Jobs of the Future?

In our series on professions, I’ll not only be looking at the past, but also at the future – there are plenty of tips and information to take to heart. I’ll share a few of them here, and at the end I’ll reveal the ultimate piece of advice that could change all of our professional lives for good.

I remember well that during my time at school in the 90s, shortly after German reunification, people proclaimed the great shift away from manufacturing to service professions. At that time, I was living in Mönchengladbach in the Rhineland, and there the decline of the local textile industry could be plainly seen, with all the well-known consequences for families, personal histories, and even people’s self-perception. “What do I do now?” some people asked themselves – suddenly lifelong learning is expected. For some of them, school is a distant memory. “Why don’t you get a job, do something for society – bloody students, nothing in your heads but parties,” is something I still remember.

And these days? If you look for fulfilling advice, you will find countless interesting sources. My first attempt – I’m a tekkie – takes me to the search engine of choice by entering: “Jobs of the future” and that leads to https://hotmart.com/en/blog/jobs-of-the-future among other places. If you take a closer look there, you will find no less than 12 out of 15 of the specified trendy jobs in 2021 with a direct IT connection. Hm, are we all just doing IT now? Okay, next attempt: Here’s a suggestion on how to first find out whether you’ll be affected by future job losses due to automation and digitisation https://singularityhub.com/2022/04/18/theres-now-an-algorithm-to-help-workers-avoid-losing-their-jobs-to-an-algorithm/ It’s kind of funny to hear from an algorithm, of all things, that robots are stealing jobs from us. But it all sounds plausible – at least that’s what I learned when I was a kid: services have more of a future than manufacturing. What do you think?

But, the important piece of advice is still missing: I personally believe that there is a hot trend – just work with and/or for people. That requires creativity, spontaneity and many other qualities that only humans have. And AI enthusiasts can say what they like, I just don’t see robots helping us in a retirement home or raising children on a large scale, and even if they can, do we want that for ourselves and our family? So what topics are going like hot cakes? Trades: yes! Care and education: definitely! IT: I do hope so 😊

In the end, only one question remains. Who will create the jobs of the future? And what will they look like? My personal hope and answer: We ourselves, as we need them as human beings!