In a recent post, we agreed (I think) that although Elvis might be alive, careers in their traditional sense are dead. So what’s going to replace traditional careers? The biggest change is going to be the way in which we’ll work in virtual teams.

Let’s take the analogy of making a movie. Movies are great examples of short term projects. All of the necessary skills are assembled and they focus all of their energies on getting the movie made. The casting director will source the best cast from all over the world, the location will be chosen (again, anywhere in the world), everyone knows what their role is and off you go. The reality is that bitchiness, in fighting, petty politics and all of the lovely things that go with people working together still take place. Some things remain constant! 

Tomorrow’s workers will need to have the following skills and assets in order to work this way.

Firstly, a good network. Finding and developing relations with people all over the globe who have complementary sets of skills and interests will be a common requirement. It often won’t be good enough just to operate within a local or regional network. Cost factors and specialists skills mean we’ll need to look wider than this. In a way, we’ll need laser precision in our research to find those individuals with the skills that fit the project we’re hoping to win the bid for.

Finding the work will be a challenge. Having the tentacles out to spot relevant opportunities (again, anywhere in the world) will be important and this links to the first point. If you have a good network, they’ll be spotting opportunities for you and the team.

Delivering quality work virtually. Project management skills are going to become even more important. The ability to ensure that deadlines are achieved and that quality is excellent are vital. Communicating with a virtual team, even though it will mainly be in English, will create its fair share of problems. Very clear methods of communication need to be established to minimise the chances of misunderstanding of the brief, roles etc.

One sure fire way of guaranteeing that people know about you and approach you is to become well known in your area through an effective blog, conference presentations, membership of online communities etc. Get these right and people will come to you.