Today, we are living in the 21’st century with fast-developing #Technologies, a #digital economy, a #Knowledge society and #Global #Uncertainty. There is ever-growing mistrust within and outside the countries, chaos and confusion in national policies, youth unrest from within/supported by foreign adversaries, global # warming and calamities like tsunami and #hurricanes. There are #disruptions in alliances, a slowdown in # industry and right-sizing/downsizing of manpower. This situation is further compounded by sponsored/outsource d# terrorism and violence, purported by fundamentalists like ISIS, Jihadist Taliban groups and sea pirates across the world. Uncertainty has further aggravated due to Corona Pandemic sweeping across the world since Jan 2020. Corona has slowed down economies by shutting down many industries and forcing people to work from their homes. While rapid advances in technologies have provided means to explore beyond our own country and improve our#productivity, longevity, speed of travel, #decision making and #lifestyle, it has been causing # disruptions and #displacements of jobs. However, new technologies also create new jobs which of course require new #skills, more multi-tasking and efficient use of resources. This scenario demands fast learning and adapting to newer skill sets, # creativity, #innovation and enduring alliances.
The old concept of joining a company and slowly growing in it till your retirement is no longer valid today. Instead of employing, training and providing job stability and drawing loyalty toward the employer, hiring and firing are becoming a common feature. You are to be alert and lookout for opportunities to switch your job, at an appropriate time, rather than sticking on to the traditional jobs. You are to actively manage your career and judiciously change companies for better growth, learn new skills, and raise your visibility and pay package.
Both the employer and employee want the best out of each other and for you; it is survival of the fittest. Each one of us is going through the process of acquiring professional education, acquiring new skills and working hard to have stability and growth in our job. Likewise, each employer is looking for highly competent, multi-skilled, innovative and creative professionals who are easily adaptable to a fast-changing technology environment.
The world around us is highly interconnected, interdependent, and uncertain, where market reach is global and operating on a 24x7 basis. Geographical boundaries of countries have disappeared and time zones have become an advantage for global business. Indeed, we are coexisting and cooperating in one global village, which is complex, demanding, dynamic, speedy and full of challenges. Since the beginning of this century, there have been numerous conflicts, disturbances, unrests revolts, and violence in many countries across the globe. There has been a continuous war against terrorism in Iraq, Afghanistan and still ongoing battles in Syria, Yemen, Israel and Palestine. There is an ongoing tension between North and South Korea, Israel and Palestine, Iran and Israel and a few countries around Russia. Likewise, certain countries in Latin America, South Asia, Africa and the Middle East are the cause of global uncertainty. At the beginning of the year 2017, the world had seen a big shift in USA global strategy, particularly towards the Middle East, North Korea and Venezuela. Winter Olympics games saw North Korea and South Korea participating under a common flag. Such coming together was unthinkable in 2017 but it happened in Feb 2018. In Mar 2018, we have seen two historic political victories where Chinese president Xi Jim Ping got the lifetime post of president of China and Russian President Mr Vladimir Putin got the 4th term of six years with a thumping majority. Putin will now rule Russia until 2024 and maybe beyond. There may be new alignments where each of the USA, Russia and China will try to dominate the world through economic and technological advancements. In Mar 2018, we are already witnessing a trade war between USA and China which is affecting the global economy. Indeed, we are living in a complex world, full of turmoil, where the only thing which is certain is uncertainty. All such events are resulting in a stressful working environment, the uncertainty of jobs or business alliances and even relationships among business partners. The education systems are finding it very hard to keep pace with the market demand of young professionals who are multi-skilled, highly productive and billable from day one.
The technology revolution (Industry Revolution 4.) is moving much faster than predicted by Moor. Technocrats and Datacrats will impact everyone whether at home or at the workplace. Automation of office work, Manufacturing, Process control industries, Material handing in plants, Warehouses, Construction sites continue to take away many jobs. Robotics, 3-D printing, Drones, Microprocessors, Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), Machine Learning (ML), Internet of Things (IoT), and Embedded software technology continue to further impact areas like medical diagnostics and surgical operations, improving productivity, accuracy and scope of analysis and interpretation. Likewise, Digital Marketing, Mobile communication, Video conferencing, smartphones, Social Media, Prefab construction technology, Bulk Rapid Transportation (BRT) systems are disrupting many jobs. These are impacting our health, lifestyle, relationships/alliances, business environment, as well as career growth. Technology cuts both ways, disrupting the developing of human-intensive jobs and creating smarter jobs that need new skills. The survival kit is quick learning of new skills and early adopting of technologies. There is an urgent need to go from traditional skills of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) to DICE (Design-Thinking, Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship).
The goal of this book is to provide jargon-free, compact and easy-to-grasp material to young minds and show them the pathway to traverse and sustain in their chosen career during ever-increasing uncertainty. This book will help you to take control of your current job and manage the transitional period between jobs business switching and stay competitive to achieve your professional goals. It will be a handy reference/guide for students undergoing professional studies, business executives, team leaders, managers and teachers/professors, having 3-15 years of service to re-assess them and build themselves above themselves, to stay relevant to the organization. For people of senior-level, say who have 20 years or more experience, they may revisit and revalidate some of their already tried out processes and business practices. They should mentor younger professionals to stay on and not to quit. Salient points are given in bulleted form for ready to be used as PowerPoint (PPT) slides by teachers, professors, HRD managers and career counsellors.
There are many books/e-books/white papers on global uncertainty, career planning, job creation and government policy on Public-Private Partnership (PPP), higher education, technical education, vocational training. These are very inspiring and valuable inputs since these contain the government’s intent, case studies and research work of world-famous management experts /gurus. In this book, due emphasis has been given to embracing emerging technologies, maintaining good health, being part of the digital world and staying relevant to emerging markets.
In a world of great competition and high uncertainty, employers/organizations seek value for money and employees expect a good pay package to have career growth and stability. For this, you must equip yourselves with appropriate academic qualifications, skill sets, a positive attitude, listening to others, honouring commitment and determination to meet the expectations of those who matter. Likewise, entrepreneurs and small business people need multi-skilling, multi-tasking, collaborating and building new networks and alliances. As an employee, you are required to make a commitment, declare your Key Result Areas (KRAs) and carry out a self-audit as to how you are moving ahead to fulfilling your commitment. Some organizations are using SAP “Success Factor” like software tools to assess the performance of their employees while carrying out the annual appraisal. Hence your growth and stability in your career are linked to your commitment and performance.
This book can act as a handy guide or friend for young professionals in any field. To create a greater impact on you, the book has been written in a simple language in a conversational mode as if “you” and “we” are having face to face conversation. The book is designed to empower all young professionals of any field like engineering, IT, business management, marketing/sales, design, production, projects, banking, insurance, education, healthcare, journalism and government or private sector. Every chapter suggests you to be adaptive, hardworking and determined to sustain your career during prevailing uncertainty. Its contents are in simple language to help all professionals to quickly grasp the essentials. Repetition of certain words in various sections is deliberate to reemphasize and create a deeper impact.
I have tried to add value, based on my 30 years in the Indian Army (Signals), ten years in senior management in the corporate sector, twelve years as an educationist and having a long association with leading universities in the USA, UK, Australia and India. It is recommended to treat this book as your companion and daily spare little time to open it and highlight a few paragraphs of your choice on the pages till you reach the last page. For those who are very busy and cannot spare much time, they still can gain if they just go through the first chapter of the Introduction and the Summary at the end. Rest assured that within 45 days of picking up this book, you will become more proactive, adaptable to new technologies and improve your relationships/ networking. You will become more popular due to your creativity and innovations. You will have better career growth and a very happy family life. God Bless.
Book/ebook is available on www.amazon.in, www,flipkat.com. www.notionpress.com
Dr Sarbjit Singh, Former Executive Director/ Principal, Apeejay College of Engineering, and Hony Advisor, School of Engineering & Technology, Apeejay Stya Unversity, Gurgaon, Haryana, India
Contact: drsarbjit@gmail.com
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