The “7 Careers” Lie
It seems like educators always have a Big Lie they’re passing on. Why do they do it? I suspect to make themselves feel better.
So here’s a good one: “You should be aware that you’ll probably have over 7 careers in your working life.” Or something like that. Something to stun kids with. They love doing that. Shock em with the notion of constant and fundamental change. Why this Lie? This wish to uproot because they themselves are so uprooted.
Here are what seem to be the obvious facts flying in the face of this Lie.
I was told something like this in college myself. It seems to have greatly intensified lately. In my own experience I found, however, that despite my early anticipation of big change, that it takes MANY YEARS to get good at something. Surprise. Computers get rid of some of the need for manual trades skills in some professions, but they ADD the need to be able to use the computer, for one thing. But that’s really nothing (ha!). You still have the human aspect of any trade left over. Even if the manual part is just pushing a button.
Computers save time. What do you do with the extra time? Compress skills. Go more horizontal. In my own case, DTP means that I have to master not one or two aspects of the publishing trade, but a dozen of them. The manual skills are reduced (not nil by any means) but I have to be able to handle the core skills of all those trades. We don’t need a manual typesetter anymore, but I have to master the art of typesetting and the technicalities, too. How long did this mastery take in the old days? Years. How long today? YEARS!
Computers don’t shorten apprenticeships. Of course some manual jobs that didn’t require any skill or trade have disappeared. I suppose this is where the liquidity comes in. But life isn’t lived in a vaccuum. Computers create jobs it seems. And most jobs which required thought still require the same amount of thought, often LOTS more.
I think for the most part this multi-career notion is designed to keep people weak and uncompetitive.
How long does it take to learn to be a teacher, farmer, journalist, designer, engineer, carpenter? (Now compared to then.) All the trades and professions I suspect take LONGER today to master. (More skill needs.) You might think you have mastery in 10 years, but you really aren’t up’n’running until 15 years. If you let yourself be derailed in your career and don’t put in that time, where are you? Maybe you’ll be a beginner at several careers. Of no real help to anyone. After 15 years you’re building, adding, contributing near your peak (in certain ways). This is a peak that, even as it shifts, can last another 20 years. A career. Who can compete against that sort of mastery? Why don’t our educators push for this?
Just because most businesses are hollow, doomed, turn over so rapidly due to their worthlessness, just because our culture eats people up with idiocy, doesn’t mean that our training should anticipate such malarkey. Say a big vertically diversified corporation changed the career of their workers every 6 years. —I’d love to compete against a company like that. You could run circles around such rookies. In any meaningful sense. If I was a teacher, I’d train people to STUFF such companies not waste their time working for them. (Of course moron companies don’t play fair. They’d bring the world down with them if they could as their projects auger in more often than not and their casualties pile up everywhere.)
