Given these challenges, Millennials will fall into one of two groups.
The first group will comprise of those who cannot find work to earn an income either as an employee, a freelancer or even an entrepreneur or business owner. They are likely to be unemployed for longer periods with high levels of student loan debt, stress, and anxiety. This group may become bigger over time.
In the second group, we have those fortunate Millennials who have work to earn an income.
Unfortunately, graduates who end up in jobs that didn’t require a college degree are five times as likely to still be in such a position five years later. Ten years later, they will earn around $10,000 a year less than their counterparts who started early in jobs that required a college degree. (Burning Glass, 2018)
The right starting point will set a good foundation for the future.
Despite being employed, 64% of Millennials do not believe that they are fully prepared and have all the skills and knowledge they’ll need for Industry 4.0. (Deloitte, 2018) Industry 4.0 is a name given to the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies.
Therefore, it’s all about acquiring employable, job-ready, future-ready skills and training that are sustainable and cost-effective to meet current and future employers’ needs and requirements.
Gaining relevant skills-related training is so vital for everyone. This will set them up for the future of work and for financial success and freedom in the future.
They are future-proofing themselves against rising unemployment and underemployment, mental illness, and student loan debt.
The key to success is for Millennials and Gen Zs to acquire timely in-demand skills that employers actually want now and into the future.
It’s not about doing something that they are passionate about at the beginning. This can come later after they have secured their first income stream.
There will be some predictions to be done as to what employers of the future want. This is possible with currently available information and tools.
In 2017, McKinsey estimated that between 400 million and 800 million of today’s jobs could be transformed through automation by 2030 with some job losses and some job gains.
How we respond now to these foreseeable changes and transformation will determine whether we have a secure income stream or not in the future.
Millennials and Gen Zs do not have to wait until automation reaches mass adoption and revolutionizes the workplace. They can proactively prepare in advance now to constantly stay ahead of these developments and transformations.
They do so by identifying and acquiring in-demand employable skills that will retain their relevance in a timely and cost-effective way.
In particular, the ultimate goal for Millennials and Gen Zs is to remain employable and be relevant in an environment of constant change.
With the increasing cost of higher education, they could upskill themselves by completing a number of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). There are so many free MOOCS to choose from.
For now, there’s a strong focus on new technology skills areas — data science, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and robotics. These are the current hot-spots for recruitment.
While the jury is out as to whether employers are accepting MOOCS certification in lieu of college and university degrees, we must be able to showcase how we have applied our acquired skills to achieve tangible results for our employers.
In some industries like design and programming, employers will hire people not based on qualifications, but on the strength of their portfolio.
In industries such as medicine, doctors need medical degrees in order to start practising. Without practice, they are not able to showcase their skills.
In August 2018, job-search site Glassdoor compiled a list of top employers who are expanding their talent options by no longer requiring job applicants to have a college degree. Companies like Google, Apple and IBM are all in this group.
IBM now looks at job candidates who have hands-on experience via a coding boot camp or an industry-related vocational class. (CNBC, 2018)
This trend will absolutely benefit more capable job seekers.
To accelerate your chance of earning an income or earning more income, here are some things you can do:
- Create your own personal webpage to showcase your skills, experience, testimonials, and portfolio.
- Write in LinkedIn. Medium, and Quora.
- Network with the right people. Follow them on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter. Communicate with them.
Regardless of whether you’re a professional with a college degree or without, we must stand out in today’s crowded job market. They must be able to show off their skills.
Meanwhile, Millennials have coined their own aspirational acronym – FIRE, which is Financially Independent Retiring Early. They consider their finances in nearly every decision they make, or maybe even make decisions solely based on money. But once they have reached their financial independence, they get their freedom not to be bossed around by what we earn or what we have saved.
So, to be on FIRE, they must do things creatively to secure that first income stream!