Latest news with #whitecollar
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
‘I'm forking out £70k to become a lawyer, but the salary is a pittance'
Going into a white-collar profession, like law or engineering, has long guaranteed a lucrative and stable career. You would go to university to qualify for a specific job and be set for life – all with little or no student debt. But for young people entering the workforce now, the equation is less simple. Taking on the huge burden of student loans and any further qualification costs, while facing stagnant wages, means that the traditional professions, with their years of training and low pay, look far less enticing. Meanwhile, minimum wage is rising to around the same rate as graduate pay. Application numbers for practical degrees in traditional white-collar industries – law, accounting and finance, medicine and engineering – have increased in the past five years, with growth as much as 36pc. But some students are graduating to find that the 'easy' path to a white-collar career is now broken. Naomi Cicconie, 39, is an unusual law student. She served five years in the military before joining the prison service, and then worked in a children's home while she did her law degree at the University of South Wales. She has spent £54,000 on her degree, and will have to pay out a further £13,900 on the Legal Practice Certificate (LPC), which she is planning to start later this year. All in, that's nearly £70,000 just to qualify as a lawyer, not including living costs. The entry-level salary in Wales, where she lives and works, is around £22,000. Cicconie says that even once she is fully qualified, she'll likely earn between £28,000 and £42,000. 'You're spending all of this money to get a job [with a salary] that is under 50pc of what you've borrowed to qualify. It makes no sense,' she says. 'I am at a stage now where I am thinking to myself, 'What is the point?'' Corporate law comes with famously large salaries, especially for those working at American firms in the City, where those who have just qualified can expect to be paid as much as £180,000. But for most of those outside big cities, working in certain types of law, or in legal aid – a crucial aspect of the justice system which Cicconie works in – six-figure salaries are unthinkable. Cicconie says many of her colleagues have left, blaming low pay. She adds: 'I would say to anyone who is joining a bit later, and wants to get on with their career, don't go anywhere near [legal aid]. Unless you're lucky to be in the financial position where you don't have the stress of needing to earn a certain amount of money.' The economic situation for all young people is tough. The average graduate salary 15 months on from their studies, for those who graduated in 2022, was £27,500, according to the Higher Education Statistics Authority. In 2010, the average was £20,000 – if salaries had kept pace with inflation, they would now be more than £30,000. Pay for all full-time employees decreased by 2pc in real terms between 2010 and April last year, according to House of Commons research. For those aged between 22 and 29, it dropped by 10pc. And while average graduate pay has fallen in real terms by about 4pc over the past two decades, the minimum wage has risen by 60pc, according to analysis by the Resolution Foundation. It means that someone working full-time on minimum wage can earn £25,000 a year, similar to or higher than some graduate salaries. It found that 20 years ago, the median graduate starting out in their career earned around two-and-a-half times the minimum wage. Add to this the burden of student debt. University tuition fees are set to rise for the first time in eight years when the new academic year starts this September, from £9,250 to £9,535. The average graduate has a debt of more than £48,000, according to the Student Loans Company, and newer graduates face a more onerous repayment system, especially if they are what are considered high earners. Most professions require a university degree, unless they are on apprenticeship schemes – and many require extra qualifications, such as Cicconie's LPC, some of which have to be paid for out of the student's own pocket. Many legal firms now prefer the Solicitor's Qualifying Exam (SQE), which will cost a total of £4,908 from this September, having risen from £4,790. Even once a young professional has qualified, pay remains suppressed. Engineers, for example, are much less well-paid in the UK than the US, with an average salary of £37,000 compared to entry-level pay of $74,000 (£55,000) for American graduates, according to Glassdoor. Low pay is not the only problem. Working from home, quickly changing workplaces with badly organised training, and the threat of the rise of AI, all contribute to a sense of rising frustration. The chief executive of AI firm, Anthropic, has predicted that it will destroy half of all entry-level white-collar jobs in five years. Meanwhile, vacancy levels are back to pre-pandemic levels, according to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, with a 5.5pc drop in openings compared to November last year. Demand for workers surged initially as the economy recovered from the pandemic, but has slowed down since. For some would-be white collar workers, getting into their desired profession has come with unexpected training and costly qualifications. One biochemistry graduate, who completed his undergraduate degree in 2022 and now works for the NHS in the north of England, says he's frustrated about poor communication about how much more training he would need. He needs a specific technical qualification, but there are only so many training positions available, for which you need to be sponsored. He explains: 'To do an Institute of Biomedical Science training portfolio, you have to be sponsored and in an approved laboratory. Usually by taking a trainee Band 5 position, of which there are naturally a limited number. 'This is incredibly frustrating as it bottlenecks the whole process and, for me at least, wasn't clearly explained at university. It feels like I'm banging my head against a brick wall.' Architects are among those who face years-long training requirements. After an undergraduate degree, a year in practice, and then a master's degree, young landscape architects also face a two-year process to gain 'chartered' status. And after having jumped through these various hurdles, and totted up years' worth of student debt, pay in architecture is notoriously low. One 27-year-old landscape architect, who has finally completed his formal training, says: 'My main thought is that it is unnecessarily long. I don't think we need to spend the amount of time at university that we did. 'Although it is fun, and I enjoyed doing my masters, when I look back on it I think I would have benefited from spending more time in practice.' Another young landscape architect says that while there are jobs available in the UK, the bigger salaries are in Scandinavia and the US. There, he says, 'it's paid a lot higher, it's valued more'. While training, landscape architects in the UK can expect between £17,000 and £20,000, he says, but once you have a master's degree, this increases to around £30,000. To get there, he took on tens of thousands in student debt for his degrees, including a master's that cost £12,000, and maintenance. But like many young people he avoids looking at how much student loan he owes. 'I would imagine most people try not to think about it, don't they? I am probably quite deep in a hole.' Some young people pursuing a 'traditional' white-collar career feel like they fell – or were pushed – into it. One final year student at Glasgow University says that she 'leaned in' to the pressure to study law because her parents told her she would be good at it. 'I am now in my final year and I look back and I never really asked myself if this is something I want,' she says. 'I think of doing law at the end of it as an actual punishment. It's really scary, because I look back and think, 'Have I just wasted three years?'' She worries that she rushed into a 'professional' degree, and that she might have got more fulfilment studying something she enjoyed more. 'It's not a bad thing to have under my belt. But I do look back and wonder whether I would have been better off studying something else. I have friends who are studying degrees such as sculpture and environmental practice. I find their curriculum so much more enriching, although not a proper profession.' Increasing numbers of school leavers are choosing a different path, opting for degree apprenticeships, which sets them up for the same careers but without the student debt. Iyioluwa Adesan, 25, joined NatWest as a digital apprentice. He says: 'My parents, like many others, viewed university as the only credible route to success because it was the only route they had been exposed to. But deep down, I knew I wasn't naturally suited to the academic, theory-heavy approach of a traditional university. I was more practical. I needed a different kind of learning environment.' Adesan spent five years at NatWest, completing an undergraduate degree, and now works to connect potential apprentices to full-time work. Those working in accounting and finance apprenticeships can expect to earn an average of £29,945 after five years. But Adesan did feel cut out of the social life of university. He says: 'The social side was different. There was no freshers' week or vibrant campus life in the traditional sense.' There were friendships made at work, he says, and over time he developed a professional network. He adds: 'I want to help shift the perception around apprenticeships. They are not a second option, just a less visible one.' He's now started his own company, supporting other apprentices. Conor Cotton, of Not Going To Uni, said: 'We continue to see a clear increase in interest around non-university routes, especially apprenticeships. 'For many young people, the recent announcement on increasing tuition fees has become an even stronger reason to avoid student debt, and developing practical skills is becoming increasingly appealing compared to the traditional university route.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
6 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
‘I'm forking out £70k to become a lawyer, but the salary is a pittance'
Going into a white-collar profession, like law or engineering, has long guaranteed a lucrative and stable career. You would go to university to qualify for a specific job and be set for life – all with little or no student debt. But for young people entering the workforce now, the equation is less simple. Taking on the huge burden of student loans and any further qualification costs, while facing stagnant wages, means that the traditional professions, with their years of training and low pay, look far less enticing. Meanwhile, minimum wage is rising to around the same rate as graduate pay. Application numbers for practical degrees in traditional white-collar industries – law, accounting and finance, medicine and engineering – have increased in the past five years, with growth as much as 36pc. But some students are graduating to find that the 'easy' path to a white-collar career is now broken. 'What is the point?' Naomi Cicconie, 39, is an unusual law student. She served five years in the military before joining the prison service, and then worked in a children's home while she did her law degree at the University of South Wales. She has spent £54,000 on her degree, and will have to pay out a further £13,900 on the Legal Practice Certificate (LPC), which she is planning to start later this year. All in, that's nearly £70,000 just to qualify as a lawyer, not including living costs. The entry-level salary in Wales, where she lives and works, is around £22,000. Cicconie says that even once she is fully qualified, she'll likely earn between £28,000 and £42,000. 'You're spending all of this money to get a job [with a salary] that is under 50pc of what you've borrowed to qualify. It makes no sense,' she says. 'I am at a stage now where I am thinking to myself, 'What is the point?'' Corporate law comes with famously large salaries, especially for those working at American firms in the City, where those who have just qualified can expect to be paid as much as £180,000. But for most of those outside big cities, working in certain types of law, or in legal aid – a crucial aspect of the justice system which Cicconie works in – six-figure salaries are unthinkable. Cicconie says many of her colleagues have left, blaming low pay. She adds: 'I would say to anyone who is joining a bit later, and wants to get on with their career, don't go anywhere near [legal aid]. Unless you're lucky to be in the financial position where you don't have the stress of needing to earn a certain amount of money.' Soaring student debt and stagnant wages The economic situation for all young people is tough. The average graduate salary 15 months on from their studies, for those who graduated in 2022, was £27,500, according to the Higher Education Statistics Authority. In 2010, the average was £20,000 – if salaries had kept pace with inflation, they would now be more than £30,000. Pay for all full-time employees decreased by 2pc in real terms between 2010 and April last year, according to House of Commons research. For those aged between 22 and 29, it dropped by 10pc. And while average graduate pay has fallen in real terms by about 4pc over the past two decades, the minimum wage has risen by 60pc, according to analysis by the Resolution Foundation. It means that someone working full-time on minimum wage can earn £25,000 a year, similar to or higher than some graduate salaries. It found that 20 years ago, the median graduate starting out in their career earned around two-and-a-half times the minimum wage. Add to this the burden of student debt. University tuition fees are set to rise for the first time in eight years when the new academic year starts this September, from £9,250 to £9,535. The average graduate has a debt of more than £48,000, according to the Student Loans Company, and newer graduates face a more onerous repayment system, especially if they are what are considered high earners. Most professions require a university degree, unless they are on apprenticeship schemes – and many require extra qualifications, such as Cicconie's LPC, some of which have to be paid for out of the student's own pocket. Many legal firms now prefer the Solicitor's Qualifying Exam (SQE), which will cost a total of £4,908 from this September, having risen from £4,790. Even once a young professional has qualified, pay remains suppressed. Engineers, for example, are much less well-paid in the UK than the US, with an average salary of £37,000 compared to entry-level pay of $74,000 (£55,000) for American graduates, according to Glassdoor. Low pay is not the only problem. Working from home, quickly changing workplaces with badly organised training, and the threat of the rise of AI, all contribute to a sense of rising frustration. The chief executive of AI firm, Anthropic, has predicted that it will destroy half of all entry-level white-collar jobs in five years. Meanwhile, vacancy levels are back to pre-pandemic levels, according to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, with a 5.5pc drop in openings compared to November last year. Demand for workers surged initially as the economy recovered from the pandemic, but has slowed down since. The costly hurdles to entering a profession For some would-be white collar workers, getting into their desired profession has come with unexpected training and costly qualifications. One biochemistry graduate, who completed his undergraduate degree in 2022 and now works for the NHS in the north of England, says he's frustrated about poor communication about how much more training he would need. He needs a specific technical qualification, but there are only so many training positions available, for which you need to be sponsored. He explains: 'To do an Institute of Biomedical Science training portfolio, you have to be sponsored and in an approved laboratory. Usually by taking a trainee Band 5 position, of which there are naturally a limited number. 'This is incredibly frustrating as it bottlenecks the whole process and, for me at least, wasn't clearly explained at university. It feels like I'm banging my head against a brick wall.' Architects are among those who face years-long training requirements. After an undergraduate degree, a year in practice, and then a master's degree, young landscape architects also face a two-year process to gain 'chartered' status. And after having jumped through these various hurdles, and totted up years' worth of student debt, pay in architecture is notoriously low. One 27-year-old landscape architect, who has finally completed his formal training, says: 'My main thought is that it is unnecessarily long. I don't think we need to spend the amount of time at university that we did. 'Although it is fun, and I enjoyed doing my masters, when I look back on it I think I would have benefited from spending more time in practice.' Another young landscape architect says that while there are jobs available in the UK, the bigger salaries are in Scandinavia and the US. There, he says, 'it's paid a lot higher, it's valued more'. While training, landscape architects in the UK can expect between £17,000 and £20,000, he says, but once you have a master's degree, this increases to around £30,000. To get there, he took on tens of thousands in student debt for his degrees, including a master's that cost £12,000, and maintenance. But like many young people he avoids looking at how much student loan he owes. 'I would imagine most people try not to think about it, don't they? I am probably quite deep in a hole.' 'Have I just wasted three years?' Some young people pursuing a 'traditional' white-collar career feel like they fell – or were pushed – into it. One final year student at Glasgow University says that she 'leaned in' to the pressure to study law because her parents told her she would be good at it. 'I am now in my final year and I look back and I never really asked myself if this is something I want,' she says. 'I think of doing law at the end of it as an actual punishment. It's really scary, because I look back and think, 'Have I just wasted three years?'' She worries that she rushed into a 'professional' degree, and that she might have got more fulfilment studying something she enjoyed more. 'It's not a bad thing to have under my belt. But I do look back and wonder whether I would have been better off studying something else. I have friends who are studying degrees such as sculpture and environmental practice. I find their curriculum so much more enriching, although not a proper profession.' Increasing numbers of school leavers are choosing a different path, opting for degree apprenticeships, which sets them up for the same careers but without the student debt. Iyioluwa Adesan, 25, joined NatWest as a digital apprentice. He says: 'My parents, like many others, viewed university as the only credible route to success because it was the only route they had been exposed to. But deep down, I knew I wasn't naturally suited to the academic, theory-heavy approach of a traditional university. I was more practical. I needed a different kind of learning environment.' Adesan spent five years at NatWest, completing an undergraduate degree, and now works to connect potential apprentices to full-time work. Those working in accounting and finance apprenticeships can expect to earn an average of £29,945 after five years. But Adesan did feel cut out of the social life of university. He says: 'The social side was different. There was no freshers' week or vibrant campus life in the traditional sense.' There were friendships made at work, he says, and over time he developed a professional network. He adds: 'I want to help shift the perception around apprenticeships. They are not a second option, just a less visible one.' He's now started his own company, supporting other apprentices. Conor Cotton, of Not Going To Uni, said: 'We continue to see a clear increase in interest around non-university routes, especially apprenticeships. 'For many young people, the recent announcement on increasing tuition fees has become an even stronger reason to avoid student debt, and developing practical skills is becoming increasingly appealing compared to the traditional university route.'
Times
01-06-2025
- Health
- Times
Fabio Wardley: From white-collar tear-ups to one bout from Usyk
It is barely a ten-minute drive from Trinity Park to Portman Road in Ipswich, but the short distance from a conference hall to a 30,000-seat stadium encapsulates one of British boxing's most unlikely success stories. In 2016, Fabio Wardley was working as a recruitment consultant in London for health and social workers, commuting by train at dawn and dusk, and had what could only be described as a passing interest in boxing. Once a striker in Ipswich Town's academy, he only took up the sport as a means of staying fit after an ankle injury ended his Sunday league career in his early twenties. His first white-collar bout, a form of amateur boxing for novices working in other professions, was nothing more than a vehicle to fill the athletic void. 'Some people think it is just two fat guys who've rolled out of the pub,' Wardley says. 'It's hard to explain white-collar because the levels can be really low or quite high, but it's basically two normal people having a boxing match. No one is trying to turn it into a serious sport. Half of the time it is just to raise money for charity. I was just training and doing it for fun.' The four opponents Wardley — who is 6ft 5in and 110kg — faced in white-collar bouts, all of which he won by knockout, must look back now with a mixture of pride and horror. 'I am 5ft 7in and 100kg, I had no business competing at heavyweight,' Eric Sutton, one of the unfortunate victims, said last year after Wardley stopped Frazer Clarke, an Olympic bronze medallist. 'I took it at the last minute, had a car crash on the way up there and it was over in two rounds.' Undefeated in 18 fights since turning professional in 2017, Wardley, a British and Commonwealth champion, will be next in line for a world title shot if he can beat Australia's Justis Huni, another decorated amateur, on Saturday. 'When I turned professional, I just thought I'd have a few fights and if I could win any kind of [regional or national] belt in my career, I'd be happy to have something decent to look back on,' he says. 'I wasn't supposed to be achieving these kinds of things. Wardley says his first, drawn, bout with Clarke took years off him while leaving him with a broken nose 'I fought at the O2, then I headlined the O2, I've fought in Saudi Arabia as the chief support to Tyson Fury and to Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol. It keeps feeling like we've peaked and that it can't get any better and now I'm fighting at the stadium in my hometown. I'm genuinely on the edge of a world title, which sounds crazy for me just to say.' Boxers often tap into football fanbases but Wardley has become something of a celebrity in Ipswich, where he has lived all of his life. He grew up on a council estate with his mother and stepfather and attended the local Chantry High School. A mischievous child, he had the bare essentials and borrowed last season's football kits from his older cousins. 'I would never say I had a bad childhood,' he says. 'It wasn't the most flash, glitz and glam. The material stuff may have been missing but the family presence was always there.' Wardley is warm company and unashamedly shows off a small tattoo of a teapot with a love heart on the inside of his left wrist, a reminder of when the Covid restrictions eased and his family would meet for 'tea parties' on Sundays. 'My cousins, my mum, my aunties, my nan, we've all got the tattoo,' he says. Wardley was in Ipswich's academy for about a year in his early teens but started getting into trouble after he was released and was referred to Suffolk Positive Futures, an initiative to divert young people from crime. One of the mentors was Robert Hodgins, a boxing coach who Wardley later reunited with for his first white-collar bout and who has remained a key part of his training team ever since. After the fourth of his amateur bouts, a boxing manager persuaded the then 22-year-old Wardley to turn professional, but he almost gave up before his career had even begun. 'My debut was cancelled seven or eight times over a year. Opponents pulled out or didn't turn up. Once I was literally in the changing room five minutes from walking out with my hands wrapped and there was an issue with a medical form. Rob said, 'Look mate, it's been a rough ride, no one would begrudge you for saying I've had enough of this'. 'I was coming into the gym at 6am, then I'd get the 7.30am train to London, get the 5.30pm train home, and be back in the gym for 7.30pm to do my second session for months and months. I knew I'd always kick myself if I felt like I quit, but it was quite humiliating because I'm asking all my friends and family to buy tickets. The first two or three times it's cancelled they're like 'OK, no worries'. When it comes to six and seven, people are like, 'Are you taking the piss?' It almost became a running joke, but having to deal with all of that built up a certain amount of resilience.' The turning point came in 2018 when Wardley was invited to spar with Dillian Whyte and the former title challenger decided to take Wardley under his wing and guide his career. A few months later, Wardley was given a slot on the undercard of Whyte's rematch against Alexander Povetkin at the O2 Arena. He was also invited to spar with Oleksandr Usyk, who was preparing to face Tony Bellew for the undisputed cruiserweight title, in Kyiv. 'I got this message on Facebook in broken English and at first I thought it might be a scam,' he says. 'I was confused as to why I'd even be on Usyk's radar. I'd left my job in London to focus on my career and I was working part-time in a commercial gym. I asked them for three weeks off and they said no, so I left. I flew to Ukraine and a driver had a sign with my name on it. He didn't speak a lick of English and I got into this stranger's white van and I thought, 'I don't know if I'm making it home', but then I met his team and they were all really nice. I was extremely green. I didn't know the scale of Usyk's skill. To even lay a glove on him was really difficult. I think I got something like £750 per week.' It is a mark of Wardley's remarkable progress that a win over Huni would make him the No1 contender for Usyk's WBO title, but that still felt a bridge too far as recently as Wardley's first bout against Clarke in March 2024, a compelling, brutal draw which was named fight of the year. 'It definitely took years off my life,' Wardley says. His broken nose left blood splattered all over the canvas 'It's a fate that you have to accept if you do this sport properly. I probably should've gone to the hospital afterwards. I remember being sat in my hotel room and I couldn't sleep because my head was pounding, like vibrating. When I lay down, I felt sick. If I sat up, I felt sick. My face looked like the Elephant Man. My nose was stitched up. I'd bitten my tongue about 100 times. I couldn't chew for three days because of my jaw, so I just ate ice cream and noodles, but that's part of it. Those fights are going to happen and you might get knocked out, but if you carry that around with you and hesitate because you're scared of it, it could have a negative impact on how you fight and almost make it more likely to happen. You've got to just take it on the chin.' Wardley's spectacular — and sickening — first-round knockout in the rematch last October was not just a testament to that mindset but dispelled the notion that his shortage in experience would prevent him from becoming a bona fide contender. 'Huni is another opponent from a completely different end of entry in boxing terms,' he says of the 26-year-old, who won gold at the World Youth Championships in 2016, the year Wardley first graced Trinity Park. 'After starting in white-collar, anything was a win. This wasn't realistic, but you always imagine.'
Wall Street Journal
18-05-2025
- Automotive
- Wall Street Journal
GM Is Pushing Hard to Tank California's EV Mandate
General Motors GM 0.50%increase; green up pointing triangle went all in on electric cars. Now it is racing to reverse the nation's most aggressive EV mandate. 'We need your help!' GM said in an email it sent this past week to thousands of its white-collar employees. 'Emissions standards that are not aligned with market realities pose a serious threat to our business by undermining consumer choice and vehicle affordability.'
Forbes
13-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
This Job Pays $120K, No Degree, With 64% Increase In Demand Thru 2035
This job focuses on getting things done. A significant employment gap has emerged in the white collar job market, and job seekers are taking notice. This role includes great growth prospects and an impressive paycheck, with no college degree required. With an average salary of $120,000 per year, the industry reportedly needs 35 million workers through 2035. A shortfall is currently facing multiple industries right now, with jobs that have (so far) been untouched by the advancement of AI. Discover how to access a high-paying project management opportunity, and what skills you need to succeed in the job. Is project management a good fit for your career? Project managers, or PMs, plan, organize and direct projects to make sure they are delivered on time, on budget - and within existing quality and safety standards. 'As a project manager, you're the liaison between the business capabilities and the deliverables,' explains Ordonna Sargeant, an Adjunct Professor at the Metropolitan College of New York and a project management specialist. It's a people-first position. 'The soft skills in the role - listening to people, understanding the KPIs (key performance indicators), are critical." What about AI? Is this a job that technology can replace in the near future? "Throwing technology tools at a very human process is not always the fix.' Sargeant says, refering back to skills around negotiation and predictive analysis of potential risks and outcomes. The Project Management Institute says that 90% of a project manager's day is spent on effective communication. However, problem solving skills, adaptability and strategic thinking are also vital for the job. According to the PMI Institute, there are multiple certifications available for the project manager role. The most well-known, Project Management Certification (PMP), is obtained by taking a test, which cost a few hundred dollars. Academic courses to prepare are affordable: at Houston's Rice University, a 12-week PMP prep course costs $1,995.00. The Project Management Academy offers on site instruction from Atlanta to Seattle, at a similar pricetag. 'There are also books, online articles…you can even go to YouTube university,' Sargeant says with a chuckle. 'I am extremely proud of being the calm in the midst of chaos, inside a project,' Sargeant says, reflecting on 15 years of experience as a project manager. Ordonna Sargeant, PMP, CSM, LSSGB She integrated a complex array of deliverables as part of the redesign of the Volkswagen website in both English and Spanish. 'The sense of accomplishment, when you look back on what your team has done, is hard to beat,' she says. Project Managers are folks who are drawn to structure, she shares, but adaptability is a key skill. In the midst of chaos, order is what is needed - and project managers have to be able to balance various agendas and tasks in order to carry out the role. AI can still play a part - in helping managers to assess risk and organize tasks. Just as the map is not the actual territory using AI can only take you so far. Have you noticed that Colorado is surprisingly flat on Apple Maps? When it comes to human to human interaction, objectives and obstacles, project managers use AI as a tool - not a replacement. The key is understanding the role of the project manager, inside an organization. For job seekers, how much authority or strategic input will you really have? Communication skills, in this role, are crucial - so that you understand the puts and takes of the organization or team you serve. High growth industries for PMP certified jobs include manufacturing, finance, energy and (wait for it) technology. Could project management be the safe harbor in the technology hiring storm?
