“复合型工作”时代即将来临，你准备好了吗？

如果你最近正在找工作，尤其是已经在自己所从事的行业工作了十几年，你可能会注意到，越来越多的公司正在寻找简历中不常见的多技能人才，甚至可能是迄今为止被认为是相对立的技能。例如营销岗位要求具有统计分析专长；软件工程师和IT项目经理要具有创造力、视觉设计以及像团队合作这样的“软”技能；销售岗位的升职需要CRM软件方面的专长。

为什么会出现这种情况？

欢迎来到“复合型”工作时代。劳动力分析公司Burning Glass Technologies的报道在分析了10亿多条当前和历史工作招聘数据库后发现，科技正在重新塑造250多个岗位的工作方式。工作内容的日趋复杂和多技能要求并非是什么新趋势——Burning Glass最初于2015年开始跟踪这一趋势，但它却在加速发展。该报道预测，复合型工作岗位数量将在未来10年中增长21%，是整个就业市场10%增速的两倍多。

复合化案例：移动应用开发人员这项工作在20年前第一款手机出现之前并不存在，其工作要求看起来似乎跟其他的软件开发人员一样，不外乎良好的编程技能。但事实并非如此。设计移动应用当然需要编程知识，但还涉及用户界面设计、内容和营销。

以数据分析为例。Burning Glass的调查称，在2010年，仅有150个岗位面向擅长使用统计学来解决商业问题的专业人士，而且大多数都集中在华尔街。与之形成对比的是，到了2018年，涵盖几乎所有行业的超过170万个工作岗位都要求求职者拥有数据科学技能。

对于那些尝试在持续变化的剧痛中进行职业规划的人士来说，复合型工作的崛起带来了两个方面的绝佳机会。首先，雇主对技能组合的需求越奇怪，那么合格的求职者就越少。Burning Glass的首席执行官麦特·斯基尔曼说：“招聘者将这类人才称为‘紫松鼠’。”为了抢夺这些稀有人才，雇主通常愿意支付不菲的额外薪金。例如，拥有数据分析专长的营销经理的薪资通常比普通营销经理高出40%。

复合型工作的第二大优势在于，他们有抵御自动化的能力。Burning Glass的调查显示，约42%的雇员某一天可能会发现自己将被人工智能取代。作为对比，复合型工作的复杂度相当之高，非常倚重于专业人士的判断和同理心以及想象力这样的“软”技能。Burning Glass预测，自动化可能最终只能取代12%这类工作。

那么如何将自己转变为一只“紫松鼠”？“传统的稳定职业——在从事数十年的重复性工作后退休——如今可能仅存在于工会或者邮局。对于所有人，终身学习是通往这些复合型工作的重要途径，事实上，有可能是必经之路。”

当然，问题在于，弄清自己应该学习哪些技能并不是一件容易的事情。斯基尔曼认为，要不了多久，雇主会发现自己难以聘请到足够的“紫松鼠”，因此他们不得不加大培训和培养现有雇员的力度。与此同时，要找到自己还需要学习什么内容，其中一个方法便是查看业内大量的工作招聘内容。斯基尔曼解释说：“在很多行业，各大公司如今正试图聘请他们认为公司在不久的将来会需要、但目前没有的复合型人才。如果你查阅了足够多的招聘内容，就会逐渐发现一些新出现的规律，它们会告诉你该朝哪个方向努力。”

密切关注所在行业的行业媒体，以及业内影响力人士在会议中以及领英群组中所讨论的内容，此举也能够提供重要的洞见。最重要的是，随着复合型工作的普及，我们不妨按照冰球传奇人物维恩·格雷茨基的思维模式来思考这个问题。一名记者曾经问他有什么秘诀。格雷茨基说：“我盯的不是球，而是球要去的方向。”

如今，总有一款技能值得自己去学习。（财富中文网）

安妮·费希尔是职场专家和问答类专栏作家，是《财富》杂志21世纪工作生活指南专栏“Work It Out”的作者。

译者：冯丰

审校：夏林

If you’ve been looking around for a new job lately, and especially if you’ve been working in your field for a decade or two, you may have noticed that more and more companies are looking for combinations of skills that aren’t usually found on the same resume—and may, until now, even have been thought of as opposites. Marketing roles call for expertise in statistical analysis; software engineers and IT project managers are supposed to bring creativity, visual design, and “soft” skills like teamwork with them; and moving up in sales takes expertise in CRM software.

What’s going on?

Welcome to the era of the “hybrid” job. Technology is reshaping the way work gets done in more than 250 occupations, according to a report from workforce analytics firm Burning Glass Technologies, drawn from its database of more than 1 billion current and historical job postings. The trend toward more complex, multi-skilled jobs isn’t new—Burning Glass first started tracking it in 2015—but it’s speeding up. The study projects that hybrid jobs will grow by 21% over the next decade, more than twice the 10% growth rate of the job market overall.

One example of hybridization: Mobile app developers, whose job didn’t even exist until the first smartphones came along a decade ago, might seem at a glance to require, like other software developers, mostly great coding skills. But no. Designing mobile apps takes knowledge of programming, of course—but also user interface design, content, and marketing.

Or take data analysis. In 2010, the Burning Glass study says, there were only 150 job openings for people adept at applying statistics to business problems, and most of those were on Wall Street. In 2018, by contrast, more than 1.7 million job postings, across every every conceivable industry, asked for data science skills.

For people trying to plan a career in the throes of constant change (that is, most of us), the rise of hybrid jobs is terrific in two ways. First, the more unusual combinations of skills employers need, the fewer qualified candidates they can find. “Recruiters call them ‘purple squirrels’,” notes Matt Sigelman, CEO of Burning Glass. To snare these scarce creatures, employers are willing to pay a premium—often a big one. Marketing managers with expertise in data analysis, for instance, often earn 40% more than those without it.

The second great advantage to hybrid jobs is that they’re resistant to automation. According to the Burning Glass study, about 42% of all employees could one day find themselves replaced by artificial intelligence. By contrast, hybrid jobs are so complex, and rely so heavily on expert judgment calls and “soft” skills like empathy and imagination, that Burning Glass predicts automation could eventually take over only 12% of them.

So how do you turn yourself into a purple squirrel? “A traditional stable career, where you do essentially the same work for decades and then retire, is now possible only in trade unions and maybe the post office,” says Sigelman. “For everybody else, lifelong learning is an essential route into these hybrid jobs. In fact, it may be the only route.”

The catch, of course, is that figuring out which skills you’ll need to learn is not so easy. Sooner or later, Sigelman believes, employers will find recruiting enough purple squirrels so difficult that they’ll have to step up their efforts to train and develop more of the employees they already have. In the meantime, one way to tell what you need to add to your repertoire is to read job postings in your field—lots of them. “In many industries, companies are now trying to hire for combinations of skills they believe they’ll need in the near future and don’t yet have,” Sigelman explains. “If you read enough job postings, you’ll begin to see patterns emerge that will show you where to focus your efforts.”

Paying close attention to the trade press in your industry, and to what influencers in your field are talking about at conferences and in LinkedIn groups, can yield important insights, too. Most of all, as hybrid jobs proliferate, it helps to think like hockey legend Wayne Gretzky. A reporter once asked him what his secret was. “I don’t skate to where the puck is,” Gretzky said. “I skate to where it’s going to be.”

Now, there’s a skill worth cultivating.

Anne Fisher is a career expert and advice columnist who writes “Work It Out,” Fortune’s guide to working and living in the 21st century.