"Leftover People" - Writers, M&A Lawyers, Recruiters (and lots more professional categories in 2023)

“All … were people whose jobs were simply not important anymore … I had referred to this category of worker as ‘leftover people’ …” – Chapter 1, THE STORE, James Patterson, Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

That reflection had been made at a dinner party in Manhattan. Some of the guests were already unemployed because their functions such as travel agent had been made obsolete by technology. Others such as executives at auction houses would soon become jobless, thanks to eBay.

Here it is 5 years later. The pile-up of leftover people is accelerating in its growth.

AI chatbots are wiping out the writing profession as we have known it. It has even been posited that writing will no longer be taught in high schools. The manual skill will no longer be needed.

Sure, the AI “they” will retain some human writers to oversee the chatbots which produce everything from marketing communications to a resume (cover letters are becoming obsolete) to video scripts. But that will only provide jobs for a small number of the current writers. AI chatbots are creating a permanent dislocation.

Other kinds of leftovers could be temporary.

For instance, there are the Mergers and Acquisitions lawyers who have no M&A assignments to process. Bloomberg Law documents that niche is slow at many law firms. 

Yes, it will eventually pick up but maybe not before those leftovers are tossed out. Professional anonymous networks such Fishbowl Big Law are groaning under the burden of all the angst of lawyers fearing they will be labeled “leftover." Here is one thread.

Right now most recruiters are no longer in those jobs which had been important. After all, they had helped bag the talent required during better economic times. Currently they are as much surplus as that recruited talent has become. 

Will recruiting bounce back? Maybe not. AI can wipe out chunks of the function. Eventually all of it. That will save organizations a bundle. Cost-efficiency is the religion of our volatile times.

As the economic turbulence continues in 2023, myriad other jobs will not only become unimportant. They will no longer exist.

So, what to do before you become a leftover? In intuitive career coaching my meme is: Change before you have to.

By following that fundamental for myself I exited writing before the whole thing had come down (probably I still had 2 good years left). 

You bet, it was hard to let go. Likely I am still mourning the end of that career. Recently I alluded to the confusion with life coach and cognitive therapist Amy Karnilowicz. The odds are that I would have stayed stuck in-place without the gentle support of Paul Weiss chair Brad Karp. His signature calm drained off my panic.

Where am I in the now? Currently I am making more as an intuitive career coach than I had as a content-creator. Also there’s more demand. 

My point of differentiation among coaches is the option of insight from a Tarot reading. In April 2021, The New York Times saluted the Tarot as a tool for self-awareness. You have to know yourself before you can figure out how much you can stretch yourself beyond your current niche.

Note: The pain of your job no longer being treated as an "important" one is usually extreme. You will continue to hurt for a while.

Intuitive career coaching, with the option to use the Tarot, about your present and your next. Step back from that committee in your head and open to possibility.  Sliding Scale Fees. Please make an appointment for a complimentary consultation at janegenova374@gmail.com.