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About the authors
Reid Hoffman is the co-founder of LinkedIn, a partner at Greylock, and director at Microsoft, and is widely viewed as one of the most successful investors of all time. He is the host of the award-winning podcast Masters of Scale and the New York Times bestselling author of The Alliance, Blitzscaling, and Masters of Scale.
Ben Casnocha is an entrepreneur and cofounder of Village Global, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm that has funded hundreds of successful startups. He has appeared on CBS’s The Early Show, CNN, and CNBC. He is a co-author, with Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh, of the bestseller The Alliance.
This book is not an instruction manual for finding a job. You will not find advice on how to put together a resume or get ready for a job interview. Instead, you will learn how to deal with the difficulties of the modern workplace. Employees need to find their inner entrepreneur and use it to jump into new types of jobs. The way people usually start their jobs after finishing university and then slowly move up in their careers until they retire is not happening as much anymore.
This is because two big things are happening: the economy is getting tough, and technology is changing fast. There is a more significant gap between people who understand how jobs work now, have the right skills for a world connected all over, and still think about careers in the old way.
Six strategies can help you get ahead, regardless of your industry or experience level
- Give yourself a competitive edge by combining your assets, goals, and market reality.
Your Assets
There are both soft and hard job assets to keep an eye on.
We have to be patient and not rush to exchange things we can’t touch, like what we know, the people we know for work, the trust we have with them, the things we’re good at, and how much other people know and notice us, for a higher salary. Our salary is not only determined by our hard assets but also by our abilities, relationships, and life experiences. It is important to note that our asset mix is not fixed. If you do not have specific skills that make you more competitive, you should work on getting them. But do not use them as an excuse.
Aspirations
Aspirations and values include your natural wishes, ideas, goals, and plans for the future, regardless of your existing assets. It is about what is important to you in life. Aspirations and values are essential to your competitive edge in your job because you work harder and better when you care about what you do.
How the market works
It does not matter how smart you are, how hard you work, or how passionate you are if a market doesn’t exist. Studying how the market works is a very important thing to think about.
You can invest in yourself by following this plan:
Write down some of your most essential assets regarding how the market works. Think about how you add value to your job right now. Make a plan for investing in soft assets that focuses on learning about growth markets and their chances for growth. Why not get together with three people you trust and ask them what they think are your best qualities?
- Use ABZ planning to make a Plan A based on what makes you different from your competitors.
ABZ planning is a flexible method that encourages making mistakes.
What you are doing right now is Plan A.
Plan B is what you aim for when changing your goal or how you will get there.
Plan B becomes your new Plan A once you switch to and stick with it.
Plan Z is your last chance. It keeps you from becoming homeless. Plan Z lets you take risks and deal with uncertainty in Plans A and B.
Your career plan should maximise your strengths, point you toward your goals, and consider the market’s reality.
Plan to do things that will help you learn the most about yourself and the world. In the long run, you’ll not only make more money, but you’ll also enjoy your job more. Ask yourself, “Which plan has the most potential to teach me something?” The tech business has taught us that it is better to be ahead of a significant change than behind it.
Make a list of what you do not know, what you doubt, and what you want to know about your job right now.
Make a plan to gain more marketable skills, which are skills and experiences that can be used in many roles.
Once you know which transferable skills to focus on, make a clear action plan and stick to it, whether signing up for a course, attending a conference, or just spending an hour a week learning on your own.
- Make real, long-term connections with people and use these connections to build a strong business network.
In the business world, building genuine relationships is a lot like dating. There are many essential things to consider when choosing whether or not to form a professional relationship with someone. Whether you like the person or not, focus on the things they do that can help you build your assets and reach your goals.
When the person is flexible, they can help you change your job plan as needed. And just like when you date, you should always think about the long run.
Relationships are meaningful because the people you spend time with shape who you are and become. The fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already like you.
Roadmap: Look at your calendar for the last six months and figure out the five people you spend the most time with. Are you happy with the effect those five people have on you?
Plan an event where your friends can bring a few of their friends; in other words, ask your extended network.
It does not matter who you know. All that matters are the people they know.
- Make connections, be resourceful, and keep moving to find and make chances for yourself.
If you are looking for an opportunity, you are looking for people. Always remember that people, not companies, are the ones who give you a job.
If you do not know where to start, go to www.meetup.com, attend after-work events, or join a company network on LinkedIn. Do not forget to keep your eyes open at all times!
I arrived in Montreal in 2009, and, like other newcomers, I struggled to find a job in my field. The feedback I received was that I was either overqualified to work in the social sector or because I had no Canadian experience. Despite having two jobs to pay the bills, I continued to send my resumes to any relevant job postings at the CJE of Notre-Dame de-Grace every afternoon.
I attended all of the CJE events in order to form personal relationshipss with the staff and have a deeper understanding of the market. Then, one afternoon, the director approached me and questioned why I was still there, implying that I was still looking for work after nearly eight months in Montreal. He then asked if I wanted to go to an internal interview for the position of employment counsellor for mmigrants! What an irony! So, I went to the interview in front of four people, and after addressing their questions about how HR people didn’t grasp my work experience and how I would improve that for newcomers, I told them my plan, and to my amazement, I got my first real job after eight months!
My concept was basic but extremely effective! I encouraged all newcomers to provide job postings about their professional expertise. I have worked with engineers, financial professionals, supply chain professionals, and so on. The plan began to bear fruit, and I began to form relationships with human resources professionals from a variety of companies! Hans, the director, and my colleagues at the CJE have been extremely encouraging.
Following the success of the informal program, I became overwhelmed by the number of newcomers at our office! I was elected to the Board of Directors of the CJE NDG. A company that had recruited three people from our office called me one day to ask for more resumes! because they no longer want to work together with employment firms!
A friend of mine who had received an offer from an IT company invited me to meet with IT consultants and recruiters. Because I was curious, I decided to attend the event, and my second chapter began when I met some recruiters and asked them about their jobs, and the next day I received a call from an IT director who invited me to his office. I was offered a position as an IT recruiter two weeks later. Me and Hans became close friends, and I still remember when he invited me to his house during the summer with a bunch of people, like journalists and different experts, where we had passionate discussions about a lot of various subjects, and till today I am still in close contact with my former colleagues and now close friends.
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- Take calculated risks as you look for work options.
A job always has uncertainty and risks, but the dangers change over time. Your competitors and the world are changing, so we are all risk-takers. Many people think the best way to have a stable job is to. However, in a constantly evolving world, taking risks is one of the riskiest things you can do.
Remember that the best and biggest chances are usually the ones with the most question marks. The only long-term path for your brand to deal with risk is to be resilient.
The roadmap is finding opportunities you are willing to take, but most people avoid them. Find a job with risks like these. It will set you apart from other people.
- Use the information you get from the people you know to find better job opportunities and make better career choices.
To excel in a specific market niche, it is essential to utilize resources such as books or tools to identify the necessary skills. Only your network can tell you that.
The plan.
Update your LinkedIn profile’s news feed to show the most helpful information. If you have a Twitter account, are you following the right people?
Make yourself the go-to person in your network for certain things. Write topic blogs or set up discussion groups to let your friends know what interests you and at what you are good. When people come to you for information, you learn it together.
LinkedIn recently published a research report entitled AI at Work https://tinyurl.com/9sbwa6yc to measure and quantify the impact of AI on the labor market, using both surveys and their internal data.
Here are the report’s key findings:
The share of global job postings in English mentioning GPT or ChatGPT has increased 21-fold since November 2022.
The number of LinkedIn profiles adding terms like “AI” and “ChatGPT” has increased by 75% every month since January.
47% of US executives believe the use of AI will increase productivity, and 44% plan to increase the use of AI in their organization over the next year.
Not only do 3/4 of people say they would be comfortable using AI for administrative tasks (76%), but most people also said they would be comfortable using it for analytical (79%) and even creative (73%) work.
People are also looking to AI to help them find the right information and answers they need (86%), summarize their meetings and actions (80%) and plan their day (77%).
LinkedIn is also looking to bring AI to its users, as it confirmed that it is currently testing features such as AI-based messaging and job descriptions. The company is also said to be working on an AI “coach” for professionals.
Our work is changing. Additionally, global economic forces are now more powerful than ever in dictating our careers.
Invest in your best asset: You!
Audio : LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman joins Jessi alongside his co-author of The Startup of You, entrepreneur and investor Ben Casnocha, for a conversation about the future of work and the value of treating a career like a startup.
