Deciding which career path to take is a hard row to hoe. You probably have thought of countless occupations to take all throughout your life. And yet, even with thousands of options, it’s still pretty burdensome to choose one— especially if you don’t have a single idea of what you want to do in your life.
Choosing a career can indeed be an insurmountable task. Fortunately, what we are going to share with you now is how to overcome this nerve-wracking dilemma and the grounds behind our claim.
The solution is simple, rather than stressing yourself out by forcing yourself to choose a career just because everyone else does, you can focus on picking a certain skill instead.
The Problems of Picking a Career
Stop picking a career, pick a skill set. Otherwise, you might find yourself in turmoil. Here are the reasons why:
The job you are dreaming of might have not been invented yet
Some careers have been here since the time immemorial and are sure to stay forever. However, there are careers that are yet to surface based on how the world is changing. This opens up the possibility that the career you have been dreaming of might only be invented in the next 5 to 10 years.
Let’s take a closer look at Bali’s (a province in Indonesia) tourism statistics as an example.
Somewhere around 2004 happened a shoot-up in tourism. The reason behind this spike was the widespread use of social media. People on the internet posts images and videos of their travel from this so-called tropical paradise. Hence, people who get to see a glimpse of how beautiful the place is was enticed set foot on the experience the vibe of the island themselves. This led to the boom in tourism.
The increasing hype around Bali travel opened up a new career opportunity, a new job out of thin air— the travel influencer.
The government and several different entities hired people who have a big following on social media and paid them money to create catchy content that will appeal to wanderers.
Travel influencing is a pretty good job, but no one expected it to emerge and flourish before now. No one can really tell what the future holds and to what extent.
Here’s another story.
In 1900, people still rely on horses for transportation in the streets of New York. No one expected the kind of innovation we are enjoying now.
Just about 29 years later, the first successful exploration of the moon take place. I bet no one dreamt of becoming an astronaut back in 1900 since going to the moon was a rocket science back then!
In the next 10-20 years, a lot of jobs will disappear
In the same manner that new careers can suddenly appear, other jobs can also be obsolete.
The jobs related to the basics of life like food, health, and protection are automation-proof so these sectors will remain flourishing. On the other hand, with the technology progressing at a lightning speed, a lot of jobs have already been automated or ceased to be used.
According to American entrepreneur Naval Ravikant, “Robots will be doing everything from cleaning toilets to cooking food, to flying airplanes, to driving Ubers, and what would we be doing? We would be doing all creative jobs to entertain each other and research science and technology.”
In the future where robots are in charge of everything, there’s nothing else we can do but enjoy life and go into deep research for the endless possibilities of innovations that robots can offer.
Although this future is still a bit blurry, we are surely heading toward this point, and perhaps, even the most evergreen and supposed to be “automation-proof” careers will eventually be automated.
Just imagine that a 50-year time frame is all the world needed to go from horses to rockets. Not to mention that the current world is moving way faster compared to the earlier era of time. Literally. Scientists discovered that the earth is moving quicker than it ever has in the last five decades.
That’s too much of a segue. Let’s get back to the main point.
Technological advancements are progressing at an insanely fast speed and a great number of careers are getting reinvented.
Before widespread industrialization, agriculture workers (specifically the farmers) labored about six times a week, whether the sun is up or down, just to upkeep the good condition of their crops.
However, due to the industrial revolution, machines took over the agricultural sector and innumerable common farmers lost their jobs. Technologically advanced, macroscale farms replaced subsistence farms.
Workplaces are going through massive changes
In the previous year, around 47 million American workers left their jobs. That number amounts to the entire population of Spain. So just imagine just how many U.S. workers have called it quits.
We are now seeing a massive transition happening in the workforce and a new wave is approaching. What do you think the changes will be? Will there be changes in the working days? A four-day workweek, perhaps? No one can actually tell.
Goldman Sach’s CEO ordered all their employees to return to full-time office setup and only half of their employees showed up. Among those who didn’t show up, a lot have already shifted their careers entirely.
The work-from-home setup has made many people realize that their 9-5 jobs didn’t truly bring them any fulfillment that they are hoping for.
In response to this, several companies boosted the quality of the job they are offering by increasing the pay and giving better benefits. Companies are reevaluating their job offerings and we are yet to grasp its impact on the labor market. This makes choosing a career even more difficult.
People view their careers like a tattoo on their forehead
Many people are in a tight spot in choosing a career because they think that they will be glued to that field for the rest of their life. If you put things that way, then the process of choosing a path to take will surely be perplexing.
Maybe, the reason you’re struggling in choosing a career is that you haven’t figured out yet what life is all about.
Careers aren’t a tattoo that you need to wear for the rest of your life. In fact, shifting careers isn’t really that hard down the road. This kind of thinking was only made out of social pressure that you allowed to get into your head.
Picking a Skill Set
Don’t just focus on the career itself, but rather on the things that you will be doing in that field.
Since the world is gearing toward digitalization, it becomes relatively important to have Science and Engineering skills. However, not everyone is interested in the mentioned areas.
Fortunately, you have an option— learn a skill set that you can do for the next five years that can earn you money.
After five years, you can decide whether you’ll shift careers or not. Giving yourself a five-year time frame will give you enough time to think about whether you want to do the job for the rest of your life or change your profession. Moreover, this will help you keep up with the transitions in your industry.
