I hated being asked that question and I avoid asking it now to any young person who passes in front of me: What do you want to be when you grow up? Mainly because everything that I thought in the past that served to strengthen, with certain guarantees, a decent work future is highly questioned in these times of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and dramatic crisis in the humanities (I’m talking about achieving work, not knowledge , that one is still very given to opening books and even reading them). But they will agree that the foundations of certain beliefs collapse when having a degree, one or more master’s degrees and several languages ??does not guarantee you a job; and if you have it, it rarely exceeds just over a thousand euros. With the addition that having an excellent education does not prevent you from also being an idiot, an unsupportive person or a ruthless climber; and they abound.
The only good thing about this situation is that each time having a job is better considered, and paid. It was time. I remember when in ancient times it was said that fools went to vocational training and those who were worthy went to high school: the simplicity of human diagnosis was and is surprising. It happens, however, that those who have had the best life, in terms of economics and professional stability, have been those high school classmates who opted for plumbing, electricity or hairdressing, as examples. A situation that I believe is more significant now, because the data confirms that there is a lack of professionals with a multitude of trades and there are plenty of graduates or “master’s degrees.” I believe that all this will be accentuated when algorithms improve the ability to write sentences, write sports reports or act as teachers through holograms that look better (even to the student’s taste) than the real ones.
Not long ago, a friend asked me for advice for his daughter. The young woman wanted to be a journalist (this type of scene is recurring in my life), and like her I always started to tremble. My two arguments immediately conflict in my head. The first recounts the tremendous job and salary precariousness, the oversupply of graduates due to the multiplicity of faculties, the long and endless work days always with the feeling that something has escaped you or the ephemerality of our effort. The other argument sounds increasingly strange. It is the one that on occasions, although less and less, one has offered to defend his office from the idea that he is the most beautiful of all; fucked up, yes, but beautiful. An occupation that allows you to meet today’s protagonists, read a lot, understand the world better; sometimes doing justice against abuses; audit certain political excesses, be able to delve deeper into realities and even, with a little luck, earn a salary with which to have a decent life.
Who am I then to advise anyone about the future? It is a rhetorical question, because given the situation, giving advice borders on recklessness, even more so if you give in to traditional conventions, that of educating yourself (in the academic sense of the term) and you will be a winner. Furthermore, giving that type of advice ages the person who gives it, a lot; Well, just take a look around the digital universe, and some social networks, to confirm that those who are starring in the party are, precisely, those who have the best job. In the worst case, if there is no way out, if they put a lot of pressure on me, and an answer/advice has to be given, I resort to the best recommendation I have been given in this life: “Do what makes you happiest, because otherwise Otherwise you will spend more than eight hours a day, throughout your life, being bitched even if they pay you well. The person who said it was my father, and he was absolutely right.
PS: I don’t want to deceive you, if I had to choose again I would be a journalist again, despite everything I have told you. You know, everyone has their own weaknesses and it is difficult to escape them…
