This will be a deviation because I'm a abit weary of the doom and gloom. I need to go over some things that were previously mentioned anyway. So time for some fun.
3D Printing. You may have heard of it but lets pretend you haven't even if you have.
Almost everyone has seen Star Trek or is at least familiar with the concept of the Replicators within the show. If you aren't, then you are missing out. In short they are machines capable of creating objects from base elements on demand.
3D printing is the same concept however not currently as advanced. These machines take a material and build new objects out of the material from the ground up. I was going to embed a small GIF of this so you could see but Google is not cooperating so here is a link instead.
While 3D printing is amazing there are several downsides that exist.
One of the biggest ones is materials. Right you most 3D printers use resin a hard plastic like material , other machines exist that work with metals and even biological materials. The problem is you need a different machine for each type of material and this is exasperated by the fact that the machines are rather expensive. The other large barrier of cost has over the past several years has gone from being tens of thousands of dollars for even basic models to you can get an equivalent machines for only ~100$ today. So costs are coming down , but still rather high overall.
An advantage at least is on the software and computing side there has been a massive surge of support to the point of where even in Microsoft Windows 8 and higher you will find built in support for 3D printing.
Even with all of these limitations amazing things are currently being made daily with these devices. Some recent examples go with drugs , rocket engine parts, body parts, food, organs, and sadly even weapons.
As this technology becomes more accessible and advanced the decade old question of "would you download a car?" because less ridiculous when discussing piracy because well you could. In fact companies like GameWorks are already running into this. GameWorks produces figurines to be used in an assortment of manners but now you can just download the files to replicate these items at home with a 3D printer. So what happens when you can do this with almost anything?
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Monday, November 10, 2014
The High
In the previous blog how technology is affecting what is considered the lower tier job market.
So how about the high? What even is the high?
Most would define high end jobs as ones who require education or a high skill threshold. People also tend to consider these safe. How many of us have heard the mantra "go to college, get a good job, have a good life"?
These days that is increasingly untrue. The largest thing that seems to be affecting this is the fact the high is shifting and sadly mostly downwards. I'm going to draw somewhat from personal experience here for an example.
In times past the a basic computer support job was worth about 20 dollars a hour and today it still does hover there give or take five dollars. Most people are pretty happy with that, heck the entry pay of eleven to thirteen seems to thrill people today. However those twenty dollars in the year 2000 have the same purchasing power as about twenty eight dollars today. So pay if you’re lucky is stagnant or unlucky and dropping for the same level position.
Why is that?
Just like the low end this is becoming more and more automated. You see this in your life directly by the digital voice systems that walk you through basic trouble shooting.
A more indirect method is troubleshooting trees. When I started at dell we actually had a fairly good interview process and you needed at least an understanding of how the machine worked. At this point they are capable of hiring pretty much anyone. The reason for this is after years of effort they have a pretty good troubleshooting tree. This allows them to grab nearly anyone off the street and put them on the phones. In fact we did have several employees who did not even own a computer on the phones that were transferred from other departments.
You know what is even more interesting? Frankly we didn’t even need people on the phones as a digital voice could handle the tree system just as well as any human could, perhaps better. On top of this if customers actually listened to the prerecorded message, they would find that a great many in fact almost all their issues can be self diagnosed by the machine and it will automatically order the correct parts for replacement if needed.
That being said you do still need more advanced people for odd issues, new issues, and so on. However you don’t need nearly as many of them. Now you have a situation where you can pick and choose and even pay less since you will have more people attempting to fill these slots than there are slots.
We have what was once considered a safe job, even considered a good job, and now anyone can do it and the wages are being driven to nothing. This unfortunately is not unique and is spreading across a great many industries.
Consolidation in general is a huge issue on the high end as well, perhaps even more so than the low since it saves so much more money.
A good example of this is my sister’s husband. Last we talked I believe he said he works maybe ten actual hours a week. The rest of his time is spent waiting on data and setting up meetings to discuss the data. This isn't even a tech industry job we are talking about either and nor is he management. It is also not unique and is happening to many jobs as things become more efficient.
So even the traditionally skilled and educated jobs are subject to the same shrink we are seeing with the entry and unskilled jobs. Once again while some new areas are being created and blooming, such as programming, we really are not seeing many options open either. That all being said I would venture to say they are still safer.
Reference
http://www.davemanuel.com/inflation-calculator.php
http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/
So how about the high? What even is the high?
Most would define high end jobs as ones who require education or a high skill threshold. People also tend to consider these safe. How many of us have heard the mantra "go to college, get a good job, have a good life"?
These days that is increasingly untrue. The largest thing that seems to be affecting this is the fact the high is shifting and sadly mostly downwards. I'm going to draw somewhat from personal experience here for an example.
In times past the a basic computer support job was worth about 20 dollars a hour and today it still does hover there give or take five dollars. Most people are pretty happy with that, heck the entry pay of eleven to thirteen seems to thrill people today. However those twenty dollars in the year 2000 have the same purchasing power as about twenty eight dollars today. So pay if you’re lucky is stagnant or unlucky and dropping for the same level position.
Why is that?
Just like the low end this is becoming more and more automated. You see this in your life directly by the digital voice systems that walk you through basic trouble shooting.
A more indirect method is troubleshooting trees. When I started at dell we actually had a fairly good interview process and you needed at least an understanding of how the machine worked. At this point they are capable of hiring pretty much anyone. The reason for this is after years of effort they have a pretty good troubleshooting tree. This allows them to grab nearly anyone off the street and put them on the phones. In fact we did have several employees who did not even own a computer on the phones that were transferred from other departments.
You know what is even more interesting? Frankly we didn’t even need people on the phones as a digital voice could handle the tree system just as well as any human could, perhaps better. On top of this if customers actually listened to the prerecorded message, they would find that a great many in fact almost all their issues can be self diagnosed by the machine and it will automatically order the correct parts for replacement if needed.
That being said you do still need more advanced people for odd issues, new issues, and so on. However you don’t need nearly as many of them. Now you have a situation where you can pick and choose and even pay less since you will have more people attempting to fill these slots than there are slots.
We have what was once considered a safe job, even considered a good job, and now anyone can do it and the wages are being driven to nothing. This unfortunately is not unique and is spreading across a great many industries.
Consolidation in general is a huge issue on the high end as well, perhaps even more so than the low since it saves so much more money.
A good example of this is my sister’s husband. Last we talked I believe he said he works maybe ten actual hours a week. The rest of his time is spent waiting on data and setting up meetings to discuss the data. This isn't even a tech industry job we are talking about either and nor is he management. It is also not unique and is happening to many jobs as things become more efficient.
So even the traditionally skilled and educated jobs are subject to the same shrink we are seeing with the entry and unskilled jobs. Once again while some new areas are being created and blooming, such as programming, we really are not seeing many options open either. That all being said I would venture to say they are still safer.
Reference
http://www.davemanuel.com/inflation-calculator.php
http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)