I've been hearing a lot of this lately: We don’t know what jobs will exist
in the future! We have to be prepared! But how do we prepare?!? We need
CREATIVE people! This is the answer. We need people who can think creatively, lead, make connections, blah blah blah.
Do we? Do we really? Or do we just want people who LOOK creative? You need to
look the part, right? Well, it’s easy to tell if someone looks creative (they've got THOSE glasses and they won't be wearing a suit), but
how do we tell if they are REALLY creative? I KNOW! Ask them some really wacky curve ball questions in an interview! Like “If you were a pizza delivery man, how would you benefit from
scissors?” That will really sort the wheat from the chaff. The creative
thinkers just float to the top when you ask stuff like that, then you just skim
them off. Easy peasy. TOO easy! I love easy shit like that.
I don’t think we should worry so much about how to be
prepared for the jobs that don’t exist yet – I think we should worry about the
jobs that SHOULDN’T EXIST. Like jobs where you need to LOOK creative and where
giving an answer to the question "What is the square root of a banana peel?" gets you a job.
But if you REALLY ARE CREATIVE and you're worried you don't LOOK creative, there is something that will help you. TECHNOLOGY. This program will give you "a stunning personal website in minutes". Just don't use the Product Developer guy's site as an example because he has a typo in his JOB TITLE and a stupid picture of
a jetty that seems to have NO relationship to what he does - it seems
its only purpose is to make me want to JUMP OFF IT RIGHT NOW!
But who am I to talk? I'm just one of those think-y, talk-y people. Really – I should just shut up, stop criticising,
get off my arse and DO something. Like get a job. So that’s what I am doing. I’m
open to offers – but only offers that don’t come in writing – I will only
consider offers that come to me in a form I don’t even know exists
yet. You get points for creativity.
I was recently asked if I was a 'creative type', too. Made me laugh!
ReplyDeleteDid you say "No, I am primarily an intellectual type, which is sort of a sub-type of creative type, but I do have 'Creative Department' stuck above my work desk in the corner of the living room, but I change the sign depending on what my mood ring says... I guess that means I am creative..." or something like that?
ReplyDeleteAlmost missed the labels"Angry, Jobs , raving , stupid things " explains why my google search for "Rose Tattoo , Ecstasy and Tony Abbott" brought me here!
ReplyDeleteTo comment
The way the workforce is changing it's likely that the only people in Australia with high paying secure jobs will be either those who *actually* do stuff (plumbers, electricians etc ) and the creatives.
...Those employed as engineers, academics and any other task that can be done remotely will probably go to the 70,000 pHD students that china and india will be cranking out per year.
The sad part is we have a cadre of parents who were raised on a recipe of Good School+ Uni Education + big firm = employment for life ... those days are long gone. Even the more Laissez-faire type of knowledge worker (consultants , self employed etc ) are going to find the days of swanning from one lucrative gig to another begin to dry up.
So, here's to Creative types !
Long may your brains keep fizzing :-)
@ruth ... no ones EVER asked me if I was a creative type :-((
Anonymous. I love your comment. It made me laugh. My question to you is: WHO and WHAT are The Creatives? Honestly, these days I just don't know what people mean when they say Creative, but I keep seeing it everywhere. I think employers who say they are looking for creative people often don't know what they are really looking for. I think they THINK they want creative people (whatever that is to them) but they don't REALLY want them, because they often they are the disruptive pains in the arse, and most employers don't want that. It's uncomfortable.
ReplyDeleteToo true - similar to the meaning of Life in HHGG(it's 42) ... for employers the answer is "creatives!" ... but what exactly is the question"
ReplyDeleteLove your blog so far ... keep going!
You could almost define Creatives as those jobs that require a track record of inspired guesswork that cannot be taught in University.
Steve Jobs was a Creative as was Jon Ilve his chief of design.
They can exist as engineers , designers , politicians whatever but they take whatever discipline they are into and synthesise something totally new.
Oddly enough I would only rate a handful of writers, artists and musicians as true creatives (witness Elton John's albums after Bernie Taupin stopped writing for him ...ewwww!) ... but that's just me.
Anonymous: I am trying to work out who you might be - science fiction references and Elton John. Hmmm. You just can't be a genuine Creative with common tastes like that, but you define it rather well - "inspired guesswork that cannot be taught in University". I like it. Thank you.
DeleteFirstly , as to who or ( if you read the st petersburg news) ... What, I might be , that is between me and my therapist/brain care specialist.
Delete;-)
On a semi serious note there is a great book by Malcolm Gladwell called blink in which he explores the advantages and failings in "trusting our gut" when making decisions. Research has apparently shown that the non-conscious part of our brains is incredibly fast at decision making in some situations and can read situations and faces at a speed that our conscious brain cannot hope to keep up with. If I understand his book correctly , this means that if you can tap this super speed silent part of the brain and learn to be sensitive to its signals (as it's non verbal) raised heart rate , sweating , mild nausea , euphoria etc that you can become vastly more efficient at making some decisions.
Interestingly a Wikipedia article about the book says it was panned by a reviewer who was a judge - obviously since they must justify -with considerable intellectual rigour , their decisions in writing .
This raises the interesting idea that maybe activities that appear creative are just the output of someone who has better connections or listening skills when it comes to their reptile brain. In the huge body of work studying the vast spectrum of human intelligence there are so many conundrums and it staggers me that no one seems to want to study stupidity in its myriad forms.
Why a Nobel prize winner can't make friends easily or why tony Abbott got elected ... I should apply for a grant !
Bit miffed you assume my musical tastes to be 'common'. Had I referenced the playing of rick gresch when he played with the air force , I'm betting anyone under 40 would have gone "Who is she talking about!?"
Delete;-)
Gladwell is the darling of the neuro-psychobabble movement. I should not have said 'common' taste - maybe I meant 'bad'. Has someone invented an air kiss emoticon yet?
DeleteHmmm think I preferred 'common' LOL
ReplyDeleteI'll assume you meant psychobabble as a term of endearment. Not quite sure whether you object to all self help books (and the books I mentioned really aren't self help books)or just psychology in general.
Gladwell's books are more exploring what neuroscience is managing to find out about the way our intellect meshes with the actual brain structure. When you are driving a car 90% of the cars activity is happening without your knowledge or input and the current thinking is that your brain is little different to that car.
. I found it quite enlightening - extending the driving metaphor slightly ... I feel you can't drive a car to your best ability unless you know how all the parts work ... Brains and bodies are little different.
I think that some of the people I work with like to think they are driving their bodiy but they appear to be more like a kid with one of those plastic steering wheels that pretend to drive mums car ... They are just kidding themselves :-)
so quiet here now ... where's the lady with the binoculars?
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