New edition of Careering disrupts your ideas
October 17, 2014Register for Cannexus by Nov. 3 Early Bird deadline
October 21, 2014
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. We’ve all heard this adage before, yet how many of us are enthusiastic at the idea of maintaining the status quo?
Smartphones, self-driving cars, 3D printing. We get so easily excited – I get so easily excited – about the possibilities these disruptive technologies will bring about. However, we don’t often stop to think that some of these changes might be negative. We don’t let ourselves dwell on anything that contradicts the gospel of constant innovation.
But why are we doing this? Why striving to change a model that is already working? The answer, often, is that the model is not actually working properly.
Thinking outside the box, coming up with disruptive, sometimes outlandish ideas will not necessarily change the world as we know it, but it does exercise our brains to think creatively. The more ideas we get, the more likely that one of them will germinate into something awesome.
Like a careers theme park, for instance. Or a business program for artists. Or a great resume technique to broaden students’ professional horizons.
But disruptive innovation comes with its own set of consequences. Tom Staunton discusses the disruption that new technologies (robots!) will bring to the labour market in the coming decades, and it’s not all roses and smiles.
Remember that after you’re done with this magazine, Careering always continues online, with exclusive online-only articles at ceric.ca/resource/careering-magazine.
Happy reading!
Readers’ comments on last issue: A better term than “Barriers to employment”
“Many individuals facing this labelling demonstrate an array of great strengths developed as a result of the negative environments in which they have had to survive. These environments include many different settings including schools, neighbourhoods and on one could go. A basic focus on strengths is not a bad starting point. These individuals have much to contribute. As you noted, they are the majority.”
Ed O’Higgins, British Columbia
“I too have difficulty with barrier or unemployable language. I have been using employment readiness to articulate the spectrum people find themselves in when looking for work.”
Jean Simpson, Ontario
