Foreword

What should a career coach do for you? Well, according to The Bolles Dictionary—a mythical book if ever there was one—a career coach is one who helps people with three basic questions: what, where, and how. That is, what do I want to do with my life, where do I want to do it, and how do I find such work?

And if you want help figuring out these questions on a higher level—what skills would I most love to use, where would I most love to use those skills, and how do I identify such a dream job and actually get hired to do it—a career coach can help you with that too.

What makes talking to a career coach a better choice than, say, simply turning to your partner or best friend for help when you are trying to solve these questions? Well, career coaches have three resources that your best friend most likely doesn’t have:

•  information about careers, the labor market, “hot jobs,” and the like

•  knowledge, such as a mastery of the job-hunting or career-changing field

•  wisdom, gained from experience, about what to avoid, steps to take, and shortcuts that have worked for previous clients.

The use of a career coach was once optional—you could seek out one if you liked that sort of thing. But the need for one is becoming more and more essential to the art of living a productive and useful life. Why? For one simple reason: You are going to live longer than you think. A longer life means you will be working longer in a world that is changing. This will affect a lot of the decisions you will need to make.

This, of course, has been true since the dawn of history. But what is different now is the rapidness of that change. The world is beginning to reimagine itself year after year. The workplace is reimagining itself. Jobs are reimagining themselves. And this is all happening at an unprecedented speed, as Moore’s Law has observed and projected with its numerous revisions and updates.

You will need a career coach’s help to master a new vocabulary that includes connections, disconnections, man and machine, and the endless dance.

Connections. Things that never used to be connected are increasingly reimagined as connected, because of such technology as Wi-Fi, the Internet, centralized computer systems or hubs, digital electronics, mobile computers, smartphones, artificial intelligence, integrated circuits, and sensors. Can the world connect cars on the road so they can communicate and exchange information with one another? Yes. Can the world connect our devices—our lights, security systems, fitness trackers, appliances—so they all communicate with one another? Yes. Can we connect robots so that they communicate with other robots, either directly or through a central hub? Yes, we can. Amazon already does—try typing “Amazon and robots” into YouTube.

You are going to have to make your decisions about what, where, and how in a world dominated by The Internet of Things—a term first coined in 1999 by Kevin Ashton—where all things, including every physical object, are connected, intelligent, programmable, and capable of interacting with humans. Experts predict that by 2020 between 34 billion and 50 billion devices will be connected. That’s only four years away.

Disconnections. Things that seemed always connected until now—at least in our imaginations—are starting to disconnect from one another. In this grand reimagining of the world, the idea of work may no longer be restricted to “a job.” The idea of income may no longer be “a salary.” And parts of the world will be reimagining money as disconnected from work. Think of UBI—a universal basic income—which involves an unconditional stipend to all people, regardless of whether they work or not. It already is being discussed in Ireland, Germany, Greece, Finland, Switzerland, Namibia, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, and the United States. Its most prominent U.S. advocate is Robert Reich, former secretary of labor. You’ll need a career coach who is more in tune with the current state of the work world than you are.

Man and machine. As the world reimagines itself, many believe that in the not-too-distant future, robots are going to take over all our work and our jobs are going to be eliminated by technology. But when you press the experts—as I have—on what percentage of jobs they think will be completely replaced by technology, they predict that only 5 percent, or at worst 19 percent, of current U.S. jobs will be replaced by robotics, technology, or computer programs. That said, while this new technology may not eliminate jobs, it will tackle certain tasks within jobs. This means that most jobs are going to involve a new kind of partnership.

MIT scientists call this partnership “human-machine symbiosis.” I prefer to call it a partnership between man and machine—a partnership between humans and our inventions. Every job will have to answer the question, “How much machine? How much man?”

The endless dance. It will be an endless dance between connected objects, sensors, computers, data capture, and redesigned user outcomes. A dance that also includes the turbulence that is created when our jobs, our workplace, and our world are all being reimagined.

There are four things you are going to need that a career coach can help you with now:

•  An inventory of yourself. If you were hiking in the wilderness and found a strong running stream suddenly swirling around your feet, your first instinct would be to find something solid to stand on. In similar fashion, taking an inventory of yourself gives you that “something solid to stand on” in the midst of all the change that is swirling around you. Knowing who you are, what you like and do best, what kindles your brain, and what enables you to do your best work has never been more important than in the reimagined workplace.

•  A lesser fear of machines. You will need help to start thinking of machines as your friend with certain skills that supplement yours, not as an enemy that’s come to steal your job.

•  Shadowing. If you did a self-inventory, you may now think you know which field you would like to pursue, or a job you would like to do. If so, get permission to “shadow” a worker for a day or two to see what that job or field actually involves. How much man? How much machine?

•  Familiarity with robots and sensors. Become familiar with how robots and sensors are designed, manufactured, operated, maintained, and repaired. Maybe you will discover something that you really like to do; if so, figure out how to train for it.

All of this is assuming that the career coach you will increasingly need is a flesh-and-blood person—someone who is able to learn, grow, and keep up with the times. In the meantime, you have a book. This book. Find Your Fit: A Practical Guide to Landing a Job You’ll Love will bring you up to speed on what you need to know now.

The reimagined world will be built on the foundation of the world as it is today. This book will help you master this world. Read it, ponder it, master it. The life you save will be your own.

Dick Bolles
Author, What Color Is Your Parachute? 2017: A Practical
Guide for Job-Hunters and Career Changers