faces of the future - Illuminating Engineering Society

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FUTURE LEADERS WANTED A NEW TYPE OF LIGHTING PROFESSIONAL Looking beyond the traditional roles of designer, manufacturer, rep and distributor, the author offers a fearless forecast of five new job titles poised to make an impact on the industry BY KELLY M. SEEGER When Paul Tarricone asked me to write a companion piece for this issue of LD+A focusing on new and emerging jobs in lighting, I jumped at the opportunity. Watching industry trends and considering new roles for lighting professionals has long been an interest of mine. It has been so much of an interest, in fact, that three years ago I developed a presentation on these topics for the graduate students of the Lighting Research Center at RPI. The intent was simple: give the students a leg up and let them in on the things that I’ve learned over my 10 years out in the real world before they enter it. I convinced my good friend and colleague, Peping Dee, Jr., a lighting product designer and fellow LRC alum, to assist in editing and delivering the presentation. The result was an overview of the lighting industry covering topics they should be familiar with but wouldn’t learn in school—the different jobs they could do, the sales process, lighting organizations, credentials, trends and so on. What began as a small effort on my part to give back to my alma mater and the lighting community has grown into a two-hour, 60-slide presentation entitled, “The Lighting Industry in a Nutshell” that we continue to give to the students and will enter its third year this spring. What I would like to share here is my perspective and observations on industry trends and new jobs for lighting professionals—ones that I have seen and the emerging roles that I think are on the horizon. I 68 www.ies.org
FUTURE LEADERS will add that my perspective on the industry is perhaps a bit unique in that my current role falls into what I call “The Others” in my presentation—one of a group with nontraditional roles in lighting. These roles might technically be in other market sectors, but in some way they intersect with lighting. In my case, this is as consultant who specializes in lighting for a global professional services firm. In my primary role as an account manager for a commercial lighting incentive program, I interact with lighting designers, architects, engineers, manufacturer’s reps, distributors, contractors, lighting energy services companies (ESCOs) and end-users on a daily basis. In addition, my experience extends to working as a lighting designer and to manufacturing, where I’ve worked as an applications engineer, metro New York regional sales manager and director of sales and marketing. INDUSTRY TRENDS One of the things I find so great about our industry is that it’s young compared to many other industries—there are still things left to be discovered and the rules aren’t set in stone. Our industry is constantly expanding and evolving. Just as our universe is expanding, so is lighting—we are improving existing techniques and developing new ones. We are learning to utilize sophisticated technologies such as solid-state lighting and we are adapting control protocols into our lighting systems. In doing this, we are also incorporating new professionals and skills sets from other industries. Our industry is truly becoming well-rounded. The following are several trends that I anticipate for the lighting industry in the coming years. Companies will consolidate resources and look for an edge to help them stand out from the crowd. We’ve all heard it. The number of LED manufacturers is predicted to drop drastically over the next few years as LED manufacturing processes solidify and standards take hold. The same will be true of other sectors of the industry and lighting professionals will be tasked with wearing more hats, doing more jobs and becoming proficient in more skills. Opportunities will be there for truly outstanding individuals to shine in leading roles in the industry. To quote Stephen Covey, “effective people are not problem-minded; they’re opportunity-minded. They feed opportunities and starve problems.” An increase in architecture and engineering firms with inhouse lighting departments. This is an interesting trend. Some design firms now offer energy auditing and lighting redesign services; no longer are these services confined to the realm of the contractor or ESCO. It will be advantageous for these companies to employ lighting professionals to bridge the gap between design and energy efficiency. Lighting professionals in non-traditional roles. Since becoming a consultant, I am continually amazed at how many opportunities exist for lighting professionals outside the traditional roles of designer, manufacturer, lighting rep and distributor. The growth of solid-state lighting as well as the move toward greater energy efficiency across our nation ensures the need for lighting professionals in neighboring market sectors including energy, environment, policy/government, utilities, state agencies and municipalities. WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS So what does the future hold for the lighting professional Well, to borrow a phrase from an old ’80s song, “The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades.” We can identify several emerging jobs as well as a number of jobs that will become more widespread in the coming years. These jobs are likely to come about in one of two ways—either as spin-offs or specializations from within traditional roles, or in response to needs that arise in the marketplace. The infusion of new technologies, infrastructure improvements, the refinement of codes and standards, and new practices/strategies will all contribute to the creation of new jobs and expansion of existing ones. What follows is a look at five job titles that may be just over the horizon. 1The Lighting and Controls Specialist. If the focus on energy efficiency, LEDs and controls integration continues (which I expect it will), there will be a need for ESCOs, A/E Firms, electrical distributors and electrical contractors to employ lighting specialists. The trend toward sus- LD+A December 2010 69
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The magazine of the Illuminating En
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10 th Edition of the IES LIGHTING H
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THE COLOR OF BRILLIANCE Intematix i
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EDITORIAL No disrespect to the othe
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LETTERS Power to the People The art
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LETTERS entities that are supposed
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LETTERS IES Emerging Professionals
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UPDATES OLEDs Are Coming to America
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UPDATES LRC Specifier Report NLPIP
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Page 86 and 87: PRODUCTS + LITERATURE Nora Lightin
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