... that as they prepare to enter adult life, they really, really need to adjust their thinking on what they're going to do for a career, let alone a short-term job. From a post at X.com:
Mike Rowe: “We’ve been telling kids for 15 years to learn to code.”
“Well, AI is coming for the coders.”
“It’s not coming for the welders, the plumbers, the steamfitters, the pipefitters, the HVAC, or the electricians.”
“In Aspen, I sat and listened to Larry Fink say we need 500,000 electricians in the next couple of years—not hyperbole.”
“The BlueForge Alliance, who oversees our maritime industrial base—that’s 15,000 individual companies who are collectively charged with building and delivering nuclear-powered subs to the Navy … calls and says, we’re having a hell of a time finding tradespeople. Can you help?”
“I said, I don’t know, man … how many do you need? He says, 140,000.”
“These are our submarines. Things go hypersonic, a little sideways with China, Taiwan, our aircraft carriers are no longer the point of the spear. They’re vulnerable.”
“Our submarines matter, and these guys have a pinch point because they can’t find welders and electricians to get them built.”
“The automotive industry needs 80,000 collision repair and technicians.”
“Energy, I don’t even know what the number is, I hear 300,000, I hear 500,000.”
“There is a clear and present freakout going on right now. I’ve heard from six governors in the last six months. I’ve heard from the heads of major companies.”
There's more at the link, specifically an extended video clip addressing these issues.
The business and technical world has changed so much since I entered it more than half a century ago. First off, I had to go to work right away, because my parents couldn't afford to pay for full-time studies. No problem: I did four years in the military, then trained on-the-job as a computer operator (IBM System/370, for those of you who go back that far). I transitioned into programming and systems analysis (again using on-the-job training). All that time, I was tackling a B.A. degree by correspondence. Due to work, military call-ups, etc. I could only average one course a year (ten were required for graduation - much longer, more intensive courses than US universities). However, in the end I made it. I moved into more senior jobs while tackling a post-graduate diploma in Management, then went on to a Masters degree in the field. All were white-collar jobs.
Nowadays, if I tried to follow a similar career path, I wouldn't get past "Go", much less collect $200! A university degree is a basic prerequisite for white-collar work at most big companies, even though it's essentially unrelated to the work employees actually do every day. Masters degrees are pretty common, particularly at middle-to-senior-management level. The competition for white-collar jobs is intense, with vacancies attracting hundreds (sometimes thousands) of applications, but very few succeeding. The game is no longer worth the candle.
Tech jobs, on the other hand . . . almost every tech-oriented business I know or have used in the past few years complains non-stop that they can't hire enough people to cater for the customers they have, or want to have. The vehicle dealer whose service department I use for our cars is operating at about half capacity, not because they want to, but they can't hire enough qualified people who are willing to work hard and earn their pay (which is pretty high these days).
I advise every young person with whom I speak (about life, the universe and everything) to look into such jobs. They'll be earning a lot more money, much faster than most of their white-collar peers. I know one man who left high school with a 3.9 GPA. He turned down scholarship offers to university, and instead took a two-year associates degree in welding, which included certification to weld dissimilar metals. He did the degree part-time while working full-time as an apprentice welder, gaining valuable experience. The day he finished the degree, he was offered a six-figure salary on the oil fields here in Texas, plus free accommodation, with his own work truck equipped for the job, and generous time off. He's a happy man these days, while his high school friends mutter under their breath about "I want his luck!" They fail to realize that he made his own luck out of very hard work and application. I can only hope others follow his example.
Tell your children, and your friends' children, that they need to reconsider their career options. The demand out there is huge, if you have the right qualifications and experience.
Peter
18 comments:
I have been telling people for over a decade now to not go into computer programming. It isn't AI that is replacing their jobs, it is the cheap H1B and over-seas contractors that have been replacing computer programmers for over a decade now.
My dad told me to learn a skilled trade. Electronics technician worked for me for my whole career. now everything I can fix is obsolete.
I tell young people to assemble a skill package. a major skill that pays well, and add the ability to train others and the ability to write a tech manual and become an EMT. that person is a prized employee who will be snapped up immediately if the corporation you work for disappears overnight
I also add look for a new upcoming trade that you can transition to. train for your next job until you retire
Son, when left the Army checked and found that he could use the GI Bill benefits for trade training as well as college, and since he'd wanted to learn machining he started classes.
Offered a job halfway through school, started working at night so could finish the classes, and never looked back. There's not nearly enough machinists as well as many other tradesmen.
IBM 370? You are but a callow youth. For me 360 and before that some English Electric machines.
I worked on a Univac 100-40, how's that for old!
Can't tell you how many of my military buddies from STEM fields that just give up and live solely off their VA disability. They could easily work as engineers in the defense industry making $70k+ but choose not to. All in their 20's and 30's. Quite sad... but more opportunity for those with some hustle!
If you want to get ahead in life, you have to either be able to do what others can't/ won't or you have to be willing to go where others can't / won't.
This applies to everybody, degree or not.
I have talked to far too many people who feel they "have" to stay in a big city trendy area and then complain they can't afford it.
The area I'm in is hurting for pretty much any position, from bus drivers and tradesmen to tech writers, biologists, and therapists.
I work with 2 large operations (one is 500+ employees, the other 1200+) who have never been fully staffed because they can't get the people.
But I'm also over 200 miles from any city over 25,000.
Opportunities are out there - IF you're willing to look for them. You won't do well on the easy stuff or what comes to you.
Jonathan
Trying to get it through to my sons, all in the tech world, regarding my grandchildren has been like talking to the wall. I'm afraid it will take another generation to break the cycle and I don't think they have that much time. At my age I don't have much of a personal dog in the fight.
USAF and learned Teletype & Crypto maintenance and repair. Joined the Air Guard, Community college of the AF with some night school as I worked on copiers and IBM typewriters. Guard cross trained into Computer and Switching where I work on a telephone switch on the Guard weekends. BS in Computer Science at 31. I was in the IT field for 11 years until it went bust because of Y2K surplus workers and the overuse of H1B visa's. In that time I was also cross trained by the Guard in Satellite maintenance. I got a job standing up a satellite support center for a growing company and within 3 years I was making 3 times what I made as an IT Project Manager when I was fired. I have been retired for 11 years. If I had not lost that IT job at Dunn and Bradstreet I would still be working as I had hit the glass ceiling because I did not have a Master degree. You can't work on a MBA when you worked 50 hours a week.
My community college now has four 10 week "bootcamps" in machining, health care, microelectronics, and soldering. One, machining, is paid for by the Navy as they can't wait even two years for a degree or certificate to get people into the workforce. Granted, it is only 400 hours of learning, but the need is there, and it is a start to a long career.
This will change the role of higher education. Mike Rowe is the evangelist we need to get the word out.
Yep, service industry is dying, LOTS of jobs available!
I've no regret getting into engineering but that was then (I learned electronics on vacuum tubes). I doubt I could get a job in the field now even if I was a fresh-out of 22; the numbers in the profession and current "societal" requirements would work against me. I don't know what I'd recommend to HS students today - not everyone is suitable for the trades.
Where are you? Brother is looking, retired early and now bored.
I came to this conclusion while writing a master's degree thesis on AI:
"The jobs of the future will combine knowing something technical with doing something physical (covers electricians, plumbers, welders, etc) in a particular location."
Jobs that combine all three are difficult to automate, are hard to "off-shore" and are likewise difficult to just hand off to foreigners.
Friend of mine's father is 92. Works for an electronic equipment company. President of the company called his daughter (my friend) to say that they don't want him to retire, they need him. Nobody understands the "old equipment" that is still in service out there like he does. Sometime those older engineering skills matter...a lot.
I think its kind of amusing how the Navy shed all of the skilled trades in an effort to save money and streamline and away went all the good 'shore' jobs at the various Intermediate Maintenance Facilities, Repair shops, Tenders, etc and of course they more or less destroyed the Electronics Schools and advanced schools because LRM troubleshooting eliminated the need. Except of course that it didn't do any such thing.
PJMedia had an article about this a while back: https://pjmedia.com/jamie-wilson/2025/11/24/the-jobs-americans-wont-do-try-the-skills-young-americans-werent-taught-n4946369
I'll throw in, about a year ago son told me he's the youngest machinist in their shop. He was 40, and knew of many companies that were desperate to find new people, because a lot of their older employees were getting ready to retire.
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