Career Opportunities in 2021: New career reality in the new decade: Trends that will affect your job, income, and choices
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anxiety
The biggest long-term impact of the pandemic on work professionals is stress. Widespread unemployment or salary cuts, fierce competition for each vacancy, lack of social connections, continuous work from home, and employers that focus on cost control and efficiency all get you out of your comfort zone. Therefore, the biggest skill you need in the next ten years is to manage your anxiety to stay productive. The antidote to long-term anxiety is threefold. First, fully understand yourself, including the causes of stress and happiness. Second, take action while strengthening your career and reducing anxious thoughts. Finally, manage stress through exercise, meditation, counseling, relationships, or any other medium that suits you.
Accelerate digitization
The biggest impact of the pandemic on global companies is to accelerate the penetration and adoption of technology. Digitalization has penetrated to the point where business travel is eliminated and replaced by ubiquitous virtual meetings. When the elders in the family overcome their resistance and accept online activities, the adoption rate will soar, and the little Kiranas will use the latest “dukaan-tech” to go online. As a result, not only has the digital consumer base increased, but various business processes have also been replaced by digital alternatives. As this situation continues, your work will not continue in the way you know it. No matter where your industry involves physical products or processes, many changes will occur, creating new opportunities and disrupting your current work. Digitization also leads to a winner-takes-all effect, because now industry innovators can directly and instantly reach customers, eliminating middlemen, levels and costs. Are you expected to be the winner or part of the winning team? “In order to keep up with the world in 2050, you not only need to invent new ideas and products, but more importantly, reinvent yourself again and again.” Yuval Noah Harari, author of “Homo sapiens” Noah Harari) said.
The moat of interpersonal relations
Companies define a moat as a barrier to protect them from competition. The biggest moat in your career right now is relationships. First of all, if your job or career is critical to relationships, you will not be replaced by technology anytime soon. Whether you are a physiotherapist who provides personalized services, an online hobby coach, or a salesperson (differentiating sales based on your interpersonal skills), this is very effective. Second, your network of relationships is a personal safety net for your mental health and new income opportunities.
Geography becomes bipolar
Are you a knowledge worker? So, where you are no longer matters. Earlier, if you were a coder, the best way was to move to Bangalore to find a job. Now you can work in a beach hut in Goa and still accept the same job in a brave new world of working from home. On the other hand, now your competition is not limited to local coders commuting from Koramangala, but coders from all over the world from Kochi to Kanpur to Kyrgyzstan. If you are not a knowledge worker, then you are sitting opposite. From manufacturing to hospitality, working from home is not for you. As trade barriers increase in various countries, the focus is on super local manufacturing, delivery and service. Your SME employer’s customer base may reduce your income risk, but your job competition is less and limited to local job seekers.
Experience is irrelevant
Your consultant recommends that you let go of the past to reduce stress. The advice is also related to occupations. Your past work experience is losing relevance. With rapid digitization, your employer’s business model may be destroyed by the next startup, and likewise, your experience in the old way of doing business doesn’t make much sense. If you maintain the same function or occupation and simply increase the number of years, you cannot expect your salary to rise. Every time you are unemployed or replaced, your income will drop sharply. Only when you master a new set of skills and achieve completely different results will your income start to rise again. On the other hand, you may find yourself succeeding with the right employer in a constantly changing industry, leading to a rapid increase in income. Choose your job wisely.
Fast turnover
In the past 30 years, as professionals change jobs to gain new learning and growth, the average tenure of a job has dropped from 10 years to 2-3 years. Now the situation has changed. Employers who are keen to maximize survival and success have learned to respond quickly to layoffs and use technology to quickly recruit at low cost through faster selection, contract labor, and temporary projects. Your tenure will be further reduced, and the uncertainty of your income will increase. Be prepared for change and plan your life and finances accordingly.
A proven career strategy
1. Competition
Can you be 1% better than other competitors? In the context of winner-takes-all in a digitally connected world, this marginal difference can help you get a job, get promoted, and become the last person to be fired. A competitive strategy in which you strive to be better than others can allow you to stay ahead, but only if the skill or job has value in the market.
2. Income
Why is there only one source of income? Your strategy is to maximize and prevent loss of income by creating multiple sources of income, such as turning your baking hobby into a side job or tutoring students on weekends? By trading your current free time to build a variety of income and investments, you can withstand sudden shocks.
3. Time
Either you have learned to value time instead of money, or your personal commitment takes precedence over your career. Your career strategy is to protect your personal time, while you understand that your long-term income will be affected. Self-employment, temporary projects, part-time jobs, and careers that do not change quickly are your choices.
4. Occupation
You don’t like fierce competition and the ever-changing work world. You know what you like and are not afraid to live this customized life. Choose your career for the next ten years, whether you are a writer or grow flowers on your farm. In return, you abandon society’s standard definitions of success and wealth.
5. Knowledge
No matter which path you choose, continuous learning as a parallel strategy will bring huge benefits. With structured online education and cheap unstructured information, this will be easier than ever. Read, take courses or teach every day. In the long run, the compound effect of knowledge will bring very good returns.
(The author is a professional coach, mentor, and author of Yoursortinghat.com.)
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