Next, corporations realized that interns could do some of the low-level work. Why hire somebody, pay them, and provide benefits to them just so that they could do grunt-level work? Just hire an unpaid college intern to do that stuff. They get experience, you get some work taken care of at minimal cost. Good all around.
As corporations are now learning, the basic-level AI that is now available can already perform some of the work that those interns took on. Bye-bye interns. More than that, the AI can do a lot of repetitive stuff. Law offices, insurance companies, banks, etc can get by with fewer workers thanks to a bit of AI. At some technology companies, starting out on the Help Desk was common. After awhile you move up to network or programming tasks. But now the Help Desks are gone. There is no place to “start out” except as an experienced network hotshot. Good luck trying that at 22. Fortunately, the Baby Boomers refuse to retire, so there are some old people sticking around doing the work. Sure the young people have minimal chances to gain experience and start their own career – but that’s their problem, right?
So where does that leave us?
Lowest rungs of the corporate career ladder have been thinned out – fewer interns, fewer people doing simple tasks, fewer people gaining experience so that they can position themselves for something more challenging.
And Middle Management has been hollowed out. Even if you get in at the bottom, is there some place for you to move up? If your boss manages 150 people, then you have to be better than 149 of them if you hope to get your boss’s job. Good for you if you make it. Sucks to be those other 149 people who are stuck at the bottom. Forever.
But the people at the top may not have risen up from the ranks. No. They went to Ivy league schools. They got MBAs. They have connections. They tick off all the right “special boxes” to make the roster look good. They came in laterally from other companies where they were already at the top. They have no knowledge of how to actually "do" the work or what it feels like to be on the bottom. They're too good for that. They're special.
Moving up doesn’t happen much now. Careers don’t happen much now. People have gigs. People have “jobs”. They get a paycheck and they go home. There is no hope of anything better than that.
So, you have a crappy job, your rent is $2500 a month, and social media has also devastated the dating scene, so finding a real life partner so that the two of you can work together to tackle life’s challenges just isn’t going to happen. I’d say that 10% of the young people today are looking at a rosy future. Sucks to be the other 90%.
Now add in banks and tech companies hiring hordes of cheaper H1b Indians for the lower level work instead of hiring younger Americans.
Because those younger Americans never got their foot in the door with the banks, they won’t be climbing the corporate ladder either.
I read an article the other day about how Millenials and Gen Z stand to inherit a LOT of wealth in the next 20 years from the Silent Generation and the Boomers. The problem is they’ll be in their 40s without having had careers. As a Gen Xer, I had a very tough time during the Great Recession but finally did find my career footing after that. Kids in their early 20s today......yikes.