How to Actually AI-Proof Your Job
And build a seven-figure business at the same time.
The AI revolution is underway and there’s no doubt it’s going to fundamentally change the way we work.
While millions of people are expected to lose their jobs, AI won’t eliminate the need for human workers entirely – at least not yet. There will still be some jobs humans will have to do.
Geoffrey Hinton, the godfather of AI, recently sat down in an interview for A Diary of a CEO to talk about our AI-dominated future. During the interview, he told Steven Bartlett that the best insurance policy against losing your job to AI is by becoming a plumber:
He’s not wrong. AI can write code but it can’t fix a leaky faucet.
The problem with AI is that it’s going to make human cognitive labor unnecessary. Humans will manage teams of AI agents rather than teams of people. Fewer humans will be needed which will make cognitive jobs highly competitive. While a lot of people might consider themselves to be good workers, they won’t be good enough to land a job managing AI.
Trades, on the other hand, are about to make a comeback. Work that used to be socially stigmatized will now become highly esteemed. Instead of looking for a man in finance, women will start looking for tradesmen with durable skills and stable jobs.
But that’s not all. Trades also offer a pathway into business ownership. Instead of becoming a “founder” of an OpenAI wrapper company, tradesmen can become owner-operators of real, revenue-generating businesses. The skills mastered from a trade is a real asset that you can capitalize on even as the economy changes around you.
So how exactly do you get started with a trade? That’s what this essay will dive into. It’ll cover what the trades are and how to pursue a trade. It will conclude with a case study to show how savvy tradesmen are monetizing their trades in novel ways.
To pursue a trade, you need to learn a skill and master it. Top performers who commit to mastery earn well over six-figures.
Trades have been highly stigmatized over the past two decades. It seems like every high school guidance counselor in America wanted to push students into college – regardless of whether or not they actually needed it. This came at the expense of learning about alternative pathways to high-paying careers in the trades.
Now people are starting to see the writing on the wall and trades are making a comeback. As the Wall Street Journal reported last month, high school juniors are getting lucrative job offers in the trades before they even graduate high school
For high school students who have yet to embark on a college education, I think learning a trade is the best option. There won’t be any entry-level desk jobs once AI agents come fully online. That is why Gen Zers are facing such high unemployment rates today. The starter jobs they need to begin their careers simply don’t exist anymore.
Millennials and Gen Xers are going to feel the impact of AI-related job displacement as well. While retraining into an entirely new career field and learning a new skillset might be a bitter pill to swallow, it’s essential. The government didn’t step in when deindustrialization took blue collar jobs away, why should anyone believe the government will step in when white collar jobs disappear too?
Short of collecting some sort of universal basic income, it’s unclear how workers will be able to support themselves once AI takes over. If you want to stay employed, your best option (at this point in time) is to learn a trade. Here’s what you need to do to get started.
Complete a vocational program
Trade schools are just like college. You go to class and you learn things. The only difference is that when you graduate from a vocational program, you graduate with a skill. The same can’t be said for college degree holders these days.
Vocational programs are offered at community colleges, privately run trade schools, continuing education programs, and through local unions. The cost and time to complete a vocational program varies based on what program you enroll in and whether or not you complete it full-time.
Let’s say you want to become a plumber. Here’s the type of vocational programs you could enroll in:
A vocational program not only covers the coursework you’ll need to know to succeed in a trade, it may also come with certifications that you’ll need to have before you can get to work.
Become an apprentice
Once you have the basics down you can become an apprentice to learn the ropes from a seasoned veteran.1 In some trades, apprenticeships are a required part of the certification process.
Unions offer apprenticeship programs and are often one of the best pathways to landing a good job and benefits. Here in Austin, UA Local 286 offers an apprenticeship program that spans five years. It includes:
10,000 hours of on-the-job training
1,225 hours of classroom instruction2
1,000 hours of probationary employment
According to UA Local 286’s website, these are the wages you can expect to earn as you advance through the process:
While going through the union can be one way to become an apprentice, you can also register with your local licensing board. In Texas, anyone who is 16 years or older and a legal resident of the United States can register as a Plumber’s Apprentice with the Texas Board of Plumbing Examiners. The hours you work as a Plumber’s Apprentice count towards the Tradesman Plumber-Limited and Journeyman Plumber examinations.
Get licensed
To earn the big bucks in a trade, you have to become licensed. This comes after a combination of education, on-the-ground training, and successful completion of licensing exams.
Each state has their own licensing requirements. In Texas, plumbers can get one of four different types of licenses, depending on how long they’ve been in the trade and their skill level.
Tradesmen Plumber-Limited:
4,000 hours experience as a plumber’s apprentice (~2 years of work experience)
24 hours of board-approved classroom training
Completion of licensing exam
Journeyman Plumber:
8,000 hours of on-the-job training (~4 years of work experience)
48-hour training course
Completion of licensing exam
Master Plumber:
Licensed Journeyman Plumber for at least 4 years
Completion of licensing exam
Plumbing Inspector
500 hours of training or are a licensed Master or Journeyman Plumber
Completion of licensing exam
Aside from the different licensing requirements, you’ll also need to complete continuing education courses and periodically recertify your credentials. This isn’t much different from lawyers who have to complete Continuing Legal Education courses to stay up to date with new laws and regulations.
Work hard and get really good at what you do
Unlike white collar jobs which often rely on informal requirements, office politics, and who you know in your professional network, advancing in the trades is pretty cut and dry. There’s a path for advancement and each level comes with different requirements you must accomplish before you can move on to the next level.
There’s a myth that workers in the trades earn less than a college degree. That may have been the case in the past but things have changed. Trades now produce a higher return on investment than a bachelor’s degree.
Compare a recent college graduate to a tradesman. College students spend four years in the classroom before beginning their careers. You don’t actually learn any skills during those four years and when you graduate, you graduate with about $38,375 of debt at 6.53% interest.
After college the median wage of an entry-level white collar worker is $68,680. If you work the average American work year of 1,804 hours, you’d earn around $38 per hour – before taxes. But because these jobs are salaried, you won’t earn any overtime. If you work more than 40 hours a week, expect your take home pay to be much lower than that.
Like college, trades require a little bit more time to learn a trade but after you learn it, you have a transferable skill you can take with you anywhere you go. It takes around five years to complete the required coursework and apprentice hours. Depending on the route you take, it can cost less than about $10,000. If you qualify for a free training program or receive scholarships, you could complete your coursework for free.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median salary of a plumber is $62,970 with the top 10% earning more than $105,150. As noted in the table provided by the union above, a Journeyman Plumber earns a base wage of $37.15 per hour. Union members also receive full benefits – including a pension and health insurance – as well as overtime.
Tradesmen make about as much as white collar workers, arguably more if you factor in benefits and job security. But what you might not realize is that if you become highly skilled at what you do and learn how to turn your trade into a business you can earn much more.
And I mean a lot more.