Is the gig economy reshaping career opportunities

There used to be a clear recipe for the success of the American economy. Go to college, study something practical, and get an entry-level job at a major corporation.

Corporations grew, and you could grow with them, there’s a career ladder now the economy is more like chutes and ladders, careers have turned into jobs and jobs turned into gigs.

Many significant companies employ just a fraction of the people they once did.

So what a good career strategy in a world of short term engagements is. Can you go from uber driver to CEO? Chances are probably not, but there are some things you can do to position yourself well to thrive in the gig economy.

First, train yourself to be adaptable; at best, this means a solid liberal education and knowledge of the world. The pace of change is accelerated. It isn’t slowing down, so becoming stuck in your ways can be fatal, you overcome that with a broad basic knowledge curiosity, understanding how other people operate continuous learning, Re-education and learning new skills throughout your life is an excellent way to stay adaptable.

Second, you need to learn how to code along with that broad base of knowledge. This is one specific skill you’ll need to make it in the new world.

You don’t need to become a professional programmer. That code is like the plumbing of the new economy, and you need to have some grasp of it.

The CEO of General Motors doesn’t have to know how to fix an engine, but she needs to understand how an engine works, so get some training in Python or SQL you’ll be much less likely to be replaced.

This doesn’t necessarily have to be an expensive endeavor, a lot of free options available from the University of Michigan through their online training platforms like Coursera.

Third, start thinking like a social scientist, people who make it today you can see the significant trends early and add them up to something.

Almost all of us now carry a device that provides instant access to all the world’s information, a GPS, a supercomputer, a video camera, and by the way, it tracks their health and connects them with anyone in the world.

So what does that mean for your company or industry to find something useful out of all of this interconnectivity and data, you need to think like a social scientist.

How do people think differently given these trends, and what can I do about it.

Finally, you might want to move to a rapid city, innovation is the new currency, and this tends to happen more in cities where ideas collide with each other as a tolerance for different ways of thinking.

Detroit, by the way, is an excellent place for this. That’s where I bought a home the real estate people were right all along with location matters.

None of this is a guarantee, of course, uncertainty is becoming the new normal, but these four things will give you a higher likelihood of stability and success in a world where defined career ladders are becoming more scarce.

We’d love to hear your tips for making it in the gig economy, so please leave a comment below and subscribe to our mailing list, so you will never miss an update from us.