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The job market that Generation COVID is facing is harder and different. Of course, my advice varies with the client, but here are areas I've invited clients to consider:
Large employers. In a tough economy with people who are more cautious about spending, large employers are most likely to stay afloat.
Of course, the largest employer is government. It offers the additional benefit of being an increasingly rare bastion of predominantly full-time, fully benefited, fully-vacationed positions. Plus, government, at the federal, state, local, and regional levels, hire the widest range of people: from psychologists to scientists, cybersleuths to site selectors, analysts to dentists, managers to magistrates, mapmakers to marshalls. Even under GOP leadership, government has been willing to go deeper in debt in response to COVID. Polls suggest that the Democrats will do well in the fall, which should result in even more government hiring.
Companies that provide basics. If the Dems indeed do well in the fall, corporations that are at all controversial will particularly be in government’s crosshairs. Because of that and the likely continuing decline in the public’s purchasing power, companies that produce the basics are safer bets. Just one example: Procter and Gamble. It makes, for example, Tide, Crest, Gillette, Charmin. And, yes, Safeguard hand sanitizer.
Companies that comport with Democratic priorities, for example, alternative energy and mass transit manufacturers, producers of meat substitutes, businesses, and nonprofits aimed at helping people of color., for example, services for immigrants: legal, medical, language, etc.
Companies that repurpose corporate headquarters into in-fill housing. COVID’s work-home restriction is showing employers that they can have happier, less distracted, commute-free employees while saving rent by moving smaller versions of their offices to lower-cost locales where employees live. Combine that with the environmentalist desire to reduce driving, and there should be growth in firms that convert downtown offices into small apartment units.
Next-generation online education producers. Past decades have seen increased disenchantment with traditional higher education’s cost/benefit. But online courses and degree programs also suffer from widespread dissatisfaction and from low completion rates. That’s largely because online courses tend to largely be mere portings of in-person courses—and without the chemistry of in-person classmates and instructors.
Online courses could be far more engaging if taught not by professors who typically get hired and promoted heavily on their research, but by people gifted at teaching and motivating. Combine better instructors with greater use of immersive interactivity, for example, VR as a way to help students understand what’s really going on in the human body, and Online Ed 2.0 could be a Next Big Thing.
Intermediate health care. Especially if the Dems win in the fall, we will likely soon have some sort of national health care, equally covering rich and poor. That, along with the likely enduring recession, will increase pressure to control costs. Hence, ever more work that was performed by physicians, physical therapists, etc. will be done by lower-cost physician assistants, physical therapy assistants, audiology assistants, nurse anesthetists, etc.
Under-the-radar genomics. Genomics’ promise of breakthroughs in physical and mental health has caused an oversupply of the field's Ph.D.s. More under-the-radar and thus more accessible and requiring less education are jobs in regulatory compliance, biostatistics, and intellectual property.
Offshore- and automation-proof hands-on careers. Even before COVID-19 made us communicate more virtually, there’s been growth in the need for technicians, electricians, cable and wireless network installers and repairers. That will likely continue. An idea for the not-technical: haircutter. It ranks among the highest in job satisfaction surveys.
Police officers. There's a perfect storm suggesting increased hiring of police officers: 1. Accelerating enmity toward police is decreasing people's desire to enter the profession. 2. The now more-publicized essential need for police to stay calm and professional even in highly stressful situations. 3. Increased civil unrest caused not just by deaths of suspects in policy custody but because the many millions of people who are losing their jobs because of the COVID shutdown.
Alternative burials. The funeral industry is ripe for reinvention: It’s expensive, often a clunky process, and religion-centric at a time when no-religion is the fastest-growing religion. I could see, consistent with the law, ceremonies led by an officiant, religious or not, at a land or sea gravesite. Skip the funeral home, fancy casket, and limo.
COVID contact tracer. This isn't a career but a stop-gap way to make a few bucks--$15-25 an hour, on the phone from home. Your job is to try to get people who tested COVID-positive to tell you everyone they've been in contact with. In the process, you try to be emotionally supportive and share information about the disease. Here's a link to each state's tracer hiring site.
Census worker. This is another stop-gap job (part-time temp, no benefits) with many openings. The government is hiring people to track down residents who did not respond to multiple by-mail requests to answer the 2020 census survey. This is of great consequence. Much of the enormous government spending is allocated based on various groups' prevalence in the population. The non-respondents are overrepresented by groups that many activists and politicians want to get a larger share of taxpayer dollars. Here is a link to census jobs.
A takeaway
Generation COVID won't have it easy, but if you pick a career using the above, which fits your strengths, weaknesses, and preferences, and then get well trained, keep learning, and work hard and ethically, my money is on you.
I ad-lib on this topic on YouTube.
