Your title doesn't matter... yet

Although they have the same title, the assistant baker at the in-house bakery inside Woolworths and the assistant baker baking only the starter bread at a 3 star Michelin restaurant require vastly different experience and skills. You could call yourself the CFO if you are the only book keeper for the local convenience store, but you’re not even in the same league as the CFO of a global hedge fund. It’s amazing that there are so many roles and titles we give ourselves that lack any form of distinction to enable any real-world skill comparison. 

I'd also cut a cake with a sword if I was next to Bruce Lee 

As we become more efficient at labelling ourselves, we will enable companies to be more efficient at hiring and firing. KPI’s at 0,3,6 months will become streamlined and automated, with performance reviews transforming from qualitative to purely quantitative. Companies will be able to spend less time training, and workers will become more like mercenaries, with loyalty to only the highest bidder. 

They say staring at charts all day makes your eyes turn funny

There’s no reason that public companies won’t make salary and KPI data available if it is beneficial to both the employer and employee. As we increase the available data points on our performance, we enable companies and recruiters to create more comparisons and distinctions between individuals. There will be ongoing professional tests and standards that are digitized and certified by controlling recruitment bodies. Cultural fit and personal values are generally all qualitative at the moment, often screened during a 1st round call. But there will be a time where these are able to be generated based on historical data and testing, to separate candidates by a simple score.

Imagine putting your salary on sale to get a certain job

Although it can seem scary, the digitalisation of our careers is only the beginning. Just as machinery replaced the humble shovel during mining booms, automation will affect all aspects of our lives, for better or for worse. The fear of being left behind is what spurs us on, as you definitely don’t want to be the one left holding the shovel when your competition is digging up gold by the truckful.