Career That Can’t be Replaced by Technology

Jules

Jules

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As I was looking at my straggly locks, I decided that the skills needed to be a hairdresser/barber can’t be replaced by a machine.

Nor the skills needed to be a house painter.

What other jobs are there that aren’t likely to be replaced by technology?
 

If robots can perform surgery what could stop them from performing car repairs? Something to chew on I suppose. :)
 

SilentSoul said:
If robots can perform surgery what could stop them from performing car repairs? Something to chew on I suppose. :)
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Robots may have earned a place in today's modern world related to certain things, but in relation to mechanics, I say not likely, because if one cylinder were to go in a certain vehicle engine, a hands-on mechanic knows the make, model, and has more than likely ordered all parts related to the repair, and has the parts ready and waiting.

I just don't see a robot ascertaining vehicle make and model, specific damage sustained to the engine, along with any other important fixes that would need remedied along the way that a highly trained technician would be able to ascertain through knowledge and experience, then placing an order for all parts relative to the repair/rebuild, and finally, having all parts ready and waiting and accessible once engine repairs commence.

As for robots that perform surgery, they don't perform surgeries all on their own, independent of that of highly trained and experienced surgeons and specialists assisting them.

Robotic Surgery simply allows surgeons to perform complex procedures with more precision, flexibility and control than possible with conventional techniques. Surgeons control the robotic arms while seated at a computer console near the operating table. The console gives the surgeon a high-definition, magnified, 3-D view of the surgical site. The surgeon leads other team members who assist during the operation.
 
Technology, automation, and robotics, etc., has substantially changed our need for human workplace activity in the past few decades, and that change will probably increase every year. At the pace things are changing, I find it hard to imagine what people will be doing for employment in another few decades..."service industry" type of activity can only support a fraction of the population.
 
cops
firemen/women

2. (town drunkard:confused:-sorry, don't know what overcame me)

3. the perpetual bill collector
used car salesman (junkers=we gott'a have a car, but we can't buy a decent used car)
entertainers(-so we won't have time to think how much our world is screwed up)
septic tank cleaners-different than plumbers
folks picking up can on highway (I guess that is a job?)
Judges
Prison guards

# 2&3 ---Just think a tad down the social skill, there lots of job, not good jobs, but jobs
 
Dana said:
Robots are already tackling many of those professions...in the not too distant future, all that will be needed are computer engineers to operate and programme the robots:
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That is the unfortunate aspect of these changes that have been, and still are, coming. In previous eras such as the industrial revolution, there were jobs for a broad spectrum of people. Not so with the technical jobs. Not everybody's mind works that way. This is NOT a reflection on anyone's intelligence, but we all seem to be "wired" a bit differently and these jobs, rather than covering a broad spectrum, cover a relatively narrow spectrum.

There are jobs that people have traditionally performed that they would now use computers for and those jobs will not necessarily be completely replaced. Graphic design, drafting, writing ad copy, other forms of writing, etc., are examples of these jobs. Yes, computers can do some of these, but not as well as humans. Whether that will change in the future with further developments in AI, remains to be seen. As of now, we can only speculate on that area.

Tony
 
Blue Collars: Those performing purely repetitive tasks will disappear while those like garbage collectors, gardeners, police, fire fighters, home builders and the like are safe.
White Collars: Loser will be those involved in middleman work, taking inventory, bean counters, brokers. These jobs ae called "the friction of capitalism."
In 2006 it was estimated there were 950,000 industrial robots and 350,540,000 service robots working in homes and offices.
There is a new home and commercial security system using a drone in place of wall mounted camera and people in commercial applications. Not sure it is on the market yet.
 
jerry old said:
More forever jobs:
(i'm having fun with this thread)

Prisoners, they work, that's a job
those in the world's oldest profession and i don't mean farmers
circus performers (especially dwarfs)
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The world's oldest profession jobs could conceivably replaced as more human-like robots are developed. "Human-like" will mean both the physical attributes of the robot as well as its actions/reactions.

As for more manual labor jobs, several people in our condo association are already using those robotic vacuum cleaners and I am seeing more articles on robotics that clearly indicate this is just the beginning.

Edit: If what you are referring to as "the world's oldest profession" being motherhood, then once the moral/ethical battles are fought and eventually won, that will still be a possibility, though my comments addressed the world's "second oldest profession".

Tony
 
So, the Tin Man didn't have a job,wait, wait, he had an ax, but i can't picture him as a lumberjack.
("I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok...")

What robot can replace
Zombies robots can't be zombies, they just rust away
Bigfoot
 
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Some technology is better then others and many items fail because they cannot distinguish small variants a person can........

the place i work is implementing a new system that is suppose to help with items but UNLESS all task are all the same the system jams....the process it was suppose to replace took about 4 days .......now for all they what ifs with machine it takes 10 big progress......huh
so dealing with any HUMAN issue that is " ONE SIZE does not fit ALL" will need someone to adjust and work around.......machines at this point cannot.....
 
Jeni said:
technology only does what it is Programmed to do so i guess programmers would still be needed......
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Yes, programmers are in high demand. But, because of the internet a programmer may work anywhere in the world. I'm a programmer and I lost my job in 2014 to two gentlemen living in India. As part of my exit agreement I trained them before leaving and getting my package. The combined salary of these two Indian programmers plus the fee of their firm Accenture (they would serve as consultants and not receive benefits) was much lower than my salary. So, I would warn any young person that the competition for computer programmer positions will be tight. Analytical jobs were you would write specifications for off-shore programmers would be a safer choice (e.g., Cyber Security, Database Administrators, etc.).
 
rcleary171 said:
Yes, programmers are in high demand. But, because of the internet a programmer may work anywhere in the world. I'm a programmer and I lost my job in 2014 to two gentlemen living in India. As part of my exit agreement I trained them before leaving and getting my package. The combined salary of these two Indian programmers plus the fee of their firm Accenture (they would serve as consultants and not receive benefits) was much lower than my salary. So, I would warn any young person that the competition for computer programmer positions will be tight. Analytical jobs were you would write specifications for off-shore programmers would be a safer choice (e.g., Cyber Security, Database Administrators, etc.).
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While I had a similar experience, but with engineers from China, I have never had a problem finding engineering work. Even after that layoff, I was working again at a different company within a week. What is important is to make sure that you are always working in an area of your field that is in high demand. I found the embedded Linux area to be very fruitful. You have to understand both the hardware and the software, be able to read schematics, utilize logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, in circuit emulators, etc. This is very different work from high level programming such as databases, web sites, and that sort of thing. The pay is much better and the work plentiful. However, at least a 4 year degree is most often a requirement, so there is the "cost of entry" into the field. Even in retirement, I have no problem finding engineering work when I want to. I am sure that will change if more people decide to go into engineering and alleviate the shortage.

The trend, at least in my area of work, has been either away from moving the jobs over seas or at least evening the playing field as companies realize how expensive it is to overcome cultural and language barriers. Being able to work from anywhere is only a part of the story, but this didn't become obvious until companies had several years having to deal with ALL the realities involved. Moving jobs to China is a bit different because the Chinese government is VERY smart about requiring parts of the work to be done in their country of business is to be done there. That is what happened to my job that went overseas, and that only happened to me on that one occasion.

Tony
 
tbeltrans said:
While I had a similar experience, but with engineers from China, I have never had a problem finding engineering work. Even after that layoff, I was working again at a different company within a week. What is important is to make sure that you are always working in an area of your field that is in high demand. I found the embedded Linux area to be very fruitful. You have to understand both the hardware and the software, be able to read schematics, utilize logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, in circuit emulators, etc. This is very different work from high level programming such as databases, web sites, and that sort of thing. The pay is much better and the work plentiful. However, at least a 4 year degree is most often a requirement, so there is the "cost of entry" into the field. Even in retirement, I have no problem finding engineering work when I want to. I am sure that will change if more people decide to go into engineering and alleviate the shortage.

The trend, at least in my area of work, has been either away from moving the jobs over seas or at least evening the playing field as companies realize how expensive it is to overcome cultural and language barriers. Being able to work from anywhere is only a part of the story, but this didn't become obvious until companies had several years having to deal with ALL the realities involved. Moving jobs to China is a bit different because the Chinese government is VERY smart about requiring parts of the work to be done in their country of business is to be done there. That is what happened to my job that went overseas, and that only happened to me on that one occasion.

Tony
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I'm glad to see your inventory of skills and area of expertise it resistant to overseas outsourcing. And I agree that moving jobs to an area of the world where the cost of living is low is only part of the story. My experience was part of a broader event were my company laid off hundreds of people and subsequently enjoyed a short term cut in costs. But I and my fellow soon-to-be-ex-employees could not help notice that our replacements did not know the industry. "Don't worry, they will be trained later", we were told. Not our problem so we moved on. I soon learned that the expense cost savings was short lived as turnaround was longer and quality was lower (not to mention the communication and cultural challenges that you referred to). And I learned that our training was wasted when our replacements either left the company or were rotated to other firms.

As I say to my son, no simple answers for people choosing a career and entering the job market. Knowledge is power so the more you know then the more marketable you will be. And be prepared to be constantly learning new skills and move quickly when promising new industries immerge.
 
rcleary171 said:
I'm glad to see your inventory of skills and area of expertise it resistant to overseas outsourcing. And I agree that moving jobs to an area of the world where the cost of living is low is only part of the story. My experience was part of a broader event were my company laid off hundreds of people and subsequently enjoyed a short term cut in costs. But I and my fellow soon-to-be-ex-employees could not help notice that our replacements did not know the industry. "Don't worry, they will be trained later", we were told. Not our problem so we moved on. I soon learned that the expense cost was short lived as turnaround was longer and quality was lower (not to mention the communication and cultural challenges that you referred to). And I learned that our training was wasted when our replacements either left the company or were rotated to other firms.

As I say to my son, no simple answers for people choosing a career and entering the job market. Knowledge is power so the more you know then the more marketable you will be. And be prepared to be constantly learning new skills and move quickly when promising new industries immerge.
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Learning new skills all the time is paramount to remaining employed in technical fields. I was, and still am, always learning new things. That is how I did not get let go while in my 50s as many, especially in larger companies, have. One can find a comfortable niche and get comfortable and stay there doing the same thing year after year while the rest of the world moves on. Suddenly, that person is no longer needed because s/he has become a "one trick pony". I recall those kinds of corporate jobs where a person finds that niche and stays stuck in it forever as "white man's welfare". I think those days are long gone.

Tony
 
Yep - for many years I enjoyed knowing an obscure programming language called Pick and it was my ticket for two decades as I moved from industry to industry (State, Space, Software firms, Publishing, Unions, Light Industry, Insurance). But the day came when that single trick was no longer in demand. Fortunately I was able to leverage my knowledge and jump to more current skill sets. The learning never ends.
 
I heard of Pick years ago. As I recall, it was a high level language and I never had any contact with it. My programming initially was very processor-specific since it was assembler. Then, C started to take hold, followed by C++. These have been my primary tools, along with scripting languages such as bash scripting, Python, and the like. Those are used to quickly whip something together, though more serious programming is being done with Python. Then there are al the web-based languages and toolkits, but those are more the realm of people doing high level GUI work.

I have been very fortunate that in the early days of Linux, when it was at release 0.99 and distributed on a large stack of 5 1/4" floppies (25 or 30 as I recall), I was introduced to it more as an outside work hobby thing. Later on, Linux began taking over where VxWorks had been the premier embedded toolkit for vendor demo boards. These days, any of these boards has Linux as the centerpiece of their Board Support Package (BSP). Linux is found everywhere, from smart phones to TVs, to servers and desktop computers, hobby boards, etc. Anybody with a solid knowledge of Linux internals and drivers, and the ability to port Linux to custom hardware, will probably have a pretty solid career for some time to come.

Another fortunate aspect of my career is that I have worked for a number of startups where you have to "wear a lot of engineering hats". In larger companies, a person can still become pigeon-holed, which just begs for workplace obsolescence and early forced retirement. I learned C early on because we were using it in the startups long before it made its way into larger companies. When larger companies started to recognize its usefulness for pretty much any engineering project, I was already well down that path with the experience. I went back to college a bit later in my career and learned C++ and Objected-Oriented design and application in a hardware environment. So I was well positioned when that came to the fore in engineering environments.

A lot of this stuff is a matter of luck - being in the right place at the right time. We rarely know ahead of time what direction these things will take in the future. Somehow, I seemed to always be well positioned, and it wasn't because I had some sort of crystal ball. I was simply interested in what was going on around me.

Also I never considered a job a "right" that I am entitled to. I always saw myself and the skills I have as being a marketable product so that it is up to me to remain useful to those who might employ me. I never understand demanding a higher wage without bringing more to the table than I did at a lower wage. The way I see it, if I am hiring somebody to do work for me (i.e. hiring the services of a plumber, mechanic, electrician, going out to eat, etc.) as many of us, especially homeowners and car owners will do from time to time, we demand quality service for our dollars paid. We will do our due diligence when deciding who to hire or what restaurant to go to, and as evidenced even in these forums, will be upset if we don't get the service we paid for. I never understood why many people don't look at themselves in the same way in terms of what we bring to our employers. That attitude has really helped me stay employed because it isn't about me when I am "on the clock", but instead about what I do in return for the dollars paid to me. To me, many people have it all backwards, putting what they want over what they are being paid to provide their employer. I would think anybody here who owns or has owned their own business and has employees will readily see what I am talking about.

Tony
 
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always told my boss, I'm the best example of a bad example you have."

Buckeyes quote didn't work.
 

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