Preparing for Jobs that Don’t Exist Yet

You’ve heard the phrase.

It conjures a variety of images.

One can be blinded by the prediction that 2 billion jobs, including commercial pilots, legal work, technical writing, telemarketers, accountants, retail workers, and real estate sales agents jobs will disappear to robotics and technology by 2030.

Or you can envision coming catalytic innovations that create entirely new industries. For example, former Wired Magazine editor Chris Anderson is famously quoted as saying, “3D printing will be bigger than the Internet.”

It is a frightening time to help young people discern what they ‘want to be when they grow up.’  Many are unfamiliar with the below graphic.

They have examined wonderfully detailed salary statistics of each field, but ignored the employment rates. There is now a category of the unemployed referred to as “Educated Unemployment.”  It refers to people (particularly young people) graduating with a college degree unable to find work in their field. Many are relying on odd jobs or work in the service industry, along with living with room-mates or moving back in with their parents to try to pay substantial student loans.

Click for link to interactive data

These difficulties are added onto the traditional teenage angst of discerning their identity, differentiating themselves from parents and friends, defining themselves from the groups they are not, and discovering their innate gifts and centers of brilliance.

But there’s more. Black Elk, the Lakota Sioux medicine man, recounted a vision he had in his youth. He described the sacred hoop of his people as one of many hoops which formed one circle “wide as daylight and as starlight.” From the center of the circle Black Elk described a mighty flowering tree sheltering all. Joseph Campbell described the vision as a universal description of the center of a spiritual universe, a sacred space within which we find our bliss. He walks through various cultural initiation rites and how millennium of youth have come to discern their spiritual callings in life.

Sounds like youth is the perfect time for a week long camp; Find Your Passion Leadership Camp will meet next Mon-Fri, June 23-27, from 12:30-3:00 at Baden Academy Media Lab.  Students in Grades 8-12 will not only look at future school and career opportunities, but come back to focus on what they can do right now to make a difference in the world by pursuing their passions. This is an excellent opportunity for students not sure of what they’ll do for a senior project, or want to pursue after high school.  It will focus their attention on ways to develop a portfolio with experiences that help them serve and discover more of their gifts. Teens will use StrengthsFinder tools, explore entrepreneurial stories, analyze student loan debt alongside potential earnings all while learning how to clearly articulate their passion. Each participant will emerge with a personal mission statement and three practical steps to continue pursuing what they are self-motivated to pursue. Cost is $100.  (Use code PROJECT for $20 off).  Register friends or siblings only $50 additional.  Limit to 18 students.