Hard to automate in-demand jobs
In the automation age, as in the computer age before it, job titles shift and transform to reflect the impact of technology.
Just as we saw the rise of entire industries around previously unheard-of job titles in cloud services, mobile apps, and social media, we are seeing similar shifts in the automation age.
It is without a doubt that no jobs will be immune to automation. It is just the degree of transformation. It is also a question of when, not if.
Even when an occupation may be forecasted to grow, it does not preclude it from being automated and transformed.
In finding the appropriate in-demand occupation, skills, and industry, you also need to ensure that your chosen job or occupation is hard to automate through robotics and artificial intelligence.
When your chosen occupation and industry are harder to automate, there will be more reliance on humans to perform the work rather than automate. The opportunities for you to be employed in that job will also significantly increase, thereby increasing your job security.
People don’t plan to fail, but they fail to plan and proactively increase the security of their jobs. In doing so, they are securing their future and income by future-proofing themselves.
How automation will impact your job security and future income streams will depend on factors that include:
(1) The country you live in – For example, comparing technologically advanced countries like Japan, Germany, Korea, etc., with developing countries. The country you live in will also determine how economics, unemployment rate, demographics, and under-employment can have an impact on your job security through employment growth and economic activity.
(2) The industry you work in – For example, the transportation industry has a lot of innovation like driverless vehicles when compared to fine arts.
(3) The job or occupation you currently have – For example, if you care for the elderly, then there’s not much automation when compared to a truck driver. Caring for the sick and elderly requires a lot of manual handling and situational decision-making, making it difficult to automate.
(4) The skills and experience you currently have – For example, if you are a truck driver, then your job could change significantly by 2035 when compared to a personal coach.
(5) The education level you currently have – For example, if you have a university degree, then you are better prepared for the future of work and for acquiring high-level skills that will be in demand more in the future to develop and operate high-tech machines.
(6) The organisation you work for – For example, the business you work for must have the capability, capacity, and resources to automate parts of your work when compared to a small family or cash-strap business.
Since all of these constituent activities have different automation potential, the heat map as shown below that is developed by McKinsey highlights the wide variation in how automation could play out in impacting your chosen job.
There are five factors according to McKinsey that will determine whether tasks or activities within jobs can be automated:
(1) Technically feasibility for doing so.
(2) The cost to automate and whether it makes economic sense to do so – cost-benefit analysis will be required.
(3) Availability of skills and the cost of workers (i.e., salaries or wages) who might otherwise have to do the activity.
(4) Benefits (e.g., superior performance) and value of automation beyond just labor-cost substitution.
(5) Whether automation is permitted by regulation and is socially (or even morally and ethically) acceptable to do so in the location in question.
‘Managing others’ is harder to automate compared with ‘predictable physical work’.
‘Predictable physical work’ in the ‘healthcare and social assistance’ sector is harder to automate than in the ‘accommodations and food service’ sector.
Therefore, target those jobs that are listed in the dark red zone, as shown in the diagram below.
Understanding your personality
Personalities do play a big part as to what course suits an individual, young and old. Forcing someone to do a course that is not suited to their interest or personality can be detrimental.
“Dad, this degree is for you”
The most heart-breaking story I know about was when my friend’s brother gave their father his three-year accounting paper degree during the graduation day and said, “Dad, this degree is for you”.
Thereafter, he left for Switzerland, studied hospitality instead, and started his career from there. He had no interest whatsoever in accountancy, but he did accountancy just to please his dad, who had a medium-sized accountancy practice that was earmarked for him to take over the family business.
What you are good at? What are your strengths?
When we choose a game to play in, we want to play the game to win.
We know what we are capable of to win the game – our strengths, interest, and talents.
So, what are your strengths to win the game of work?
What can you bring to work that will allow you to ‘win’?
Some questions to ask to uncover your strengths:
(1) Do I ‘get-it’ much faster than everyone else or able to pick things up very fast?
(2) Is there something that many people ask me for help with?
(3) What areas am I most productive in doing?
(4) Which activities come easily and naturally for me?
(5) What have people praised me for?
(6) What activities I did better than all your friends a school?
There are a few online self-assessments for you to determine your strengths. They include:
(3) High5 (Free and paid)
Help is available
There are several self-assessment tools available that can help you gain valuable awareness and insights into your personality and interest, and what jobs are suited for you.
My go-to tool is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI) assessment. You may have other preferences.
But stay with me on this and keep an open mind about MBTI.
While some people may be against personality assessments for a variety of reason, there are no perfect tools that are available to give us insights and indications into our personalities.
Until something better comes along, we will have to use our ‘gut-feel’ test to verify whether the results of these assessments resonate with what we already know about ourselves.
What I do is to use different assessment tools to give me different perspectives about myself and to develop a complete picture of who I am.
It also helps me verify the results of these assessments. If they are broadly in alignment with what I know about myself, I will use the information to build a more complete picture about myself.
Warning – Personalities are both fixed and mailable
The best way to predict the future is to CREATE it. (Abraham Lincoln)
Personalities can be both ‘unchangeable’ or ‘changeable’.
A study finds that personality has a stable component across the lifespan, both at the trait level and at the profile level, and that personality is also malleable and people mature as they age.
While the past is the greatest predictor of the future, you can live the life you want by creating your future and transforming your personality over time. Rather than finding yourself, it is best to create your future self by knowing your past.
Personality test can help you baseline yourself and current actions. It can provide valuable insights into who you are now.
Thereafter, don’t let any personality test results constrain you permanently into something you don’t want to become. Take charge of your future. Make a difference in your life.
You can be courageous to pursue the life you truly want regardless of your past. Through your learning and experience, you can be transformed as a person.
The only thing special about those who want to transform themselves is their positive view of the future. They refuse to be defined by the past.
Successful people will base their identity and internal narrative on their future, not their past.
Here’s the thing.
It truly does not matter what your past it. It does not matter what your personality test say from now on or what people say or think about you.
What matters is who you want to be.
What matters is the choice you make now.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI)
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI) is a self-assessment indicator tool designed to allow people including job seekers and graduates to explore and understand their personalities. They include likes, dislikes, strengths, weaknesses, possible career choices and course preferences, and compatibility with other people.
The self-assessment results give us an indication as to how people perceive the world around them and how they make decisions using the information that is available to them.
MBTI is one of the most widely used instruments in the world. It will give us enough information for us to perform our due diligence.
The four dimensions of MBTI
We are identified as having one of 16 personality types based on the following four dimensions:
- Extroversion vs. Introversion – It is about one’s style of managing and replenishing personal energy.
- Extroverts focus more on the external world and the people around them.
- Introverts focus on the inner world of ideas, thoughts, and deliberations.
- Sensing vs. Intuition – It is about one’s style of gathering and processing information.
- A sensing person prefers objective information available to them before deciding.
- An intuition person prefers to work from a subjective impression of a situation.
- Thinking vs. Feeling – It is about one’s style of prioritising personal values and preferences.
- A thinker always follows the technically correct course of action.
- A feeler takes people’s feelings into account.
- Judging vs. Perceiving – It is about one’s style of organising and structuring their daily life and work.
- A judging person is more comfortable in a well-ordered, structured environment.
- A perceiver prefers the spontaneity of a flexible lifestyle.
You can also read up on the 16 MBTI personalities here.
Making better decisions
MBTI isn’t an assessment tool designed to look for dysfunction or abnormality. As everyone is different, no one personality type is ‘best’ or ‘better’ than any other.
It is just who we are created to be.
MBTI helps us learn more about who we are.
Knowing our personality type is not intended to discourage anyone from pursuing a job or career. Rather, the self-awareness helps us make better decisions about our future and the education we embark on.
It also helps us reduce any future uncertainties and improves the certainty of our decision-making ability.
Insights into the study course to take
The self-assessment results from MBTI can create self-awareness about the kind of jobs and careers more suited for personalities.
The type of courses you take at college or university can also be guided by your personality.
It can help you make better-informed decisions about your job and career pathways.
Insights into cultural fit and job-readiness
MBTI assessments can offer valuable insights into the job seekers’ personality fit with the overall organisational culture and whether their personalities can be maximised and translated into better work performance.
You can also prepare more impressive and useful responses for your job interviews and writing your customised cover letter using this personality information.
You can communicate how you can fit into the organisational culture and what truly makes you a good fit for the advertised job position.
For example, instead of saying, “I believe I will be a great fit for the position,” you might say something like, “I know I will be a great fit for the advertised job position based on my conflict resolution skills and honest communication traits.”
Showing that you have a keen but specific understanding of your technical and soft skills can set you apart from other candidates.