During a heavily industrialized era, the skills employers wanted mostly involved obedience, increased performance and, well, pretty much the opposite of what a good employee is appreciated for today. It's clear the world is continuing to change, and along with it, so are jobs and the criteria that determine the ideal candidate. What will the world look like in the future, and what sort of employee it will demand?

Sense-Making

In an era that relies increasingly on technological developments, productivity might increase, but it's bound to take humanity down with it. Essentially defined as "the ability to determine the deeper meaning behind something given," sense-making is a necessary skill if we are to keep the shades of gray that define us.

Moreover, it also refers to the ability to connect dots and to create something out of the given plan. Given how we are all slowly but steadily getting replaced by machines, in the future, there will be fewer people to aid with the creative part of business.

Cross Cultural Competency

Globalization is a growing reality and seclusion is becoming a foreign concept for us all. Whether we're talking about multi-national structures or interpersonal systems that make it easier for cultural mixing, it's clear we need to adapt to the times.

It's already becoming clear that people who speak multiple languages are more likely to occupy an important position. Moreover, plenty of companies are now going global, extending all over the world. As a result, their ideal employees need to be able to adapt to different cultures.

Cognitive Load Management

Don't you hate when you are presented with a ton of tasks and you don't know where to start? If that's the case, it's probably because you lack cognitive load management. It's no secret we live in an era where we are bombarded by information.

The difference in functionality is how we adapt to it, how we filter it and how we manage to correctly prioritize it. Possess this skill and you may also find it a lot easier to filter through job applications and understand which one is most suitable.

Novel and Adaptive Thinking

We are fortunate enough to be able to say we are starting to be looked at less like robots and more like human beings with functional ideas and creativity. This is shown in the growing trends of companies that are starting to encourage self-initiative and finding nonconventional routes for problem solving.

In the end, it's all about pushing ourselves beyond our limits and out of our comfort zone. Employers look less in the direction of people who wholly abide by conventions and more toward people with the ability to bring innovations and solutions no one else would have thought of.

Social Intelligence

Last but not least, the era of globalization also heavily encourages teamwork. Possessing social skills is going to become a crucial asset, whether we're talking about interactions with customers, employers or employees.

Social intelligence refers to the capacity to understand that others don't share the same goals and motivations as we do, and the key to all is asking the right questions and getting their own goals to align with our own.

These will be the keys to being the ideal employee in a few decades. Are you ready for the future?