With the uncertainty that these modern times bring, investing in future-proofing your career might be the best thing to do. As far as job security goes, it’s never set in stone. The market can be a volatile thing, and companies break down in a blink of an eye.
So, essentially nothing is certain, and that’s why it’s best to invest in lifelong learning, careers that are here to stay in the foreseeable future, a skill set that can be used in multiple positions, and it’s also good to think about your industry at the moment.
Invest in Lifelong Learning
The formal education process is long, but it ends at some point, with a Ph.D. or with a BA, it doesn’t matter. However, lifelong learning isn’t about formal education alone, it’s about continuing the development of our skills and knowledge.
It’s something we do voluntarily and we have motivation driven by personal interest. Knowledge and skills should be the most valuable currency in life, and that’s why lifelong learning comes with many benefits:
Motivation: We get our motivation renewed as we continue to learn new things and expand previous knowledge. This is something that can get us out of the daily routine that we experience just because we have to.
Advancing skills: It’s good to master some skills that are social or professional, and it can give you a competitive advantage for other positions if you’re willing to change your career. With lifelong learning, the skills you value the most should continue to thrive.
Self-confidence: With motivation and advancing your skills comes greater self-confidence. And this becomes the enchanted circle. Self-confidence boosts motivation, motivation boosts learning and skill acquisition, and advancing skills boosts self-confidence. This is what lifelong learning is.
So, lifelong learning helps us become future-proof because of our continuing development, but we still have to think about the direction of our development.
Invest in a STEM Education Plan
Investing in a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics education plan is something that surely brings some future job and career security. Regarding this matter, most people reading this think that they’ve gone through the formal education process, and it’s over, there’s no way to go back to these particular branches.
Your age doesn’t matter. With lifelong learning, you can achieve anything, and if you’re thinking about your children’s education, then there are many services like in-home tutors in Australia, that ensure your child gets the best learning experience.
Invest in a Global Skillset
Getting a STEM degree can be a valuable thing, but you also need to think about investing in your global skill set. We already said that lifelong learning entails advancing your skills, and it’s a major benefit, but you need to evaluate which skill to advance.
That’s why it’s best that no matter which industry you’re working in and your current position, you continue to develop a skill set that is valuable in global. This skill set includes:
- Communication: A skill that’s necessary to maintain social and business connections, and one that follows your reputation. To future-proof your career, you need to know how to communicate your capabilities to others.
- Leadership: It’s a form of your relationship with the surrounding social environment, and when you learn to become a leader, you and your environment thrive together. There’s an emphasis on this in the current business world.
- Organization: When you learn to organize, you progress not only in your career or job, you make progress in life, too. Organization means much management, managing your finances, managing your work, and time management.
- Problem-solving: We need to know how to solve real-world problems, and this is probably the hardest skill to develop. However, practice makes perfect, so begin by clearly stating the issue and build your way up to solving it. You can begin with smaller issues at home, like how to install energy-efficient heating, how to save up on gas, etc.
- Teamwork: It’s more important than ever, and it will continue to be important in the future, as we have already become a global society that strives to solve some of the largest issues as a unit. So, improve team skills.
Invest in Tech-Savviness
We need to be tech-savvy if we want to succeed in the world, and we need to do it if we want to future-proof our careers. Even as we get older, we should embrace new technologies and try to learn how to use them to our advantage.
Maintaining our tech-savviness can happen through regular use of technologies, and the only investment you make would be time. However, you can invest money and time if you consider learning a new technology skill.
There are many services out there that allow us to never falter with our tech-savviness, and most companies require us to use the office suite. Currently, there are around 100 million daily users of Microsoft Teams according to the latest statistics.
Think About Your Industry
Think about the future of the industry you work in, the direction it’s heading, and if you can develop your skills to continue thriving in your current career. This works especially if you’ve already settled in your job position.
There’s always a way to make progress in your current career. You simply need to identify what’s necessary to get to the next position in the vertical line. For example, if you’re working as an accountant, think about the things you need to learn to do to become a financial manager.
Or if you’re currently a project coordinator, think about the skills to become the director of project management. One way of future-proofing your career is advancing in it, and this is how you do it, through evaluation and estimation.