Preparing Our Children for an Accelerating Job Market (Even if You Are Not)
Seven Moves that Work in Any Market
Dads and Moms, your children need help. They need us to think about this and lead them to confidence to thrive in a frenetic job market.
A recent scene I witnessed got me thinking about this for my kids.
Unemployed after 30 years
Two Thursday nights ago I went to Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, WI to get a package from a friend.
As I exited, I overheard two guys talking on their way into a job fair, also at the church.
One man said to the other, “I have not been unemployed for 30 years. I never expected to be doing this at 52 years old.”
The man talking didn’t know the other guy. He seemed embarrassed and uncomfortable attending a job fair. He apparently felt that his sharing assuaged the awkward moment for him.
Many ways to lose a job
I don’t know that man’s story or why he was job hunting after a lifetime of employment. By appearances, he seemed like a kind, hard working person. He’s probably been a good employee for a long time.
Maybe his company leadership drove his business into the ground destroying his job? Or, perhaps this man’s skills became stale and irrelevant?
I also know that 52 year old men have been losing jobs since the beginning of jobs. Nothing surprising about that.
His discouraged comments got me thinking about my own six kids and the job market they will enter.
Preparing for the certainty of change
How can I best prepare them for a world where the pace of change accelerates daily? Jobs I grew up expecting to always exist will not be here in a few short years.
For example, the auto/truck driver is the most ubiquitous job on the planet. Will the driver even exist when my 2 year old, Bella, is old enough to take her driver’s exam? Will she ever need a driver’s license?
I seriously doubt that college, as we know it today, will be relevant when Bella throws her H.S. graduation cap into the air.
My wife and I are still refining our education strategy. We definitely don’t have this problem solved, but we are working at it and thinking about it.
Here are the principles I keep coming back to:
1) Teach them how to learn. That is far more important than knowing a skill. Understanding how to learn the “next” skill creates options.
2) Study the classics. The more things change the more we need to ground on what doesn’t change.
3) Teach them how to build a network. The world is connected like never before. Networks are currency. Relationships make the world go ’round.
4) Model mental and emotional flexibility. Unlike Gretzky who intuitively knew to skate to the right spot, it is difficult to know where the life puck is going. Having the emotional skills to adapt to change is a big advantage.
5) Teach them to stay in their strength zone, yet not afraid to stretch out of their comfort zone. It’s a fact that employees and entrepreneurs working in their strength zone get paid more. Being “well-rounded” by strengthening your weaknesses is a losing strategy.
6) Show them how soft skills matter more than hard skills. Serving others first will always win. Empathy, communication ability, and humility will never go out of style.
7) Focus on what you can control. We can’t control what goes on around us. But we can control our response. Children that figure this out early do well in life.