You Need to know about the Augmented Workforce

The other day I had the opportunity to talk, on the phone, with Cathy Hackl.

*Insert fan-girl moment here*.

Cathy is co-author of Marketing New Realities, she’s Enterprise Partner of Marketing at Magic Leap, and overall a great person in the AR/VR space. You should definitely follow her on LinkedIn and Twitter.

I told Cathy about my recent trip to Grand Valley State University where I got a tour of their technology showcase. She is working on a new book about the augmented workforce so I thought I’d ask her how college kids can prepare for the future – an augmented workforce.

One of the things I love about Cathy is that she’s a great example of the work you can do in technology without a technical degree. Cathy, like me, is not a computer science major. Yet, we both found ourselves in tech with an ability to understand both business and developer speak.

How to prepare for the augmented workplace with Cathy Hackl

All industries will incorporate emerging technology

The augmented workplace will affect all industries. All those industries will create a lot of jobs. For example, departments like marketing and business development will need these new skills.

At FABTECH, manufacturers openly talked about how they needed people comfortable with technology because they’re using emerging technologies to offset tribal knowledge and enhance worker safety on the shop floor.

Free resources

Move beyond the world of 2D by creating lenses and filters with Snapchat and Facebook. Both companies offer free creator studios (Snapchat lense studio and Facebook’s Spark AR). Lenses and filters may seem cheesy but they’re fun and are a great intro into the world of emerging technology.

Half of working in emerging technology like augmented and virtual reality, is re-training your brain to think in 3-D instead of 2-D. We are experts and using 2-D software but future generations are going to be manipulating 3-D software. And they’re going to do it with their hands, not through keyboards or controllers.

Be voracious about reading and staying informed.

Think about how you can incorporate emerging technology with your hobbies. Then go out there and play with the tools.

Build your emerging technology community

Build your community and expand beyond your silo. Include people like you and not like you. What Cathy means here is surround yourself with artists and people from the business side. Both think about and understand emerging technology in different ways but they are experts in it all the same.

Learning about augmented and virtual reality, 5G, AI, and other emerging technology from different types of professionals will give you a world view of how they’re being used, what the augmented workforce will be like, and where you can make your mark.

Have a reason to talk to a professional

Cathy told me one student reached out to her, asking for 15 minutes of Cathy’s time to answer a question she had about virtual reality for a paper she was working on. Most professionals don’t have an hour to chit chat but they do have 15 minutes and would love to talk about what they do.

You can build the augmented workforce

Follow these tips from industry leader, Cathy Hackl, and you will be ready for the augmented workforce. But why wait? Share your work with you us today and be part of building the augmented workforce from the beginning.

Have you started preparing for the augmented workforce? What augmented technology are you most excited for? Let me know in the comments below!

Featured Photo by My name is Yanick on Unsplash