Heads up!
You know how software, computers & robots have started to completely replace cashiers, bricklayers, telemarketers, anyone in retail, warehouse pickers and so on.
Well just so you know this change to automation isn’t going to slow down, in fact it’s estimated 47 percent of total US employment is in the high-risk category, meaning that associated occupations are potentially automatable over some unspecified number of years, perhaps a decade or two. [source] – of course similar will be true in the UK.
So you better pick a career that isn’t going to be obsolete in 5 years, 10 years or 20 years those skills you’ve worked your whole life for will most likely be pointless.
Instead, we urge you to consider alternative careers looking forward to the future, a career you love but also alongside this learn the basics of things like computer programming, this may give you a large advantage over others in your field and may help your current and future career prospects but most of all may help to keep you non-replaceable in 5-30 years time.
In our opinion the next set of jobs to be replaced (if not already) will be the likes of anyone that drives a vehicle, fast food/drink workers, Cashiers, Travel Agents, Telephone operators, Waiters, Pharmacists, Soldiers, Sportswriters, builders, miners, workers in energy production & taxi drivers.
Not just lower paid/skilled jobs are at risk!
The problem is that’s it’s not just the lower paid / lower skill jobs that are at risk, and even though the job might still exist the actual work will allow for lower skills which equals lower pay
Robots are already creating roadways and they’ve even put together a house with robots
Think about these middle skilled jobs:
- a radiographer (X-ray person) replaced with a robot, a computer and an unskilled operator
- estate agents replaced with self locking doors, a sync’d calendar & an app
- experienced secretaries or personal assistants replaced with a computer that can be dictated to, emailed and can read hand writing
However, if you can become the person that manages the machine you become more valuable, it’s just the other 10 people that can be replaced by it that need to worry!
Angus Knowles-Cutler, London senior partner at Deloitte, said:
“Technological advances are likely to cause a major shift in the UK labour market in the coming decades. Unless these changes are fully understood and anticipated, there will be a risk of avoidable unemployment and under-employment.
“A widening gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ is also a risk as lower skill jobs continue to disappear.”
If your job is repetitive you’re in trouble!
Self-driving cars, lorries & vans will replace millions of jobs
Any job that is repetitive or is part of a routine will often be under threat by a replacement robot as they can work 24/7, 365 days a year with no holiday pay, no maternity leave, no monthly costs (other than maintenance), no tax, no national insurance, no pension etc.
Thankfully lots of jobs will either be too complex or require a different skill set to those offered by technology so jobs such as nursing, entertainers, motivational speakers, entrepreneurs etc should stay safe along with the more obvious scientific, law and computer related jobs
Again to reiterate it’s not all that bad, remember it will be just like the hand made furniture business there will always be someone willing to pay for something that wasn’t created by a machine this will of course be the same for many job positions.
But expect careers to change and the vast majority of those jobs to start to require computer coding as a skill set, examples of some of the newer careers in the future that will become extremely popular:
- Augmented reality designers/authors
- Software debuggers / coders / designers (becoming a lot more popular)
- Biobankers (storing people’s DNA)
- Renewable energy production experts
- Data/information security experts
- Computer Systems Analyst
- Database Administrators
- Anti-ageing specialists
- Civil / Mechanical Engineers
Other middle income jobs will of course be found or created, expect to see more:
- Urban Farm Specialists
- Agoraphobia (fear of open spaces), Technophobia (fear of technology), Nomophobia (fear of not having your mobile phone) & various other councillors/support people
- Internet Addict Councillors
Anxiety, Depression, Nomophobia (fear of not having your mobile phone) etc will all become more mainstreem
Social Anxiety / crazy phobias we honestly think will become a massive issue, even some of these crazy ones sound plausible in the future (via Phil Johnson)
- Loremophobia – The fear of LOsing the REMOte. OK, not a new phobia, but still technology related. I’ve had many a moment of high panic when I sit down to watch some football or the latest episode of Honey Boo Boo and the TV/cable remote is completely AWOL. Usually, it’s because the kids just kicked it way under the couch (or stuck it in the freezer) but, nonetheless, when it doesn’t turn up quickly I break into a cold sweat.
- Drosmartoiphobia – The fear of DROpping your SMARTphone in the TOIlet. Gents, I believe you know what I’m talking about. You find yourself answering nature’s call while simultaneously checking the football scores and, golly, it wouldn’t take much to drop that prized possession into the blue water, now would it? It’s much rarer for the ladies to suffer from this affliction.
- Drosmarturphobia – The fear of DROpping your SMARTphone in the URinal; a sub-phobia of Drosmartoiphobia. Again, mostly a problem for guys. I’m not sure if the advent waterless urinals makes this phobia better or worse.
- Foransequephobia: The fear of FORgetting the ANswer to your SEcretQUEstion – you know, the one that you have to answer if you forget your password? Clearly, Eric was the name of your best friend in elementary school, right? Well, unless you count Ron. You guys were tight too, at one point, weren’t you? Crap. Actually, in these days of two-step authentication and password-management tools, this phobia is quickly being replaced by…
- Formaspassphobia: The fear of FORgetting your MASter PASSword to your password-management application. I don’t want to say this is a particular problem for me, but I’m seriously considering getting a safe deposit box to store a written copy of mine.
- Biemusgetosmartphobia – The fear of Justin BIEber MUSic GETting On yourSMARTphone. This one might only ever apply to me, since our tweenaged daughters use my Apple ID to buy their music. This one keeps me awake more nights than anything else.
Surely there are other new technology-induced phobias out there that I’m not aware of, but that afflict other people (like you!). Please share them in the comments so we can all be aware! – Original clip taken from this article
I don’t want to become obsolete, what do I do?
- Learn to adapt yourself and be ready to embrace change
- Learn new processes, new technology all the time and never stop
- Ask your boss about the problems they see happening in the future, then plan for those
- Learn how to code & learn the basics of other software packages
- Improve your management skills before being asked to
- Creativity & entrepreneurship will be very difficult skills to replace by robots so ensure you focus on those if you can
So what are the problems? Well education sucks (generally speaking)
Being a teacher should be one of the highest paid careers in the country with industry experts (& not industry dropouts) teaching a curriculum that looks forward 5-15 years and not one that looks back 5-10 years, however we know it’s easy to say that when sat behind a desk typing away, in reality the problem is a lot more complex.
Either way, it still seems counterproductive to educate students using out of date textbooks when there is so much e-learning available from companies and corporations however if you end up sitting in a class doing an online learning course then surely it’s pretty pointless being at university in the first place… ?
For comparison here is a list of teacher salaries averaged for each country, what do you think of the numbers?
OK so there isn’t a list of jobs that you’re going to be safe doing for the rest of your life but following the steps above to stay at the top of your game is one of the best methods to stay relevant.
This article is part of ‘Improve yourself‘ a category designed to show ways people may scam you, how companies trick you and most importantly how you can improve your life by doing something you love doing.
