The 21 Most In-Demand Jobs for 2020

Reader's Digest ^ | October 22, 2019 | Jeff Bogle

[2ndDivisionVet]

Worried about job security? These are the jobs that companies desperately need to fill in the new year and beyond.

Jobs with a bright future

As we all know, the world is becoming ever more tech-centric, and as a result, many of the in-demand jobs for 2020 have a technological element. But not all of them require JavaScript knowledge or for you to sit in front of a screen for eight hours a day. We spoke to some prominent CEOs and hiring managers throughout the country and found out which jobs are going to experience a boom in 2020. If you currently have one of these 18 jobs that might disappear in the next 25 years, you might want to consider a career change.

[Ex gun maker.]

More wishful thinking.
Cars are not going all electric and AI controlled nearly so soon as this writer hopes, if ever.
And then there are trucks, farm equipment, industrial equipment, assembly lines, etc.
Apparently this guy does not understand the meaning of Mechanic.

[Maris Crane]

Whatever the job is, just make sure it has something to do with:

THE CLOUD!!!!

[Viking2002]

The Cloud! The Cloud! It's all about The Cloud! I've been in IT for 21 years, and the Cloud is one on the most dangerous ideas ever conceived. It's a hacker's wet dream. Somewhere, someday soon, some gaggle of ne'er-do-wells are going to find a back door (likely a zero-day exploit and a worm or an AI bot developed overseas, IMO). And when they do, when everyone's assets, data, and dirty little secrets are stolen or exposed, this planet will grind to a crawl. Everything from cyber-finance to secure access to other databases to defense secrets to your grandma's birthday pics will be laid free and open to be stolen, bought, sold, and manipulated. Nations will go on military alert over it. Banks will limit transactions to prevent cash runs and protect 'your' (read: 'their) assets. A cloud breach could allow access to almost every aspect of society, right down to public utilities. Of course, there are many people, including here at FR, who will say, "That can't/won't happen. Let me tell you why."

Until it happens. Technology has developed faster than man's wisdom to use it properly. I've always said that we should have stopped with Windows 98 and dial-up modems until everybody was on the same level playing field. No matter how well you build a better mousetrap, it's inevitable that someone's gonna breed a smarter mouse. You think Google is the Orwellian boogeyman out there? We'll all be pieces of digital meat hanging in the butcher shop window on the Dark Web.

[Pontiac]

Somewhere, someday soon, some gaggle of ne'er-do-wells are going to find a back door (likely a zero-day exploit and a worm or an AI bot developed overseas, IMO).

I am betting that the backdoor will have been installed by the Chinese cyber army.

Trump made the right move when he put a stop to buying 5G equipment from China. That equipment would have been delivered pre-loaded with spyware and backdoors.

[Viking2002]

More than likely. Or it'll be Russian interests going through a third country, to try and erase their tracks. The Chinese are already embedding electronics with all sorts of fun little toys. They could probably turn the West into a big Charlie Foxtrot with a few keystrokes if they wanted to. I mean, hackers can already kill someone by hacking into a heart patient's smart pacemaker. They can cause a car to speed up to 100 and disable the brakes. What makes anyone think that they can't record every keystroke you type on any of the millions of computers they ship annually? I'd love to see the metrics on everything that's been blocked going to and from your average home or business computer on a daily basis. You know, the dirt-under-the-fingernails, nitty gritty stuff they're technically not supposed to be monitoring, but do anyway. I've had some rudimentary schooling in it and dabbled with a few semi-invasive but harmless tools back in the day, just for kicks and giggles, but that's a whole new realm of cyber-spying and espionage I'm really too old to want to know or get involved in.

[BobL]

Most of the jobs listed are gay-related.

[Maris Crane]

I see it’s a hot button issue for you!
My daughter, in IT, said what you are saying when her job started bringing in the “cloud” people.

She feels it is the most dangerous thing to happen to IT.
It’s like sheep going to their slaughter.

I don’t understand all of it, but it seems every entities’ data could be subject to ransom demands and worse. People should step back and see the dangers...til it’s too late.

Be warned.
Regards, Viking.

[yldstrk]

All the legal documents are on the internet now.

[Viking2002]

Exactly. They keep changing the locks on these crypto-viruses and everyone is just trying to keep abreast of what they're doing. I've had to tell many users that if their files are infected, kiss them goodbye, because even if the encryption can be broken, it'll cost thousands of dollars for a disaster recovery service to retrieve all the data from a drive or wherever it was stored. If they got into the cloud and started to lock down the files of a big corporation, bank, or government agency, it would be virtual bedlam trying restore backup from current data and trying to protect it from another cyber-attack. Look at what happened to Baltimore earlier in the year - their systems got hit by ransomware, and it took them weeks to recover. Never did read of the final outcome of that, over and above that everything from paychecks to EBT cards and food stamps ('natch) to basic government services were affected.

Be funny if the IRS got bit in the tuckus, though. 🤣 I worked there in the early 00's as an IT contractor, and their hardware and systems dated back to the 1970's. A mouse chewing wires in a mainframe could have taken half the place down for a week.

[jazminerose]

Well, if somebody has to get hit for America to pay attention, let it be the California Franchise Tax Board.

[Viking2002]

Hell, I'd pop a big bag of kettle corn and crack open a beer just to sit back and see anything get hit in CA. It's called 'karma'.........

[redangus]

Was it just me? I went to the page and found 13 not 21 jobs listed. Where are the other 8?

[central_va]

They will just import and Indian on a H-1B visa to replace you. Happened to me years ago.

[sergeantdave]

“We’ll all be pieces of digital meat hanging in the butcher shop window on the Dark Web.”

Good imagery. Maybe you’ve written the 21st century description of hell. Or maybe it’s the lead sentence to the next great dyspeptic novel for millennial yuppies.

What’s your take on bitcoins?

[wally_bert]

Surprised it hasn’t happened to my department yet.

For an international company, we hire American.

[EC Washington]

We are hiting a critical point with Electricians. In 2018 more retired than were hired. Our plants and service centers will hire a licensed electrician on the spot. Every electrician who wants to work is working all the hours they can handle.

#2 is welders - kids are not going into welding.

[mad_as_he$$]

I have been instrumental in steering two yutes into welding. One has a golden arm and is making $175,000/year Tig welding on exotic assemblies for the medical world. The other one is making about $90,000. He doesn’t have a golden arm but is a very good structural welder. Neither of them has any tuition debt and both have Associates Degrees.

I am currently sponsoring a young lady in the local community college welding program. I have high hopes but her family doesn’t like her doing “man’s work”...sigh.

[Viking2002]

I stock silver when possible.

[IronJack]

Since IT is not driven by technology as much as it is by bean-counters, and Cloud is cheaper than on-premise, you can bet that Cloud will win the day.

Sure, once the unthinkable happens and it brings the world to its knees, somebody is going to say "I told you so." But they're just voices crying in the wilderness for the time being.

Look at the big Cloud players: Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Would you trust your most intimate secrets to any of those schmucks?