What will the future jobs look like?

We can all agree that some jobs of the future are here already.

While some people are in fear of what future jobs will do to their current jobs, others are looking forward to the upcoming challenges. Not long ago I had taken my old pickup truck to a local mechanic for a repair, and we had an interesting conversation. I asked him if he had received any electric cars to work on. He replied yes, that he’s seen more electric cars show up at his shop. At first it was seldom but now he at least gets one every other week. For the most part they are hybrid cars though, he normally works on the mechanical part of it and not the electrical. At first he was hesitant to work on them because he wasn’t too comfortable working with high voltage components. But just like anything else he says that he’s going to have to adapt one way or another because this is the future of car repairs. He is now looking into hiring a technician who has more expertise in electric cars. Someone who has a wider background and who has the knowledge on how electric cars work. He has no choice at this point. So his approach, even though hesitant at first due to lack of understanding them, he realized that if he doesn’t adapt, he will lose customers and this will jeopardize his business.

So he has no choice but to evolve, and that is what eventually all of us will have to adapt to in order to continue to be part of this new wave of future jobs. Either we adapt or be left behind. But let's not get too alarmed, because the future jobs have been arriving since we can remember. In the transportation sector we’ve gone from stagecoaches, to steam engines, to internal combustion engines and now electric vehicles. And this type of evolution applies to anything and everything that has evolved and improved. I would say that so far, we have adapted pretty well. Unfortunately some people will be left behind, but I believe that is more because of choice though. Some people believe that once they get out of school, the learning stage in their lives is over. They don’t want to continue to learn when in reality the real learning lessons are just getting started. School in my opinion is considered a practice exam. It just gives us a few examples on what to expect from the real tests of life. But anyways let’s get back to the main subject.

So what will the future jobs look like?

Well we just mentioned one for sure which is automobile technicians who have to learn the computer systems in new cars that are coming out which have more complicated computer softwares that will require special scanners and computers to diagnose and fix the problem. New cars have so many sensors, as they begin to age these can be triggered if something is not working properly. So it’s not as easy as it was before to fix cars. Mechanics now have to buy computers that cost thousands of dollars to properly diagnose a vehicle. With more cars becoming increasingly dependent on computers, we will have to see more specialized mechanics.

Drone Technicians and Drone Pilots

Similar to the new cars, you will also have drones with greater capacities that travel extended transits which will also require specialized drone technicians. Drones are here to stay as well, we already know of some companies using them to make short deliveries of small, lightweight packages like medicines. Combined with its accurate coordinates from gps, they make the perfect delivery machine, for now. I don’t doubt they’ll put some food delivery companies out of business too if they don’t move from humans delivering food to drone deliveries. It would probably be more cost effective to have a drone deliver food instead of a person driving and getting stuck in traffic, spending gas and time. So I would expect to see more drone pilot positions opening in the future. We already see drones recording from the skies. Some movie scenes that were taken from helicopters before now make more sense to use a drone with a camera. Some people also use drones to take footage and sell it to content creators all the time. They seem to be everywhere already and we haven’t seen their full potential yet. So expect specialized drone repair shops popping up in the future due to the high demand in drone usage. I believe we’ll see drone shops similar to how we see small engine repair, or smartphone repair shops. These repair shops will focus on fixing mainly hardware issues like the propellers, or swapping out motors. The individuals running the repair shops will most likely have to go through training sessions with some manufacturers so they can get a license of some sort to work on some drones. So the drone industry still has a big potential to create plenty of jobs , whether it be flying drones or repairing them. They will go from mainly being recreational drones, to full blown income generating machines.

Robot technicians

We also see robots for kitchens being produced. These robots will be the new labor force in the fast food restaurants, and even though we may think these robots are taking jobs away; fast food restaurants will still need a human to direct these robots and guide them throughout the day. To make sure orders are being prepared correctly. So it may not be the worst of the ideas for robots to be in front of the grill or stationed next to the boiling fryer which can certainly injure someone. Not only would injuries be reduced but employees will have the opportunity to develop and learn other skills more inclined with robotic technicians or software development just because these machines will not be able to run themselves. Someone has to provide maintenance to them.

We’ll see small farms open up with the use of robots and sensors to grow crops. Something that may have taken multiple people to run, will be reduced to a couple of people which will use technologically advanced machines to do most of the labor intensive work.

Does this mean I’m going to have to become a technician of some sort?

Even though it is an option, not necessarily does that mean you have to become a technician. You see, the beautiful thing about advancing technologies is that we will create robots, softwares, programs, all of these things that will benefit us and take away some jobs, but will also help us create other types of jobs too that don't lead to needing to become a technician.

Here is a perfect example on how we are adapting to this type of future job.

Similar to robots in the near future working in fast food kitchens, we already see some restaurants and other big box stores adopting another type of future job, and that is the transition from cashiers to self checkouts assistants. Now we see one employee assisting multiple customers at a time that are scanning products and paying through the self checkout machines. When you go to restaurants, you see the tablets on the tables which we now use to pay our tab. Just like there needs to be a person at the self checkout to assist customers, there also needs to be a technician to service the self checkout and the tablets in order for them to function properly. This is part of the new wave of future jobs which is already being adopted and I believe we’re adapting to it pretty well so far.

We’ve also seen another type of future job grow and continue to do so, and that is the group of independent content creators which use software programs, computers and other hardware which facilitates the creation of content. This means that a job that would have taken a group of 3 to 5 individuals to put together 3 to 4 decades ago has been reduced to just 1 or 2 people with the help of advancements in technology. Thanks to the internet, the reach is far greater than what it was decades ago too.

But aside from these examples of “potential” future jobs and also future jobs that are already here, we still do not know what other types of future jobs will be created. It will depend entirely on us on what future jobs we want to create based on our demands. Only we can decide what we want our future jobs to look like. Many may lean more towards technology driven jobs, others may lean more towards personalized experience. The truth is that only time will tell. But whatever we choose, it will be driven to improve our quality of life.