This article provides you with five top tips as to the careers and jobs of the future. Whether you are looking to make a change in your career or are just starting out, it’s worth knowing which sectors and jobs are trending and which jobs are likely to provide you with a sustainable, economically secure future.
Whether you are living and working abroad or have just moved to sunny Portugal and are thinking of staying and need some work to sustain you, here are some tips that could help you on this journey.
A sustainable career is one that you can do for as long as you need to, in order to sustain yourself and your family, and where the job itself is long-lasting and preferably fulfilling and worthwhile.
1. Understand the job market
The first step in this process is to understand what is actually available out there. Unless you are going to create your own dream job by starting a small business, you will have to find a way to fit the skills you have into the available jobs in the current market. Today's job market is dominated by tech and tech-related jobs. Service is still a big sector, and health will always be a big one, but tech seems to be where the jobs are and will be in the next 10 yrs.
2. Retrain or adjust accordingly
If you’re thinking of retraining or doing some additional courses to add to what you do currently, then you have to think about tech. Technology, hardware and software, app development, and their use are now industry and sector-wide; regardless of what it is you do or will do, tech and information will be at its core as we move into the data age. Something as general yet powerful as Azure courses will, for example, allow you to work in any sector but on their Cloud computing efforts.
3. Don’t take the first job on offer
Once you start building yourself and looking for new work, there may be a number of offers from the agencies that you use or opportunities for interviews from the many applications for a sustainable job. Be selective, see it as a journey or a process rather than a destination, attend the interviews and use them to build knowledge of what is available, perhaps accept short term assignments to keep in the trade you have chosen, and to keep the wolf from the door, but don’t settle, if you’ve got to this stage you need to persevere.
4. Plan the journey
Try to plan the journey. Have a 5-year plan at the least, and you don’t have to write it down and have a Gantt chart but have a clear picture in your head as to where you’d like to be.
5. Expect the unexpected
As you begin a career or a new phase in your current career, you need to be primed for further opportunities. Be ready for change and ready to learn and grow. By expecting things to change and wanting to be part of this change, you will always be at the forefront of whatever you have chosen to do and, as such ready for the next change in the evolution of your job. It’s how you build a career.
These are simple yet proven steps, evidenced by numerous CVs, stories, and blogs. The job market is currently in a state of flux, and as such, it is a good time to look at what’s hot and what’s not, what’s trending, and what is expected to trend for the long term. Think it through, think about what it is that you enjoy doing, and plan from there.
