Tag: careers

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Gen Z and Careers

Generation Z – Gen Z people, are those born between 1997 and 2012.

As the first Gen Zs start to progress into the workforce, we ask – “what jobs will Gen Zs apply for?”

First, to understand the jobs that Gen Zs will have, you need to understand the common barriers Gen Zs will face during their career progression.

In this article we will cover:

  • The future job market
  • Growth job sectors
  • The global talent market
  • Creating multiple income streams
  • How do I choose a job

The future job market

Technology, globalisation, and AI have created a fast-changing job market.

In the next ten years, Gen Zs will be applying for jobs that currently don’t exist.

With the likes of Elong Musk and Richard Branson designing, building, and launching their own rockets, jobs in space is no longer a futuristic idea. It’s happening right now.

Other job roles will disappear.

Some will simply no longer be required, but others will be automated – completed by robots. A Fortune recent article said that: “robots will replace 40% of jobs in the next 15 years”.

This could include many low to medium-skilled jobs. Already, Amazon-fresh has opened it’s just walk out’ shop, allowing shoppers to purchase goods without having to wait in a long queue to pay for their groceries, removing the need to hire checkout operators.

Robots and technology will be used in dangerous industries such as fire fighting, mining, and on the battlefield.

In many of these sectors, robots and humans will work side by side with the machine tackling the most hazardous part of the task.

In an article earlier this year on The Guardian, they explained how: “Thirty thousand “robot soldiers” could form an integral part of the British army in the 2030s”.

Already, AI is used in HR (Human Resources) reducing the number of humans required to complete business as usual tasks. AI is employed to scan job applicants’ application forms and even to conduct online job interviews.

Growth job sectors.

To predict what jobs will be available for Gen Z job seekers, forecasters look at future demands, and what jobs will be required to produced the ‘demand’.

Sarah Dillon in a recent article on the ladders listed 10 possible growth sectors

  1. Data science
  2. Software development
  3. Healthcare
  4. Artificial Intelligence
  5. Mental health
  6. Sales
  7. Digital designers
  8. Marketing
  9. Finance
  10. Education

Some experts believe that a new industrial revolution is on its way.

With AI, nanotechnology, genetics, automation, 3D printing, science, and all things STEM creating new ways to solve problems, the world is changing at a rapid rate.

HR Technologist explained the 5 drivers of change:

  • The rise of technology
  • Social and demographic chnages
  • Connectedness
  • A global talent market
  • Man-Machine collaberation

The global talent market.

The job market has always been competitive.

The difference fro Gen Z job applicants is the number of people applying for the same advertised position.

Prior to the launch of online applications, job seekers had to handwrite a lengthy job application form. The time this took, as well as the number of hours search then ‘job column’ in a newspaper or traveling to business to physically hand-in your CV, resulted in a lower number of applications per vacancy.

The average number of applications per vacancy was around 25.

Once online applications became the new way to apply for job roles, career professionals, uploading CVs and copying and pasting application forms, could quickly apply for a number of different roles in quick succession.

Today, the average number of applications per role is around 250. But for global companies; Google, Microsoft, Telsa, the average number of applications is in the thousands.

To summarise, the job marketing is changing.

But this is nothing new. The job market is a living beast, always shifting, evolving based on a number of drivers of change which can also include global economics, customer demand, and technology.

These drivers of change can help Gen Z job seekers predict future job growth sectors.

Applying for a position is more competitive than ever before. And applicants may be interviewed by robots not humans.

This new era of work is leading Gen Z career professionals to have multiple income streams.

Creating multiple income streams.

Having multiple jobs or incomes is the new norm.

Gen Z’s have grown up with their bedrooms filled with technology, with a virtual set of friends, and half their life spent online.

For the Gen Z, having a virtual job, either as a second income or a full-time position is an obvious solution.

The online position may include:

  • Creating a second income from a blog, podcast or youtube channel
  • Selling goods on an Etsy channel is relatively easy, often with low overheads
  • Offering services on fiver or getting finacial backing for an idea or product through kickstarter can create massive earnings

The days of working in one organization for life have long gone, even among the older workforce. The banking crisis and Covid have shown how unexpected events can kill careers.

Young people have many interests, many skills, many options. Having multiple jobs can be creative, challenging and creates choice.

If one job doesn’t work out, the Gen Z worker can leave while still having an income from a second or third career. 

Gen Z understands the global market and will work for companies in various countries.

How to choose a job?

Salary is still a career motivator for many people.

But Gen Zs are also interested in the ethics of an organization, their values, and mission.

Whereas an older career professional may have the belief that you should accept the job based on the salary alone, Gen Z job applicants will reflect on their work-life balance, the environment they will be working in, what freedom they will have in the job, and if their personal values meet the values of the employer.

Evolve the mind book on Amazon

This new outlook affects employers.

On average, career professionals only stay in a job for an average of 3-5 years. Compared to the Gen Zs grandparents who would have had a ‘job for life’.

This is why employers, especially in sectors where there are more jobs than applicants, or in growth sectors, or industries with an aging workforce, will work hard to increase staff retention.

This is why tech companies looking to recruit the youth, have flexible working hours. In these companies, you can bring your dog to work, have a nap in a ‘sleeping bay’ or take a duvet day whenever you require one.

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5 Unbelievably Simple Ways To Sharpen Your Soft Skills & Advance Your Career

You have recently passed out from a prestigious institute with an excellent grade in all your subjects. You have all the knowledge you got from books and you can’t wait to put it to good use.

Unfortunately, that prestigious institute did not teach you the major soft skills which are mandatory in every profession. If you lack these skills, then you might as well burn your degree as it would be of no use if you do not possess certain qualities that helps you move forward in your career. Take a look at the following five soft skills which you need to learn on your own: 

Be A Good Listener

Be a good and attentive listener. If you are working in a company and a client will come to you with a problem, then he is not going to use the same fancy terms as you. He will explain it in his own way. You need to be patient, and carefully evaluate what the person is trying to say and then wait for him to finish before asking questions. Empathizing with your customers is also a great way to earn their respect.

Communication In An Understandable Way

You will meet many types of people all working in different fields every day. You must practice expressing yourself in such a way that everyone in the audience will be able to understand and comprehend.

Avoid using a complicated vocabulary or rarely used abbreviations which can lead to confusion and eventually a disinterest from the person listening to you. Keep it simple and understandable, as there is no need to complicate even the simplest things in life just to sound intellectual.

Adaptive Nature

Adaptive nature means your will to accept change in life. The trouble working with older people is their inability to accept the fact that the world is changing and they should change with it; they prefer the old ways of getting things done. Sadly, you do not have that leverage. Keep yourself up–to–date with all the new techs and new software that the company introduces and utilize it in your work. The key to success is to go with the flow and adapt well to what the world presents to you.

Spread Your Knowledge

One of the best ways to remember something that you have recently learned is by volunteering to teach or explain it to a junior or a colleague; you can also write articles about it and send it to the expert assignment writing service in UK. When you spread your knowledge, you not only clear you concepts but also hone your communication skills. 

Critical Thinking

You will be judged by your capability to think on your feet. Major industries do not have the time and sources to waste while waiting around for some productive solution. As soon as a problem arises, kick start your brain and evaluate all the possible scenarios and predict the outcome of each one. After coming up with a reasonable suggestion, do not hesitate to share it with your boss in the fear of getting rejected. Your job is to come up with unlimited positive ideas and this is what matters the most to advance in your career.

You do not have to literally burn your degree but these skills go hand in hand with everything that was taught to you in class. With these skills, you might be able to land a job and prove yourself a resourceful person but it is also your education that will help you excel in career.

About Author:

Eileen Burton is a media and advertising consultant with years of leadership experience in her $500 Gucci bag. When not consulting, she loves to immerse in her favorite activity, i.e., blogging on leadership and entrepreneur topics.

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Pursue Successful Career in Printing Services

Printing industry is quite a progressive industry and there is a wide spectrum of jobs available in this sector. Printing workers are involved in the production of print material in primarily three main stages namely prepress, press and both binding & finishing together.

Printing workers have the responsibility of reviewing specifications, calibrating printers or colour settings, identifying and fixing issues related to printing equipment and also, assembling pages.

The printing process involves three stages and in very small print shops it is common for one person to handle all three stages. However, mostly print shops have different sets of workers who specialize in jobs related to particular stages of the printing process.

Specialist Printing Workers

Prepress Technicians:

These workers render specialist printing services. They help in preparing print jobs and perform a number of tasks for assisting in converting pictures and text into finished pages and preparing the pages for printing.

Some prepress technicians called prefight technicians are responsible for taking images from customers or graphic designers and checking them for completeness.

They are responsible for designs and job specifications from clients’ electronic files or submitted sketches in order to make sure that everything is perfect and error-free and that all pictures are included.

A set of prepress workers specialize in a photographic process called Cold Type Technology for making offset printing plates.

This is a complicated process that involves chemical exposure and ultraviolet light through which pictures and text of any print job are left to harden on metallic plates so that they become water-resistant.

The print technology has recently made a lot of progress and has adopted revolutionary technology known as the direct-to-plate technology. Prepress technicians are now required to directly send the data to plating systems, thereby excluding the necessity for the customary photographic technique.

Printing Press Operators:

These workers specialize in preparing, running and maintaining printing presses. Their responsibilities vary as per the kind of press they would be operating.

Conventional printing processes such as gravure, lithography, letterpress and flexography are known to use a roller or plate carrying the final image and then the image is copied to paper.

However, in modern times, non-impact processes are becoming popular. Plateless processes include digital, ink-jet and electrostatic printing and are effective in duplicating, copying and specialty as well as document printing.

Nowadays commercial printers are used by digital presses mostly. Printing press operators learn to prepare, run as well as, maintain whatever printing presses they are operating.

Binding and Finishing Staff:

These workers are responsible for integrating printed sheets into a finished item such as catalogue, magazine or a book.

Their responsibilities are as per what they are supposed to bind. Often some binding and finishing tasks require only a single step. Preparing newspaper inserts or leaflets, for instance, simply needs a single folding and trimming.

Binding magazines and books would involve several steps.

Bindery workers are responsible for assembling the magazines or books at first from flat, large printed paper sheets.

Then they are supposed to operate machines that are used for folding printed paper sheets into signatures or groups of pages that are organized and arranged sequentially.

Then bindery workers are responsible for assembling signatures in the correct order and joining them by perfect binding or saddle stitching.

Requisite Skill-Set

Printing workers should possess excellent communication skills as they need to communicate with clients and understand their precise requirements.

They should possess basic computer skills and should be conversant with the publishing software.

They should have an eye for detail and possess basic math skills that are essential for coming up with estimates of amount of paper and ink required for a printing job. They should definitely have mechanical aptitude as well to be successful in their profession.

Educational Qualifications

Prepress technicians should acquire a formal Post-secondary Non-Degree Award or they could opt for an Associate’s Degree from a reputed technical school or a junior college, or any well-known community college.

Printing press operators as well as binding & finishing technicians should acquire a High School Diploma and should ideally complete Post-secondary coursework that is usually offered by vocational schools and community colleges.

Those aspiring to pursue management jobs in design or printing may opt for a Bachelor’s Degree Program in Graphic Design. Printing workers need to constantly update and upgrade their skills to stay abreast with recent developments in the printing industry.

Author Bio

Charles Denver is an experienced engineer turned career counselor who has been attached to a digital printing business for more than three decades. He has now taken to blogging, and tracks down new and innovative technology to analyze the impact it may have on the current printing market scenario.

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How to Succeed in a Software Tools Industry Career

There are many careers in the software tools industry today, among them software development, software testing, and sales.

The software tools industry is highly competitive, but there are several tips that will give you an edge

Software engineering is a technical subject and you will not succeed without the relevant skills. You can get these skills from training. Other than formal training, you will also get the skills from professional courses, from attachments/internships, from in-house training, and from a mentor. You need desire to learn as this is the only thing that will separate you from the crowd.

Keep track of the latest trends in the software tools industry. This is a very dynamic industry that has new tools out every day and regular updates to existing tools. You could get tips on the latest trends from blogs, discussion forums, and industry publications.

You need to be persistent because the fact is that end users will never understand exactly how computers work. The IT landscape is always changing and you should grow a thick skin to weather the storms that will most definitely come. Persistence also means offering solutions that the customer wants, even if the solutions are not what you would have recommended.

A lot of patience is required to succeed in the software tools industry. As an example, if you are a software developer, it may take several months before you complete coding and even longer before you make a profit. You also require patience to wait for your turn to rise up the ladder in the industry.

You should do proper research before bringing a software tool into the market. Proper research will help you meet pressing needs of your target audience. As an example, a tool like Docs.Zone helps businesses convert Word, Excel, Images, and web pages to PDF and PDF to Word, Excel, and Images. Businesses need this service because PDF format offers convenience, cost benefits, security, and other benefits.

It is a common misconception that IT professionals only need to be in the background. The truth is that you need a good sense of PR and other soft skills since your primary aim will be selling software tools. You may be required to use social media, flyers, TV, and other advertising avenues to reach as many potential customers as possible.

Connections are necessary if you are to succeed in a career in the software tools industry. You need connections not only in IT, but also in non related industries such as the media. Take every meeting as a networking opportunity.

Career plan is a list of positions and actions you should perform in time to reach your short- and long-term career goals. Keep track of your progress. If you are not very sure of what you want, don’t shy away from taking to a professional career counselor.

Other important factors for success are:

  • Writing skills
  • Presentation skills
  • Team work
  • Coming up with the right name for your products and/or your business

Author Bio

Jenny Richards is a freelance content writer. She has written many good and informative articles on career, jobs, education and interviews

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Recently Created Careers

Recently created and future jobs belong to the STEM sector (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) and the potential jobs opportunities range from the entertainment industry recruiting game designers to sound engineers, to the energy and environmental sector who are developing new energy sources from wind, sun and wave power.

Carbon Jobs

Governments from all over the world are looking at how we can cut carbon emissions to create a greener planet while enjoying the advancements we have created. Innovators are currently working on Wave Powered Electricity – creating energy from under the sea, Electric Powered Cars that can travel as fast as formula one vehicles and Planes Powered by the Sun.

Scientists from different expert fields are coming together to collaborate, creating new ideas for old problems. This scientific collaboration is proving to be highly successful. There is a massive need for innovative scientists and this sector is due to rapidly expand.

Space Jobs

STEM jobs (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) is predicted to be the growth industry of the future. Advancements in technology, computer science, health, psychology and nanoscience will increase jobs in this sector.

Predicted growth in the space industry is massive, with scientists looking at energy sources from different planets, space watchers ready to predict asteroids hitting the planet and even space holidays are not too far away.

Data Analyst/Security Jobs 

As the internet has flourished, a large amount of data is being stored on company servers, which can literally burn out the servers.  Companies like Google and Amazon collect data to use to increase profits. Big Data, Data Analyst and Online Data Security staff play a powerful part in this high

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Inspirational Mother Encourages Mums To Follow Their Dreams

Louise moved to Cornwall in 2004 with no job, no qualifications and no prospects. “sometimes you have to take the chance” Louise said after ditching her life in Manchester. Jobs in Cornwall are hard to come by even for qualified career professionals.

Louise always dreamed of a career working with children, but ended up working in shops and as a chambermaid, both of which were low paid seasonal work.

What Should I Do

By 2007 Louise had met her husband and was expecting her first child. After he was born she choose to give up work and to have another baby to complete the family. All the time she thought about how she could pursue her dream job. Louise felt disheartened, believing she would have to go back to the unsatisfying job as a shop assistant or chambermaid.

By the time the children were getting older, Louise has had enough.  “I had always wanted to work within a school setting but never imagined I could achieve this from not doing well at school and not going on to further education and now I was older with children I just didn’t think it would be possible”

She got her lucky break after researching different entry routes into careers with children. She heard about entry into university via the access course at college which is equivalent to A-Levels. “it was quite demanding, balancing being a mother, as well as studying” At times Louise felt like giving up, but her inspiration and dreams kept her going. Louise admits that the first 6 months of the Access Course was difficult “I hadn’t studied since leaving school”  Louise admits.

Some people thought it was a pointless exercise, but throughout the long nights of studying and the early morning wake-up calls by her two young boys, Louise finally passed her course.

“I was really excited, I didn’t actually believe I was going to pass” Before she knew it, she had already signed up to Worcester University for the Teaching and Learning foundation degree. Louise is the first in her family to go to University and feels that she can be a better role model for her children.

Louise now has to attend University, undertake a volunteering placement in a school as well as being a mother for two demanding children but feels this extra work is worth it. Her plan is to get a job within a school while completing the 3-year university course.

Louise wants to share her story with other mothers who may not have had the time to attend college due to being a mum or other mothers like Louise who wrongly believe that because you left school with no qualifications that you cant follow your dreams. When asked what advice would you give to other young mums who are thinking about university and careers, Louise said “Just Go For It”

Find out more about Louise on her FaceBook page here:  Louise Phillips 

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How to Plan for your First Day at Work 10 Quick Tip’s

First Day in a New Job – 10 Tips

Congratulations – You passed your job interview and been offered a job.

Often you’re excitement can quickly turn to nerves as the first day approaches. Does this sound like you?

There are several things you can do to help prepare for your first day and a Career Coach can help you prepare. First try these 10 quick tip’s:

First impressions count

You need to make a good first impression; preparation is the key.

1. First, thank your referees as you may need to call upon them again, hopefully not in the near future. It is often good to ask your referees for a written reference, as by the time you next need a reference your referee may have moved or change company.

2. Check you know where you are going, in some cases the interview venue is different to that of your place of work, and turning up at the wrong venue will not give a very good first impression. Also check how long it will take you to travel to work, complete a mock run – you don’t want to be late.

3. Prepare what you are going to wear (what is appropriate to the job role) wash, shave and brush your teeth – all obvious I know, but some people will need a little reminder

4. Bring any documents, ID or bank details that the employer has requested and check you know who you are asking for on the first day.

Understand the Industry you are working in.

5. You will be asked about your experience and knowledge during the first week of your new job role by many of your new colleagues, as you know you will be asked this question you can prepare your answer, to help give a positive impression of yourself.

6. Research the company, read the company annual report, press releases and website. You may be introduced to the MD or SEO, you can slip into the conversation your knowledge (only say positive things) of the company history and achievements.

Be Positive and Feel Good

7. Before you start your new job – Imagine yourself in your new job, doing well. If this image that you have just created in your mind, is a still picture, press play and turn the image into a movie;

In this movie, picture everyone you talk to being really interested in you and really liking how you present yourself.  When you are asked a question you automatically know how to respond, you don’t know how you know, you just do and this creates a great feeling inside.

In the movie, you’re looking good, you look confident – you feel confident. Imagine yourself really excited about this new adventure, how does it feel to feel confident and excited? Where does this feeling start in your body? Imagine this feeling running quickly through your body; make this image large and colourful. As you feel the full emotion of this visualisation, squeeze your thumb and finger together creating a positive anchor and repeat the exercise 3 times for a fuller effect.

How does this work? If you imagine yourself being happy and confident, you will feel happy and confident, other people who imagine everything going wrong often end up having a bad first day. To be confident, you need to feel confident. An NLP Life Coach can help you improve your confidence and motivation.

8. Write a list of all your skills and qualities, record everything you know your good at, keep going until you can’t think of any more., then add one more to the list!

Write a second list of all the nice things past colleagues and employers have said about you, this can be in formal reviews and appraisals or  just as a passing comment –remember how it felt at the time this was said to you.

And finally write a third list of what you can bring to this new company, what value will you add, how will your past experience help improve the company to help them achieve their goals?

9. Smile, you have been picked from (on average) over 300 other candidates. A smile goes a long way and creates a good first impression, also shake hands with everyone your introduced to.

10. On average the first day is spent being introduced to many people; mangers and colleagues, be prepared to answer repeated questions. You will be asked to sign a large amount of company documents and to read many of their procedures. Have a snack in your suitcase to help keep your energy up.

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