NEW YORK – Graduating high school students will be best off pursuing a career in tech rather than finance, investors say.
For soon-to-be adults, tech is the smartest route despite recent layoffs at Facebook owner Meta Platforms, Amazon.com and Google parent Alphabet, the latest MLIV Pulse survey suggests. Being tech-savvy is seen as ever more important in a world increasingly influenced by digital platforms and artificial intelligence (AI).
“The highest-paying jobs were so clearly in the finance sector for two or three decades and now, tech is really competitive with that – they are kind of neck and neck,” said Mr Andrew Challenger, senior vice-president of human resources consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
Even with the rise of AI, he expects tech and finance to remain among the most lucrative careers for the next 20 or 30 years. “I don’t see that going away,” he said.
In the survey, which had a total of 678 respondents, some 52 per cent of 556 professional investors said technology is the way to go for high school students. Among 122 retail investors, 48 per cent voted for tech.
Recent hiring trends support the results. While the current downturn has hit both Big Tech and Silicon Valley start-ups hard, recruiters in traditional industries – from automakers to the United States government – have rushed to snap up laid-off tech talent and new grads. These days, every company is a tech company, as the saying goes.
Part of the perception that the grass is greener in Silicon Valley may also stem from the way that technology has transformed the inner workings of Wall Street.
“There are lots of people who have brilliant financial minds, and yet they cannot put into effect a trading strategy without relying on serious programmers to come in and actually implement it because it has moved past human beings in some ways,” Mr Challenger said. “I can see why they feel that threat.”
Investors have a different recommendation for children graduating from kindergarten this year. Nearly 40 per cent of respondents said those children will be best off with a career in healthcare. Jobs in the medical fields often involve much more human-to-human interaction, which many believe AI is unlikely to ever fully replace.
A recent Goldman Sachs Group report estimated that some 300 million full-time jobs worldwide may soon be affected by AI automation.
Demographic trends may also be supporting the idea that becoming a doctor or a nurse will be a wiser choice for the youngest generation: Economists forecast massive demand for healthcare workers as the population ages in the US and around the world.
As for the potential impact of AI on Wall Street, only 12 per cent said finance will be the best career option for today’s kindergarteners. While a previous MLIV Pulse survey found that most finance professionals are confident AI will not replace them in the next three years, that confidence appears to falter over a longer time horizon.
Significant layoffs as UBS absorbs Credit Suisse, combined with earlier job-cut announcements from Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, also likely affected the views of the respondents. The KBW Bank Index is down about 18 per cent in the year to date compared with the S&P 500, which is up more than 7 per cent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 is up about 20 per cent.
Even though AI is expected to affect software engineers substantially, almost 30 per cent of investors still think Silicon Valley will be the best choice for today’s youngest generation.
Mr Challenger agreed, and recommended understanding tech deeply and something else, like finance.
“If you can be the bridge between worlds, that is a rare and extremely valuable skill,” he said.
Most survey respondents said an undergraduate degree is still worthwhile, despite the considerable investment of time and money. Still, some suggested that going to trade school to become a carpenter, electrician or plumber – jobs which cannot be easily outsourced or automated – might be a path worth pursuing. BLOOMBERG
