Surviving Outsourcing and 10 Outsource-Proof Professions

Everyone love making lists..

In Yahoo! Finance there was a list of the Top 10 college majors you should avoid if attending a university and the list included the following degrees:

Business Administration/Management

Criminal Justice

Drama/Theater

Anthropology

Liberal Arts & Sciences

History

Psychology

Biology

English 

Economics

Its really a empty list.. 

More accurately the type of useless article that some editor told the writer to compile because he/she was devoid of original ideas.

Really, we could expand on this list by another 40-50 worthless majors that don't guarantee you'll even get a call back on a resume..

That's how much of a waste of time and money the traditional secondary education path has become.  And remember, more than ever before, the competition is global.

We think of outsourcing in terms of phone-related positions i.e. customer service reps and computer tech geeks in the other side of the world working for US companies to serve US customers' needs..

Outsourcing is going to get a lot worse in the future and in ways people haven't even begun to imagine..

For instance, why pay a teacher making $40-75k to teach 30-40 high schoolers in a classroom, when you can use Skype or other technology to merge 5 or 10 groupings of 30 students to 1 instructor via the computer.

Each classroom has a 'discipline supervisor', an unskilled position who may get paid $12/hr to make sure the kids are paying attention to the computer screens i.e. class lectures.

This is how much a school district would save:

Option A-- 10 teachers for 10 classrooms, each making $45k/yr = $450k

Option B-- 1 teacher for 10 classrooms with 9 'discipline supervisors making $12/hr ($24,960/yr)

9 'supervisors x $24,960 = $224,640 + 1 teacher at $45k equals...

$269,640

A school district would save $180,360 annually based on just this very small example.  Just hire 1 teacher in each specialty per 300-400 students and it is conceivable a school district could save over $1mil a year on salary...

Of course all those teachers-to be getting their degrees would suffer via no employment but ehh.. this is America-- no one really cares about teachers anyway.

Too jealous of their summers off...

Another example is accounting...

Through software programs like TurboTax and the like, why does anyone need to hire an accountant to figure out their taxes unless incredibly complex or the IRS is auditing you..  

Just follow the instructions-- insert the information as necessary, click a few buttons then press 'Print' or email it directly and Ta Daaa!!  Another education-based profession is made utterly redundant.

So what to do? ...   What to do?

If you are seeking a job that will become a career, there's one question above all others you should be asking yourself, and it has nothing to do with salary...

Can this job/position be outsourced one day?

Here are 10 Outsource-proof jobs/careers which guarantee employment all your working life with no fear that they will be reduced or disappear....

1)  Plumbing

2) Air Condition/Heating Repair

3) Carpenter-Handyman

4) Roof & Gutter Repair

5)  Auto Mechanic

6)  Electrician

7)  Exterminator/Pest Control

8)  Landscaper

9)  Truck Driver

10)  Elderly Assist Care

There are Many more professions like this we could have mentioned -- security/prison guard, waste disposal/trash collection,etc.. but we listed ten... 

These are professions some in society snub their noses at as being 'blue collar' and not worthy of their sons and daughters to pursue but that just goes to show their ignorance.  

Entry level pest control pays $34,000-- that's a good salary for a 19-20 year old especially compared to the burger flippers.  The top 10% of those who work in roofing and siding make around $59,500 annually ($28.35/hr)

And if one day that person expands to start their own company and has a good reputation, their income will expand considerably...

And notice how none of these professions require a degree from Harvard or Yale..  For many of them, you may need to attend a vocational or technical institute or acquire an apprenticeship..

But that's OK-- we're not ever disparaging getting an education or pushing the notion that career based training should be free.   

But there is a big difference between taking out a moderate sized education loan to pay for 12-24 months of vocational training at a local institute close to home vs attending colleges 2,000 miles and compiling massive debt acquiring meaningless degrees the work world does not respect...

Now you still have to compete with others for the public's business, work hard, build up a reputation as a quality worker, etc..  nothing about the quality of the American work ethic changes..

But trust us that there is absolutely no way killing bugs in your home or repairing clogged gutters can be outsourced...  50 years from now... 500 years from now... there will be bugs to kill and wet leaves that need removing...

And that's how you survive and thrive in the 21st century....

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