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SkillUp blog guide on choosing career credentials and certificates. The page blocked an automated check, so this description is based on its title.
Free in-depth guide from the nonprofit Probably Good on choosing a career path that creates positive impact, covering values, career capital, job options and decision-making.
FinanceBuzz article by Josh Koebert, syndicated on MSN, listing nine fields it argues are shrinking: journalism, computer programming, data entry, telemarketing, photography, translation, bookkeeping, legal assistance and customer service. It cites Bureau of Labor Statistics projections — 4% fewer journalism jobs, 6% fewer programming jobs and 6% fewer bookkeeping jobs by 2034 — and points at information security analysts as a growing alternative with a 2024 median salary above $124,000.
Why I recommend it: Useful as a prompt to check your own field's BLS projection — not as career advice. Three things I would not take from it: the headline conclusion is the writer's opinion, not the BLS's; a projected national decline says nothing about whether good jobs exist in your city; and the page is packed with affiliate links to insurance and money products, which is how it earns. Look up the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook entry for your own job title and read that instead.
Manoush Zomorodi (NPR's TED Radio Hour) coins p(joy) as a deliberate counterpoint to p(doom), the probability-of-catastrophe number traded around AI circles: instead of estimating disaster, estimate whether satisfying moments are increasing in your life and what reliably creates them. The second half is a long interview with Brian Elliott of Work Forward on knowledge work right now — identity loss as machines take a skill you spent decades building, cognitive overload from supervising AI agents, and executives privately saying their best people and heaviest AI users are the likeliest to quit. Elliott's summary: human-led, AI-enabled, because nobody's competitive advantage is being average faster.
Why I recommend it: Read this the next time an AI doom number is quoted at you as though it were measured. The piece cites Gizmodo's plain point that no one at the frontier labs has an actual method for producing a p(doom) figure. The useful part is Elliott's three patterns in companies getting value from AI: a scorecard covering business impact, quality and employee engagement rather than tool usage; aiming at teams instead of individuals; and leaders using the tools in public, mistakes included. Free to read in full, no paywall.
US Census Bureau working paper (CES 26-56, September 2026) by Cody Orr, Lee C. Tucker and Lawrence Warren, using administrative records covering about 29% of US bachelor's degrees conferred 2016-2024. Graduates in the most AI-exposed tenth of majors saw their chance of being employed in the quarter after graduation fall five percentage points, and first full-quarter earnings fall thirteen percent, starting immediately after ChatGPT's release in late 2022. The earnings hit is comparable to graduating into a large recession. About half came from lower pay inside the same industries, the rest from graduates shifting into lower-paying sectors such as restaurants and retail. The effect shrinks to about five percent two years out but does not disappear for the most exposed majors.
Why I recommend it: This is the strongest evidence yet that AI has already moved entry-level pay, because it uses actual wage records rather than employer statements or surveys. Two things to hold onto: the paper says plainly it has not been through Census Bureau review and is not an official position, and exposure is measured by what a major typically leads to, not by whether any particular employer used AI. So it tells you which fields got harder to enter — not that a machine took a named job.
Upload a CV or a plain-text document and it gives you a private read on where you stand professionally and what to do next. No account needed to try it, and it says the session is deleted after 24 hours unless you save it.
Why I recommend it: Free to use right now and it publishes no prices at all — the site is very new, so free today does not mean free next month. Two honest cautions: uploading your CV means handing it to their AI providers, which their own consent line says plainly, and read anything it tells you about your career as one opinion from a machine that has seen one document.
The Black Wall Street Times covers an Institute for Women's Policy Research report on why roughly 600,000 Black women left the U.S. workforce, including public-sector cuts, caregiving load and hiring discrimination.
Why I recommend it: If your search feels harder than it should, this is the structural context — it helps separate market forces from personal performance.
Staffing Industry Analysts report on research showing that college graduates entering the workforce during the AI boom face starting-pay and employment conditions comparable to a major recession. Useful context for salary expectations and negotiation.
Why I recommend it: Read this before you accept a first offer — knowing the market backdrop keeps a low number from feeling personal.
A starter framework for students deciding between corporate, nonprofit, freelance, and entrepreneurship paths: defining your value proposition, getting noticed, building consistency, and understanding how you actually get paid.
In plain terms: This beginner guide helps students and first-time job seekers explore different career paths. You can build your first resume, practice basic networking conversations, and connect with youth employment programs.
Why I recommend it: Great starting point for students and anyone rebooting a career from scratch.
Created by Justin Smith — Launchpad Library
