Voice Author: Why I care for the new workforce and their future.
It’s a slow and lazy Saturday afternoon in Dubai, just like most of the week that went by. And yet there is much to look forward too as I receive the last of my amazon shipments. I’ve finally taken the step forward to get my side hustles to the next level. A New HP Pavilion Laptop, The Canon M50 with Rode microphone and a subscription to the Adobe Creative Cloud, that's pretty much all you really need to start vlogging and or blogging. While I unpack my new equipment I’m reading an article from the economist, titled a recession is unlikely but not impossible. https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2020/03/05/a-recession-is-unlikely-but-not-impossible
At this stage in 2020, it doesn’t really instill fear the way it did in 2008 or 2012 or 2015. I’ve rather become apathetic to it’s plight and consequences. All a person can do is always be prepared. Then again when you are reeling from a decade of constant economic downturns you’re probably knee deep in debt or paying off other liabilities.
I like many other Millennials have had a tumultuous relationship with the effects of globalization and constant economic downturns. In a lot of ways my generation has had a lifetime of life experience thrown at them within a decade. My Generation being the 1985 to 1990 born millennials. I graduated in 2009 from the Asian College of Journalism, as a Broadcast Journalist accredited by the BBC. We were called the “Batch of Recession”, a year earlier in 2008, fancy lads in fancy suits played bingo with the world’s economy leading it to the most severe economic downturn the world had ever seen probably the year of my birth 1987 (Which was another year, marred by a iconic stock market crash) . One of the biggest differences between 1987 and 2008, of course, was that the world wasn’t globalised enough. So an Indian in Bombay really wasn’t too worried about the panic attacks the investors in Wall street were facing. 2008 of course was another story altogether and my peers and I were learning it the hard way. Low and behold when it was graduation time in 2009, placements had properly dried up and the premium paid for that BBC accreditation didn’t really have much to show for it. 2005 to early 2008 was the age of Television boom in India. Up until 1997-98 India had just one Government run English News Channel, the next 6-7 years saw India’s English News market monopolized by NDTV the only private player in the space. 2005 to 2009 saw the emergence of 5 new players and English news found its Bloomberg and CNBC Equivalents. ACJ, as my college was often called, was the premier journalism school in the country with a very respectable alumni. And so when ACJ’s batch of 2009 had no takers, the severity of the shock finally was recognized. The only people who were hiring were business news channels who were the need of the hour to decipher the mess that was the Global Financial Crisis. Being the arrogantly charming camera savvy guy that I was, allowed me to be placed as a business news reporter, landing a job with a new Start-up News Channel; unlike a majority of my peers who weren’t as lucky at the time. As luck and destiny would have it, startups would end up becoming my calling by a stroke of chance rather than the well planned path to becoming a political reporter, which was my subject of interest until then. Unfortunately, my job came with what was perhaps a well below market salary than I had anticipated. This was my first real experience of life as an earning adult. The limitations and opportunities suddenly became very real. Since then there has been no real respite, every few years brought with it unfavourable working conditions and worse yet lay-offs. Lay-offs which until 2008 had been a part and parcel of the structure of capitalism was a completely different beast post 2010, it’s been rapid and rampant across sectors and no one has been completely immune to it. I’ve been part of the churn twice in my life once which came as a complete surprise and once when pretty much everything was going to the shits. This theme of constant economic downturn when juxtaposed into a world of rapid strides in advanced technology and huge proliferation in knowledge and information, creates a kind of cocktail that no one is sure how it would taste. The dynamic nature of employment today has drastically changed the old rules and traditions that were once sacrosanct as recently as 2015. Questions like “is a college education and degree really still relevant” “Is the gig economy the way forward” “Is it now the norm to always have a side hustle” “What is professionalism in the 21st Century” “How do you cope with being laid-off” “Is being fired still Taboo” How do I find my passion in Life”. Answers to all these questions seem to always be conflicting. Does anyone have the answers?
I don’t have all the answers, but I’m committed not to be another opinionated facebooker, sharing someone else’s viewpoint as my own. This 11 year journey hasn’t been easy at all. The trade off for me acquiring a wealth of both professional and life experience was having to go through very hard and rough challenges some self invited and some as a consequence of dynamically changing world around us. And that right there is the theme of Voice Author. I want to talk about the things I’ve learned so that you can approach the challenges we face with a better perspective. I want to discuss new ideas that dominate our minds, with the decision makers of tomorrow. All in the hopes that I can live upto the motto of the Voice Author “Voice your vision, Author your Life”. I couldn’t get anywhere until I had a vision of what my life would be until I could say it succinctly. Now that I know where I’m going, I need to write my own narrative, my own journey, I need to be the Author of my own story. And that’s what I want for you too. The world of the Voice Author revolves around five key themes.
- Professionalism
- Mapping Passion
- Embracing Mechanics
- Leadership
- Starting Up.
So if you’re going through tough times professionally, then know that I’m here for you. Stick with me and I’ll get you through.