Rapid shifts are underway in the jobs market
It’s estimated that two-thirds of children entering primary school today will ultimately end up working in jobs that do not yet exist. When you consider that, it helps us understand just how work is changing and will continue to change in the years ahead.
The acceleration to digital as a consequence of a global pandemic is also forcing many companies to reposition themselves. Either they can try to go into new markets or develop new capabilities.
Companies can struggle with these transitions. The consultancy Bain found that when a company positions itself further from its core capabilities, the chances of success quickly drop, to just 5%. For employees this can mean they are more likely to lose their jobs. This creates yet more instability and that’s becoming the new norm surprisingly quickly.
In the UK, in 2016, just one in twenty working-age adults worked on ‘gig economy’ platforms. Today that number is one in ten.
In the US, one in five reported earning some money from the “digital platform economy” in 2016.
For these reasons, it is no longer reasonable to assume that knowledge and skills that we master in earlier years can last an entire career, or that a career is likely to focus of one area of expertise.
Think like an entrepreneur
Given these developments, it is imperative that individuals adopt an entrepreneurial approach to their career. This can take various forms.
An individual’s value will increasingly depend on the value they can create for users in the system they are a part of.
This creates a natural talent marketplace, where several people bid for projects with clear outcomes. Individuals come together to deliver the mission, then dissipate after the project is over. This process creates competition and fuels entrepreneurship as individuals position themselves with the skills and experience to deliver on projects.
According to research by Michael Watkins, author of Master Your Next Move: The Essential Companion to The First 90 Days, a typical leader today with 18 years’ experience would have made a transition on average every 18 months. This could take the form of promotion, a move between business units, or a geographic move.
With increasing life expectancy, higher average retirement age and lower government pension provisions, these transitions can be expected to accelerate. The ability to handle multiple transitions and to anticipate disruptions will set future leaders apart.
Research by Harvard University, the Carnegie Foundation and Stanford Research Center in 2015 all concluded that 85% of job success comes from having well-developed soft and people skills, and only 15% from technical skills and knowledge (hard skills).
While knowledge and skills are relatively easy to verify, the signal of soft skills tends to be reputation. In an instant demand world, perception matters. The ability to portray a sense of who you are and what you can contribute through extracurricular activities, volunteer experience and your network will be increasingly important.
In order to remain relevant throughout one’s career, continuously positioning how one can bring value, demonstrable ability to change direction and commercialising new opportunities outside one’s core skill set will be critical.
Learning the way forward
Remaining relevant in the future of work is foundational for today’s professional. The aspiration should be to adapt to thrive in the future of work.
The first step towards this is to take an outside-in approach. Understand the forces shaping the future of work , how the context in which your current role exists may be changing. Imagine which activities that comprise your role today may be automated or outsourced in the next 1, 3 and 5 years. Explore what activities you remain uniquely qualified to undertake.
The next step would be to take an inside-out approach. Reflect on what your key strengths are, and what other types of activities you can apply them to. Examine which industries or types of companies are interested in your key strengths. Research the career profile and trajectory of those with similar strengths to you for inspiration. Build a map of possible future roles.
Then you can truly begin to learn your way forward in your career. Of the roles that resonate most, ‘try on’ a few of them. Speak to those doing the job today and those who they work with, and get a sense of how they see it evolving. If possible, collaborate with them on a small piece of work. Find small ways to advise. Reflect on what these interactions tell you about the things that matter most to you.
Eventually, the next best move will become clear to you. First, you must act in the direction of your future.