Hey all. I work in a design field that will unfortunately be taken over by ai in the next year or two. Every few months we're shedding a few more employees. I feel like this will be the case to all the companies I would normally be applying to as well.
I have survived the last 3 rounds of layoffs but the walls are clearly coming in. The severance package for my role is about 4 months pay. It's not bad but in a field where no one is hiring its still concerning.
I currently have a relatively high paying job for my field about 160k a year. 35 years old. This is close to the ceiling if not the ceiling for the kind of work I do.
I do not own property, but I also do not have debt or children, car is paid off. Most of my savings is in IRA/401k retirement around 500k. 50ish in ETF's. I have a generous 1 year emergency fund at the moment.
Rent is around 3,500 a month to which my wife contributes half. In this HCOL area this is considered quite good. The same unit today would be 4,500.
I am likely going to have a long struggle to find new work. Or need to reinvent my career entirely. Im begining to network for freelance contracts just to get the ball rolling. Just looking for any considerations I should have. I think 1 year emergency fund is enough but maybe im a little over invested too…
AI is eliminating my field fast, how should I prepare?
byu/Buttery_Biscuitss inpersonalfinance
Posted by Buttery_Biscuitss
21 Comments
The longer you wait to change employers or job title; the more competition there will be
If you haven’t already been applying; update your CV tonite and start searching
Your new job is upskilling yourself and finding a new job. Is there anything you can transition to laterally with more security. Start gaining skills. Spend your nights and weekends building projects and trying things to gain skills.
Start cutting costs – how many of your needs are really wants
Cut expenses so you guys are living entirely on your wife’s income and start saving every dollar of your salary into a high yield savings account.
If your entire career field is disappearing, do you need to keep living in a HCOL area where rent is $4000?
What design field are you in? Curious because I am also in a design field
what makes you confident your field will be eliminated in a year or two?
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Either find a way to incorporate AI well into your work, or find a new field.
Learn how to use AI as the tool that it is, and be the person running it – AI is incredible, but it works a *ton* better with an expert guiding it.
$3500/month in rent for you and your wife feels high. Is that like 2+ bedrooms bc you guys wfh?
You could move to Cebu, rent is about $300 a month, so for what you pay for a month you could live for a year. That’ll cut your expenses way down
That’s tough. Start a new business in AI business designs and try to get some new clients. Anything with the word AI has a big budget.
The answer to this question is the same, irrespective of the field or market : AI will not take your job, but the person using AI to do that job will.
So, start learning AI now to do your job. Research which AI tool(s) are preferred or rated highly in your industry, and learn how to use them, how they can be leveraged to give better results than your past deliverables (ie, more polish, less errors), and also, where AI falls short. You can become a master in AI pretty fast, and go from expendable to indispensable.
You might have to wait tables while you figure out your long-term strategy.
Start using AI and get in front of this
I feel you. I work in animation and works drying up fast. Finished my last contract a month ago. Have a second interview as a project coordinator for a flooring company on wednesday. Think its time for me to switch fields. It was a fun decade though
Could always try and make a new position at work with AI in the title and tie it to your current title as well so when cuts do some down you’re “the guy” they keep to maintain the department. You could also use that to apply to other companies down sizing and looking to replace a large workforce with a person that has large AI experience.
Look for a new career and start taking classes.
Learn to use ai and build up your own client profile?
Could you start your own consulting business and utilize AI to your advantage?
Be the guy that masters AI in your field and replaces everyone else. You can’t FIRE yet. You have to at least try.
I work in proposals and our jobs are going to be taken over by AI.
My company encourages us to use copilot on all our proposals. They also hired an outsourcing firm in India to handle some of our proposals. They encourage us to use them so they can “understand” our process.
Recently, the company created their own AI platform. They told us to use that instead of copilot.
This is just a start. They’re making us use their AI platform so that the Indian staff who are cheaper will take over our jobs. Why would they pay us to use AI if they can pay Indians to use AI on their proposals for cheap.
It’s sad. But I’m preparing to take over a family business in construction