The Case for Career Agility by Marc LeVine

Learning is an ongoing practice of building skills, experiences, and knowledge through our work, not around or on top of it. - Melissa Daimler, Udemy

Do you consider yourself to be “agile?”?Not Lebron James “agile.”?Post-pandemic employee “agile.”

Today, most employers want to hire people, who are readily able to adapt, reskill, and assume new roles, when necessary. ?Are you an automation engineer looking for a job? Visit:?www.thermosystems.com/careers

Covid Changed Everything

The Covid-19 Pandemic changed everything in the business world. Its main take-away is that we all need to learn how to navigate any future disruptions successfully. ?We are surrounded by so much unpredictability and change these days with the emergence of new Covid variants, the war in Ukraine, personal goals reassessment, working from home, supply chain insufficiencies, raging inflation, and other political, social, and economic upheavals. Much of it is new to us after experiencing several years of economic prosperity, stability, and general “same-o” in the workplace. And just like that we were abruptly thrust into a transformational work environment that most of us are unaccustomed to. It is increasingly likely that whoever is unable to adapt to the constant bombardment of change will struggle with the new realities of the workplace and potentially fail.

The post-modern age employee must be willing, able, and ready to upskill-on-a-dime in many technical areas as well as in their specific functional role. They must not allow themselves to be bushwhacked by any unexpected changes coming their way.?Learning new skills that tie into their employer’s organizational strategy and culture are key, because they also must take hybrid work into account.?And, if you plan on making it to the next level of your organization you need to recognize that organizations are also continually updating their leadership skill requirements to meet the changing business conditions and the needs of their clients.?This includes, managing a hybrid workforce which is very different from one that physically reports daily.

The Need to Learn New and Unfamiliar Things

Even the list of critical skills being currently being sought by employers is expanding in areas. ?Out of the top 10 surging skills globally on Udemy Business (e-Learning platform) the following skills have seen the greatest percentage growth in learning and development over the past year. ?Seven of the top ten are technical skills and include:

·????????Databricks

·????????System design interview

·????????Behavior Driven Development (BDD)

·????????5G

·????????Microsoft Power Platform

·????????Cryptography

·????????Helm

This is a general list. Each industry has its own set of learning requirements, which further broadens just what we need to stay current.

Ready for the Future

We need to be focused on boosting our overall business capabilities as well as expand them across broader categories that include soft skills, tech skills, and operations. It is our ongoing responsibility to discover, not only what knowledge and experience we currently need to successfully do our jobs, but what else WE WILL NEED to hold our jobs, be offered new ones, and further advance ourselves. ?We should never be content with what we already have learned – even if we believe we are up to date. We are never done learning because the world is never done changing. ?Over 30% of the skills required three years ago will soon be obsolete, according to Gartner.

We must also be agile in preparing for the societal changes taking place and be ready to adapt to those alterations as well. ?Look to boost self-awareness, managing stress, taming burnout, and building productivity.

Being agile requires us to make major decisions about lifestyle adaptation.?We could choose to ignore the changes taking place in our workplaces in favor of refocusing our chief priorities on family life. But we still need to earn the kind of living that affords our chosen lifestyles.?That has not changed and likely never will.?So, ignoring change and failing to adapt to it may not be the best course to follow.

A more practical course is to determine what it is YOU wish to do over the next few years, get quickly up to speed and keep learning.?Learning new skills requires that we leave our comfort zones and cozy armchairs and find more time for our ongoing betterment by acquiring the knowledge of today and the skills for tomorrow. ??

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The Author

Listen to Marc's latest interview on The AutomationBlog Podcast with Shawn Tierney.

Marc LeVine?is a graduate of Syracuse (NY) University with a degree in Industrial Psychology, Marc is currently Talent Acquisitions and Learning and Development Lead at Thermo Systems. He is the recipient of the Excellence in Talent Acquisitions Award from HR Awards in 2021. His prior employment includes senior Human Resources and Staffing Industry management roles with Edgewood Properties in Piscataway, NJ, Brickforce Staffing in Edison, NJ, InfoPro Inc. in Woodbridge NJ and Plainsboro, NJ and Harvard Industries in Farmingdale, NJ, a former Fortune 500 company. He also served as Director of Human Resources for New Jersey Press, the parent company of the Asbury Park Press, Home News and Tribune and WKXW-NJ101.5. Earlier in his career, Marc served as Director of Career Services and Placement at Union Technical Institute in Eatontown and Neptune, NJ. In addition, Marc owned and operated Integrity Consulting Associates, a New Jersey based Human Resources and Social Media Marketing firm for 11 years. Marc also served as Council President in his hometown of Freehold Borough, NJ