AI being deployed to cap future wages/layoffs of new recruits

[jmbar2]

Saw this post on Reddit, so can't verify. But if true, it is truly chilling for people who are investing in careers.

The OP says his wife works in a recruiting firm where they are testing out a new AI system.

This company specializes in reducing overhead cost by designing inhumane incentive structures. My wife watched first hand as they piloted this on a Senior Manager of IT hire....

This company designed a system for each function and proactively plans headcount reduction by function and business unit. What this means is, they’ve already planned to lay this poor guy off 2.5yrs in to his tenure leaving him with 2.5 years of a low base salary. This also helps lower the average salary at the senior manager level, furthering their case to lower wages across the board.

https://www.reddit.com/r/recruitinghell/comments/1pz2vem/new_horrifying_recruitment_tool_unlocked/

This is brutal. How do you plan for a career under these conditions? I feel absolutely gutted for young people trying to figure this stuff out.

[slightlv]

1. It was hard enough when we were at our peak.

I remember starting in on IT after I got my degree in Psychology and saw the low paid positions that were open to me in my chosen field. My Dad was concerned when I started turning down IT offers because I said they were too low, especially given that I was a woman. He said it was important to break into the field and prove myself for higher salaries. I told him at the time that I agreed that was the way it used to be, but I predicted THIS field and others like it would be based on a different scale. While everything was new, it was in demand and a decent salary could be requested. If you were female, like me, you may have to turn down a few offers you might have liked to work into, but on the whole, the longer the field "lasted" the more likely the salaries would slowly go down to the lowest level possible. And I've seen that in the IT field. Now, I could do just about anything with a computer... I gained enough electronics interest and curiosity from my Dad to really be excited about each new evolution. I started out doing word processing when WANG was the thing, and worked a little on the "big computers" at Army DoD installations... Fortran, I believe it was we used. From there, I taught myself about the insides of a computer and became adept at troubleshooting and reincarnating broken computers. Got into some PC coding, but I'll admit it wasn't a real love of mine, and my abilities showed through. I was always much better with hands-on stuff. But I watched while high value data analysis was taken down in salary level, every time tech support was denigrated in word and salary. And, while good Analysts can still claim a decent salary with some good companies, the part that really took off was the Security aspect. THAT I was never comfortable with. But then, I busted my chops during the days of people being put on report or fired for accessing "whitehouse.com"... I looked at IT security as being another aspect of the authoritarian state. Some of that belief was true... some aspects weren't. Today, I WISH companies took security seriously!

But that was my view of careers... is it new? How long has it been around? Long enough to come to a steady state, more or less, wage wise?

I honestly don't know if I can say it worked... I still retired poor! (LOL)

[jmbar2]

2. Thanks for sharing your story.

I used to do labor market and skills forecasts for colleges and the private sector.

I sort of fell into it after volunteering to do career exploration classes for laid off/displaced workers. They were being fed so much misinformation about careers, particularly from community colleges pitching "the next big thing" career path - IT, web design, green jobs, etc. The more I looked into it, the more that it didn't make any sense.

The pitches were exactly as you describe. In the early days of an occupation, it pays well, then becomes a commodity, then gets outsourced. It didn't make sense to pay for training for the hot new thing. Those jobs would be filled by neighboring occupations by the time they had finished training Then they would be competing with a larger pool of experienced folks, and carrying student loan debt.

I got hired by the colleges that were trying to sell the new occupations and programs to research future demand. Didn't last long because they did not like what I was saying. They got a lot of grant funding to develop and sell "new occupation" training. The exception was old occupations - chemical plant technicians. I worked a lot on their curriculum revisions.

I revamped my career education courses to teach people how to evaluate the life cycle of occupations and training and to avoid taking on debt if the ROI wasn't there. Basically career caveat emptor. I never made money doing it, but hopefully kept some folks from making terrible decisions.

I also retired poor, but feeling like I might have made a difference to a few.