Job titles have remained relatively consistent, but due to advancements in technology, the internet, and other evolutions of society, new job titles have popped up in the last decade. Some are due to societal changes and others because of worldly shifts in business or increased social responsibility. Regardless of the variable that may cause a new job to be created, here are ten job titles that simply did not exist 15 years ago:

  1. Social Media Manager: The emergence of social media as a cultural and commerce-driven fixture was not possible 15 years ago. Social media was almost non-existent until the early 2000s with the appearance of MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and more recently, with more than 200 well-known social media sites. Today, the role of a social media manager/strategist is to serve on the front lines of the messaging and customer service battlefield. Social media managers are essential members of any marketing department and drive brand awareness for their company, one Tweet at a time.
  2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Strategist: With over 400 million searches per day and 25 billion indexed web pages, search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing have created a high demand for SEO specialists. An SEO strategist is focused on getting their company’s web page(s) to appear at the top of search engine rankings. As more and more websites are added to the interwebs each day, this role becomes increasingly important for companies who bring in business through their websites.
  3. Online Marketing Specialist: Fifteen years ago, online marketing was not a fixture in the advertising industry because internet connections were not fast enough to accurately produce the flash banners and pop-up ads we see online today. An online marketing specialist is given the duty of effectively marketing a company’s products or services through various online forms of advertising. Traditional and online schools are now offering Online Marketing degrees (cite: collegeonline.org/online-degrees/business-mba/internet-marketing.html) to meet the demand of this growing profession.
  4. Talent Manager: A talent manager, headhunter, recruiter, or whatever else this role is affectionately called is a branch human resources that has become a very popular field within the last 15 years. They are the ones in charge of finding the most qualified employees for a certain job, and then, making sure they stick around. Talent managers are popular in fields that have a high demand and low supply of talent like IT, various sales positions, medical jobs, and even Internet marketing.
  5. Customer Feedback Manager: A customer feedback manager’s job is all about user satisfaction and the experience that a company provides for its customers. This position is designed to compile feedback on how that experience rates among competitors and how to possibly improve upon it. A customer feedback manager is also concerned with the overall image and atmosphere that a company shows to its customers. The growth of social media has spawned popularity in this role.
  6. Company Sustainability Supervisor: With environmentally friendly practices and social responsibility having a bigger impact on today’s business, many companies now designate a position to oversee the company’s sustainability. A sustainability supervisor’s job is to see ultimately that the company has an eco-friendliness and connection to the environment.
  7. IT Disaster Prevention Specialist: With the magnitude that Internet technology holds with companies these days, the possibility of its computer system coming crashing down is always lurking. For such reason, companies have designed IT disaster prevention specialist positions to prevent such catastrophe from occurring.
  8. IT Recovery Specialist: Similar to IT disaster prevention, a recovery specialist has the duty of restoring all of the information lost in a systems failure. This position came about with the vast amount of data that companies have had to keep protected, and the subsequent need to recoup such data after an IT disaster. This position has been around for a while, although it has gained traction as every business’ assets are stored digitally.
  9. Educational Consultant: This position is typically an independent contractor role designed for students to find the best educational fit. Educational consultants work with children and their families to get students into the educational environments best suited to their learning needs. This field provides students and their parents with more information and better options for helping students. Think of it as a glorified college concierge, or 2.0 tutor.
  10. Web Content Managers: Due to the increasing use of the Internet in commerce, many companies have hired web content managers for their websites and to correspond with customers. Content marketing and blogging have become the big push for companies these days, and a web content manager orchestrates all of those efforts.

Hopefully, the jobs above offer insight into the nature of how jobs come about, and what jobs are new and exciting to the market. What the future will bring is uncertain; we can only imagine what creative job roles may start showing up on business cards in the next decade and a half.

About the Author: This article was written by Allie Gray Freeland, Editor in Chief of CollegeOnline.org, a website that offers college options and resources for prospective college students.