The New Job: How To Survive In The Present & Future
Whether you like the 9 to 5 culture or not, let’s face it we need money to live our lives. And money comes from work.
Back in the days, where some jobs were basically trading time for money, those days are fast becoming a distant past. Today, if a job doesn’t require any human processing capability, then the task can be broken down into straightforward processes and passed to a machine to handle.
If you think that minimum wage jobs that require almost no human processing such as Data Entry are the only jobs at risk, think again. The once mighty trader, king of the trading floor, are disappearing. High costs and advancements in high frequency trading algorithms have reduced their numbers drastically. Do people notice it? Probably not, their absolute numbers are small, which doesn’t make it to the front page of the new every other day, but they are scrambling to switch to other areas of finance.
The question is, how do you stay relevant today?
1. Study The Right Course, Build The Right Path.
Yes, it is fun to follow your passion. But practicality triumphs for me. I came across a quote “Money Doesn’t Buy Happiness, But Poverty Buys A Whole Lot Of Pain”, which seems very apt here. One can like working out at the gym, but it doesn’t mean you have to be a fitness instructor kind of job.
Look out in the market for the jobs and skills that are in demand, it may not be all fun and games (I’m Computer Science major, so yes i know) but it’ll be an insurance for the next 30 years of your life.
For those who have already taken the plunge, career path building is also another vital aspect. take up internships or side projects that builds your knowledge despite not majoring in that area.
2. Be A Human.
The difference advantage we have as human, over a robot, is that we are human. The ability to think outside the box is important. AI works by obeying defined rules. Once an input is outside those rules, it is thrown to the exception catcher. Humans however, can think on their feet and do the most logical thing in special situations.
3. Be A Subject Matter Expert.
Management is fun. Telling other people what to do is fun. But if those people are removed, would you be able to do the job? What some people don’t know is that the best managers are Subject Matter Experts, who are willing and able to manage others (think helping or leading, instead of controlling). These managers have been there and done that a thousand iterations. They know what is wrong and where is wrong.
Too many people want to be managers and not specialists. They want to climb the corporate ladder as quickly as possible by being a manager.
Today, the trend in companies is a flattening hierarchical structure, where more emphasis are on technical managers (Subject Matter Experts) that both deliver and manage.
If you are a 30 to 40 year-old middle management staff, you might want to brush up on your technical skills.
4. Have Transferable Skillsets.
If you ask me what jobs are available in 10, 20 years’ time, honestly I wouldn’t know.
But what I know is that if you have a nimble skillset, you would be able to survive.
Skills like selling and communicating, are relevant across all industries. Start trying to build these skills, which can be done in everyday life like persuading a friend to try a new cafe or holding a deep conversation with someone, to truly understand them at a deep level.
You wouldn’t know how useful these skills can be in the near future.
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