Herald staff
EVERETT — Today’s teen-agers will choose from a wider variety of jobs than previous generations, but they should be ready for more changes in the work world than their parents experienced.
"The world has changed more in the last three years than in the previous 50," speaker Joe Estey told hundreds of Snohomish County high school students at the Rotary Career Fair on Wednesday. "And in the next three years, it will change more than it has in the last 100."
Held on the Everett Community College campus, the career fair attracted approximately 600 students who came to hear speakers from a range of job fields.
Estey, who owns Prolepsis Training in Vancouver, Wash., and speaks to thousands of students and business people, was the day’s keynote presenter. In addition to discussing the future job market, he talked about starting out as a restaurant busboy at age 17 after living on the streets of Seattle.
He told the students that they need to prepare for jobs that require skills. Many of today’s low-skill jobs will disappear as technology allows for further automation of the workplace. But they can’t rely on just learning about technology and not developing their thinking skills.
"Technology has never solved a human being’s problem," Estey said. "It takes clever people using that technology to find a solution."
Everett’s Rotary Career Fair has been held annually for at least a decade, said Rich Haldi, this year’s chairman of the event for the Rotary Club. Approximately 70 club members volunteered to help at the fair.
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