If you are white collar then it's going to "disrupt" your field.

I work in tech. I got laid off last year. I wasn't at Alphabet or Amazon or anything. Much smaller company. But AI "optimization" has ravaged the tech industry and not just programmers. Admins, database specialists, network specialists, developers, you name it. Our job market is absolutely fucked.

In my county, a major metro area in the US (like, top 10) craigslist used to be the place to get real job postings. If it wasn't a recruiter then your odds of getting a callback from a job posting there is pretty high. There are plenty of postings for other fields like mechanics and tradesmen and so on. For the few tech categories: nothing in the last month. Zero postings. Not even recruiter ads. Literally nothing. It's a wasteland.

I've been told to "go back to school." I'll be 41 soon. I'm still paying off my computer science degree. It's worthless. What else should I go for? Accounting? HR? These are going to be taken by AI, too. Will it be a mistake? Sure. They don't care. They'll do it anyways.

When I got my degree my wife and I were homeless. We just got back out of the hole in the last 10 years. I was finally building savings. It'll be gone in 60 days. She was laid off on Friday. Her industry is in property finance. Another gutted industry. She has to change industries, too.

What is to be done?

  • LaughingLion [any, any]
    ·
    6 months ago

    Might be the only field still safe for a minute, to be honest. Cybersecurity professionals are generally sought after. However, there is a big hump where you need experience before anyone wants to hire you. If you can make it over that hump, you'll be good to go.

    If you want to do the fun stuff like pentesting you'll need to go to conventions and make contacts and really do a ton of self-study. Security will become a way of life for you. Best of luck.

    • Diuretic_Materialism [he/him]
      ·
      6 months ago

      Thanks. Thankfully I have a few friends already in the field so hopefully they can hook me up with internships next year and I can get my foot in the door somewhere.

      Maybe shit ain't hopeless for you as well, I think the sheen of AI will wear off after a while, or idk maybe try and go security yourself.

      • LaughingLion [any, any]
        ·
        6 months ago

        Connections are really big right now. Build them up and nurture them. That'll keep you employed and get you employed.