and risk management type jobs that are there for you.


And of course, no matter what industries are growing, there are always good prospects for people who know how to sell shit, network, and hustle hard.