What The 4th Industrial Revolution WillMean For Your Career

What The 4th Industrial Revolution Will
Mean For Your Career
•
We are at the beginnings of a new industrial revolution that will not only fundamentally
transform most industries and businesses but will also have a wide
-
reaching impact on our
careers. This new
4
th
industrial revolution
will bring change and innovation at an
unprecedented rate, fuelled by technological advancements like artificial intelligence,
machine learning, big data, the internet of things and more.
Businesses need to
be agile to react to rapidly changing technology and ways of doing
business, so who they need on their team today might be drastically different to who they will
need in even the very near future. This has led to a more flexible approach to workforce
plan
ning where businesses dynamically create teams with the talent they need for a period of
time, often composed of a flexible internal workforce and contractors who come in for one
project and then leave again. This gives businesses the flexibility they need
to adapt to
changing business needs, expand and contract as business dictates, and recruit individuals
with the particular skill
-
set and technical know
-
how they require for a project. We often refer
to this new environment as the gig economy and I believe
we will see a shift from long
-
term
employment to shorter
-
term more flexible gigs.
According to a report from LinkedIn, it’s likely that millennials will hold twice as many jobs
by the time they are 30 years old than their colleagues who are 10 years older
.
Regardless of
whether you are a freelancer or a full
-
time employee of an organization, I believe that as a
result of this change, individuals must treat their careers more like a business of which they
are the CEO. The professionals that behave like any
effective CEO and prepare and train to
be able to supply the skills and resources customers and businesses seek are going to be in
command of their professional futures. These employees are those that have an eye on the
horizon for upcoming opportunities.
This new reality is enabled by the explosion of internet
-
based resources that make it easy for
anyone to acquire skills in any discipline quickly and cheaply. It means more people have
access to essential training than ever before and those that want to f
orge out on their own can
make it happen with the help of abundant free (or cheap) education. It’s those workers that
take advantage of these resources who will set themselves up for success. Plus, data
-
powered
career and employment sites fueled by rich da
ta streams make it easier to know and compare
the opportunities and rewards available to us.
How committed are you to upgrading your skills and knowledge? There are several learning
opportunities that you can take advantage of now to enhance your skill
-
set
to keep you
marketable for the changing economy. Here are a few:
Five Ways 5G Will Rock Our World
On
-
the
-
Job Training from Top Colleges
Corporations who want to invest in flexible continuing education for their workers from
colleges find value with online educational programs such as those offered from
ExecOnline
.
This type of service opens the door to professional development programs from top colleges,
but doesn’t requi
re people to leave the office for extended periods of time.
Network for Top
-
Tier Talent
If the shift for businesses to rely more on contractors rather than full
-
time personnel is going
to work out, there will need to be changes in the way highly skilled ta
lent and those
businesses who need them find each other. That’s where businesses such as
Toptal
come in.
This is a network of top
-
tier talent
--
developers, designers and financial experts
--
all screened
and verified with a language and personality test, test screenings and test projects. This gives
companies a chance to work with freelancers and contrac
tors without any risk at all.
Sometimes it Takes a Crowd
With the power of more than 1 million coders, designers, data scientists and algorithmists at
your disposal through the services of
Topcoder
, org
anizations have the ability to deliver
faster solutions to their tech issues. Through its crowdsourcing marketplace, Topcoder has
helped develop and design apps, cognitive solutions, analytics and more quickly and
effectively to help businesses get ready f
or the challenges of tomorrow.
Expand your Knowledge with Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)
When you consider all the learning you can access from some of the world’s top universities
with just an internet connection, it’s simply incredible. These are
free college
-
level courses
on sites such as
Coursera
,
edX
and
Khan Academy
. Although at the end
of the courses you
will receive certificates of achievement rather than course credits or grades, this is still
marketable education and HR executives and recruiters see these certificates as proof of your
commitment to upgrading skills and knowledge.
Take
charge of your professional development like you’re the CEO of your professional
future, because you are. Professionals who show that they are commitment to skills
acquisition and personal development will be those poised to be the resources needed by
tom
orrow’s businesses.
I write books, deliver keynote presentations and provide expert advice on big data, analytics,
metrics and improving business performance. I have helped many of the world’s leading
companies and governments on how to answer their most c
ritical business questions using
data a...
Bernard Marr
is a best
-
selling author & keynote speaker on business, technology and big
data. His new book is
Data Strategy
. To read his future posts
simply join his network here
.