Malcolm GauldHaving a daughter a few months away from college graduation, I am an up-close-and-personal witness to the anxieties currently felt by those approaching the job market for the first time. It’s never been this tough in my lifetime.
In recent meetings with Hyde seniors at Bath and Woodstock, I have tried to impart the message that good opportunities are still to be had out in the big, bad world, provided you are… Exceptional.
In today’s New York Times, I was delighted to see that Thomas Friedman has addressed this issue head-0n in a piece titled “Average is Over.” I wished I had had this paragraph available while I was talking with the kids:
In the past, workers with average skills, doing an average job, could earn an average lifestyle. But, today, average is officially over. Being average just won’t earn you what it used to. It can’t when so many more employers have so much more access to so much more above average cheap foreign labor, cheap robotics, cheap software, cheap automation and cheap genius. Therefore, everyone needs to find their extra — their unique value contribution that makes them stand out in whatever is their field of employment. Average is over.
Sounds like a plan. Onward, Malcolm Gauld
