Hello everyone from beautiful Quebec City! I have been staying for the past few days to meet with friends and colleagues and to present a paper at a conference. And what a fabulous conference it has been, with people from all of the world coming together to discuss the latest trends in career development and to put their minds to the big employment problems around the globe.

One thing we have been talking about here is the hybridisation of jobs. We are most accustomed to talking about hybrids in relation to genetics or biology where for example, the offspring of two different plants or animals is something new and ‘of mixed character’. The term is also used commonly in relation to cars, machinery and even music.

But the concept can also be applied to jobs. Consider as an example, the person who delivers flat pack furniture to your home ready for assembly. It is left with you to work through the instructions and put it together, right? And how often can we get this wrong – putting screws in the wrong places or not lining the pieces up properly, leaving us with a result that isn’t quite right, or one that takes us much longer than we want to assemble it. There have been many weekends dedicated by people to assembling furniture and other items, who would have preferred to have spent their precious leisure time doing other things.

So, imagine that the job of delivery driver is combined with the different job of assembling the furniture. In other words as well as delivering the item,the person assembles it for you. He or she might be employed by a subcontractor to the supplier to do the assembling work. And that particular subcontractor could work for multiple suppliers.

Work patterns like this – where two or more distinctive sets of skills are combined in a new job – are evident everywhere in hybrids like finance and human resources, to social media and marketing, to systems administration and design.

They highlight the value of having distinct sets of skills that are complimentary, adaptable and which are either in demand or have the potential to solve problems in better ways than are currently now available. Combined with a flexible and imaginative mindset, this can be a potent combination for career success!

Until next time … go well

Carole