The job market is moving forward faster than ever. Even the pandemic did little to slow down its progress in many areas, and we’ve actually seen a rise in certain new ideas, like acceptance towards working from home. It’s important to know how to stay relevant in this situation, as some of the changes coming in can be a bit overwhelming for the average person. The good news is that as long as you’re paying attention and have the desire to keep yourself up to date on current trends, there are lots of opportunities for you to do so.
Transferrable Skills
Gone are the days of people focusing exclusively on tight specializations and expecting them to last a lifetime. Nowadays, you need to do your best to keep dipping your toes into skillsets that can be easily transferred to other jobs. This is mostly related to adopting modern technological advancements (more on that below) but also concerns other skills, like process optimization, communications, leadership, and more. You need to do as much as you can to keep your skills in a good condition on those fronts, and that can require some extra effort on top of what you normally do.
Get Up to Date with Technology
On the note of technology and its integration into the modern workflow, you should come to terms with the fact that modern tech is practically all around you at this point. This means that those who don’t pay attention to those developments and don’t polish their skills in the field risk missing out on a lot in the long term. Even if your job doesn’t directly have anything to do with technology, you can probably still benefit a lot from learning how to automate simple tasks and how to integrate modern solutions into your regular ongoing projects.
Never Too Late for Another Degree
Thinking of exploring a new education path? There’s certainly nothing wrong with that, and it’s never too old to pursue a degree, even if you already have one. The modern job market has unfortunately made certain degree paths somewhat obsolete in recent times, requiring people to invest more effort in order to turn themselves into competitive candidates. The good news is that you will often be able to rely on a lot of support for this, especially from your employer in many cases.
Crucial Skills for Moving Up
There are also some skills that you should focus on if you don’t already have them under your belt. An MBA is becoming a more and more valuable asset in the modern workforce – click here to find out why. Combined with a good level of technical aptitude, you can easily make yourself stand out among other candidates in the same field as your own. The exact range of skills required for that will vary from one job to another of course, but you can always count on degrees and certificates like those to be viable. And while it’s not a direct working skill, learning to communicate better can go a long way towards improving your chances on the job market. Even if you think that you are already knowledgeable enough on that front, you’d be surprised how much you can learn from a quick course, and how much you’ve probably been missing.
Networking Is as Important as Ever
And let’s not forget the importance of networking properly. This has always been a crucial factor in moving up the employment ladder, and it’s even more important today for a number of reasons. You need to learn how to build lasting relationships and how to get the most out of them because otherwise, you might find yourself getting passed up for promotions and other lucrative offers. Even if you’re the best employee around in terms of raw skills, that won’t matter much if you’re the only one aware of that. Networking in your career is similar to marketing for a business – without it, you may as well not even be on the map.
Predictions for the Next Decade
Where will the job market take us a decade from now? Judging by the rapid advances we’ve seen in just the last ten years, that’s a pretty difficult prediction to make. But it’s safe to assume that technical skills are not going to fade out in popularity – quite the opposite. The same can be said for leadership skills, as well as the ability to get along with the people who make the difference in your bottom line. Combine all of those and you have a good recipe for remaining relevant in this job market for a long time, no matter what it is that you do exactly. Sure, people in some industries can benefit especially well from those tips, but they are more or less universally applicable.
Should You Consider Side Gigs?
The popularity of side jobs has been growing rapidly in recent years, and 2019-2020 was a particularly active period for that market. Many people have started to explore the option of running their own businesses in one way or another, and some have been able to see great results from that. This is still a viable option, but the only thing we can advise you on that front is to be sure that you’re not compromising your main job for this. You will still need it to make ends meet, even if your long-term goal is to become fully self-sustainable with your new business. This will take a long time, and it may not even happen. So don’t do the foolish thing and cut off your only reliable source of income on the road to that success.
You should also keep your skills in check with regards to the current state of the market. The popularity of some particular skills works in waves, and though they might not seem very relevant now, that can easily change a few years down the road. Pay attention to the way things are moving, and always be prepared to start making changes in your life.
