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By Greg Tanna –www.Tanna.com.au – Executive Recruitment & Contracting Specialists For Customer Interaction Management and ICT.

The doom and gloom of the mainstream press in Australia was thankfully chastised by Australia’s highest profile demographer Bernard Salt who recently pointed out that Australia has created 3.3 million jobs over the past 10 years (while losing only 300,000 along the way) and he is optimistic about the employment outlook for the 2020s, as should we all!  He went on to predict that the Australian labour market will increase by another 3 million workers in the next 15 years to 2030. Against this backdrop, let’s not forget that we have long enjoyed one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world, dropping just one week ago in fact to 6.2% (see ABS September 2015) against an improving participation rate.  I found his analysis refreshing as it has always been the case that there are reservoirs of jobs out there in Australia – you just have to know where to look and be willing to act! 

Much of the transition to next generation jobs and careers should be celebrated as it liberates people substantially from the mundane work of yesteryear, opening the scope for people to be far more creative in the future. Granted, it’s a challenge to reinvent your/embark on a new career, develop new skills, acquire new knowledge and maintain relevance in today’s modern, dynamic employment landscape but it’s eminently achievable and, in some respects, never been easier given we are now ensconced in the information age with never-before-seen resources at our fingertips. So I thought I’d highlight some of the areas where I’m seeing significant ongoing and upside potential, albeit through the lens of Tanna Partners’ consulting domain of Executive Recruitment & Contracting in Enterprise Customer Interaction Management.

Technology – It almost goes without saying that the development and application of new technology will continue to provide massive employment prospects as it increasingly infiltrates every aspect, every corner, every microcosm of our lives.  Careers with smart technology vendors and integrators in the applications space who offer everything “..aaS” under ultra-competitive utility based pricing models are the present and the future as the bigger traditional full technology stack players suffer through lack of agility and antiquated on-premise engagement models that simply can’t be turned around in time.  Careers abound for Software Developers, Solution Engineers, Pre-Sales Consultants, Sales Executives, Account Managers and Services professionals across this landscape.  The critical attribute across all of these job functions is the ability to communicate technical constructs to broad audiences in layman terms, delivering a real “business” solution in the process, not technology for technology sake. For Entrepreneurs especially, I see no better field or domain. 

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) – Be it People, Process or Technology, companies are now forced to evaluate and articulate why functionality should be retained in-house when the global supplier market is promising better, faster and cheaper at every turn. The powerhouse BPO engine rooms of the world, India and the Philippines, are delivering to the modern Enterprise the flexibility, agility, speed to market, lower operating costs, cutting-edge technology and sophistication that the modern Enterprise needs to maintain competitiveness, if not survival. With Australia’s expensive operating costs (coming off the boil of late with the plunging dollar admittedly)  the decision to outsource is, in many respects, a requirement not a luxury.  Whilst this trend has pushed many lower level positions offshore (back and front office operators especially, the kind of functions many Australians do not want to perform in any case) it has pushed up the value chain those jobs that do remain. Consequently, a whole raft of high level B2B careers have therefore flourished in an around Account Management, Bid Management, Pre-Sales, Sales, Sales Management , Workforce Optimisation, Product Development /Management,  Technology Management , Human Resources, Analytics, Big Data and much more. You could do much worse than stake your claim in this industry as an international career path beckons and the industry has no boundaries it seems as the range and sophistication of solution offerings broadens exponentially.

Consulting & Services –From the large listed management consulting firms to their boutique competitors and every entity in between, Consulting is big business and punching well above its weight in the Australian market with revenue now measured in Billions of USD for many of the protagonists.  With most companies seemingly in a permanent state of “transformation” (there’s that word again!) large Enterprises and small companies alike have ongoing requirement to bring in consulting expertise to help keep pace with change. The market for Project Directors & Project Managers down to entry level Business Analysts is vibrant as people, process and technology review and integration take on increasingly complex dynamics forcing innovation into these companies not just as a one off project but as the new mode of Business As Usual (BAU) activity. The real hot zones here are in and around customer insights and analytics as companies grapple with the task of winning, servicing and retaining customers through/via the media channel which customers will dictate that they be sold to, serviced and retained. With social media ready to fry any company’s brand overnight if they are not customer-centric, the stakes have never been higher to get the whole strategy through to execution piece right – and that makes for a fertile Consulting landscape indeed, for as long as one cares to predict.

BFSI – Banking, Financial Services & Insurance – this industry vertical has always been a huge provider of Australian jobs but the jobs being created now are definitively different. The banks have been preparing for the dreaded day when their oligopolies and market dominance would be eroded and I don’t think I’m being too brave here in suggesting that that day has now come. The internet of everything in conjunction with post GFC era of transparency have propagated genuine open market competition within the BFSI space with payment platforms, credit card providers and just about every other tangential financial services entity applying for (and being granted) bank licences. Even Australia Post has entered the General Insurance domain as they look to monetise the largest distribution network in Australia. The mushrooming up of FinTech companies especially, often underwritten by the banks as part of their hedging policies, is evidence enough of a fundamental transition across this landscape from large, established players to smaller boutique start-ups that don’t have the burdens of legacy systems, outdated IR regimes and, quite frankly, stale executive teams. Experienced bankers can use their industry expertise and contacts to great effect within these “start-up” entities and they seem to be enjoying the accompanying autonomy, genuine team ethos and lack of politics that applies. Careers in Sales, Marketing, Product Management , Compliance, Risk Management, Alliance Management, Analytics & Distribution abound as the age of the challenger brand takes a firm hold on the market. I also take this opportunity to single out the debt industry (buying, selling or retrieving) as there’s lots of it out there and it’s only growing!

And there are so many other obvious growth sectors for Australians such as renewables, tourism and agriculture….

So don’t subscribe to the negative press and doomsayers.  Australian jobs are there in spades – provided you have the willingness to think smart, be creative and work hard.  So not much has changed come to think of it!

Over a career spanning 21 years, Greg Tanna has established himself as an executive recruitment leader in Executive Search, Selection & Contracting for APAC Customer Interaction Management across BPO, Sales, Service, Analytics & ICT. Feel welcome to make contact with Greg @ www.tanna.com.au