How would you prepare for a career of the future?

Lots of my favourite reads have published articles on jobs of the future. No huge surprises with what is coming out, I wish I could be more creative to pose some crazy suggestions. It is already happening whereby people who have great admin experience have transferred these skills to managing peoples lives. Data storage, data filing etc. Wouldn't you love to have someone come into your house and clean up your hard drive or wherever you keep stuff? I've got files of photos, resumes, and goodness knows what else, lamely filed in different places. Along with that comes the supplement of papers, real photos (photo albums-remember these) filing cabinets full of warranties and paper stuff that I may never need or use.

What other employment opportunities will there be? The CMTO was mentioned at a recent marketing conference (Chief Marketing Technology Officer) with interesting possibilities. Technology and the environment have been the catalyst for most of the future thinking. So while their is an abundance of business journals and papers written summonsing the future of employment using careful research, analysis and real stuff, most of my own research has come from two great movies. My most favourite movie of all time is Gattaca and a more recent addition to my movie greats is WALLE.

GATTICA has been on my top favourite list for 13 years. Opportunities for jobs, DNA mapping, selling your urine, blood, etc - love it (cash jobs? what will we use for cash?). The best quote from the movie; Vincent I' ll never understand what possessed my mother to put her faith in God's hands, rather than her local geneticist. A greater emphasis on genetic counselling maybe? More recently WALLE emphasises the importance of waste management, the environment and health.

One fair assumption could be the career that has lasted for centuries may still be around in one form or another. Would prostitution and the sex industry be in demand for another 20 centuries?

Is there a career or job you would like to do in the future that may not be popular today?

My apology to Cold Callers - I'm Busy

Dear cold callers, I'm writing this post today to apologise that I will likely not call you back, return your email or accept your Linked In request. I am truly apologetic about this, but I can't physical do it. I don't really know who you are, if I've met you or if we could genuinely give you some business. You see it is nearly time for the next monthly BOSS publication to come out and I'm still just trying to get through last months, let alone all my regular reads. The beautiful thing is that the guru was responding to a question this month on dealing with the increasing demand of our own organisations and existing business relationships due to better technology, but didn't really have a solution to this either. The emails get bigger, become quicker, and increase, but storage does not. So another new time waster is deleting the never ending assault of emails that I have collected to date.

The business solution options are increasing, everyone has opened up their own boutique creative agency, research agency, DM solutions, digital assistance, print shop and strategic consultancy, and I don't doubt that they are all very good. The scary thing is that we had a bigger and quite well known PR agency contact us via twitter to tell us they could help us set up in this very space and then list a bunch of things they could help us with, all of which we had been doing for some time.

The best advice I received from my own Linked In contacts was to invite all these people to come out to my office (quite some way out of the CBD) on a Friday afternoon between 4pm and 5pm to show their wares. After some thought I've decided, I really don't want to be confined to the office every Friday afternoon between 4 & 5pm waiting for them to turn up. Selfish of me.

Everyone deserves a chance, but isn't it fair for these people to come to the table with something that demonstrates they may understand our business needs? And no I'm not going to see you just because you keep talking about a fabulous new strategic plan that you can't discuss over the phone.

Am I bitter and twisted, I've given some a break before and have been let down. Once bitten, twice shy maybe?

What's the answer? Any thoughts?