The Millennial Career Dilemma Series – Article 17 By Shubika Bilkha
Over the last few months of this column, I have covered a variety of things relating to the very pertinent topic of the Millennial Career Dilemma as career aspirants navigate the new world order of unprecedented change. From managing expectations, to building your EQ, to nailing that interview, to finding the key skills you need to survive and thrive, the pace and magnitude of change that governs the world we live in today is beyond anything seen by previous generations. As Mr. Mukesh Ambani rightly said at a recent interview, we have entered the ‘exponential era’ where change has been accelerated beyond anything previously seen or experienced.
As we rapidly adapt and navigate the world of AI, robots, Alexa, electric cars, facial recognition, drones and more, as a recent graduate or early stage professional what learnings can you take from the year that was to the year that will be?
EQ is the Game Changer
The World Economic Forum (WEF)’s key skills for 2020 highlight a number of EQ skills as critical to staying relevant in the coming years. Self-motivation, self-management, self-awareness, interpersonal skills, communication, human centricity and more are what determines workplace success. If anything the recent media storm on ViratKohli should have taught us is the importance of ‘Mastering the Mind’. As Vedanta Philosophy says, the definition of an evolved human being is where the intellect is greater than the mind and body. Intellect in this instance is your ability to reason, control, think, question and analyse in a manner that allows you to exhibit control over emotions and desires.
Low touch low feel is the recruitment filter
As large companies introduce more technological intervention in their campus recruitment process, candidates will now need to gear up for a low touch low feel approach to early career recruitment. Psychometric tests measure a variety of capabilities including critical reasoning, problem solving, cognitive flexibility, adaptability, personality and aptitude. As our educational institutions focus primarily on academic or technical skills, it will now be incumbent on the individuals themselves to develop their own capabilities to shine across these mediums as WEF skills become of almost more importance than Academic skills.
Staying on Top of it
In a dynamic environment staying commercially aware is extremely important. The number of candidates who go to job interviews unprepared on the industry dynamics, the economy at large or without a thorough knowledge of the Company is significant. Understanding the macroeconomic picture and spotting the industry trends to able to stay relevant is of great importance to managing your career for both job seekers, professionals and managers.
Upskilling and Reskilling
Learning how to learn and re-learning are now essential to keep pace with the changing world around us. While technical skill sets usually feature as a priority with reskilling/upskilling it is equally imperative to focus on self-development and the development of your intellect.
Set backs are the New Beginning
As Mukesh Ambani highlighted in his recent interview, a change in mindset, accepting and learning from failures will be important to succeed in this dynamic environment. As the Deloitte Millennial Survey 2018 pointed out, most millennials and Gen Z felt underprepared to take on the world 4.0. With 75,000 job losses last year in the IT sector on account of automation and additional industries like telecom and airlines etc. laying off people in this financial year, dealing with career disappointments are now the norm. If the Lehman Brothers crisis in the late 2000s taught me anything, it was that there are no assurances when it comes to building your career graph. Building a thick quote of resilience along with that is equally essential.
For more information on Edpower-U’s Career Coaching and Workplace skill building programs please write in to edpoweru@gmail.com.
About the Author
Shubika Bilkha is currently the Founding Partner of Edpower-U. She is a dynamic entrepreneur, trained executive coach, media spokesperson, author and corporate advisor with experience that spansthe financial, technology, ecommerce, education and real estate sectors in India and Internationally. As the managing Director of two early stage start-ups in technology and education, Shubika has hands on experience in all aspects of these businesses. She was recently the Managing Director of a leading vocational training institute in India and has worked with a number of leaders across industry, government and the educational ecosystem in India and the UK.
She is also a published author with her first book widely distributed. Shubika is an alumna of Mount Holyoke College, USA and Columbia Business School, USA; an Associate Member of the Chartered Securities Institute (CSI) in the UK; and has completed the “Building Excellence in Higher Educational Institutions” at the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad. She is a trained Executive Coach with CTI, UK in line with the International Coaching Federation (ICF) ACC guidelines.