#work #jobs #economy #education #self
Unemployment levels in the US are too high. Is that a safe statement that everyone regardless of political views can agree on? I am assuming no one hankers for them to be higher?
The reasons for this include;
1. The recent recession
2. Technology trends
3. A lack of the right skills available for the jobs that are here and a lack of the jobs for the skills that are available
Technology trends is something we need to take seriously for a couple of reasons.
First we know that computing power is accelerating exponentially due to Moores law. This is resulting in a situation where the technology is becoming less and less of a limiting factor and where amazing capabilities are available to be developed into solutions and opportunities. The side affect of that is less jobs. We're also building higher level coding languages that allow fast prototyping and development of applications and software. The end result is massive disruption to jobs in the historical business models like retail, hardware development, and software development. When robotics really hits it's stride we are going to see another significant round of jobs disappear.
The second part of this trend is remote work and freelance work becomes easier to carry out. The remaining pool of jobs migrate to where people will work for less. This article talks about the growth in oDesk and elance. Freelancer Growth
They are just a couple of services that allow people to get jobs or work on projects from anywhere on an as needed basis.
So what does that mean? It means that a lot of jobs that are currently in the USA will be offshore in a couple of years. The lower cost of labor overseas will be as irresistible a draw card for other industries as it was for manufacturing. Jobs will move as a result. Especially since the USA market place has less capability to spend than it once had so price is still a defining factor in purchasing decisions. Companies that drive down their costs will be able to meet the needed price point to deliver a product or service here. There is less hassle with moving your knowledge analysts, your virtual personal assistants, your call center staff, and your technology teams overseas than there was in moving an entire manufacturing floor. Yet we did it en masse for the manufacturing.
Of the jobs that do remain onshore we will get a ton of work done with less resources thanks to improvements in technology. Technology will replace jobs in America at an ever increasing rate over the next 10 years.
If your career is in one of those fields that are vulnerable, then now is the time to consider looking to protect your future employment prospects.
After my layoff in 2009 I began retraining myself as an entrepreneur. The skills I'd developed in the corporate world fit nicely into that field. From a macro trend point of view being an entrepreneur is not a job that can ever be lost. Failure is common but as long as you dust yourself off and try again you never lose your job.
Jobs that have some protection i.e. that will be slower to be taken offshore or that need more technology development than others include in the services or experiences industries. Particularly those that cater to retiring baby boomers who have wealth and are not particularly tech savvy compared to the younger generation. If I had the cash or the time I would launch a competitor to best buys geek squad who have some of the worst service I've ever experienced as a customer. Focused exclusively on servicing the needs of an older demographic. They don't need the latest and greatest but they do want the technology that makes their lives easier. It is an area where you could build the most easily deploy-able and repeatable solutions. Apple is eating up that demographic because that is what it does. It deploys a solution that it finds easy to support since it restricts the variances possible in the solution.
I was told a couple of years ago by a franchise coach that the two biggest franchise growth areas were business to business and business to home services companies. More companies are looking to outsource some of the areas where their business is not strong and focus on their core business competencies. Technology makes service providers in this area much more efficient at doing that. Examples include virtual personal assistants, legal, accounting, marketing, sales and basically any of those generic type of areas that every small, medium, and large business has. On the business to home services it is pretty difficult for an Indian service provider to mow someones lawn, hang their Xmas lights, clean up dog poop, or maintain their property from offshore. At least until remote controlled robotic maintenance drones become more commonplace.
Also as people have more and more free time due to tech they will want to take advantage of leisure pursuits. So that is a growth area in the future.
There will be jobs in the future but you need to be smart. If you haven't already run up a massive college debt don't go out and do that now. The old rule "it isn't what you know but who you know" still applies. Rather than spending three - four years and going into debt to get a degree you might be better on focusing on developing your people skills and building networks of people who know and trust you. Technology is going to be a bigger part of every job so don't be afraid to learn as much of it as you can.
You have to be flexible and you may end up with a job that isn't your dream role for a while. You may have to get way out of your comfort zone on occasion. If you can do it and stay positive and learn from the experience no matter what it is (even if the learning is just a powerful motivation to get the hell out of whatever you are doing) you'll do better in the long term. But any job will teach you something. Even if it is just the virtue of working your ass off and getting home feeling like you accomplished something.
So in summary;
1. Be very thoughtful in choosing what you want to do and where you put your time. 2. Don't spend a lot of time and resources locking yourself in for a career unless you really have an almost certain in route to that type of work.
3. Technology is the enemy but also the friend. Embrace it.
4. Leisure and service jobs have better long term prospects. Basically anything with higher barriers to off shoring or technology solutions.
5. Watch the industry you are in for signs of significant disruption due to tech, outsourcing, or off shoring and make sure you have a contingency plan when you see the trend hit it.
6. Be happy with whatever you do end up doing and take it as a learning opportunity.
At the end of the day the sweet spot in life is finding something that you are good at, that you are passionate about, that fills a needed (wanted) demand. That is where the happiness and the money are.
Go out and find your sweet spot and if you haven't found it yet don't get stuck and forget to keep looking. If you ever need a pick me up I recommend Doctor Seuss' Oh the Places You'll go. There's alot of people in a slump right now but hopefully I won't ruin the surprise if I tell you it ends well.
If you have time on your hands and are looking to work for someone for free for the experience on your resume or to get your foot in the door drop me an email or give me a call. I have a million ideas and not enough resources to get them up and running. Off the top of my head I need lots of hackers (in the coder sense), game designers, web designers, ux designers, psychologists, educators, videographers, legal (patent and regulatory), graphical designers, 2D & 3D artists, HDR and regular photographers, hardware designers, electrical and mechanical engineers (automotive, vending, and frozen yogurt experience a bonus), seo, branding, marketing, clothing designers, T shirt designers, sourcing agents, social media reps, researchers, accountants, data analysts, writers, and sales.
You don't need to be elite. You just need to be willing to work, to learn, and to keep iterating until it is right. I'm based in south Denver but fully behind remote working especially since I already have 5 of us working part time out of my basement.
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