Building careers in a mad, mad, world

Known Unknowns

Recently, I had the opportunity to interact in-person with undergraduate students both in the US and in India. After many virtual interactions over recent years, I was happy to be amidst students and engage with them directly. I found that while many of them were optimistically looking to the future, many were also anxious, confused, and had trepidations about their own careers. The concerns are understandable, given the significant changes they see around them.

Tectonic shifts are taking place globally, driven by the desire to be less dependent on China, the war in Ukraine, and the pandemic. The flow of capital has been impacted by the forecasts of recession and a decline of irrational exuberance. The workforce has reprioritised family, community, and work-life balance. This leads, sometimes, to conflict between company and individual priorities. In this environment, building a rewarding career requires the workforce and the workplace to be:

1. Responsible: have a purpose of service to society and to the planet

2. Creative: be a multidisciplinary technology champion

3. Hands-on: increase intelligence in what we do and how we do it

4. Change agent: reimagine businesses in an analog-digital world

5. Impactful: be globally pioneering.

The generations currently entering the workforce are the millennials and Gen Z. William Strauss and Neil Howe devised the Strauss–Howe generational theory, wherein they identified four generational archetypes: prophet, nomad, hero, and artist. They also identified a period of about 20 years for each archetype. There is hence a cycle of about 80 years after which the generational archetypes repeat. The millennials are pegged into the hero archetype and Gen Z would fall under the artist archetype. According to Howe and Strauss, the hero generation is raised by protective parents and comes of age during a great crisis. The artist archetype is marked by an aversion to risk and the need to conform.

It is my observation that in India, we have gone through the archetypes in a more rapid 40-year cycle, with each archetype lasting about 10 years. It is my estimate that the current workforce in India falls into the nomad archetype, as opposed to the hero archetype in the west. According to Howe and Strauss, the nomads are born in periods of chaos and have gone through childhood with minimum supervision and guidance. They do not trust society’s basic institutions and come of age as individualistic pragmatists.

Brooklyn Derr in 1986 talked about the five careerists. These include those who like to get balanced, get secure, get ahead, get a high, and those who value freedom. These career orientations are enduring for most people at a mature stage of their career. Most employees will have a dominant orientation and a secondary orientation. Mine, for example, has been to find balance as the dominant orientation and having freedom as the secondary orientation. An individual with any of these orientations can succeed on their own terms and with their own individual working styles.

It is important for the workplace to allow employees of different generational archetypes and with different career orientations to thrive. And it is also important for employees to have a delivery mindset and understand the value of their contributions to the company and its stakeholders. While the generational models and career orientations are valid and provide direction, individuals will still need to optimise their realities and the world around them. Successful careers today will be for those who are continuous learners, are storytellers, are able to leverage networks, and are change-oriented.

I have been impressed with the capabilities demonstrated by the recent brood of students, interns, and those on their first jobs. Their ability to deliver on challenging assignments and team up with fellow professionals across the globe is exemplary. My company has greatly benefitted by having a strong internship programme which gives the students hands-on experience and an opportunity to impact change in the industry. This provides us with a steady stream of excellent prospective full-time employees. When employing fresh graduates, it is critical to have experienced mentors who can guide this young workforce in navigating the workplace. We are still learning and growing.

The spirit of rejuvenation, enthusiasm and experimentation is the call for action from employees as well as employers to meet the significant societal challenges and create a sustainable future.