After 25 years of running my independent career coaching practice, 19 years of writing newspaper columns on careers and jobs, and 75 years of navigating this planet while picking up a few nuggets of wisdom along the way, I’ve concluded that the single most important change we have to make in our careers is, well, not what you might think.
Usual responses to the question about the biggest change(s) include adapting to technologies, training, the hybrid workplace, workforce diversity and globalism.
They all make sense but don’t properly answer the question. The designation of biggest change goes to this: We must change the way we think. Not what but how we think.
A New Tool for the Challenge
Next month, I’m launching a monthly webinar series called “Eye on Jobs”—designed to support the independent thinking we all must do at this historic time in our job market. The time and the idea are an ideal fit.
That the world is changing like never before is obvious. “Progress”—inventions and discoveries with the power to change civilization—presents exponential challenges, technically and ethically. Think of all things in history that changed civilization, starting with stone tools, 3.5 million years ago. It took another 1.7 million years or so to develop the next: controlled use of fire. Then: clothing (1.5 million years later), domestication of animals, agriculture, alphabets, and so on.
Thinking Independently
See a pattern here? Each civilization changer followed its predecessor in less time than its predecessor followed its own predecessor. Humanity had time to adopt and institutionalize these inventions and discoveries, but less time with each. Fast forward to the Industrial Revolution, when these milestones came so rapidly that some of them were simultaneous: the telephone and the phonograph, for instance. Still, there was time to think, adapt and connect the dots.
Now ponder this: With all the monumental changes in human history, so much of how we live today is—or will be—influenced by things developed in the 21st century alone: social media, AI, mRNA, ubiquity of smartphones, proliferation of the web, etc.
Connecting the Dots
These things are interrelated. For example, one of every six home sales in America is made to an investor, and one in five American adults have no or limited credit history. Put those two together and you understand: (1) the real estate market is controlled by a tightening network, (2) equity is possible for fewer people, and (3) housing prices are out of control. As a result, the industry is transforming—right under our noses. If you’re aware of this, you win; if not, sorry.
Expanding Your Sphere of Awareness
Let’s talk about silicon. It’s so fundamental that there’s more computing capacity in your car than in your PC. (Your refrigerator’s next.) But what if you learned there’s something that will replace it? Not possible, you say? Let me give you one word: graphene. Look it up. You’ll expand your sphere of awareness, an absolutely critical behavior from now on.
What if …?
What if, once monthly—after a long workday—you could kick your shoes off, relax, sit down at your PC and have access to a live webinar of 30-45 minutes? That’s a whole month of job market data, analysis, synthesis, trends, commentary, career overviews, pertinent news, discussions of jobs and occupations of the future, highlights of important issues, events and leading thoughts.
What if you had this by subscription? What if this content came to you in executive summary form to make you more aware of your job and your career? In other words, not just data, but meaning.
What if this put you at 30,000 feet in the air and in the weeds—at the same time?
What if the first webinar would be free? And what if the subscription for the ongoing series would be probably less than your kids put in the pushke each week?
And what if your subscription also brought perks, like credits towards full coaching sessions, family referral opportunities, periodic newsletters and advance registration for other events?
‘Eye on Jobs’
That’s the deal. The new series is called “Eye on Jobs” and it will launch on Thursday, July
21, at 7 p.m. The objective is for you to have the resources to expand your sphere of awareness, to become more proactive, self-referential and self-directed. You’ll be more in charge of your career and you’ll become a stronger, more competitive candidate.
Register now!
Attendance for the inaugural webinar is free and open to all, with no obligation to subscribe to the series. Registration will end at midnight, July 18. All following installments will be by subscription, details to be presented at the first—free—webinar.
To register, go to: https://bit.ly/eyes-on-jobs We’ll take it from there.
Career Coach Eli Amdur provides top-notch one-on-one coaching in job search, résumés, interviewing, career planning, and executive development. Reach him at [email protected] or 201-357-5844.
