Upskill : A Job Skill Or a Life Skill?

By Saurav Chakraborty      Date 15-Jan 2021       Reading Time: 6 Mins

From childhood, we are upskilling ourselves. We Upskilled from a Crawl to a Walk as a child, from school to college as a teen and from being dependent to finding independence as an adult. However, something that came so naturally to us in childhood, becomes rarer as we grow older. The law of inertia seems to catch up and Comfort and Familiarity take centre stage.

I started my career in Media Planning and was part of the largest Media Agencies for the first 3 years of my career(2003-2005). These were the golden days of Television(K Serials on Star Plus), Print(Full Page Ads were in every alternate right side page) and my paltry media planner salary was justified by invitation to lavish media parties every week. However, I was eager to learn new things and Digital was an up and coming medium with a crazy growth rate.

I mustered up the courage to change from a conventional agency to a digital agency, and not only did I get an immediate 2X increase in salary, but things that were about to happen in my career in the future were determined by this move.

I chose Upskilling over Inertia/Familiarity, and that led me to roles in a top travel commerce company and finally a role in one of my dream companies (Facebook).  This transition was pretty difficult in my time but now day’s things are much more organized and simple, so much so that if you type “short term online digital marketing course” for instance you can view a whole lot of options at your ready disposal.

In the last 15 years, fundamental ecosystem changes have disrupted the way things work.Take a few examples :

• In the midst of recession in 2008, an open source operating system called Android launched and paved the way for a mobile revolution. One of the largest Mobile phone manufacturer from Europe saw their downfall as they thought of the mobile phone as the hero and not the OS. With Android launch, suddenly in the blink of an eye, the OS was the centre point and devices just had to wrap their brand name around it.
• Post 2010 , native apps started becoming popular because of their stickiness and user retention. Digital content creation and ecommerce swiftly moved from websites to apps as Mobile became the new “always on” laptop. Those who did not adapt by building an app and responsive msite perished.
• Post 2016, digital content creation was changed forever with Ephemeral Media Creation(Temporary Content Creation) becoming a rage. From Snapchat to IG Stories(Every day over a Billion + stories are posted) to Tiktok to countless Indian video apps today, content creation has completely done a makeover. This has created an Influencer ecosystem where 20 something youths are lifestyle influencers earning comfortably from Branded Content ads/Sponsorships on social media while doing their day jobs.

In fact, Did you know: Cristiano Ronaldo makes more money being an influencer on Instagram than he does playing soccer for Juventus (Yes it’s true: Link)

Adapting to Digital, Social, New age Content Creation are things that one must adapt to in this new age and time. With COVID19 and Work from home, Consumer behaviour has fundamentally changed. The new normal has changed the purchase pathway and both Brands and us as individuals must adapt to Unlock the new normal.

Upskilling oneself with Digital Skills also means a plethora of new job opportunities that open up in today’s world : The ever growing Gig Economy(Fiver, Freelancer etc), Becoming a Social Media Influencer (IG,YT etc) or Digital Marketing are best examples of readily available jobs that exist in the market.

The way I look at it is a supply and demand curve that we all have read in economics in childhood. Today’s traditional media has lesser demand and more supply which creates disbalance. Digital Marketing is a right balance of Supply and demand and hence is correctly positioned as a correct career choice.

So when are you starting to Diligently follow this Life Skill and how soon? 🙂

Saurav Chakraborty
Founder and CEO – Travel Buddy