Specialties—they’re everywhere! The more we hear about them, the more excited we get about the prospects. Surely, there’s a way to align our education and training to get a job doing something exciting.

The old days of generalist jobs are waning. Today you can become a forensic accountant, reading specialist, triage nurse, “green” builder, news media blogger, or packaging engineer. The options are intoxicating.

Jobs brand the marketplace.

Jobs tell us about what businesses are trying to make, service, or sell. They need us to do that.

Here’s the rub: Society and its economy are always in flux. When the flux is upward, there’s lots of a business activity and jobs. When it’s down, opportunity shrinks.

We select careers with an optimistic view of the future. Sometimes our decisions are based on what “has always been” or “is now.” Other times they’re about “what’s on the horizon” or “what could be.” In any event, we select our academic majors, our internships, our craft apprenticeships, and our starting jobs based on our interests and our “best guess” about what the marketplace will need.

Options are not opportunities.

Here’s the challenge: Whether you are just entering the job market or making a transition, even though there are lots of ways to apply what you know, the marketplace is short on openings. That leaves many talented employee prospects in limbo.

A career strategy that doesn’t weigh career options with employment opportunities is short-sighted. Those who are business fit are business savvy. That means looking at the job market through the eyes of a business professional, a marketplace analyst, and a futurist, not as a job seeker.

Align your expectations with marketplace realities.

Most people talk about wanting a job. I suggest we should want a position instead. A job is about tasks. A position is about vantage point. The vast majority of employees don’t land the job of their dreams at first. We’re not supposed to. To start we need to position ourselves in a business or industry with growth potential, in a job we can perform well, and then attract increased opportunity so we can expand ourselves.

Positioning is about making strategic moves to advance our careers. It protects us from being on the outside looking in as the business landscape changes.

At minimum I see four categories of careers:

1. “Old reliables”—Established careers like sales, education, police, politician, plumber, and electrician

2. “Newbies”—Emerging careers like green technologies, health information technology, home stager, simulation developer, and emergency management

3. “Off and running”—Evolving careers producing families of jobs in areas like electronics, health care, program analysis, and engineering

4. “New horizons”—Uncharted waters that may be a source of future careers in areas like medical, space, and oceanic research, climate change, and food production

Depending on where these career sources are in their own cycles, they are either sustaining, eliminating, increasing, replacing, or innovating jobs that need us

We need to watch where we aim.

It’s important to keep shooting for the career that bring the best out in us. But it makes no sense to shoot wildly. We need to understand that the target is moving, so we need to move with it. That’s why it’s important to position yourself to use the shifting and changing marketplace to your advantage.

You may start in an “old reliable” job and see an opportunity to align with one of the “newbies.” Or you may land in an “off and running” career that is so innovative that you find yourself contributing to a “new horizon.” Just remember to keep your eye on the target, the career you want, and position yourself to make the right connections. A little patience will serve you well too!