The rapidly changing, technologically advancing, socially morphing world keeps changing the rules to the game of careers. Every year there are all types of new jobs that are created, as well as huge numbers of jobs that get automated. As job searchers this can be scary to think about, that the job you want might not exist yet. Or, the job you want might not exist anymore within a few years. But fear not! We are here to help you hone the skills that will keep you hirable and desirable for future employers, no matter how much the world changes as we dive headfirst into the future.
First off seek the knowledge at the bottom of the barrel. In the olden days, long before the dawn of the internet, having a lot of knowledge about a lot of different things made you a very valuable hire. Now, in the age of Google and Wikipedia, a baseline amount of knowledge is not marketable. Anybody can teach themselves the basics of any subject. However, people with P.H.D.’s are still just about the only people with that level of knowledge. People who have been working in a field for 20 years are still the only people with the mastery of their career that comes with 20 years. So, in the changing world, play up your “deep” knowledge. Let your employers know what knowledge you have that no one else is going to have. This is not liable to lose its value any time soon.
The other huge change in the world today is the explosion of data. This eliminates the need for cold-calling survey givers, but opens up a whole new world of data analysis and application. Data entry and data analysis has moved beyond applying statistics to a steady stream of numbers, and has become an economy in and of itself. In a world where we can see pictures with hashtags of people’s breakfasts, have a steady stream of 140 character updates, and can log every sale- there is no shortage of data, and no shortage of application for that data. With this much data companies now need people to sift through it and find the use.
This is where you come in. If you work for a marketing firm, data analysis might be looking through social media and watching for trends. If you work for a small company, you might be watching sales trends in larger entities. The options are endless because the data is limitless. Being able to prove that you can take in raw information and make it useful will make you the ideal employee in this changing world.
Finally, you want to keep in touch with the way the new generation thinks. Unpleasant as this might sound, it will keep you relevant and capable and requires very little work. For the most part this comes down to screen time. Instead of watching an hour of TV, spend an hour trolling through Youtube videos, Twitter, and other social media platforms- pay close attention to the lingo and the speech patterns. The internet is reshaping the way language is used, so you want to keep up with the changing language.
The world is changing, but luckily it is not that hard to change with it. Follow this advice and you will stay marketable and capable for years to come!