It seems crazy when you think about it, but from as young as high school age, we are consistently pushed into making big decisions about future careers that haven’t even started yet. There will always be those kids who have wanted to become doctors since they were ten and are pretty much destined to follow through on that goal, but for the rest of us, we might not have any idea what we want to do all the way up through college! I can’t suggest things that you might be good at, but I can tell you about things that might not be such a great idea. Here are 20 dying professions you might want to reconsider.
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1. Travel Agent
Think about it, when was the last time you went to an actual place to book a trip rather than just doing it yourself online?
2. Mortgage Broker
Again, people tend to do their own research and activity online, and any financial knowledge that you get can be better utilized in another field.
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3. Bookkeeper
With technology improving all the time, computer programmes are quickly taking over and eliminating the need for anyone to have a physical bookkeeper.
4. Lawyer
A lot of work that lawyers do currently is quickly being taken over by technology. Law isn’t just courtroom crime drama that you see on the TV!
5. Broadcaster
With the world turning to online entertainment rather than the radio, the demand for broadcasters is going down and down and down.
6. Middle Manager
There isn’t much paper pushing done by actual people anymore. Most of the middleman type stuff that companies do is being overtaken by software.
7. Casino Cashier
Casinos are starting to use more and more automated machines to deal out cards and chips in order to reduce the labour costs of their operations.
8. IT Support
Generations of young professionals are all pretty much expert in their tech knowledge these days, so dedicated IT departments are becoming less needed.
9. Financial Planner
When you can download hundreds of free apps that help you to get your life and finances in order, why would you need to pay someone to do that very thing for you?
10. Floral Designer
You can blame two things for the downfall of this industry: online flower sellers and things like Pinterest that show you how to make a beautiful arrangement yourself.
11. Postal Worker
Automated sorting systems are quickly taking over from real human hands, and tight government budgets only point in one direction for this kind of job.
12. Photo Processor
Digital photography has made jobs handling real film and real photographs much rarer than ever before. I can’t see that trend reversing in the future.
13. Data Entry
When you can set up a programme that inputs pretty much all of the data that a company needs, at a snip of the speed that a human can do it, the job becomes redundant.
14. Telephone Operator
I can’t believe that there are even some left at this point! Why do you need an operator when pretty much any number in the world is searchable?
15. Ranch Hand
The rise of machinery has made human ranch hands reduce in number for years. Farmers would rather buy a machine for a one time cost than keep paying a person.
16. Fast Food Cook
Fast food technology is one of the fastest improving areas in the industry, so you can expect to just see machines flipping burgers in decades to come!
17. Newspaper Reporter
Newspapers are dying out thanks to the presence of online news, which is much more accessible and free.
18. Jeweller
Unless you work for Tiffany, it’s pretty likely that your industry is going to be swallowed up by the internet in years to come.
19. Textile Machine Worker
This is another career that is very soon going to be taken over by machines and outsourcing to less expensive countries.
20. Furniture Finisher
At this point, it’s cheaper to just buy a new piece of furniture from IKEA than get something fixed by an expert!