{"id":14119,"date":"2019-01-10T16:59:41","date_gmt":"2019-01-10T21:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/a60047bb09.nxcli.io\/?p=14119"},"modified":"2019-01-10T16:59:41","modified_gmt":"2019-01-10T21:59:41","slug":"follow-these-5-steps-to-future-proof-your-career-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inestemple.com\/en\/2019\/01\/follow-these-5-steps-to-future-proof-your-career-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Follow These 5 Steps to Future-Proof Your Career"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Originally published on teamreferralnetwork.com<\/em><\/a> in January 10, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The marketplace for talent is changing rapidly, and experts say it\u2019s about time the way we approached our own careers caught up.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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After a couple of decades defined by disruption, automation, and job displacement, many still aren\u2019t convinced that their job could be at risk. Studies conducted by Gallup<\/a>, Quartz<\/a>, and the Pew Research Centre <\/a>have all found that a majority of Americans believe automation and AI will displace a significant number of jobs; just not their own.<\/p>\n

The lack of response to this new dynamic has become a key concern for career transition coach and best-selling author Ines Temple. In her book, You, Incorporated: Your Career Is Your Business<\/a><\/em>, Temple explains how every employee should approach their career like a small business, with themselves as a provider of a service to a single client. She adds that any business that depended entirely on one client would be aggressively looking to diversify, and in today\u2019s career landscape, employees should be equally as proactive when it comes to exploring their own career opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people have allowed companies to manage their careers; they don\u2019t take a proactive approach to them,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen companies change their plans and need to let them go, they are not ready to find a new job, they\u2019re not employable, because their skill sets aren\u2019t up to date. They don\u2019t have metrics ready to demonstrate those skills, and they don\u2019t have a strong network of contacts that will help them in a job search.\u201d<\/p>\n

Temple and other career experts recommend taking the following five steps to ensure your career is prepared to overcome the challenges of a rapidly evolving talent marketplace.<\/p>\n

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1. ASSESS YOUR CURRENT LEVEL OF BEING FUTURE-PROOFED<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The first step in improving your career\u2019s resiliency, according to Temple, is determining where you currently stand. She believes that those who are most prepared to evolve are those that love what they do, as they are often most willing to go the extra mile in order to continue doing it. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAsk yourself, \u2018Am I really happy here?\u2019 \u2018Is this what I want?\u2019 \u2018Is this really my passion?\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cI know that\u2019s a hard thing to worry about when you have bills to pay, but without that, it\u2019s very hard to plan for your future career.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Being too satisfied with your current employment, however, may also be a sign that you should be doing more to prepare for your future. \u201cA very simple litmus test is: If you\u2019re comfortable, you should start learning something new,\u201d says Darren Raycroft, a partner with the Bedford Consulting Group<\/a>, an executive search and talent management company.<\/p>\n

Raycroft explains that with the rapid pace of technological advancement, the value placed on many skills today lacks the longevity that comparable skills had in previous generations. \u201cThose periods of comfort and normalcy are getting shorter and shorter,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Raycroft recommends keeping an eye on relevant job postings\u2014even during periods of comfortable employment\u2014to better understand where your industry is heading, and what skills are in highest demand.<\/p>\n

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2. COMMIT TO LIFELONG LEARNING<\/h2>\n

In today\u2019s rapidly changing employment landscape, it\u2019s easier than ever to fall behind, especially if you haven\u2019t recently updated your skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s this delineated \u2018learning time\u2019 in our lives, and then we move into a position, and if you choose to take some courses to get ahead, you may do so,\u201d explains Raycroft. \u201cI think that\u2019s changing: Learning is and will continue to be an ongoing process with a degree of propensity that we haven\u2019t yet experienced in our lifetimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raycroft believes that in order to stay ahead of the changing needs of the talent marketplace, employees need to be proactive in updating their skills. \u201cThat ability to learn and use judgment has been and will continue to be necessary for success,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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3. NEVER STOP NETWORKING<\/h2>\n

The worst time to start building a network is when you desperately need one. Professional relationships are typically stronger when they\u2019re built on mutual interest, rather than urgent need. \u201cA lot of people only do a lot of networking when they need a new job, but on a daily basis, we don\u2019t invest enough time in people, building a relationship based on trust,\u201d says Temple. \u201cIt\u2019s all about relationships with people, because people will recommend us, promote us, or let us go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only do those who take a break from networking risk weakening some of their existing relationships, but they can also begin to lose their networking skills. Temple emphasizes the importance of keeping those skills sharp and those relationships strong by building them in the low-pressure periods of career stability.<\/p>\n

4. WORK ON YOUR SOFT SKILLS<\/h2>\n

Building that network often requires strong interpersonal skills, something that Temple believes is sorely lacking in most of today\u2019s workers. \u201cWe really need to work on our warmth, our charisma, how much energy we give to people, because those things will make a difference between those who have a chance for a better career and those who don\u2019t,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, if our most robotic and repetitive tasks are bound to be automated, those quintessentially human traits may soon become our greatest assets.<\/p>\n

\u201cYoung professionals understand that soft skills will be critical to thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution,\u201d says Michele Parmelee, Deloitte\u2019s global chief talent officer. \u201cAccording to Deloitte\u2019s seventh annual Millennial Survey,<\/a> young professionals identified softer skills like confidence, interpersonal skills and\u2014particularly for gen-Z\u2014ethics and integrity aptitude as skills they feel are important to develop in order to succeed in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

5. FIND A MENTOR<\/h2>\n

Not only can mentors use their experience to help their mentees navigate a quickly changing employment landscape, but they can also help them develop some of those vital soft skills in a low-pressure environment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s a safe place, so you won\u2019t feel embarrassed asking your mentor questions that you might be embarrassed to ask in a group setting,\u201d says millennial and gen-Z engagement expert Ashira Prossack. \u201cYou\u2019ll also get that practice, and they\u2019ll give you immediate feedback and one-on-one attention, because you can\u2019t just read about how to communicate, you need to actually do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published on teamreferralnetwork.com in January 10, 2019 The marketplace for talent is changing rapidly, and experts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":14121,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[196],"tags":[15],"media":[],"class_list":["post-14119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mentions","tag-employability"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inestemple.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inestemple.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inestemple.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inestemple.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inestemple.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inestemple.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inestemple.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inestemple.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inestemple.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inestemple.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14119"},{"taxonomy":"media","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inestemple.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?post=14119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}