Welcome Graduates 2028 – Prepare for the next 10 years

The professional dreams that shaped their parents

The parents to the graduate class of 2028 are in the middle of their professional careers. Their careers were shaped by dreams to get a good colleague education and taking on stable jobs in businesses with a long and clear growth trajectory.  They were rewarded by a combination of salary, short and long term incentives, and saving early for retirement in their 60s. They likely had a few career pivots en route to retirement.

The early years for today’s teenagers

The graduate class of 2028 are today in their early teens. They knew how to type on a tablet before they started to use a keyboard. They have grown up in flipped class rooms where they were  taught in a video before class. Classrooms were for interactive sessions between teacher and pupils. They have learnt to find and judge facts through accurate and biased internet sources. Their language and intra-personal communications skills are heavily influenced by TXTs, SMSes and Tweets. Short and straight to the point, loaded with acronyms. They see videos as a natural way of sharing knowledge, relegating text manuals to the history books. All with instant gratification of good and bad shares.

Digital businesses will be their employers

The graduate class of 2028 will work in digital businesses performing jobs with a combination of own and artificial intelligence enabled skills. They will live in a reality where creativity and collaborations definitely be their output. The demand for their skills will be more fluid. They will move fast into new roles and out as quickly. Learning more from experiences than old insights and best practices.  They will have a different model for financial incomes and will have a high dependency on parents funding through the college years. It will be harder for them to get into the job market. Instead of a salary, they may be compensated through a pay for playmodel to accommodate demand. And, their professional career will be shaped by passions and stretching 10-15 years further into their longer lives.

Skills that will be high in demand by 2028

It is hard to guesstimate which professions that will be hot and not for digital businesses 10 years out. But the following 5 skills are safe bets for coaching choices of early teenagers today:

1. Learn how to combine what you can do with what people around you can do and blend with computer enabled intelligence. Your skills will reach further when not restricted by where your own body and brain ends.

2. Learn how to leverage data to understand the world around you by collecting the data that can be measured. Then, combine it with algorithms allowing you to make sense of it all. Software and STEM skills will take you anywhere in the world, just as great chefs always will be in high demand everywhere.

3. Let passions and purpose guide your career choices. Teenagers today will work longer than their parents. Their opportunities and career options are broader than in the past. Aim to be best at something. You were not born to be second best in living your life.

4. Blend in some old school habits that never go out of fashion. Pride yourself in always arriving on time. Do what you say you will do. Learn every day. Be open to understanding different cultures. And embrace carpe diem.

5. Last but not least, learn the how to run your personal economy. You will own less things but will pay more in service fees for what you consume. You need to be clever in managing for a reality your parents have never seen.

Welcome to join Ericsson 2028 graduates

By 2028 we will be close the vision that has driven the most recent 10 years of my career. Connecting 50 billion devices and changing society in the process. 5G and IoT will be omnipresent. And new business models have changed how we pay for one of the most valuable services on earth: the ability to connect and be connected. I look forward to holding the introduction speech to the graduates who join us in 2028 and to taking the digital relay further into the future.