We’ve seen some dramatic changes to the job market over the past few years as the digital age and technological advancements have transformed the kinds of skills that workplaces require.

Look around your office and you’ll probably be able to spot a few people whose jobs have only existed for a few years.

We’re talking about the jobs you give up trying to explain to your grandparents because to them, clouds stay in the sky and miners work underground.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the roles that have evolved in the last 10 years (and it’s ok to admit that you didn’t know what they all were, either):

1. Digital Marketing Specialist

A decade ago most marketing was done offline – think junk mail, dodgy TV ads and nuisance phone calls. Although email has been around for a while, it’s not until recently that companies have really started to use it for marketing. Digital marketing now provides an interactive and creative way to connect with people on a personal level, while keeping a digital record of behaviour that will influence future marketing decisions.

2. Social Media Manager

We’ve come a long way from the days when MySpace and Bebo were the coolest places to be seen. Billions of people now use Facebook, and LinkedIn has become an important networking tool for millions of professionals. With so much access to potential customers through these channels, it makes sense for businesses to employ someone who specialises in communicating strategically with the social network universe.

3. Chief Listening Officer

Sounds like one of the easiest jobs in the world, right? Well, there is a bit more to it than just sitting around and listening to things all day. A CLO’s job is to monitor the effectiveness of a company’s communication efforts and report back on what the wider community is saying about the business. With so many ways for consumers to communicate, it’s important for a company to get an overall picture of its brand image so it can tailor the way it operates.

4. Blogger

Blogs of the late 90’s were mainly just online diaries and back then blogging was no more than a hobby for the vast majority. As technology has made it easier for us to access such a vast amount of information, people’s voices are reaching a wider audience. Once enough people take an interest in what you’re saying, opportunities for advertising start to spring up and you can begin to make money from just documenting your thoughts online. The very best bloggers have turned it into a multi-million dollar business for themselves.

5. SEO Specialist

Google seems to control the whole world these days, so it pays to employ someone who understands the tricks of Search Engine Optimisation. These specialists can vastly increase the chances of your website appearing on the first page of search listings (and that’s where you want to be, because clicking to page 2 is so last year).

6. App Designer

For those of us who carry a smartphone around with us everywhere we go, apps are what we live on. We want them to look nice and be easy to use, and it’s the job of an app designer to do just that.

7. App Developer

Yes, there is a difference. While a designer is responsible for deciding how the app looks to you (the user), a developer is the one who creates the code to make it happen. The technical bit. Whether it’s tracking stocks and shares or chasing hordes of zombies around, a developer is responsible for the back-end programming.

8. Cloud Services Specialist

This is probably one of the most grandparent-baffling jobs around. Not only do you have to explain the concept of a cloud, but then justify the need for someone to work on it. We can’t blame them for being perplexed though, because this really is a very new role. In the five years up to 2013 alone, cloud computing specialist jobs saw growth of a whopping 1,700%. A specialist knows all about the mechanisms, devices and technologies of cloud storage products and services.

9. Big Data Analyst

What’s so special about ‘big data’? Essentially, it is “voluminous amounts of structured, semi-structured and unstructured data that has the potential to be mined for information”. So a big data analyst has to trawl through huge amounts of data looking for patterns or trends that might give a company insight into its performance, its competitors, and the wider market.

10. Market Research Data Miner

Marketing costs money, and it’s money wasted if you’re not targeting it at the right audiences. A market research data miner looks at a company’s past marketing materials to evaluate how people interacted with them – what was opened, what was clicked, and the digital journey each user took from there. Understanding this shows companies what works and what doesn’t so they can know their audience better and refine their marketing campaigns accordingly.

Although these jobs may have sounded useless or strange 10 years ago, they are now more important than ever for companies who want to stay on top of the digital wave and use modern technology to their advantage.

In this ever-changing world we can only imagine what the jobs market will look like in another 10 years. Chief Pocket Shepherd, anyone?