Anna Campbell“Choose a major your love, and you’ll never work a day in your life because that field probably isn’t hiring.” If this made you laugh a little, and then immediately start sobbing over your essay on the societal implications of Yeezy running for president, you may be an arts student who just experienced all five stages of grief in one fell swoop.
Each year with the release of the U.S. Department of Labor Report, it seems like every website from Buzzfeed to Forbes produces a list of jobs and college majors that are becoming obsolete thanks to advancing technology. Of course these lists can’t be completely accurate, and are really just speculations based on trends in technology and the workplace. If you spend enough time on the internet, you can find everyone from florists to dentistry students on a list of people who should be scared for their futures.
My favourite (and the most legit-looking) current list is one on npr.com called “Will Your Job Be Done By A Machine?” It generates a percentage-based likelihood that your job will be automated 20 years from now. The jobs with the lowest percentages tend to be ones that rank high in negotiation and helping people (apparently social workers are doing just fine). At the bottom of the page is admittance that “estimates are rough and likely to be wrong.”
Equally popular online, however, are lists of common jobs which didn’t exist at all 20 years ago. These job titles are often ones that combine fields, like app developers or green building architects. Job markets are constantly evolving to fit the needs of a changing world and chances are pretty good that at some point in your life, you’ll be competing for jobs that don’t even exist right now. Or maybe you’ll be creating them. After all, isn’t that why we’re university students? We learn to become innovators and problem solvers for the future.
When it comes down to it, we each have different interests and skills, and it’s bringing those skills together that creates real progress. I’m not telling you to do what you love and the money will come, because I’d be lying, unless you love engineering. What I am telling you is that a school full of people doing what they love can create possibilities for innovation and collaboration that will change the world. Study what you love, and what comes next will probably be worth it.
