I Asked a Career Coach: Will My Job Exist in 5 Years?
Your occupation will likely still exist five years from now. The harder question is whether companies will need as many people to do the work and what that work will include.
The World Economic Forum projects that job creation and displacement will affect 22% of today’s formal jobs globally by 2030. It also expects nearly 40% of skills used at work to change.
Start Your Adventure: One Overlooked Skill Could Generate $1K in Monthly Side Income
Grow Rich: 11 Subtly Genius Things All Wealthy People Do With Their Money — That You Should Do, Too
When jobs shrink, it does not always start with a mass layoff. Sometimes someone quits but is not replaced. Their work gets spread across the team. Software handles a few routine tasks. The title survives, but the department gets smaller. The real five-year question is which parts of your work an employer will still pay a person to do.
Start With Your Workday
Bridgette Corridan, an executive and career coach and cofounder and chief client officer at HIVE Enterprises, has more than 30 years of experience in talent acquisition and development. She said a job title does not reveal much about its future.
“I would encourage people to stop thinking only about their job title and really look at what they do all day,” Corridan said. “How much of your job is repetitive? How much is administrative or process driven? How much of it could reasonably be done by technology?”
A recruiter, project manager or copywriter may keep the same title while software takes over scheduling, status reports or first drafts. What matters is how much of the work an employer can remove, speed up or give to someone else.
Notice When Nobody Gets Replaced
One warning sign may be a position that never gets reposted.
“More and more, the question isn't automatically, ‘Who are we going to hire to replace them?’” Corridan said. “It's, ‘Do we need to replace them?’”
Companies may automate the work, outsource it or divide it among the remaining staff. That can reduce opportunities without eliminating an occupation.
Changes in job listings can offer another clue. Paul DeMott, chief technology officer at Helium SEO, said the job descriptions he wrote two years ago are now “almost useless.” Last year, his company posted one copywriting role requiring three to five years of experience and another requiring no experience but familiarity with AI writing tools.
That does not mean experience has stopped mattering. It shows how quickly employers can redefine entry-level work without changing the job title.
Job Growth Doesn’t Mean the Work Stays the Same
An occupation can grow even as some of its traditional tasks disappear.
Employment of human resources specialists is projected to grow 6% from 2025 to 2035, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The BLS also projects 7% growth for project management specialists over the same period.
Yet Corridan expects AI to absorb parts of recruiting, including sourcing, research, scheduling and routine communication. Dr. Ashish Pruthi, an ICF-certified career and leadership coach who works independently as a commercial growth and business transformation advisor, said technology can increasingly handle project tracking, reports and follow-ups.
Recruiters may spend more time evaluating candidates and advising hiring managers. Project managers may spend more time resolving problems, managing stakeholders and making decisions.
But automating junior-level assignments could weaken the path into those senior roles. “We learn by doing,” Corridan said. If AI takes over the work once assigned to junior employees, she questioned how they will gain the experience needed to advance.
Give Your Job a 5-Year Check
Read several current job postings for your role. Watch for employers requiring AI experience, combining responsibilities or emphasizing strategy over routine work.
Then compare those listings with what you do now. If judgment, relationships and industry knowledge remain central, the job will probably survive. If the title remains but postings include more duties and demand AI proficiency, fewer people may be needed. If your core responsibilities barely appear, the role may not exist in its current form five years from now.
“Someone with strong domain knowledge who knows how to use AI effectively is likely to be more valuable than someone who simply knows how to use another AI tool,” Pruthi said.
This article was provided by MoneyLion.com for informational purposes only and should not be construed as financial, legal or tax advice.
More From MoneyLion: