Have you ever caught yourself daydreaming about doing something completely different for a living?
In today's fast-changing job market, switching industries is no longer rare. from young graduates realizing their majors don't match the market to seasoned professionals chasing growth or meaning, more people are stepping into new fields.
But how do we know if this leap is worth it?
And what should we really consider before making that Switch.
Coming to you live from Beijing, this is Roundtable.
I'm He Young. For today's program, I'm joined by Steve and Yuxuan in the studio.
First on today's show. Once upon a time, the idea of one job for life was the norm.
Not anymore. Emerging technologies, shifting industries, and new lifestyle priorities are nudging people to reimagine their career paths.
For some, it's about chasing passion, for others it's survival in a changing economy.
So today, let's ask what's driving this wave of industry switching and how can we navigate the risks and opportunities that come with reinventing our careers.
Yuxuan, why has industry switching become a hot topic these days?
Yeah, these days it feels almost like people don't really care so much about especially young people about how they're going to plan a whole career, meaning a whole life on one job.
I remember from my previous job where people come and go all the time, people can just stay for like one to two weeks.
As short as that and then feel tired of it already.
One to two weeks. Yeah, that's how crazy it gets for young people nowadays because many of them, they just simply switch industries today.
Out of a mix of different reasons, there are external changes in the job market and then internal motivations for growth.
Some of my previous coworkers actually go back to school after two weeks of trial in the previous job.
So, yeah, that's how young people are these days.
I don't think it's a these days thing. I think that's kind of a young person thing from generation to generation.
You don't typically, well, I didn't, and I think most people don't.
Plan out your whole career, your whole life when you're 19 or 20 years old, right?
You're just kind of excited to get into the job market if your schooling is finished or whenever you happen to be prepared.
And yeah, I guess some people would make the lifelong plan, but it... very rarely works out that way.
Especially for young people nowadays. Sorry, can I please also just jump in and offer sort of like a footnote to that.
In China, remember the days? well, in the 1990s and before that, for a lot of people it was from a cradle to a coffin, you worked for one employer and that was often a state owned company or organization.
And then you were taken care of. And I know for a lot of, let's say, American workers of Let's say automobile companies in the 1960s and seventies, perhaps it was the same but now gone are those days and also you know just as early as the nineteen nineties if you're old enough and you remember in China when the whole country where at least many heavy industries went through the restructuring and then millions of people were laid off and they were, for they were forced to switch industries to do something completely new because I but also I mean it's a tough period for anybody who feels like they have to switch industries because they're forced to in a way.
Otherwise, there's just no no source of income.
And I think today, although the picture is very different, but a lot of people do feel that They're the industry they work in now might not be here in five years time. or 10 years time, or it would just change so much.
So therefore, you know, this this idea isn't necessarily new, but it's showing up in different ways.
And it's happening faster these days too because of the industry transformation that's taking place.
I would say every day now there are new technologies coming out every day, like AI, the automation of different technologies, the green tech, they're all facing out some traditional job roles while creating new ones in the meantime.
So people have to move in a way to be able to stay relevant.
And also some figures also proves to the same trend that there's an online recruitment platform called five one job that's just released is 2026.
Campus Recruitment Market AI Talent Demand Report.
And the findings are kind of striking as well.
Almost 60 percent of high tech. companies now see AI talent as a core hiring priority.
And in fact, over 58% of these companies, they say they're planning to just bring on more AI talents hired in the future.
And of course, about the third report a modest increase in demand, while nearly 22% say that the demand is surging in their respective companies as well.
Yeah, those are high-tech enterprises, right?
Yeah, so those statistics might seem a little high but when you see oh well those are tech enterprises then they kind of make sense yet.
But at the same time, gulp, you better get on that AI train if you're working in the tech industry or you're going to get left behind, right?
Those are, I guess, Yushan, what you're talking about are the external factors, right?
The shifts. in industries, but there are internal factors as well and what I mean by that is motivations right for some They discover that their current job doesn't match their skill set, and that's fair.
Because when you're entering into the workforce, you might not even know what you're... what your skill set is, right?
That can take some time. You might find that your current job doesn't align with your values or even your personality, so for many people they might just look for a better fit for themselves.
And even some fresh graduates, they might find that their majors, too, don't necessarily match the demand of the job market.
I think that's kind of a common international issue.
Yeah, that fits perfectly with the example I raised about my previous job, which is a position in the academic publishing institute. where a lot of the newcomers of that institute are college graduates. or fresh university graduates that comes from academia and thinks that they can find something that's academic related.
And then just realize it doesn't match. their own major doesn't match what they portray after work life should be.
In the meantime, when we look at the number of university graduates in China, it's already expected to reach 12.22 million in 2025, which is setting a new historical record as suggested by a recent report from China Economic Daily.
However, there's a gap of tens of millions among For example, back to the previous example, the digital talents, and this is just showing how while an unbalanced distribution of talents can exist despite the big poll of university graduates every year.
So there's still A mismatch on that. Yeah, there are certain industries that have a talent gap.
Live streaming. is an interesting sector where they have a big talent gap.
They have about a 19 million count in terms of, of the gap there.
There's gaps in AI, there's gaps in elderly Carefield, both of those have a talent gap of over 10 million.
And manufacturing is, I think, the highest number that I saw.
There's a talent gap there of 30 million.
30 million just in manufacturing alone. Well, I guess for a lot of the young people that I've encountered, the main reason why they want to do this industry shift, lies in the pursuit for, let's say, just very practically the higher payment, or higher salary because fast-growing industries they often tend to offer higher salaries as we picture them.
There are faster promotion tracks and more learning opportunities among, say, peers from all different backgrounds. than just simply shrinking sectors or traditional sectors.
For example, the salary of AI research and development roles, they are definitely on the higher end.
And this is also according to the Phi-1 job report that large model algorithm engineers are at the top of the pay scale, with deep learning engineers and natural language processing engineers not very far behind.
And each of those roles, they pull in a median monthly salary of over 24,000 yuan.
That's roughly $3,350 US dollars per month.
Pretty good. Very good. Yeah. And you're right.
Salary is a big motivator for people. And it has been and it will continue to be.
Mm-hmm. I think, too, going back to your point, Hyung, about the old style of staying with the same company for a long time I mean my dad was a high school vice principal for 30 four years and he stayed there for his whole career, right?
And that would be common for people in his age group.
And I had university friends who had worked, their dads worked or their moms worked for the same companies. for their entire career without ever changing that.
I don't know. I've always thought about that.
I've talked to my dad about that, the reasons for it.
He said, well, I was a teacher, you know, and that's where I taught.
I was happy there. Why would I seek something different?
But I think, too, and there's no statistics to back this up, but I think in the past, agree or disagree with me, There was a loyalty that existed, perhaps from employee to company.
And I'm not sure that exists anymore. You're raising your hand.
Yeah, I so disagree. Oh, yeah? I think you're right, but look at how companies and employers are treating us these days.
Has it offered the kind of care? Has it taken care of us?
And they haven't. So therefore, it is erroneous to even ask for loyalty when you are not providing your employees that.
Because if you do... I think both can meet in the middle.
But unfortunately, in so many ways, Now companies.
Not all, sometimes, treat their workers like disposable cups.
Hold on, I'm just gonna get my popcorn here.
Keep going. Yeah, it really hits the chord.
And also for Chinese workers, sometimes when we feel like when we're 35 and we are very difficult to be re-employed.
When you're 40 something and then you send out hundreds of resumes, and you only get a couple of replies, It's really hard for people.
But that's kind of what I was saying, is that back in the 1970s, or 80s when my dad or people of his age were in the midst of their careers, there was a certain loyalty, but that loyalty, my point was, doesn't seem to exist anymore.
And that might have something to do with why people are more comfortable. um seeking new careers or shifting careers many even many times with throughout the course of their lives because they don't necessarily feel that look that tie to their company and Well, in the past, maybe you feel like you can retire here, you will work up the ladder your kids get taken care of in the company nursery.
But now you'll get that, or most people don't get that, And if you can't really feel like you have a future here, nor is there all these benefits, that are in place, then how dare you demand my loyalty?
And I think as for I think it's for both ways.
It's like in a relationship. Both are choosing.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a symbiotic relationship or it's supposed to be anyway.
I was looking at the World Economic Forum to see if this was kind of a... kind of a global thing.
And that's what it said. This is from 2023 from the World Economic Forum.
The end of the, quote, job for life period.
We're done with that now. and they said on their website that workers of the future, they have to prepare for a career path that includes multiple roles, multiple industries, and and even entirely different careers.
One of the reasons they stated is what we've talked about already, rapid technological changes, right?
You've got the rise of automation and AI, which is causing, we've talked about it a lot of times, people to move move careers or to continue to develop their skills. economic pressures as well, rising cost of living.
Economic instability is forcing people to seek additional income streams.
And also they brought this up on the World Economic Forum as well, which I thought I'd never thought about this before.
But they quoted longer lifespans as a reason for people. potentially changing careers, they said as people live and work longer, a single career spanning 50 plus years, becomes less feasible and less desirable.
As a relatively younger person, I'll say that nowadays young people, as they sweep jobs, switch between jobs and industries, it's not like we hate stability it's not like we are running away from loyalty it's not that we don't enjoy just one single job and just do that for the rest of our lives. the priorities are different nowadays.
We see young people I remember seeing in the service industry, there is the Gen Z gaze that we talked about where they treat the customers differently because the value of service providing is different.
It's the same in job seeking. Nowadays, young people, they look for say flexible in careers to look for say how this is going to match with the my internal meaning I'm seeking for my life and also where my passion lies.
So these becomes new priorities amidst the whole sea of young people seeking jobs, let's say.
It's not that I don't want a job and sit on it for like say 10 years.
I just want to find the best one. How about that?
When COVID... forced people out of the offices and back into their homes to work.
People started to reevaluate their lives right and that's been covered extensively in in the media and when you start to kind of rediscover what you want for your own life.
I think people started to feel like, wait a minute, Why am I... I'm not happy with what I'm doing there.
I don't enjoy it. I don't... my values don't align with the company's values, maybe it is time for me to Kind of seek that balance between feeling good about what I do And yeah, you're right.
Having security at the same time is something everybody seeks.
But maybe a little bit more on the personal side than on the professional side.
Maybe just a half and half. A little bit of A, a little bit of B. Yeah.
Well, we've talked about all these different reasons why people switch.
But how do you know whether it's the time to switch careers or not?
And can I also just quickly offer a caveat that is you know for younger employees who've only worked for a year, three years, as opposed to someone who's worked, let's say 10 years, switching careers, I think the cost you're bearing are very different.
So could you guys sort of work the different case scenarios and offer your thoughts.
I think before making any decisions, there are three principles or other three questions you kind of need to ask yourself and measure before you make the decision of changing a job or an industry in general.
So first of all, does this current, or rather, First of all, does this new drop better match my core competences and also secondly is it really impossible to solve my current difficulties in in the current industry environment.
And thirdly, is the core of switching industries within my acceptance range because Nowadays, we see a lot of young people, they are jumping away from a certain position simply because they think they are like undergoing a lot of pressure or undergoing the certain hardship they have to face in certain jobs or industries and thinking this reaching a different industry might solve all of those problems but In reality, I don't think that's the case.
You enter a new poll, You swim with new peers and new fishes in that pool and you encounter new issues.
Before you make that decision of switching, it's really important to ask yourself how much I'm willing to to cost my current life in order to switch to that future looking good, seemingly nice.
Future career that I'm planning to jump into.
I think you have to check your own circumstances. too right you know i mean if you have the luxury of considering a career change diving in as you said to a new pool That's great.
If you have six children who are relying on your paycheck to feed them.
Well, then your priorities are different, right?
And you're... circumstances are different than say a single person is, in their mid-20s who decides, I don't like what I'm going to do.
I'm going to move across the world and do something else like I did.
When I was 22 years old, I woke up in the morning.
I realized I don't like going to work. And that was the same feeling I was having every single day.
So I knew I needed change. I can't work in this industry anymore.
And that's when I moved to Korea. I had that luxury, didn't I?
I was a young, single guy with no ties to anyone or any particular place.
If you have the luxury, you can... you can consider it but also it's really important to know where your where your priorities lie and what's number one and two on your priority list.
Absolutely. That's why it's so much easier if you're a younger person without so many social ties, without so many responsibilities to switch careers because when you switch, often that means you are moving into new territory, right?
As you grow older, let's say you've established yourself in your previous industry. and now for some compelling reason or a confluence of reasons you feel I got to switch to something else.
And especially when you're more experienced and then you're stepping into something new, There might even be this status gap or psychological gap where or when your social standing, income, or professional recognition drops as you enter a new industry.
I mean, there are some lucky people who can really they can find their next move that really builds on top of their previous one.
And then if they get into that new industry and your previous experience is being valued.
That is the best case scenario. But a lot of the times, If you move into something of new on charter territory for you, then are you willing to sort of intern again? you know, hold the entry level job again when you're I don't want to say the age number, but when you used to be like a managerial level person, person of a professional so I think It's it's a tough one and usually people have real compelling reasons that prompt them to make that decision It's person to person.
My sister was a hotel executive. with a high salary and a good position within the company.
And she was on a good career path to be promoted further and further.
She didn't like it. And she quit. to go back to school to get her teacher's license.
She was in her mid-30s and she went back to school with 19-year-olds. and she got her teacher's license, and she's been an elementary school teacher ever since, and she absolutely...
Adores it. She loves it. She's so happy with her career.
And she had that freedom, she had that luxury to make that change at that time, right?
But that's why I said it's person to person.
It was scary for her. She talked about it. about it it was scary for her she was like oh my god Steve I'm sitting oh my god they're so young They're so young in the classroom.
I feel like their grandmother. I said, you're doing you, you know, it's amazing.
Yeah. Yeah, it's really amazing that nowadays young people they have the luxury let's say of just seeing things differently and making the changes.
Somehow I think that, yeah, we're a lucky generation to be able to chase passion in the first place.
Just right from the start of a career, we can already decide if we like it and see that as a criteria before we decide if we want that for lifetime, but Like you guys mentioned, like for my parents case, they both stayed in their respective career for basically two decades, three decades already.
And despite the ups and downs, they still stay on with the current job, not because how good or well paid they are, but just simply I need to provide for my kids.
Yeah. Here's a question. Do we need to love our job?
Oh, that should be a topic on its own. We'll save that for another day.
Well, let me say this then. This is how I really feel about a topic like this.
I think you have to look at your own circumstances your own life see how you feel about about what you're doing with your time on this planet.
If you go on the internet and you do searches about when's the right time to change my career you'll find things like this well here's the formula for calculating industry changing costs.
The industry changing cost refers to the cost that must be invested in in tiring a new career track.
Robot. Right. Well, that has nothing to do with you as a person.
I mean, you can read those articles and take that advice, but take it with a grain of salt, right?
And how do you evaluate or tell the long-term value of let's say, a new industry you might get into?
I think this is a relevant question if you're contemplating This is the new pool I might take a deep dive in.
Honestly speaking, most people, they end up moving back and forth between just different mindsets of whether I should just explore on or I should stay on my current job but How to judge whether a hot industry is worth your long-term investment?
First of all, you definitely need to check your own motivation.
Do you love it? Do you like it? Are you willing to throw yourself into it?
And also does this say future industry you're about to dive into really spark your curiosity? want you to have this, say, inspiring you to want to grow within the industry instead of just for face value, say, payments on whether it's money wise or experience wise.
So that's something young people kind of need to learn or rather determine for themselves before making the decision.
And also there's the industry itself, is it? riding on a long-term trend, for example, like the current very heated industries like the tech or AI or really policy-wise or given the demographics that it's covering, is it really a promoting, self-promoting topic?
Does it have like a very say, long term future for you to be in there.
So these are all things that you kind of need to figure out.
Yeah, you know. um if you think to yourself today oh i think i'm gonna open a cd player store Maybe try vinyl.
Vinyl selling, CDs aren't. Vinyl's still cool. i think you see where i'm going with this right like uh use your own judgment maybe do a bit of research um on the industry and see if you can get some predictions on where trends are going and things like that.
Just try to keep moving forward, don't move backward.
Yeah, that's a good point. I agree with you because every person's situation is different.
Sometimes this looks like a very a great industry to be in.
And it looks like a great job of in the eyes of outsiders, but for the insiders, for the person who's actually working the job, Maybe she sees and feels the glass ceiling. in this particular company, and there's just no growth for me anymore.
Maybe it's that, this job requires him to travel so much and maybe he's reached a certain age and with family, child-rearing responsibilities, maybe he wants to get more involved and he doesn't want to do that much traveling anymore and then These are all valid reasons for somebody to switch jobs. that's no longer something that anybody is surprised about, but perhaps even switch industries.
And I don't know whether this is us looking at this situation perhaps romanticizing it a little bit.
But ever since COVID, I saw so many articles on social media. in China talking about, oh, this person used to work for Alibaba and now has opened a tea shop or a cafe in Dali and is living a great lifetime.
And those kind of things make the corporate cattle's daydream.
And I saw some articles saying that people do actually lead a great life despite setbacks and things. but making that major switch in life, but it doesn't always Work that way.
Yeah, yeah. And so... looking at the different age groups the different sort of leg of the journey in their careers, in their lives.
To sum up, what are the top things to consider before you make a switch that you would like to leave with our listeners?
Well, I'm going to start with a personal sharing because that's how I learned that I... belong with where I'm working right now.
I've been working here for like five, less than five, four years.
But Here's what I learned. Guys, if you decide you want to stay in this job or not, the first thing is that when a tough imagine a tough um task is allocated onto you Do you see it as a mere disaster happening to you for the next week that you're going totally panicked? and just doing whatever you can, pulling up everything, all of yourselves and facing it with your whole power. and still feeling very anxious and pressured about it?
Or do you, tend to see it as a challenging job that's going to bring you more than it seems. at the time that you received that job.
I think at the very beginning, we all go through that first um say option wow i was so distracted so big of a task i can't do it what am i gonna do But then as you grow in this industry and gradually learn behind what's what each task means, then you start to learn the logic behind it and you grow within it.
So yeah, go try to find that with, with your own industry, within your own job and see if it happens.
And I'll just say this really quickly. This is from a site called Apollo Technical, and they were giving statistics about 39% of people, this is American statistics, 30%.
39% of people who are considering career changes are motivated by higher salaries.
Only 14% of Americans believe they have a great job.
Around 70% of all working-age people are actively looking for a job change.
But here's the one I'll leave you with. It's estimated that most people will have 12 jobs during their lives. so if you think about that and you're panicking about oh is this the right decision to change well It's kind of something that's a natural course of life, it seems.
So you can think of it that way, too. In a world where industries rise and fall so much quicker than it used to, change really is the only constant.
For many of us, survival will always be part of the reason we switch careers.
The old path just isn't safe anymore, but survival alone isn't enough.
When you add self-knowledge that honest understanding of your strengths, values, and limits and that little flicker of hope inside of you, along with Preparation and curiosity, a career switch could become an investment in your future self.
