The life of a school careers advisor must be incredibly difficult these days. With every technological and scientific advance, the whole career landscape changes. Jobs that 10 years ago seemed to offer a positive, long-term career, are vanishing before our eyes, replaced by new roles that no-one could have predicted. Self-driving cars now exist and it’s even possible to diagnose medical complaints online so, how do we plan for careers that are still to be designed?
You could argue that because it is impossible to predict the future it is therefore impossible and impractical to still participate in career planning. How can we know what skills will still be relevant in 10 years’ time or what future jobs will look like? However, we would argue that we should definitely still be discussing career planning in the workplace.
For starters, millennials and the generation below them still want to roadmap their careers. They want to see potential longevity in their roles, a future where they can progress, and opportunities for personal growth.
Although managers do not have a crystal ball, and for some managers who are struggling to fully embrace changes in technology and science it may be challenging to envisage what the future holds for the next generations of workforce, this doesn’t mean we should stop creating career plans. Instead we should be challenging ourselves to design future proofed career paths. Take a graphic designer for example, before the growth of IT and design technology, their role would have been predominantly technical pen and ink work on paper. Now, they can create and design from anywhere using IT. Their initial artistic skill set is the same, but the method by which they work has changed. Anyone who has been able to embrace these changes will still be able to design.
Change is nothing new and experience still counts for a lot. If you consider your current role or business, how much has it changed in the last 10 years? Remote working is now something that we wouldn’t have considered feasible 10 years ago; video calling and faster broadband allow us to meet people face to face, for every piece of AI that is introduced, someone has to design and control it. We still need diversity in the workplace. While there is a very obvious emphasis on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) careers, there is still a need for all the other skills that we’ve developed over the years. Imagine a new AI led accountancy app for example. While there would be a need for coders and designers, a successful launch would also require excellent sales and marketing people, customer services representatives, and managers (to name but a few).
The key is to be creating shorter term career plans and regularly revisiting them. Identifying and taking on new challenges is an integral part of embracing a growth mindset and will prepare future generations well for what may come. Changes and challenges are there to be embraced and factoring this into a career plan means that you are considering your future professional development, much like the graphic designer example above.
When documenting career plans, remember to document achievements too. Not only do they show what has been achieved, but in the future will remind us of how far the person has come. Reflection is a valuable tool, understanding where you’ve come from helps you to see where you have to go next.
Obviously, this should also be shared with your team, who are your biggest resource. Investing in them and ensuring that they are able to create and work towards goals, means that you are future proofing your recruitment for the next 5 years. John Schwarz, CEO of Visier, describes it perfectly in a recent article. Sitting down and planning how he would become a CEO helped him to become a CEO, yes there was change, yes there were hurdles, but a regularly revisited career plan helped him find the right path.
If you would like some help career planning or would like to discuss how you can future proof your team’s career prospects, get in touch.