KOLA MUHAMMED reports that the nature of jobs available for the labour force is evolving, with many graduates left unprepared for the kind of sophistication required to be employed.
It is a well told narrative about Nigerian graduates who studied some particular courses but ended up working in completely different fields. The social media is rife with stories of people who studied Yoruba, Chemistry and other courses but ended up being bankers or administrative managers and made it to the peak of such careers.
All these point to how some graduates reinvent themselves on getting to the labour market due to the kind of jobs on demand. In professional settings, the trend used to be linear. Young university graduates, according to Sunday Tribune findings, would be screened by prospective employers and employed once they scaled the hurdle of employment tests.
The process is repeated for as many that come through the ranks, with some expected to become leaders, specialists, with the possibility of taking up government or international appointment.
However, recent developments suggest that the model is being overhauled with a new surge of jobs and career direction. In present times, as Sunday Tribune observed, new roles are emerging and proving to be more flexible and more lucrative
Sunday Tribune’s interactions with human resource professionals revealed there is a new wave of jobs that has been largely occasioned by the growing impact of technology. Further interactions revealed that not only is the nature of jobs changing, the manner of delivery is also undergoing a shift with reduced emphasis on physical work attendance, mainly due to the global pandemic, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
While some of the jobs have existed since the onset of internet, some of them evolved with further technological expansion. Some of these jobs, according to findings by Sunday Tribune, include: social media management, social media influencing, digital marketing, search engine optimisation, virtual teams management, front and backend developers, UI/UX designers, AI specialists, brand specialists andcopy writers, with the list inexhaustible.
The COVID-19 effect
The pandemic which took the world by storm forced a total shutdown of physical and congregate activities for many months, causing several employers and employees believe that the normal world of work has been altered.
The effect of the pandemic was particularly telling in Nigeria. Millions of Nigerians lost their jobs due to the scourge, with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) disclosing in September that about 20 per cent of Nigerian workers lost their jobs in 2020. Unemployment rate also rose to 33.3 per cent in the last quarter of 2020, according to the NBS, making it one of the highest in the world.
While many would still be lamenting and ruing their woes as a result of the massive layoff across the sectors of the economy, several other job opportunities arose due to the advancement of digital and social media, with such opportunities having provisions for tasks to be done remotely, removing any form of physical or geographical barriers in the process.
Speaking on the impact of COVID-19 on employment, Lagos-based entrepreneur and Fintech founder, Olamide Olayinka, opined that the pandemic is a phenomenon that joins a long list of historic events which have had indelible impact on humanity.
“The new normal is a condition to which the society and its economy settle, following a crisis. It is something that usually follows historical events such as the world wars and September 11 attacks. Now, it is used in regards to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Over the years, the rise of technology has gradually changed our way of life, how we travel, how we work and even how we live our lives. However, the pandemic brought a complete shift. As such, this period has been a tale of human ingenuity and adaptability. And that’s important about the kind of jobs that we now have.
“What warranted this new set of jobs is, first, adaptability. It is how we react to the inevitable change. It has helped us probe for new ideas and solutions to challenges. We now have virtual meetings and all over the world, there are companies who have not resumed fully,” Olayinka added.
The social media-induced employment surge
Lending his opinion to the impact of social media on the new wave of jobs, education consultant and journalist, Syed Rufaid, said:
“Social media is revolutionising every aspect of life. While the popularity of social media has risen consistently, new uses for the technology are frequently being observed. The increased attention and investment in social media by leading industries and organisations have increased the demand for the workforce who can manage and create work online and created career opportunities for the people of every age group.
“Social media has created a huge job market where one has multiple career options and opportunities. Five years ago, calling yourself a “social media manager” would likely have been met with a confused look and the assumption that you waste your time goofing off social media networking.
“But over the last few years, careers in social media have witnessed an exponential rise as companies have realised the value of reaching the youth on the medium where they spend most of their time. Social media are increasingly blurring the boundaries between work and play by making social networks as the medium to earn and make career.
“The sudden appearance of a system that has real power and influence on people has forced organisations to take their work online.
“Job hunters increasingly use social media to network professionally; expand their search, and share information about prospective jobs and careers. For employers, social media has fundamentally altered the recruitment process, broadening access to a much larger pool of candidates. A rise in social media usage by companies has created vast opportunities,” Rufaid further added.
Leveraging social media for employment
Business coach and expert, Olayinka Olamide, expressed the need for Nigerian youths to be “resilient”in order to be relevant and positioned for the new order of jobs.
“In observing the trend of these jobs, it is important for the up-and-coming labour force to be resilient. Resilience deals with how to leverage these new jobs. The world needs people who treat problems as a learning process. If you’re not resilient enough, you would say all these new jobs are not for me.
“Learning them is not easy because they are new. They require a lot of sticking to because they get boring, technical, complicated because they are new. Some years back, they were unheard of.
“Most of what forms the curriculum and knowledge-base are still in the process, still forming. There is no ultimate workbook on these new careers. It is a lot of learning on the go. The information keeps being updated.
“So, graduates need to adapt to adversities and current demands, and not just sit in the comfort zone of the courses they studied. The pandemic, particularly, is making us rethink everything that is familiar.
“Creativity then sets in when it comes to fashioning out opportunities. And one beautiful thing is that there are no rules, so to speak. Any innovation could become a template that others later follow.
“Effectively, we have come to an age that there is a blending of humans and technology in the most dynamic ways. Young people should not say that social media is not for them, because it is the kind of era we’re in.
“So, equipping oneself to thrive in the fast-paced era is paramount. With the constant need for more effective work, the demand for more digital skills will continue to grow.
“In fact, we have not heard the last of these new jobs. More new jobs will come up, new segments will be thrown up.
“Imagine this guy from France who recently clocked 100 million followers on TikTok. That’s a sensation. It has become a job for him – TikTok influencer. That job pays him more than the regular white-collar blue-chip jobs!”
‘Digital media industry has generated over N5 trillion in revenue since 2019’
Corroborating Olayinka’s words is Adewale Aderibigbe, a digital expert with Alpha and Jam who oversees media operations across Africa. He revealed that the huge revenue being generated by the digital media industry will continue to mean more opportunities for those willing to take up careers in the sector.
“There is a stat that over five trillion naira, since 2019, has been created through the digital media industry, meaning that the digital media industry is thriving. It explains why there is an increase in digital and soft skills.
“It only begs the question that if the industry has generated that amount in the space of two years, there is a lot of demand for it and businesses have shifted from mainstream to doing soft and digital marketing and sales.
“The world is shifting in a major way. COVID-19 even made it more real for people in the industry. People were not going out, locked up in their houses with their phones. It only made sense for business to go online. They’d then need a copy writer, a digital marketer, social media influencer that would help push whatever products they have.
“With the revenue being generated, it means that eventually everybody must have these skills at one point or the other.
“The beautiful thing about these skills is that your academic background does not matter. These skills are the same anywhere in the world. Being a Facebook manager is the same wherever you are.
“On the flipside, being a salesman in Nigeria is different from being a salesman in America because the target audience is different. But being a digital marketing person in Nigeria and any other place in the world is the same thing because you would be interacting with the same tools.
“These things require a lot of planning and tact. The fact that it supports working remotely and working with multiple accounts makes it high-paying.
“Another beautiful thing is the social influencing part. Anybody can be an influencer. Influencing can be on numbers or input.
“For youths and up-and-coming workers, it is important to learn a skill. It is free of charge now, mostly on Google. You have a good background of what you’re going into. With everyone going into entrepreneurship, it just makes sense for youths to be equipped with these skills.
“The future looks bright for youths willing to sacrifice time and resources to become skilled in these areas,” Aderibigbe added.
What employment will look like in the future
Also speaking on the nature of employment in the coming years, Olamide Olayinka hinted at what to expect:
“Right now, we have digital migrants. In the future, we would have digital natives. Forms are a thing now; in the future, apps will take over. Manage me will become work with me; office desk work will become work on the go. Formal appraisal processes will become informal and immediate feedback and time management will become result-oriented.
“More emphasis will be on key performance index (KPI). Let’s meet will become let’s chat. A time will come that employers will know that their employees have side-hustles. So, it becomes how fast such an employee can deliver the results. More freelance workers than dedicated organisational employees.
“Look at stand-up comedy, it’s on the decline now. Social media content is the rave right now. It’s a sign of things to come,” Olayinka added.
Corroborating Olayinka’s words, Aderibigbe who has overseen recruitment for digital firms, stated that artificial intelligence tools may soon send people packing.
“In fact, it will get to a point that some roleswill go obsolete because so many artificial intelligence tools are being built to do these jobs. The algorithms would be so configured and heads may roll as a result,” he projected.
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