What Does a Career Look Like in The Future of Work?
Companies and Services Reinventing Careers in The Future of Work
Welcome to this week’s newsletter. This week, we’ll cover:
What Does a Career Look Like in the Future of Work?
News and Funding Announcements For Career, Learning and talent companies
Content to help you work better
1)What Does a Career Look Like in The Future of Work?
Most career development advice and methodologies are focused on employees in traditional corporate environments or fit for employees who work in environments where full-time employment is seen as the norm and expected.
This can often be difficult for people who are outside of those environments, such as entrepreneurs, small business owners, freelancers, and temp workers. How do you climb an org chart when the org chart is literally just yourself? And longer term, what happens when full-time employment is no longer the norm, which could be a reality as soon as in the next decade?
The good news is that entrepreneurs understand that the future of work is more than just implementing the latest technology or being remote or in office. Instead, they’re creating new mindsets and models for thinking about how work gets done to achieve specific outcomes, and empowering employees with tools to identify the right kind of work that suits their career ambitions and desires.
Here are a few examples:
Companies like Roleshare, (job sharing/fractional employment) are providing job opportunities for employees who want traditional jobs but on a part-time schedule. As I wrote about previously, Continuum is building a marketplace to connect HR executives to fractional and consulting HR project-based work.
Meanwhile, Polywork looks to reinvent professional identities and portfolios to help , freelance and multi-hyphenate professionals who want to showcase more of their bodies of work and projects that don't fit within the context of a full-time job.
And if you’re searching for work and want to put a more holistic view of what it’s like to work with you and you seek the same in your future employees or teammates, Candor can provide this view. By offering you chances to share a deeper picture of who you are and giving the ability for your colleagues to vouch and give “takes” about you, you now have the chance to both authentically show to others who you are and what you are like to work with while allowing you to find out about the same thing about potential or current teammates. This gives employers and job seekers much more confidence in what they are getting, and provides deeper insights into how you actually work that LinkedIn and Glassdoor can’t provide.
Source: My Candor Profile
Finally, while the future of work involves a significant portion of freelancers, there are limited amounts of education provided to people who want to freelance. Furthermore, most higher education institutions are focused on traditional modes of employment. Enter PassionFruit.
Passion Fruit, recently raised a seed round of funding (see below) to provide a platform to get freelance business but also gain wraparound services like education, mentorship and admin support to help Gen Z freelancers not only earn income, but develop and grow in their careers.
In the Future of Work, the role and definitions of work, will change. And many of the norms and mental models of the last century will need to adapt and evolve.
What is true is that regardless of where you work and if you’re a ‘traditional full-time” or freelance employee, being more proactive, engaged, and invested into the definition of what you want your career to be and to then use the resources, tools, and skills you have to achieve it is going to be critical for every employee. These are just a glimpse of the companies that are creating the new models and mindsets for career advancement in the future of work.
2)Talent, Learning and Career News
What’s new on companies and topics related to the future of work and talent, careers and learning
Source: Bloomberg & Future Forum
Article: Older and Younger Bosses Disagree on Remote Work (Bloomberg)
According to research from Future Forum (A research consortium of leaders from Slack, Chobani, BCG and other corporate employers) there is a growing disconnect between “younger” executives and older executives around flexible work. Younger executives seem to be more concerned about inequalities in the workplace, and older executives seem to be more concerned around coordination and productivity.
Their takeaway seems to be that while it’s easy to pin this argument as a “bosses versus employees” it really is an argument within age demographics. I’m hesitant to draw too many conclusions from this kind of chart but I think a helpful question might be after reading this is “Am I concerned about the right things or what might be contributing to my blindspots?”
Social clubs, professional associations and places of congregation are not new, but perhaps they are getting a reinvention and reinvigoration as a result of the global pandemic and our human desire for belonging and connection. I’ve written previously about third places, and I think this article shows just how much some people are willing to be social and engaged with others.
Article: 15Five raises $52M to improve manager and employee performance
15Five, a performance management and employee development software company raised a new round of funding to expand their efforts into helping HR leaders improve the engagement, productivity and performance of their employees. While 15Five has focused on core elements of the employee lifecycle like goal setting, performance management and feedback, they’re pushing into some other interesting areas around coaching, education and learning to help take that data and drive outcomes and improvement amongst employees.
This is an interesting and innovative approach and while the talent management market is extremely competitive it does feel like they have some potential especially amongst companies and leaders who are forward-thinking in their approach to employee and talent management.
Article: Passion Fruit aims to be the Upwork For Gen Z
Passion Fruit, a London-based startup raised a seed round to continue building on their vision of an upwork for Gen Z talent. The round, co-led by firstminute Capital and Playfair, and saw funding from FJ Labs, Portfolio Ventures, Atomico, Accel and Notion. While all it takes is someone who is willing to pay you for a service/task to start as a freelancer, there are a ton of tasks, processes, and administrative elements that can be cumbersome and difficult.
Furthermore, when you’re earlier in your work and career, you don’t always have the network to figure some of these things out. This is what Passion Fruit is aiming to solve. Not only do freelancers (primarily marketing specialists) get help finding clients, but they also get education, mentoring and admin resources to help them track and service clients, manage finances, and get expert guidance.
Upwork recently launched some similar features and functionalities on their own platform. If some of the generational platitudes about Gen Z end up being true, this could be a compelling opportunity to provide more support to help Gen Z freelancers build successful businesses and careers.
Article: Edx Partners with Meta to build courses for the Metaverse
When you’re building a new product and you want people to use it, one helpful way to do that is through education and awareness. That is exactly what Meta is doing with its partnership with EdX. With this partnership, students and employees can take courses on the Metaverse produced by Meta and made available on EdX’s platform.
3)Content to help you work better
I’ve had the good fortune of contributing a few pieces about how to work better. You can check them out below
The Ultimate Guide to Cross-Functional Collaboration (The Muse) - I’m a big believer in cross-functional collaboration as a power skill for the future of work. If you work in a cross-functional role, check out this article for some tips and best practices I’ve learned over the years.
More Podcasts - Are you looking for some more podcast suggestions related to career changes, job searches, or interview prep? Check out these resources
How to Sell Your Ideas (Podcast) - I interviewed Ethan Strauss, an organizational management professor at UT-McCombs, and an expert in work-related topics around collaboration and influence. If you want to figure out how to get your boss or colleagues how to listen to you, make sure to listen to this podcast.
That’s all for now. Have a great week!
Al