Layoffs are are a major reason for mental health issues. You can use the headline offered by LinkedIn to stand out in the job market. And what should you never say in the headline? When someone wants to know why you were laid off, how should you answer the question by using a statistic? And is there an Insurance Policy that covers you against a layoff?
The world often hands us what are called "wicked problems". These are settings where the rules of the game are unclear or incomplete. The patterns do not repeat and feedback is often delayed or misleading. The world is increasingly beginning to sound close to that description. Who will be more successful - the generalist or the specialist?
Automation may require an estimated 375 million workers to reskill for new jobs by 2030. New jobs are being created that have never existed before. Being a standup comedian is a thing now. As is the role of a ‘Tweeter-in-Chief’ that Twitter it looking for to run its Twitter account. The position requires a “fun, creative person with story-telling skills”.
2 out of 3 people in the workforce in developing countries lag behind in at least one of these three skills. The educational institutions are lagging behind in most of these countries. That means having a degree is no guarantee of employability. The skills required to do most jobs are evolving quickly. The employers in every country need to invest in upskilling, reskilling, and deep-skilling the employees on a continuous basis.
People are the greatest competitive advantage. Yet most companies struggle to recruit, train and retain capable workers. Nothing seemed to have changed since 2008. Here is what NYTimes found in 2008"Managers surveyed by the firm blamed everything from short-term financial pressures — which keep them from investing in talent development — to less-than-capable human resource departments for the persistence of the problem."
Freelancers are growing in many white collar jobs and especially in places like India. When the individual negotiates the payment directly based on their expertise, they make more money. The platform like UpWork and LinkedIn become merely meeting places. Digital Nomads and fly-in experts use the platforms to get discovered. By showcasing their expertise and their reputation across the network they get discovered by the buyers with deep pockets. The more in-demand their expertise is, the higher the premium the buyer will pay.
The future belongs to experts. Build deep expertise in your field whether you are a data scientist, security analyst, product manager, marketing manager or UI designer. Bring skills from other disciplines like design, data analysis and business acumen to your field of expertise. Those are the jobs that are harder to automate. You can automate say the data crunching, but it is harder to automate the role of a Data Scientist who is a brilliant designer and storyteller. They are "hybrid jobs".
“Personality is related to every meaningful individual difference. Scientifically validated personality assessments can predict substance use and abuse, longevity, relationship satisfaction, job performance, criminality, and occupational choice, just to list a few examples. Beyond these applications, well-validated personality assessments provide individuals with insights into their own motives, reputations and destructive behaviours, many of which they may not be aware.
