Why do you need a cool career?
COOL CAREERS ARE SO THIS CENTURY
In communist China in the 20th century there was an expression to describe the idea of a job for life – the ‘iron rice bowl’. You turned up for work, didn’t always do much but got paid, turned up again, and again, and again, retired, and died. Great for filling in time, but not very cool.
That was the extreme side of work but, even in most of the capitalist West, your parents and grandparents could expect a long career without the need to find a new job. The arrival of the 21st century has changed this world of work. Most of us will have numerous jobs during our lifetime. The conventional career structure with its planned, regular promotions and salary rises is disappearing. This has led to loss of security for many, but, at the same time, does allow us all to get more creative about our careers.
Many of the jobs out there didn’t exist twenty, ten or even two or three years ago. Some may be variations of existing jobs that have been given a modern twist.
For example, there have always been private detectives, but not until recently internet detectives doing purely internet-based investigations. There have always been interior designers, but how many in the past specialised in using feng shui principles in their work?
START THINKING COOL
The 21st century workplace is an arena of uncertainty. The modern workplace will continue to shift and change as new opportunities open up all over the world and new technologies change the shape of companies and careers.
You will need to learn new skills throughout your life and be in charge of your own self-development. Although companies will invest in training their employees, you will be expected to add value in return, keeping up with the pace of change. You are likely to change employers so, even if you are employed, think of yourself as your own self-employed business.
What we want from work is changing too. More of us expect fulfilment at work; we want to be stimulated. If we are bored we will just change careers. Self-realisation is also big this century. Many of us want work–life balance or autonomous work. Some of us want it all, and now: wealth, power and happiness. We have to be prepared to learn skills in our spare time as well as at work to achieve high employability.
All this adds up to the arrival of new types of career. Not all of them are cool, but some of them are very cool!
Ten good reasons why you need a cool career right now
Change is afoot. If you don’t take these factors into account when thinking about your career you could get left behind in a dead-end job or, worse still, become unemployable.
1. Only you are in charge of your career. This is the age of self-responsibility. We each need to take charge of our careers. A career for life will no longer be handed to us on a plate. You need a career you can really embrace with gusto and commitment.
2. Building a lifetime brand – you, inc. Think carefully about every choice you make. Your career choices sell you not only on your experience but, in effect, as a brand. Your CV is not a history of your background as much as a personal marketing document. The cooler the careers on your CV, the more you will be worth as a ‘name-brand’ in the market place – this will give you longevity and reward in your career.
3. Your expectations. We expect our personal life to provide us with enjoyment and meaning. This has now extended to work-life. A good pay cheque alone is no longer sufficient as a measurement of personal satisfaction. Our own personal definition of coolness is part of the package we expect to get with our jobs.
4. New working patterns and opportunities. Nine to five working days are no longer the norm for the whole workforce. There are new ways of working that allow more portfolio careers, short-term contracting, interim employment, telework and self-employment. This gives you more opportunities to choose a cool career.
5. New technologies. Technology is cool. It has given us all the flexibility and freedom to work from home as well as from an office. It has also potentially given us more control over our own time and allowed each of us to be more creative and expressive. We can write our own blogs, set up small businesses on the internet and communicate overseas. It is only in the last few years, for example, that people have actually been able to make their living as eBay traders.
6. Growth of the service economy. The changes in the West towards service-based economies allow us to create new services for others that have not previously been thought of. Who would have thought a few years ago that personal concierge services for the megarich could provide a career? The fastest growing industries could be, for example, personal services, leisure, business and financial services, hospitality and health care. What career could you choose to fit the trends of this century?
7. Personal meaning. This century’s expectation is that we ‘should’ and ‘can’ express our own values and interests in the work we do. If we can’t, we generally expect to change jobs. Choose a career that you consider cool. That choice is available to you.
8. Self-empowerment and lifelong learning are valued. The expectation now exists that we can, and will, change career more than once, so we gain the ability to develop different skills by working in more than one environment or industry. It is OK to choose not just one, but several, cool careers that appeal to you.
9. You are a business. Working in a big, hierarchical company no longer needs to be the norm. We can all set ourselves up as independent entrepreneurs providing a service to others. Ideas and creativity will lead you to establish your unusually cool career.
10. Globalisation. The 21st-century world is one of international movement. We no longer need to work only in the country we grew up in. We can have flexible career plans that include a period of experience overseas that will be valued when we return home. Broaden your thinking. Cool Careers is full of ideas that will take you across the world rather than just on a short commute to a dull grey office block. Think laterally, and find a very cool career.
PASSING THE PARTY TEST
The easiest way to recognise that you have a cool career is the party test. If you say what you do at a party, and the person you are talking to says, ‘Cool!’ (or an equivalent exclamation), looks impressed, begins to get a little competitive with you (because they haven’t got a cool career like yours), or starts telling everyone else at the party about your career, you know it’s cool.
IF YOU’RE NOT PROUD, IT ISN’T COOL
Practise on yourself. Are you proud to tell people what you do, or do you feel the need to lie? Lying is a serious sign that something needs to change fast. Why not really go and get that job you’ve told the good-looking girl/guy you have? Life’s too short to do the same as everyone else.
If you are still not sure, measure your career against the Coolometer.
The Coolometer
The Coolometer is an invention that measures just how cool your career is. Of course, classifications are subjective, and I haven’t been scientific about it, because there are some types of job that demand a completely different classification of their own – but through the book I have categorised careers in several ways.
Uncool Neither particularly unusual, nor highly aspirational. If someone asks you what you do, they know immediately what this career is when you mention it. The conversation falters. Watch out for signs of boredom in your audience: fidgeting, folded arms or a sudden need to find a drink. Not covered in this book.
Classic