It’s easy to buy into the hype that new and disruptive technologies — particularly, artificial intelligence (AI) — are job killers. But technology’s power to change the nature of work, and make some jobs obsolete in the process, is nothing new. Neither is the fact that technology can create new markets and career paths — and provide opportunities for workers to be even more productive and innovative.

Of course, to take advantage of the future job trends that these tech advancements will help to create, professionals need to have relevant skills. But how can you know what skills and abilities you’ll need to be marketable in the future? What steps can you take now to “future-proof” your career and decrease the likelihood of being replaced by a machine?

1. ANTICIPATE TECH CHANGES IN YOUR WORKPLACE

One key strategy to future-proof your career is to try to anticipate which technologies your organization is likely to adopt sooner than later.

There are several ways you can do that, from being an astute observer of technology trends in your industry to paying close attention to what leaders at your firm are saying about the company’s goals for digital transformation. For example, there’s a good chance AI solutions are coming to your organization soon: According to a global research study from ManpowerGroup, most companies will be applying advanced AI to almost every function in the next two years.

What’s the next step after you identify some possible tech changes coming to your workplace? A good rule of thumb is that professionals learn how to use at least two new technologies that are likely to become relevant to their profession (some are listed in the study above). Adopting this enterprising and entrepreneurial approach will help you evolve your own career.

If you’re worried about whether you can learn new skills, give yourself more credit. Take your Learnability Quotient Test here to discover your skills learnability.

2. PUT YOUR CAREER DEVELOPMENT ON THE FRONT BURNER

When businesses adopt new technologies and automate processes and tasks, they free their employees to perform other, more value-adding work. This is a great opportunity for professionals to shine, provided they’re ready to take more responsibility for directing their careers — and are working now to future-proof them.

However, many people don’t take a proactive approach to their career development and planning, and that could easily hurt them in the future. Employees often devote less time to professional development once they are actually in the workforce when this focus should be continuous.

If you feel like you need to jump-start your career development, reach out for help. Talk about your career aspirations with your supervisor, the human resources department, and valued contacts in your professional network, for a start. Participating in professional and industry organizations is another strategy for staying on top of technology and business trends that could impact your job or open doors to appealing new career paths.

If you’re looking for training or career development opportunities, visit our Workforce Development Programs here and find out how Manpower Alberta can help you further your career path.

3. ELEVATE YOUR EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

If you want to future-proof your career, don’t just focus on growing and refining your technical abilities. The experts agree that “human skills” such as empathy will top the list of vital skills that workers and business leaders will need in the future. And demonstrating other forms of emotional intelligence, such as compassion and the ability to understand nuance, is one area where human workers have their AI counterparts beat — at least, for now.

ManpowerGroup’s research featured in the Humans
Wanted: Robots Need You report found that more than half of U.S. managers (51%) expect the introduction of new technologies in the workplace to drive up demand for stellar soft skills. So, no matter what future job trends unfold, you can bet that employers will still value abilities and qualities such as critical thinking, active listening, problem-solving and, of course, adaptability.

4. NURTURE YOUR INNER LEADER

According to the Humans
Wanted: Robots Need You report, work in the future will be self-driven to a large degree, and also project-driven, digitally lead, and team-oriented. Professionals, to succeed in this environment, will need solid leadership skills to direct themselves, their projects and others.

Take your DigiQuotient test here, and discover your ability to lead in this digital age.

5. BE FLEXIBLE, BOLD, AND OPEN TO NEW WAYS OF WORK

Embracing flexibility is another key to success for professionals in the future workplace. As more organizations digitize and deploy advanced technologies like machine learning and AI to automate basic tasks, including some types of decision making, companies and workers will also start to look at jobs much differently.

You will need to focus on building a solid mix of hard and soft skills if you want to future-proof your career. You’re probably doing that, as these skills are already in demand. Moving forward, you may want to focus on using your critical-thinking abilities to analyze how technology may change your workplace in the near term and spark future job trends. That includes examining how you perform your current work, and whether you could do those processes or tasks differently — and better — by applying new technology.

Will disrupting your own job with technology help to future-proof your career? Quite possibly. You’ll be stepping up to learn valuable skills and experience that can help you anticipate and benefit from future job trends. At the very least, it could help you to avoid being disrupted by digital change unexpectedly.

WORK WITH MANPOWER: ALBERTA’S LEADING STAFFING AGENCY

As one of Alberta’s leading staffing agencies, Manpower Alberta prioritizes data driven research into Canada’s workforce.

For an in-depth look into Calgary, Red Deer, and Edmonton’s hiring trends, please reference our Employment Outlook Survey (MEOS) for Q3, 2019.

Are you looking for employment? In need of workforce solutions for your industry? Manpower Alberta is here to help.

With convenient locations across Alberta in Calgary, Red Deer, and Edmonton, we are here to provide solutions to your workforce needs.

Visit our website at manpowerab.com.

While 80% of leadership capabilities remain the same – adaptability, drive, endurance and brightness – a new style of leadership is required for the digital age.

Leaders today must dare to lead and be prepared to fail fast. They need to nurture learnability, accelerate performance and foster entrepreneurialism. And of course, they must unleash potential in others. How ready are you to lead in the digital age?

WHAT MAKES AN EFFECTIVE DIGITAL LEADER TODAY?

Based on research and our experience working with global enterprises in multiple sectors, we see four inherent enablers of an effective leader. Essentially, these traits make up the foundation—the 80 percent—of effective leadership, and they remain just as relevant today.

Brightness: Unrelated to formal education, brightness is the ability to quickly consume information and draw conclusions. It’s more important than ever because traditional business models are crumbling. Modern leaders can’t look to the past for meaningful parallels to guide their decision-making. Given the pace of disruption, leaders need to intuit situations on-the-fly.

Endurance: Endurance is harnessing intellectual stamina to reach a workable solution. It’s more important than ever because globalization, matrixed organizational structures, and greater customer engagement are driving up the number of inputs a leader must sift through. Being able to deliver against a tsunami of data points—quickly and confidently—requires a high degree of mental strength.

Drive: Drive used to be the calling card of the Type A leader—a burning desire to be personally successful. Today’s leaders understand that success is found through collaboration, team-building, and motivating the business group or company to achieve a vision. It’s more important than ever because the digital revolution demands large-scale cultural change in the organization, led by its top executives.

Agility: An agile or adaptable leader moves through different disciplines seamlessly. It’s more important than ever because digital leaders are continuous change managers. The digital revolution is redefining how, where, and why work gets done—and what skills are needed. Upskilling and adapting the workforce to this new reality requires nimble leaders who can decouple from convention.

DIGIQUOTIENT

Are you ready to lead a digital workforce transformation?

As global demand for highly skilled labor continues to grow, organizations will have to rethink old assumptions about work models, people practices and talent sources. In response to this leadership paradox, Manpower has developed a unique assessment to measure leader readiness for digital transformation – DigiQuotient.

The DigiQuotient analyzes a participant’s responses to a short 34-question assessment and then assigns one of eight digital personas. Based on a survey of global business leaders, participants are given a “digital twin” that embodies their persona.

Each participant receives guidance around three areas: accelerating performance, unleashing talent and daring to lead based on their persona.

This assessment provides participants with guidance on how to leverage their strengths and what possible derailing behaviors to recognize and mitigate.

What does your Digi Quotient say about you?

Take the assessment DIGIQUOTIENT.IO

WANT MORE WORKFORCE INSIGHTS?

As one of Alberta’s leading staffing agencies, Manpower Alberta prioritizes data driven research into Canada’s workforce.

For an in-depth look into Calgary, Red Deer, and Edmonton’s workforce, please reference our recently released Employment Outlook Survey (MEOS) for Q3 2019. View the report here.

Are you looking for employment? Wondering how to attract top talent for your industry? Manpower Alberta can help! With offices in Calgary, Red Deer, and Edmonton is here to work with your workforce needs.

Visit our website at manpowerab.com.

Changing careers can be daunting without the right skills. The great news is that you probably already have the skills you need, you just don’t know it yet.

Your career path can take an unexpected turn. Maybe you’re bored with your industry and looking for a fresh start. Or maybe you’re just hoping to find something new to challenge you. Whatever the case, making a significant career change can be tricky.

What’s the secret to successfully changing careers? Using your transferable skills.

How Can You Use Transferable Skills to Change Careers?

The first step to using your transferable skills is to understand exactly what transferable skills are.

What are Transferable Skills?

Transferable skills are expertise, abilities, or proficiencies that are relevant across different industries. These skills are usually acquired over time and can be gained from any life experience.

Transferable skills don’t have to be acquired on the job. They can be skills you learned through volunteer work, your hobbies, or even being a parent. Your transferable skills are the culmination of your life experiences. When considering what transferable skills you have, it’s important to keep an open mind and be creative.

That may sound complicated, but it doesn’t have to be. We’ve put together five quick tips for understanding and using your transferable skills. Check them out:

5 Quick Tips for Using Transferable Skills

1. Identify the Skills That Set You Apart

Before you can decide which of your skills are transferable, identify all of the skills you have. When people think of transferable skills, their minds tend to gravitate toward the same examples: teamwork, leadership, or people skills. The problem with relying on those skills is that most other job candidates have those abilities as well.

To make a successful career change using transferable skills, pinpoint what makes you unique. Take an hour out of your day to sit down and create a list of the skills you have, and place those skills into two different categories:

Hard skills – Skills dealing with data and technology
Soft skills – Skills dealing with people or communication

Each skill is significant at this point in the process, even those you think won’t matter. It works to your advantage to write down anything that might be relevant to your job search — you can always edit later. Once you’ve created your list, narrow it down to your four strongest or most unique skills. This will leave you with a few skills to focus on during your job search. Always be sure to use a mix of both hard skills and soft skills.

2. Understand How Your Skills Translate

The next step is understanding how your skills translate to a new industry. Human resources professionals evaluate people with linear career paths. That’s both an advantage and a disadvantage for anyone looking to change careers.

It’s a disadvantage because you’re not the typical candidate, and that might make an employer wary. It’s an advantage because you have skills other applicants don’t, and that can set you apart.

If you can connect the dots for the recruiter or interviewer, and show them why your skills are valuable, you’ve already cleared the toughest hurdle.

Companies are hiring people to fill existing gaps; show them how your skills can solve for that gap. If you can show someone why your transferable skills make you the best person to solve their problem, it won’t matter what industry you’re coming from.

For example, after working as an elementary school teacher for 20 years, Molly decided she’s ready to move into a second career. She’s always wanted to work in marketing, but fears she doesn’t have the right experience.

After reviewing the skills she acquired as a teacher, Molly’s decides her top four transferable skills are:

Curriculum Creation
Lesson Planning
Classroom Management Skills
Tutoring

Using these skills as a base, Molly decides that targeting project management jobs would be a good fit for her. Molly has experience creating complex lesson plans and leading a group of more than 20 people (her students) in completing daily tasks.

She also has experience working with several external teams (parents, school faculty, and the school district) in accomplishing set goals and meeting expectations (i.e., student test scores).

By understanding how her skills as a teacher translate to a project manager role, Molly is able to target new career opportunities and a new career field.

Taking the time to understand how your transferable skills can work across industries, and explaining that during your job search, will take you far.

3. Rid Yourself of Industry-Specific Jargon

Every industry has its own buzzwords and jargon. Those buzzwords can be crucial in signaling to others in your industry that you know what you’re doing, but they can be a hindrance if you want to change careers.

When targeting a new career path or industry, rid yourself of your industry jargon. If you don’t, you run the risk of alienating your interviewer or confusing them. Keep the message simple, and focus on your skills and how they can benefit the company.

The same goes for your resume and LinkedIn account as well. Remember, human resources managers and recruiters might not understand why you’re applying for a job outside of your current industry. Packing your resume with unrelated buzzwords will only confuse them more.

Your resume is probably going to be read by an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) before a human ever sees it. If you use too many unrelated industry buzzwords in your resume, it may get thrown out before you even get the chance to talk to the hiring manager.

4. Use the Right Resume Format

The traditional reverse-chronological resume format is good, but have you considered that there might be a better way to highlight your skills?

There are three different resume formats, and each one has its advantages. As someone looking to make a career change, the functional resume format is an ideal choice.

The functional resume format focuses more on your transferable skills and less on your career experience, making it perfect for anyone who wishes to make a career change. It places the focus on the skills you have, not the experience you lack

5. Use Your Cover Letter to Your Advantage

The final step for using transferable skills to your advantage is to write a convincing cover letter.

Remember, a cover letter is not a regurgitation of your resume. It’s your introduction to the company and your chance to explain why you’re looking to change careers. Your resume can only tell the story of what skills you have, while your cover letter tells the story of why those skills are valuable to the company.

Take time to talk about your transferable skills and explain why you’re changing careers. Focus on the positive, and explain how your unique skills can help the company solve its problems. You are a unique candidate, and a cover letter is your chance to pique their interest.

If You’ve Got It, Flaunt It

You’ve got mad skills; it’s just a matter of knowing how to use them. Remember that finding a clear way to communicate how your transferable skills work across industries is key for using transferable skills to change careers.

Looking for more career advice? Our Workforce Development Programs offer free resume services, help with job placement, and training to get you up skilled in your industry.

Looking for employment? Wondering how to attract top talent for your industry? Find out how Manpower Alberta can help by visiting our website at: manpowerab.com or give us a call at 1.844.367.6965.