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Ask HN: Most Valuable Jobs of 2025?

22 points by sjperez 5y ago

Four years from now, what will be the most valuable job fields? AI? 6G? Biotech? Clean energy? Quantum computing? Something else entirely?

zx2391 5y ago
The smarter tool (i.e. AI) mega-trend will continue and there is a lot to automate across the globe. This will sprawl into biotech (drug discovery) and energy management.
yuppie_scum 5y ago
It’ll still be fintech.
- rdtwo 5y ago
  Yeah always finance
  - browningstreet 5y ago
    I work in banking. The entire technical underpinnings of banking will change dramatically over the next decade. See OpenBanking and real-time transactions, to start.
giantg2 5y ago
I don't see anything changing that much in less than 4 years. I think the most common jobs will still be boring CRUD and support. The highest paying stuff will likely be AI/data related in fintech or some other highly rewarding and nonproductive area.
- greatemulsifier 5y ago
  > or some other highly rewarding and nonproductive area Yeah I second this
afarrell 5y ago
Emotional telepresence.
- cztomsik 5y ago
  probably not what you meant but I think multiverse (VR being commonly used instead of going somewhere in person) is going to be a big thing.
quantumofalpha 5y ago
Same jobs as today. Maybe just AI/ML would become less and less lucrative due to a huge glut of people graduating into it.
sdevonoes 5y ago
Software engineer. You can work in any field (AI, Biotech, Clean energy, ecommerce)
muzani 5y ago
My picks: 1) Fintech. It'll be messy with the aftermath of COVID, moratoriums, etc. Combine it with new and old banking regulations, islamic banking, ways to finance the poor, bubbles popping, crowdfunding. Then you have crypto and retail investors. It's going to be a bloodbath. And there's plenty of space for the young and hungry. 2) Remote work. Not just non-offices, but working internationally. If you're going to hire someone who doesn't come into office, why not just hire someone whose living costs are 10x lower? Inversely, there are a lot of problems with it; who's solving them? 3) AI creativity. It's more creative than humans now. Where will it be 4 years from now? We're seeing the side effects of too much creativity - it turns your brain into mush. It'll be a new revolution, like assembly lines, but in the opposite direction. We're experimenting how much we can totally delegate to AI and how much support infrastructure we need to build around it.
softwaredoug 5y ago
I think the ML bubble will become increasingly more realistic, and those that can turn ML into scalable, performant, and maintainable solutions will “win”. Additionally those that focus more on the training data being learned from and it’s quality over the model and how the full product fits together will win... I think another frontier is knowing how to manage and build organizations that understand data and ML. In the same way software caused traditional engineering orgs to rethink processes, eventually data expertise will infiltrate management. The processes we use to deliver working, well performing data-based solutions will change and cause traditional software orgs to rethink how they deliver work. These processes will be more about running frequent, repeatable experiments and less about iterative feature dev. So, to sum up: - ML engineering - Data scientists that can deliver working code - managers with data expertise And I’d emphasize less: - research, “fancier model” oriented ML and data science Other random bets: - office space for remote workers that just want a quiet, private place to work. Boring class A office space converted into single offices rented individually. - home tech support for remote workers to improve reliability, etc of tech and network experience.
- cztomsik 5y ago
  +1 for affordable, come-and-go but private office space
- strikelaserclaw 5y ago
  which is why i think it's important for software engineers to have some idea about the current state of machine learning.
fishingisfun 5y ago
no one can guess
mikewarot 5y ago
Someone has to figure out how to shoehorn everything that used to run on systems that let an application do anything the user could do, into the new paradigm where the default is to allow nothing. A lot of applications need to be upgraded, and a lot of new systems need to be installed. Network security, with a focus on the use of unidirectional networks to make infiltration of control impossible will be required for protecting infrastructure that needs to be monitored. Multiple skill sets will come into play, the more general the knowledge set you have, the more valuable you'll become.

22 points by sjperez 5y ago

Four years from now, what will be the most valuable job fields? AI? 6G? Biotech? Clean energy? Quantum computing? Something else entirely?

zx2391 5y ago

The smarter tool (i.e. AI) mega-trend will continue and there is a lot to automate across the globe. This will sprawl into biotech (drug discovery) and energy management.

yuppie_scum 5y ago

It’ll still be fintech.

rdtwo 5y ago
Yeah always finance
- browningstreet 5y ago
  I work in banking. The entire technical underpinnings of banking will change dramatically over the next decade. See OpenBanking and real-time transactions, to start.

giantg2 5y ago

I don't see anything changing that much in less than 4 years. I think the most common jobs will still be boring CRUD and support. The highest paying stuff will likely be AI/data related in fintech or some other highly rewarding and nonproductive area.

greatemulsifier 5y ago
> or some other highly rewarding and nonproductive area Yeah I second this

afarrell 5y ago

Emotional telepresence.

cztomsik 5y ago
probably not what you meant but I think multiverse (VR being commonly used instead of going somewhere in person) is going to be a big thing.

quantumofalpha 5y ago

Same jobs as today. Maybe just AI/ML would become less and less lucrative due to a huge glut of people graduating into it.

sdevonoes 5y ago

Software engineer. You can work in any field (AI, Biotech, Clean energy, ecommerce)

muzani 5y ago

My picks: 1) Fintech. It'll be messy with the aftermath of COVID, moratoriums, etc. Combine it with new and old banking regulations, islamic banking, ways to finance the poor, bubbles popping, crowdfunding. Then you have crypto and retail investors. It's going to be a bloodbath. And there's plenty of space for the young and hungry. 2) Remote work. Not just non-offices, but working internationally. If you're going to hire someone who doesn't come into office, why not just hire someone whose living costs are 10x lower? Inversely, there are a lot of problems with it; who's solving them? 3) AI creativity. It's more creative than humans now. Where will it be 4 years from now? We're seeing the side effects of too much creativity - it turns your brain into mush. It'll be a new revolution, like assembly lines, but in the opposite direction. We're experimenting how much we can totally delegate to AI and how much support infrastructure we need to build around it.

softwaredoug 5y ago

I think the ML bubble will become increasingly more realistic, and those that can turn ML into scalable, performant, and maintainable solutions will “win”. Additionally those that focus more on the training data being learned from and it’s quality over the model and how the full product fits together will win... I think another frontier is knowing how to manage and build organizations that understand data and ML. In the same way software caused traditional engineering orgs to rethink processes, eventually data expertise will infiltrate management. The processes we use to deliver working, well performing data-based solutions will change and cause traditional software orgs to rethink how they deliver work. These processes will be more about running frequent, repeatable experiments and less about iterative feature dev. So, to sum up: - ML engineering - Data scientists that can deliver working code - managers with data expertise And I’d emphasize less: - research, “fancier model” oriented ML and data science Other random bets: - office space for remote workers that just want a quiet, private place to work. Boring class A office space converted into single offices rented individually. - home tech support for remote workers to improve reliability, etc of tech and network experience.

cztomsik 5y ago
+1 for affordable, come-and-go but private office space
strikelaserclaw 5y ago
which is why i think it's important for software engineers to have some idea about the current state of machine learning.

fishingisfun 5y ago

no one can guess

mikewarot 5y ago

Someone has to figure out how to shoehorn everything that used to run on systems that let an application do anything the user could do, into the new paradigm where the default is to allow nothing. A lot of applications need to be upgraded, and a lot of new systems need to be installed. Network security, with a focus on the use of unidirectional networks to make infiltration of control impossible will be required for protecting infrastructure that needs to be monitored. Multiple skill sets will come into play, the more general the knowledge set you have, the more valuable you'll become.