What Skills Do You Need To Survive By 2030? Geekflare Predictions

2030. The year of choices or despair? It depends on how you prepare yourself for the future.

If you look at the current market scenario, there’re already alarms about how you won’t be relevant.

But is it true? Looking at the past, we’ll see change as the most common theme. It started with the 1st industrial revolution. Now we’re in the 4th industrial revolution, where many technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), have accelerated it and are pushing us to the 5th industrial revolution.

So, what can be done? The only option is to make yourself relevant by understanding how the market landscape changes and how you can adapt.

With that information, you can know what needs to be done and stay relevant.

Let’s get started.

Fear of Automation: Is That New?

To predict the future, we need to look at the past. That’s our best bet to know what the future holds.

In the past, fear of automation is a common occurrence. It disrupts the playing field and changes how we perceive the market and the skills required to stay relevant.

Let’s take a look at the 1st Industrial Revolution that took place from 1760 to 1840. It changed everything about how we created and consumed things.

The introduction of machines meant that companies could create goods faster and push them to market earlier, improving the overall economy. 

However, it also disrupted the job market, especially for workers that relied on hand skills to survive. The 1st industrial revolution was the core pillar of the capitalist economy.

Soon after the 1st Industrial Revolution, we witnessed the 2nd Industrial Revolution during the 1st World War. After that, we saw the Digital revolution, the 3rd industrial revolution.

You get the point.

From here, it is clear that we, as the human race, will continue improving, and it is up to us to adapt to the changes.

However, why the current industrial revolution (4th) is making noise among the current workers? Well, it depends on multiple factors, including the reach of information, the rate at which technologies such as AI are making inroads, and the global social-economic status.

Industrial revolutions are not always good. They have their pros and cons. 

The advantages include:

• Growth and innovation
• Faster production rate
• Better overall wages

And the disadvantages include the following:

• Poor market condition
• Lack of jobs for people with no transferrable skills

Now, we will discuss the 4th industrial revolution catalyst.

Artificial Intelligence: 4th Industrial Revolution Catalyst

We’re going through the 4th industrial revolution, powered by computers. However, soon, we’ll enter the 5th industrial revolution, and artificial intelligence will be the catalyst. 

With an increased rate of development in almost every technology, including Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), and automation, we see an acceleration in the 4th Industrial Revolution. AI impact can soon push us to the 5th industrial revolution(5IR), which relies entirely on AI’s capacity to drive innovation, change, and growth.

According to an interesting piece on 5IR, writer Muhammad Wajahat Sultan explains how 5IR will base on intangible and invisible algorithms. According to him, the shift will focus from human to machine capacity. However, it is hard to estimate the timeline of when 5IR will start. But, for now, it is sure it won’t happen shortly (at least by 2030).

The author explains how AI is moving towards a phase where it starts to replace high-skilled labor. Open AI’s GPT-3 and GPT-4 models are the most prominent examples. However, they’re still not completely capable of automating the whole process.

But, for now, they won’t replace you. I shared similar thoughts on Copilot X, which uses GPT-4 to assist programmers. It won’t replace programmers but help them do complex tasks, saving time and effort.

In another interesting piece by Rupal Pandya, the author explains how AI catalyzes the 4th industrial revolution. She discusses Cognitive Enterprise, its layers, and the impact that AI has on it. Her analysis shows that AI is here to stay but cannot automate everything. However, it’ll be important in improving efficiencies and enabling professionals to optimize processes.

Soft Skills Help You Stay Employable

If you’re a student who’ll complete your studies by 2030 or a worker currently working in the industry, you should know about soft skills.

Soft skills, also known as people skills, let you handle day-to-day tasks and challenges. These soft skills include communicating, leading, solving problems, managing time, showcasing teamwork, and excellent work ethic. These interpersonal skills stay with you and carry over to any job position or business adventure.

If you’re good at soft skills, you have higher chances of landing a higher-paying position. And, with more remote jobs, soft skills have become more critical. 

You need to gain soft skills to make it easier for recruiters to choose you for the job. According to the Global Talent Trends 2019 study, recruiters agree that they had to reject candidates that lack soft skills, even when they qualify based on hard or technical skills. 

However, soft skills are not an alternative to hard skills. An employer always looks for a balanced approach where they look for the candidate’s soft and hard skills. If you have the right mix of skills, you’re bound to grab opportunities your way. It also improves your career longevity and ensures you’re ready for any challenges that come up your way.

The best way to learn soft skills is to practice. Or you can always try new AI communication coaches that help you improve it.

Now, we will discuss the hard skills that will help you survive.

Unlike soft skills, hard skills are bound to change with time. You’ll find many new jobs up for grabs, most requiring digital skills. These include:

Augmented Skills

It is no doubt that AI will be part of our job ecosystem. Despite significantly impacting most jobs, it’ll also open up new opportunities, including Augmented skills, where workers like you need to learn how to use AI to automate processes. This’ll give you ample time to focus on complex tasks.

Data Skills

Data Science is the pillar of many technologies. It offers managers insights, enabling them to make data-driven decisions. With businesses generating more data than ever, it is vital to understand them as they can hold the key to the next big thing. So, if you learn data skills, you’ll become valuable to any organization. 

Sustainable Jobs

As we grow, we also need to survive. And that’s where sustainable skills come into play. Currently, countries are pushing for green energy, and to achieve the target, they need sustainable workers who excel at understanding green energy sources.

Their job would be to reduce carbon emissions and pollution. This means companies need to deploy these experts to minimize their carbon footprint.

Marketing Skills

Marketers will always find importance as products, services, and things are sold to other humans. Digital marketing will be one of the top jobs by 2030. However, the approach to market products will change drastically, especially with the use of AI to learn about human behavior.

Cyber Security Skills

Security has always been a hot topic. With digitization at its peak, there is an ongoing demand for cybersecurity experts. And the trend will continue in the near future, primarily due to AI’s massive growth. Cybersecurity experts must also utilize AI tools to improve security and ensure that they combat AI when breaking into systems.

Augmented Reality Skills

Apple has already started to integrate augmented reality into its products. And, it is only time when other big companies will follow suit. If you are interested in Augmented reality, you’re on the right path to a secure career. With the right skill, you’ll get to create next-generation augmented hardware or apps for the ecosystem.

Space Experts

With space being the next frontier for humanity, you’ll find many jobs related to it. You can become a space pilot or an architect. You can become a space tour guide if you like outer space but lack technical skills!

And Transferable Skills Are Also Key To Stay Relevant

Apart from soft skills, there’re also transferable skills. These transferable skills always stay with you throughout your career, especially if you’re in a career transition phase due to market conditions or your decision to change jobs (to another organization or within the same organization).

Some of the notable transferable skills that you must know include:

→ Problem-solving: With problem-solving skills, you identify issues and have a solution to fix them. You can also use problem-solving skills to improve processes, removing any inefficiencies with the system.

→ Critical thinking: Critical thinking helps you interpret the problem to create a course of action to solve it. 

→ Analytical reasoning: Analytical skills enable you to break problems into smaller ones.

→ Teamwork: You can contribute to the project by working with other team members. It fosters collaboration and ensures growth for both the individuals and the company.

→ Adaptability: Adapting to your work environment is critical as job requirements constantly change. 

Apart from these, you must also have the following transferable skills:

• Creativity
• Active listening skills
• Ability to build relationships
• Ability to manage projects 
• Attention to detail
• Computer skills
• Ability to write

Upskill is the Key to Survival

To stay relevant in any industry, you’ll need to Upskill.

Upskilling is deliberately investing time and energy to learn new skills. These skills can relate to your current job or the near future. It makes you more efficient in your current job settings and enables you to advance through your career by taking on opportunities that you wouldn’t have without upskilling yourself.

By upskilling, you decrease the chances of your getting outdated with the job market changes. There are multiple reasons why you should upskill from time to time. These reasons include:

• Artificial intelligence is on the path to impact most jobs on the market. It’ll eradicate manual jobs. The latest GPT-4 models also threaten white-collar jobs to some extent.
• Digital skills can change how your employer values you. You become more valuable as you learn new data science, AI, ML, or programming skills. It also helps you to adapt to any business change and demand.

The best path to upskill is to talk with experts and peers to understand the future of jobs. You can also follow 80000 hours that do extensive research in the field of careers.

Prepare Yourself for the Future

By 2030, you’ll be wiser, more skilled, and capable of tackling problems head-on. The best thing that you can do is prepare for the future by upskilling yourself and staying on top of trends.

And the best way to do so is to get bite-sized Tech, AI, and Business updates directly into your inbox. Check out ByteBrief.

Next, read the IT automation trend that you must know.