News
Number of fields still looking good
The ups and downs of the economy this past year shouldn’t prevent long-term career planning. Here are some fields that offer future growth:
By The Associated Press The Seattle Times
Biotechnology
Though perhaps bruised a bit by recent corporate scandals, biotechnology is still a viable career choice.
The field is in a period of fast growth, with revenues increasing from $8 billion in 1992 to $27.5 billion in 2001, according to the Biotechnology Industry Association.
"Big biotech companies and startups are both looking for qualified computer engineers, data miners and experts in bioinformatics," says Shreefal Mehta, co-founder and CEO of Myomatrix Therapeutics.
Mehta, who also is a management professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, runs the biotechnology entrepreneurship series for the school’s Lally School of Management and Technology.
He says the field is one of the most research-intensive industries in the world, and that much of this is taking place on university campuses.
"Look for jobs in or around a university with a robust tech-transfer operation, an on-campus business incubator and a technology park. As the university expands, so will the jobs in the area. It’s built-in job security."
More power to you
Cars, airplanes, homes, lawn mowers and cellphones all need juice to keep them going, and fuel cells will increasingly be the source of choice. Automakers, for example, are developing and testing fuel cell-powered cars that may reach the market by 2010. That means the demand for fuel-cell-technology specialists will rise, according to Harvey Palmer, dean of the engineering college at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York.
RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering is developing an advanced fuel-cell research laboratory to study fuel-cell technology for automotive and stationary power-generation applications. Projects will focus on industry- and government-funded applied research.
IT is still it
The changed fortunes of dot-coms and layoffs in information-technology firms have merely shifted the opportunities in the IT field, according to DeVry University, which specializes in business, technology and management programs at its 22 campuses in the United States and Canada.
Now IT professionals are needed and can be found across the board in business and industry. According to an Information Technology Association of America survey, 92 percent of technology employees work for companies not considered technology companies.
DeVry says its IT graduates represent this trend. Stephen Culver, for example, is chief information officer at fashion firm Giorgio Armani in New York City.
Open wide
Many health-care professionals are, in effect, in business for themselves, and that includes most of the 140,000 dentists practicing in the United States, according to the Academy of General Dentistry.
An article in a recent issue of AGD Impact, the organization’s newsmagazine, noted that dentistry ranks high as a startup business that’s likely to succeed.
"I recommend people interested in the profession talk to their own dentist and ‘shadow’ them for a few days to learn about what happens day to day," said Dr. Sandra Kilkuts, a Tucson, Ariz., dentist speaking for the AGD. "Being a dentist has given me a great sense of contribution to my patients as well as to my community."
The organization says the future dentist should get a grounding in biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics. There will be an admissions test to start a four-year program at a dental school, after which the candidate must pass a state licensing exam. Specialization usually requires another two years of school or a clinical residency program. A majority of U.S. dentists are general practitioners.
But specialties include orthodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, periodontics, pediatric dentistry, oral pathology, endodontics, public-health dentistry, prosthodontics and oral and maxillofacial radiology.
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