Don’t Age Out of the Job Market — Skill Up 

You thought you’d paid your dues. All those days you’d spent learning new skills. Maybe you even went to school at night to perfect your professional proficiency. Now along comes a barrage of technical advances that confound most of the ways you’ve approached your work in the past. 

You know that you don’t want to become a dinosaur, sticking to your old ways until you become irrelevant. In these times, upskilling is no longer a nice-to-have but a need-to-have if you hope to maintain your career — let alone advance in it.

Looking around at your colleagues, you can easily decipher where each of them land on the Innovation Adoption Lifecycle. Generally, the Gen Zers, who are digital natives and have never lived a day of their lives without the internet, apps, and the like, tend to be the first to jump on the latest new invention. They make up the “Innovators” and “Early Adopters” on the adoption curve. Meanwhile, Millennials usually fall in the “Early Majority” category. Granted, age doesn’t always equate with being a dinosaur. But at any rate, you don’t want to be seen as either a “Late Majority” or “Laggard” in your willingness to adopt new and faster ways to get things done.

This means that not only is it time to go ahead and download the bike share app that everyone but you has been using, but also to actively find ways to skill up and fuel your career for the future.

As you set out to investigate avenues for building your skills and staying relevant in your job, here are some ideas to look into:

1. Work with your employer to create a career map. Approach your boss and ask about the company’s organizational needs in the near (one to two years) and not-so-distant (five to 10 years) future. Inquire how your position will change given the organization’s anticipated evolution. Share how you’d like to fit into the advancements and ask for your boss’s assistance in breaking down the skills needed. Together, determine where you currently stand with regard to each. Then ask for help in creating an action plan and timeline to attain any new skills. If you’re lucky, your employer will subsidize your training.

Pro Tip:Ask if the company will reimburse you for any classes you may need to take.

2. Volunteer for stretch opportunities. As often as your work load allows, take on assignments that will require you to expand your skill set. These will accelerate your professional growth and hopefully enable you to shine in a new area. It’s also a great way to demonstrate your initiative and increase the value you bring to your employer. One cautionary note: make sure that you’re able to apply a measure of your current expertise to the project so that you can be sure to deliver at a respectable level instead of saddling yourself with an immense learning curve. 

Pro Tip: Try to have a more tech-oriented person at your firm mentor you.

3. Join a professional association. Oftentimes you don’t know what you don’t know. One way to find out is to mingle with others who can offer some needed guidance. These people can be found among peers in your profession. Make a point of putting yourself among them and picking up tips from their forays into acquiring and applying necessary new skills. What’s more, many associations provide access to educational resources and training — sometimes at a discounted rate. 

4.Complete relevant outside courses. Once you identify a key skill that you will need to master, research training opportunities. Don’t delay in getting started. Make sure to add any new certifications to your LinkedIn profile and to share the accomplishment with your boss and other higher ups in the organization. Your initiative will empower you as you recognize that you’re capable of meeting any evolving demands in your job. 

5. Schedule one day of the week to learn new tech. There’s never enough time to learn new skills because any sort of learning will temporarily take you out of the day-to-day workflow. You’re going to be slower than average until you really pick up the knack. Pick a day of the week and set aside two hours to practice the skill. Or skip a lunch or two with the gang to brush up on these essential basics.

It’s time to reconcile with the fact that you’ll continuously need to build your skills if you don’t want to become a dinosaur and age out of the job market. Showing a willingness to take initiative, then proving you can meet the demands of future work improves your persona as a team member who is willing and able to adapt to the changing world around you.

Written By Vicky Oliver

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Vicky Oliver is a leading career development expert and the multi-bestselling author of five books, including 301 Smart Answers to Tough Interview Questions (Sourcebooks 2005), named in the top 10 list of “Best Books for HR Interview Prep,” and Bad Bosses, Crazy Coworkers & Other Office Idiots (Sourcebooks, 2008). She’s a sought-after speaker and seminar presenter and a popular media source, having made over 901 appearances in broadcast, print and online outlets. Vicky Oliver is the Nonfiction Editor and an Art Editor at LIT Magazine, the Journal of the New School Masters in Fine Arts Creative Writing, and teaches essay writing at the New York Writers Workshop. She co-hosts the Resilient Women series podcast for Relatable Media. For more information, visit vickyoliver.com.