Job skills

Daniel Pink

A Whole New Mind

Does the career you imagined already exist?

Will it exist in 10 years? In 20?

The world is changing more rapidly than anyone ever imagined. Even five years ago we had no idea what was ahead.

Just think... When I was in college, there was no internet and email was in its very infant stages.

Will you be prepared for the world as it will exist in five years? In ten? In twenty?

What kinds of skills will you need to compete in the job market in ten years?

What major changes do you see happening in the job market right now?

More and more people are entering the market with college degrees. The college degree has become what the high school degree was years ago.

How can you distinguish yourself from the masses?

Someone makes $15-$20,000 in India for a job that pays $60,000 here.

India has one billion people; even if only 15% of India’s population reaches the education level needed for traditional American white-collar jobs, it will match our working population: 150 million.

What kinds of jobs go overseas?

Primarily those you can reduce to a series of predictable steps.

These are exactly the jobs that the majority of middle-class Americans held in the past.

Certain kinds of accounting, law, programming, etc: over 1 million tax returns were done in India last year

Mechanization

Machines are no longer replacing just our backs; software is replacing our brains.

What kinds of human tasks can automation replace?

Artistic, creative, empathic, inventive tasks?

Or logical, linear, sequential, rule-based tasks?

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Skills

So what kinds of skills do you think you're going to need in the near future?

Left-brain skills like number crunching and memorization are going to matter less.

Right-brain skills like creativity, synthesis, and empathy will become the most important (and profitable) skills in an advanced society.

New skills are:

• Hard to outsource
• Hard to automate
• Deliver significance along with utility
• Involve creativity, flexibility, empathy, synthesis

The Evolution of Our Society

• Agricultural Age:
• Farm workers

• Industrial Age:
• Factory workers

• Information Age:
• Knowledge workers--Data, spreadsheets, SAT scores

• Conceptual Age:
• Creators and Empathizers

Is happiness even possible?

Our standard of living has increased dramatically in the last 60 years, but our level of satisfaction hasn’t increased along with it.

“We have been liberated by prosperity but not fulfilled by it.”

What about college?

Whether you come to Marymount or end up elsewhere, your college education depends, more than anything, on you and your personal investment.

You'll need to be thinking differently about your education than students have in the past.

A liberal arts education is a 21st century education because it demands you think outside the box: synthesis and creativity.

Take courses that will give you 21st century skills: courses that encourage creativity and innovative thinking.

Seek out experiences that encourage empathy:

A Catholic education will give you opportunities to get involved in the community and to develop concern for others.

Remember that even if something you're learning doesn't seem immediately practical, it might end up giving you the most valuable skills of all.

Abundance

Saturated Markets

Outsourcing

Major Trends

Job Skills for the 21st Century

Exponential Change

Your Future Career

Where do you envision yourself in the next five years (one year after graduation)?

Career, lifestyle

A role model?

Where do you see yourself in ten years?

What kinds of skills will you need to get there?