“Brilliant, timely, original, well written and utterly terrifying.” Niall Ferguson. Those were the words I was drawn to on the front cover of Gratton and Scott’s latest book “The 100 Year Life”.
If you haven’t read it, grab a copy. It provides an engaging and thought-provoking analysis of how our working lives are changing, not 10 years ahead, now, in 2017. Many of us have been brought up understanding the traditional three-stage approach of education, work, retire. But as the authors brilliantly highlight, this well-established model is being shattered. Life expectancy is rising, final- salary pensions are vanishing, and the jobs my children are likely to end up doing probably don’t yet exist.
“The key difference that has impacted on how my relationship has evolved with KPMG, has been a consequence of the conversations I have had during the different stages in my career.”
If we are to embrace and thrive in this rapidly evolving landscape we need to be re-thinking how we approach careers in organisations – not just in terms of career models, and continuous learning – but how we have career conversations. We are already living in an era of multiple careers where, more than ever before, people are likely to engage with the workplace in new and creatives ways.
In 2001, as a Manager joining KPMG, I didn’t ever imagine I would have a 17-year relationship with the firm. Due to evolving circumstances and changes in my own career drivers, the relationship ebbed and flowed to encompass diverse arrangements; full time employment, three rounds of maternity leave, a dual relationship of two days employment alongside setting up my own business, and eight years’ with the firm being a client of The Conversation Space.
When I talk about ‘the firm’, I am mindful that I don’t mean a mass ‘organisation’ or ‘system’. The key difference that has impacted on how my relationship has evolved with KPMG, has been a consequence of the conversations I have had during the different stages in my career.
By Sara Hope
03.07.2018