I'm thinking about finishing out my career with that kind of transition.

I've always done various office work and have been good at it, but I know I'm on borrowed time.

At some point in the next 1-3 years, they'll automate 90%+ of what I'm doing, and I'll be out the door. And being late 40s, with the job market being what it is, and admittedly me not skilling up much most of the last decade or so... I have I just don't have what's needed to get back to work in favorable conditions once that inevitable canning happens.

Fortunately, I have a friend of the family who's a long time HVAC guy, and the company he works for has been short handed for quite a while. I figure if I start training up in the very near future, I'll be able to transition over without too many issues, and If I'm careful, I won't have to beat myself up too much in the decade or so before I retire.

I think the powers that be have an ultimate goal of combining AI and robotics to automate the trades too, but they are much further away on that... it should be a safe space for long enough.

And who you go to work for.. most of us aren't so lucky

live performer in circus will be safe (for some time)
seriously, you've seen how this works, suddenly creativity can be achieved with little bit of randomness
robots which should help us in menial tasks are surprisingly taking over art and creative things
i mean it will take a while to fully take over but a lesson learnt is that you just need to throw in huge data to make it look wise and inteligent

isn't safe

isn't safe

Elaborate. I’d like to hear your opinions on why.

Thanks for adding more perspective. Sure, if you take for instance “sales”, that is a huge category, from people who do telephone sales, to car sales, to software sales, realtors, consulting sales, complex equipment sales… the more complex the product or service on sale is, the less likely it is that the sales person will be replaced by AI, and the more likely it will be that this person will use AI as an assistant. The OP will need to identify that sweet spot, and a good education will be crucial.

Tell me more about ... ooh, physiotherapy.

Yes, I am insanely lucky. But this took fucking effort.

Prostitution.

I am not saying it's the ideal career choice for most people, however it isn't something ruined by AI...
And there are opportunities to progress into a madam or pimp. Plus you get a funky hat with a feather, I'm unsure how this process goes though (I would imagine there must be some sort of application process for the hat).

I find it unreal that this is legal. This is why we need unions.

"AI can't replace you but an AI salesman can convince your boss to replace you will AI."

Airline mechanic. AI is not going anywhere near us and if it does it will be trained on absolute garbage and be wrong 100% of the time.

I have coals in the fire for unionizing my industry. Waiting until later this year where I have a better financial situation as a backup plan in case I need to do it unemployed.

But when I'm done, my friends and co-workers will be unionized.

(Apologies for the domain, couldn't find another direct link)

directly applicable comic link

Barber

Chef

Event operations (we will always need competent people on the ground who can quickly make decisions when the inevitable moment plans go awry, this happens in every live event)

Or I guess building the AI?

I am with you. Do accounting and tried to use our AI, it's ok at some stuff but only the stuff that our intern could do for less cost than we are paying to license the AI. Fucking hate how it's stuffed into inappropriate jobs. I think that sort of program has a place, sort through enormous datasets and give us the interesting bits, can help with DNA science, it's not useless, but it can't even balance a bank account.

I work in a datacenter. I rack servers, I look after the cooling system, the generators, the ups's, etc. I won't ever be replaced by AI. Without me there is no AI. And I barely interact with it. I play with toys all day.

The environmental impacts still bother me. But IT has always been wasteful, even before AI. I hate recycling days when I see exactly how much plastics, styrofoam and metals are going to the dump.

Previously the equation was trying to get as much processing out of every kilowatt-hour, now the equation is trying to use as much energy as possible. The impact of AI eclipses IT loads from before by a massive margin, and because of the theory behind it will never, ever do any better than it is right now. The environmental impact should bother you because it's massive and getting bigger.

And you're helping set it up and keep it going. I know what it's like to run a datacenter, I did it for a decade and a half. I'm not going to say I'm making more money now, but I do sleep much better.

My datacenter doesn't host AI. Most of my servers process data coming from the square kilometer array in Australia. We're looking for aliens

Problem is, cost of living is so extremely high where I live and I don't know what else I would do to make enough money to stay here. I'm really good at this job, and I don't have very many other talents

It could be a lot worse too. Our cooling system is a closed loop so we aren't using fuck tons of water like newer datacenters. In the winter we can mostly get away with air cooling from outside air. And the power in my city is all from hydro dams

CAD specialist.

It's gonna be a while, but I don't expect it to be completely safe.

My backup is construction management which I am also very much qualified to do. I very much doubt that's in any danger in the near future.

If both of those get completely taken over by AI, I'll revert to being a carpenter. Not ideal, but if that gets taken over by AI, we're at the point where workers have become entirely obsolete, at which point either universal basic income is a thing, or it's time for a violent uprising against our AI overlords.

What was the career though?

it's doable, i can see how it can be automated in simulated environment
but don't worry it won't happen soon

Good luck!

I’ve grown up in a country where unions are as natural as air. The unions are so strong that there basically is very limited employment laws - and no minimum wage; there’s just not need for the state to intervene that much because unions are EVERYWHERE. And yes, a Big Mac meal costs a fortune because employees actually have to make a living. I’m ok with it.

Funny enough, our entire industry is unionized except for our sector. From the producers to the plants, everyone is protected except for what we do. It shouldn't be difficult to get us unionized but it's still a rather uphill battle. And talking to some of my co-workers, everyone is willing but I'm the only one taking the lead on it.

I'm moving in 4 weeks so, I have no option but to quit lol

Yeah I'm moving across the country soon so it won't be my problem but 3/4 of the people who work there are already looking for jobs because of other micromanaging shit that's started happening. We're the highest producing, lowest issue location and all of a sudden they're treating us like toddlers. Everyone is pissed.

oh no. That does sound low. But i do believe if your interest lies in teaching it brings you joy.

Can someone in their late twenties start teaching in nordic schools? Or do they have to begin studying for 2+ diploma courses?

An interesting thing about CAD is that the field got decimated in the switch to computers. You can choose to either go up the technical chain to be a great detailer or progress in CAD management since Autodesk and Bentley only do so much

I'm a highly intelligent person. It's always been both infuriating and absolutely dumbfounded how management of a company can have all the information on how their company is run, how employee interviews, evaluations, and observations occur, how profit growth vs expenditures relate to each other, and still sit down in a board room together and not only brainstorm, but literally agree to an idea that makes their company fucking worse in every possible way, and piss off everyone who is why they're in this position.

I will never understand it. Especially with my company who doesn't have shareholders or shit. We're a completely private and insular company. We're family owned. And yet they still make decisions that hurt them by pissing off the people that work for them.

It's fascinating.

Yeah that's the same setup as my company. I have a feeling, because I've been here before, that the owner of my company is looking to sell. This is exactly what we went through at my last company and then they announced that they sold out. Oddly enough 5 of us all worked at that place. I'm really really beyond sick of private equity.

So when you said "Without me there is no AI," what were you referring to?

I’m a tax lawyer. I’m gonna be very busy fixing the messes people make using AI-assisted do-it-yourself tax planning lol. And by fixing I mean telling them to beg for penalties to be forgiven lol

Graphic design

I’m an electrical engineer and I deal mostly with medical equipment. Not even this field is safe. People are going to die.

Plumber

Also pays very well

I actually think you are on to something here as I feel like there will always be people who desire to be with a "real human".

That said if they ever developed something like a holodeck in real life I can see it making a dent in the industry.

Like morally I'm completely fine with prostitution, although in practice consent is hugely important for me, and you can never be truly certain if they are being coerced into the practice by a pimp/madam/other extenuating circumstance. With a computer consent really becomes a non issue, and thus a little more "morally okay".

Wouldn't that be very at risk by AI given AI Art?

Maintence/upkeep on servers in general, pretty fucking obvious what they meant.

A different kind of slop..I'd prefer it

I'm a bar technician. I help set up bars at events.

I can see the staff being replaced by robots at some point but not the installation.

Unless it's some sort of futurama bar style robot

Selling books?

As someone with a degree in the arts, I'm pretty sure that almost all art as a career is under threat from AI. Sure, AI can't match the human experience and expressiveness needed for really great art, but that's not what most artists do to earn a living. And the vast majority of the people who traditionally pay for artists to make stuff for them really don't care at all. Now they can get Grok to fart out a logo or a poster in 15 seconds and not have to talk to an artist, they're all set.

is this a joke?

Architecture is the other one that worries me. I don't like the idea of unknowingly walking around in a building that was designed by AI. I work with AI and it can't even be trusted to write a blog post correctly, let alone design a building that's safe. And I know if I'm thinking of that now, it means someone else has already thought of and attempted it at least 6 months ago.

Engineer

Rocket scientist

Electrician

Plumber

Mechanic

Structural engineer

Surveyor

Anyone with a professional job that requires a degree, or even the most basic level of technical knowledge know that an LLM cannot replace their job by "putting words in enough of an order to sound like a person" or "drawing a picture that looks like something"

CEO

Idk maybe I’m wrong, but this feels like more of a hiring issue than AI. You should still be hiring good engineers, and you shouldn’t incentivize them to go so fast that they have to vibe code everything. Let good engineers use AI if they want, and not use it if they don’t want to. If their code is bad, it’s their fault, not the tools they are using.

w they can get Grok to fart out a logo or a poster in 15 seconds and not have to talk to an artist, they’re all set.

As much as I would like it not to be true, I think that you're right.

Even though the "posters" and "graphics" that AI spits out are just awful/distasteful/etc. those very things are 80% of what people hire graphic designers for. (I know I am one). Most bosses want something NOW! If it looks presentable, it's good enough.

In my opionion AI would hollow out the "entry level" tasks that small to mid-clients hire graphic designers for.
What I think would survive are the "big ticket" projects, where human expertise would be hired. But again, those projects are few and far inbetween, and only a handful of designers are able to deliver work on such a high level.

This person is likely in facilities, I doubt they are touching servers much after they're racked. Maybe a crash cart is shit really hits the fan and ops can't get in remotely.

They went from directly being responsible for AI to having nothing to do with it. My question is not unreasonable.

You're from Stuttgart