by Peter Weddle
It's a longstanding rule of thumb: A new car loses ten percent of its value the minute you drive it off the dealer's lot. It doesn't matter whether you've bought a Mercedes or a Chevrolet, your vehicle's worth starts declining as soon as you start to use it. The same is true with training and education in our careers. Its employment value begins to degrade the nanosecond we complete the coursework.
Historically, we've been able to invest episodically in our occupational education and training. We could do it every now and then because the pace of change in the workplace was relatively slow. Today, it's not. Workplace change is now occurring at warp speed.
How fast is warp speed?
Moore's Law provides a good approximation. It holds that the power of technology is roughly doubling every two years. And, technology now permeates virtually every occupation. From jobs on the assembly line to white collar positions in finance, technology is remaking the requirements and responsibilities of our jobs every twenty-four months.
What does that mean for our expertise?
The pace of change in what we need to know is equal to the inverse of that law. In other words, the half-life of our expertise is now down to a fleeting twelve months. Or to put it another way, we become obsolete every two years.
It's that dynamic which establishes the New Car Rule of Career Education. Our shiny new knowledge -- whether it's expressed in a Bachelor's Degree or a certificate of completion for a training program -- begins to lose its usefulness as soon as we move it from the classroom to the real world.
Retaining That New Car Smell in our Expertise
The pace of change in the workplace has not only changed jobs, it's changed the way employers staff their organizations, as well. Today, they are no longer willing to employ workers who are unable to excel at their work on-the-job.
If you have any doubt about that, consider this: A 2010 survey conducted by the job board CareerBuilder.com found that 37 percent of employers -- almost four out of ten -- said they were "trading up." That's the euphemism for laying off average performers in order to hire those who are peak performers.
Now, I believe we are all capable of peak performance, but to reach that level, we must have state-of-the-art skills. And, the state-of-the-art is now morphing in real time. The only way we can stay at our peak, therefore, is to reset our self-image. We must now see ourselves as a "work in progress."
No matter what level of academic degree we have or how much seniority we've attained in the workplace, we must be continuously engaged in self-improvement. Adding skills is now table stakes in the workplace. We aren't even in the game unless we are getting better. All of the time.
That's true when we have a full time and demanding job and even when we are in transition. As a work-in-progress, we only make progress if we are constantly adding to our expertise -- so our talent always has that new car smell.
Link to article: higheredjobs.com/Articles/articleDisplay.cfm?ID=297&utm_source=IU%2B9%2F14%2F11&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Weddle%2BArticle
Historically, we've been able to invest episodically in our occupational education and training. We could do it every now and then because the pace of change in the workplace was relatively slow. Today, it's not. Workplace change is now occurring at warp speed.
How fast is warp speed?
Moore's Law provides a good approximation. It holds that the power of technology is roughly doubling every two years. And, technology now permeates virtually every occupation. From jobs on the assembly line to white collar positions in finance, technology is remaking the requirements and responsibilities of our jobs every twenty-four months.
What does that mean for our expertise?
The pace of change in what we need to know is equal to the inverse of that law. In other words, the half-life of our expertise is now down to a fleeting twelve months. Or to put it another way, we become obsolete every two years.
It's that dynamic which establishes the New Car Rule of Career Education. Our shiny new knowledge -- whether it's expressed in a Bachelor's Degree or a certificate of completion for a training program -- begins to lose its usefulness as soon as we move it from the classroom to the real world.
Retaining That New Car Smell in our Expertise
The pace of change in the workplace has not only changed jobs, it's changed the way employers staff their organizations, as well. Today, they are no longer willing to employ workers who are unable to excel at their work on-the-job.
If you have any doubt about that, consider this: A 2010 survey conducted by the job board CareerBuilder.com found that 37 percent of employers -- almost four out of ten -- said they were "trading up." That's the euphemism for laying off average performers in order to hire those who are peak performers.
Now, I believe we are all capable of peak performance, but to reach that level, we must have state-of-the-art skills. And, the state-of-the-art is now morphing in real time. The only way we can stay at our peak, therefore, is to reset our self-image. We must now see ourselves as a "work in progress."
No matter what level of academic degree we have or how much seniority we've attained in the workplace, we must be continuously engaged in self-improvement. Adding skills is now table stakes in the workplace. We aren't even in the game unless we are getting better. All of the time.
That's true when we have a full time and demanding job and even when we are in transition. As a work-in-progress, we only make progress if we are constantly adding to our expertise -- so our talent always has that new car smell.
Link to article: higheredjobs.com/Articles/articleDisplay.cfm?ID=297&utm_source=IU%2B9%2F14%2F11&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Weddle%2BArticle
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