Skills to expand during and post COVID-19

What jobs will we have in a few years?

Long before the COVID-19 crisis, the world was already undergoing a big “ transformation,” in which technologies, like software, automation, and AI, were changing the way people live, socialize, travel, and those changes impact what skills we need in the future. There are many bigger changes coming to the future of work- but the big question is “how it will affect you?” It is hard to believe but life will go on. Life will continue. It just may look VERY different than before.

Today’s technological revolution and the COVID-19 crisis is an entirely different beast from anything else we have ever seen. Listen to the podcast by Josh Patrick and Soulaima Gourani here.

If you mostly focus on how the future of work will impact women listen to a recent podcast with Soulaima Gourani here.

The pace of change is exponentially faster and far wider in scope. With almost 70% of employed Americans working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, what is the future of work, and how does this impact you and your job and your future?

Today we have an opportunity to shape the fourth industrial revolution, which will fundamentally alter how we live and work. Prof. Schwab (Founder of World Economic Forum) argues that this revolution is different in scale, scope, and complexity from any that have come before.

Characterized by a range of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds, the developments are affecting all disciplines, economies, industries, and governments, and even challenging ideas about what it means to be human. See this video and let Soulaima Gourani explain you how the future will look like!

Which positions do we sit in five and ten year from now? And what sort of titles and areas of responsibility will there be? How are we organized and how do we actually work? Which jobs (gasp …) should we prepare our children for?

It is hard to imagine a time before the Internet; before Google, YouTube, and Netflix. Gen-Z can’t wrap their heads around the fact we had to fax or send documents by snail mail to get them signed. More and more products and services will be so-called “hands-off” – what does that mean for you?

While learning new skills at home may not be the top priority for you right now it is a MUST!

Technology can and will automate many of the jobs in the current market. To some extent, most of us will be affected by the future within the next 3-6 months! yes, not years!

Technology can and will help you make faster and better decisions, but you probably wouldn’t leave the critical thinking to technology. Your future will depend on your ability to think—and on your common sense because computers don’t have that. Realistically, we are headed straight for a digital talent drought, and experts predict that more than 30% of so-called “tech jobs” will be unfilled by 2020-2022.

What can we expect from our work life and collaboration in the future, when there will be not just five, but upwards of seven generations in the workforce? Researchers like Nick Bostrom estimate that computers and technology will be smarter than people by 2050.

Only a minuscule number of jobs will remain that require human input. For humans to keep up, we have to figure out how to optimize not only our IQ (traditional intelligence) and EQ (emotional intelligence), but also our GQ (global intelligence) and DQ (digital intelligence). These four bits of intelligence are the framework for your readiness in the future.

There are no jobs on the market that have zero connection to IT and technology. We live in a linear society, where everyone is expected to fit into boxes:

Employed or unemployed
Full-time or part-time
In good health or on sick leave
Public employee, private employee, or self-employed

Even the majority of people today have no idea what it will take to make a living ten years down the line. In one of his innumerable speeches, Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, claims that the next 15 years will be indescribable and unfathomable and that innovation in the healthcare, banking, financial, agricultural, and educational sectors will revolutionize the way we live and work. Whether there’s a market for your skill set in the future is something you should dedicate resources to finding out. If you really want to know what the future holds, then follow the money.

One way to gauge the future is by looking at what investors are investing in. Innovative and responsible organizations do their part to help fight the challenges presented by climate change, increase security, prevent disease, and cure people. These companies are jumping into action, and that is what will affect our lives, our jobs, and our futures. This will require strategic thinking. Strategic thinking involves imagining what could happen in the future and applying your theories to the current circumstances. That might sound like a difficult practice, especially if you’re a bit stuck in terms of imagining the future, what you can do, and what you can “become,” but with the right techniques, anyone can improve their ability to think this way for better success.

The world continues to be an interesting and dynamic place, but your ability to keep up and prevent yourself from becoming the loser of the future depends on your ability to spot the tendencies affecting your job and industry—and on whether you have the courage to act on that knowledge.

What are the essential skills in the future?

The lesson is that our jobs change. Education is important, of course, both for your self-esteem and for creating a solid platform to start with, but we must not rely on traditional education (in itself) and believe that it will secure our future for eternity.

The knowledge you will have acquired when completing an exam is already obsolete, so the question is how to ensure that you maintain your market value. Be creative and curious, listen, read, learn, educate yourself throughout your life, formally or informally, and do not be afraid to go off on a tangent or to change tracks entirely – it will be the exception rather than the rule to celebrate 25 years at the same place or in the same position/industry. You must prepare yourself for having to navigate in a work environment that is very different from the one known to your parents and older colleagues.

In five years, I don’t think many of us will receive a job description, when we are presented with a new job. You will have to define your tasks yourself and you bid on them, just as we know it from online auctions.

We can no longer own

In a few years, we will see leaders who no longer feel the need to “own” our competencies when they employ us. Leaders only need to have access to them. We are going to see more people working for multiple companies at the same time. And we are going to see an increased tendency for companies to use non-attached and project workers. It makes your job situation more versatile, but also more complex. Learn how the future will impact the way you work in your company and industry. How is the future of work-life balance look like?

Recommendation

Amandeep Midha, Nerd 9: “Soulaima and I met briefly in World Economic Forum Davos 2018 and we stayed in online touch thereafter her inspirational talk. When I was hosting a Nerd9 Night at Palo Alto in September 2019, I discussed it with Soulaima that how it was a true challenge with new location, speakers, and where all perspectives are to be discussed and argued in open format. Soulaima accepted the opportunity gladly and not only had her personal speech, but also she moderated two other speakers’s debates so naturally that Soulaima was the “Soul” of whole event we had at Innovation Centre Denmark office at Palo Alto in whose presence every talk just blossomed out! :)”

Booking

Please contact BIG SPEAK if you wish to request a lecture about The Future of Work or a combination of topics tailored to your needs.