Future proof your career – take Chipotle 101, not coding or accounting?

Photo above - to save itself from ruin in 2016, Chipotle produced a film called "Chipotle - a Love Story". And a spinoff video game. No word if Pixar Studios, creator of "Toy Story", sued for damages.

Raise your hand if your high school guidance counsellor ever said this to you: “Good paying jobs are available for people with degrees accounting, software coding, and data analysis”. Actually, those are the jobs AI is now destroying the fastest. But don’t blame your guidance counsellors. They might deserve our sympathy. Today, their job can be done on our smartphones in 30 seconds with a Google search.

The unemployment rate for computer science majors is now HIGHER than that for Art History majors. (see link below). This should NOT be construed as a recommendation to study art history, philosophy, French literature, or ebonics. But it calls into question the value of a college degree at all. Most of us aren’t going to become doctors or nurses. My primary care provider only earns $126,300 from my health network anyway. She dreams of a raise to help repay her college loans. The doc says she wouldn't choose this career again if given a do-over.

If you were baited into reading today’s column by “Chipotle” in the title, here’s your payoff: some geek got a 4-year degree in computer science from Purdue. She had been promised her pick of six figure salary jobs upon graduation. After all, who WOULDN’T want to hire an Indian (slash American) programmer? She applied for 6,000 jobs. Even her application to Chipotle was turned down. No experience. (Possible interviewer explanation: “I dunno what to tell you, ma’am. Maybe try the Chicken Tandoori place next to Panda Express. But you’re definitely NOT going to help us maintain the authentically Mexican illusion here at Chipotle” . . .)

I’m not saying Purdue should be liable for damages, and a refund of Ms. Programmer’s pricey tuition. Usually, I advocate for better product labelling. “These chips have 1,200% of your daily requirement of salt. Such and such career has a starting salary of $33,500 and a 20% unemployment rate 9 months after graduation”. But things are changing fast, and what looked like a good career 4 years ago could be crap by now. Just ask all the lifers in the federal government who took early retirement. They probably had degrees in things like “public policy” and “political science”.

Is there a silver lining here? Chipotle had a near death experience in 2016, when its profits plunged 95%. It’s quite possible that the entire chain (3,700 locations) has reached “peak guacamole”. The whole restaurant industry is fretting because people are cutting back. And lots of Chipotle's locations are in malls, which are dying faster than Tesla sales.

The way Chipotle saved itself in 2016 was inventing “Chipotlanes” for fast pickup by Door Dashers, Uber Eats, and commuters making the trek home at the end of a long workday. Betting the farm on those trends might be risky too.

I’m just sayin’ . . .


The computer science dream has become a nightmare | TechCrunch