I still have a vivid recollection of being a senior in college and realizing I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life.
My college had an internship program in Philadelphia where you would work for a company for 4 days a week and take a day of classes. It was a great program because we also got school credits.
The first week required us to find a place to live, meet with a career counselor and go on 4-5 interviews to get placed for a semester-long internship.
When my counselor asked what I wanted to do I said something like I just want to do something cool.
OK, what exactly does that mean?
[blank stare]
Most of the other students had specific industries or companies they wanted to work for. I had no clue beyond the fact that I was halfway decent with numbers.1
Kids today don’t have that luxury. There’s more competition. People know more than they did in the past.
I’m always game to speak with young people about their career paths because I had so many people help me on my journey. Those conversations seem to have ramped up in recent months.
I’ve had at least a half dozen phone calls with college students in the past 3-4 weeks alone.
These kids are all so much further along than I was at their age. They’re already following the markets, reading blogs, listening to podcasts and investing their own personal capital. They know which parts of the finance sector are attractive and which companies they would like to work for.
It’s quite impressive.
But many of these college students are nervous. They see what’s coming with AI and what it might mean for entry-level jobs.
They know because they’re the biggest users of AI. Look at what happened to ChatGPT usage when college ended for the year:
AI is already changing higher education in the way students learn, write papers and perform research. They know it’s coming for entry-level white collar jobs next.
Maybe it’s already here.
I received an email last week from a young person who got hired out of college in an entry-level analyst role for a wealth management firm. I took out some details to keep this person anonymous but this is the gist of it:
I got fired today. I am (or was) an investment analyst at a small firm.
Today, one of the owners brought me into a meeting and we were discussing my role given that I was hired ~6-months ago. They said that while nothing was wrong with my work or performance, they can’t justify paying me when AI can do everything I can much, much faster.
The thing is, they didn’t say anything about AI explicitly. They kept saying that “with the new tools that are available” advisors are able to do a lot more with less help, essentially. They asked me to talk about what I’m good at and where the value I provide is and then proceeded to talk about how almost everything I listed can be easily replaced by “new tools.” They didn’t make reading between the lines too challenging.
Obviously, I was quite disappointed. But, listening to you guys and others, I was all too aware this could happen and have been mentally preparing for this eventuality. However, I never thought it would come so quick. Maybe there was something wrong with my performance that they didn’t want to get into and just sugarcoated it for me, but I digress.
This is depressing.
Anecdotally, I’ve heard from a handful of peers in the investment industry who have said AI has replaced what would have been an entry-level analyst they would have hired in the past.
The plural of anecdote is not data but this is a very real concern for young graduates.
I am a glass-is-half-full guy. I believe in the dynamism of the U.S. economy. We have been through transitional phases in the past because of innovation. Old jobs go away and new ones are created in their place. My guess is that’s will happen this time as well.
But the transition period could be very lumpy and painful for some parts of the labor force. Companies are going to try stuff that’s not going to work. If AI can replace some or all tasks done by certain employees, corporations will do it.
The soft skills will be more important than ever. Creatives will still thrive but might have new tools to interact with. The ability to sell will never go away.
Young people will have to be far more intentional with their career choices.
Further Reading:
The U.S. Labor Force Over the Past 150 Years
1The internship I got was my first foray into the markets. I liked it. Read more here.
