Economists have dropped the bleariest of statistics to herald the coming of a lost generation – the decline of the American worker. The nature of work has changed.
Enter the rise of the career mosaic. Careers are no longer functioning in a linear spectrum that’s defined by chunks of time at a series of jobs.
The average worker is leaning toward reinvention, which encourages parallel learning. In short, workers will concentrate on the three things they are doing now instead the one thing they will be doing next.
The Hiring Trap
There will be jobs that get you by to supplement a career you love. There is a needless mind trap that decides you’ll need a job to define your talents and skills. But, this is backward. You could very well be a journalist, but also be a waiter at the same time.
True mosaic workers like it that way.
According to Wall Street Journal career columnist, Alexandra Levit, predicting future work trends requires more than just understanding the reimagination of work (emphasis mine):
“…the ideals of job security and employee loyalty no longer apply. In the knowledge-driven economy of the future, large organizations won’t be needed to create value and our livelihood won’t be connected to a single corporation. We’ll work for much smaller organizations that outsource everything but the business’s core area of expertise and more than half of us will eventually become contingent workers, employed part time or as freelancers or consultants.
… Our future workplace will be one of constant change, innovation, and skill upgrading. Work projects will begin with one set of goals, but will reinvent themselves over and over again, so we’ll be forced to think on the fly…
I don’t need anyone telling me I’m a writer (or not). I don’t need a job to remind me that I love media. Just as I’m sure no one needs to tell a doctor they are actually a doctor or that they love medicine. The discussion is no longer about whether you are those things.
Actually, its connected to what you are doing with those skills. Talents and passions don’t diminish or disappear the minute your job doesn’t match what people are expecting to be your career.
The tension lies with being who you think you should be and who you are actually meant to become.
At once, you can be a free-spirited entrepreneur, corporate employee and paid hobbyist.
Becoming quickly adept is not only a developed talent for overly ambitious multitaskers or job hoppers; it is the (required) skill of a new generation of knowledge workers.