4 Tips to Future-Proof Your Career | The Way We Work, a TED series

How many jobs have you had?

How many do you expect to have over the course of your career?

Well, the scary thing is that number has historically been around 12.

But in the future,

I predict it'll be closer to 20 or 30 or more.

And a lot of those jobs don't even exist yet.

This future of work sounds overwhelming,

especially when you take into account our old-fashioned system of resumes,

job postings and applicant tracking systems.

It's hard enough to navigate just a single career transition,

but you're far more prepared than you think

to navigate your next job change

and all the ones that come after.

[The Way We Work]

I’m Dr. Michelle Weise,

and I advise companies and educational institutions

on how to prepare workers for successful and longer careers.

Right now, I want to talk about how you can navigate that longer career,

starting with your next job change.

Number one, highlight your human skills.

When we talk about skills,

we tend to focus on hard skills like coding, editing,

data visualization or budgeting.

But human skills need to share the spotlight, too.

These are skills like adaptability, collaboration, exercising judgment

or mediating tense situations.

They may not always show up in obvious ways on your resume,

but they have enormous value.

To surface your human skills,

make a timeline of all of your experiences,

both personal and professional.

Do you see patterns?

Have certain skills grown over time?

Maybe your stint as a barista made you a great team player

or good at communicating in chaos.

Or maybe your experience as a caregiver for a child

or someone with special needs

gave you strengths like patience or empathy,

which informs how you design human-centered digital products