We're living in an era called "Continuous Disruption". It will affect every industry and happen continuously. Compare it to a Tsunami that keeps on coming. That's the analogy of the future of work and environment we have to live with.
Krating Ruangroj Poonpol
Group Chairman
Kasikorn Business-Technology Group
Hello. I'm Krating Ruangroj Poonpol, Chairman of Kasikorn Business Technology Group (KBTG) and Founder of 500 TukTuks.
The Rise of New Jobs
People once said that marketers could never be out of a job, but traditional work is being destroyed and being replaced by new job roles, which are popping-up regularly. Those who seize these opportunities will not just be successful, but will progress further and quicker.
Last year a new job title popped up, and it's a very hot job position: the "Tokenomist" which challenges economists. It's about the economics of "tokens", digital tokens or crypto coins. It’s a job for economists who have invested time to learn about Cryptocurrency and who can design economic cryptocurrency mechanisms.
For former programmers there's another hot new job which is the Smart Contract Writer. For someone who is an artist, now there are NFT Artists, and the list goes on.
Prepare for the Future of Work
The Future of Work. There is no more Lifetime Employment, no more lifelong employment. It's now about Lifetime Employability, or being employable for a lifetime.
Salaries are set based on your contribution. Employers are happy to pay a daily wage, and you can have several jobs. That's called the Gig Economy.
From now on, employers will look at you as a bundle or package of small skills. They won't care where you graduated from, only about the ability you have, your proven practical experience and the work you have done in the past.
Some skills are grouped as nano skills; a collection of small but current skills. Skills are chosen according to each job. Let's say you have 100 Nano skills. One project may require 15 of your 100 skills. When that job is finished, you move to the next which uses another 15 of your 100 skills.
Sometimes, employers just want to know if you can do the job. It's called Social Validation. For example, the best programmer may not have graduated from a top university, but has written a lot of programs, and their programs have been downloaded and shared umpteen times. Users have accepted and validated them. This is Social Validation. The value of this person is far more than someone who has graduated from a top university. This is a fact.
Another important thing, the future is about being able to “Work from Anywhere”. So the nature of the Future of Work is global. You can work for any global company from anywhere in the world.
5 Keys to Acquiring New Skills
On CI Talks today, I have some tips, tactics and advice on acquiring new skills to share with CI Talks.
Set Annual Learning Objectives
First, set your learning objectives each year. Define new skills you want to learn to further yourself to improve your lifelong employability.
I wanted to learn both AI Machine Learning and Advanced Data Analytics. I set a goal to learn these to an intermediate level, and to be able to measure that, I also needed certification.
Set measurable learning objectives each year. That's the first thing.
Map Your Strategy
The second thing is what I call “Space Exploration”. It's mind mapping and plotting what you'll learn and the topics it consists of.
It's like you are on an expedition. You need a map and a GPS, but before the GPS, you need to plan your route and for that, you need a map. For example, I asked myself what my map was to learn AI and I set about researching it.
Start Sprinting Now
The third one, I call it “2 weeks is 1 sprint”.
If 2 weeks is 1 sprint and a year has 52 weeks, we can divide that into 26 sprints. Or you could also have 52 smaller scale sprints. This week I'll learn this, and next week I’ll learn that.
Set a Weekly Learning Plan
Fourth, have a weekly learning plan and try to keep a routine. Don't try to learn everything in one day.
I studied every Saturday for the entire day and for the rest of the week, didn’t study at all. Allocate your time wisely and be disciplined. Fix the time, just like exercising. Do it at the same time each day. This is your brain exercise.
Be Part of a Like-minded Community
Fifth, is to join communities of people who are learning the same topics and sharing.
When learning, there's a simple way to test if you have truly understood what you have learned and that is to teach it. If you have thoroughly understood everything, you'll be able to teach it well.
Force yourself to share your knowledge. Sharing is easy. Just record a video on your phone, or share a post on Medium or Facebook. See how many comments your post gets and the questions being asked.
When you do this, the opportunity to learn becomes endless. Sometimes, you will come across problems that you don't understand and can't solve. Your Community may have a solution to share and when they do you will save loads of learning time.
The Future of Work is Here
The future of work in the future world, is not actually the future world. Let's refer to it as the present world, because the future is already here.
At least 40% of what you are learning now cannot be used anymore. You need to continually acquire new skills that help you to evolve and to get new jobs that will materialize in the future.
CI Talks
The Future of Work video web series is brought to you by CI Talks. Find more inspirational videos and stories that spark change on CITalks.com and be inspired to take action and grow.<.p>
