Is This The End of Careers As We Know Them?

 Future of Work  

With technological unemployment increasingly a factor in almost every profession and job, what will the future of work be like, and how can you succeed?

Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson call it the superstar economy, where globalization and technologies align to create winner-take-all scenarios.  In a world where 85 people are as wealthy as half of the world's population, and automation is increasingly taking over all jobs, both manual and mental, what does the future of work look like for the other 7,174,875,801* of us?

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With professions and middle-income positions now also the target of artificial intelligence, machine learning and even robotics, the reality of technological unemployment is already a fact for many.

As Oxford researchers Carl Frey and Michael Osborne found, about 47 percent of the total US employment is at risk. They concluded that, "as technology races ahead, low-skill workers will reallocate to tasks that are non-susceptible to computerization –i.e., tasks requiring creative and social intelligence. For workers to win the race, however, they will have to acquire creative and social skills."

Increasingly calls for drastic measures like a guaranteed income, wealth redistribution and other social engineering measures are being called for.  "As the rich and their robots start vacuuming up the world's jobs, it's social innovation we need now, far more than any technological gain," writes Vice's Brian Merchant.

Image Source -  Congressional Research Service (CRS) based according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data from the Current Employment Statistics program

"Until the age of Abundance, the economy is almost certainly going to be very turbulent and the ways we work will change dramatically."

Others, like Peter Diamandis point to the great abundance exponential technology will bring.  Genetics, robotics, artificial intelligence and perhaps especially nanotechnology offer a potential future where wants are met on demand by anyone, and jobs, work and money itself may be unnecessary.  What, for instance, will a diamond be worth to anyone if we can 3D print perfect diamonds on demand?  The question of why we work will increasingly be relevant.

However, until the age of Abundance, the economy is almost certainly going to be very turbulent and the ways we work will change dramatically.

Sara Horowitz, founder and CEO of Freelancers Union, writes that as of 2005, 30% of the workforce has participated in this “freelance economy,” and entrepreneurial activity has reached an all time high in 2010. According to her the jobless future is already here. "This transition is nothing less than a revolution," she writes.

Certainly gone is the notion that skills have a long shelf-life.  Continuous upgrading and re-education will be the norm.  Increasingly the way we acquire skills will change too.  Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is only one way that technology is opening up the field of education, especially as university and college tuition rates continue to expand.

Ray Williams writes "Today, people need to gain “employability” rather than “secure employment.” To survive in a multi-career employees need to have multiple intelligences, resilience and employability—essentially survival tools. Jobs now are defined by expertise, multiple skills, not just uniform experience. Employees who continue to practice their skills repetitively without improvement or flexibility run the risk of making themselves obsolete. In that sense, static job mastery is a liability both for the individual and the organization."

He offers the following advice for future and current workers:

1. Take responsibility for managing your own career. Don’t wait until you’re fired, laid off, burned out or fed up to revitalize your career. Manage your career on an ongoing basis, particularly through the good times. This includes becoming your own benefits manager;
2. Realize that the old social contract—employee work in return from employer loyalty and job security-- is dead. Even if you work for someone else, think of yourself as an entrepreneur;
3. Become comfortable with change. It’s likely you’ll be in several careers during your lifetime, sometimes as a result of changes outside your control;
4. Establish and develop a strong social network. Connecting with people on an ongoing basis will strengthen your capacity to manage your career;
5. Create and develop your own personal brand. To be marketable in the workplace, you need more than experience and an education. You are more than your job, and being able to see and promote who you are in totality, makes you more marketable;
6. Establish and develop your professional reputation. It’s portable, and hugely affected by social media. A positive reputation can make or break individuals or organizations;
7. Accept that you are more than your job. Whether you love or hate your job, making it your identity is a big mistake. Reflect on what legacy you want to leave in life, and be happy with your definition of personal success.

Essentially what Williams is arguing is that each of us have to become futurists.  We have to imaging the future that we want, and chart our own path to attain it.  The traditional career is all but dead.

By 33rd Square

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