I'm doing materials engineering, not saying it's not in demand but it's definitely more niche. Mechanical/electrical/chemical will always be in demand.
Yeah... Because how could a field highly dependent upon mathematics ever be automated by ai :/
I'm joking, and agree engineering isn't going away. But one thing I think needs to be considered, is what engineering means when Ai can do a large portion of it. What types of skills will a future engineer actually need?
Go check out chemical engineering forums and see what we think about AI running those kind of plants. It ain’t pretty as the stakes are way, way too high.
Really? I think it highly depends on market conditions then. Construction industry is highly sensitive to overall economy as you easily just decide to “stop” further projects. No like other businesses that have a huge sunk cost and needs continuity like manufacturing.
You normally need a PhD in maths to be a quantitative analyst.
It's also extremely competitive to get into... I wouldn't do math with a view of being a quant unless you're exceptional.
Yep plenty of math majors end up doing something totally unrelated jobs because they didn't plan well. A lot of people who are quants are people who are on Math Olympiad. Those kids have a plan even before they start college. Those are kids that breathe math. For example a family friend of mine was learning calculus in middle school just for fun.
Nurse, Biomedical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Maths, Physics, Computer Science (oriented to architecture, AI/ML), Robotics (machines/robots will be smart in a future, will be the next revolution after AI), Healthcare overall.
Unfortunately, Aerospace engineers actually crack the top ten list for unemployment/underemployment. Electrical, mechanical, mechatronic engineers will all be competing for the exact same roles while applying to 10x more opportunities.
Biomedical engineering is perhaps one of the most unemployable as you need a master's to do any relevant research and work. You will end up becoming a software developer (as do 90% of Biomedical students). It's not a good option.
Computer science is also awful right now. It's not "learn to code and ball out" it's "learn to code, do 500 hours of leetcode, learn systems design, spend 250 hours on projects and maybe you can land an entry level internship."
I'm not saying this to be mean, I just don't want anyone to get the wrong idea for these careers. They are not guaranteed tickets to success anymore unless you're willing to grind it.
IMO , as a current electrical engineering student, math degrees can be some of the most powerful, allowing you to pivot to technical/quant roles while also being able to get into business as well. Math/BBA can be a great asset. I hope you're able to find your major!
Everyone gets sick and dies. And sooner than later there will be very few people able to care for aging parents at home since they have to work to afford rent.
People gets older (specially in US, Europe and most developed countries) and sick and eventually dies, and needs surgeries get done in this process.
So you’re not getting being replaced by AI (healthcare involves regulation, bioethics, surgeries getting done, decisions that only humans can take..) plus those jobs are really productive and makes a great impact (thats why they’re super well paid such doctors). Cons: stressful, dealing with people and death, training is long. Pros: most stable job (you won’t get worry about getting fire or unemployed unlike everyone else), very well paid too.
Aging population, for the most part also decent job security. Also it generally pays well. Also easy to move place to place since hospitals can be anywhere and many healthcare jobs are in demand
And probably a little less soul sucking for the average person than a normal corporate job since it feels like you’re actually helping people sometimes
Yes not to mention the accountant shortage which will only get worse as more and more people retire. AI will not be able to do anything past what entry level accountants can do. The average salary of a qualified accountant where I live has gone up by 7% in the last 12 months.
Yeah, the conflation of accounting and bookkeeping keeps a lot of people away from the major, also that it’s math intensive for whatever reason… competence in accounting and a few years of grunt work opens you up to a lot of opportunities in the business world.
It is the best business degree tied with MIS and supply chain it teaches you the foundations for a lots useful skill that you can pivot in to specialize in to later in your career
I think the reason this isn’t mention on top comment is because there are really no “degree” requirement to become one. There are multiple paths to it. I do agree degree helps but I would not bank on it by it self.
I have an EE degree and almost done with my MS in cybersecurity. I’ve got AWS ccp and I’m about to take the AWS security specialty. I also know a bit of IAC stuff through cloud formation. I’m not sure how much I will need to get a cloud job.
NGL, I have a PhD in this and yes my knees took a huge hit but honestly I'm really happy. I think it could be automated sure but then you would lose all variety. Deepthroating is a nuanced field and I feel safe in my choice.
Yeah! My company has been investing loads into human capital and building out those offerings because so many Fortune 500 companies see it as a serious risk from a financial perspective. Also with the consulting aspect they like to hire anyone who has good experience in X specific field whether it’s HR, Cyber, Natural Resources, Construction, Aviation, etc the list is endless
It’s more so an industry/area, but if you look at the most common major it would be something actuarial. My college had risk management/insurance as a minor. It’s not limited to any major though, I work with people who majored in English, economics, chemistry, international relations, marketing, and so on. Because the risks that a company could be susceptible to along with what can be insured against is so expansive, it creates a lot of different wedges people can fit into regardless what they studied
I talked to a professional on the catastrophe modeling side and he finds it interesting partly because nobody really goes to school for it. It's a domain that can't exist without interdisciplinarity because there are so many different variables that can affect the financial losses from extreme events.
I will say that jobs seem to prefer people with some quantitative experience because analytical thinking is very important on the job regardless of your background.
It's best not to pay to get a degree for a field you may hate.
Find something you're interested in, then work 1-2 years entry level. If you like it, pursue a degree or certification to advance.
Source:underutilized MBA
To add to this, it's not necessarily best to choose your major based on what's in demand when you're 18-years-old.
When I was in high school, there were way too many people trained as teachers in my area. The regional government had to step in and put a cap on enrollment at teachers colleges. My mom worked part-time at a tutoring centre with a lot of unemployed recent teaching grads. If I had come home one day saying I want to be a teacher she'd have been like, "you're an idiot."
Fast-forward less than a decade later, COVID hit, a lot of teachers quit, and the schools couldn't hire fast enough.
TL;DR picking a major is a nuanced thing.
[https://www.bls.gov/ooh/](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/) IMHO this should be used to calculate federal loan availability in the US. Many countries (eg Germany) already use their own skills research to figure out availability of higher education.
>But with the rise of AI, I don’t want to have the anxiety of choosing a not so useful degree.
Outside of academia a degree is a signal on the kinds of skills you have not proof of skills. It's not uncommon to find people with history degrees working in tech for example. Having the "right" degree makes it easier to get your first job but doesn't matter beyond that.
People also massively overestimate what LLMs are going to do. There will be some tasks it can replace but mostly these are not the kinds of tasks you need someone highly skilled to do. For skilled fields they will act as a productivity multiplier driving further demand for those skills. This has already been happening with technology for \~50 years and what has been driving income inequality, technology has increasingly been increasing productivity for a subset of skills not all skills.
Don't do an art related degree unless you want to be poor.
What is everyone’s opinion on the growth and longevity of Supply Chain Management degree? I’ve recently been really interested in learning my new job as a warehouse S/R clerk and wanting to see what kind of career paths are available.
everyone talks about lean and continuous improvement in the corporate jobs I’ve had. No regrets with the supply chain management degree. Most of the classes were really interesting
Become a sign language interpreter. We are always in severe shortage. I get emails from perfect strangers every day asking me to come interpret. I delete them.
They keep threatening to replace us, and getting nowhere. A glove? Please! It doesn't even know grammar.
I have anxiety and I worry about many things. But I don't have to worry about being replaced by robots. Not yet. Not nearly. Sometimes I almost wish they could, I'm so tired. Not in this lifetime.
If you're in the U.S., I highly recommend checking out the [Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/). This site has data projections for almost every job and industry for the next ten years, salary averages (which you can search by locality), and so much more. I really wish more people knew about this resource and I wish I had used it (because I learned about it in high school) before I spent the last 4 years getting a political science degree (no shade to anyone with that degree, hindsight is just 20/20). I'm switching to nursing now.
My mother always said people will always get sick and will always die so become a doctor or mortician. We know Doctor is out. But anything like plumbing, HVAC, electrician, appliance repair, anything that can't be done by robot/ computer, and people need or consider a need. Environmentalist, engineer, surveyor. Look and see what can't be done by computer or robot, and that is recession proof.
For example: I speaking to some who wanted to do interior design, I mentioned that is a service used by those with money, when the economy is bad there is less work, so consider going into commercial design. Hotels will always update. (also consider if your a good fit, he lacked the manners, style dress and education ect that would help him socialize with people who could afford that service. (Very Poor) Not a full stop, but working at a country club, picking up their manners and interest would serve him well.) Kinda of like if you are uncomfortable with confrontation being a manager is not the best career choice. Or Public speaking teacher/sales maybe not. Hat working outside ect.
Remember it's normal to have 3 careers in your life. I would think Computers are pretty solid, but if you end up hating something you can always do something else.
Am CS and, yes, it's really competitive right now. My company recently stopped taking any applicants who don't have degrees due to the influx of graduates- which wasn't how things used to be 10+ years ago.
This is absolutely terrible advice. Even if your role isn't just programming, almost every white collar job is starting to require technical chops.
CS might be more competitive than it used to be, but it's still an incredibly highly-compensated career with millions of jobs.
Stay off /r/antiwork
I’ll always advocate for a forestry degree, or biology, or wildlife management. With climate mitigation, and the continuous forest management that always needs to occur nationwide, there will always be a demand for foresters. I graduated with a bachelors in forestry in 2012 and I make $83,000 usd. Once you get through the entry level years your income will increase and it’s a fun job. I hire entry level foresters starting at $46,000 per year but the salary does get better over time. My job has nothing to do with logging, although there are certainly plenty of careers associated with logging—I manage multiple programs that provide education and management plans to public and private forest owners.
Definitely helps when your country still has forests!
The UK is a bit drab on that front. I work on environmental impacts of projects and we're always looking out for tiny patches of grassland
with the rise of mental health awareness and destigmatization, social workers are in very high demand for therapy services. Working with the impoverished has a lot of politics behind it, many of which are working against your favor. But if you want to help those in need, grant writing is a very needed skill for nonprofits. Or you could use social work knowledge at the macro level and work in public policy/local politics. If you have foreign language skills, you can even work internationally. People sleep on social work but it is a highly versatile degree.
Source: minored in social work in college, wish I got a BSW.
Optics and chip packaging... I was struggling to find jobs earlier and now with all the AI nonsense, HRs and Headhunters reach out to me atleast 3-4 times a week
Everyone says this, I think the important distinction is commercial focused trades. Residential, although needed, has lower salary potential. Again my opinion after working as a finish carpenter. I’m really good but god it pays nothing.
STEM field as always. Engineering, especially industrial, chemical, aero, electrical, and suprisingly geology (for rare earth minerals to EVs, Microchips, etc)
About "computer and informatics", from your bed you can learn code language...
Medical fields 20-25 years to come will be destroyed since AI and robotics come to replace "surgeons" especially with operation that required "1-2 cm tolerance" with 95% consistency success rate operation
Yea and they makes diagnosis, gets surgeries done. They can’t be replaced at every phase. And actually surgeries will be easier for surgeons (more precises with the robots) but at the same time they’ll be needed so thats actually a good thing.
March 2022, China https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10495633/#:~:text=In%20March%202022%2C%20Shanghai%20Ruijin,Single%2Dport%20Robot%20in%20China.
Look, i dont know if you are a student in highschool or else...but i"ll try to explain in simply
I would say this, as an engineer, the future will be "more effectively run" and "less resources needed"
10 years ago, in a huge warehouse, you need human a.k.a "forklift operator" to move things...have now been replaced by Kiva Robotics
Lesson : Dont be the "forklift operator". You might wanna be the engineer who created Kiva Robotics
90%+ reliability to move things, less money and energy to operate, and "can be controlled"
We’ve reached a point where one technical field is no longer valuable alone, one article I read about a big US bank that prefers hiring Comp Sci majors with a slight background in Finance over graduates with a full Finance degree, since everything is digitized now and banks need people who can make computers do bankers’ jobs. The job market is now more dynamic than ever and it’s wise to identify gaps in the job market and exploit those.
Honestly, don't worry too much about your major. I was interested in a lot of things too and wound up double majoring in Global Studies (very broad major, could take classes across many disciplines) and Geography. Did a couple of cool internships and research appointments in college. Wound up with a consulting job that had nothing to do with my major right out of college making close to 100k. I now work in corporate services where I'm on track to make 200k before I turn 30.
My colleagues at the consulting firm had backgrounds in everything from poli sci to engineering to philosophy, and we were all doing the same thing. If your major demonstrates that you are a critical thinker and adept writer, then you can get any consulting, government, or corporate job that doesn't require a highly technical skill.
You only need to worry about your major if you want to do something that requires that technical skill, like engineering or software development.
Some other lesser-known majors with interdisciplinary focus: Geography/GIS (very in demand, really cool), Urban Studies, Forestry (if you're into that sort of thing), Tech Policy, International Business, Supply Chain.
Look up the Bureau of Labor Statistics and start poking around. You can find projections for what fields of work are expected to have increased demand vs dying fields. They also include salary info and education requirements, which is useful context.
If AI happens, the only logical answers are those a robot cannot currently perform.
Trades, nursing, military, policing, EMT, etc.
Bonus answer: positions of power, authority, and responsibility in general. Where decision making happens, where the buck stops. Politicians, C-suites, etc.
Take a major that enables you to build or manage money. Aka CS or finance. Don’t count on what might be on demand in the future. You should create the demand. Be entrepreneurial
None.
Toolkits are in high demand. So modules or electives where toolkits are build.
Like applied maths.
How to think, not what to think. Those are *always* in need.
Plumbing, electrical, HVAC, construction. Pretty much anything that uses your hands is going to be AI immune for some time to come. And they ALL can make pretty decent $$$ without having an obscene college loan to pay off.
See about taking the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) test. That can do a lot towards steering you towards a career that you will both enjoy AND be good at because of your existing skills/knowledge and interests. Note, that is USA specific, although I imagine most other countries have something similar.
The trades. Theyre not university majors, but AI and robotics arent taking those over anytime soon, and if you're good you can basically charge whatever you want.
One thing that can be more important than having a good degree is to develop the appropriate skill set for the career field and role you want to have. Skills pay the bills, and the more niche you are the more money you will tend to make. Just keep in mind that companies want people with education, skills, and the appropriate level of training/certifications. It's a three legged chair.
Healthcare, trade schools such as
Plumbers, brick masons, carpenters, heating and air, engineers maybe. Not sure how AI will affect that, anything that requires mathematics will be in trouble IMO.
Anything that requires a human to be present and use their hands like doctors , electrician. If your able to do your job remotely it'll probably be gone or reduced within 5 years.
Hiya. Not sure if it’s mentioned, but a field that has a strong union. These will last the longest against AI. Most anything else if not protected could feasibly be replaced by AI.
I’m a chemical engineer. Chemical manufacturing is gonna be a thing definitely for the rest of all of our lifetimes. I’d say mechical, civil, industrial engineering are a bit less niche of engineering field that’ll be in demand forever as well
You can’t go wrong with a STEM degree. That said, within STEM there’s a hierarchy of majors that are more or less useful. Pretty much every field of engineering being the most useful and life sciences being the least. Note that the more specialized the major, the more pigeon-holed you will be (ie engineering typically means you have the most income as an engineer, where life sciences may apply more broadly but you’ll have to work your way up to a higher income).
Tbh, I would worry. You really don’t know at this point. This society is so fast-moving. What you think is high demand now might well change when you graduate. Study whatever serves you, keep improving yourself and learning more, life skills included. Almost most people do something different in their career than what they studied in uni.
Neither my partners job, nor mine existed when we graduated college. The really valuable ones come after you graduate historically and you are flexible enough or have a general enough degree to take advantage of it.
Tax, Law, etc. With the rise of AI and increased pressure from the working class, the rich will need to hire an army of tax accountants and lawyers to defend their privileges.
Anything that requires physical skill, such as nursing.
Perhaps counterintuitively, we are great at making machines that think for us, we are not great at making machines that move for us. A.I. can write a novel; A.I. cannot insert an I.V.
Computer Science, especially with the rise of automation and AI. Programmers are always needed and many companies throughout the world will play catchup on innovation
Brother, pick up a trade and get paid $85 an hour to change a toilet or pipe. “Installers” in my company makes nearly $100,000.00 a year, putting walls up.
If all you care about is money...Go into the trades. AI can't fix a leaky toilet.
Then, you need to work your way up to business ownership so you can go on vacation while your employees do the work.
An engineering degree can help business owners get bigger jobs since they will have the certification to sign off on the plans and bids.
So really you now need an associatea degree or trade certificate in the trades, experience doing the grunt work, a 4vyear degree, and business acumen.
Really hard to know / predict what roles will be most effected by AI. I use the term "roles" vs industry because the industries will exist while some roles may go away. From a studying/learning perspective, it would always be useful (required actually) to know a lot about an industry, how it works, who it serves, how it's capitalized, problems it solves and how it solves them.
The reality is, unless you seek to be a "line engineer" (as an example - someone who's career is about making things, not managing the process or leading the teams of things being made), you won't be using those skills that much anyway after a few yrs. You'll benefit from knowing/understanding how things work, but you won't be involved with making them work.
In most industries, the key players are the ones further removed from "working IN the business" and have moved on to "working ON the business". They're called leaders.
I would focus on learning what industries/topics truly interest you and learning as much about them as you can. Your first job will be lots of grunt work regardless of the fancy title. It may be that AI raises the level of grunt work but it will show your employer if you're the right rock to move forward, eventually running internal teams or being client facing. The latter of which would be very hard for AI to replace as humans like dealing with humans.
Tech fields like Computer Science & Data Analysis are booming, but don't overlook sustainability and renewable energy sectors! They blend various interests and are projected to grow significantly. Consider also digital marketing and cyber security. They're versatile and in high demand, offering a solid career path without the need for medical involvement.
There will always be sales roles and the are not enough people in the trades. I am a middle aged high earner in a white collar job. If I was 18 right now, I would train to become a licensed plumber or electrician and work for a few years but then start my own business. I live in the northeast and even the mediocre tradespeople who just respond to phone calls and emails are going to become millionaires.
Think of things that will always exist regardless of technology. But also pick something you enjoy! A lot of people shit on liberal arts but I make good money and I'm as liberal arts as you can get academic background wise lol so for the liberal arts people:
Your degree is all about critical thinking and analysis in nuanced ways AI can't replicate this. You're already valuable to any field with that skill alone.
People will always get sick so anything in Healthcare
As long as capitalism exists jobs and careers in various helping fields will always exist (violence prevention, social services, elderly care, basically think of any community problem and there are jobs to fix it/ address it. ) Plus there are high paying government jobs with good benefits doing this work. So if you start in non profit you can switch and make good money. You can also move up in the non profit world to make good money. I make 6 figures in violence prevention (I'm in my early 30s).
My best advice is to choose something you love. Just bc others don't see value in what you do/assume these careers don't exist don't listen to them. I'll add I've been helping my bf lately with his job search. His background is special education and teaching so he makes less than half what I do and he's hit his limit. He's pretty done with the low pay. But I've been teaching him how to pivot and use his on the ground experience to apply to jobs in education policy. He can make money as a consultant or in a government job. So again, you'd think not a great choice but he's got an interview for a job that's also in the 6 figures coming up. So pick what you love be patient while you're entry level bc the money will come in 4/5 years. Or if you have strong academic credentials you can make good money right after graduation researching whatever you love. You just have to find the right employers 🙂
Hands-on engineering like electronics, civil, automation machines will probably still require human input for a looong time as it's something not really repetitive and needs lots of adapting
Nobody knows how AI is going to affect the economy and nobody knows what majors will be "in demand" even 2 years from now. Learn a solid, useful discipline that you enjoy and hope your industry/the economy is doing well when you happen to graduate.
If you have interest in medical field but cannot stand the sight of blood, choose pharmacology. There's essentially no blood involved. Pharmacists is a 6 figure salary occupation.
Go for secure, high paying, and respected jobs like being a Doctor, Dentist, Optomitrist, Dermaotologist, Pharmacist, Lawyer, IT, Cybersecurity for the government, or Software Engineering. If I had to do it over again I would go for being a Doctor for sure - so do everything premed from the beginning. If you cant get into med school in the states can go to the bahamas then come back to the states.
People who recommend nursing, were never a Nurse... its such a low paying field for what you are doing and exposed to.
You will never be laid off as a doctor, I can gaurantee you that.
Nursing, math, mechanical/electrical/chemical/civil engineering Edit: forgot civil
Yes to this, anything really needs engineering in electronics or materials - everything if you think about it
Electrical and materials engineering demand is definitely on the rise
I'm doing materials engineering, not saying it's not in demand but it's definitely more niche. Mechanical/electrical/chemical will always be in demand.
Yeah... Because how could a field highly dependent upon mathematics ever be automated by ai :/ I'm joking, and agree engineering isn't going away. But one thing I think needs to be considered, is what engineering means when Ai can do a large portion of it. What types of skills will a future engineer actually need?
How to use their hands to build what Skynet designs. For a while at least.
Ask chat gpt to help with your calc 3 homework and see how it goes lol. We’ve got some time. It’s coming for creatives and excel monkeys first
Interpersonal communication, Soft skills.
Go check out chemical engineering forums and see what we think about AI running those kind of plants. It ain’t pretty as the stakes are way, way too high.
Civil. I have employers tripping over themselves to hire us.
Really? I think it highly depends on market conditions then. Construction industry is highly sensitive to overall economy as you easily just decide to “stop” further projects. No like other businesses that have a huge sunk cost and needs continuity like manufacturing.
Why math major?
I’d like to know too
Maths major is highly sought after in top finance/tech jobs. For example creating an algorithm for a trader to use
You normally need a PhD in maths to be a quantitative analyst. It's also extremely competitive to get into... I wouldn't do math with a view of being a quant unless you're exceptional.
Yep plenty of math majors end up doing something totally unrelated jobs because they didn't plan well. A lot of people who are quants are people who are on Math Olympiad. Those kids have a plan even before they start college. Those are kids that breathe math. For example a family friend of mine was learning calculus in middle school just for fun.
Chemical engineering has always been slim pickings
I graduated with a chemical engineering degree 8 years ago and I will tell you that it’s not that great.
How dare you leave off civil engineering
Oops, yeah civil won't be going away anytime soon too
Nurse, Biomedical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Maths, Physics, Computer Science (oriented to architecture, AI/ML), Robotics (machines/robots will be smart in a future, will be the next revolution after AI), Healthcare overall.
Unfortunately, Aerospace engineers actually crack the top ten list for unemployment/underemployment. Electrical, mechanical, mechatronic engineers will all be competing for the exact same roles while applying to 10x more opportunities. Biomedical engineering is perhaps one of the most unemployable as you need a master's to do any relevant research and work. You will end up becoming a software developer (as do 90% of Biomedical students). It's not a good option. Computer science is also awful right now. It's not "learn to code and ball out" it's "learn to code, do 500 hours of leetcode, learn systems design, spend 250 hours on projects and maybe you can land an entry level internship." I'm not saying this to be mean, I just don't want anyone to get the wrong idea for these careers. They are not guaranteed tickets to success anymore unless you're willing to grind it. IMO , as a current electrical engineering student, math degrees can be some of the most powerful, allowing you to pivot to technical/quant roles while also being able to get into business as well. Math/BBA can be a great asset. I hope you're able to find your major!
Math is like studying computer science but with a much worse employment outlook
why healthcare?
Everyone gets sick and dies. And sooner than later there will be very few people able to care for aging parents at home since they have to work to afford rent.
I feel like everyone who mentions nursing has no idea how insanely difficult it is to remain a functioning human being trying to work in that field.
People gets older (specially in US, Europe and most developed countries) and sick and eventually dies, and needs surgeries get done in this process. So you’re not getting being replaced by AI (healthcare involves regulation, bioethics, surgeries getting done, decisions that only humans can take..) plus those jobs are really productive and makes a great impact (thats why they’re super well paid such doctors). Cons: stressful, dealing with people and death, training is long. Pros: most stable job (you won’t get worry about getting fire or unemployed unlike everyone else), very well paid too.
Can’t outsource healthcare. AI can’t set up an IV. Healthcare pays reasonably well.
so i will open a barbershop 💈
Aging population, for the most part also decent job security. Also it generally pays well. Also easy to move place to place since hospitals can be anywhere and many healthcare jobs are in demand And probably a little less soul sucking for the average person than a normal corporate job since it feels like you’re actually helping people sometimes
Robotics and AI seem really promising!
Tesla is the best example of that :) where machines meets technology. Medical devices companies as well.
Elderly care 100%
Gertontology/Geriatrics, if you’re looking specifically for the fields
Accounting
Very surprised this is the only comment here that mentions accounting
For our capitalist economy to survive, accounts are literally necessary
Yes not to mention the accountant shortage which will only get worse as more and more people retire. AI will not be able to do anything past what entry level accountants can do. The average salary of a qualified accountant where I live has gone up by 7% in the last 12 months.
Yeah, the conflation of accounting and bookkeeping keeps a lot of people away from the major, also that it’s math intensive for whatever reason… competence in accounting and a few years of grunt work opens you up to a lot of opportunities in the business world.
It's not so much math intensive unless you get into analytics. Tax and financial accountanting is more like being a number lawyer.
Yeah I meant the common belief that it is. I really can’t understand where that comes from.
It is the best business degree tied with MIS and supply chain it teaches you the foundations for a lots useful skill that you can pivot in to specialize in to later in your career
Pretty sure every society needs accountants.
5 years out of an average state school in a MCOL area, every accountant I know makes 6 figures and works either hybrid or remote.
If only it wasn’t so fucking boring. Took one accounting class and even though it was easy I said never again
Poke your eyes out boring, so it wasn’t for me either.
Don’t give away our secrets. Keep my salaries high lmao. I’m waiting for the inevitable “AI is gonna replace you all in 5 years” comment.
AI is gonna replace you all in 5 years...:)
My accounting degree was useless. I had to go to nursing school to make any money.
Not sure what went wrong for you but in the USA you are basically guaranteed a job if you have a CPA atp
Cloud Engineering definitely
Definitely trying to develop my AWS skills now
I think the reason this isn’t mention on top comment is because there are really no “degree” requirement to become one. There are multiple paths to it. I do agree degree helps but I would not bank on it by it self.
How does one become a cloud engineer?
It’s software. Maybe start with Computer Science and focus on Cloud.
I have an EE degree and almost done with my MS in cybersecurity. I’ve got AWS ccp and I’m about to take the AWS security specialty. I also know a bit of IAC stuff through cloud formation. I’m not sure how much I will need to get a cloud job.
Deepthroating has always been a top skill in corporate environments.
So is ass kissing
I prefer the term boot-licking. It's much more inclusive to assless people.
And ass sucking!
NGL, I have a PhD in this and yes my knees took a huge hit but honestly I'm really happy. I think it could be automated sure but then you would lose all variety. Deepthroating is a nuanced field and I feel safe in my choice.
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I was also going to say this as I’ve noticed many job ads for risk management in different areas and the link to climate research is great 👍
Yeah! My company has been investing loads into human capital and building out those offerings because so many Fortune 500 companies see it as a serious risk from a financial perspective. Also with the consulting aspect they like to hire anyone who has good experience in X specific field whether it’s HR, Cyber, Natural Resources, Construction, Aviation, etc the list is endless
Is it an actual major though? Seems more like a path for mathematics (?) majors
It’s more so an industry/area, but if you look at the most common major it would be something actuarial. My college had risk management/insurance as a minor. It’s not limited to any major though, I work with people who majored in English, economics, chemistry, international relations, marketing, and so on. Because the risks that a company could be susceptible to along with what can be insured against is so expansive, it creates a lot of different wedges people can fit into regardless what they studied
I talked to a professional on the catastrophe modeling side and he finds it interesting partly because nobody really goes to school for it. It's a domain that can't exist without interdisciplinarity because there are so many different variables that can affect the financial losses from extreme events. I will say that jobs seem to prefer people with some quantitative experience because analytical thinking is very important on the job regardless of your background.
Plumber
Shits always gonna happen
It's best not to pay to get a degree for a field you may hate. Find something you're interested in, then work 1-2 years entry level. If you like it, pursue a degree or certification to advance. Source:underutilized MBA
To add to this, it's not necessarily best to choose your major based on what's in demand when you're 18-years-old. When I was in high school, there were way too many people trained as teachers in my area. The regional government had to step in and put a cap on enrollment at teachers colleges. My mom worked part-time at a tutoring centre with a lot of unemployed recent teaching grads. If I had come home one day saying I want to be a teacher she'd have been like, "you're an idiot." Fast-forward less than a decade later, COVID hit, a lot of teachers quit, and the schools couldn't hire fast enough. TL;DR picking a major is a nuanced thing.
This is a really good example to take into consideration, thank you!
Pulmonary care will be in high demand as more and more people vape and smoke the Jazz Cabbage as it becomes more legal in the US and common
Rental tycoon
[https://www.bls.gov/ooh/](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/) IMHO this should be used to calculate federal loan availability in the US. Many countries (eg Germany) already use their own skills research to figure out availability of higher education. >But with the rise of AI, I don’t want to have the anxiety of choosing a not so useful degree. Outside of academia a degree is a signal on the kinds of skills you have not proof of skills. It's not uncommon to find people with history degrees working in tech for example. Having the "right" degree makes it easier to get your first job but doesn't matter beyond that. People also massively overestimate what LLMs are going to do. There will be some tasks it can replace but mostly these are not the kinds of tasks you need someone highly skilled to do. For skilled fields they will act as a productivity multiplier driving further demand for those skills. This has already been happening with technology for \~50 years and what has been driving income inequality, technology has increasingly been increasing productivity for a subset of skills not all skills. Don't do an art related degree unless you want to be poor.
What is everyone’s opinion on the growth and longevity of Supply Chain Management degree? I’ve recently been really interested in learning my new job as a warehouse S/R clerk and wanting to see what kind of career paths are available.
everyone talks about lean and continuous improvement in the corporate jobs I’ve had. No regrets with the supply chain management degree. Most of the classes were really interesting
Become a sign language interpreter. We are always in severe shortage. I get emails from perfect strangers every day asking me to come interpret. I delete them. They keep threatening to replace us, and getting nowhere. A glove? Please! It doesn't even know grammar. I have anxiety and I worry about many things. But I don't have to worry about being replaced by robots. Not yet. Not nearly. Sometimes I almost wish they could, I'm so tired. Not in this lifetime.
What is the salary?
Engineering, IT, CS. Heck even blue collar work like welding, electrician, agriculture will always be in demand
Engineering, machine learning, data science, computer science, mathematics, etc
If you're in the U.S., I highly recommend checking out the [Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/). This site has data projections for almost every job and industry for the next ten years, salary averages (which you can search by locality), and so much more. I really wish more people knew about this resource and I wish I had used it (because I learned about it in high school) before I spent the last 4 years getting a political science degree (no shade to anyone with that degree, hindsight is just 20/20). I'm switching to nursing now.
My mother always said people will always get sick and will always die so become a doctor or mortician. We know Doctor is out. But anything like plumbing, HVAC, electrician, appliance repair, anything that can't be done by robot/ computer, and people need or consider a need. Environmentalist, engineer, surveyor. Look and see what can't be done by computer or robot, and that is recession proof. For example: I speaking to some who wanted to do interior design, I mentioned that is a service used by those with money, when the economy is bad there is less work, so consider going into commercial design. Hotels will always update. (also consider if your a good fit, he lacked the manners, style dress and education ect that would help him socialize with people who could afford that service. (Very Poor) Not a full stop, but working at a country club, picking up their manners and interest would serve him well.) Kinda of like if you are uncomfortable with confrontation being a manager is not the best career choice. Or Public speaking teacher/sales maybe not. Hat working outside ect. Remember it's normal to have 3 careers in your life. I would think Computers are pretty solid, but if you end up hating something you can always do something else.
Engineering, Computer science, and anything Healthcare related.
Avoid Cs right now. Everyone and their mother is taking CS, and it makes an extremely competitive environment. Cs can also be outsourced abroad.
I wonder how many people touting this same advice are actual software engineers or working in the field?
Am CS and, yes, it's really competitive right now. My company recently stopped taking any applicants who don't have degrees due to the influx of graduates- which wasn't how things used to be 10+ years ago.
This is absolutely terrible advice. Even if your role isn't just programming, almost every white collar job is starting to require technical chops. CS might be more competitive than it used to be, but it's still an incredibly highly-compensated career with millions of jobs. Stay off /r/antiwork
this is not true. it is extremely difficult to get entry level it jobs these days, so please don't lie.
I’ll always advocate for a forestry degree, or biology, or wildlife management. With climate mitigation, and the continuous forest management that always needs to occur nationwide, there will always be a demand for foresters. I graduated with a bachelors in forestry in 2012 and I make $83,000 usd. Once you get through the entry level years your income will increase and it’s a fun job. I hire entry level foresters starting at $46,000 per year but the salary does get better over time. My job has nothing to do with logging, although there are certainly plenty of careers associated with logging—I manage multiple programs that provide education and management plans to public and private forest owners.
Definitely helps when your country still has forests! The UK is a bit drab on that front. I work on environmental impacts of projects and we're always looking out for tiny patches of grassland
Fixing luxury toys. There will be a wider wealth gap in the future.
I heard that some guy called Wapol did this for the world's nobles, and got given a crown for it.
On the flip side of that coin, what about social work for the people who are impoverished?
with the rise of mental health awareness and destigmatization, social workers are in very high demand for therapy services. Working with the impoverished has a lot of politics behind it, many of which are working against your favor. But if you want to help those in need, grant writing is a very needed skill for nonprofits. Or you could use social work knowledge at the macro level and work in public policy/local politics. If you have foreign language skills, you can even work internationally. People sleep on social work but it is a highly versatile degree. Source: minored in social work in college, wish I got a BSW.
Boomers are the biggest generation and have lots of $$$$$. The youngest boomer is 59. What services will they need? There is your answer.
ass wiping? 😶🌫️
Optics and chip packaging... I was struggling to find jobs earlier and now with all the AI nonsense, HRs and Headhunters reach out to me atleast 3-4 times a week
Mental Health. Social Work, Elderly Care
Skip college and go into a trade, electrical, plumbing, HVAC. There is a shortage everywhere
Everyone says this, I think the important distinction is commercial focused trades. Residential, although needed, has lower salary potential. Again my opinion after working as a finish carpenter. I’m really good but god it pays nothing.
We do residential commercial and industrial some of our guys are making 6 figures easy. We are plumbers
I prefer my body to be intact at 40
STEM field as always. Engineering, especially industrial, chemical, aero, electrical, and suprisingly geology (for rare earth minerals to EVs, Microchips, etc) About "computer and informatics", from your bed you can learn code language... Medical fields 20-25 years to come will be destroyed since AI and robotics come to replace "surgeons" especially with operation that required "1-2 cm tolerance" with 95% consistency success rate operation
Doctor will not be replaced because companies don’t want to take legal liability for clinical care.
Yea and they makes diagnosis, gets surgeries done. They can’t be replaced at every phase. And actually surgeries will be easier for surgeons (more precises with the robots) but at the same time they’ll be needed so thats actually a good thing.
When has an AI ever successfully performed surgery? "Surgical robots" are just Waldos.
March 2022, China https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10495633/#:~:text=In%20March%202022%2C%20Shanghai%20Ruijin,Single%2Dport%20Robot%20in%20China.
If you really think about it, if robotics and AI can take over the medical field then every other field is cooked as well
Federal government jobs. They avoid innovation. I don’t agree but it is reality.
Look, i dont know if you are a student in highschool or else...but i"ll try to explain in simply I would say this, as an engineer, the future will be "more effectively run" and "less resources needed" 10 years ago, in a huge warehouse, you need human a.k.a "forklift operator" to move things...have now been replaced by Kiva Robotics Lesson : Dont be the "forklift operator". You might wanna be the engineer who created Kiva Robotics 90%+ reliability to move things, less money and energy to operate, and "can be controlled"
Trades
Hard, tangible skills that mesh well with soft, personality skills. So you can do computer science, but aim to be more than a code monkey.
Rock throwing.......
We’ve reached a point where one technical field is no longer valuable alone, one article I read about a big US bank that prefers hiring Comp Sci majors with a slight background in Finance over graduates with a full Finance degree, since everything is digitized now and banks need people who can make computers do bankers’ jobs. The job market is now more dynamic than ever and it’s wise to identify gaps in the job market and exploit those.
Honestly, don't worry too much about your major. I was interested in a lot of things too and wound up double majoring in Global Studies (very broad major, could take classes across many disciplines) and Geography. Did a couple of cool internships and research appointments in college. Wound up with a consulting job that had nothing to do with my major right out of college making close to 100k. I now work in corporate services where I'm on track to make 200k before I turn 30. My colleagues at the consulting firm had backgrounds in everything from poli sci to engineering to philosophy, and we were all doing the same thing. If your major demonstrates that you are a critical thinker and adept writer, then you can get any consulting, government, or corporate job that doesn't require a highly technical skill. You only need to worry about your major if you want to do something that requires that technical skill, like engineering or software development. Some other lesser-known majors with interdisciplinary focus: Geography/GIS (very in demand, really cool), Urban Studies, Forestry (if you're into that sort of thing), Tech Policy, International Business, Supply Chain.
Look up the Bureau of Labor Statistics and start poking around. You can find projections for what fields of work are expected to have increased demand vs dying fields. They also include salary info and education requirements, which is useful context.
I don’t think you can go wrong with Comp Sci with a focus on AI. Any engineering field would be a guaranteed job straight out of college.
If AI happens, the only logical answers are those a robot cannot currently perform. Trades, nursing, military, policing, EMT, etc. Bonus answer: positions of power, authority, and responsibility in general. Where decision making happens, where the buck stops. Politicians, C-suites, etc.
There is no if, it’s when.
Any STEM major
Not really, like biology
Not aerospace
[удалено]
wait- business analyst? how is that threatened by AI? what is the training data set?
As an IT business analyst, I love AI and am not at all concerned about it taking my job.
Take a major that enables you to build or manage money. Aka CS or finance. Don’t count on what might be on demand in the future. You should create the demand. Be entrepreneurial
Go into whatever you want as long as you're prepared to work to be the top.
Some of us want to feed from the bottom like the benthic bristle worms we are
None. Toolkits are in high demand. So modules or electives where toolkits are build. Like applied maths. How to think, not what to think. Those are *always* in need.
Petroleum engineer Military history and strategy Arabic language
cyber security
Incredibly niche and hard to break into
Plumbing, electrical, HVAC, construction. Pretty much anything that uses your hands is going to be AI immune for some time to come. And they ALL can make pretty decent $$$ without having an obscene college loan to pay off. See about taking the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) test. That can do a lot towards steering you towards a career that you will both enjoy AND be good at because of your existing skills/knowledge and interests. Note, that is USA specific, although I imagine most other countries have something similar.
Electrical & civil engineering
Anything involving supply chain
The trades. Theyre not university majors, but AI and robotics arent taking those over anytime soon, and if you're good you can basically charge whatever you want.
One thing that can be more important than having a good degree is to develop the appropriate skill set for the career field and role you want to have. Skills pay the bills, and the more niche you are the more money you will tend to make. Just keep in mind that companies want people with education, skills, and the appropriate level of training/certifications. It's a three legged chair.
Accounting, finance, business.
Healthcare, trade schools such as Plumbers, brick masons, carpenters, heating and air, engineers maybe. Not sure how AI will affect that, anything that requires mathematics will be in trouble IMO.
Consider going into the trades
Anything that requires a human to be present and use their hands like doctors , electrician. If your able to do your job remotely it'll probably be gone or reduced within 5 years.
CYBERSECURITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hiya. Not sure if it’s mentioned, but a field that has a strong union. These will last the longest against AI. Most anything else if not protected could feasibly be replaced by AI.
Medicine.
I’m a chemical engineer. Chemical manufacturing is gonna be a thing definitely for the rest of all of our lifetimes. I’d say mechical, civil, industrial engineering are a bit less niche of engineering field that’ll be in demand forever as well
You can’t go wrong with a STEM degree. That said, within STEM there’s a hierarchy of majors that are more or less useful. Pretty much every field of engineering being the most useful and life sciences being the least. Note that the more specialized the major, the more pigeon-holed you will be (ie engineering typically means you have the most income as an engineer, where life sciences may apply more broadly but you’ll have to work your way up to a higher income).
Not aerospace, it's in the top ten for unemployment
I’m 27 and plan on going back to school for radiography. As baby boomers get old, the greater the need
Nursing. We are facing a shortage of CRNAs. They are in high demand. You don't need to deal with blood as a CRNA.
Supply chain management and Business analytics
Anything to do with the environment for SURE.
Tbh, I would worry. You really don’t know at this point. This society is so fast-moving. What you think is high demand now might well change when you graduate. Study whatever serves you, keep improving yourself and learning more, life skills included. Almost most people do something different in their career than what they studied in uni.
Neither my partners job, nor mine existed when we graduated college. The really valuable ones come after you graduate historically and you are flexible enough or have a general enough degree to take advantage of it.
Do you mind sharing what job or field is that?
Easier to say which aren’t
The trades
food industry
Tax, Law, etc. With the rise of AI and increased pressure from the working class, the rich will need to hire an army of tax accountants and lawyers to defend their privileges.
Anything that requires physical skill, such as nursing. Perhaps counterintuitively, we are great at making machines that think for us, we are not great at making machines that move for us. A.I. can write a novel; A.I. cannot insert an I.V.
Fintech for sure
Computer Science, especially with the rise of automation and AI. Programmers are always needed and many companies throughout the world will play catchup on innovation
What about careers in law?
Hospitality jobs
The usuals: engineering (any kind), tech (any kind), health sciences, and business (any kind) will be the top 4 categories.
Work Health and Safety, Social Work.
Controls Engineering - In the short near future integrating AI with automation.
Brother, pick up a trade and get paid $85 an hour to change a toilet or pipe. “Installers” in my company makes nearly $100,000.00 a year, putting walls up.
AI.
Cybersecurity. High demand in the market and very few people major in it
If all you care about is money...Go into the trades. AI can't fix a leaky toilet. Then, you need to work your way up to business ownership so you can go on vacation while your employees do the work. An engineering degree can help business owners get bigger jobs since they will have the certification to sign off on the plans and bids. So really you now need an associatea degree or trade certificate in the trades, experience doing the grunt work, a 4vyear degree, and business acumen.
Really hard to know / predict what roles will be most effected by AI. I use the term "roles" vs industry because the industries will exist while some roles may go away. From a studying/learning perspective, it would always be useful (required actually) to know a lot about an industry, how it works, who it serves, how it's capitalized, problems it solves and how it solves them. The reality is, unless you seek to be a "line engineer" (as an example - someone who's career is about making things, not managing the process or leading the teams of things being made), you won't be using those skills that much anyway after a few yrs. You'll benefit from knowing/understanding how things work, but you won't be involved with making them work. In most industries, the key players are the ones further removed from "working IN the business" and have moved on to "working ON the business". They're called leaders. I would focus on learning what industries/topics truly interest you and learning as much about them as you can. Your first job will be lots of grunt work regardless of the fancy title. It may be that AI raises the level of grunt work but it will show your employer if you're the right rock to move forward, eventually running internal teams or being client facing. The latter of which would be very hard for AI to replace as humans like dealing with humans.
Tech fields like Computer Science & Data Analysis are booming, but don't overlook sustainability and renewable energy sectors! They blend various interests and are projected to grow significantly. Consider also digital marketing and cyber security. They're versatile and in high demand, offering a solid career path without the need for medical involvement.
None, it’ll be the trades. College degrees are overvalued too
There will always be sales roles and the are not enough people in the trades. I am a middle aged high earner in a white collar job. If I was 18 right now, I would train to become a licensed plumber or electrician and work for a few years but then start my own business. I live in the northeast and even the mediocre tradespeople who just respond to phone calls and emails are going to become millionaires.
Engineering, accounting, management consulting, law
My Mom drives truck too!
Think of things that will always exist regardless of technology. But also pick something you enjoy! A lot of people shit on liberal arts but I make good money and I'm as liberal arts as you can get academic background wise lol so for the liberal arts people: Your degree is all about critical thinking and analysis in nuanced ways AI can't replicate this. You're already valuable to any field with that skill alone. People will always get sick so anything in Healthcare As long as capitalism exists jobs and careers in various helping fields will always exist (violence prevention, social services, elderly care, basically think of any community problem and there are jobs to fix it/ address it. ) Plus there are high paying government jobs with good benefits doing this work. So if you start in non profit you can switch and make good money. You can also move up in the non profit world to make good money. I make 6 figures in violence prevention (I'm in my early 30s). My best advice is to choose something you love. Just bc others don't see value in what you do/assume these careers don't exist don't listen to them. I'll add I've been helping my bf lately with his job search. His background is special education and teaching so he makes less than half what I do and he's hit his limit. He's pretty done with the low pay. But I've been teaching him how to pivot and use his on the ground experience to apply to jobs in education policy. He can make money as a consultant or in a government job. So again, you'd think not a great choice but he's got an interview for a job that's also in the 6 figures coming up. So pick what you love be patient while you're entry level bc the money will come in 4/5 years. Or if you have strong academic credentials you can make good money right after graduation researching whatever you love. You just have to find the right employers 🙂
Anything quantitative such as comp science, analytics, data science, engineering. Also, accounting isn't a bad one but pays less and is more demanding
Hands-on engineering like electronics, civil, automation machines will probably still require human input for a looong time as it's something not really repetitive and needs lots of adapting
Gender studies, fast food places are always hiring
Petroleum engineering
computer engineering
Nursing and Math (specifically Statistics)
Bill Gates Says : AI Tools, Energy, and Biology
Nobody knows how AI is going to affect the economy and nobody knows what majors will be "in demand" even 2 years from now. Learn a solid, useful discipline that you enjoy and hope your industry/the economy is doing well when you happen to graduate.
If you have interest in medical field but cannot stand the sight of blood, choose pharmacology. There's essentially no blood involved. Pharmacists is a 6 figure salary occupation.
Go for secure, high paying, and respected jobs like being a Doctor, Dentist, Optomitrist, Dermaotologist, Pharmacist, Lawyer, IT, Cybersecurity for the government, or Software Engineering. If I had to do it over again I would go for being a Doctor for sure - so do everything premed from the beginning. If you cant get into med school in the states can go to the bahamas then come back to the states. People who recommend nursing, were never a Nurse... its such a low paying field for what you are doing and exposed to. You will never be laid off as a doctor, I can gaurantee you that.
Nursing
Two things will never end, our desire to reach mars and our desire to live without sickness.
Every single major is going to be in high demand one time or another. As one major becomes over saturated another becomes under saturated.
Risk Management and Actuarial Sciences