The other night teenage son interviewed the Propitious Manager as part a school project on career development. Teenage son is generation P (Pokemon and Harry Potter), normally uninterested in anything other than what can be conducted on-line or by text message (with the exception of loud guitars and amplifiers).
After traversing the ups and downs of dads professional pursuits ( and unprofessional pursuits – the idea that PM had once slaved as a kitchen hand for petrol and rent money posed a look of fear across teenagers face lest the same fate be in store) the inevitable question arose – ‘what advice would you give a young person about developing their career?’. This of course gave the PM a rare fleeting opportunity to pass some wisdom and guidance to teenager which would actually enter his brain, even for the moment it took to print the answer in the project book. Alas, however, I found the answer quite perplexing.
Back in the dawn of time (the early 1950’s) the PM’s father entered the work force in the days when one left school and sort lifelong employment with a respectable company (although PM senior went on a number of tangents during his working life). Years later during the ‘age of the oil crisis and heavy rock’ the PM began his career after some frivolous (but useful) years at university. With no real ambition other than to make some money and find a nice girl to marry, the PM’s career (to date) was one of opportunistic leveraging of a gradually expanding skill set across government and private industry (see about). This is the modern corporate career where there’s little long-term job security and and people cry job and skill flexibility and lifetime learning.
But hold on here – should I propose that teenager multi-skill – do a carpentry apprenticeship, followed by a degrees in technology and environmental science and perhaps a medical or law degree for good measure. With a bit of luck that should give him a varied enough skill set for the career flexibility required to leverage the job market over he next two or three decades. Of course the ideas of multi-skilling and multiple careers is perpetually popular but actually of limited value when one is talking about moving across trades or professions. PM’s career flexibility actually focuses around a few mathematical, psychological and business skills and some common sense. My career is largely variations across the same few themes, admittedly, applied in different contexts. I’ve known only a few people who have actually changed their professional career midstream – they could afford both the time and the money (no kids or working spouse) and putting up with post adolescent culture of a university (we should all eventually move on from there….) and then climbing the ladder – its too much for most.
Still, this has little bearing on my response to teenagers project, other than the conclusion that 99 per cent of folk could never afford or tolerate complete professional career change, and that diversifying in your main area of expertise is probably valuable. At the very least, opportunism is a good thing – but that involves attitude and behaviour – the ability to see and exploit situations, self-confidence etc.
Opportunism is probably closely related to entrepreneurship except that whereas the former finds and leverages the situation, the latter actually creates the situation and runs with it. Entrepreneurship is probably the greatest career asset of all if you happen to be really good at it. First you’ve got to have the idea, but then you have to have the charisma and fortitude along with basic business knowledge to get it to happen. There should definitely be more classes about Richard Branson and Bill Gates in todays schools – it would get young folk a lot further than messing with foreign languages or sport.
Anyway, as I monologued to teenager (this was an interview) I realized the basic problem was trying to figure out what the working world would look like in the next 30 years. Careers are a long-term concept – you study for years, work for years and finally you might reach a stage where you can contribute and influence. There may be some careers which will exist in 30 years, such as teaching, medicine or law but the life or many other products, services, industries and production methods gets shorter and shorter. For many people, there is a risk that their specialist skills will become redundant by changing consumer preferences driven not just by technology, but changing values as reflected in public policy such as environment protection strategies.
There is a lag in these changes driven by vested interests of those unable to accept change or seeking to preserve their employment. In the end the market place driven by technological change and consumer preferences of generations Y and P extinguishes them or the renitent protagonists grow old and retire.
So in the future, the only real hunch I have is that most jobs will continue to involve maths, language (communication) and ideas – the foundations of our modern economy as has always been the case. If you are highly skilled at these the you have a chance to make a contribution. After that it is about commitment to something (not necessarily that you like passionately), because when your committed, opportunities arise and ideas evolve. And of course you will always have to learn how to apply your skills to changing contexts.
This was OK for the project but of course seemed vague and pathetic to concrete teenager. I lamely suggested that for my fathers father the answer would have been simple: tidy yourself up and join a respectable profession or company. Back then it would have served him a lifetime of employment, today you might be lucky to last 6 months before your taken over or restructured out of employment.
Anyhow, its of little consequence. At present teenager is committed to being a rock star and we have a deal – you pass maths and english exams and I’ll buy you a new amplifier.
