Active Career Management: Embracing New Technologies

We recently collaborated with actuartech.com on an article exploring the impact of technology evolution on training and active career management. Written with fellow actuaries Valerie du Preez and Michael Jordan, it also shared our thoughts on the future.

Some of the ActuarTech article echoed my presentation in November 2018 at the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries’ “Lifelong Learning: Fit for the Future” event, which covered career evolution, reinvention, and suggestions from Protagion for managing our careers and developing into new roles (for individuals, managers and organisations). One of these suggestions was about learning how to learn by practising doing things you’ve never done, using your transferable skillset to make the shift. I also referenced the importance of emotional support and resilience-building in this process.

In this post, we expand on this, reiterating Protagion’s suggestions (for all professionals) for staying abreast of the changing technological landscape, recognising the importance of keeping up-to-date and taking inspiration from change. ​

Our general suggestions for how to cope with the changing demands include:

• building your resilience so that you can more easily bounce back from setbacks, including seeing them as learning opportunities and not as failures
• strengthening your support structures, including professionally (within your job, and externally like the support offered by online mentors) and personally (friends and family)
• practising doing things you’ve never done to feel at home with the unknown – using your existing skills as footholds in unfamiliar situations will help you to apply what you’re already good at

We find that these suggestions help us to focus on learning in a new environment, rather than feeling overwhelmed by the changes and uncertainty. It also helps to remember that others have found themselves, and thrived, in similar circumstances previously – look to their stories for inspiration.

Further suggestions for capitalising on the changing technological landscape are:

• stay curious and connected, including widening your perspective to include lessons from other disciplines and professions
• keep learning so that you can evolve and adapt as things change, including reading widely to upskill yourself
• consider the application of technologies (instead of their technical details)
• know what motivates and drives you personally, as this is key to your long-term fulfilment e.g. some people prefer the excitement of being involved in potentially ground-breaking initiatives rather than job security and stability
• develop a mix of skills, including strategic and relational skills that are less likely to be taken over by machines in the medium term

In the full article, we also discussed how training and career management are evolving to support individuals in coping with these changing digitally-driven demands.

More information on ActuarTech:
ActuarTech covers a range of technology trends including Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Data Analysis, Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) impacting actuaries and actuarial work. Designed to help actuaries make sense of the impact that technological advances will have on our roles and our organisations, actuartech.com is a resource that can help you to upskill yourself as it explores these trends as well as provides information on actuarial software and educational information and materials. Their objective is to “empower actuaries with the necessary skills and toolkits to become the strategic voice of their organisations”.