7 Career insights to thrive in our new normal

I have been a career professional for well over 20 years. This blog used to be called “What I’ve learnt recently”, and many of my older posts are about my personal learning journey. This knowledge comes from practice and it informs my advice to you. If you work with me, this is the stuff you can expect me to say.

1. Digital skills are career skills

Over the years I have made many predictions about the impact of technology and the importance of digital skills. Before the pandemic, I had a lot of push-back on that within the slow-moving higher education sector. I even had a heated discussion with a vice chancellor once about the need to introduce remote learning. Two years later, our students were zooming in from all over the world. Our academic colleagues learned the hard way as in under two weeks they had to adapt when the pandemic hit. They did – like the rest of the workforce – an amazing job in adapting to our new normal. There is no difference between career skills and digital skills. Digital skills are career skills. This may seem like old news to some, but within higher education this struggle was very real.

2. You don’t have to learn to code

The above does not mean that everyone needs to learn to code. I’ve worked for a coding boot camp and I’m all for developing software development skills. But it’s not for everyone. Software recruiters are excellent at sniffing out those who are really committed to “always be coding“. The 2023 collapse in the junior developer market (driven by post-pandemic ‘right sizing’ and the ChatGPT moment) has created an overhead of junior coders looking for employment. Like any previous ‘safe’ qualification, this hasn’t turned out to be a way into secure employment. The skills gap still exists, but the expectations have gone up. If you like to code, learn to do it. Don’t do it if you’re only looking for a secure job. Those don’t exist anywhere anymore. Do it because you’re enthusiastic about coding and adapt to the market as it develops.

3. Anything that can be automated will be automated

robot playing piano
Robots will try to take your job

Technical innovation comes with the promise of greater efficiency, effectiveness, or output. It always comes with the temptation to reduce the highest cost most organisations have – you! This can happen even when the technology isn’t developed enough to replace you, such as with generative AI at the time of writing. Such is capitalism, and the mindset taught in business education. I’ve been to meetings where senior staff shared that they could replace a specific team’s work with … whatever technology was cool at the time. Sometimes those teams were present which made things awkward quickly. Wherever you work, make the assumption that someone is planning for your redundancy. Prepare for this and hedge your risk by engaging in networking and light job hunting activities at all times.

4. AI is not going to take your job (just yet)

Artificial intelligence – at least the large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT – isn’t … well, intelligent. Not yet. They’re really good at anticipating the next word you want to write or say, and that’s where they are useful. Keeping insight three from above in mind, this doesn’t mean that someone may not want to give your job to a robot. It’s just not going to do a great job of it (at the time of writing). Any text editing professional will feel the pressure of fancy AI tools pushing into their workplaces. Entry level roles in social media for marketing graduates will probably be replaced. But replacement via real AI is still some time off. This is the time to learn as much as you can about emerging AI technologies. You might even seek a qualification (see insight six below) to signal your progressive attitude towards your management.

5. You can’t qualify yourself into a career

No one will give you a managerial role because you have a management degree. The lack of a certification may be a hindrance to entering a certain profession. Continuous professional development and certification may be required as part of many roles. But qualifying alone normally will not yield a desired career step up. This is why I’m always sceptical when job searchers sign up for courses to open up opportunities. Opportunities emerge when you work on creating them through networking, informational interviews and side projects. Qualification alone is often what Germans hilariously call a Yodel Diploma.

Don’t get me wrong: Learning new skills is important and in times of layoffs a useful way to enhance your CV and skills base. But the practical application of the new knowledge often outweighs the usefulness of the certificate which promises it. Make sure that you emphasise the outcomes to a potential employer – not the certification itself. This sometimes puts people in expert roles under pressure, since career progression to a certain point in their career depended on their specific expertise. But suddenly, a new skill set is asked for. I’ve seen people manage this transition, especially when the employer wasn’t offering training in the leadership skills needed to progress.

6. Stay alert! Trust no one! Keep your laser handy!

yellow and black caution sign
Career journeys are full of risks

Companies aren’t families, whatever they tell you or themselves. Some really try to be, but they eventually scale up or decline. At which time they will review their contracts and follow the statement from the paragraph above. My advice to coaching clients has always been not to trust their employer. I’m not saying this from the perspective of Paranoia (where the above header comes from). That’s just how employment works. It’s a regulated transaction in which you sell your time, effort, work, creativity, even passion. I have had life-changing and empowering employment relationships. But they eventually end, often with redundancy or an expired contract. Planning for this to happen will help you be prepared.

7. The future is (at least) hybrid (if not remote)

Post-pandemic, there has been a push to return to the office. Every week, some executive of a large company will bemoan the lack of commitment or productivity caused by those slacker employees. Research on this points in another direction though. A well-managed hybrid beats on-location work on productivity. Also, remote work is cheaper for companies than any productivity losses. Finally, a forced push to return tends to make high performers quit.

Don’t take it from me, follow the authoritative voice of Stanford Professor Nick Bloom on this. Yes, this change is going to be slow. There is a strong motivation for companies to protect pre-pandemic investments made in expensive office property. This is their problem, not yours. In the end, dinosaur leaders mandating a return to office will either retire, or the financial pressure of their outdated model will drive that change. Either way, read up on the two-part piece I wrote in the first year of the pandemic on how to make remote work … work.

May 26th, 2024 by matthias