THE NIGHT KING AND ITS GENERALS: Technology advancement necessitating the need for a synergic career

Winter is coming believe it or not, technology rides with its army of generals -robotics, auditory analytics, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR)-- and infantries in an unstoppable march and they are coming for us all. Since its inception, technology was created to be used to do things, but now it intends to do things itself thanks to Artificial Intelligent (AI). Technology will soon dominate almost every domain and industry, all in the name of better productivity and making life better, exciting times ahead when you imagine of the mind blowing things the tech industry can achieve with technology (what a time to be an innovative business owner) in the same vein worrisome times ahead when you imagine how these improvements will lead to it replacing human being, that it was meant to make their lives better.

In Nigeria, over the last 40 years there has been two shifts in employment outlook with each shift spanning circa 20 years, the first shift happened at the time of our fathers and mothers, this period, education to the university level was enough to get you a well-paid job with which you can start a family on your own, because education to such level was relatively uncommon, hence cherished, the requirements for jobs were not as high as it is now, few job roles required professional courses, at the least if you do not get a renowned corporate job, a job at the civil service was almost certain. The second shift happened rather swiftly because it was competition driven, giving us little time to prepare for such “revolution”, our uncles, aunties and young parents fall within this bracket, it was marked by a steady increase in unemployment rate. By 2006 to 2010 most of our uncles and aunts were out of the university, owing to the proximity of the previous shift most of them believed that their degrees were still enough to get them a well-paid job, bitter was the taste of their epiphany and low pitched was their eureka, they simply were not prepared for the new competitive world they found themselves, well apart from the informed, connected and “lucky” few. Professional skills, soft skills, reduced age, special trainings, advanced computer skills outside varsity degrees became germane in recruitment processes. This period saw a rapid growth in entrepreneurship.


Winter is coming, technology leads the line for the third shift in employment outlook, its effect will be more detrimental than the previous shift if we are not well prepared for it. Technology no matter how advanced it gets, cannot be mankindly, it will prolly always be a set of 0s and 1s, this gives us the needed advantage and chance at victory, hard skills alone as a requirement to get a career job is fast losing its hold because technology can now easily imitate such skills, which has made experience, emotional intelligence and soft skills climb up the wish-list of employers, these skills are hard to imitate since they are usually garnered through self-awareness, history, retrospection and introspection. Hard skills losing its hold does not make it irrelevant, without it we still will not get a chance to sit in front of a job interviewer. However, perception about it needs to change, some days back I met with some of my friends and seniors to help in my decision of choosing a career path, because I have been preparing myself in several career paths and I felt I needed to focus on one, one of them advised that I focus on them all, opining that “human capacity is limitless”, inexhaustible. The coming battle can only be won if we as humans advance as technology is advancing, we need to expand within our “limitless capacity”, self discover ourselves, become a better version -a 2.0 of ourselves.

Focusing on one career path might not be enough in the future, if you doubt this then "you know nothing Jon Snow", there is a need to thread the path of what I call the “synergic career”, which means developing oneself in more than one related or intertwined career paths, being a master in more than one area as opposed to the usual single area, makes us what I tag “divergent” -versatile, dynamic and adaptive being- who can easily switch between career paths in case winter comes -sadly it might- and a divergent will be harder for an employer to lay off since he/she offers more than one expertise. The next two decades will most likely house this third shift, what the fourth shift will look like is still bleak but I reckon a “fusion/cyborg era” the coming together of humans and technology where we will be technology and vice versa, exciting right? Doubtful but hopeful.