How to Future Proof Your Career and Stay Market Relevant in This Automation Age?

Future of career is personal.

From “Job for Life” to “Career for One”, technology has changed everything. In today’s knowledge-driven economy, along with disruptive technologies like Artificial Intelligence and automation if you are getting swamped by your current job position you are on a sure pathway to mediocrity.

Machine Learning algorithms can do everything — from sorting cucumbers to curing cancers. We are relying on machines more and more and these technological advancements are inevitable. Best brains on this planet predict that humans will be out of the loop once Artificial Intelligence takes over. Before that happens your career ride will only get worse if you don’t pay attention.

It is predicted that 38% of the US jobs will be automated by 2030, top 7 IT companies in India to layoff at least 56,000 engineers in 2017.

You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.

- Jon Kabat-Zinn

It is time to look beyond your resume

Ask Yourself:

• How long will your skills last? — In the open market, not within your organization.
• Do you have skills that can take you to the next level?
• What skills can you learn in the next 6 months to make you market relevant?
• How will you prepare for the job that does not exist yet?

Learn How to Learn

As the author Alvin Toffler once predicted, the future belongs to those who can unlearn and relearn. You need to learn new skills in a short supply of time and keep learning different skills.

Become a voluntary lifelong learner to stay competitive and employable and train others. Learning to learn is a skill you should master and can use it to improve every part of your life.

It is better to know how to learn than to know

Dedicate yourself to trying and learning new ideas, tasks, and skills. You need not know everything all the time, but learning new skills faster and better — that itself is a tough skill to master.

I have none experience in programming languages or data science and learning Machine Learning was difficult but “Learning How to Learn?” trained me on how to master a tough subject?

Mastering Future Relevant Skills

Artificial Intelligence and automation are taking away many jobs; this is irreversible –and once gone those jobs are not coming back.

Before you rush to get any of new skill pay more attention to your psychological well-being, make time for self-awareness. It is better to rewind back; list down your strengths, passions, and skill; then be curious, fair and aggressive on those areas you see overlapping.

Each time you meet a guy who has achieved something and happy with his growth; ask about his skills — and invest in yourself as It’s important to build your knowledge and skills for the future.

Stay up to date on current trends in the technology and in your industry; this will help you foresee new roles and new technology skills.

Share What You Learn

“Work is worship” won’t be a true statement when most of the jobs will be taken over by robots. You need to bring your career up to speed to match current market requirements. Just work won’t be enough.

Access to knowledge is the key to growth and you can use various online platforms to share information with users, providers, and peers. Technology has changed how we share information, instead of borrowing and trading physical assets now scope and scale of information exchange have changed.

“A single fixed identity is a liability today,”, “It only makes people more vulnerable to sudden changes in economic or personal conditions. The most successful and healthy among us now develop multiple identities, managed simultaneously, to be called upon as conditions change.”

Source: Gail Sheehy in New Passages

Don’t Wait, Run a DIY Project for Everything You Learn

You can’t learn to swim without getting in the water. If you have learned Machine Learning or Python — go ahead and ask around your peer and start-up community for any upcoming project. Look around and solve issues.

The best way to learn to code is to code. The best way to prove you can code is to code. University Degree won’t help much. You need to hook up to GitHub and LinkedIn more and have online mentors, reach out to them for their feedback and seek what best they know and can share with you.

I completed Machine Learning course last September, and since then I have been hunting for problems that require an algorithm for their solution. Later I found one at home and created an algorithm that predicts whether your housemaid is coming to work or not. Later I had to drop that project as I stumbled upon an ethical issue

So it’s time to get Raspberry pi zero and teach your kids how to have fun with programming and learn something new yourself and enjoy this brand new perspective.

You Will Enjoy:

How to Setup Artificial Intelligence Center Of Excellence in Your Organization
Learning AI — Formal Education or Online Self-learning — Ph.D. or MOOC
How To Reinvent Your Career By Learning Artificial Intelligence?