The traditional playbook for career success is falling apart, and artificial intelligence is holding the sledgehammer. Millions of young Americans who followed the standard advice—get a degree, land an entry-level office job, climb the ladder—are discovering that the first rung has vanished.
The Old Path Is Broken
Sander van't Noordende, global CEO of Randstad, the world's largest staffing company, delivered some blunt news to Fortune on Tuesday: "Path that used to work for a long time is starting to break."
His company sits at the intersection of labor supply and demand, so when he says AI is already outperforming entry-level workers in marketing, communications, and design, it's worth paying attention. Graduates are finding themselves locked out of the very roles that once served as training grounds for white-collar careers.
The Surprising Alternative: Get Your Hands Dirty
Van't Noordende's advice might surprise parents who took out loans for their kids' business degrees. He's urging graduates to look beyond traditional office settings entirely.
"There is a massive demand in skilled trades, mechanical engineers, machine operators, maintenance engineers, forklift drivers, truck drivers—you name it," he said.
Even more striking: hospitality and retail positions like bartenders and baristas are seeing wage growth that's outpacing many desk jobs. The economy still needs humans to fix machines, drive trucks, and make your latte—and it's willing to pay for those skills.
For those already deep into their degrees, van't Noordende suggested adaptation rather than panic. "Retrain. Learning new skills is always good," he advised. "Look around you, and where you see the opportunities that match with your skills and your background and go there."
STEM fields might still offer some protection, he noted, though even that's no guarantee in a rapidly shifting landscape.
The Warnings Are Piling Up
Van't Noordende isn't alone in sounding the alarm. Business and tech leaders are increasingly vocal about AI's accelerating impact on employment.
Earlier this month, Airtasker CEO Tim Fung predicted that gig economy jobs like ride-hailing could vanish within three to five years, with data scientists, coders, and engineers also facing displacement. His take? Blue-collar trades will be the last to fall, and people might actually be happier doing skilled craftwork anyway.
Last year, AI researcher Geoffrey Hinton warned that AI capabilities are doubling every seven months and could replace millions of jobs by 2026. Call center work and complex software tasks are already vulnerable, he said, while safety measures lag dangerously behind the technology's growth.
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang offered a slightly more optimistic spin, suggesting that job losses are only inevitable if innovation slows. He argued that continued creativity could allow productivity and employment to grow together, pointing to historical precedent where technological shifts ultimately created new opportunities.
Whether that plays out remains to be seen. For now, Gen Z graduates are navigating a job market that looks nothing like the one their parents entered—and the old roadmap no longer leads where it used to.