How much will still worth what you know today in 2022
A study of World Economic Forum entitled “Future of Jobs Report 2018” highlights the stuff that candidates will impress us with in the near future. And as a bonus, we also get the things you know today that will leave the interviewers cold.
In the 20th century,
the capability to execute repetitive tasks with precision and for a very long time was essential for the industrial revolution. At the assembly line, or at the cashier's checkout, there was no way to make it otherwise.
It was crucial to learn stuff by heart and to also remember what others were thinking about it. You needed to be able to listen carefully and answer diligently whenever you were asked for explanations, without having any access to on the spot information.
In the 90’s I learned how to use a paper-based map and how to use a compass to get around the wilderness. I also had to make it to rendezvous established days upfront, without instant communication or resynchronization.
Also, writing down stuff with those funny crayons and pencils, at least 10 pages per hour, was a must-have skill. Reading was done with the eyes, from left to right, page by page, not just by scanning. Audiobooks were rare and expensive, and searching youtube for how to start a fire in your camp was simply not there.
And math was essential. Without algebra and advanced math skills, your destiny was simple: broom, shovel or construction.
And physical endurance was obtained in playing team games with high rotation and speed. And strength was not for instagram, but for standing two weeks long mountain trips with food from tins and water from dubious springs.
Later on, when I started to work, you needed to be able to do tech stuff. Networking with your neighbors via coaxial cable, accessing the internet via modem and using foxpro for salaries and accountancy were essential.
To own a laptop in the early 2000s was very exotic. I am now traveling in a train with 3 friends and we each have at least 2 smart devices per person. At the beginning of the 21st century, should I have taken out a laptop, I’d have made a sensation.
And rework was very costly, therefore the employees able to deliver quality stuff were special. To redo something done wrong was very expensive.
In 2022, all these will change— accordingly to the World Economic Forum.
Employees then will work more with their mind than with their hands, and to be analytical and innovative will be mandatory.
Are you able to learn something new every few months? No? Too bad, you better consider retirement now, if so. In 2022, the ability to learn new things and apply them innovatively in your job will make out your brand and will differentiate you.
And if you think, even for a minute, that you will be able to deliver added value work while avoiding technology, think again. You will not be able to do so without IT, and having basic programming skills will be essential. That if you want to have a decent life.
Critical thinking will also be mainstream, as we move into the phase in which changing a variable the wrong way in the core backing software will trigger a global scale crisis to customers all over the world. With that, you also have to develop problem-solving techniques to be able to fix what the fix what critical thinking messed up.
And the bad news doesn’t end with those: leaders will turn to influencers (whatever that means). They will tweet their wisdom in 128 characters, or they will throw inspiring pictures on Instagram, or they will chat wisely on Whatsapp group chats with high audiences.
And emotional intelligence will make us all better, as without it we will not be able to give feedback at the right time, with the right tonality. We will have to understand what people around us feel and express. And being a frontal feedbacker, I have to admit I have to turn myself around on this topic until 2022.
And we will be surrounded by systems, without analyzing and making sense of them it will be hard to live professionally. Long gone are the times when the house, the phone, and the car were not smart…
So read this report carefully and start the transformational work of yourself already. As I am sure you still want your paycheck to come in 2022. In cryptocurrencies or whatever, to buy your food pills and the latest gadgets that will disrupt the world.
And I know what you’re thinking — yet another old fart that is sad that the world is changing around him. And you are of course right, back in my time the world was different. Not sure it was better but different.
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As a bonus, the table from the study that got me started with my article:
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