Automation is inevitable. In a generation, the role of work and employment in producing personal livelihood will be fundamentally changed from its current form. However, for many technology industries, full automation is still far away.
Still, we’ve seen automation squeeze out people in related fields, so now is the time to be vigilant, to make oneself indisposable just in case the possibility of automation gives your field the pinch.
So how is this done? To make yourself essential in a world hurtling toward automation, you’ve got to invest in yourself and adapt to changes in your career. Here are a few of the best examples which should help you preserve your career and continue to advance for a long time to come.
1. Cultivate your online presence
We live online as much as we live in “meatspace” these days. Your career is visible to anyone who wants to see it, and it’s important that you have a hand in controlling what they see.
Resources like http://reputationmanagement.co/ can help you build the online presence that will best produce the career result you are looking for. You will appear in the places of greatest visibility, with the most clear and impressive presentation of your history and credentials.
It’s easy to think that word of mouth and a traditional resume will take you as far as you want to go, but that’s simply not true for most people in the information age.
2. Increase your skill set
Always be working hard to develop new skills and expand/deepen your areas of expertise. If you’re standing still, doing the same function that you’ve always done, the chances that your job will be automated away become much more likely.
If there are many things that you can do well, you’ll always have the chance to pivot just in case your industry shrinks or your job disappears.
3. Change jobs frequently
It has been proven that people who stay at jobs for more than 2 years don’t earn as much as people who change jobs more frequently. Changing jobs is also a practical way to expand skill sets, increase your network of colleagues and business contacts, and keep your perspective fresh and interesting.
>Staying agile is the best way to keep ahead of encroaching automation, which you can almost always see coming if you pay attention. Sometimes in the working world we must “evolve or die”, and this point in career history is no different.
Automation will transform every industry, and careers will be completely different on the other side of this revolution. In the meantime, it’s important to be tenacious so as to stay employed, even as others might lose their jobs to algorithms and the like.
