Careers are changing. Lifetime careers were over by the 1990s already, and it is getting even more challenging for those graduating today. They may have one career for every five years of work, with each new one requiring learning new things. All of this needs an open mind and a different approach is needed.
Once we accept a degree of uncertainty in our decision-making, it is best to take a test-and-iterate approach. One step at a time, learn, and use the learning to design the next iteration!
It would be foolish today to focus on, say, being a software engineer when we know that the job of a software engineer is changing so rapidly. This used to be a solid career only a few years ago, but today, the prospects are far more uncertain. Doing different things and figuring out what these different professions are and how they are evolving are the best ways to approach any career, including software engineering.
Even if this seems like common sense, there are two big problems with such a career design approach. First, it is scary to operate without a clear goal. If one doesn't know what they are preparing for, can there be any preparation? Second, how does one do such a thing—career design—while studying or working?
How does design thinking help imagine our life and career?
The answer to the first question lies in shifting one's focus from the goal to the means to achieve that goal.
This ability will not lie in any particular skill—the ability to perform a particular task—because the tasks will change. Rather, this ability would be defined by the capacity of an individual to perform sets of different tasks with equal diligence and commitment, learning from them and envisioning what will come next. This is about going beyond knowing how or knowing what and more into knowing why.
We have been researching this over the last decade. This is how we developed our Capabilities model, which focused more on readiness for the future. Through successive iterations and employer validation, we know some things enable some people to navigate changes successfully while others get stuck.
These capabilities focus on all aspects of a person. In our model, we call these five 'You's: the Learner, the Professional, the Digital, the Global, and the Leader. They denote different dimensions of the professional of the future.
With this approach, career design is not like career planning: Instead, it is about building a mini-portfolio of careers backed by professional conduct, knowledge, and network manifested in these capabilities. Developing these capabilities through learning, connecting, and leading provides the goal and facilitates progress. They act as anchors for organising one's thoughts and actions.
The constant need for motivation and reflection, the critical role mentors play, and the unrelenting crucial engagement with content and experience are at the heart of career design. These are not easy things to achieve for most educational institutions worldwide. Developing the capabilities for the future is simply beyond their grasp and their budget.
We found the answer in a human-focused AI-assisted career Design platform, which is what e1133 is, which enables institutions worldwide to offer career design services to their students. A community of students, educators, employers, researchers and change-makers supports this platform.
e1133
Mayfair, London, United Kingdom