Comments on: What is a 21st Century Career?

By: Dila

Dila — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 15:05:16 +0000

Wow.. this post really hit home, Joseph. For me a career is making stable income in what we love to do best and will never feel burnt out doing it. I’m loving my freelance writing career but it’ll be sweeter when I can make it as a full time. Wish me luck

Regards,
Dila

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By: Joseph Lewis

Joseph Lewis — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:05:57 +0000

Newspapers are a unique sort of bellweather. Newspapers rely on advertising for income, and advertisers rely on people to buy newspapers every day.

So as soon as a person buys a computer and sees news online, they stop buying newspapers…forever! Most industries are not so fragile that they rely on customers to buy their product every day, or have intellectual products that can be easily replaced.

To really think about this, we would need to examine complete supply chains. For example, as long as people live in houses, then we need contractors, builders, surveyors, plumbers, electricians, wood, bricks, nails, bolts, lumber yards, iron mines, tool manufacturers, and so on.

Of course, if we ever develop genetically altered trees that can simply grow into houses on their own, then all of those industries I listed will collapse in a few years.

By: Joseph Lewis

Joseph Lewis — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 23:58:34 +0000

Oh, never say anything is “inevitable”! Wiser people than you and I have declared things to be useless and silly, like tanks, airplanes, and personal computers.

The Internet Era is barely 20 years old and it is already threatening to destroy and reinvent our industries for music, television, newspapers, books, mail, telephones, and movies. We live in an era of rapid and unpredictable change.

By: Joseph Lewis

Joseph Lewis — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 23:50:27 +0000

This is true, lots of people will not thrive in the Information Age, or the Online Age, just as many people did not thrive in the Industrial Age. There will always be a segment of the workforce in low-paying, dead-end, unstable jobs.

Once upon a time, almost everyone had to be a good farmer or else starve to death. In a sense, they were all freelance farmers, or entrepreneurs in their time.

In the future, we may revert to a similar model, but with more job options than just “farmer” or “shepherd.” It may be that the Industrial Age companies will prove to be a blip in economic history.

By: Paul Letourneau

Paul Letourneau — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:41:05 +0000

I agree that it’s depressing but the numbers don’t lie. The amount of young and not so young ambitious people out there that have been taught to follow their dreams and ‘be all you can be’ has increased… and is still on the rise.

Generation Y is the largest generation of them all and they are already consuming faster that all the Baby Boomers…

By: Paul Letourneau

Paul Letourneau — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:39:08 +0000

I’m starting to think that our workforce will be divided and there will come a time when all businesses must take an honest look at their organization and decided which part of their labor force belongs on which side.

Regardless, the next 2-5 years will be very interesting. Just take a look at what has happened with newspapers in the last 5 years. Most if not all are online and most have drastically reduced the amount of employees they have.

At least that’s the way it is here in Canada.

By: Thera

Thera — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:33:45 +0000

“it is no longer enough to just spend 8 hours a day in one job”

For some of us, it never was enough in the first place :/

By: Tom Kraetschmer

Tom Kraetschmer — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 10:28:52 +0000

Cheers Joe, excellent post. Think it’s a sharp future scenario you draw with a great amount of true facts. I don’t fully agree in every respect though, as some aspects – such as physical travelling by car – are inevitable in my opinion. Not neccesarily for jobs, but for quality of life, which at the end of the day might be seen as the power for our freelancer batteries. Another question is that of social contacts and skills. It’s true that latest technology gives us an armada of tools into our hands to work with. That is awesome and i am just stumbling into this at present. But thinking to be of more importance just because you’re on facebook and the such, doesn’t automatically bring you freelance jobs. It’s all about airplay, marketing, talent and skills you can offer.

It’s like holding the tool of a hammer up in the air. Does this make me an excellent carpenter? Not at all – practice does. And I fully agree with you, it’s never too late to start working practically.