Kevin O’Leary, a Canadian millionaire and investor most famously known from Shark Tank, recently commented on a changed opinion of the evolving job market.
He tweeted, “Ten years ago I said engineering was the only master’s degree worth pursuing.”
This stance was common during this time, as people urged younger generations to invest their time in profitable skills that would lead to the most stability and success.
With millions of followers across various platforms, O’Leary’s audience studies his understanding of business in order to personally achieve success.
Almost every industry has changed since 2018, especially STEM-focused professions. According to the Association for Advancing Automation, engineering has been strongly impacted by the development of Artificial Intelligence. Engineers now utilize AI in order to increase efficiency and test design limits. As our world shifts into a digital sphere, professions may expand in scope or become more specialized. There is a large knowledge gap as we continue to experiment and evolve.
Kevin O’Leary spoke less on the unknown and more about a clear pattern. He tweets, “The fastest wage growth today is in creative storytelling across social media.”
Just a decade prior, social media was not viewed remotely as lucrative a career as engineering. O’Leary explains that the reason for the mass success of this industry is because their usefulness and necessity to business is ‘measurable.’
In a world with mass content production and an over-saturation of misinformation, the ability to connect people through these digital platforms has become increasingly important. The numbers are undeniable.
Brandon Stanton, the CEO of Humans of New York, has 12 million followers on Instagram and even more on Facebook. He himself calls his project “a storytelling platform” where he shares the lives of real New Yorkers through well-crafted interviews and photos. With an estimated net worth of $47 million, his networks, books, and exhibits stand as an example for the expansion of the storytelling industry.
Being a writer, photographer, and content creator was once seen as an unprofitable career choice with low success rates. O’Leary’s concluding message, “…content is king, the storytellers are winning,” points to an underlying change in today’s economy. The value we place on different industries has shifted its focus as we prioritize an increasingly digital world.
