ZEITGUIDE “BUSINESS AND FINANCE IMAGE” BY KRISTOFER PORTER

In management, they say what gets measured gets done. Add to that: what generates worries gets a job title.

Among the roles that are newly in high- demand? Chief Cyber/Information Security Officer and Chief Digital Officer, according to a new report from executive recruiting firm Korn Ferry. Gartner research observed that the number of Chief Digital Officers has doubled in the past year, a job that assumes their role to be the digital governor of the company.

Adding jobs like these to the C-suite signals how badly CEO’s need executives who can navigate digital and technological change. (Also on the list, by the way: Chief Sustainability Officer and Chief Innovation Officer.)

These additions to the senior team are further confirmation of how completely the job market has changed in the last decade:  data scientists, digital strategists, content strategists and software developers are booming careers that continue to be in high-demand in 2015.

The emphasis on security in no small part stems from fears related to data breaches at companies like Apple, AT&T, Home Depot and the big Sony hacking nightmare.  Companies have not just dollars at risk here, but lots of customer goodwill. Chief Digital Officers, meanwhile, are charged with turning new opportunities into revenue streams. How do companies respond, for instance, now that more people are accessing the web on their smartphones than on their computers? The rise of the “Internet of Things” is looming too (as mentioned in our new ZEITGUIDE 2015) and with it an increased reliance on digital devices, apps and software.

So as college applications come due, what does one study to prepare for the future? For that matter, how do any of us future-proof our careers?

Fast Company recently reported that top tech CEOs now want employees with liberal arts degrees because they bring big picture ideas and think about “technology itself in fundamentally different ways.” Clyde Tuggle, a senior vice president at The Coca-Cola Company was also quoted this year saying that a liberal arts degree is “the perfect education for the business world.”

As it turns out, the best preparation might be to resist boxing yourself into a single area of expertise. Instead, see beyond your field and connect the dots with those outside of it.

As Korn Ferry noted in an earlier survey of executives, a majority of college grads will end up working in jobs that don’t even exist yet. Two-thirds of executives surveyed said that students would “would benefit more by learning leadership skills rather than focusing on specific academic disciplines.”

Keep learning,

Brad Grossman