About 25 years ago a friend of mine quit his pulp mill job in Prince Rupert.
"This is a dying industry," he claimed, "and I'm going to get out of it while I'm still young and healthy."
He then re-trained to a very specific skill set, but never really got a foothold. He continues to struggle now.
Also 25 years ago, a person I know was declaring bankruptcy, having failed in his first attempt to run a logging show. He started over, and eventually built up his reputation as a serious contender in the forest industry.
Today he is one of the most successful in the business, and has made enough money to make most of us blush.
Although things are rapidly changing, there is still a great deal of money to be made in the primary industries British Columbia has always been famous for.
Yes, the economy is changing, but it's important to zig while others zag, to avoid long lineups in front of the latest greatest thing, and to find your own particular niche in an industry that is profitable, but unpopular.
Also 25 years ago, a highly-trained engineer was launching his career. Having always been the smartest kid in the class, he went into aerospace engineering, surely a promising place to work, right?
He could never have predicted what would hit the industry just after he bought that house with a picket fence in Seattle. He was working for Boeing, when 911 happened. The short term hit to the industry was devastating, and caused them to take a careful look at their business structure. This resulted in a massive offshoring of engineering work, which continues today. This highly educated, good man, continues to struggle to recover from this unfortunate setback.
When UBC student Tahir Adatia applied for a summer internship with an investment bank, he was the only philosophy major in a crowd of commerce students.
I told them straight up, I'm not technically gifted," Adatia said.
"I bring something different."
In the end, he landed the job. In the age of disruption, different can be good.
In a new RBC report, Bridging the Gap: What Canadians Told us about the Skills Revolution, they followed up on their landmark research paper into the future of work, titled Humans Wanted, by spending a year travelling across the country, engaging with students, educators, business owners and policymakers.
Over the course of those discussions, a number of insights emerged into how the skills revolution is playing out across our country - and the challenges we need to confront.
One of those challenges is that liberal arts programs are in decline - even though demand for their skills is up. They heard from employers that they are increasingly looking for candidates with the soft skills cultivated in the arts and sciences, such as critical thinking and communication - but post-secondary leaders told them enrolment in the Liberal Arts is down by double-digits.
In our tech-obsessed society, public discourse is so hostile to the humanities that young people are turning away from them, according to Patrick Deane, the president at McMaster University.
"Parents, governments and society at large underestimate the critical skills fostered in the humanities - this is a long-term systemic and cultural problem," Deane said.
Between 2011 and 2017, enrolment in the humanities fell by 17.5 per cent. Over the same period, enrolment increased by 45 per cent in mathematics, computer and information sciences.
These areas of study are seen as a more direct path to a steady job after graduation, the holy grail for young people who grew up in the shadow of the Great Recession.
Students studying arts and sciences find themselves worrying about where they fit into the future of work.
"Everyone's scared of not getting a job," Adatia said.
"You can have a passion but you can't have a job, that's the perception."
But it's not the reality. While students are increasingly choosing specialized training, employers are looking for well-rounded graduates. According to LinkedIn, the top soft skills employers are having trouble hiring for are creativity, persuasion and collaboration.
"Soft skills are every bit as important as numeracy," said Steven Murphy, Ontario Tech's president and vice chancellor.
Adatia, whose philosophy major is complimented by a minor in commerce, found his future employer was willing to help get him up to speed on the technical aspects of the job. The team was excited by the skills he already brought to the table, like the ability to think critically, argue and reason.
Today's demand for a liberal arts skillset isn't happening despite automation. It's happening because of it. As more tasks become automated in the workplace, there is a growing demand for people with the skills to both complement and collaborate with technology.
Employers are looking for technical capacity as a baseline. Those who get hired, like Adatia, are the ones that can demonstrate communication and complex problem solving skills.
There is a growing push for interdisciplinary learning.
While STEM grads need soft skills, humanities programs need to focus on providing digital fluency to their students. Gone are the days when students can be a "master of one."
The future of work may be changing, but Canada's youth have the potential, the ambition and power to impact the world around them.
Mark Ryan is an investment advisor with RBC Dominion Securities Inc. (Member - Canadian Investor Protection Fund), and these are Mark's views, and not those of RBC Dominion Securities. This article is for information purposes only. Please consult with a professional advisor before taking any action based on information in this article. See Ryan's website at: http://dir.rbcinvestments.com/mark.ryan.
