Podcast transcript: Reflecting on your employability for a digital future
This podcast is part of the UCIL Digital Society course from the University of Manchester running in 2020/21 semester 1. The story it relates to is hosted on Medium and can be found here.
In this podcast Jashan and Simone from the Library Student Team review the topic, Reflecting on your employability for a digital future, with help from your comments.
Reflecting on your employability for a digital future transcript
Hi, my name is Simone from the Library Student Team and I’m here with my Student Team colleague Fatimah. We very much enjoyed reading your contributions on ‘Reflecting on your employability for a digital future”, which was the topic for this week.
Under this topic, we talked about how changing skills and digital society affect our employability. The Covid-19 pandemic makes these discussions all the more important because most of us have been forced to drastically change the way we work. Whatever is capable of being done remotely, we now do at home with the aid of collaborative online platforms such as Blackboard, Zoom and Microsoft Teams. This means that in the current job market, only those with demonstrable knowledge or experience of working digitally are likely to compete favourably.
We received welcome news about approved vaccines last week, but it is unlikely that we will ever return fully to our old way of doing things. We therefore hope you found the tips provided in this week’s topic helpful. Our focus today is to discuss and shed more light on your responses to the questions and activities on the topic, and of course to offer further insights wherever we can.
We started the discussion by asking you to ‘share something about a topic on the course that you found interesting or surprising, and tell us why it caught your attention.’ This reflective question is designed to help you think about your learnings from the module and what you have learned. Whether you found the ‘Internet of Things’ or ‘Smart Cities’ more interesting or surprising, it is undeniable that technology is getting more important in our lives and we need to really think about what these changes mean for our future. These topics are thought-provoking and we hope you have gained new ways of thinking about technology in daily life. Such developments demonstrate the extent to which technology is changing our world, and we have to play catch up whether we like it or not.
Next, we asked ‘how well prepared you feel for a career in an age of automation’. 40% of you responded that you feel reasonably well prepared, while 48% of you feel either somewhat unprepared or very unprepared. If you feel inadequately skilled for a career in the digital world, you are not alone, but not all hope is lost. I find that many software providers provide ample guidance on how to become comfortable with using their products. You are likely going to work in a team, and Microsoft Teams could be one of those apps you will have to use to engage with your colleagues. We have therefore shared some tips on this in our blogpost about Mastering Virtual Breakout Rooms in Microsoft Teams. If you are still struggling after going through all available tutorials, reaching out to your colleagues for help is an option: They are likely to be able and willing to help.
One comment that resonates powerfully with me is that “you are lucky if you are naturally interested/skilled in technology or AI, however if this isn’t your career interest I don’t think it is that possible to even partially future-proof your career.” I mostly agree, because my personal and professional background is not one that is technology-oriented, but I also believe, as I have stated previously, that taking advantage of available training resources on technology, and enlisting the help of our more-skilled colleagues, go a long way towards future-proofing our careers. We just have to do whatever we can to keep up with the developments in the job world, for example by focussing “on making the skills [we] do have as adaptable as possible.”
Our aim is to equip you with skills that you can apply during your studies and afterwards, especially when you start work. We therefore asked you to ‘give an example of a skill you have developed through the Digital Society course.’ It is heart warming to hear that you have learnt to think and write more critically, and that you “feel much more confident about [your] writing and [your] content now.” Being critical enhances your creativity and self-reflection, and makes you stand out in your work. Most importantly, it’s the starting point for solving real world problems. So, we are glad that you have gained this skill or enhanced it.
Finally, we went through the C-A-R formula for structuring examples of your skills in job applications. We then asked you to apply your knowledge to a real job advertised by the University Careers Service. You, again, provided some amazing responses here. One of you stated that
“As part of the digital society course, I developed my ability to familiarise myself with new systems by learning how to use medium to read through modules and submit coursework. I had not previously used this website but I have learned how to use it effectively and am now confident with making and posting content as well as reading the work of other contributors.”
What particularly stood out was the reference one of you made to two blog posts you have since written on Medium because of Digital Society. Quantifying your output and contributions is one sure way to demonstrate to employers the impact you made in your previous engagements, so very well done on this.
All in all, we cannot deny that the world of work has changed dramatically in the last few months, courtesy of fast-paced technological changes exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. We have kept up with these developments all the same, and continue to do so.
We hope you have found today’s discussions exciting. We always enjoy hearing from you, so please feel free to provide any further comments you may have on the course. Thank you once again for engaging with the discussions on this and previous topics. We look forward to interacting with you at the next session.
