How Students Can AI-Proof Their Careers

The current generation of college students is facing a challenge that those who came before never had to worry about: They’ll be competing with AI for jobs.

What can they do to get ready?

After all, artificial intelligence is likely to eliminate at least some jobs that formerly served as first rungs on career ladders. “We have to accept and embrace the idea that in fact with AI we are going to have jobs that are going to be eliminated and jobs that are going to be created, and we don’t know which ones,” says Joseph E. Aoun , president of Northeastern University.

That uncertainty leaves today’s college students struggling to prepare for a workplace that is changing faster than ever. We asked a range of career counselors and employers how they would suggest students AI-proof their careers. One consensus: It’s important to master skills not easily matched by machines, such as human-style communications and the ability to understand and work smoothly with people who have different perspectives and personalities.

“In many ways the human skills are going to be more fundamental than they are now,” as machines take over some routine tasks, Aoun says.

A survey of 255 employers by the National Association of Colleges and Employers last year found that the three top “competencies” they sought in job candidates were communication, teamwork and critical thinking.

Communication and teamwork rely on emotional intelligence, or EQ. “AI has probably won the IQ battle,” says Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic , chief innovation officer at Manpower Group and professor of business psychology at Columbia University, “but the EQ battle is up for grabs.”

Of course, that doesn’t mean students shouldn’t master AI. Skill in using AI as a productivity-enhancing tool can give them an edge over older workers who haven’t mastered ChatGPT and other AI programs.

But knowing how to use AI effectively isn’t enough. Here are some suggestions from the experts on how students—or really anybody—can reduce the risk they will eventually be replaced by AI.

Cultivate your ability to work with other people, including jerks

AI can write computer code, improve grammar and solve math problems, but so far it lacks the ability to mediate squabbles among colleagues, charm potential clients over cocktails or soothe angry customers. So developing those skills may be one of a job applicant’s best selling points.

Anything that requires talking and cooperating with strangers is helpful. That includes volunteering in a nursing home or an after-school youth program, or leading an on-campus club or sport. Jobs that require dealing directly with lots of other people, including jerks, are an educational opportunity. “If you’re a waiter you will understand human beings better,” says Chamorro-Premuzic.

Go wide and avoid hyper-specialisation

Focusing too heavily on one type of expertise could be a mistake if, as expected, AI eliminates lots of jobs in some specialties. It isn’t a risk only for technology fields like computer science; other fields such as accounting and finance are also being transformed by AI.

Instead, experts recommend having a portfolio of skills.

“If you have one skill, you compete with the masses that have that same one skill,” says Anna Esaki-Smith , author of “Make College Your Superpower.” In contrast, she says, “Should you stack on another skill, you become qualified for a wider range of opportunities.”

That could mean adding a minor or two to a major or going for a double major. It also could involve a strategic selection of electives. D. Raja , chief executive of CEI, a Pittsburgh information-technology consulting firm, says he increasingly looks for job candidates who have both technical skills and a grounding in business, enabling them to understand clients’ needs. An M.B.A. stacked atop a computer-science degree is one good strategy, he says.

Though a range of skills and knowledge is an advantage, it’s still important to develop deep expertise in at least one or two areas. “AI has disrupted superficial expertise,” Chamorro-Premuzic says. In other words, you have to know more than generative AI programs can spit out in a minute or two.

Show you can organise a big project and get it done

If AI will do at least some of the grunt work, people will still be needed to devise strategies and carry out complicated projects. Machines do pieces of work, but “we still need big-picture humans to put it all together,” says John Behrens , director of the technology and digital studies program at the University of Notre Dame.

To help students learn how to manage complexity, many universities require them to complete a capstone project before graduation. Those can include primary research, ambitious artworks or community-service projects.

Vanderbilt University calls such projects “immersion.” For his Vanderbilt project, Logan Glazier is converting an old school bus, once consigned to the junkyard, into an RV with solar panels mounted on the roof to power his refrigerator and other appliances.

He expects to finish the project within a few months, before graduating next spring with a degree in civil engineering. Glazier had to sell his idea to university administrators, persuade them to give him space to work on the bus, develop a plan and find materials. He watched dozens of YouTube videos and consulted with Vanderbilt professors.

He recalls the reaction he got from people at the engineering consulting firm HNTB when they heard about the project: “Wow, that’s really cool!” He got an HNTB internship in 2023 and recently accepted a full-time job at the firm starting in May, after his graduation.

Be open to new experiences

As AI and other technological changes make career paths less predictable, adaptability will be an advantage. “We don’t know what the world is going to be like in five years or 10 years,” says Behrens.

Students can develop their adaptability by seeking out new experiences, such as studying abroad or taking unconventional courses. At Carnegie Mellon University, renowned for computer science and robotics, one of the most popular electives is “Acting for Non-Majors,” offered by the Pittsburgh school’s drama department. Students have long taken the course, but now demand has soared as students see it as a plus in the job market, forcing them to shed their inhibitions and engage with other people in unscripted ways.

This year, to accommodate demand, CMU quadrupled the capacity of the course.

“It’s exhilarating,” says Emily Ma , a math major. “Acting forces you to step outside your comfort zone.” That’s particularly important for a generation of young people who were isolated during the Covid-19 pandemic and spent far more time staring at screens than they did engaging directly with people.

Be a moderate misfit

Amid all the changes AI is bringing, companies want fresh thinking. So one route to success is to be a “moderate misfit,” unhappy with the status quo and ready to innovate, says Chamorro-Premuzic. By moderate, he means that “you fit in well enough and work well with others but are not so bland and risk-averse as to lose the desire for change and progress.”

Chamorro-Premuzic advises young people not to seek employers that fit perfectly with their values but rather to “look for places they like but which they also dream of transforming and improving.”

AI is like a B+ student and can tell you what the average person would say, says Matthew Rascoff , vice provost for digital education at Stanford University. A+ work, he says, is the product of an individual brain with a distinctive voice. So he urges students to develop their own voices and identities. “The more you outsource” to AI, he says, “the less you are developing that muscle.”

Note: Usual Northern Sea Route shown for illustrative purposes Source: Sea Legend Daniel Kiss/WSJ

Shipping cargo through an Arctic shortcut never made economic sense—until now.

Climate change and war in the Middle East are flipping the math that previously kept ships plying longer routes from Asia to Europe. A Chinese company on Saturday is starting the first regular cargo service to Europe through Arctic waters, seeking to reap the benefits of quicker travel time and less fuel use.

The shipper Sea Legend will dispatch the Dubai Tower from Ningbo, China, to Felixstowe in the U.K. on what it calls the Arctic Express, following a route along Russia’s north coast. The voyage by the vessel, which is capable of carrying 1,740 20-foot containers, is the biggest commercial step in the Arctic since a Maersk containership first completed the route in 2018.

Global warming is a big factor behind the new route, but it is not the only one. Nearly half the Arctic region’s summer ice—an area four times the size of Texas—has melted over five decades, clearing a fairly reliable path in the summer months. Meanwhile, high oil prices and attacks by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea have made the traditional routes costlier and more dangerous.

Members of China's 16th Arctic Ocean scientific expedition team take selfies on the ice surface. — Members of a Chinese scientific expedition team on surface ice in the Arctic Ocean this week. Wen Jinghua/Xinhua/ZUMA Press

Beyond that, Beijing has ambitions to play a role in the Arctic’s future, lending a geopolitical dimension to the Chinese company’s shipping route.

Last year Sea Legend completed a trial run from Asia to Europe in a record 20 days. That is roughly half the time of a voyage via Africa’s Cape of Good Hope that many carriers now take because of the Red Sea uncertainty.

Fuel accounts for 70% or more of the costs while at sea, said Alan Murphy, a former Maersk analyst who runs research firm Sea-Intelligence.

Saving fuel by shortening the journey doesn’t automatically make a route profitable. Insurance premiums for the Arctic are 40% higher than the Cape of Good Hope route, said Jonathan Steenberg, an economist at credit insurer Coface. Sea Legend’s Arctic vessels are relatively small. And even after warming, an icebreaker is still sometimes needed to help the cargo ship.

But if the ship can go without an icebreaker, Coface said the Arctic route is now cheaper than a Cape of Good Hope voyage in some circumstances. It estimated that at current oil prices of around $90, the cost of shipping liquid bulk such as liquefied natural gas could drop roughly 33% compared with the Cape of Good Hope route, while dry bulk goods such as cereals would cost about 8% less.

The container ship Istanbul Bridge being unloaded by large blue and red cranes at the port of Gdansk. — A containership operated by Sea Legend in the port of Gdansk, Poland. jackowski/epa/Shutterstock

The route is only passable in the summer and fall. Sea Legend plans eight voyages between August and late October, before conditions get too icy.

“It’s not the Suez Canal but it’s a significant number for the Arctic. It shows there is potential,” said Malte Humpert, founder of the U.S.-based Arctic Institute and author of a book on Chinese shipping in the Arctic.

Even in summer, ships have to navigate around dangerous ice floes and deal with rapidly changing weather. By the end of the shipping season in October, the sky is dark most of the time.

A Russian tanker suffered serious damage to its hull while sailing along the Arctic route despite being assisted by an icebreaker, its insurer, AlfaStrakhovanie, said Thursday, adding that it paid out roughly $650,000.

Coface estimates 3.5% of trade among East Asia, Europe and North America will be able to use Arctic routes within the next five years, representing $64 billion in goods.

Last summer, a record 23 cargo ships transited the Northern Sea Route, which hugs Russia’s north coast. That is tiny compared with the Suez Canal, where more than 30 ships transited daily.

Western companies that want to follow in Sea Legend’s path have to navigate treacherous politics. Russia claims sovereignty over the entire Northern Sea Route and permits for ship traffic are issued by its state-controlled nuclear operator, Rosatom.

Aerial view of a port with many cargo ships, red cranes, and rows of stacked shipping containers. — The Dubai Tower’s route will begin in the Chinese port of Ningbo. Huang Zongzhi/ZUMA Press

“Western companies are in a tricky position,” said Humpert of the Arctic Institute. “At what point do they jump back in the water? When does it become economically necessary, and how do you weigh that against environmental risks and the political dimension?”

An alternative Arctic route, the Northwest Passage that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans via the Canadian Arctic, is less passable because it is dominated by narrow waterways where ice gets bunched up. The highest number of cargo ships completing the passage in a year was 13, in 2023.

China has declared itself a near-Arctic state despite not having access to Arctic waters. It depends on Russia’s goodwill to use the Northern Sea Route.

“Beijing is concerned that if they don’t establish a significant strategic presence in the Arctic now, it’s going to be more difficult in the future,” said Marc Lanteigne, expert in polar geopolitics at the Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø. However, he said, “China needs to be careful not to give the impression that they are trying to challenge the strategic order in the Arctic.”

Sea Legend didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Any polar venture contributes to China’s quest to master Arctic travel. The country also has three icebreakers and a support vessel currently on a monthslong scientific expedition north of Greenland. Scientific and commercial voyages can yield data about natural resources awaiting below melting ice caps and information for positioning nuclear-armed submarines.