Trend: you will no longer get hired because of your potentials

The world is moving very fast, and so are the people in it. In this fast moving environment, only the most adaptable will survive

Not looking at the recession that will eventually diminish, I believe that companies’ talent acquisition and retention strategies will change completely due to the new career values of the Gen-Y.

In the past, companies’ often hire individuals that fit their culture, who are smart, and have lots of potentials. They invest time and money to train these individuals into future managers and eventually leaders of the firm.

However, since the general trend is that employees nowadays only stick with one company for a few years, it no longer makes economical sense for them to hire people who just have lots of potentials but needs further training to become a valuable warrior on the job.

But who can blame these companies? Why would a company invest in thousands of dollars in training to make the perfect employee, just to lose her to its biggest competitors?

Because of this “job-hopping” trend, companies will be forced to only hire people who already have all the skills, instead of one’s who can be trained for the job.

This means that when they hire you, they don’t want to develop your skills. They want to simply give you some instructions, and plug-and-play immediately.

What does this mean for the new generation looking for an awesome and meaningful career? It means that you need to make sure you are constantly developing new skills on your own in order to compete with others and become hire-able.

Don’t rely on your school and companies to train you and make you a competitive talent

Take initiative and learn as much as you can. Utilize every single spare moment you have to make yourself a stronger character in the game of life.

After all, you have 168 hours a week. A 40-hour job is not full-time. It’s not even quarter time. If you sleep for another 40 hours, you have 88 hours left in the week. Take advantage of that time and level up in whatever you do.

To live an extraordinary life, you have to live every day of your life extraordinarily. If you live every day of your life like everyone else, you will end up like everyone else.

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10 thoughts on “Trend: you will no longer get hired because of your potentials”

  1. I am from Gen X myself, and for most of our age the concept of being able to take a course about whatever-you-think-on, from your own home, at your own pace and sometimes even free it’s not only outstanding, but also awesome and enthralling.

    I believe most of Gen X will achieve their full potential in their later forties due to their good educational background and the growing e-learning tools.

    Stay awesome!

  2. Haha, great insights Aaron!

    Yes. Institutional learning will become relatively weaker and weaker, especially when you can learn everything on the internet. You just need to have the motivation!

    Yu-kai

  3. Nice insight.

    It sounds like this is also a good way to avoid being overqualified, as the skills you pick up outside of work and school may not translate directly to another position (i.e. the recruiter may not see the effort you put in outside of work to be as significant as on-the-job training). I think your message here is that you should build a solid skill set on your own rather than relying on institutional training. It’s the equivalent of someone applying for a job with an MBA vs. an applicant who started his own business. Who has the most relevant experience, and who’s going to look the most overqualified?

  4. This is awesome. Finally, something that really makes sense. The world is too competitive to just sit back and ride the wave. You have to be on top of the wave and already picking out the next one before everyone gets on.

  5. @Olina: thanks for the comments. Yes, untrained talents would be cheaper, but more and more people would have learned certain skills by themselves that the salary will be drive down a bit. I’m definitely more referring to a trend than something that will just happen.

    @Christina: I completely agree with you. A company can definitely people who are able to own projects and think out of the box. However, when you hire employees, you might need to hire them and train them like interns: people who are there for only awhile, instead of train them to become leaders of the company. I think when the people in middle school and high school right now enters the work force, it will become a lot more apparent.

  6. Great article, I couldn’t agree more!

    Except instead of the plug-and-play hires, we are looking for some initiative in the workplace. Those who are able to own projects and think out of the box. With the risk of creativity is accountability.

    I am soon-to-be recruiting summer interns at my alma mater and I just hope that whoever jumps on board can take instructions and not have to be handheld along each task. There is a difference between doing what your told and getting the job done well.

  7. Good article, even nowadays Company wants to hire the plug and play type employee, the only reason they are willing to train is because in this way, they can hire somebody cheaper.

    So, from employee side, it’s always good to learn as many as you can, as fast as you can, since money can go away from you, the skill doesn’t.

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