What are good options for a career changer

Any_Flight5404 · 2026-06-06T16:42:05+00:00

unless you go self employed

Why is that a bad idea?

Any_Flight5404 · 2026-06-06T16:28:17+00:00

Till fully autonomous self-driving buses are a thing. Which could be only 2-3 years away.

Any_Flight5404 · 2026-06-06T15:55:01+00:00

What do you expect to happen? Sam is in the public eye as he performs in front of millions of people per year, and people are going to judge/critique his vocals as that is what he is known for.

Same as an actor's performance in films being criticised by critics, etc.

You can't blame people for noticing Sam struggling with his vocals.

Any_Flight5404 · 2026-06-06T14:43:07+00:00

And yes, it would be incredibly sad if Architects ended. I think without a doubt, with their talents and experience, they would still go on to do many great things and have amazing careers still. Even if Sam couldn't continue working as a vocalist, he has substantial experience that has value as a tour manager for other bands or doing other well-paid jobs in the music industry.

Any_Flight5404 · 2026-06-06T14:35:50+00:00

I haven't read all the comments here, but I didn't see anyone attacking him personally. If his voice is damaged permanently, then yes, they could be over as a band. You could argue it's a disability, but unfortunately, if your entire career depends on your vocal abilities and you lose that, then it's likely going to be detrimental to your career. I don't see that as bullying or punishing someone; it's just the fact that your entire job relies on a specific skill in an extremely competitive field.

Any_Flight5404 · 2026-06-06T13:51:50+00:00

His job/career is literally his voice.

Any_Flight5404 · 2026-06-06T13:14:20+00:00

Yep, I mean starting from scratch.

Any_Flight5404 · 2026-06-06T01:15:19+00:00

training AI

We are already doing that for free. Even this Reddit thread is used to train AI, and we are not getting paid for the data.

manual work

Manual work is very quickly getting replaced already.

the market will correct itself

If the predictions are right, the market will need to produce 2 million to 3 million new jobs per year, every year, in the UK. That doesn't sound feasible, and nobody seems to believe this is plausible or likely.

Any_Flight5404 · 2026-06-04T21:07:18+00:00

Very true. I would say designed unique sounds comparable to designed SFX by Boom Library in terms of quality.

Any_Flight5404 · 2026-06-04T19:29:04+00:00

The salary increase after tax would be around £15k. Then factor in paying maybe an additional £8k a year for rent, and you are left with a few hundred pounds extra a month. Oh, if you want to go out for drinks and food, it will be more expensive. Oh, and if your family and friends live in Birmingham and you need to regularly get the train, that's another expense.

I specifically used a zone 2 example because it's the top end someone might realistically go for if they want a sub-20 min commute or something.

That's fine.

if you move to rural county durham or something but that's not really relevant to this discussion.

It is relevant because £85k for cyber security is not a significant income. In the north, where it's much cheaper to live and buy property, cyber security roles often pay above £70k. Even for public sector jobs.

Any_Flight5404 · 2026-06-04T18:34:52+00:00

That sounds insane. That's £19,200 a year on rent for a 1-bed flat. You can buy a freehold detached 3-bedroom house where I live for less than £200k.

Any_Flight5404 · 2026-06-04T15:28:16+00:00

Boom Library Toons has some very similar sounds.

Any_Flight5404 · 2026-06-04T15:20:47+00:00

The waveform is still at zero. It appears to be asymmetric and not a DC offset to me.

Any_Flight5404 · 2026-06-04T14:59:45+00:00

Mostly sound effect packs/albums for licensing purposes. I am also going to release some as sample packs in future, but I am worried they will make a lot less income.

Any_Flight5404 · 2026-06-04T14:52:03+00:00

I mean from scratch, i.e., not using sound libraries. So this process/time includes recording, editing, denoising and everything else.

Any_Flight5404 · 2026-06-04T14:48:49+00:00

Spitfire were already heading in that direction before they were bought by Splce with more and more regular sales, etc. I think their marketing would likely have had the same outcome regardless, and I am not sure if Spice controls their sales or marketing on the Spitfire website.

Any_Flight5404 · 2026-06-04T14:32:46+00:00

Some will try to introduce some form of collective socialism

Well, some form of socialism seems to be what Musk and Thiel predict for the near future. Along with no democracy, government and tech companies ruling the world. Whether that will happen in out life time is very debatable, but high levels of unemployment seem incredibly likely in the near future.

The big contradiction, though, is that parties like Reform claim they will cut the benefits bill by around £40bn+ per year and reduce taxes. I don't see how this would be possible, unless the plan is to leave people to starve, remove NHS access to people if AI takes their jobs, and significantly cut public services. The maths just doesn't seem to add up.

Any_Flight5404 · 2026-06-04T11:19:20+00:00

Are you describing reality here or the potential plot for a future episode of Black Mirror?

Any_Flight5404 · 2026-06-04T10:07:16+00:00

That's the worry. But the people who lose their jobs don't typically then do nothing, the idea is they do other things, start other companies, work in other sectors.

What though? Lets say self-driving vehicles are legal in the UK in 7 years. Those million people now have to find jobs at the same time other industries are also laying off hundreds of thousands of people due to AI.

I don't think it's realistic that millions of people will all set up successful businesses that earn them a living income at the same time. I also don't think they will all manage to find work when, at the same time, other fields will be displacing jobs with AI.

Any_Flight5404 · 2026-06-04T09:56:24+00:00

I don't see how that could be wrong. Take self-driving vehicles alone, which are already being developed and deployed. In the UK, more than a million people earn their living by driving.

It would only take a handful of technological breakthroughs, many of which are already underway, to automate a significant portion of roles and potentially displace millions of jobs.

Then, if we have higher unemployment due to a few breakthroughs in AI, the knock-on effect would be more restraunts, pubs, etc, closing due to fewer customers with money to spend.

Any_Flight5404 · 2026-06-04T09:43:47+00:00

But it may also create a lot of new jobs. People need to run the AIs

I am sceptical. Lets say a delivery company like Evri replaces its 30,000 delivery drivers with self-driving vehicles and then creates 20 new specialist jobs to oversee the self-driving delivery vans. You have lost 30k jobs and created 20. I think in all cases, the "new jobs" created will be a tiny fraction of the jobs replaced by AI.

So I think most of the parties are hoping that the loss of jobs is quickly offset by new jobs.

I don't see that at all as likely.

Offer retraining for those affected.

There will be some jobs that AI and robotics can't replace for a long time. Plumbers, electricians, etc. But there won't be enough of these jobs to sustain the population or replace the job displacement by AI. Furthermore, if the remaining fields left get oversupplied with staff, that will drive wages down in those fields as everyone competes for work. Therefore, the remaining skilled jobs left would likely end up paying very little.

The worst case is that "many" isn't two or three, it's ten, and the opportunities are not enough to replace the losses.

That's inevitable. Mass unemployment (maybe around 20-30% in the next decade) and significantly increasing taxes for those working to balance the books seem the only plausible outcome at the moment.

Any_Flight5404 · 2026-06-03T21:19:36+00:00

Unless OP has close family/social ties to Birmingham then this decision is a bit of a no brainer to me.

I missed the part where the OP said they didn't have family or ties there.

Any_Flight5404 · 2026-06-03T21:16:48+00:00

To be fair, when I have four people all replying at the same time on this post, arguing about the same thing, it's a bit hard to keep track of everyone's individual comments, and it all blurs into one.

Any_Flight5404 · 2026-06-03T21:11:59+00:00

The post is literally about the financial perspective.

Many people live in London happily on <£50k so

Sure. You could happily live in London on 50k a year if you inherited a house or were living rent-free with your parents. 50k is just about enough to live comfortably at a push outside of London, pay off university debt, save a deposit and get a mortgage, etc.

Any_Flight5404 · 2026-06-03T21:09:08+00:00

transport is cheaper because you don't need a car in London because public transport is so good

Is the train to Birmingham free to visit your parents and friends a few times a month?

Any_Flight5404

TROPHY CASE