You are already capable. You are already qualified. You are already valuable.
I get that navigating today’s job market is hard. Not that the job market in and of itself is terrible, but instead because we’ve entered a new generation of problems to solve and challenges to face and, frankly speaking, most of us were never taught what to do in this kind of situation.
The same thing happened with the adoption of the Internet, the automobile and the assembly line, and even the printing press. Technologies like AI, quantum computing, gene editing, blockchain, XR, and more are solving problems that we as a people were stuck on for generations. The problems of today are becoming the problems of yesterday, allowing us to start work on new problems (some new to us, some previously untouchable).
While on the bright side, this does mean new career paths are being born. However, it also means that many of the previous generations’ career paths are nearing their ends; that’s incredibly stressful and overwhelming.
BUT, WAIT! You’re not alone and this isn’t the end of the line for you.
Your past experience is not in vain. You’ve learned and accomplished more things that you may be aware of and each of those things CAN take you into the future, IF you let them.
Think back to what you’ve achieved and ask yourself why did each of them matter? Great, you deployed over 100+ new features, but what value did those features have? Were they just features built for the sake of building something, or did they change the way your customers act for the better?
When you understand why your experience, skills, and achievements matter, you have a much, much easier time comprehending just how valuable you actually are, even when the world around you seems bleak.
You are capable of great things. Else, how do you explain all your past wins?
You are valuable. And no job market can ever change that.
