Keep learning and upgrading yourself to be relevant in market
Long back I was talking to one of my managers in my last company. We connected after long time. When we were working together in the last company; I was doing Agile Coaching. So, chit chatting after a while, he asked what you are doing these days. I said same stuff Agile coaching. After listening to this, he funnily said Whatever item number is popular in the market, should sing that only. Though he said in very light way, but it had very deep meaning.
When we start our career, we start learning new skills, keep ourselves updated, and try to be on top of everything. Slowly when we get some expertise, we start getting into comfort zone. Things get start becoming routine and we don’t try to break the routine. Now this looks very comfortable, but it is not safe. With the changing technologies and ways of working, it will not take much time to for us to become obsolete in the current market.
So, sticking with old technologies or ways of working, will not help. We all need to get updated, get learn and unlearn things. This will help in being relevant in market, being there in competition and sometimes it becomes even mandatory to survive also. So, when he said sing the item number popular in market, I could relate this that how getting upgraded, reskilled with market trends is necessary to stay in the market.
In my 16+ of IT career, I changed multiple roles and kept learning and keeping myself updated. Sometimes I switched roles and even companies also to make sure that I am learning something wherever I am. I believe every 6 months; we should keep updating our CV and see how market is going on. I am not suggesting changing job in every 6 months but checking on your current learning and relevance with market trends would keep you motivated to learn new skills and keeping yourself updated.