To Still be Work-Relevant

My former colleague wanted to get my view on her career change or rather desired career climb.

She is in her mid-thirties with a predominantly marketing support cum coordinator experience looking to do digital marketing. She said she has started taking an online digital marketing course.

I wanted to be supportive of her well-intentioned initiatives. I am a believer in life-long learning. I am a believer in efforts outperforming talent. I am a believer in relentless hard work. I am a believer because I’ve seen differentiated outcomes.

But. This is a competitive world.

With millions of layoffs from and cost cutting measures happening, plus fresh graduates desperately joining the workforce, the race for a white collar job is fierce.

With young, better resourced and financially-flexible candidates in the market, I must confess the prospects of my ex-colleague getting a better-paying, more senior position in digital marketing seemed like a steep rugged uphill climb with little rest-stops in between.

Having worked a couple of years in the same company, her base salary by way of annual inflationary increases have reached a level where the output that she provides could well be achieved by a more junior team member at 70% of the cost.

Therefore from the perspective of an employer, hiring someone who's no spring chicken with no practical experience and at a comparatively higher salary level, may not look like the best choice.

The fact that she, alongside millions, have started taking up online digital classes is a valiant effort to close the gap. Yet, without any practical work experience in the area, it may not appear to be significant enough in today’s demanding work environment.

What Does The Future of Work Mean to the Silver-ing Workforce

The question for us in the second half of our lives , assuming we are already doing our part in keeping abreast in our professional development, then becomes :

How can our work (and life) experiences continue to be relevant, valued and meaningful tomorrow, or even today?

I don’t have all the answers but mustering all my wisest marbles, one view is that our work experiences should not be time, geography or technology-specific, stand alone events.

Each of our unique chain of experiences is valuable because not only did each one of us uniquely experienced it but also that each of us have our unique perspective on it.

That we can reflect upon an incident not as an isolated situation, but one wherein we can habitually transform into learnings, that may become multi-dimensionally applicable, is a privilege that each of us can avail.

That our past experiences are golden nuggets and agile pieces of screws, glues and threads that help us make sense of future challenges, to project ideas, to problem solve in a multitude of new circumstances, to adapt and to emphatize.

That we have the conviction to believe that our past is not history kept for story-telling to awe our grandkids, but purposeful relevant living pieces that can enrich ours and others’ passage at work and life, whilst we keep learning. That, is how we attempt to be work relevant.

I believe the keyword is can. The choice is ours to make and transform.

Wisdom is not something that comes with age.

It is a well-honed intentional effort to reflect on our experiences and with humility and open-mindedness use for good.

Our work lives are not days simply used to fulfill our business goals or functional responsibilities.

Our work days are micro-moments where we need to seek out how outcomes are overachieved, how people connect, how collaborations are formed, how respect is earned, how failures are met and how problems are broken down.

So that coming out of one workplace means carrying with us invaluable golden nuggets for the taking by the next fortunate employer.

So, can we get back to the question about my not-so-spring chicken, former-colleague looking for a career change?

I feel her. I feel her desperation. I also genuinely believe that moving to new territories at starting levels when time is not on her side is not the right move.

Instead, by focusing on developing her managerial and leadership abilities, initiating new projects to take up and volunteering on projects that expands her skill sets, I believe she would have a better chance at winning the trust of her current management team and open up a vertical career move rather than a lateral one. While her new found digital skills would absolutely still be a bonus, it may not be sufficient to be the sole consideration for her new prospective employer.

Souce: Association of Psychological Science

According to the Association of Psychological Science, brain processing power peaks at age 18. Muscle strength peaks at 25.

While, the ability to understand people's emotions only peaks at 51. This is interesting because there are very few jobs that do not require influencing skills in order to succeed - be it working with peers, bosses, customers or partners, and the ability to empathize then becomes very important.

So it does seem that the adage 'age is just a number' rings true where even if you've passed your "prime", you still have an edge.

Note to Self

There is no need to fear or lament the pace at which time races. Nor do we need to get overly anxious at what we cannot do. Instead let’s appreciate what we do have, bestowed on us in each season of our lives.

Have a fantastic new year everyone!