In a world crafted with digital opportunities, we have too many options to choose from. But a few years back, most probably when technology wasn’t this advanced, you know, AI and other sorts, opportunities weren’t endless. With a few skill sets, that too determined by educational background, we had to decide what to learn and build a career.
Not anymore.
The idea of traditional education and all those degrees has shrunk in many industries while being shifted to expertise-based gigs. Although traditional higher education has a significant impact on career growth even to this date, many don’t think it’s mandatory. And it applies to both— intellectual and physical labour.
Last few days, I have invested most of my free hours into exploring the digital world. Not high-end technological aspects as they are beyond my capabilities but how we can shape our future career in digital marketing and such. To put me in surprise, it has changed drastically in just one year with the revolutionised adoption of AI (Chat GPT etc.) — while I was away dealing with my degree. What we feared would make people jobless is now strategically being used to hone existing skills and reduce the workload.
To some extent, it has replaced a few job categories, like Social Media and Email Copywriters, but that applies to those who failed to embrace the change. Now it is the true masters who are shining in the industry, others have already faded away or clinging to their last bait— ranting about how AI copies would lower the value blah blah. Little do they understand the power of those AI tools. They are like a virtual assistant, making our job easier and most importantly, giving us a greater opportunity to compare multiple versions of an authentic copy without working hours on them.
And there is data analysis— I think we are blessed with so many options that only need exploration. But the most important aspect of those AI tools is idea generation. You will never run out of ideas; a thing marketers struggled with in the past.
Now, many of us wonder where to learn them from. Who will guide us. I don’t have investment capabilities— how do I get to learn them. These are common buzzwords among many of us. Even those who are spending most time on the web. While this sounds hilarious and almost unbelievable, there are still people asking for solutions when they can simply search them online and find plenty of resources.
So, like always, we have most solutions on the internet. We just have to hit the right search queries. And this will lead us to the vast knowledge hub available on the internet that can even teach you to code your first application or a project car.
Still, we have people around looking for opportunities.
Yes, that’s true. Even if you guide them to the available resources online, they will come back again and rant about not having any chance. The issue is not with their capabilities or lack of understanding of the subject matter, but, they are the group of people who want success overnight. What they lack is patience and consistency to endure the bittersweet experience of year-long independent learning.
Having the knowledge readily available, we lose track very easily. As there are so many options there, we find it difficult to focus on any particular segment— clickbait, easy money, etc easily take our attention away. But those who are flexing about earning £££££ in a few months have invested years mastering the art. They spent hours after hours decoding the core of being successful in a particular niche, improvised in the process and now they are flexing it— it’s legitimate, they have earned the right to do so. It is us who are being fooled by the appearance, thinking how easy it is but once started, we understand there are many more things to deal with before and alongside the gigs. And then we realise there is no shortcut to success.
So, what should we do.
Well, in my opinion, we invest time in research first— identifying the narrowest niche we want to start with. Broader terms might sound alluring given everyone is talking about it, but narrower terms always make the quickest breakthrough.
One more thing, what’s trending today might not work well after 5 years, or even the next year. So, always try to add some to your gig, first master the one you have in mind and time will tell what to add to your existing gig to be the sensation of the market— like adopting AI in digital marketing to streamline the workflow and taking all the credit without being threatened by joblessness.
