Mindset change has to happen first. Firstly, we have to realise that we are behind the curve and are willing to want to change, to reinvent oneself. For me, it was the realization that the old banking economy I was in for the last 26 years was dying big time, that the new economy is going to make old dogs like myself redundant. The cutting of expenses was more important than preserving experienced talent. What next?
As a first step, I am approaching this from the perspective that I require help to upgrade myself. I need to learn new skills in order to compete with the Millenials. I have had some online training experience in my previous jobs, so this was not completely new to me. The timing was also ripe that the government is encouraging this trend with subsidies for an individual to sign up for online courses to pick up new skills.
As I dig deeper into the area, I discovered the Coursera and Udemy websites. There are so many free online courses there for you to get a taste of each new subject first. This is not as easy as I thought. The most difficult part is to narrow down the ones you think you are interested in and then giving it a shot. Meanwhile, before I left my old job, I had mentally committed to myself that I will do at least 10 of them in the next 6 months.
Currently, I am in the midst of the following free online courses : (1) Entrepreneurship – from Idea to Launch and (2) Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python). Having taken computer science during my junior college days, I was interested to see what new computer languages are out there. The name Python came up. As I run through this course, it reminded me of Basic Plus which I studied more than 30 years ago! Being an entrepreneur was also something I wanted to explore, besides attending the numerous fintech seminars that are being held nowadays.
Indeed, there are tools out there to teach an old dog like me some new tricks in this new age economy. Need to consistently push on to improve myself.
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