Preparing for The (Jobs) Future
By Stephen Landry
According to the company, McKinsey, between 400 million and 800 million jobs will be gone by 2030.
How are you going to stay in the Game?
You have to always be thinking one step ahead of change...
Job seekers who can develop these 5 skills will ensure they stay valued and valuable to the labour market.
- Extreme Learning: Are you constantly learning new information, are you open to change, are you a lifelong learner and adaptable?
- Growth Mindset:
Do you understand that your skills are solutions to employer “pain” and changing jobs, where your skills are required will result in multiple career changes within one lifetime. (Yes, the one career, one company experience of your parents has vanished and replaced with portability and “gig” work, like how a movie set happens: pick the cast, shoot the film, wrap the project and everyone moves on to something else).
- Organizational Analysis: Do you know yourself?:
“Start by figuring out what skills you want to learn or who you want to learn from, and go to the organization that will best prepare you for that” says Adam Grant: author or Give and Take, Originals and the new book Option B. He says it is so hard for anyone to plan his or her career in advance because change is happening all the time and your target is constantly being moved or moving or has disappeared.
- Career Branching:
What's your Plan Stan? “Looking for the right career requires both focus and flexibility, so I recommend adopting two concurrent goals: a long-term dream and an eighteen-month plan”, recommends Sheryl Sandberg, author of the book Lean In.
- Think like a Freelancer:
Disconnect with the past ways business was done. Are you prepared, in a heartbeat to talk about your skills, as a freelancer (perhaps between longer-term jobs), can you easily dig into your skills toolbox, to pull out “stuff” you enjoy doing, are good at and are needed in the digital economy? AirBnB started with an idea, as did Uber, all based on alternative services, designed to heighten the core foundations of the Sharing Economy.
One last thought: Future jobs will have professions that bridge technology, but it will be the technology that is the primary job generator, not the profession.
Most professions will change, jobs will be automated, but will have replacement jobs that are hybrids and jobs made up of, as economic researcher Rachel Botsman describes, “collaborative consumption”. Industries and jobs consisting of trust, influence and reputation capital.
About the Author: Stephen Landry is a Certified Career Development Practitioner residing in Canada. He works as an Employment Consultant and is responsible for 1-1 client interactions, researching future workplaces, changes to labour markets, career development ideas, and helping people develop good career management planning. Connect with him on LinkedIn @ linkedin.com/in/stevelandry1
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