4-reasons-why-post-image2optiGone are the days when you had one job for life. With the evolution of technology and prominence of new players in global commerce, in the future jobs market, skills that once guaranteed your CV pride of place, may see it teetering on the edge of the waste paper bin.

When it comes to languages, IT skills and self-promotion, it’s out with the old and in with the new. Luckily for us, many dyslexics will have the unique processing skills and outside the box thinking to give us an edge in this brave new world of job hunting.


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Here are 4 skills we feel should allow dyslexics to excel in future job markets.

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1. Coding

Coding has become a very important skill and even some primary schools in the UK have already started to include it on their curriculums, with it being taught to children as young as five. The tech scene is constantly changing and growing, this in turn is reducing the need for actual human workers in service industries such as logistics, retail and manufacturing. Coding may seem scary and complicated but it’s not. Platforms like Raspberry Pi provide a basic understanding for children and its popularity has grown so much that many adults use it too.
7″ Portable Raspberry Pi Multi-Touch Tablet

Many dyslexics have a strong pattern and symbol recognition ability; coding incorporates these same skills. In the future 3D printers, downloadable media, automated payment, delivery drones and self-driving cars will create a job market that thrives on coders that control these robots, programmes and automated systems.

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2. Learning Mandarin

Having the ability to speak another language has always been an important skill to have. Traditionally French, German and Spanish were the main languages employers looked for, but with the shift in economic power, languages like Chinese, Arabic and Russian are becoming much more useful languages for business. Mandarin is one of the most spoken languages in the world and learning it can make other Asian languages a lot easier. Many dyslexics find learning languages difficult but they may be at an advantage when it comes to learning Chinese. There is no spelling required and there is more of an emphasis on character recognition than processing phonetic combinations.

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3. Marketing and self-promotion

Jobs are becoming more freelance and project based, meaning we increasingly need to see ourselves as brands that need promoting. There are many social marketing channels out there, from Twitter to LinkedIn and beyond. Finding the platform that best suits your communication style and industry is an important part of personal branding. Marketing is really about presenting your best and worst assets in the most creative and appealing way, and when it comes to creativity this is something dyslexics have bags of.

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4. Being a Business

Just like a brand that spends time and energy thinking of creative marketing and promotional campaigns. A brand holds no weight without the proper business foundation, so you also have to see yourself as a business. Especially entering the world of freelance or entrepreneurship, it’s the tedious but vital areas such as understanding and anticipating tax, vat, income and business planning which most people tend to skip. Understanding the market from both a creative and business stance will be favorable to potential clients, but will also allow you to create and build a strong independent brand within the market. These things don’t always come naturally to dyslexics but that hasn’t stopped the huge number of dyslexic entrepreneurs, from Richard Branson to Steve Jobs doing well in business. Many have done this by building the right team delegating and delegating difficult tasks.

While we might struggle to communicate on paper, talking face to face we are in our element. So make friends with as many accountants and tax advisers as you can. Building these relationships well before you need them, will mean you have a ready-made dream team when you and your business start to make waves.

Words by James Childs


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