Invest in your career asset
When your roof is leaking or your furnace gives its last gasps, it’s unlikely that you’ll put off making the investment to get them repaired to full working order. Not to do so means you and your family could be uncomfortable or even at added risk.
The same idea holds true for investing in one of your other biggest assets…your career. Like a physical piece of property, your career asset needs to be taken care of to ensure it continues to deliver financial peace of mind and comfort for you and your family.
It’s true that unexpected events or things beyond your control, like a downsizing or the impact of technology on low skill jobs, can result in job displacement. However, there are three things you can do to tend to the well-being of your career asset that are always within your control regardless of the type of work you do.
A simple Google search for “the impact of technology on jobs” or “…on job design,” yields hundreds of articles and research papers that provide a wealth of resource materials. Understanding how technology can positively or negatively impact your career asset and your financial well-being, affords you the opportunity to honestly assess and benchmark your skills against those that are needed now and into the future. If you discover that your skills are those that can be easily replaced by technology, you may want to consider ways to develop higher value or more sought-after skills. Benchmarking also helps you identify where your pay scale falls relative to the current market. For instance, you could find yourself at greater risk for a job elimination if your salary is significantly above where the market currently values a particular djob. There are numerous online resources to help you find wage information by job type, industry, education level and a host of other variables.
There’s a saying in general aviation, “a good pilot is always learning.” I think this expression can apply to your career asset. If you identify skills gaps during your benchmarking process, you will want to invest in making sure your skills remain relevant. This can be done through obtaining additional certifications, re-education, or a variety of other skill strengthening tactics.
Networking has long been a go-to technique to help demonstrate your viability in your career. Partnering and aligning with other experts in your field or in fields that interest you is one way to help ensure that if your current situation becomes unstable, you might be able to tap into your network to help you on your way to a new opportunity.
