“In 2034, the world will be ruled by a self-aware AI – so should I still aim to be an accountant?”
Making predictions about the future is fraught with difficulty. In 1899, Charles Duell of the US patents office predicted “everything that can be invented has been”. In 1906, composer John Philip Sousa predicted that recorded music would lead to us forgetting how it was made. And in 1922, eminent English lawyer FE Smith predicted we would all live to be 150.
Today, the predictions for 2034 will probably prove to be equally outlandish. There is a long history of outlandish future predictions that fascinate us. We collectively feel anxious about change, particular things beyond our control, so perhaps we are drawn to these prognostications. However far-fetched they may be, they allow us to either laugh or sigh in resignation.
Where the misguided attempts to predict flying cars have proven to be inaccurate, the broader underlying themes are undisputed. Life expectancy has increased, automation has replaced many jobs, the internet has transformed how we communicate, college education has become more widespread, inequality has been eroded, and we have become much more conscious of the price we are paying for industrialisation.
Explore this SecEd series: Careers advice and entering the workplace
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- Part 1: The future of jobs: What will work look like in 2034? (this article)
- Part 2: Helping students to consider early career goals: Three exercises. Published May 7, 2024
- Part 3: Preparing students for workplace expectations: Two exercises. Published May 14, 2024
- Part 4: Finding your first job after school: Three exercises. Published May 21, 2024
'You get an ology and you're a scientist'
Do you remember Miriam Stoppard’s BT advertisement? She played the role of a doting grandmother attempting to cheer up her grandson after less than stellar GCSE results. The advert encapsulates how we tend to think of encouraging young people we care about.
The authors of this article have both worked in India, where all the families we knew told their children they could choose any career they wanted – so long as it was engineering, doctor, or accountant.
Our ambition for our children is mixed with our own career experiences, along with judgements about what constitutes a great profession.
Every generation stretches to help their children reach further. It starts with providing a better environment, expands to include better education, and ultimately flows into our advice about professional goals.
Our intentions are well intended. However, our views have been shaped by our accumulated lived experiences. We look back at our own careers and think about how we might have done better. We think about people we know who have “done well for themselves”. And we think about professions that society or the media present to us today as respectable, well-paid, or revered.
The trouble is this approach is overly nostalgic and sentimental.
‘People will always need plates’ – until they don’t
Our challenge as parents, teachers, mentors is to challenge our stock biases before imparting career advice. Obviously, it is easier to rely on backward looking information.
Accountants and lawyers have historically been respected professions. Bankers have typically been paid very well. Doctors and teachers remain the very foundation of our society. Engineers, as they say, make the world go round, after they have taken it apart a couple of times to figure out how it works.
However, if we limit our career advice only to how professions appear today, we may do those we care about a disservice. We don’t want to be the equivalent of the parents in the 1970s who encouraged their children to get a job in the post office saying people will always mail letters, or the 1980s recommending the travel agent sector, or the 1990s suggesting media and television.
Things change. Technology creates waves of disruption and re-invention. Society falls in and out of love with different perspectives on what constitutes respectability.
Understanding how careers are being transformed
So, let’s attempt to look forward to 2034 and predict the pervasive trends. Less flying cars, more rise of the internet. Let’s take a whistle-stop tour through how technology, society, and demographics will influence the trajectory of careers in more general terms. We think it will be along the following lines:
- Knowledge transparency will increase: Technology is making information and knowledge easier to access. Aggregating disparate expertise to solve problems will be in greatest demand.
- New technology will demand new skills: It is easy to focus on the jobs under threat from AI rather than the new jobs created. The World Economic Forum has predicted that AI will replace 85 million jobs worldwide by 2025. But it believes AI will create 97 million new jobs in that same timeframe (WEF, 2020; see also Urwin, 2024).
- Cyber-security will be an existential threat: Consequently, there will be a growing need for skills to monitor, control, and hold bad actors to account.
- An aging population will require new services: Western economies will see an explosion in elderly care needs over the next 20 years.
- Barriers to entrepreneurship will continue to lower: Technology platforms will continue to create opportunities for GenZ to test new business concepts more easily and at less up front cost.
- Sustainable energy will be paramount: We hear a lot about data being the new gold, so perhaps sustainable energy is the new oxygen. The latest technology only works when plugged in.
- Humans will seek new ways to be entertained: There is a lighter side to the darkness some predict about technology. Humans are incredibly good at finding new ways to have fun.
So, in 2034, is accountancy still a good career goal?
If in 2034 the world is ruled by a benevolent super intelligence, are our prevailing generational assumptions about respected and reliable professions still true?
It is not really intended as a serious question. More a provocation to expose the flaws of basing career advice solely on traditional professional labels.
Careers are really not about professional labels. They are about balancing sustainable financial security with fulfilment. As parents, we don’t really wish for our children to just pass their chartered accountants exams and get any job with one of the big four.
Our suggestions, while we may not spell them out, are our attempts to provide abbreviations or proxies for how our children can achieve financial and personal success.
Of course, as helpful, practical, actionable careers advice, abbreviations and proxies run the risk of significant distortion and misunderstanding.
Leaning into the future mega-trends
We believe the best careers advice today is to consider how the megatrends will impact jobs and set a goal to play a role in one or more that is most compelling.
Gaining a professional qualification may still be an effective vehicle to achieve that aim, but as a stepping stone, not as a destination in and of itself.
The winners in 2034 will be those who embrace and play into the mega-trends. In a world of increasing uncertainty, the one thing you can be sure about is that we must find solutions to some consequential problems.
The businesses, entrepreneurs, and individuals who help solve those problems won’t have to worry about job security. Indeed, by focusing on meeting important needs, financial and other traditional forms of success will likely follow.
- Dr David Oxley and Dr Helmut Schuster are co-authors of A Career Carol: A tale of professional nightmares and how to navigate them (Austin Macauley Publishers). Visit www.drsschusterandoxley.com/books
Further information & resources
- Urwin: AI taking over jobs: What to know about the future of jobs, BuiltIn (article), 2024: https://builtin.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-replacing-jobs-creating-jobs
- WEF: The future of jobs report, 2020: www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2020