Profession
a paid occupation, esp. one that involves prolonged training and a formal qualification : his chosen profession of teaching | a lawyer by profession.
Job
a paid position of regular employment : jobs are created in the private sector, not in Washington | a part-time job.
In his book “Hackers and Painters” Paul Graham describes his uneasiness with the question often prompted at formal meeting “So what do you do?”. People asking this question generally expect an easy answer which opens the door to casual conversation. But what if you are like Paul Graham who is an author, developer entrepreneur, investor and blogger and probably a lot more? His solution? Whenever people asked him that question he replied “I’m developing a new version of LISP”.
Although the story is funny I’m not sure it will make you very popular at parties. And sometimes you don’t actually want to scare people away (as that answer surely did) but give an honest and short answer. The problem is, there is no short description to what most of us do these days.
In fact, it will only get worse. For a while now we have been moving from the Job 1.0 into the Job 2.0 phase. In the Job 1.0 era life was simple. You were born, studied something (in college or on the street) for about 10 years and then star practicing what you learned until you retired. When people asked you what you did you answered ‘Plumber’, ‘Architect’, ‘Photographer’ or ‘Dentist’ and people would know what you were talking about.
We will always have Plumbers, architects, photographers and dentists. But it is more likely they will be like waitresses in Los Angeles. Yes, that women serving you coffee is a waitress but she is also an actress, model and dancer. Your dentist might also be a photographer and blogger.
The Job 2.0 era gives us all an opportunity to have more than one profession at a time. Plumbers don’t just do plumbing anymore. They have to be in marketing and PR as well and offer more related services than just plumbing to satisfy market demand. Architects aren’t just designing buildings anymore. They also design cities, furniture, books and gadgets.
Why is that? Why don’t people stick to one profession anymore? there are two reasons why.
The first is the internet and the second is our increased proficiency in everything. Although it is still pretty hard to become a brain surgeon or master violin player there are a lot of tasks that don’t require a lifetime of study anymore. Want to learn how to edit videos? Get iMovie. Want to create 3D effects for movies? Get a copy of Adobe After effect, dedicate 3 weeks to learning it and get working.
Our tools are becoming increasingly more powerful but also easier to learn. The learning curve for a lot of skills has decreased immensely over the past years.
Of course learning how to use a tool doesn’t make you a skilled master yet. Learning how to use Apple’s Garage Band software doesn’t make you Madonna yet. This is where the second reason for the Job 2.0 era comes in; The Internet.
With our new communication tools we don’t need to become madonna. Madonna became Madonna because MTV made her world famous 20 years ago. There could only be one Madonna. Now, with the internet at your disposal you don’t need millions of fans to be a star. You just need a small but loyal following. Do you have 10.000 fans? Thats enough for a record contract and your own first album. Just sign up at *** and ask all your followers to invest $5.
Madonna wouldn’t have been anywhere without MTV and the big record labels of the time. She might have been able to gather 10.000 fans but how would she have been able to communicate with them? Send them a postcard?
The Job 2.0 era makes us multi talented project managers. All we need to do is find our own, and unique, audience. We don’t need millions of fans, just a few thousand loyal followers. The real talents of the future won’t be able to introduce themselves properly when the question “What do you do?” is asked. That question will slowly fade away an be replaced with the more useful “What are you doing?”.
This also started some 10 – 15 years ago when even if we were in a “job” we had to become multi-skilled, taking on more roles than we were initially employed to do. As we grew into a job more and more responsibilities were added to our role profile, fulfilling jobs that in years past were held by individuals. You are absolutely right though, with programmes available today we can all gain a little knowledge over a wider spectrum – however I can’t help but hear in the back of my mind my Mum’s favourite expression – Jack of all trades, master of none!
Job 2.0 = Jack of All Trades
Formally, low vertical and low horizontal specialization.
The only given is that we need to make sense of the world around us. so I might rephrase the question as “where are you these days?”
One reason might also be the move from an industrial to a post-industrial society. From factory labour to knowledge labour, ten years working gives you a very high developed vertical skill. But what does ten years knowledge work give you? A very high problem solving skill. After you understand the basics of problem solving, you can start solving any problem (thanks to the internet)
So I would totally not agree with the idea jack of all trades, master of none. You need to master problem solving, and all trades become your job.
So yes, a ‘what are you working on these days’ would be a more helpful question than what is it that you do?
I’ve stopped asking people “what do you do?” and instead just ask “what are you passionate about?” Some people have no idea how to answer that question. They are the ones just seeking a paycheck. But most people have one or two things they are very passionate about. And, its those things that are worth talking about when meeting someone, not what they went to college for.
That is incredible advice. When you find someone that can answer “What are your passionate about?” then you have found a strong personality that can likely impact your business.
I’m going to use that intro question from now on.. “What’s your passion”.. Thanks!
“What does ten years knowledge work give you? A very high problem solving skill. After you understand the basics of problem solving, you can start solving any problem (thanks to the internet)
I would not agree with the idea jack of all trades, master of none. You need to master problem solving, and all trades become your job.
So yes, a ‘what are you working on these days’ would be a more helpful question than what is it that you do? Although i’ve stopped asking people “what do you do?” and instead just ask “what are you passionate about?” Some people have no idea how to answer that question.” – Both are on target!
I think this article tells a new story but not the whole story. It basically says that tools are getting more powerful and easier to learn while the Internet is making it easier to collaborate. Why I disagree and claim that this is not the whole story is because we need to look at not just the virtual world but also the physical world. The latter as we know is very tedious. The former, while not being nearly as tedious is very fluid. If person A has a cool tool and a speedy connection so does person B and C so how can person A be sure that by the time he or she learns X, there would still be takers left. On top of all that, persons A, B and C also need to look out for automated bots getting faster and smarter all the time. Imagine Google trying to index stuff without bots. The deadly combination of virtual-physical interface, virtual competition and virtual bots means that we should hang on to our jobs till kicked out and learn the virtual ropes only on the side.
Although one can pick up a copy of iMovie and create videos, creating “engaging and captivating” content is truly a skill that takes years to master. Surely one can pick up a copy of After Effects and scratch the surface of the program in a few weeks, I’m quite certain the results would not be adequate to promote any kind of brand.. I have built a business around these “we can do anything” ideals where companies create their own content with an in-house guy with a camera and editing software. 98% of the time the results are mediocre at best because the company hired a “dabbler”. Sure we will learn many more new skills pertaining to our careers but there are only so many hours in the day. I’ll stick to hiring the passionate guy who has used After Effects for several years now and knows how to do more than make a branding logo rotate in circles..
But even that passionate guy won’t simply call himself “After Effects specialist”. He will most likely be a star in that particular app but keeps learning new tools every day and also masters a bunch of other apps. Most likely he will call himself “Digital Media Master” because he knows that although After Effects is THE tool right now he will have to keep learning new stuff because in a few years it will be as useful as knowing your way around MacroMind Director.
Agreed, I have several “Predators” on my staff.. (producer, director, editors..). They shine in some areas more than others. Still, there’s something to be said for having the creative vision and ability to execute properly and effectively. I’m going to have to agree with the saying “Jack of all trades, master of none”. I’ve lost clients over the years because of dabblers who have told me they could do something they have only touched upon, but made it sound like they were the next James Cameron. Burned and learned..
There is more to editing than just getting iMovie!
I’m sure we all agree on that Marlooz. :-)
I really enjoyed the phrase:
“The real talents of the future won’t be able to introduce themselves properly when the question “What do you do?” is asked. That question will slowly fade away an be replaced with the more useful “What are you doing?”.”
After 20 years of working so hard, it seems there are much more pending questions than answers. Thanks a lot for sharing with all of us!!!
I also hate the “what do you do?” question. The simple answer I give is “Nothing, I am travelling the world.” However, if it is clear that people are really interested in the question and not just being polite, I will outline some of the key projects I am working on.
“What are you doing?” seems to be a better question because it encompasses other interests and hobbies and not just projects.
Author Ian Sanders, called those multiple jobs you describe as “juggling.” I think that is a good metaphor for what most of us do with our lives.
I agree that the “the learning curve for a lot of skills has decreased immensely over the past years.” However, this doesn’t mean it is easier to do things. What it really means is that there is more competition at every skill level and you have to be increasingly exceptional to standout. Everyone is good now, so good is no longer enough.
I also agree that 10,00 fans (or 1,000 like Kevin Kelly wrote) are all that is needed for decent success, although collecting those fans is getting increasingly harder. When everyone blogs, blogging is no longer enough. When everyone can get thousands of twitter followers or facebook fans then the value of those followers diminishes.
I think we are becoming somewhat anonymous in an era of hyper competitiveness. We all think we are unique rock stars, but the reality is that all of us are encountering diminishing marginal returns on our self-promotion and training. It is hard to be unique when everyone has the same access to the same tools.
I would almost argue that it is not “Job2.0″ at all. We are moving away from the industrial age notion of having to work 40 plus hours a week for a living. Many of us are spending more time on projects and hobbies that having little chance of earning us a living. We are volunteering more, travelling more, learning more and experiencing more.
Work has become a much smaller component of my life so I definitely wouldn’t call the projects I work on “Jobs.” I think many people are in the same situation. We work on things we want to work on. My ‘passions’ don’t earn me money but I do them more than my ‘jobs.’
Great article with great food for thought! Thanks.