Featuring Corinne Klajda, Accord Group Polska Managing Partner and AltoPartners Founding Partner

This article was first published in the October 2018 Careers section of Elle Magazine in Poland / Elle Kariera

This is a translated extract from the original Polish article

Occupation: Human

Who do you want to be? The pilot of a passenger space shuttle, translator of intergalactic languages, a controller of gravity, organ designer for transplants printed on a 3D printer? 60% of people born after 1997 will work in jobs that we have never dreamt about. The McKinsey Global Institute, an American consultancy in the field of strategic management, estimates that by 2030, over 800 million known jobs will disappear. The most endangered are jobs that require repetitive activities. Already today, the cashier in the supermarket is replaced by the self-service cash register, on the US highways self-driving trucks are already in operation, and bots in customer service centres run telephone queries. However, you are mistaken if you think that automation will primarily affect jobs that do not require complex qualifications. American corporation JP Morgan has created a Coin program that analyses the accuracy of loan agreements. Work which takes lawyers 350,000 hours, the computer performs in a few seconds. It is speculated that in a dozen years, the Coin project will cause the lawyers in this profession to cease to exist. The programmers believe that soon they will write algorithms that will be able to replace them in coding.

Are we facing global unemployment? What should we be doing to effectively plan a professional future?

In considering these questions, Corinne Klajda is of the opinion that in matters of advanced algebra, we are not able to compete with machines. We can however compliment the machines with our typically human features. Corinne believes that in the future, the play between the intelligence quotient and emotional intelligence will be very important. In order to be successful, a balance between hard and soft skills will be needed. The challenge for future businesses will not only be to improve employees’ qualifications but also to remain an attractive employer for the next generations who are just entering the market.