Future-Proof Your Career As a Pi-Shaped Professional
“Will AI take over future jobs?” tends to be a concern for the upcoming generation, and frankly the rest of us too.
Yesterday, I had the privilege to speak on “The Leadership Mindset: Keys to a Fulfilling Career and Life” at Los Altos High School for their STEAM Career Week event (STEAM is like STEM but with science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) to offer advice…
The Pi-Shaped Professional With Leadership Skills
I believe the solution to future-proofing one’s career is for people to become adaptable as a Pi-Shaped Professional by growing skills in 3 dimensions:
- Deep expertise in one area like science, tech, engineering, arts, and math
- A second expertise in a domain area like the healthcare industry
- Breadth skills particularly Leadership and Communications
Drawing from my own experiences, I gave the students 3 main tips they can start doing today to gain valuable Leadership and Communication skills:
- Volunteer, serve, and lead: servant leadership to help others
- Partner with a larger community: think beyond your borders
- Learn from mentors: learn from anyone in the world
For visual examples, I used the art of origami to illustrate what Pi-Shaped Professionals can do. Pi-shaped scientists and engineers were able to creatively solve tricky design challenges using origami techniques:
- James Webb space telescope
- car airbags
- heart stents in cardiovascular surgery.
For Future Generations
I hope I was able to tailor my message to stick, and help this generation be more confident of the future. If you had the opportunity, what would you share to inspire future generations?
The event organizers might publish my talk on YouTube in the future. Let me know if you want me to tell you where to find the video when it comes out.
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