🌱Raising Kids for Careers That Don’t Exist
“Human alarm clocks who knocked on workers’ doors.”
1. When Careers Weren’t Choices, They Were Paths
My mom didn’t raise me to become a marketer.
She didn’t have a career blueprint for me, just as I don’t have one for my daughter.
Back then, there were a few “safe bets”:
doctor, lawyer, engineer.
Professions with predictable paths and the kind of societal respect parents felt proud of.
But here I am today, building brands, narratives, and strategies,
a career that didn’t even exist in her imagination when I was born.
Try explaining “digital marketing” to someone in the early ’90s, and they’d think you were talking about TV commercials or a sci-fi hobby.
The truth is humbling:
I have no idea what profession my daughter will grow into.
The job that becomes her calling might not even exist yet.
2. Learning My Daughter, Not Designing Her
Parenthood often tempts us to project our own dreams onto our children.
But my role isn’t to design her future.
It’s to learn her deeply.
I try to understand:
Why does she love certain things almost religiously?
Why does she dislike others without explanation?
How she communicates not just with words, but with every glance, gesture, and expression.
I can tell when she truly finds my dad joke funny
and when she’s just being kind by laughing.
This kind of understanding isn’t just parenting.
It’s a form of listening without an agenda,
something I also bring into my work with brands.
3. Culture Doesn’t Just Change, It Accelerates
Culture today doesn’t evolve slowly. It lurches forward.
Entire industries rise and collapse within a decade.
Professions appear and disappear so quickly that career planning feels almost meaningless.
Look back just a little, and you’ll see the chaos:
10 Years Ago:
The social media manager was cutting-edge.
Drone pilot for commercial shoots was trendy.
Uber driver was a whole new career category.
Some of these roles are now being automated away.
20 Years Ago:
DVD rental store clerk.
PalmPilot software developer.
Photo lab technician.
Print newspaper layout artist.
Jobs that once felt normal are now completely gone.
50 Years Ago:
Elevator operators.
Human alarm clocks who knocked on workers’ doors. The Knocker-ups.
Ice delivery men.
Switchboard operators.
Lamp lighters in city streets.
Today, these jobs sound almost mythical, like stories from another planet.
The cycle is only getting faster.
And with AI, robotics, and humanoids, we’re now approaching a moment where entire professions could vanish in months, not decades.
4. My Daughter’s Bedtime Stories
Here’s where it gets personal.
My daughter falls asleep listening to AI-generated bedtime stories,
told in my voice.
For her, this isn’t strange.
It’s simply part of her world,
a seamless blend of tradition (bedtime stories) and technology (AI voice synthesis).
For me, it’s surreal.
I’m both there and not there.
I’m reading to her… while an algorithm speaks through me.
This tiny ritual is a glimpse of our future:
familiar rituals becoming deeply artificial,
Yet still meaningful in their own way.
5. The Rise of Communities
When everything becomes artificial, humans seek something real.
That’s why we’re seeing a quiet comeback of communities:
Niche groups are forming around shared passions.
Small, authentic brands replacing faceless corporations.
Storytelling is emerging as the currency of trust.
As a marketer, this is the frontier I live in.
It’s no longer about volume or reach.
It’s about creating connection in the noise.
The paradox is clear:
As the world becomes increasingly artificial, the more we yearn for genuine human connection.
6. Jobs That Don’t Exist. Yet.
No one predicted that “TikTok Content Strategist” would be a job a decade ago.
Or that AI whisperers, people who specialize in talking to algorithms, would be a real role today.
So what comes next?
I have no idea.
Neither does anyone else.
And that’s both terrifying and beautiful.
The jobs my daughter may one day pursue might not even be conceivable in this moment.
What matters isn’t teaching her a specific skill.
It’s teaching her resilience, empathy, and curiosity.
The traits that never expire, no matter what technology does.
7. Final Reflection
I don’t know what my daughter will become.
But I know the world she grows into will move faster,
feel stranger,
and challenge her in ways I can’t predict.
My job isn’t to prepare her for a single career.
It’s to help her find her story,
to give her the tools to connect, adapt, and create meaning in a world that will never stop shifting.
Whether she works alongside humans, androids, or something we haven’t imagined yet, one truth will always remain:
Meaning will always matter.
And maybe those AI bedtime stories she hears today will plant a seed.
A seed that helps her write her own story,
one the world hasn’t dreamed of yet.
“Special thanks to The Herolingo Show for inspiring this reflection.”
