CHAPTER 9: REINVENTING CAREER SERVICES FOR THE FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Critical needs surrounding diversity, equity, inclusion and access, mental health and wellness, community, connections and feedback systems, tech and virtual capabilities, and self-driven career management must be considered as career professionals invent and re-invent frameworks, services and resources to meet the demands of 4IR global and digital world of work. When compared to previous industrial revolutions, the Fourth is evolving at an exponential rather than a linear pace. [...]it is disrupting almost every industry in our country." Post-COVID-19 pandemic and in 4IR, we can anticipate the following five shifts in practice and approach that have implications for the future of career services: * employers reducing or eliminating on-site work and increasingly leaning into a "work from anywhere" culture (companies like Adobe, Amazon, Microsoft, and Facebook have announced permanent remote work plans) * shifting hiring practices to focus on expertise, core capabilities and transferrable skills to deploy workers to align with changing business needs (hiring company employees vs. employees for a specific role/title) * increased emphasis, by employees and employers, on self-care, wellness, mental and physical health as workers adjust to new work environments, complexities of work-life management, and increased speed/velocity predicted of 4IR work * strategies, systems, and processes that emphasize leaner practices, efficiency, scalability, and automation, with emphasis on financial stability, diversification in products/services, and readiness for unanticipated future global crisis * recruitment for 4IR-specific skillsets that emphasize resilience, agility, tech savviness, analytics, and efficiency Re-Inventing Career Services Career services, both as a practice and as a profession, faces the need for re-invention and new invention in preparation for the changes to come in 4IR. Among these, clients and students will need to increasingly, "(a) be self-directed and flexible in one's career development, (b) engage in self-directed career management over the lifespan, (c) create a sense of meaning and identity in the work role despite nonstandard work arrangements, and (d) secure work that is able to fulfill basic human needs despite the loss of traditional employment relationships" (Hirschi, 2018, p. 195).