How an Archetype Might Be Your Future Job Title
Who’s afraid AI is going to take over our jobs and even our lives in the future? If you are contemplating on the looks of your future career path with this hot new addition, join the party you’ve come to the right place. According to the World Economic Forum’s 2020 Future of Jobs report, AI may replace 85 million jobs by 2025. Is this the right time to panic and hide under a rock? On the other hand, the same report says AI will create 97 million new jobs and probably replace and automate the operative roles. Is that a little more comforting? To be honest, I’m not here to talk about the pros and cons of AI. I’m here to remind you about the power of understanding yourself to face this new world challenge. Yes, even if you might be replaced by a bot. What does understanding myself have to do with this? When the time comes, your job might not be even close to what it is today, or maybe not even called the same. I’m here to explore how a shift in the perception of job titles and positions in the future may change not only the way you see yourself but be awakened to your natural strengths. Let’s start before the bot generates 5 more versions of this thought.
If we take a look at positions and job postings today, you may notice all of them are pretty much skill-based — whether you are a web developer, sales person, digital marketing manager, product designer or a team director. The title in itself is a direct reflection of what skills you may need to perform that specific role. But what happens if part of that skill set you perform on the job is automated or repurposed to a different role? You will probably have to perform and provide a different type of service that is irreplaceable or probably not replicated by AI. What is something beyond a skill set that can’t be replicated? Is it the special way only you can convince a client to sign a deal? Is it the way, only you can think differently in a coding team meeting to tackle a bug? Maybe someday our job positions and roles might be more identity based and not only skill based. We may not be fully there yet, but it doesn’t hurt to think more broadly about what that perception shift entails and what the future of jobs may look like.
Understanding the archetype
The concept of the archetype coined by the well known psychologist Carl Jung refers to universal images and patterns of thought that are a part of our collective unconscious. This may be reflected by our behavior and perhaps connected to our identity in some shape or form. Beyond the four main archetypes that are the persona, the shadow, the anima/animus, and the self, there are additional archetypes listed. In the world of branding and marketing, the 12 archetypes are usually used to describe the essence of a brand. For instance, Apple may be a magician, versus the Salvation Army as the caregiver. The full list of the 12 archetypes is the innocent, the everyman, the magician, the hero, the outlaw, the explorer, the creator, the ruler, the lover, the jester and the sage. Anchoring brands in these concepts helps people connect to a certain feeling a brand emits which essentially is the core of a brand — the feeling it creates by its consumer.
The archetype in you
If these archetypes are concepts that we can relate to in brands, perhaps we may see a few of these archetypes in ourselves too, as they depict a relatable image or behavior. They inherently are connected to some sort of universal identity that may be related and found in each and every one of us. Have you ever felt a little like the sage archetype being the wise friend or mentor in your field where people come to you for advice? Or perhaps you emerge as the explorer in your relationship or career where you naturally find new fresh possibilities and opportunities?
Perhaps the point I’m getting to is an opportunity to shift our perception toward an archetype-based identity for our careers that later translates into certain skills we have. You may see yourself as a brand that’s own personal identity encompasses a core archetype and worldview that is the overarching guide to your strategy in your position or even career. That may also change as we evolve and grow with new interests and desires over time but even brands have to rebrand. If for example you code and know Java and React.js these are your skills and are a great value you provide in your role. However, the question arises is how or what do you bring into this role or team beyond these skills, are you the magician with that magic wand that always makes things happen no matter what or perhaps the creator where you focus on creating something special of value. Even in a job place there is great benefit in the “odd” archetypes that don’t seem to fit the corporate attire like the jester which brings joy, wit, playful and creative opportunities to the table. Or the rebel which looks for what isn’t working and brings that to light and transforms it to something better. There’s a great advantage in seeking an archetype that embodies your natural approach when perhaps in 10 years from now would be the essential thing you do, beyond your skills.
Other psychological methods are the Myer Briggs or the Enneagram test that are more personality descriptive. These have been used for career purposes and probably are an accurate method to get a sense of your behavior. With that said, they might be hard to remember for most people or relate to since the Enneagram uses numbers and the Myers Briggs uses a combination of letters. I’m sorry but I forgot what an ENFJ is or type 8 means. Another challenge for these methods might be boxing a personality type too hard even though they may paint a deep psychological picture. Potentially connecting to an element like an archetype word, leaves more wiggle room for people to easily understand the meaning even without knowing the full description of the archetype. With that in mind, there is an opportunity to elevate the archetypes as future job titles and strive for more precision with a minor addition or modification. That would probably entail a development of these archetypes into more accurate titles and essences that respond to both a career market need and a professional identity.
Shifting paradigms
The truth is we are still a little in the dark regarding how AI may transform and impact our jobs and potentially create new ones. Similar to how the industrial revolution created machinery that helped mankind automate physical labor, we now have our “digital labor” be replaced. The areas AI may be automating are more organizational, informational, documentation-based and computational tasks that leave more room for us humans to actually play. If AI is trained to do one good thing really well, maybe we should start exploring how we can do a few things really well, like becoming more dynamic, expressive, creative and ever changing in our roles. Utilizing automation to do the tedious work while we craft, experiment and play among ourselves. Surely, there should be a shift in the workplace too at some point, however we have the time and power to dig deeper into our strengths. Finding that is a whole new topic, but a good place to start is asking yourself deep questions about your natural passions, worldview and natural strengths even as a kid, new gifts you accumulated over the years and more. Questions are the building blocks to develop this new tailor made suit we are creating. This is something uniquely yours, no other employee or bot can take that away from you, like your own DNA essentially. Your own voice. It may take some time to develop but Beyonce knows best, it’s Irreplaceable.
