Don’t Take That Job

Every industry develops and changes, just as the world economy does. We all know that existing industries like newspapers and television are struggling in the face of new developments online, so why would anyone choose to apply for jobs at the Times or the BBC? It may be a slow process and these organisations may be able to offer you a steady wage right now, but what happens when things start to get tricky in a few years’ time?

Other people, those who chose to go into growing areas of the same industry, will have become valuable and skilled in their jobs. We’ve seen this sort of thing before when we moved from the industrial age into the service age, as labourers and miners and shipbuilders were ruined because their skills were no longer needed. Why assume that it’s any different now?

We’re moving from the service age into the new economy and there will be casualties.

The solution to this is not so simple for people already in those industries, but job seekers and recent graduates must project forward a few years when considering where to work. Look at growth sectors. Find trends (that aren’t fads) and look at how they will change everyday life.

Some examples:

1. More people are working remotely than ever before, a trend that will only continue.
2. We have an aging population who are more mobile, healthy and affluent post-retirement than ever before.
3. The size of the world population means that when a pandemic spreads, it can do so faster and with more effect than ever before.

Notice the repeated use of “than ever before”. These are issues that will lead to new, growing sectors because they never existed before. The multi-billion pound industries of today may well be niches in a few years, and vice versa.

Job seekers now need to speculate (in an informed way) and look to work in industries that have a future. Even the future professionals like architects and doctors should be thinking in these terms in order to develop the right skills. An architect with a proven history of making spectacular, environmentally sound buildings, for example, is going to have a bright future.