May 24, 2026
Were those of us who pursued costly and arduous years of higher education duped into foregoing more resilient, even lucrative alternatives for a bygone dream of white collar success? It seems that the answer, as hard as it is to swallow, may be yes.
The threat of AI replacement now looms over once historically esteemed positions while the merit of a college degree seems to be eroding faster than the Outer Banks shoreline. And amid the rubble of our C-suite dreams, the historically overlooked trades are witnessing booming demand and higher pay grades than some executive positions.
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One expert put it bluntly when he told jobseekers that, in 2026, “the days of going to college and doing something in an office are over.”
The gut-wrenchingly candid statement came from Sander van’t Noordende, who helms Randstad, the global HR firm with nearly 5,000 offices across 39 countries. The CEO appeared on an episode of CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe on May 20 to talk about the state of the career landscape, with mass layoffs, untenably high youth unemployment rates and the new no hire, more fire norm stoking justified alarm, especially among recent grads.
The pillar of the recruitment realm warned current students that they’ve “got to be smarter” in this new era, recommending that instead of pursuing the traditional four-year-degree-to-desk-job track, they instead focus on the tech sector or the skilled trades — where six-figure salaries are increasingly common — if they really want “a good career and good money.”
“I think any kind of technology is still a good career trajectory, and the skilled trades are coming up rapidly,” Noordende said, reassuring hopefuls that there are still opportunities for “knowledge workers.”
But, it’s those who know how to properly apply AI to complement their skills that he believes will see the most success.
AI proficiency vastly improves career prospects
According to Randstad’s own report about the age of AI augmentation in the workplace, released on May 19, the first quarter of 2026 saw a 300% rise in AI-related job postings and a 281% jump in demand for AI trainers worldwide.
In addition, professionals considered “fluent” in AI tend to be promoted approximately 3.5 times faster than their non-AI native counterparts, and earn about 25% more to start. Salaries grow to 40% more for those who possess in-demand AI certifications.
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“Things are going faster than we thought they would,” Noordende said of AI’s transformation of corporate work, referencing London-based bank Standard Chartered’s move to automate some 7,800 roles — held by what its leader now-notoriously deemed “lower value human capital” — as just one example. He also touched on the fact that the top four multi-national accounting firms are currently hiring more AI specialists than auditors, signifying a monumental pivot.
“An AI specificalist knows about AI, but also how to apply AI to their fields, whether they’re a lawyer, in finance or a software engineer,” he explained.
He provided the caveat that this AI savviness needs to be accompanied by soft skills such as “judgement, collaboration and empathy,” along with all-important experience, which is absolutely crucial for judging the results that AI produces. Roles where you can, in Noordende’s words, “use AI to the max,” though, should be avoided by virtue of how prone they are to obsolescence.
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Social and physical skills that can’t be replaced by AI are now at a “premium”
Noordende’s views on the timeless value of trades expertise — “AI cannot build its own data centres,” he’s said — and social aptitudes have been echoed time and time again as AI grows more dominant.
Mike Rowe, who has long extolled manual labour on his show, Dirty Jobs, regularly issues appeals for more young people to choose apprenticeships and technical training paths over four-year degrees, touting the high demand and pay for electricians, welders, diesel technicians and the like.
Even Nvidia’s CEO has said we’re in a new industrial era where tradespeople will shine, while other top names in tech are underscoring the “innately human” characteristics that bosses see as progressively more essential: the ones mentioned by Noordende above, along with curiosity, the ability to communicate, courage and compassion, which a computer can never emulate.
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Becky Robertson is a senior staff reporter with Moneywise and a lifelong writer. Along with years in the journalism industry at outlets such as blogTO and Quill & Quire, she's participated in writing residencies at the Banff Centre and Writing Workshops Paris. With 33 countries visited, she finds travel to be one of her greatest inspirations.
