When I was giving a guest lecture up at Brown last week, one student asked me about my career journey, and how I got to where I am now. It was a long answer, partly because I've been in the workforce for twenty years and partly because I've pivoted, a lot. I haven't always wanted to pivot, and it hasn't always been fun, but it has paid off in the long term. And whether we like it or not, it's going to be the reality of how we work from now on.
When I finished college, I thought for sure I'd work in politics. After all, I'd been interning at various non-profits since I was 15; I'd served on non-profit boards as an undergrad; and I'd even done the Wellesley in Washington program, interning in the Senate. But the universe had other plans, and that other plan was discovering that making a living wage wasn't really a thing as a young person who wanted to change the world, and if you didn't have a trust fund, you weren't going to get very far. I spent a year mindlessly answering the phone at a law office and freelancing on the side until a job at an alt-weekly opened up, and I pivoted to journalism. I kept at that, and by the time I was thirty, I was an editor at a national publication. Except, oops, magazine journalism started going up in flames. So I pivoted to music tech, and then to XR. I pivoted in XR from doing entertainment to training and education. And I am quite sure that in some number of years, I'm going to have to pivot to something else.
Am I jealous that certain workers have politicians falling all over themselves to protect their jobs where I was told to just "figure it out?" Sure, but I also realize that the days of anyone fighting to protect those jobs are numbered. The forces of technology and innovation aren't going to stop anytime soon. Sooner or later, we all have to pivot.
The real issue becomes how we set people up for success with those pivots. Most schools in the US sadly do a poor job at teaching critical thinking, analysis, and communication -- they're still stuck in the days where they trained people to churn out widgets. This is not to slam teachers, who are overworked, underpaid, and forced to teach to largely meaningless tests on top of managing out of control classrooms. Rather, it is an indication that we require a radical rethink of what skills students need to learn to make them flexible, adaptable adults.
From there, we need to start retraining those workers who are about to be displaced. If you're reading this, you're likely safer than many, but people who do rote work that can be automated are going to be in trouble very soon. The answer is not to go backwards or be protectionist -- it is to move forward, re-skill, and hopefully wind up in a better position. Put it this way -- if taxi companies had immediately launched an Uber competitor, Uber would have probably gone away. But they dragged their feet and complained while customers -- quelle suprise -- opted for better service. By the time they launched their own apps, they were far behind the curve.
There's a great scene in the Taylor Swift documentary Miss Americana, where she learns her latest album hasn't been nominated for any Grammys. Rather than ranting and blaming the Recording Academy, Swift simply says "I'll make a better album next time." Workers need to be ready to improve and be one step ahead of the curve, lest they fall completely behind.