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Human Resource managers are in agreement: When it comes to the hiring process, the ground has shifted.
Once upon a time, after you graduated from school, you scoured the newspaper for job ads, settled for an offer that you felt was a good fit, got your documents in order, slid them into an envelope which you sealed with your saliva. No, maybe not just your saliva, but also hope that someone somewhere would read it and decide that you were 'the one'. You stuck a number of stamps on the envelope, released it into the hands of the post office workers, and then, you waited.
Fast forward to the present day. With emails and phone calls, video conferencing and online job platforms, the process of getting your foot in the door is not quite as tedious and foggy as it once was. And if you think we’ve seen it all, then you’re wrong, for the future of job hunting has a lot more in store for us. Blessed are those who regularly upskill and adapt quickly for they shall remain relevant!
Here is a glimpse into the future of getting formal employment, and what recruiters will be looking for:
Professional resumes downloadable online, and individual websites
We won’t need paperwork anymore. Recruiters will embrace platforms that enable them to download an individual’s resume or view the skillset and job experience. Many recruiters are already looking at individual LinkedIn profiles during the hiring process. According to a well-articulated article by the business insider, every job seeker should be seriously thinking of having a personal website. It is the new way to elevate your brand. But what will you have on your website yet you have no product to sell? You may ask. You have a product to sell, and that is who you are and what you can offer. Conjure this in your mind—a website with a section describing your education background, another describing your hobbies during off-hours, another lining up your skills, experience, sample works, your achievements; another bracketing your certificates, and well, a place where the recruiter can with one click download your resume.
Online presence
Social media has the power to give you a job or stymy whatever chance you had of getting one. This isn’t even in the futuristic concept, it’s already happening. Recruiters are stopping by job seeker’s social media platforms to try and find out just what kind of a person they’re dealing with. Some are even hiring an investigator to do pre-employment background digging, and their shovel doesn’t miss the social media presence of the subject. In the future, this trend will only increase. A job seeker’s online presence will be a key determinant as to whether they get the job or not.
Specialization
The ability to narrow down to one area and master it will be very handy. Let’s take the field of marketing for instance. We used to have marketing as a general discipline, but now we have digital marketing, content marketing, search engine marketing. People are increasingly picking one of these and mastering them. And in the future, specialization will be a driver to excellence
Tech-savvy individuals
There’s the ticklish quote that goes, 'The factory of the future will have only two employees: a man, and a dog. The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to keep the man from touching the equipment'. We may find humour baked into this but closer scrutiny should turn our faces ashen, for machinery will take over in future. The best thing to do is to prepare by constantly learning new trends in technology.
Problem solvers
The work environment is a dynamic one, with new problems constantly cropping up. In light of this, recruiters are constantly seeking individuals with a proven record and ability to creatively, gainfully even, provide solutions. Do you then have a track record in solving a problem that you could use to pitch yourself into that opportunity? It’s easy to have one even when you are previously unemployed. Cast your net far and wide into your mind, in search of an event where you stood up against a challenge and solved a problem. What was the situation? Was it at school, at home, at a local club you attend, or a personal situation? Stories are powerful, and it’s a reason Plato held up storytellers as great men and women. He believed that your story had better say as much if you want a job in the ideal state.
A problem solver is not only a convergent thinker but also a divergent one. Convergent thinking follows one specific path, you sway a bit and you are off the mark. Divergent thinking thinks up a hundred possibilities and then scrutinizes each to pick the best option. A problem solver thinks analytically, critically, and creatively. A problem solver takes initiative, is practical, and open-minded. Indeed, a problem solver can think inside the box, outside the box, and even without the box!
Flexibility and Adaptability
It’s scary when you are a loose tooth in an organization, shaky as a result of the constant changes in the workplace. Being labelled ‘redundant’ would be a hard blow, given the reality, it shines a light on: however you were once useful, things have now shifted and you are nothing more than matter (matter being anything that has weight and occupies space). How adaptive and flexible are you to changes? Flexibility could also mean being able to easily shift from one career line to another when the need arises.
Ability to Keep Learning
What we learn at school isn’t enough to keep us on easy street for the rest of our lives. Times change. Education is a lifetime process. It doesn’t only happen in a classroom and doesn’t end on the day you walk out of class. The best learning is self-learning, and understanding that intelligence does not exist because classrooms exist, but the other way around. The job market keeps shifting, and the best you can do is begin learning, unlearning, and relearning even when the ink on your college certificate is still fresh. The best skill you can possess in the age we live in is the ability to learn how to learn and learn it like you’re going to teach it. Websites like futurelearn.com offer hundreds of short online courses, constantly updated, free of charge. It’s a good platform to continuously develop your competencies while being in the know of new trends and how they affect the workplace.
