Thursday 26 October 2017

🤖 Is My Job Going To Be Automated?

What you can do now if a robot is coming for your job.

Is My Job Going To Be Automated?

Photo by JD Hancock

One of the summer jobs I had growing up was working in the exciting shipping department in my family's small-to-medium size business.

Scratch that. It was boring.

No, it was beyond boring.

Most of the time was spent unpacking clothes from boxes, hanging them on racks, and then later rearranging them, packing them into different boxes, piling the boxes on pallets and moving the pallets to the shipping dock to eventually be loaded onto trucks and sent off to clients.

The main differences from one order to the next were the clothes and box sizes. Otherwise, it was lather, rinse and repeat.

Chatting with co-workers slowed down the work noticeably in that assembly line atmosphere, so the only way to keep your sanity was by working within earshot of the radio as much as possible.

When I first started at 14, I was just happy to be working and earning a paycheck while helping my family. Pretty quickly though, I couldn't wait for it to end.

There were days where I would have paid for a robot to stand in for me, or so I told myself.

Back then in the early 00's, automated systems existed that could have done the entire process much faster but they were far too expensive to justify for our company.

Even when a friend helped me move on to a much larger shipping department with many more orders coming in and going out daily, it probably still didn't make much sense… it was just cheaper to have a team of minimum wage employees doing the work manually, as long as everyone was careful to avoid any expensive accidents (which happen all the time in such places, unfortunately for everyone involved).

That's probably not true anymore, however.

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With technology improving all the time, those automated systems have become much cheaper and more accessible even to the smallest of businesses. As a result, we've been hearing more and more scary warnings over the past few years about how many people are going to lose their jobs to robots, automation or technological advances plain and simple.

For example, an October 2017 PWC study estimates that almost 30% of all jobs in OECD countries will be replaced by automation by the early 2030s, with the United States to be particularly hard hit:

Total OECD impact of automation by 2030s

Which industries are most at risk?

The PWC study has a graphic for this too:

Industries most at risk of job automation in OECD countries

PWC's conclusion:

the sectors most at risk often involve manual or routine tasks, for example filling forms or solving simple problems. In contrast, sectors at low risk such as education and health care place a much greater focus on social and literacy skills which are relatively less automatable

Which professions are most at risk?

Visual Capitalist created this chart comparing the results of Frey and Osborne's 2013 study The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerisation? with official 2016 US Bureau of Labor employment statistics.

Black bars show jobs that are more likely to be replaced, white bars are the opposite:

visual capitalist automation and unemployment chart

(Click here to see a much larger version of the chart)

Their conclusion:

It is mostly low-income jobs that risk being automated. Jobs that require social skills, creativity or higher education are less likely to.

Is this something you need to worry about?

It depends.

At a glance, the numbers are scary but while the 30% mentioned in PWC's study is a lot, the flipside is that 70% of all jobs WON'T be replaced by automation by the 2030s, so there's a good chance you're safe.

If you're relieved that both Frey and Osborne's study and the PWC study agree that automation is mostly a blue collar concern, don't overlook that PWC estimates 22% of “Professional, scientific and technical” jobs to be impacted too, so white collar workers should pay attention moving forward too.

If you're over 45 and you don't feel the heat of automation in your industry yet, you'll probably old enough to retire before the automation wave arrives.

But if you're not old enough to retire by then, or regardless- if you really think your job is one of the ones more likely to become obsolete sooner than later, what can you do?

3 ways you can protect yourself from being automated out of a job

1) Move to a place where there's both more demand and less automation risk

Your entire industry won't automate overnight and lay off all the replaced employees in one shot. It's going to be a very gradual process that will take years.

If you suspect a layoff is coming, use job boards to gauge where there's still demand for people like you and consider moving where there's the most demand. It might even be in another country, such as one where the pace of automation is much slower for whatever reason.

When doing your company research, try to understand if a given employer is planning to automate sooner than later. It would be a shame to find a job only to be laid off again within a year or so.

2) Specialize

If you brand yourself as a top expert in your disappearing field, or in a disappearing niche in your field, you can dramatically improve your chances of staying in that field.

Technology replacing professions isn't a new thing. Most everyday professions dating from before the Industrial Revolution were replaced long ago, such as all kinds of smiths and makers.

However, even today you can still find people who practice these professions in specialty boutiques and artisan or craft workshops.

Often, these experts are carrying on a tradition, whether a family one or a local one, such as gondoliers in Venice.

Sometimes, they're just meeting demand that has fallen through the cracks. There's a shoemaker not far from here who you can't buy shoes from, but you can get a heel fixed there or a clean hole added to a belt.

Taking a look at more modern industries, as long as there are companies that rely on older technology, there will still be a need for people to maintain it. When the Y2K bug was discovered at the end of the 20th century, there was a surge in demand for programmers who could fix old computer systems that were affected.

A more automation-related example would be that the systems replacing human workers will still need some people who understand them and can check that they're actually correctly doing whatever it is they're supposed to do.

3) Use your transferable skills to change careers

You have skills.

Many of your skills are useful for other professions as well, which is what makes them “transferable”.

If you can identify unlikely-to-be-automated professions that most value your transferable skills, it'll be easier for you to change careers and escape the automation wave.

a) Start by listing your transferable skills

Many experts recommend some form of self-assessment, but career coach Ford Myers – listed in my 50 Career Coaches Who Give Free Consults On Every Topic You Need – hits the nail on the head in this short video with a different take:

The rule of thumb I recommend is to start by browsing your work portfolio for all the compliments, great evaluations, LinkedIn recommendations and other positive things people have said about you, and make a list of the skills mentioned.

Next, add to your list by following Ford's advice to ask relevant people about your greatest skills. If you find them hesitant, ask them for feedback on your initial list.

b) Find professions that most value your transferable skills

If you look back at Visual Capitalist's chart above, the jobs with long white bars are the ones most likely to not be replaced by machines. Look through the list for appealing jobs you think you could do, and then research the skills they require to see how well you qualify, perhaps even with some retraining.

Another angle would be to check the projected fastest-growing professions for the next decade or more, and then do the same skill-matching exercise.

c) Get out and information interview

2017 job action day badge

Once your skill-matching research has lead to a few potential new career directions to consider more seriously, it's the perfect opportunity to reach out to people in those jobs for information interviews.

“I'm considering switching to your profession, and want to hear more about it from someone who's succeeded at it” is a great excuse to invite someone for coffee and ultimately get an opinion on whether you'd be a good fit in their role.

This article is part of Job Action Day 2017. This year's theme is “Using Transferable Skills to Give Your Career New Life“.

Question of the article

If you've changed careers in the past, how did you do it? Tell us in the comments.

Subscribe to JobMob via email and follow me on Twitter for more ideas on what to do when your job goes obsolete.


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Thursday 19 October 2017

😤 25 Ways to Breathe Life into a Painfully Long Job Search

If you're sick of looking for a job, this is for you.

25 Ways to Breathe Life into a Painfully Long Job Search

Photo by Alex Siale

Although most of these tips are useful for any job seeker, all of them are intended for people who’ve been job searching for much longer than they expected, possibly even a year or more.

My own long job search story

In December 2001, I started looking for a career job in Israel for the first time, having taken a few months to relax after resigning from my managerial position at Amazon.com in France.

In July 2002, 8 months later, I didn’t have much to show for my job hunting efforts and with my savings dwindling, I was starting to feel a little desperate and more alone than ever on my job search. However, I made one major change to my job search strategy and within a few weeks, I entered the recruitment process that resulted in my starting a new job on October 1st of that year.

That major change I made is #25 at the bottom of this list of tips for others like myself who know too well the frustration of a prolonged job search.

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25 tips when feeling hopeless about job search

1) Open yourself to change

There’s a fine but clear line between getting into a job search groove and a job search rut: in the former, you actually feel like you’re getting somewhere, moving closer to your next job, while the latter seems to go on forever.

Once you get into a set of habits, it’s not easy to change out of them, and it’s never easy to experiment when you feel that your livelihood (and reputation?) are in the balance, but you will need to embrace change if you’re not getting the job search results you desire.

2) Take a short vacation to recharge your batteries

Vacations are also good for inspiration and meeting people, plus- haven’t you ever felt like your best ideas sometimes come to you when your mind is 100% thinking about something else?

3) Stay positive

I know you're tired of not finding a job, but no one’s going to give you a job interview out of pity, and no one’s going to hire you out of pity. You need to stay upbeat while job hunting; your next job literally depends on it:

Do whatever it takes. Build on the successes of little things like finding a new job lead, making a new contact, etc., and by letting little achievements from outside of the job search throw some good feeling into your job search.

Another way to get the positive juices flowing is exercising regularly.

4) Stop job searching alone

For the 8+ months of my 2002 job search above, I spent almost every single day getting tired in front of my computer looking and applying for jobs online, rarely ever meeting with anyone outside of the occasional interview. It was no wonder that I felt alone and isolated, which certainly didn’t help my morale.

Instead, look for every opportunity to job search with other people, both job seeker and not, both online and off.

Have lunch weekly with other job seekers you know, hang out here on JobMob asking questions, and so on.

I wish I had known of such options back in 2002 when I struggled so much to find a job.

5) Write your curriculum vitae as if it was the first time, making a full job history you can reference moving forward

Go back to the beginning of your career. For each job you had, list your title, required skills, responsibilities, achievements and anything you were proud of.

Numbers are good if you have them.

Were there any memorable stories that may be worth recalling in a job interview? Jot them down too, for each position.

Can’t remember all the details? Use that as an excuse to re-establish contact with past colleagues or former employers.

6) Get an independent, expert audit of your job search to date

Go over what you’ve done well, what you’ve done wrong and get specific, actionable ideas of what you should be doing right now to change your luck.

Look for such help from your college/university alumni association, local employment center, favorite blogging job search expert, etc.

7) Hire a job search coach

They can conduct the above audit with you, and give you those kickstart ideas.

8) Reach out to local headhunters who specialize in your industry

They’ll immediately know if your skillset is in demand based on what their clients are looking for, among other things. They may also have better analysis on why all the job rejection.

Get a second opinion too; you don’t want to make any decisions based on just one person’s thoughts.

9) Consider relocation

Perhaps there really is no demand for your skillset locally. The farther you’re willing to move, the more job opportunities you open yourself to.

10) Consider remote work

If there’s no local demand for your skillset, find out where there is demand and apply for a teleworking opportunity. This allows you to respond to a company’s needs without the radical changes of a potentially unnecessary move, or possibly to test the waters before such a move.

11) Update your skills

The irony of having a job is that you’re often so busy, you don’t have time to refresh your knowledge, and this can even be true in countries where employee education budgets are required by law like in France.

Technology is always advancing, discoveries are being made, new ideas are practiced. If you’ve been job searching for a long time, stop to look around and make sure you know what you need to get a job today, not what you needed to know a year ago. Add value.

12) Learn new skills

When meeting local headhunters, ask them which skills are most in demand. Browse recent job board listings to corroborate, and choose the skills that can most increase your worth within a reasonable amount of time.

Then start learning every day. If you’re not someone who learns well on their own, take a course online, sign up for workshops at a local community center, college or institute. Again, add value.

13) Followup with old contacts

You probably told everyone about your job search back when you began looking?

That was well over 6 months ago, and unless they know better, they may think you’ve already found something. Send a gentle reminder that you’re still available.

14) Stay in touch with your contacts

Once you’ve reached out to someone, whether at the beginning of your job search or now so much later, stay in contact with them so that they are less likely to forget about you.

Also, don’t break contact again once you do find something, leaving them feeling used. Perhaps you can help them back somehow.

15) Find new contacts

Over months of searching, it may feel like you’ve exhausted all your contacts. Discover new networking opportunities by joining local associations or networking groups, attending conferences and meetups (find them here), both offline and online; if they’re locally-based, you can then carry over an online meet into a real world meet.

Learning new skills (#6 above) will also introduce you to new communities of people.

16) Reapply to a former employer

As long as you left a good impression on the way out, they may only be too happy to have you back since they know what you’re capable of, making for a shorter, less-expensive recruitment and a quicker integration.

Another good reason to stay in touch with your ex-colleagues and ex-bosses (at least, the ones you enjoyed working for).

17) Start freelance consulting as soon as possible

Whether you’ve been looking for work for 1 week or 1 year, get yourself business cards that say you’re a consultant in your field of professional expertise.

When people ask what you do, reply “I consult on X, but am also available for full-time work” and hand them a business card, which leaves a better impression than just saying “I’m looking for a job”.

Plus, you might even get some clients, which is a great way to fill a resume gap while potentially leading to a permanent position with a client company or business partner they referred you to.

18) Offer job trials to prospective employers

Let employers see what you can do by working in a temporary job capacity for them or on a per-project basis.

However, the end goal should be definitive i.e. a ‘yes or no’ achievement, to prevent employers from taking advantage of you.

19) Get a temporary job

Use a temporary job to impress employers into finding ways to convert the position into a permanent one. Also a great way to build your network of contacts even more, and discover other jobs, both temporary and permanent.

You might even decide you like the temping lifestyle and aim for those types of positions, which are in constant demand due to natural company turnover.

20) Line up information interviews

If you need a hook, find a magazine/trade publication/blog (your own?) to whom you can submit an op-ed or guest post and then tell companies how you’re researching an article for them. If you write well, aim for this interview reason first.

Otherwise, you can always take notes or record the interview on your cellphone and then hire a freelance writer to finish the article for you.

21) Be selective in which positions you choose to apply for

Aim for the quick win by applying for jobs you have already succeeded in. This will mean fewer jobs to apply for, but will increase your chances of finally getting a positive response.

Fewer job applications also means less demoralizing rejections or non-responses, and more time for other more interesting job search activities listed here.

22) Avoid career changes

Similarly to the previous tip, now is not the time to look for a change in career direction. It’s much harder to convince someone you can do a job without any experience than when you’ve already succeeded in that role.

That said, be open to new opportunities if such an unexpected offer comes your way.

23) Volunteer

There are many reasons to volunteer while on a job search, but these are even more true on a prolonged job search.

Achieving through volunteering will improve your morale in leading to new contacts while potentially improving your skills, if you choose an appropriate organization to volunteer for, such as the leading association of professionals in your industry.

24) Consider a move downward

Like an army that retreats to fight again another day, it’s better to take a step down the career ladder than stay off it entirely.

This can be tricky as employers may see you as overqualified and you may be frustrated by not being able to show off all that you can do. All that really matters is what you can achieve for your new boss and how you can leverage that into a position that will allow you to meet your potential.

Even entry-level jobs can be used to springboard you back up the ladder again.

If you do take a step down, start looking again as soon as you're ready:

25) Be flexible

Take a good hard look at the self-imposed limits of your job search and decide which limits you can remove, opening yourself to new job opportunities.

In the story of my 2002 job search in Israel, what made a big difference was my decision to no longer limit myself to jobs in Israel itself, and with that, my wife and I returned to France with a good job in hand, found almost immediately after I’d become more flexible.

Bonus tip

26) Keep trying!

Don’t give up looking. New opportunities can appear at any time.

In hockey, a goal scorer in a slump will eventually score as long as he keeps shooting pucks at the net. Likewise, if you persevere in following best practices while trying new ideas in looking for leads, growing your network and improving your skills, something will eventually come your way.

Question of the article

If you overcame a long job search, what was the turning point? Tell us in the comments.

Additional reading

READ NEXT: Stop Falling into Resume Gaps

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Wednesday 4 October 2017

📃 Why Paper Resumes Aren’t Going Away Anytime Soon

For years, people have been saying that paper resumes are dead. Are they really?

Why Paper Resumes Aren’t Going Away Anytime Soon

Photo by clive darra

The hype

Search Twitter for “paper resume” and many of the results are articles announcing that the Internet-based resume era is here.

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But who has actually been saying they’re dead?

1) Companies who stand to gain from you not using them, such as video resume companies

While video resumes and paper resumes will both help you on your job search, one doesn’t negate the other as you might think after seeing the above tweet. They’re both personal job search marketing tools that can make an impact when used appropriately.

2) Recruiters who don’t want to deal with paper resumes anymore

And I don’t blame them.

Since I started JobMob back in 2006, I’ve received hundreds of resumes via email and have viewed many more online. I’m not a recruiter, but if I had to store all those as paper somewhere, my home office would need a second floor.

As it is, whenever a job seeker hands me their resume at a networking event or job fair, I’ll always tell them to save it for others at the event without forgetting to email it to me later.

3) Personal branding experts, like me

In my 5 Most Interesting Notes From the 2010 Israeli Recruitment Conference, I mentioned that-

Morit Rozen even said that “the resume is going to die” – I disagree; more on that another time – and that soon, recruiters will just want names and use the Internet to find everything else. She suggests googling yourself right now (“לגגל” – l’gagel) to make a quick assessment of your situation, and I definitely agree with that.

And I still do.

But even if I’ve been recommending for years that you regularly build your brand online through social media, personal websites, blogging, or whatever combination makes the most sense for you, that still doesn’t mean you don’t need a paper resume any more.

The truth

Reasons why you still need a paper resume:

  1. Even in 2015, many companies still aren’t fully digital, especially smaller companies who make up the majority of any major job search market
  2. Be different. When everything is going virtual, the few people who successfully manage both the online and the offline will really standout. (This is why some people are still using fax machines to get their resumes in the door)
  3. Digital resumes get lost just as easily as paper ones. Resume copies you bring to interviews might be the only ones in the room, and the interviewers will appreciate that when it happens, especially when they go on to take notes directly on your copies.
  4. Like a business card, a resume crisply printed on high quality paper leaves a professional impression wherever you go: networking event or job fair.
  5. To show off your creativity

The proof

In May 2014, I posted the following poll to JobMob:

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If the paper resume was truly dead, why would such a high percentage of people still be using them?

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