Mastodawn

Which career path is not ruined by AI?

https://lemmy.zip/post/60742060

Which career path is not ruined by AI? - Lemmy.zip

I’m kind of sick of being a dev. I hate AI with a passion. I hate the hallucinations, I hate slop, I hate megacrops, I hate the environmental impacts, I hate the massive costs. I could go on but you get the picture. At work I often times have to review vibe code slop from people who clock in 9 to 5 and don’t give a fuck (I respect that, I just wish your fucking code wasn’t slop) I’m sick of it, I’m sick of hearing about AI tooling or new models or bro agentic actions bro based on your documentation bro. I want to switch careers, so which career is not ruined by AI?

Also a software eng (for now), genuinely thinking of starting my own barbershop lmao.

mannycalavera Mar 14

Any careers that involve blagging and bullshitting your way through life on the works of others. In fact it’s actually enhanced by AI.

FenrirIII 6d ago

So, politics and upper management

Anything that requires physical work. Manufacturing, trades, etc… But, there’s the caveat that AI may still indirectly affect these too.

ComradeSharkfucker Mar 14

Construction

Canonical_Warlock Mar 14

Join us, become a tradie. Get a company vehicle. Work with your hands. Become enough of an expert in your that you can tell customers to go fuck themselves if they’re dicks. Have every company in the area be desperate to hire you because every trade is short handed. Work with people who barely understand the concept of a computer. Spend half of every paycheck on milwalkee packout tool boxes. Never have to work with AI again.

My preference is HVAC-R but plumber or electrician are also good choices. Building automation may seem attractive bet then you’re getting close to the AI danger zone again.

Ironically, the three trades you listed are in high demand right now specifically because of the rapid rollout of the data centers needed to power AI.

Des [she/her, they/them]Mar 14

i went into a dying trade in my 20s ugh and stuck with it now i’m too old to start a new one outside of maybe CDL. so yeah make sure you are physically up to it first (i am in very good shape for my age and look 10 years younger but i would be obliterated by the multiple year “break in” apprentice period again and likely would just get in a fist fight with someone trying to “break me” and destroy them and go to prison)

Canonical_Warlock Mar 14

Maybe I just skipped it because I was a factory tech for a while but there was no “breaking” in my experience. The worst we have is a tendancy to throw aprentices into being full techs a bit too quick sometimes.

Des [she/her, they/them]5d ago

i’m sure it varies place to place, might have something to do with where i reside

i have family that could fast track me into commercial HVAC tech (which i could absolutely handle) and skip the grunt work/crawlspace/installation stuff but they are a bit too far away for me to leverage the connection

Canonical_Warlock 5d ago

Yeah, that’s probably a lot of it. Around me everywhere is so short handed that companies will bend over backwards to get/keep people. Beating up on newbies is a great way for them to have no employees because those newbies could just as easily get a job at a dozen other outfits the next day.

Also, I hate to tell you this but, commercial doesn’t necissarily keep you out of crawlspaces. It’s more rare but the few crawlspaces that you do wind up having to deal with wind up being much bigger (and not in the good way).

ThunderWhiskers Mar 14

A couple of thoughts on this as a union electrician: for starters AI is absolutely having an (arguably negative) impact on manpower fulfillment. In my area the massive expansion of data centers is causing a manpower shortage for all projects not funded by massive tech companies. This is complicated because it’s inflating income for tradesmen due to demand, but it’s also pressuring workers into ridiculous schedules (think 4x10s, 2x8s, and most Sundays) and is forcing contractors that aren’t running data center work to completely rework their payment structure and bid practices. A lot of these sites are also a 1-2 hour commute for many of the men. A lot of these guys have been gaslit for decades into thinking working more OT somehow makes them a better person.

Beyond that, while I haven’t personally seen it yet AI will absolutely begin worming its way into design; a process already riddled with issues and errors largely due to time constraints. Clients are going to want work done faster and cheaper, which will pressure design teams into using AI tools in the name of expediency, which will lead to more errors in the construction process, leading to inflated costs and likely problematic installations.

That’s not even getting into the future of AI robotics which absolutely will be impacting our tradesmen directly in the near future.

It’s coming for us too.

BassTurd Mar 14

I’m not an electrician, but I have a relative that is. You nailed it. We’ve got a couple DCs going up near by, and he was asked to commit to a 2 year commitment for just one of them, working exactly the hours you said. He agreed because I think they are paying double time for all OT, and that’s good money. They asked if he wanted to sign on for the other DC but he declined for the obvious time reasons. It’s definitely had an effect on available workers for other projects since seemingly all hand are on deck.

I’m not familiar with the architecting process, but I can absolutely see how AI will be, if not already, involved with generating plans. It will shit something out faster than anyone could create it, but it will lose that value in review and the inevitable mistakes that make it through. AI is a cancer

auraithx Mar 14

And say goodbye to your knees!

a_non_monotonic_function 6d ago

Largely agreed, but if large-scale social problems flood the trades then we have another problem on our hands.

morgan423 6d ago

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.

End user IT support at any state, county, or city. It’s only gonna get busier, plus you can tinker with hardware

Tanis Nikana Mar 14

I find myself increasingly annoyed at having to grant copilot licenses for people who are inexplicably overjoyed to have them.

And then never use it :D

PonyOfWar Mar 14

I think you’ll be heavily affected by AI in that field as well. From possibly having LLMs as a first level support agent (already common in corporate customer support) to having to help people who messed up their PCs by letting their AI agents have full access etc.

wizardbeard Mar 14

There is the (more difficult) option of finding a dev job for an older tech conservative company. My workplace has just barely rolled out access to copilot chat. Our devs are still doing things without the slop.

Look at the more heavily regulated business sectors, they tend to be more resistant to tech fads.

happybadger [he/him]Mar 14

Horticulture is nice. You get most of the benefits of a trade and honest manual work (outside of union protections in most cases), but it’s also a deeply interdisciplinary science that lets you impact the world in a lot of different ways while forcing you to touch and understand grass. With the same garden I get to do creative, intellectual, manual, and political work with really interesting spatiotemporal angles. There’s public education and anthropology and ecological utility in choosing one plant over another based on analysing the site across all the physical sciences, then lifting heavy rocks to achieve something that benefits my neighbours and wildlife pets. Most of my coworkers are natural scientists of some kind so we spend all day in the sun having interesting conversations about the landscape and urbanism.

Anything that’s based on physical work or human contact. Trades, medical/social work, psychology, emergency workers…

cornshark Mar 14

Psychology? A lot of folks are already using ai as a virtual therapist

That is the equivalent of saying “we don’t need doctors since we can put bandaids on wounds”

Psychology is about a lot more that what LLMs can do

bob_omb_battlefield Mar 14

Doesn’t mean psychology can’t be ruined by AI anyway.

so is art or even programming for that matter, but here we are.

Correct, we don’t need Doctors for every scrape in the exact same way that I can explain a social situation to a LLM and it can help by referencing back to published literature on that particular topic, suggesting clear guidelines as to how to move forward. Sure there are also broken arms and cancer exists, but the base level (and moving up the chain) is absolutely coming for Psych work.

I feel ya. But the pendulum will probably swing back the other way soon and we’ll have a ton of companies hiring to undo/replace slop code. That’s how it has been for previous coding fads, anyway.

Greyscale Mar 14

I’m so tired of my skill and income being beholden to the whims of bullshit artists though.

First thing you do is realize that AI ain’t as great as they want you to believe. Physical work is probably the best way to avoid AI completely, but eventually the hype will die down, so if you still want to work in IT, maybe something like a data technician or IT support?

Eat_Your_Paisley Mar 14

My BIL started brewing beer for a local brewery after he retired from the Army.

Entropy_Pyre Mar 14

Firefighter. Willing to bet AI won’t touch it anytime soon.

andallthat Mar 14

Speaking of which… when we get there with our pitchforks and burn down the data centers, could you give us a 20 minutes lead?

lonefighter Mar 14

I was an EMT going to school for cyber security. I had done all my gen eds and was just starting the actual computer classes when I realized how this all was going to go and decided that the money wasn’t worth dealing with the tech world and the risk of constant layoffs. Got my Advanced EMT, dropped out of college, and am going to be going back to school to get my paramedic certs. Pay is not nearly as good as a career in tech and the hours are insane, but if you have a pulse and a cert you’ll always be able to find a job somewhere (and if it gets to the point that you can’t, everyone else has already been fucked over).

TachyonTele Mar 14

Electricians baby. The nervous system of the ai.

HubertManne Mar 14

Wish I could tell ya. Im like just old enough that changing careers is rather monuental since I don’t really have time enough to get established. Something has to eventually give with the ai. either it goes away which I doubt or we need to restructure our societies.

MidnightPocket [comrade/them]Mar 14

Become a detist

theneverfox Mar 14

I’m picking up furniture making. Handcrafted furniture will always be needed

What? Ikea wrecked that a long time ago. Not that you can’t make a living but the demand isn’t high in any way whatsoever. Hand crafted furniture has become a luxury.

Hand crafted furniture has become a luxury

So you make more money selling them. I see no issues.

The issue is in finding buyers who have enough money to spend on those luxury goods.

I feel like luxury goods are harder to into in terms of career change and it’s a bit off to characterize them as always needed.

No issues, just become a master craftsmen and compete with other master craftsmen. Easy.

astutemural Mar 14

Bring back guilds.

theneverfox Mar 14

The market for high quality furniture never went away. And if we enter a global depression, a local furniture maker will again be a necessity

If we enter a depression, people will have less money to spend on luxuries. I just think the percentage of people buying hand made furniture is kind of low. I think most people “buy” them from friends and family doing it as a semi-hobby, or are rich, or at least in my experience.

Not trying to be overly critical, just saying it’s not easy.

As a side note, I’ve noticed no one makes nice wooden informational kiosks with integrated touch screen even though orgs like museums would likely buy them over plastic and metal ones. Just an idea if you were looking for a niche product.

theneverfox Mar 14

I said necessity, not luxury… If we enter a global depression, there won’t be cheap IKEA furniture anymore

IKEA made that a niche market though.

theneverfox 5d ago

It really never did though. People have never stopped buying high end furniture

I work a physical/tactile job in healthcare. My job won’t be in danger until robotics dramatically advance and cheapen. AI could conceptually do my job, but the physicality is missing. A lot of healthcare careers are this way. Not all of them are though, interestingly enough!

butsbutts Mar 14

a career in poisoning AI

Greyscale Mar 14

Alas, they’re not paying for that. They’re not paying for what they need to achieve their goals either.

hexagonwin Mar 14

would be nice if i can make a living out of doing that lol

gwl [he/him]Mar 14

See if Haven Social are hiring?

Anything that’s done on site or with your hand. Forget about working from home or having your own hours though, most of the benefits you are used to won’t exist and it will be arguably harder work physically.

I’d pick something that can’t be automated since that’s also a risk even if it’s not directly AI. That means somethung to complicated for robots (not much), where to it’s can’t be trusted entirely (high safety like making plane parts) or most likely where robots can’t easily go (house plumbing and electricity for example).

A lot of trades a manual work pay very well but you have to look before hand, it’s definitely not all of them. Cooking jobs for example are pretty safe but don’t ever become a cook lol.

If you have dev experience, I’d go towards micro electronics. It’s too niche for AI to be good at it yet and has the physical part of prototyping and soldering that isn’t easily accessible by AI.

BassTurd Mar 14

I feel this. I relatively recently pivoted into dev work for my career. I really enjoy it because we haven’t forced AI into our workflows… Yet. We had a couple devs run an experiment to see who could finish an app first, where one generated as much as they could and another did it all manually. It wasn’t even close. The manual job was faster to completion and good.

Unfortunately for me, my time is being split and I’ve been tasked to upskill on all of the different automation and AI tools that we have, because dumbass VPs drank the Kool aid, bought shit, and didn’t hire experience to configure and run those tools. I’ve been reading so much garbage trying to master copilot studio, and honestly it’s the worst product I’ve ever had to work with. I’m going to be having a heart to heart with my manager in the near future, and if I’m still stuck on the AI shit, I’m bouncing. I’ll use what time I have to bolster my dev skills and leaving. If I can’t find a dev job, it looks like I’ll be pivoting my career again, and I’ve been thinking something like electrician. Honest work, not has hard on the body as say construction, and I feel it could still be mentally engaging compared to some other trades.

God speed on your future endeavors. Fuck AI.

Chippys_mittens Mar 14

Become a mechanical engineer on the operations side of electricity generation. Shits been working out pretty well for me over the last decade.

DagwoodIII Mar 14

[off topic?]

I recommend this book to anyone thinking about a career change.

“Discover What You Are Best At.” Linda Gail. Six self tests you can finish in half a day, and a list of jobs that use those skills. Jobs range from zero new training to post college.

Really helped me when I was looking for career advice.