Will jumping around different industries affect my hireability?

It depends. Experience does count towards hireability, so gaining enough industry experience will help you be able to advance and be more sought after by employers in the same industry. However, certain functional roles where industry might not matter as much, say marketing, tech, product development, it can be a good way to gain more diversity in experience. If you’re wondering whether changing jobs often will affect hireability, the answer is yes. But only if you do it for a longer period of time, i.e. five years. The reason for this is because employers may doubt your commitment. For that reason, we recommend at least having one job that you stay at for at least 1.5 years.

Had a job offer before Covid-19 from the company. But the company has been silent since then. What should I do?

Check in with the employer what is happening – if it’s because the business is not in a good state and they’re waiting for things to go back to pre-Covid-19, let them know that you would like to continue looking out for alternative opportunities too. Start applying for new jobs, traineeships, do part time work, volunteer, while you search.

I don’t want to learn tech skills, what can I upgrade to, considering AI will take over my job in the future?

What do you consider “tech skills” that you don’t want to learn? Technology is in almost every industry and being technology literate at least is really going to be critical. Perhaps if you are a successful artist, some kind of creative role where your work will be judged on some artistic merit that might resist the onslaught of AI for a bit. We would suggest exploring design thinking, user experience, where you’re learning to redefine problems to find innovative solutions.

Is it a good idea to start a business right now? What is it really like?

It’s a lot of hard work and no “working hours”. Funding and sales are going to take up most of your attention, but you’re going to have to handle this amidst all the other little details. But, you’re your own boss, so you call the shots, and your efforts decide how well your business is going to be! It’s definitely a risk in this climate, but business owners have the potential to make more money as compared to the average salaryman simply because of this risk.