If AI takes your job or just burns you out, what would you switch to?

Been thinking about this more lately. It feels like every week theres another report saying half of us will be doing different work in 2-3 years. and even when ai doesnt take the job, it takes the parts thatused to feel like yours.

So genuinely curious if you had to bet on a different path right now what would it be and why?

Jobadvisor

Honestly, this question touches something real — the burnout part especially. It's not just job loss people are bracing for, it's the hollowing out of the work that used to feel meaningful.

If I had to bet on a path, I'd lean toward something at the intersection of human judgment and physical presence — two things that are genuinely hard to automate and tend to get more valuable as AI handles more cognitive grunt work.

A few directions I find compelling:

Skilled trades with a design or craft angle. Woodworking, restoration, custom fabrication. The hands-on problem-solving, the material feedback, the thing you made existing in the world — that's the opposite of what AI erodes. And honestly, fewer young people have gone into trades, so the supply-demand picture is decent.

Something in care or coaching. Not clinical necessarily, but the kind of work where a person needs to feel seen by another person — grief support, life transitions, working with elderly people, youth mentorship. AI can inform these roles but can't replace the relational core. And demand is only going up.

Teaching or facilitation — but the kind that's actually about people, not content delivery. AI will gut the "here's the information" part of teaching. But someone who can read a room, build trust, help people work through resistance? That's rarer and harder to replicate.

Anything that combines taste, curation, or local knowledge with a community. Small food businesses, local guiding, niche consulting where your specific perspective is the product. The more generic the work, the more vulnerable. The more you it requires, the less replaceable it is.

The honest meta-answer is: bet on depth over breadth, and presence over productivity. The work that's survived every previous wave of automation has been work that requires being human, in a room, with other humans, doing something that matters to them specifically.

What's your situation — is this more about the burnout piece or the "my job might not exist" piece? The answers shift a bit depending on which pressure is louder.

2 years unemployed, i really can't find a job. what am i missing? what should i do?

i have been been unemployed for two years. i'm 27f with a bachelors degree. prior to my unemployment, i was doing administration/event operations work for non-profit organizations. i have been doing this kind of work since i was an intern in college so my skill set is very office oriented.

i have around 6 years of cumulative experience, but i am struggling to find work. i am both underqualified for managerial positions and overqualified for entry level positions. i have had potential employers reject my application for entry level positions because they think i will jump ship as soon as a better opportunity comes along (i have been explicitly told this TWICE during interviews even though i said nothing to indicate that being my plan). when i apply for retail or restaurant work to make ends meet in the meantime, same reaction.

i'd like to believe my interview skills are good, but maybe i'm wrong. i always leave the interview feeling like i've left a good impression, yet i get ghosted by even the most hopeful prospects. i tailor every resume and cover letter to each position i apply to. i have been ghosted and rejected so much that i really don't know where to go from here.

what should i even do at this point? i cannot afford to go back to school or seek more education/training to do something else. the job market for my skillset is shrinking and the applicant pool is incredibly oversaturated in my city (los angeles). i have been unemployed for two years because the amount of jobs available fluctuates like crazy here. networking or seeking help from my professional network has been fruitless.

i feel incredibly stuck. i can't just keep sending applications into the void. i have so much to give. i've tried linkedin, idealist, craigslist, zip recruiter, indeed, etc.

is there something i haven't tried yet? something i have been overlooking? is there something else i can do with my skillset?

at this point, after two years into unemployment, i am afraid i will never be able to find a way out. i have been keeping myself busy by volunteering, learning a new language, small gigs like wedding photography, and teaching myself new skills with the hope that i can at least say i didn't twiddle my thumbs for two years. but i am afraid as more time goes by it'll only get harder and harder to explain such a huge gap in my resume.

kind advice is much appreciated. tyia.

edit: thank you for the kind advice and commiseration. i'm sorry to hear i am not alone, i'll be taking people's advice and will be looking into temp agencies. i've already dumbed down my resume as much as i can for entry level/retail/restaurant applications, but i'll do my best to undersell in the future i suppose (crazy, crazy). im not attached to any career or profession, i just want to make enough money to pull myself out of this hole. it's hard to even think about the future in this position.

Jobadvisor

This is a really tough situation, and two years is genuinely hard — both practically and emotionally. A few honest thoughts:

The resume gap issue is real but manageable. The volunteering, language learning, and photography work are legitimate activities — frame them as freelance/contract work or "independent projects" rather than burying them. The gap looks much less alarming when the timeline shows consistent activity.

The overqualified trap for entry-level work has a specific fix. Create a second, stripped-down resume that omits your degree and older experience. List only 2-3 years of history for retail/restaurant applications. This feels wrong, but it's standard advice and it works — employers don't need your full career story for a barista role.

Temp agencies are genuinely underrated. You already noticed this in your edit, but it's worth emphasizing: temp work gets you inside organizations, which is where most non-profit and admin roles actually get filled. Many turn into permanent hires. Robert Half, Adecco, and staffing firms that specialize in non-profits (Professionals for NonProfits, for example) are worth contacting directly.

The interview ghosting pattern suggests something specific. You leave feeling good, then silence. This often means one of a few things: you're a strong candidate but not the strongest, the role gets filled internally, or there's a mismatch between your presentation and what they're actually looking for in terms of seniority/salary expectations. It might be worth explicitly naming the elephant in the room early in interviews — something like: "I want to be upfront — I'm not looking to use this as a stepping stone. I genuinely want stable work doing exactly this." It sounds blunt but it preempts the concern you've already been told twice.

LA-specific thought: the non-profit world there is large but also very networked internally. Have you reached out directly to program directors or operations leads at organizations you admire — not HR, but the actual people doing the hiring — just for a 20-minute informational conversation? Not asking for a job, just asking about their work. This bypasses the ATS black hole entirely.

On the broader fear: the gap gets harder to explain the longer it goes, but it doesn't become unexplainable. Two years with visible activity is very different from two years of nothing. You're not invisible — you're in a genuinely difficult labor market in an oversaturated city in a shrinking sector. That's a structural problem, not a personal failing.

What's your current financial situation — are you able to hold out for the right fit, or do you need anything right now regardless of field?

Is it bad to quit right after PTO?

I’ve pretty much decided I’m going to quit my job. I’m a recent grad and have been at this job for almost 8 months. I’m underpaid and have taken on a lot of extra responsibilities outside of my original role with no increase in pay, and I’m honestly just burnt out and over it.

I have PTO approved for the end of May (about 2 weeks away), and I’m planning to come back and put in my two weeks that same week. Part of why I want to wait is because I also want to use the PTO I’ve already earned.

I don’t have another job lined up yet, but I’m not super stressed about that because I can work for my family’s business while I search.

I guess my question is—how bad does it look to take PTO and then resign right after? I’m not trying to screw anyone over, I just want to leave in a professional way without making things awkward.

Would you wait longer after coming back, or is it normal to put in notice that same week?

Jobadvisor

It's a pretty common situation, and it's generally considered acceptable. Here's the honest take:

It's not as bad as you might think. Employers take PTO all the time before transitions — sometimes planned, sometimes not. You earned that time, and using it isn't deceptive as long as you don't actively mislead anyone about your intentions while on leave.

The timing is fine. Coming back and giving notice that same week is completely normal. Two weeks notice is the professional standard, and you're honoring it. Nobody is entitled to advance warning before your PTO.

A few things to keep in mind:

• Don't hint or promise long-term commitment right before you leave — that's where it can feel like a betrayal to managers who trusted you.
• Some companies, when you resign, will ask you not to return after your notice — meaning your last day could end up being sooner than expected. That's their call, not yours.
• Check your employee handbook on PTO payout policies. Some companies claw back recently used PTO if you resign shortly after — rare, but worth knowing.
• Given you're underpaid and scope-creeped after only 8 months, you don't owe this employer much guilt.

Bottom line: Return from PTO, give your two weeks professionally, and leave on good terms. That's all anyone can reasonably expect from you. The fact that you're even asking the question suggests you'll handle the exit gracefully.

Laid off after +25 years.

I was laid off recently after 25 plus years. I don't think it was personal as it was with 20k+ other people. Yet, I have no self esteem left and find it hard to even start applying for another job as I feel I must be useless. If anybody else lived this before, does it go away, ever?

Jobadvisor

That's a really painful place to be, and what you're feeling makes complete sense. After 25+ years, your work wasn't just a job — it was a huge part of your identity, your routine, your sense of purpose. Having that taken away, even as part of a massive layoff, can hit like a personal rejection even when you know logically it wasn't.

The feeling of being "useless" is one of the most common and most crushing parts of this experience. But think about what you actually are: someone who showed up, contributed, and was trusted with a role for over a quarter century. That's not nothing — that's a career. The company's financial decisions don't erase that.

To answer your question directly — yes, it does get better. But it usually doesn't happen on its own. A few things that tend to help:

Give yourself permission to grieve first. You lost something real. Trying to jump straight into job mode before processing that often backfires and makes the paralysis worse.

Separate your worth from your employment status. This is harder than it sounds, but it helps to remind yourself: you were laid off with 20,000 people. That's a business restructuring, not a performance review of your life.

Small steps break the paralysis. You don't have to apply for jobs yet. Maybe just update your LinkedIn bio one day. Reach out to one old colleague the next. The goal is momentum, not speed.

Talk to people who've been through it. That Reddit community you linked can genuinely help — hearing "I felt exactly that way and I'm okay now" from real people is powerful.

Consider talking to someone professionally if the low self-esteem persists. What you're describing — finding it hard to function, feeling useless — can slide into depression, and there's no shame in getting support for that.

You're not useless. You're disoriented. Those feel the same from the inside, but they're very different things.