Learn a Core Skill (Or Two)
Core skills won't just have value in the economy of the future, they could be the difference between life and death.
This is an essay in a series of essays that will be published as part of an ebook with the preliminary title The Next 18 Months: What to Do When AI Takes Your Job. The ebook will analyze why workers can expect to lose their jobs over the next 18 months (spoiler alert: it’s not just because of AI), who is most at risk, and what you can do to prepare. Become a full subscriber to get new chapters and first access to the ebook when it is released.
Part I: Why You’re About to Lose Your Job
Part II: Who Is Most Affected
Entry-Level Workers
Managers
Part III: What You Can Do
Modern workers confuse showing up at a job with cultivating and honing skills. While you might be required to perform a skill in a job, that job won’t always translate into skill-building. You’ll have to take the initiative and learn critical skills on your own.
A large number of workers are employed in performative or ornamental roles that don’t have enough work for them to do. They spend a substantial portion of their day doing trivial tasks like responding to emails or attending meetings, mistaking the performance of work for skill. Because of this, workers aren’t practicing the skills they have much less learning new ones.
Low-value tasks are a signal that a role is ripe for elimination, consolidation, and eventual automation. This is why performing a job audit on yourself is important. But this isn’t the only thing that should concern white collar workers in jobs that don’t fully leverage their skill set.
As AI and automation displaces workers, they will flood the job market. They will try to sell resumes devoid of hard skills in vain to employers who no longer want the experience they have to offer. These workers will likely come to the same conclusion I came to after leaving my career in Washington, DC – they have nothing of value to offer an employer.
For several years I worked as a defense contractor in Washington, DC. I was nothing more than a glorified paper pusher. In that role, I learned how to perform the act of work using obsolete project management strategies and outdated project management systems.1
To this day I still don’t know what my job employed me to do and I’m confident I didn’t learn any valuable skills. All I know is that when I left my career in Washington, I had nothing of value to offer the private sector. While the Department of Defense had been solving problems by PowerPoint, my peers in the private sector have been building smart algorithms and AI.
Some displaced workers will find there’s an opportunity to learn new AI skills and will seize the opportunity to do so. They’ll be able to capitalize on those skills to retain their job or find a new one. Others will freelance or start businesses of their own. But for some, their skills will be too insufficient to warrant market demand and the gap will be too large to fill. They’ll pivot into an entirely new career instead.
Just as is the case in the economy today, skills in the AI-powered economy will come with a shelf-life. While becoming AI literate is fundamental, not everyone will want to keep up with the changing demands of AI skills.