How to prepare your career for future jobs?
“How to prepare your career for future jobs?” asked one of my readers on www.linkedin.com.
My inspiration to write this article comes from the fact that daily on average I receive approx 20-30 messages on social platforms seeking employment or for references.
I try my best to help my readers by guiding them to job postings or advise them on how to approach the recruiter and their shortlisted companies.
When times are tough, it is when we need to put extra effort to develop ourselves and try to become a better version of ourselves.
Re-skilling
The below quote would set the tone for my article.
“The Illiterate of 21st century will not be those who cannot read & write but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn” – Alvin Toffler.
In a study by Mckinsey, Sixty-two percent of executives believe they will need to retrain or replace more than a quarter of their workforce between now and 2023 due to advancing automation and digitization.
My article is my attempt to provide a few tips and guidelines as to how one needs to adapt to new challenges that technology would be posing to us especially in the Retail & Service sectors.
With the advent of cashless economy and stores without any sales personnel, i.e. stores like “Amazon Go” which uses hi-tech Artificial Intelligence coupled with facial recognition and cashless transaction which indirectly means following job profiles would be redundant in future definitely with advent of machine learning systems: Customer service personnel, Cashier & Merchandisers or promoters.
Above is just one example from the front end of the store, at the backend, various functions like merchandising planning & buying could also vanish since the computers/systems powered by AI would replenish the stocks by generating system LPO to the vendor which gets delivered to stores directly by the vendor.
Personally speaking, the overall future of Retail using AI-powered machine learning systems sounds scary but as there is a saying that when going gets tough it’s the tough who gets going.
The future belongs to those who are ready to LEARN, UNLEARN AND RELEARN.
Read my article on persistence here.
Hone Your skills for future jobs:
Every Job function has technical skills and soft-skills requisite.
My advice would be to develop and polish your SOFT SKILLs which machine learning AI systems would never be able to adapt easily.
What are soft skills?
As per Wikipedia, Soft skills are a combination of people skills, social skills, communication skills, character traits, attitudes, career attributes, social intelligence, and emotional intelligence quotients among others.
Always remember People love to do business with People and this premise would always remain relevant in future business as well.
Adapt yourself to future jobs requirements:
It’s not just the jobs in demand that are set to change, but also the way we work. As mentioned, organizations are facing skills gaps and employers are increasingly turning to temporary and contract employees in a bid to bridge these gaps.
Not only will you gain experience in this increasingly popular format of working, but you’ll help safeguard your future employability by broadening your range of skills and experience in a relatively short period of time.
Adopt a growth mindset:
Remain curious to learn new things/skills, even if it does not relate to your professional education or experience.
Mark Twain once quipped “I have never allowed schooling to come in way of my education” and I feel this line said by him is so relevant in the coming times.
Cultivate Curiosity:
Being curious make life more astonishing and would make you happy & more creative. It’s the creativity that would make your career less prone to economic downturns as machine learning systems cannot cope with human superpower i.e. Brain.
Listen to your team & family and assume that anyone who disagrees with your opinion is partially right.
Listening is a great virtue.
It is only by listening and observing pains in the telecom sector, industrialist Mukesh Ambani (chairman Reliance Industries Ltd) was able to launch the “JIO” telecom services in India.
Jio captured over 10 million subscribers in less than 20 days.
The recent launch of JIO FIBER is going to revolutionize the Indian households consumed media and entertainment.
Jio understood that the future belongs not to “Voice” but to “Data”.
Hence Jio launched 4G LTE technology wherein their competition was still trying to recover the costs of their huge investments in 2G and 3G networks.
To sum up my article, I would like to emphasize on the fact that change is happening faster than ever before.
It took 75 years to get 50 million telephone subscribers or users, but it took a popular game “Angry Birds” to reach 50 million downloads in less than 40 days.
Find your Mojo:
Most importantly, find your key strength “your MOJO or WHY” and work on it. Become the expert in your field by constant learning. This factor would be the most crucial factor in future jobs.
I would be more than happy to guide my readers and my connections on Linkedin who would need my cutting-edge advice & solutions for driving growth to their businesses. I can be reached atriteshmohan@yahoo.com
About the author:
Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 20 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. He has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in the Middle East region. Ritesh specializes in Retail management, Product development, and Brand Management, Retail Operations, Sales Management, and Franchising & Business Management. He strongly believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.
