WELCOMING THE FUTURE

Witnessing this era of rapid transformation in corporate world, we can conveniently predict the coming years to be extremely competitive and fast paced. The commercial revolution has taken every organization by storm, hence modifying the concept of a mainstream job. The firms are now changing their job structures and expecting the potential employees to be upgraded from mere classroom knowledge to exceptional practical abilities. Traditional skills are no more appealing for employers. The bar for desired proficiencies has been raised and skills in demand today are expected to become obsolete by the year 2020. According to LinkedIn career expert Catherine Fisher, ‘some skills expire every couple of years.’ This shows the temporariness and rapid obsoleteness of proficiencies. 

This alarming forecast pulls us out from our comfort zones which circles around getting settled at customary expertise. Gone are the times when you were assessed on the length of your reports or the highest scores in SATs or the babbling of ratified notes in your interviews. The leaders of tomorrow will hire you on the basis of your individuality, distinctiveness and originality. Here, the most important question arises-HOW?

Obviously, the habitual learning fails to fill the gap between the skills needed and skills learnt. Therefore, the required skills must be developed before a student seeks out for a job. Here, social and emotional learning plays a vital role as they aid students in standing out amongst the general crowd. This is what recruiters really look forward to:

·        Students must be able to sieve relevant data through vast amount of information and be able to  make instant but rational decisions based  on their choices

·        Strong personality traits. These include empathy, resilience, positivity and collaboration

·        Combo of traditional and modern knowledge; technical, linguistic and mathematical skills

·        Innovativeness to keep up with constantly changing world

·        Effective communication and interaction

·        Critical thinking to make quick decisions

·        Ability to overcome complex challenges successfully 

·        Adaptability to process emotions with your circumstances

·        Curiosity and ability to question and contradict

The hiring criterion for tomorrow is definitely challenging and reformed but this will give rise to exposure and ability to perform in uncertain situations as well. Revolution extends beyond school gates. As Esteban Bulrich, Minister of education, Argentina says;

‘A child today can expect to change jobs at least seven times over the course of their lives and five of those jobs don’t exist yet’

A recent report published by the Institute for the Future (IFTF), does an outstanding job of identifying the key work skills and capabilities needed in the next few years (and arguably needed now). These include the following:

SENSE-MAKING

When you generally ask creative people how do they incorporate creativity in their ideas they feel a bit shy not because they don’t have an answer, but because they connect all the things together. As Steve Jobs once said, ‘creativity is just connecting things’ Therefore creativity, which is, the core skill for present as well as future  is attained when you start integrative thinking, keeping all the options and aspects in your mind and making connections for a comprehensive understanding.

SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE

John Hagel thoughtfully points out; influence and relationship-building will now come from asking the right questions, not necessarily having all the answers. This shows the utmost need for understanding, mingling and accepting others as different rational beings. Each one of us are unique in own way and we strive to be understood by all. So does your boss and your client. Here your social intelligence and relationship building skills come in. Connecting with people in a meaningful way and indulging with them on a deeper level is as necessary as performing well in your assigned tasks.

NOVEL AND ADAPTIVE THINKING

As employment growth gets polarized into either ends of low-skill jobs or high-skills jobs, it is important that we always evolve our thinking towards the future to ensure we stay relevant.  The pace at which companies are changing, simply staying up-to-date is no longer enough. Taking self-initiative to constantly advance your skills, pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone, becoming a perpetual student, and quickly adapting to new realities will help ensure you are creating value and will keep you out of the cross-hairs for outsourcing.

CROSS CULTURAL COMPETENCIES

Globalization is no longer a catchphrase, but a reality. The difference in cultures sometimes serves as a barrier when one starts his career. This should not happen with you. A person should be collaborative and communicative enough to work with people of different geographies and cultures. Thus, adjusting with multitude of cultures and connecting effectively in a diverse atmosphere will give you brownie points in future.

COMPUTATIONAL THINKING

Technically, it’s not possible to think like a computer. But analytically, yes that’s possible. Employers are keeping an eye on data freaks and mechanical minds. Data is everywhere and everyday it shows up either in the form of mails or spreadsheets and finances. Your skills to crunch, modify and interpret the massive amounts of info smartly and instantly will land you dozens of jobs in future and in present too.

NEW MEDIA LITERACY

Struggling for your thick CV or 50 slides presentation? Move on. This digital and social media epoch won’t stop for your presentations. Communication forms are now transformed and the world now belongs to blogs, videos, podcasts and Skype. Learn the new media usage. Use LinkedIn, slide share, icloud and Google circle to connect with corporate leaders around the world with just one touch. Update your profile time and again. Mention your achievements and let the world know what you’re capable of.

COGNITIVE LOAD MANAGEMENT

We daily face vast amount of information bunches hitting us at an awful pace. Every day we struggle with data management. Be it your over flowing Gmail inbox, a Facebook post, a tweet or a forwarded Whatsapp message, we all struggle in determining which info to consider as relevant and which to ignore but sometimes we fail miserably at it. So today, ability to focus and filter out relevant data out of heaps of irrelevant information is extremely necessary. Managing the priorities and preferences against the distractions is yet another much-needed skill.

In a world where staying appropriate becomes a top priority (for individuals as well as companies), there are no guarantees that either of these skills will lead to success. However, the secret success ingredient lies in taking charge of your own destiny by evaluating where you are today and charting your personal map as to where you want to go.

We daily face vast amount of information bunches hitting us at an awful pace. Every day we struggle with data management. Be it your over flowing Gmail inbox, a Facebook post, a tweet or a forwarded Whatsapp message, we all struggle in determining which info to consider as relevant and which to ignore but sometimes we fail miserably at it. So today, ability to focus and filter out relevant data out of heaps of irrelevant information is extremely necessary. Managing the priorities and preferences against the distractions is yet another much-needed skill.

In a world where staying appropriate becomes a top priority (for individuals as well as companies), there are no guarantees that either of these skills will lead to success. However, the secret success ingredient lies in taking charge of your own destiny by evaluating where you are today and charting your personal map as to where you want to go.

SOURCES

·  World economic forum

·  Forbes

·  LinkedIn