Upskilling Is the New Job Security

As the corporate middle thins, the message on the wall is clear - upgrade or exit.

Instagram, last month, started looking like a comic strip that many of us enjoy reading in the newspapers every day - because almost every other person’s feed had photographs reimagined as hand-drawn caricature-like images. It’s the Ghibli-style, I was told a day before Instagram feeds flashed it. My tech-savvy, 30-something cousin, working on the programming at an OTT leader, had excitedly filled me with what the virtual world was up to. We opened ChatGPT on his phone app and started feeding in everything from family portraits to work data, only to see magic being created within seconds. Maybe a little unethical. With a string of instructions, we got a ‘Shah Rukh Khan-like’ person to endorse a whiskey brand, saw AI-created birds-eye views of the Empire State Building and created dreamy holiday pictures, all through our imagination running wild. And tech being our able companion. Family WhatsApp groups suddenly started buzzing with colour, activity, remarks and repartees. “Who needs to know this nonsense,” grumbled a 44-year-old in the otherwise excited messaging exchange. “We all do,” a younger member remarked. “If we don’t keep abreast of the latest happenings, we will be left behind and forgotten,” he quipped. The statement paused the fun and reality hit hard. Upgrade and upskill or then, be redundant.

That’s what entrepreneur Shantanu Deshpande said a few days ago, making news with his bold and blunt statement. The founder and CEO of the Bombay Shaving Company, made news when he wrote that professionals in their 40s are the hardest hit when companies opt for mass downsizing. While the forties are being hailed as the ‘new twenties’, just as 60-year-olds are urged to feel and live like those two decades younger, this decade of one’s life doesn’t seem to hold good for those in corporate jobs.

In an age of fleeting tenures and revolving doors, the most vulnerable rung in the corporate ladder might also be the most enviable on paper: professionals in their forties, flush with experience and the salaries to match. These are the ‘high earners’, a cohort perched at the top of the compensation pyramid; yet paradoxically, they are also the easiest to let go. They arrive with polish and pedigree, but often, in a season of cost-cutting, they are the first to be shown the door.

The timing could not be worse. In this season of life, expenses multiply with an unrelenting rhythm - be it in form of children’s education which demands ever-larger cheques, elderly parents requiring growing care and aspirations for a better lifestyle which manifest in mortgages, car loans and spiraling credit card bills. To be well-paid and mid-career today is to balance on a high wire without the reassurance of a safety net.

This quiet crisis is increasingly visible, and not just in whispers behind office doors. At Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, one of India’s pharmaceutical giants, a chill ran down the corridors when the company announced a 25 percent reduction in its workforce, targeting, with remarkable precision, employees earning more than one crore rupees annually. In March alone, news reports suggest the tech industry shed over 8,500 jobs globally, casualties of shifting corporate strategies, stubborn inflation, and the long shadows cast by geopolitical tumult.

Though few companies explicitly say so, the pattern is unmistakable: it is the senior and mid-senior executives - the ones once thought indispensable - who are now becoming expendable. Experience, it seems, no longer guarantees security. Instead, it has become a line item, ripe for erasure in the next earnings report.

Why is the 40 or 50-something professional the easiest to let go? Tech disruption is a major factor here apart from cost-cutting and downsizing. Automation, AI and digital transformation are changing how companies are run and therefore, mid-career roles need an upgrade. A workforce that’s in its late forties or fifties isn’t entirely tech savvy and perhaps hesitant to embrace the changes that automation brings in. As Deshpande analyses, and is for all to see, younger professionals are more malleable, learn new tech faster and come for smaller paychecks. Upskill, save and develop an entrepreneurial mindset, he advises. A sudden layoff shouldn’t hit you too hard.

Upskilling is essential and being abreast of tech developments is non-negotiable. The all-pervasive technology is in all professions: if doctors are relying on AI algorithms to analyse medical images and patient data to identify patterns and anomalies, media professionals cannot be content with keying in stories without a digital presence to boost their stature. Teachers are taking to smartboards and agricultural output is being enhanced by artificial intelligence. In such times, it’s essential that we upgrade and upskill. Jobs aren’t secured by the designation or duration. Employees and entrepreneurs need to be adaptable, flexible and growth-driven. An online course or a weekends-module in new areas of skills are job savers.

The year 2025 isn’t a time to be passive. It’s a year to upgrade and upskill and become relevant. While a Ghibli-style may not improve our tech skills, it’s still a reminder that we must embrace tech and yet, tread cautiously.