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It’s a brave new world out there, and honestly, our world is changing so fast there’s really no good way to predict what it’s going to look like in a decade, never mind a century.
Things have changed so much in the past 100 years that there are tons of jobs that were once easy to get that are now non-existent because entire industries have just disappeared.
What professions are next on the list? These 16 people are weighing in!
16. What a cool job.
Scientific glass blowing! I work in a lab that uses tons of custom glass parts for our sampling flasks and analysis racks, and anything that breaks needs to be repaired quickly and precisely!
Young people go into glass blowing to make bongs and sculptures and chandeliers but never the technical stuff. All the scientific glass blowers in my area are 70+ with health issues and they can’t find apprentices. Crazy thing is that you can charge $15k for a cannabis film still and it’s only about $2k in raw glass parts, so there’s a huge untapped market out there.
And shipping glass long distance is obviously risky so we need these guys localized and knowledgable.
15. It’s all digital.
Printing press repair.
One of my friends travels the country repairing presses and is one of only a handful in the industry.
14. A really sad one.
Artisans of various type.
I’m Italian and my country is full of artisans and artist that can’t just survive with the income of their product selling. The only few that are surviving are guided by young entrepreneurs that use internet and social media to export abroad.
In this way we’re losing a lot of traditional workers and works and here in Italy it’s actually a problem.
13. Cheaper to buy new shoes.
Up until a couple years ago I was a cobbler. It was my favorite job I ever had.
When I left they shut it down(they also sell shoes and boots there) because it takes quite a long time to teach someone the skills.
12. Not so artsy anymore.
Engineering drafting, I’ve seen my job change from drawing with pencils to becoming a full time 3D modelling career.
It’s not a bad thing since the job has changed and no has lost work but it’s sad in the context that drafting is art and the old school drafting before computers is absolutely beautiful.
11. Even professional photogs don’t need them.
Photo Lab Technician. I’ve worked in a few different photo labs and with the move to digital there really isn’t a need for people who work with film.
Edit: I should have clarified I was talking about wet labs specifically. I personally haven’t seen any new places pop up for developing film and I’ve lived in big and small cities over the years. I definitely agree with the people saying its a niche market. I can’t see it ever being has popular as it once was and I definitely do see it completely dying out as technology continues to advance at such a fast rate. That being said, I do hope I’m wrong.
Working in a lab to this day is the best and most rewarding job I’ve had.
10. I’m not sure I agree.
Journalist.
That’s not a sarcastic, edgy comment. They are legitimately being replaced by content creators. The advertisements don’t even read ‘Journalist’ or ‘Reporter’ 60% of the time.
The distinction is important too, because the job of a Journalist is to report the truth, whereas a Content Creator simply matches a brief suited to the publications biases, alignments and interests.
9. Automation everywhere.
Sewing machine technicians.
The two older gents that service mine are amazing, been doing it most of their lives. They’re lovely people and extraordinarily knowledgeable but they’re wanting to retire and there’s no one to take on their business.
They’ve tried to find apprentices but no one is interested despite them being in pretty high demand.
The precision engineering in my industrial and domestic machines is extraordinary and it makes me so sad that if they go wrong I might never find anyone to fix them.
8. They’re the worst.
Every single person/profession who got replaced by an answering machine “if you were stupid enough to call here and waste your time and energy, please press 1”
Gawd I hate these….
7. MTV already killed this, yeah?
I work in radio and it’s definitely radio.
he thing is radio kinda further killed itself by basically being a playlist on repeat. Most people I know stopped listening cause it was super annoying to hear the same songs 10 times a day. They should go back to the days of having an actual person that is knowledgeable about music and curates what they are playing.
6. It’s all smartwatches.
I can’t think of the last time I saw a watchmaker workshop. I used to see 2 – 3 in every town when I was younger.
Usually Jewelers double up now. There’s one in my small town and usually one per mall.
5. Nothing to repair.
Video player repair people.
Any kind of electronic repairs really. No-one repairs anything any more.
A good friend of mine, the man is a computer genius, and literally anything electronic he’s learned how to repair and work them. Sometimes I go to his garage, he helps me repair my laptop, and tells me how he used to make more money in a week, repairing stuff for people than he would in a months salary.
Sadly over the years, with shit being cheaper to buy new than to repair, he barely makes anything. He has his regular job, in a library, but his skills are really underappreciated and he could be doing something way better. He’d make a fantastic teacher but at his age I don’t think he really up for it.
4. Some things aren’t so sad.
Shoe shiners. Cobblers. Tailors. The knife sharpener guy that used to drive around neighborhoods sharpening housewives knives.
Door to door encyclopedia salesman or vacuum cleaner salesmen.
3. A whole fantasy.
Bookbinders. I always wanted to become one but it’s all done by machines now.
Bookbinding as a profession has other benefits as well. Then you have an excuse for owning a locking airtight plexiglass room because you need it to store and work on the rare books in proper humidity.
But really that room could hold a small orphan boy, or maybe that cute aspiring writer you have been stalking.
2. Congrats I guess.
Volkswagen air-cooled mechanics. In my small city, there were three shops specializing in them only a few years ago. Now there is only one but not for much longer. He’s retiring today.
Yes, it’s me! Finally free.
1. Except for kitschy writers.
Typewriter repair…. well its already dead, but I’ll share this anyway
Old enough to have a friend who had a typewriter repair business. Into the late 80s before a PC was on every office desktop, IBM Selectrics and competitors were big business and it kept him and a couple employees busy
Very resourceful guy. He was also selling the typewriter supplies so as the typewriter business died down, he started selling full office products. Had maybe 10 or more people working for him.
Then the big stores came around and killed the small office products guy.
But he was doing his own PC work. networking and software. Bought a small software package that was fully customizable.
Since he had small business contacts from typewriter and office product sales, he started getting jobs for PC, Networking and Applications
Was able to leave office products and go full networking and computer solutions for small businesses.
Built that up to 10 or more employees
and then was able to sell it, while retaining a job.
Sorry to ramble.. never really thought about this until now
They make some pretty decent arguments, I’m not going to lie.
What would you put on this list? Drop it on us in the comments!
