{Radio} Career advice from a Futurist
In the 1980’s I managed and owned a number of employment and temporary (the forerunner of what we now call gig-work) agencies and executive recruitment firms and if a resume was mailed or faxed in (ground breaking stuff) that showed an executive had more than 2 positions in her or his life, we would automatically put that candidate in the too hard basket.
Today when clients ask me to vet potential candidates for them, I do the exact opposite, if they haven’t had at least 2 jobs in the past few years I wonder what’s wrong with them and put them into the too hard basket.
What I was looking for last century was stability, what I’m looking for this century is creativity.
Last century it was one job for life, this century it’s one main income source for 2.7 years.
The likelihood of the linear one size fits all 9-5 model of work, no longer dominates and instead future careers and income production, which will likely span into a person’s 90’s, will be project and task based, using a variety of different skills, at different times, in different ways, in different work places and spaces, and with different tribe and mob members.
In this week’s on air chat with Hong Kong 3’s Phil Whelan I pick up from my article this week in Seek.com and explore the future world of work, 6 interesting future jobs and, as usual, a whole lot of other topics.
Listen now (18 minutes 59 seconds)
In the 1980’s I managed and owned a number of employment and temporary (the forerunner of what we now call gig-work) agencies and executive recruitment firms and if a resume was mailed or faxed in (ground breaking stuff) that showed an executive had more than 2 positions in her o.
The shift around Career advice from a Futurist is not purely structural. It changes what capabilities organisations value, how people find meaning in their roles, and what conditions make good work possible. Leaders who understand this early retain the talent they need and build cultures that attract it.
The most important question is not whether Career advice from a Futurist will matter, but how quickly it will matter in your specific context. Leaders benefit most from mapping the ripple effects early — not just the direct impact but the second and third-order consequences that arrive later and hit harder. That is the practical work of foresight.
