More on Jobs, AI, and Higher Education
Where's the good news?
When you’re a writer who talks about big trends and ideas, it really does help to live outside of the DC/NYC bubble. Back when I was an education reporter, I regularly went to parent-teacher meetings and local school board meetings just so I could spot the early trends. It gave me an edge over my competition, who had never sat through a five-hour budget meeting or attended a school fundraiser.
I spotted the shitty job market for young college graduates long before the mainstream press, because my son and my friends’ kids were all faced with similar problems. I’ve talked about the poor options for young college grads for a couple of years in this newsletter, and the mainstream press is just getting caught up on it.
When that happens, I revert to the oldest sister mode. In my head, I’m shouting, I TOLD YOU SO!
I also started tying the bad job market together with AI back in May. I wrote:
My kids are the vanguard of the new job market—working multiple jobs, making themselves irrelevant by contributing to the growth of AI systems, and working jobs that typically don’t attract college graduates. I like to think that their situation is temporary. Perhaps they’ll find permanent positions at these AI companies. Perhaps they’ll find a solid place within the waves of the new economy.
Now everybody is talking about the crappy job market and AI.
You would think that with all the signs of doom on the horizon, the nation’s wisest people would be rallying to figure out solutions. But higher education is faltering, too.
As I explained last week, America’s universities haven’t been serving students or their graduate students for a long time. Still, things seem to be getting worse.
With a better understanding of opportunities outside of academia, doctoral candidates are dropping out of their PhD programs. The academic job market is too competitive, and salaries are too low. They are decamping for greener pastures in private industry.
True story: our local high school gym teachers make more than my academic friends.
With such a huge surplus of college professors, this dip in grad school enrollment probably won’t impact the average college freshman at all. College classes have been taught by a never-ending, low-wage adjuncts for years, and nobody is complaining.
George Will had a good column reviewing the research that shows that students are putting less and less work into their studies. A college degree will be meaningless soon.
Meanwhile, Northwestern is cutting 400 staff positions amid mounting financial pressures.
How many things can go wrong in higher education, just as they are so needed to help us through the AI maze?
I am a user of ChatGPT.
Last week, I had it help me rewrite several titles of presentations for an online conference that I’m organizing. I fed the program some clunky title suggestions, and it spit out a dozen alternatives. I picked the best one.
One presenter gave me a word salad description of his talk. I fed it into ChatGPT, and it turned it into lovely bullet points with correct grammar. Could I have done that? Absolutely. But AI saved me the aggravation.
I’m currently working in an ugly medical office until construction is finished on the new building, when I’ll get a proper office. So, I asked ChatGPT to redesign my temporary office space. It told me to remove the blood pressure machine from the wall and add some rugs and plants. I could have figured it out myself, but it was fun to see it come up with new images.
My family also benefits from the AI revolution. My older son is currently supporting his world travels by freelancing as an AI Trainer. It actually pays decently, and he gets to hang out in a surfing city in New Zealand.
AI is a nice little tool right now. It hasn’t come close to replacing anything that I do well. Yet.
It’s not fair to ascribe the problems in the job market for young people entirely to AI and a substandard college education. Businesses are probably also worried about tariffs and a whole host of global issues. Worried businesses don’t hire new workers.
At the same time, there’s no doubt that big changes are afoot with the rapid expansion of AI. In this brave new world, some will do very well. Survivors will be agile and tech-savvy. Survivors will do what AI can’t do — relate to people, create, lead teams, and ask the right questions. AI can do the grunt work, but there will always be people who manage those systems.
More of Me
I am officially an empty nester. At least temporarily. One kid is in New Zealand, and the other is at his autism college. So weird.
Talking About IRL: Trump as an FBI informant against Epstein.
Buying: I have always enjoyed gadgets, bags, and organizing supplies for work and travel. Now that I’m back in a physical office again, I need stuff — lunch organizers, large tote bags, work sneakers, and more. The Amazon algorithm has found me and sends me shopping hints all day on social media. My latest lunch purchases include a lunch bag and a larger bag for my salad container.
Autism and Adults. Nine in 10 autistic people aged between 40 and 59 have not received a formal diagnosis. Think you might be autistic? Here are 7 subtle signs.
There is something about your articles that make them enjoyable to read.