Embracing uncertainty

By Gudmundur Hegner Jonsson

It's an important time of year for a big question, "What do I want to do with my life?" Think of the many thousands of young people entering the spring recruitment processes held by Korea's biggest corporations. I also consider the students at my own school receiving or awaiting news of offers to go and attend some of the top universities in the world.

Yet as much as I have compassion for these young adults and great care for my graduating students ― some of whom have been with our school since we first opened in 2010 ― I think the career question is often framed in an unhelpful way. It's loaded with false pressure because very few of us make just one career choice.

I know very well from personal experience that pursuing multiple careers in a single working lifetime is not only possible but can also be tremendously rewarding. Having majored in archaeology at University College London and the University of Sheffield in the U.K., I later followed my heart into singing after training as a bass vocalist at London's Royal Academy of Music. My onward career journey into education has taken me across Europe, the Middle East and Asia over two decades.

If my first career passion was about unearthing the past, I now feel determined to help shape the future and the world's youngest citizens.

However, I recognize that only hindsight allows me to neatly summarize the path of my careers to date. Can you imagine how I'd have reacted if you'd told me decades ago, while I was excavating a 9,500-year-old settlement in Turkey, that I'd be responsible for educating students in Seoul? I probably would not have imagined myself here, and that's precisely the point. I've found embracing uncertainty while pursuing passions as they develop to be incredibly fruitful.

What was unusual may soon become the norm. It's now not only beneficial to be able to embrace uncertainty but also absolutely necessary. Today's young people will need to be able to adapt to multiple different jobs and quickly shifting circumstances during their working lives.

Popular academic Yuval Noah Harari said: "Most important of all will be the ability to deal with change, to learn new things and to preserve your mental balance in unfamiliar situations." He foresees a future in which people will have to reinvent themselves up to six times as the rise of artificial intelligence transforms jobs.

Since the pandemic struck, we've entered an even braver new age in which technological disruptions to the global labor market have only been accelerated. This reality is highlighted by the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2020, which estimates that 85 million jobs may be lost by 2025 due to machine-related upheavals. Millions of Americans have taken matters into their own hands by quitting their jobs, and last year's Great Resignation trend has continued into 2022 as these people pursue their passions and try something new.

But we could reframe this as the Great Reset. That Future of Jobs Report 2020 also predicts that the world will add 97 million new jobs by 2025 as the world adapts to new technology. In other words, many of the jobs of the future don't even exist yet and there are career pathways that we have yet to determine and define.

Therefore, opportunities come along with challenges, and no one needs to feel stuck in one job.

None of us can say exactly where we're heading but we do have the past to guide us. Imagine someone trying to predict their career path in the mid-1990s, when big tech companies like Google and Netflix were just ideas and YouTube was still a decade away.

What's important is that we foster characteristics that will help younger people adapt to rapid labor market changes and any other unforeseen circumstances. Creativity, curiosity, critical thinking, grit, compassion, resilience ― I believe these are all essential for students to develop through a holistic approach to education inside and outside the classroom.

To give a practical example, let's reevaluate how we view mistakes. A 'mistake' is not a bad thing at all, but actually a chance to learn, and we all need to be allowed to make them if we are to build resilience.

To those young people who feel anxious about what career to pursue, I say, 'don't be afraid to make mistakes'. Learn from them and focus on purpose by understanding your relationship to the world you live in and how you may contribute to addressing its challenges.

These ideas may run counter to traditional ways of thinking about education and career goals. They may even appear to be a luxury for those who can afford a certain type of education or have the time and wherewithal to reskill. However, I believe that becoming more adaptable and fostering the characteristics I listed should be considered a necessity for anyone who seeks to thrive in a future that is already tangible.

There is no one entity responsible for this ― it should be taken on board by students, teachers, parents, schools, corporations and governments because education never stops.

Now at the age of 51, I remain as interested as ever in learning and being adaptable ― and I hope I'm proof that reskilling is very possible and change can be an opportunity rather than a barrier.

Gudmundur Hegner Jonsson is the head of college at Dulwich College Seoul.