How to choose a great career in the future of work! (#FutureSeries2)

The general idea of what “The future of work” entails was briefly discussed in #FutureSeries1 article. Now let’s narrow it down to how it directly affects Africa.

Mark Dutz, World Bank Lead Economist was quoted in a World Bank Publication to have said that, “because most African countries face different development challenges such as lower levels of productive technology adoption and more under-employed people than other regions, an increase in digital technology adoption has the potential to have a positive effect on economies. If widely adopted, digital technologies hold the promise of helping firms grow, and most importantly, create more jobs for everyone, not just a privileged few.”

The 21st century has already brought remarkable technological achievements. The leading corporations of the digital age including those in Africa (Jumia, Paystack, etc) barely existed a decade ago. The Human Genome Project was completed in 2003, the year Skype was first released. The first iPhone was launched in 2007 and in 2010 Google announced its first fully autonomous car.

It has been estimated that 57% of all jobs are at risk of being automated within the next 5 years. Thus, 53% of employers globally are planning to take steps towards addressing talent deficits through workplace planning and action, with 45% already assessing talents to identify “skills and wills” gaps, and 44% identifying the emerging skills required for the changing business environment.

The “future of work” can transform Africa by increasing competitiveness, promoting strong integration, and reducing the cost of doing business. In 2018 alone venture capitals and funds invested $350m-$700m into mobile tech companies that are solving African challenges, and it’s literally doubling every year.

According to McKinsey Global Institute on “Technology Jobs and The Future of Work”, the worldwide scale shows that the adaptation of the automation technologies currently demonstrated could affect 1.2 billion employees and 50% of the world’s economy.

Other statistics indicate that 60% of jobs have about a third of their activities either automated or in the process of being automated. Automation is not a new buzz word and is gaining ground in daily and mundane tasks thereby leading us to the conclusion that jobs and careers will change and more people will have to get accustomed to working with technology due to Artificial intelligence, Digitalization, and Quantum computing.

Now that we’ve established the fact that the term ‘Future of Work’ is plausible in Africa, let’s explore the steps on how to consciously work towards equipping yourself with the skills and expertise needed for the future of work both career and business-wise.

Your career or business is most likely what defines what you are and how you are perceived and/or received. These 4 easy and precise steps will help sort out your jumbled thoughts and get you acting.

1. Discover Yourself: We are all obviously distinct, even in the tiniest bit of way. You can’t deny the fact that there’s only one of YOU with your own kind of unique. Now leverage on that; discovering yourself, reflecting on yourself and finding your own unique niche is one of the very first steps in choosing a career in the future.
   Do well to discover your passions, interests, strengths, values, personality, etc. because they are what lead you to discovering what skills you possess. The future of work won’t be about degrees, it will be about skills. In this first stage of discovering yourself; personality tests, career assessments, and self-evaluation are advised.
2. Compile a list of possible career options: After the self-reflection, research on skills and career choices in line with your passion that can help improve you and the people around you in the future of work and compile a list of possible options for yourself, taking note of important questions like:
   - What career will you be happy with and will you enjoy the most?
   - Are you a job oriented person or want to be an entrepreneur?
   - What does a good career mean to you?
   Regardless of if you want to take a job or go into entrepreneurship, this stage is very vital as it helps to be more precise with what path you want to take. A list of 1–5 career options is sufficient and would help narrow down all the diverse and countless options for careers in the future of work.
   So, let what you love — speak for you and lead you through this stage. You can also see a list of fields that Triangle Africa is planning to target to Learn, Build and Grow in Africa.
3. Explore the compiled options and pick your niche: Just as important as your intuition is, in deciding the right path for your career, you should also explore and research on the compiled career paths to know which one fully fits your long term goals for a career or a business.
   Research on the education and training requirements, the job duties, the employment outlook and the annual earning- Yeah MONEY! Let’s be plain honest, you wouldn’t deny the fact that asides from the passion and desire needed to follow a path, the monetary aspect also contributes to what aids your decision.
   Decide on a path that would satisfy your passion and financial expectations to help you achieve job satisfaction and trigger more productivity in you. Also, make it a point to research on people that have successfully thrived in the same career-line as your compiled options or possibly get in contact with them to help with real-time experiences and valuable advice, then narrow down and decide on the best option on a career path that best suits you for the future of work.
4. Learn, build, grow: Create a career action plan and start to take steps by attending training, taking E-learning courses that support your ultimate goal and joining communities of innovators to network and share creative ideas.

Future jobs will require specialized skills, collaborative work, problem-solving knowledge, creativity, and innovation. Basically every skill peculiar to the human labor that cannot be replicated by automated technology but can yield better results with the help of technology.

The world is evolving, the future of work is here, so to remain relevant and employable you have to keep learning, building and growing. Keep working towards the best version of you, so you can match up to automated technology and deliver exceptionally in your specific niche.

Subsequent articles would discuss the types of jobs that would be available in Africa in the next decades, how and where people will work and most importantly what Africa needs to do to prepare its future workforce.

We all need to focus on building ourselves towards being able to deliver skills that fit specific career and business paths that can succeed in the “future of work” because quite frankly the future is now. You can read more on the future of work here

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