The markets these days are quite turbulent, if not just uncertain. One of the indicators of this is a significant degree of slowdown and negative sentiment on the job front. We have recently seen large rounds of job cuts and the flight of jobs to cheaper locations in several industry sectors such as banking, oil and gas, shipping, retails and many others. Deutsche Bank was a visible example of this. They are slashing 15,000 jobs (6000 of them in IT) and pulling out of 10 countries. Why is all this happening? The root causes are many, and unfortunately they all came together at the same time to create a perfect storm that finally led to economic slowdown, volatility and increased regulation.

 

The constant pressure, in such a climate, to reduce costs has led to some amount of forced attrition. But in addition to that, the evolution of new technologies and the steady growth of mobile computing have resulted in new business models and new ways of transacting that have proved to be disruptive to traditional ways of working. For example, the mobile payments platforms and increasing appetite for blockchain transactions may slowly take payment processing away from its traditional owner, i.e. banks. Financial technology in general is one of the areas in which a huge amount of research and experimenting with new models is constantly happening. The long and short of it all is that challenges to all the major existing players in the financial services sector are emerging not only from the external environment, but from within as well.

 

There doesn’t seem to be a short term or even medium term solution to all the slowdown and volatility that we are seeing on the economic front, and geo-political developments don’t seem to be helping anything along either. But while adopting this perspective may make it all seem like the future outlook is quite pessimistic, is it in fact necessarily the case, particularly for talented IT professionals? For those that suddenly lose their jobs, the immediate answer is, of course, yes, a job loss is always a shock. But for those who work in organizations that proactively keep themselves ahead of market turbulence, there is always hope. By remaining with such organizations, they have the opportunity to prepare themselves for matching change, by aligning themselves with it, and by making their own adaptions to change in step accordingly. They can always hope for a future that is actually brighter than the present.

 

Those who are negatively impacted by market changes and either lose their jobs or are at risk of losing them in the near future, need the equivalent of a pain killer in the form of a career intervention that gives them immediate hope, keeps their professional side busy with new learning goals, and helps them reach new jobs faster.

 

Those who are not negatively impacted just yet, may not need emergency treatment, but could still gain from the equivalent of vitamin pills – to keep their skills strong and immunize them from any upcoming instability. What they need to do is to sharpen or advance their current skills to the next levels of expertise, and maybe also acquire new skills in complementary technology areas.

 

Whatever it is, with change always come new opportunities, and in IT these opportunities create demand for new sets of skills and for new types of talent. The demand for skills in times of change always creates a new balance in demand, especially earlier on. If you’re prepared, then bingo! You’ll be among the industry’s most valued people in no time. Wouldn’t you like to be in that situation?

 

Additional expertise in new technologies can result in a lot of positive difference to your career growth. Find out which new technology or IT job is the one that would best suit your desired goals and how you can get on the winning path of career progression. Consider it a pain-killer or the equivalent of a vitamin pill. Create your Career Initiative on MyTechLogy now.