I suspect most fully-employed people over 50 have a dark thought looming in the back of their minds: If I were to lose this job, finding another at my age would be challenging. Certain events—a friend being laid off, an industry change, a pandemic—bring the thought even closer to the surface.
Your subconscious is only trying to protect you. The threat is real, to some degree. But it feels like the only way to deal with it is to keep your head down. Not so. Change at work is inevitable, and there are ways to position yourself well before it arrives.
Last week I attended a webinar sponsored by Illumhire, where Marti Konstant spoke about Career Agility & Career Proofing. In a topsy-turvy work world, who doesn’t want to do set their career trajectory to invincible? Certainly no one who is later in their career, where every new trend can feel like a threat.
Konstant’s advice feels spot-on. She suggests you look ahead five years in your current role. What changes are accelerating? What trends will make a difference? Where is the industry going? Then get yourself trained to be well positioned for that—now! Easily said, and makes perfect sense.
The fact is, though, by the time you’re decades into a successful career, it can feel like you’re in a groove—one that is working. In fact, your past successes are your calling card. So it can be hard to summon the energy to get up out of the comfortable groove, add skills, and re-position with an eye on the future. This is necessary, though, for career-proofing.
According to a McKinsey Global Institute Report, Jobs lost, jobs gained: Workforce transitions in a time of automation: “By 2030 as many as 375 million workers—or roughly 14 percent of the global workforce—may need to switch occupational categories as digitization, automation, and advances in artificial intelligence disrupt the world of work.”
Or consider this perspective from Yuval Noah Harari in his book, Homo Deus: The next ten years will see more change than the last 100. Think about that. 100 years ago: The television was just invented. No computers. No internet. The most common jobs were dairy farmer, farmer, and stock raiser. So just imagine what’s ahead in our next ten years!
Konstant points out some good news, that the fastest-growing jobs use transferable skills: health care, project manager, business development/ sales, and DEI. Fast forward to what may happen in your own field in the next five years. How will AI and machine learning affect what you do? How has the pandemic sped up change in your world?
Rather than rebelling against this (a “robots are going to take our jobs away!” mentality), embrace it. How can you get training to be part of what’s next? How can you become more knowledgeable about new technologies? One strategy is to become “hybrid.” What role can you add to what you already do? For example, can you learn to code and eliminate the need to get IT involved in your department projects? Or be trained in an adjacent subject matter area to become an inhouse expert? Suddenly you’ve added value.
Changing your mindset to look ahead and adapt, rather than looking behind at your experience, is the way to future-proof your career. Not everyone will do it, which gives you an advantage. The future is unavoidable. Embracing it pays off.