Christopher T Smith.com
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Leadership
  • Reflections
  • Career Development Research
  • Neuroscience Research
  • Published Research
  • Press
  • Presentations
  • Job Search Resources
  • Funding Resources
  • Subscribe to Newsletter
  • Contact

Reflections Blog

Precarity, Competition, and Innovation: How Economic Systems and Societal Structures Shape Our Future

10/27/2022

0 Comments

 
Personal Perspective, Future of Work, Innovation
Picture
The rapid globalization and integration of the economy, including the power of technology to make work performed and done anywhere more accessible have resulted in our 21st Century societies finding themselves at a potentially critical moment in humanity's millennia-long story. 

Our world has shrunk considerably over the past 50 to 75 years. The end of World War II saw with it the birth of a more integrated global economy with capitalism gaining influence as communism waned into the early 1990s. The emergence of China from the 1990s to 2020s also reflects the triumph of global capitalism, albeit state-sponsored capitalism.

​As with any change in how society is structured, there were groups that benefited massively from this shift to a globalized, capitalist (neoliberal) world and those who didn't. One of the main results of this shift was many goods became cheaper to produce and consumer prices, at least in the United States, remained low for decades. 

For nearly 40 years, the average percentage change in consumer prices in the United States barely crossed 5%. In fact, median "inflation" (ie, yearly change in consumer prices) was 2.8% from 1983 to 2021 (we are a far cry from those levels in 2022, though). Compare this to the growth of capital and investment returns over the same time period. The median rate of yearly return for the S&P 500 (a basket of the 500 largest US-based corporations) from the same period, 1983 to 2021 was 12.8%. While this is not perhaps the most elegant economic analysis, I think it demonstrates how much relative value in capital was produced relative to costs passed on to consumers...nearly 10% more per year. 
Picture
Picture
Note the axes for the percent change in the S&P 500 Index are nearly 7 times as large as that of the CPI graph above, demonstrating large percentage gains in US stock prices relative to consumer prices, historically, over this time period.
Clearly, the returns to capital relative to the costs born by consumers was the result of companies trading more expensive labor for cheaper means of production. For a time, this bargain seemed "good" for many...prices were kept (arguably) artificially low through low-cost labor. Many workers in more economically developed countries didn't see this shift in economic structure as a problem as it benefited many of their pocketbooks either via high rates of return on capital and/or lower cost goods. Some individuals, especially those working in manufacturing sectors in the United States, Europe, Japan, and other developed countries saw opportunities shrink in favor of increased outsourcing of their work to China or, at least in the past few decades, automation. 
For a time, a global, capitalist, and neoliberal economy seemed to produce more overall prosperity than what came before it. Millions were lifted out of poverty and provided jobs that allowed them to live a life of greater convenience and security. The emergence of China's middle class was the growth engine of the global economy for the past 20-plus years. In a cruel twist of fate, however, the continual pursuit of maximum profit, minimal cost, and "optimization" of a global, capitalist economy may end up resulting in an overall more impoverished world. Globalization produced ever more competition amongst labor markets and the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic illustrated that a complex, global supply chain only works when all its requisite components and inputs are allowed to flow across borders and oceans.  
Competition drives innovation. The market forces that have dominated western economies in the neoliberal area allowed corporations and organizations with more innovative products to increase their profits. In sum, the lives of those using these products also became better. However, those groups that could not innovate and adapt died, resulting in layoffs and loss of entire sectors of our economy. The destructive nature of capitalism is fundamental to its success. There must be winners and losers. 

A bigger philosophical question facing the United States in particular as we approach the end of the first quarter of the 21st Century is whether we will allow the innovative and destructive forces of capitalism to continue to affect our citizens' personal health and wellbeing. Deaths of despair (from suicide and drug overdoses) have risen in the United States over the past 15-20 years despite our overall gross domestic product (GDP) per capita continuing to rise relative to other developed economies. 
The juxtaposition of income inequality and high poverty rates in the US along with overall greater economic growth and productivity of our economy as a whole illustrates that our current form of "US-led, global capitalism" results in big winners and losers. 
​
Some illustrative data from McKinsey's Rethinking the Future of American Capitalism report drive home the point: 
  • American firms rank among the most widely known and the most profitable globally: in economic profit, they make up 38 percent of the top 10. 
  • In the United States, just 6 percent of counties account for two-thirds of GDP output.

​In addition, a variety of data available from inequality.org, sourced from OECD statistics and the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report highlight the enormous share of wealth concentration in the United States relative to other developed countries.
Picture
Picture
The United States has more wealth than any other nation. But America’s top-heavy distribution of wealth leaves typical American adults with far less wealth than their counterparts in other industrial nations.
In exchange for our dynamic and growing "economy" (ie, corporate profits) in the US do so many have to be left behind?
​
What is the ideal balance between creative destruction, economic progress/reinvention, and the stability of our society? When should workers be protected at the potential expense of consumers? Will work as we know it be a thing in the future? And if not, is more time for leisure and creative pursuits for all a good thing? Will humanity fill the free time of a technology-laden future making the world better or worse?  


These are thorny questions and ultimately how things transpire is unpredictable but that does not mean we don't have some agency in shaping the future we want to see. ​
We have constructed a society in the United States where so much of the social safety net has been removed that we may ultimately become less innovative as a society. Who can afford to take the risk of starting a small business or company when they lack affordable access to health insurance or reasonable childcare costs? There is data supporting the notion that innovation is lower in more unequal societies. ​
Innovation also threatens many people's sense of value and contribution to society. As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more capable at replacing work traditionally performed by humans, even white-collar work, many are left asking how they can contribute to society. The decline in American's confidence in institutions leads one to wonder whether individuals will feel the need to engage with larger societal structures in the future or choose to escape to some version of the metaverse (a la Ready Player One). 
Clearly, this is a time of immense change and uncertainty.
Will we become a less globalized and interconnected world, retreating inwards as societies and people?
Will the speed of automation and change result in many being left behind economically in the new world order?
​Will inequality continue to increase with potentially explosive societal consequences? 

A fundamental set of questions arises: Is our system broken? Can it be reformed? Must it be re-envisioned? Do we have the collective and political will to make real change?
Picture
Is the sun rising or setting on economic progress and opportunity for all as we approach the quarter-point of the 21st Century?
The current structures of our society add further complexity to addressing the problems we face. What is "right" is not always what is popular making it difficult for a democratic country to push forward with changes that may be difficult in the short-term but lead to long-term positive impact. While pursuing my Ph.D. in neurobiology from UNC Chapel Hill, I looked at delay discounting behavior...the tendency for people and animals to discount the future. The future is "worth" less than the present partially because at an individual level the future is uncertain. You may not make it to the future and so why delay consumption now? The YOLO ("you only live once") choices of many young adults reflects the underlying basic instinct of all living things to prioritize the NOW over the LATER. It is in our nature to do this.  
In large part, I think our politicians and leaders have failed to articulate a truly promising view of the future and America's place in it. Rather, "othering" and blaming certain groups is used for political gain while real solutions go undiscussed and our two-party system fosters division and extremism. We have the potential to move closer to being a true melting pot of culture and ideas, welcoming immigrants from across the world who seek to better their futures and our country as a whole by leveraging American Capitalism and the innovative ecosystems it can foster.

​If we don't find a way to strike the right balance between growth at any cost and compassion for all people within our society, though, we could lay the seeds for the destruction of the future we all want to see. 
More from the blog:
  • The End of Work as We Know It: How an Increasingly Automated World Will Change Everything
  • The Challenges of Being an International Researcher: Implications for Advanced Degree Labor Markets
    • Part 1
    • Part 2​
For Further Reading:
  • What exactly is neoliberalism?
  • Book: Capital in the Twenty-First Century
    • See also the documentary on the topic
  • Rethinking the future of American capitalism (from McKinsey)
  • Inequality: A persisting challenge and its implications (from McKinsey)
  • The social contract in the 21st century: Outcomes so far for workers, consumers, and savers in advanced economies (from McKinsey)
  • Book: The Power of Creative Destruction: Economic Upheaval and the Wealth of Nations
  • Book: US vs. Them: The Failure of Globalism
  • Book: Six Faces of Globalization: Who Wins, Who Loses, and Why It Matters
    • More on this concept from one of the book's authors, Anthea Roberts on her personal website
    • Who wins and who loses from globalization? There are (at least) six answers (excerpt from the Book)
    • The Corporate Power Narrative: How Corporations Benefit from Economic Globalization (excerpt from the Book)
  • Book: Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism 
  • America's crisis of despair: A federal task force for economic recovery and societal well-being
  • Book: Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy 
  • Relevant political reads from The Atlantic:
    • ​How the U.K. Became One of the Poorest Countries in Western Europe
      • ​A cautionary tale?
    • The Wreckage of Neoliberalism
      • The postwar neoliberal economic project is nearing its end. The question is who will write the last chapter, the Democrats or the totalitarians?
Sites Worth Exploring:
  • INEQUALITY.ORG (United States and global data)
  • realtimeinequality.org (United States data)
0 Comments

Reimagining the Postdoctoral Experience

6/30/2022

0 Comments

 
Scientific Workforce, Future of Work
The views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect those held by Virginia Tech, the National Postdoctoral Association, or the Graduate Career Consortium.
Picture
What is a postdoc? What is it for?

This question is a persistent one for many working within and outside academia. 
Working in this space, we often label postdoctoral scholars as trainees and employees, which is a tricky line to walk.

Freshly removed from their Ph.D. training, many postdocs struggle with defining themselves. Breaking out of the mindset of student to budding professional is not easy. As institutions, we should reflect on how the postdoctoral experience is value-add from graduate school training. How do we ensure postdocs are learning and growing and not simply "doing work" related to a faculty member's research? The answers to these questions are important as the higher education sector struggles with recruiting and retaining talent in a tight labor market. 
A recent piece in Science highlights that many faculty members have struggled recruiting postdoctoral researchers over the past year or so, which is most likely related to a strong job market and reconsideration of life priorities as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also may indicate that Ph.D. students are more carefully considering what role a postdoctoral position plays in their overall career trajectory. I think individuals more carefully considering whether a postdoctoral position is necessary for their career development and growth is a good thing. Also, institutions could do more to illuminate the value of postdoc training by reimagining what it can be.  
It is important to remember that  both graduate students and postdoctoral researchers contribute cutting edge knowledge and discoveries that drive innovation to improve our world. Furthermore, postdoctoral researchers are more able to devote time and effort to research and discovery given they no longer have course or degree requirements to meet. But are we allowing them to fully realize their potential in our current model?

It is my opinion that our institutions must ensure postdoctoral scholars not only have the tools and resources to do amazing research and scholarship at their institutions but are developed as full people and community members. We should work to assist postdocs in discovering how their skills, interests, and values can be put to use to serve their campuses and local communities and, ultimately, the world. 
Picture
Value of team science and community engagement
Part of the reason postdocs are overlooked on their campus is that they are often isolated from the larger institutional community as they perform intensive research and scholarship. There was a time when devotion to the development of this deep expertise in a scholarly area was sufficient to ensure success in an academic career. Those times are over. Team science and scholarship are essential for academics to thrive in the 21st Century and postdocs who develop these skills will be more effective faculty researchers.

In addition, a singular devotion to research and scholastic productivity can lead to a situation where a postdoctoral researcher ties their worth to their work. This dynamic stresses the mental health and wellbeing of some of our most well educated and trained researchers and can lead them to abandoning promising careers. One way to improve this situation is to provide outlets for postdocs to contribute to causes beyond their research and scholarship. Volunteering in their local postdoctoral association, the National Postdoctoral Association, and local community provides a variety of benefits including:
  • Allowing them to hone key transferable skills including communication, teamwork, project planning, and management 
  • Facilitating social interactions and community building
  • Allowing for postdocs to contribute meaningfully to something bigger than themselves
Picture
Increase visibility of postdocs and their value to their institutions & communities
​Postdocs can (and do) provide value to their campus community beyond their research endeavors. We should work to aid institutions in better integrating postdocs into many of their teaching and innovation efforts including:
  • Provide mentoring training to postdocs to allow them to more effectively mentor undergraduate and graduate students in their research groups
    • Mentoring training will also prepare postdocs to effectively lead and manage teams in their post-postdoc careers (faculty or otherwise)
  • Encourage opportunities for postdocs to build and practice pedagogical and teaching skills
    • Provide access to teaching and pedagogical training to postdocs which could then allow them to contribute to campus needs in a variety of ways:
      • Postdocs could serve in a guest lecture pool that a university maintains to give them small teaching experiences
      • Encourage postdocs to lead workshops and trainings on techniques and tools they are experts in to their campus communities 
        • See NC State’s Peer Scholars Program as an example
        • Ideally, some form of financial compensation would be available for the above work
  • Provide postdocs access to information and training in intellectual property, technology transfer and commercialization, and entrepreneurship to encourage and empower them to shepherd key innovative research taking place in our universities and research centers to ultimately produce products and services that can benefit society
Picture
Postdoc positions as a bridge between academic research & the world of work
While a traditional postdoctoral position had the goal of preparing Ph.D.s for faculty positions, they could also morph in the 21st Century to serve as a bridge between academic training and careers beyond faculty.
  • Many companies require the highly technical skills that Ph.D.s have developed in their training
  • However, acclimating Ph.D.s to the world of corporate work and the language and procedures of business is a challenge
  • Why couldn’t the postdoc also serve as a way for companies to access Ph.D. talent without necessarily committing them to a permanent position?
    • Companies can test-drive candidates while giving them access to useful experiences that diversify their resumes through collaborative internship opportunities
  • In addition, there may be a place for postdocs to serve as a nexus between academic research and commercialization opportunities
    • A large bottleneck in the commercialization of academic research is that the principal investigators responsible for leading research groups often do not have the time to devote to liaising with potential companies to explore licensing their technology
      • Postdocs could serve as a useful intermediary between academic research and companies to help ensure a greater number of innovative research developments can be translated into real-world solutions
      • In the process, postdocs gain a greater understanding of the language of the business world, intellectual property, and technology commercialization 
Picture
Practical Considerations 
One big issue that would emerge from a reimagining of the postdoctoral experience is how to apportion postdocs’ time devoted to research and scholarly efforts, especially those supported on a faculty member’s research grant (as the majority of postdocs are), versus the additional activities describe above.

While the United States government’s Office of Management and Budget has issued guidance on the “dual role” of student and postdoctoral researchers emphasizing that graduate students and postdocs supported on federal grants are both trainees and employees and expected to be actively engaged in their training and career development, nowhere is an expected distribution of time devoted to training and career development versus research work and activities specified. There is still a sense from many faculty whose research grants support postdocs that they are paying postdocs to do the work and not engage in “extracurricular” activities and that those should occur outside “business hours”. International postdocs whose visas are tied to their research roles may be especially reluctant to allocate time to career and professional development activities if their faculty supervisor does not encourage their engagement in them. The concerns of faculty could be minimized if they aren’t paying a postdoc when they are engaging in activities outside their research and scholarly responsibilities.      

Thus, steps may need to be taken by institutions to effectively distribute resources and funds to support the proposed broader set of postdoc activities mentioned above. I think it is in our best interest to do so. Universities will need to think hard about investing in postdoc compensation, perhaps covering 20-25% of a postdoc’s costs with the rest coming from faculty member’s research grants and funds. It would also be reasonable to assume that if an institution is investing resources in supporting postdocs’ salaries to allow them to engage in a wider range of professional development activities that they would come to see postdocs as an asset to the institution. As a result, perhaps a greater effort would be made to provide a more comprehensive set of resources for postdocs who the university is now, literally, invested in. Institutions with skin in the game might also begin to reflect on the purpose of postdocs, resulting in a needed discussion on whether training is indeed occurring in some roles or whether they would be better classified as research staff.

​The concept of research staff tracks for Ph.D.s within universities is beyond the scope of this post but could be a means of retaining skilled talent who don’t necessarily want the responsibilities of a principal investigator or lab leader at a university. And while universities and other postdoctoral training institutions often balk at "investing" in a population who will ultimately leave (as the position is meant to be a temporary one), they could benefit from postdoctoral scholars more engaged in service to the university through teaching, outreach, and commercialization efforts. This setup could be a win-win for postdocs with a desire to learn new skills and obtain diverse work experiences and institutions experiencing staffing shortages.   
Picture
Parting Thoughts
​In closing, it is my personal belief that the path forward is to ensure the postdoctoral period is a time of broad training for Ph.D. researchers. If we can equip them with both technical, scholarly, and transferable skills, they will be able to make an impact in the world. Furthermore, providing postdocs the opportunity to engage with their campus community through service will enrich their experience and lives. In addition, this model may provide needed personnel relief for universities that have struggled over the past few years retaining talent. While postdocs receive valuable experiences in teaching, technology commercialization, or project management, our universities benefit from their work in these areas. Pathways for skilled researchers to remain at universities in professionalized research (or staff) tracks may also be appropriate to retain talented postdocs with a desire to stay at an institution but not become tenure-track faculty. 

Only by being open to a new way of doing things in postdoctoral training and career development can we truly move institutions forward and, in the process, provide a means for them to leverage Ph.D. talent in ways that enhance their research, teaching, service, and outreach missions. 
0 Comments

Post-Ph.D. Career Plans: Consider the Possibilities

3/7/2020

1 Comment

 
Ph.D. Career Trends
The post originally appeared on PassioInventa, a site run by graduate students to serve as a platform for science communication. 
Picture
Many people assume Ph.D.-trained individuals work in two predominant areas: academia or industry. Most professors have Ph.D.s, and academic careers are  considered to be the “default” or even preferred path during one’s graduate training.
The other major career bucket Ph.D.s fall into after their training is industry. What do we mean by “industry”, though? Many assume an industry Ph.D. works in pharmaceutical development or some other research and development (R&D) role, and some, indeed, do. However, there are so many additional roles Ph.D.s can fill in industry as well as in government, nonprofits, and academia that don’t fall into the neat buckets of academic or industry scientist.
What do Ph.D.s do for work? Let’s look at the data.
A wealth of career data for Ph.D. recipients is collected by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in its
Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) and Survey of Doctorate Recipients (SDR). The SED focuses on recent Ph.D. graduates each year (Table 1) while the SDR captures employment information of individuals with Ph.D.s in science, engineering, or health fields, regardless of when they received their degree (Table 2).
Picture
Table 1: Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) data on primary work role for 2018 Ph.D. graduates in the life sciences, physical/earth sciences, and engineering. R&D, Research & Development
Picture
Table 2: Survey of Doctoral Recipients (SDR) showing primary work role of individuals with life sciences, physical/earth sciences, or engineering degrees in 2017. R&D, Research & Development
The data collected by the NSF demonstrate that anywhere from 34.1% to 37.3% of science/engineering doctorates ultimately perform work beyond R&D and teaching (Table 2, Something Else column). That number might surprise current graduate students and postdoctoral trainees who often consider their career options limited.  
Ph.D. employment trends are changing: The elephant in the room 
A great challenge in graduate education and career/professional development is ensuring Ph.D.-trained researchers understand that the “traditional path” of securing a faculty position is becoming more difficult to follow. This trend was  summed up well by Schillebeeckx et al 2013 (reproduced below), who show that the cumulative number of Ph.D.s awarded in Science & Engineering fields has grown rapidly compared to available faculty positions over the past few decades.
Picture
This  chart includes data collected through 2011; the startling trend has unfortunately continued. More recent data can be accessed from the SDR & SED on employment trends for Ph.D.-trained scientists and these data continue to show the decline in the percentage of Ph.D.s working in tenure-track faculty positions. The trend is most apparent in the SDR data where employment in academic positions is broken down by tenured faculty, those on the tenure track, and those in positions not eligible for tenure. In addition, the data is categorized by those who received their Ph.D.s <10 years from the survey (representing early career researchers and postdocs) and those 10 or more years post-Ph.D.. The change in the academic employment landscape for these recent Ph.D. graduates (Table 3) illustrates the radical shift occurring in Ph.D. employment at 4-year educational institutions.
Picture
Table 3: Percentage change in recent (<10 years from degree) Ph.D.s employment at 4-year educational institutions in the United States from 2010 to 2017, calculated from NSF SDR data.
Growth in non-tenure track employment among science Ph.D.s
Where are these Ph.D.-trained scientists going? While some are moving into career fields outside of academia -- in fact the 2017 SED data showed private sector employment of science/engineering Ph.D.s (42%) was
nearly on par with educational institution employment (43%) -- many are working in non-tenure track positions that could include lecturers, adjunct faculty, research faculty, or postdoctoral positions. Table 3, above, shows the 2-3x growth in these non-tenure track positions in a period of just 7 years.
​Further examination of the 2017 data showed an astounding 17.1% (~1 in 5) of those with life science Ph.D.s employed at 4-year academic institutions were postdocs.
What is a postdoc and should I pursue one? 
"A postdoctoral scholar (postdoc) is an individual holding a doctoral degree who is engaged in a temporary period of mentored research and/or scholarly training for the purpose of acquiring the professional skills needed to pursue a career path of his or her choosing."
-National Postdoctoral Association 
While completing a postdoc has been a natural step toward securing a faculty career, it has also, unfortunately, become a holding place for Ph.D.s who have not been able to secure faculty employment. In addition, remaining a postdoc for too long may have serious effects on one’s lifetime earnings potential. In fact, many Ph.D.-trained individuals should probably not pursue a postdoc but a lack of information on career opportunities for Ph.D.-holders leaves many to default to the postdoc path.
My own story navigating the academic career path
I was one of those individuals on this default postdoc path. I had a great graduate school experience at UNC Chapel Hill and felt encouraged to stay in academia and pursue a postdoc with the goal of learning a new scientific technique (PET imaging of the dopamine system). My ultimate goal was to land a tenure-track faculty job.
Picture
Completing my graduate training in the lab of a recently-hired faculty member certainly showed me that landing the faculty job is only step one on the path to the idealized tenured professor position. An equally difficult step is being productive to obtain tenure. A faculty member who obtains tenure needs to publish papers, secure grant funding, mentor effectively, perform service for one’s home department, and often teach. 

While the public sees a faculty job as pretty cushy -- and maybe after securing tenure it gets a bit more cushy (or at least secure in terms of your salary) -- the path to obtaining that tenured position is an arduous and tenuous one. There are so many places where one can fall off this pathway of postdoc -> assistant professor (on tenure-track) -> tenured faculty.

​Collaborative work from the
Future_PI Slack group which I have been involved with shows that every year, very qualified individuals who apply for assistant professorships don’t succeed. 

The average person (and most family members of graduate students) really has no idea the challenges Ph.D.s face in launching their careers. I know I was certainly not the first person whose parents inquired when I would be “done” with training and get a “real job”. They meant well but, like many people, assumed once someone has a Ph.D., aren’t they “done” and on the quick path to fortune?
Picture
Acknowledging my faculty career doubts and discovering alternative career paths during my postdoc 
I spent 4.5 years as a postdoc at Vanderbilt University and it was a really wonderful time. I felt I grew as a person,
contributed important work to my field of neuroscience, and gained leadership experience in the Vanderbilt Postdoctoral Association. And while I went deep down the path toward obtaining a faculty position (even getting an onsite interview back in Spring 2018), in the back of my mind I had doubts about being a faculty member; that path just didn’t feel right. Having access to career/professional development programming at Vanderbilt helped me learn about other career paths for Ph.D.s.

I now work in career and professional development helping current graduate students and postdocs at North Carolina State University. 
You can read more about my personal career exploration journey and transition to postdoc affairs in my series of NIH BEST blog posts.
Career exploration is where it all begins
Part of the search for a post-Ph.D. or post-postdoc career is a search for yourself. This sounds kind of intimidating - and it is. But trust me when I tell you people like me do make it through a challenging career search, and along the way they often discover what is most important to their wellbeing and happiness. Seems like a pretty nice outcome after navigating the hard, twisty road to a career.

For a deeper dive: Explore the NSF data referenced in this article

See my previous Blog pieces on career exploration:
Start here
career exploration 101

1 Comment

The End of Work as We Know It: How an Increasingly Automated World Will Change Everything

12/16/2019

0 Comments

 
Career & Professional Development, Opinion
Picture
Updates, February 2021:
​I encourage anyone interested in the future of workforce development and training to read this excellent article published in Forbes: 
Human Capital Era Reality: The Skills Gap May Never Close

For other relevant readings on the future of work, see:
Future of Work: Insights for 2021 and Beyond (Milken Institute)
The Future of Work After COVID-19 (McKinsey Global Institute) 
​Preparing for the Future of Work (World Economic Forum)
World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2020

In a few short weeks we will be entering a new decade.

What will the 2020s hold? Technological advances continue to take shape at a blistering pace and will have effects on nearly all aspects of our lives. While most of these tech advances will be a clear benefit (improved healthcare, faster connectivity with 5G wireless, and greater access to online learning), others offer a potentially existential challenge to something most of us do for more than a third of our lives: work.  

Work in the Age of AI
The nature of work is changing rapidly. Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are allowing machines and computer programs to take on an extraordinary variety of tasks.
We think of this as a blue-collar issue with robots now doing most of the assembly at automobile plants across the world and autonomous vehicles coming to take truckers jobs soon. The truth is, though, very few jobs are safe from automation as many jobs are quite routine and skills-based.

Any job requiring technical skill alone may eventually be subsumed by advances in AI. This leads to the important question of how does one prepare for this sea change? How can you make yourself un-replaceable by a machine?
Picture

A 2017 McKinsey Global institute study concluded up to 800 million workers worldwide could lose their jobs to automation by 2030.

Workforce Transitions in a Time of Automation (McKinsey, Dec 2017)
File Size: 5044 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

What Skills Will Be Valued in Future Work?
While it seems logical to assume that increases in AI would necessitate increased training in technical skills like computer programming, coding, engineering, or other scientific fields, the fact of the matter is that those technical skills themselves may be unsafe from the evolving capability of our machines.
Specifically, a report by the Brookings Institute where job descriptions were compared against AI-related-patents (see paper by Michael Webb at Stanford University for empirical details) found that white collar, data-intensive jobs in business, technology, engineering, and science are at greatest risk of being impacted by AI. The report quantified impact as having job duties that could be subsumed by coming AI advances. This doesn't mean AI would replace the job completely...in fact, AI may just supplement work in fields such as finance and scientific research. What is clear, though, is that only being good at a skill or technique that eventually can be automated is NOT a winning strategy. 


​"AI exposure will likely lower wages and lead to job replacement if human workers can no longer bring "extra value" that AI can't."
- Mark Muro, Senior Fellow & Lead Author of the Brookings report
Picture
Transferable, Human-Centered Skills are Irreplaceable (for now)
What will be in demand for the foreseeable future are transferable skills. These types of skills aren't technical but rather refer to intra- and inter-personal skills that we use to get our work done efficiently, by ourselves or with others.
​
LinkedIn found these 5 transferable skills to be most in demand in 2019 (based on job postings on the platform):
5. Time Management
4. Adaptability
3. Collaboration
2. Persuasion
1. Creativity
In addition, as more and more employees become tech-savvy, backgrounds that give employees perspective — historical, global, or otherwise — will become increasingly valuable. We will need to increasingly think about how our machines and interfaces are designed to interact with humans.

​Currently, machines cannot think like human beings. The AI we have today is so-called "narrow AI,” performing objective functions using data-trained models. The AI from science fiction movies where machines have human-like intelligence, so-called "artificial general intelligence," is far from a reality and may never be achieved. So, we will need people to serve as the interpretational bridge between AI and society and back again...to insert humanity into our machines and their decisions.
  
Picture
Technical Training is NOT Enough:
The Role of Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, Data Synthesis, & Presentation Skills 

There has been an increased emphasis and interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics) education to prepare the next generation for a new age of work. Colleges, particularly technical schools and community colleges, have invested heavily in career and technical education that seeks to broaden technical skills currently in demand (coding, software engineering, etc...). Ironically, though, being trained in the liberal arts and humanities may be more useful in the age of AI. In addition, there is data suggesting a surplus of STEM majors in some fields (see also this piece from The Atlantic). 

It won't be so much our technical skills that differentiate us in the 21st Century economy. Rather, being able to think critically, synthesize information, present arguments persuasively, and work effectively with others will be increasingly valued. 
Anyone working in the sciences knows that our knowledge and tools change fast. So, it may not be surprising to consider the skills we value now in coding, data manipulation, and analysis may not be what is needed 20 or even 10 years from now. 
"It is not only what you know but how you learn that will set you apart."
- Thomas Friedman, author of The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
Picture
Graduate Students & Postdocs Have the Skills Needed for the 21st Century Economy 
Having the skills to quickly dissect a problem, synthesize and interpret data, and clearly present insights and recommendations from your work are incredibly valuable. Luckily, if you have been pursuing a graduate degree or postdoctoral work, you have experience in all these areas. Each day you are working to troubleshoot problems, synthesize your data with what is already known, and form coherent narratives around your findings. You are uniquely poised to make sense of the flood of data that is and will be produced and stored from the countless scientific publications, device interactions, and web searches that occur each day. 
Picture
Even the hot career field of data science is focused heavily on communicating insights from analyses. This skill may become even more critical as computers takeover the work of data preparation and analysis, leaving the humans to extract insights from the work. 
​
Ph.D.-trained scientists are uniquely poised to be the data interpreters we will need in the 21st Century. 
How to Hone & Leverage Your Transferable Skills Into Meaningful Work 
A changing world demands individuals who can change with it. Flexibility and the ability the learn and adapt to new technology will be crucial. Scientists possess these and other transferable skills but need to more effectively hone and communicate them to potential employers.
​In addition, current graduate students and postdocs must avoid becoming so focused in one domain or technique that they don't develop the transferable skills needed to succeed in the 21st Century economy. 
How can current trainees practice and perfect their transferable skills? 
Develop Teamwork & Leadership Skills
Taking leadership roles or volunteering in organizations that you are passionate about (including graduate student and postdoc associations) allows you to give back to your community while also honing your teamwork and leadership skills (for example, see). You can look to get involved with local or national organizations or local chapters of national organizations, potentially in research or career areas that interest you. 
​ 
Volunteering within an organization while continuing in your current role will also force you to improve your time and project management skills as you seek to fulfill your many obligations. In addition, working with others in these organizations, especially those from different backgrounds than yours, will teach you the importance of effective communication skills (listening, synthesizing, presenting), leadership, and consensus building to achieving success. 
Picture
Check out Volunteer Match for community volunteering opportunities. ​
Communication Skills
You should also seek out opportunities to practice and demonstrate your communication skills. Join Toastmaters to practice your public presentation skills or volunteer to deliver a talk to a general audience (local science cafes/clubs are a great venue). You can also start posting articles on the web to demonstrate your written communication skills (LinkedIn has a great self-publication feature). Showing you can speak to a general audience and not just academics is crucial. Your future coworkers and customers will have a variety of backgrounds and speaking to them in an accessible way will increase the rapport you can build with them.  ​
Final Thoughts
While ​the future of work in the age of automation may seem scary, there is the real possibility that increased efficiencies will free us to do tasks that are mentally stimulating and personally rewarding. Instead of slaving over data we will be able to spend our time thinking about how it can be used to better the human condition. We will be able to spend more time interacting with one another instead of at our screens doing the menial tasks that often accompany knowledge-based work. 
Picture
A more automated and efficient world will provide us more time to do what we enjoy and give back to others: to do meaningful work. By freeing us of routine, tedious tasks, AI also has the ability to unlock the vast untapped potential in so many of us...to allow us to pursue work and activities that are not motivated so much by their utility and profitability (as the machines will do much of that) as by their ability to bring happiness to our and others lives.
That is certainly a future worth aspiring towards.   
Further Reading
AI & Work

Where Machines Could Replace Humans - and where they can't (yet)

What jobs are affected by AI? Better-paid, better-educated workers face the most exposure

Is Technology About to Decimate White-Collar Work?

When Will AI Exceed Human Performance? Evidence from AI Experts

​
In the Age of AI (PBS Frontline documentary)

Human Flourishing in the AI Age - We Need a New Story


Education & the 21st Century Labor Market 
The Myth of the Science and Engineering Shortage
​

STEM Crisis of STEM Surplus? Yes & Yes

A Humanities Degree is Worth Much More Than You Realize

The Growing Importance of Social Skills in the Labor Market

You Can Do Anything: The Surprising Power of a "Useless" Liberal Arts Education (book)

The Future of Work
​Meaningful Work: Viktor Frankl's Legacy for the 21st Century (book)

Life's Great Question: Discover How You Contribute to the World (book)

The Globotics Upheaval: Globalization, Robotics, & the Future of Work (book)

MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy 
0 Comments

    Author

    A neuroscientist by training, I now work to improve the career readiness of graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.

      Subscribe to Reflections Newsletter

    Subscribe to Newsletter

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019

    Categories

    All
    Academic Job Search
    Artificial Intelligence
    Career Development
    Career Exploration
    Data Science
    Future Of Work
    Innovation
    International Concerns
    Job Search
    Life Advice
    Neuroscience
    NIH BEST Blog Rewind
    Opinion
    Personalized Medicine
    PhD Career Pathways
    Professional Development
    Scientific Workforce
    Tools & Resources
    Welcome

    RSS Feed

Science

Career Development Research
​
Neuroscience Research


Publications

Writing

​Reflections Blog

Other Posts

Press, Resources, & Contact

Press                                                       Contact

Job Search Resources         Funding Resources

Subscribe to Reflections Newsletter 
© COPYRIGHT 2023. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.