When choosing a career, make sure you read a current job description. Better yet, talk to someone who is doing the job right now. Technology and societal needs are changing many jobs.
Take firefighting, for example.
 Photos by LEITA COWART/Special |
| Capt. Eric Jackson, public information officer for the DeKalb County Fire and Rescue Department, says the Fire Safety House and other educational efforts have reduced the number of fire calls. |
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| Tamara George, director of the Cobb County Public Library, sometimes has to reach across the world to get materials that library visitors request. The materials are much more varied these days, too, she said. |
Firefighter
"Roughly 70 percent of our calls are for emergencies other than fire," said Capt. Eric Jackson, public information officer for the DeKalb County Fire and Rescue Department. "The majority of our calls are medical."
Jackson attributes the decreasing number of fire calls to fire departments' prevention programs in the schools and community — along with new building materials and fire-suppression technology, such as alarms and sprinkler systems.
At the same time, there's been a rise in the number of 911 calls because of strokes, heart attacks, traffic accidents, hazardous-material spills, natural disasters and terrorism.
"We take an oath to serve the people, so we're the 'go-to' folks at the local level and [are] expected to help in every situation," Jackson said. "As times change, we change how we give service."
In 2007, Firehouse Magazine named DeKalb's fire department the nation's 10th-busiest. The DeKalb department saved the patients in 24 percent of its cardiac calls in 2007, which is higher than the national average of 14 percent. And a new computer-assisted dispatching system has helped cut overall average response time from nine minutes in 2003 to five minutes in 2007.
Not surprisingly, the training has become more diverse, and the educational requirements have become more stringent. Most departments require at least an associate's degree for promotion.
"All firefighters have EMT training now," Jackson said.
Academies still focus on fire science and firefighting methods, but they also teach general medical procedures and how to extract people from crushed automobiles without deploying air bags and causing additional injuries.
A fire-medic rides on the engine to be first on the scene and give advanced life support. Firefighters also transport people to hospitals.
"When you ride in the ambulance with a patient or sexual assault victim, you may become educator, counselor and confidant," Jackson said. "You can see anything on this job, and that causes a lot of stress."
Jackson still loves the job "with a passion." Asked why they continued to be called firefighters when they wear so many additional hats, he said, "Any other name would probably be too long."
College professor
Think faculty still stroll along tree-lined paths to teach in ivy-covered buildings with blackboards? Not always.
Laura Kimble, associate professor in the Byrdine F. Lewis School of Nursing at Georgia State University, teaches two Ph.D. nursing courses from home on her computer.
Her classroom is virtual, and her students are scattered all over the country. To teach in the department's Web-enhanced doctoral program, she had to learn new technology skills and adapt her teaching methods, because she meets her students in a real classroom only for a day-and-a-half once a month.
"I feel like I've discovered a new calling," Kimble said. "I think there must be a radio talk-show host in me somewhere. Who had a clue? You have to imagine the audience and be able to convey your personality over the Internet. You make it interesting by your voice and the materials you use."
Kimble's first concern with teaching online was that the courses be as high-quality as traditional classroom courses, and she believes they are. "The technology was so much stronger than I expected," she said.
It took her a little time to get up to speed, but the university provided good technical support.
Now Kimble teaches while juggling her audiovisuals, monitoring raised-hand signals and receiving text messages with questions or answers. Instead of watching faces for reactions, she says "give me a smiley [emoticon] if you get it."
"You make fewer assumptions, because you can't see your students and have to ask," she said.
She's also learned to prepare lectures differently.
"Students aren't always near a printer when they log on, so you learn to send materials ahead of time. You don't have a chalkboard, so you have to plan out every move of a statistics problem," she said.
Kimble holds virtual office hours, and she enables students to meet the other professors they'll need for their research committees by bringing her colleagues and their research into the virtual classroom.
"I love teaching, and I think the advantages of teaching online far outweigh the disadvantages," she said. "Our nursing doctoral students have busy lives and couldn't stop to get a degree otherwise. These are smart people who will make a contribution to the profession, and we're providing them an opportunity that wasn't there before."
College teaching takes more skill sets these days, she said. "If you're afraid of technology, you are going to be very hampered in your job," Kimble said.
Librarian
Tamara George, director of the Cobb County Public Library, worked in a library in middle school and fell in love with the profession.
"Having access to all those books was like being a kid in a candy store," she said.
After 30 years, the job has expanded greatly beyond books and the Dewey Decimal System.
"There was a time that people said the Internet would be the demise of libraries. It only opened the world to people," George said. "Now our customers will learn about a book in the [United Kingdom] or a professional paper in South America, and they come to the library to find out how to acquire it."
No more "you can find that in section 620.2 on the third floor," she said. Librarians search for materials all over the world.
Being the keepers of information is no easy task. They struggle to keep up with technology and ever-expanding sources of information. One bright side is that librarians can earn their master of library science degrees online.
Librarians still select and acquire materials based on the content and how it will be used by their customers. They still hold story times and family movie nights, and they order tons of picture books for toddlers, because "nothing is going to replace the hold-in-your-hand book," George said.
But they also acquire magazines, journals, CDs, videos, databases, e-books, e-music and e-movies.
"There are new hand-held devices for downloading music and Web pages, but the coding is different, so it's like a whole different Internet. We're always playing catch-up with technology, so that we can deliver services in the way people want them," George said. "It's a very shifting world."
Instead of buying CD-ROMs, libraries often lease materials on databases, only to find that the content and copyright laws can change overnight. "Yesterday, we had access to a certain newspaper; today we don't, and we have to figure out why," she said.
Librarians' teaching role has expanded as well. Recently the Cobb system held fund-raisers to buy a traveling computer lab so that librarians could teach often-requested computer courses.
"We knew we couldn't use our regular computers without a revolt from the customers," George said.
She was surprised and pleased to find librarian listed as one of the best careers for 2008 by U.S. News & World Report.
"If you like to learn something new every day, being a librarian is more exciting and challenging than ever," she said.
Realtor
The business of listing and selling houses always has involved sales, marketing and people skills.
"Now you almost have to be a Web designer and an IT specialist, too," said Kerri Levins, a Realtor with Metro Brokers/GMAC Real Estate. "Just four years ago, clients would ask me to e-mail them listings that fit their criteria. Now they tell me which houses they want to see. They've already done the research on the Web."
About 80 percent of home buyers search on the Internet for a home before they go in person to look at houses, according to Tisha Gay, director of marketing and public relations with Metro Brokers/GMAC Real Estate.
"Finding an agent is secondary, and they often request that online, too, so the higher you are ranked in the search engines, the better," Gay said.
Levins feels fortunate that Metro Brokers helped her establish her Web presence. In January, the company gave every agent his or her own Web site free.
"I couldn't have afforded this kind of site myself, even if I could have told a Web designer what should be on it. The company put all their industry and buyer knowledge behind it," she said.
Still, Levins has to don her marketing hat long before she meets a buyer or seller. She has to anticipate what clients will want and need to see, such as photos, maps and school data; update statistical data, such as mortgage calculations; and make everything easy to find. Although she specializes in Fayette and Coweta counties, people can find listings throughout Georgia on her site.
"When I do a listing presentation at a seller's home, I use my laptop. I can show them exactly how I'll place their home on about 25 real estate Web sites and can show them a spreadsheet of how I derived their selling price," Levins said.
She still shows buyers homes and neighborhoods, but her technology skills keep her competitive.
"Buyers are more knowledgeable and want a quick response, so my referrals feed directly to my PDA, and I check messages and e-mails frequently," she said. "If you're not using key pieces of technology these days, you're losing business. You have to like technology and keep learning."