Episode 17: How to future-proof your career

On episode 17 of The Career Clarity Show with Lisa Lewis, we’re talking about the top 3 strategies to avoid having robots take your job. Because if there’s a story that’s even more trendy than “Millennials are killing the X industry,” it’s that the robots are coming to take our jobs. Headlines like “Robots will soon rule the economy” and “Robots on track to replace you — and your industry” are designed to take the positive changes happening in the economy and turn them into fear mongering clickbait.

This kind of talk is everywhere — coming from reputable organizations trying to protect us. The Brookings Institute argues that there’s an approximately 88% chance that cafeteria cooks, fast food cooks, jewelers, painters, and phlebotomists will all be robots by 2030.

McKinsey’s research shows that it’s possible to automate a whopping 45% of all current jobs. Yikes. So much for any illusions of job security. Fast Company writers took it a step further, and created their own bot to apply to jobs for them (which, spoiler alert: didn’t work out so well).

There’s even a website called WillRobotsTakeMyJob.com that will give you highly speculative probabilities and poll data on whether your job will be automated away or if AI will come snap it up.

I couldn’t help myself: I had to start searching to see what the trends were. And if you are a bus driver, look out. Your prognosis is grim. The same goes for compensation and benefits managers, nuclear power reactor operators, nuclear technicians, administrative services managers, and atmosphere and space scientists, who’ve all got a damn good chance of being replaced by a robot.

(Does anyone else find it terrifying that futurists and trends indicate that a robot could be in control of the incredible and destructive power of nuclear energy within years?!)

But seriously, fear mongering aside, all the speculation about jobs permanently disappearing is more alarmist than well founded. Throughout history, when machines and automation have been invented, they haven’t taken away our jobs — they’ve simply changed them. The candlemaker’s product might have been replaced by the lightbulb, but the lightbulb creates new jobs for people to do manufacturing, packaging, and sales — while candles remain a $2+ billion industry for creating a romantic ambiance. The horse-drawn carriage was replaced by the automobile, and the automotive factories have now been hugely automated as well, but we’re better off as a society for it because of the millions of jobs the industry’s created over the last century. (Not to mention that automation’s created safer, more affordable vehicles for us all — and new jobs are popping up in engineering and innovation.)

Economist Andrew Scott concurs: “My hunch is that even though there may be an increase in unemployment this time — you can’t rule that out — the biggest effect for most people will be a change in how they work. It will change the skills, the tasks and the job that you have to do.”

He’s right: it isn’t that there won’t be opportunities to be employes — it’s that we need to focus on being agile enough to adapt how we create value.

So, instead of panicking that you might get replaced by a robot, the more interesting (and helpful) question is: how can I better prepare and “future-proof” myself, so I can anticipate (and roll with) changes to my industry and the way I work?

Here are three strategies to employ if you want to future-proof your career:

1. Watch for trends.

If you’re low-key freaking out that your industry might be next to go to the robots, ask yourself: where are you seeing lots of jobs posted in your industry, and where are you hardly seeing any? (Keeping in mind variables like the industries in your area, the population of your city, and the level of specialization/niche that a job might require.) Are you seeing certain job titles being posted over and over again? If you’re not seeing folks hiring for job descriptions that look like yours, pay special attention to that. It doesn’t mean you’re doomed, but it’s important to figure out why your title is becoming an endangered species. To get some ideas what’s happening, do some Google-ing about trend research and white papers for your industry, and read up. You might discover potential sector innovations you can be at the front edge of (instead of being caught with your pants down).

2. Focus on soft skills.

The things that seem to be most automatable are tasks that are repetitive, easy to learn, and very linear. Think: things like bus driving, manufacturing, or providing customer service troubleshooting. On the other hand, complex problem solving, social services, and innovation tend to be highly in-demand and extraordinarily difficult to automate, even with artificial intelligence. (No matter how technologically advanced it is, a robot’s gonna have a hard time emotionally connecting with a human, and will probably lack the empathy and deep listening skills that are necessary in jobs in psychology, management, and leadership). Soft skills are ones that are harder to teach with books and easier to learn with experience, so intentionally put yourself in situations where you can learn something new by trying it (and messing it up). Yes, you need to do it even though being a beginner at something is hard and humbling. If you’re not willing to challenge and stretch yourself, you’re going to have a hard time outpacing the machines.

3. Remember your resilience.

Let’s face it: you can never completely control whether you pivot or get pivoted — whether it’s because of a layoff, the loss of a customer, or the encroachment of a robot. (And let’s all hope they’re more WALL-E or R2D2 than Terminator.) Control the things you can: gaining skills, relationships, and knowledge, as well as setting yourself up with a financial runway and contingency plan. And set yourself up with help to manage the things you can’t control by proactively expanding your strategic relationship network. Take your career off autopilot, and sign up for classes to meet folks connected to the work you want to do, attend networking or professional development events, and let your family and friends know you’re wanting to grow your network.

If there’s one way to ensure you’re future-proofing yourself, it’s this: always be growing your skills and your relationships. If you’re constantly learning and expanding your ability to serve, you’re setting yourself up to have more options, choices, and resilience if your industry gets automated.

Want to dive even deeper into your long-term career strategy? I’m hosting a webinar tomorrow with Emilie Aries of Bossed Up about strategic career pathing for today’s economy. Click here to RSVP to join us!

SHOW NOTES:

• Read this article on Medium
• Read the Roadmap to Career Fulfillment eBook!
• Take the assessment on your top pillar of fulfillment here!
• The 4 Pillars of Career Fulfillment podcast series: start here!

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