In recent COVID-19 pandemic we have seen many people have lost their jobs and now struggling socially and financially as they were no able to secure any alternative jobs. I knew several persons who had lucrative jobs and were happy with their roles. However, when they lost their jobs during pandemic, they found themselves in trouble as they had no expertise to showcase other than the job description of past roles.
One person, who have completed his CA articleship long back, was dealing with payables department of the company. Since joining in his executive officer position, he was not appeared in any of CA exams and was not in touch with latest financial and auditing standards. Also, he has not advanced his basic excel skills. As a result, when I referred him for a financial reporting role, he found it difficult to impress the interviewer. Despite having a professional training on auditing and financial reporting, he was unable to impress the interviewer just because he has not updated his knowledge and expertise.
If a person stops learning, his knowledge and skills will start to wear off. He will be out of practice and will face difficulties applying it. That too if the expertise remains relevant after a long time. Because of the legal, technological changes and covid-19 pandemic, organizationsâ operation process has changed tremendously. This is making some of past expertise irrelevant and obsolete. Unless one keeps updating himself and adopt changes, he too will become obsolete for the role he is working on.
I always advice my friends and collogues to update themselves by acquiring new knowledge and skills. while working on your current role, you should train yourself on multi-disciplinary subjects and different application software that will make your work easier. Acquiring new knowledge and skills not only will help you to perform better in your current job but also will make you future ready.