Adaptability has become one of the most crucial skills that today’s employers look for in their potential employees. It is so because of the highly unpredictable nature of the work environment as people seek to innovate, improve, grow and greater efficacy. (University of Leeds, 2014). Adaptability has the benefits of harnessing hidden talents in the workforce and in so doing, contribute to a greater skilled workforce. On the other hand, inadaptability provides the disadvantage of an inflexibility of the workforce. Instead of uncovering new skills within the existing workforce, it creates a gap and makes them lose out on the ever-changing future.
Johnson (2016) suggests that one should learn how they make decisions and how to make better ones. It includes looking at the past decisions one has made, examining the patterns from this reflection and finally, evaluating them whether they have been successful or not. If the latter, then one should learn to make better decisions. This suggestion appeals to me the most because while one is always curious about new career opportunities, not all are suitable for everyone. Learning how to choose the right opportunity is just as important exploring the new opportunities as it aligns a person’s needs from a career with that of the employer and thus leads to greater rewards and satisfaction for all parties.
While in school, I was concerned about the career path I would take, going into the financial industry did not appeal to me. I used to blog sporadically throughout my four years in college and decided that if I wanted to escape the fast-paced world of finance, I had to make a decision. I made a plan to blog regularly, plan out content to put out and monetize the blog. In this way, I planned for the future, anticipating the challenges and preparing to tackle them. (Johnson, 2016). Curiosity is what made me get into blogging, albeit unstructured at first. It was a new opportunity for me, and it provided me a way to see how I fit into it and how my experiences would help me adapt to this new environment and responsibility.
Learning control proved the most challenging for me, I had to get disciplined, I went from posting once every two or three months to having a strict schedule of posting well-researched and formulated content once a week. Ultimately, this action is what grew and propelled me into a fully-fledged blogger proving a very vital adaptability skill. Finally, I had to harness all the confidence and optimism I could as I thought of relinquishing a stable, secure job in the industry of finance. I turned my dream of self-employment into reality by setting goals and being optimistic to jump into that path. (Johnson 2016). It is confidence in this future that made me take that leap, and it worked out.
References
Johnson, S. (2016). Adapt or die: Why career adaptability is vital to your success. Australian Institute of Management. Retrieved from https://www.aim.com.au/blog/adapt-or-die why-career-adaptability-vital-your-success
