Careers Will Fragment Into Modular, Multi-StageJourneys. The future will be less ladder, more lattice. Workers will move through multiple careers across their lifetime, often building on adjacent skills. An IT technician becomes a cybersecurity specialist. A warehouse worker becomes a logistics analyst. A nurse might advance into a nurse practitioner role, or specialize through additional credentialing in areas like critical care, oncology, or informatics.
Instead of choosing one identity at age 22, people will build evolving portfolios of expertise over time. The systems that support this reality, including credentialing platforms and lifelong learning tools, will shape the next era of economic mobility.
There have been major disruptions in recent years that promise to change the very nature of work. Amid ongoing shifts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, automation, and other possible disruptions to the status quo, many wonder what the future holds for employment. For example, a report by theMcKinsey Global Institute estimated that automation will eliminate 73 million jobs by 2030.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series!
Our readers like to get an idea of who you are and where you came from. Can you tell us a bit about your background? Where do you come from? What are the life experiences that most shaped your current self?
Thanks so much for having me. I’m honored to be included.
I’m Peter Murphy, and I live in Seattle with my wife and daughter. I’ve always been fascinated by the systems that make the world function, especially the infrastructure and coordination we often take for granted. Whether it’s transportation networks, supply chains, or education pathways, I’ve always been drawn to the question: what keeps everything moving?
I graduated from the University of North Florida with a business degree and began my career in Orlando at a major aerospace manufacturer. My role was in supply chain operations, making sure the right parts arrived at the right time so teams could build highly advanced systems. That experience gave
me deep respect for the people doing the work and for how fragile even the best-designed systems can become under pressure.
A turning point for me came when my department head encouraged me to pursue a professional credential, the CPIM certification. At the time, it was a grueling five-part exam that often took more than a year to complete.
I failed the fifth and final module by one point, twice.
That frustration turned into clarity. Millions of capable adults aren’t failing because they aren’t smart. They struggle because the learning tools were never built for how real people study while working full-time lives.
That experience ultimately became the seed for Pocket Prep, a platform designed to make professional advancement more accessible, more modern, and more human.
What do you expect to be the major disruptions for employers in the next 10–15 years? How should employers pivot to adapt to these disruptions?
The next decade will be defined by two overlapping disruptions: automation and rising expectations.
The first is obvious. Artificial intelligence will reshape the cost and structure of knowledge work. McKinsey estimates that automation could affect hundreds of millions of workers globally by 2030, especially in roles built around routine cognitive tasks.
But the second disruption is more subtle. Employees and customers are no longer willing to tolerate broken systems.
COVID-19 accelerated a trend where many organizations learned they could operate understaffed and still remain profitable in the short term, even if service levels dropped. Consumers experienced this everywhere: slower healthcare, weaker customer support, longer wait times, and more friction.
AI will intensify the temptation to cut deeper.
The employers who thrive will be the ones who ask not “How fast can we eliminate roles?” but instead:
- Where do humans still create trust?
- Where does judgment matter most?
- What work should remain meaningfully human?
The future belongs to companies that treat AI as an amplifier, not an excuse to hollow out the workforce.
Despite the doom and gloom predictions, there are, and likely still will be, jobs available. How do you see job seekers having to change their approaches to finding not only employment, but employment that fits their talents and interests?
One of the biggest shifts ahead is that many jobs won’t disappear, but they will transform into oversight and stewardship roles.
We’re already seeing this with customer service. AI chatbots can handle repetitive questions, but fully automated support often creates frustrating loops: incorrect answers, circular logic, and no escalation path when trust breaks down. So the new job isn’t answering every call. The new job is managing the system.
The future workforce will need more people who can:
- supervise AI interactions
- audit outcomes for quality and fairness
- intervene when automation fails
- improve workflows over time
Instead of a hundred call-center workers, you may have a smaller number of highly trusted specialists monitoring performance and escalating problems to focused teams.
Job seekers should position themselves as the people who can work alongside machines, not compete directly against them.
The statistics of artificial intelligence and automation eliminating millions of jobs, appears frightening to some. For example, Walmart aims to eliminate cashiers altogether and Dominos is instituting pizza delivery via driverless vehicles. How should people plan their careers such that they can hedge their bets against being replaced by automation or robots?
The safest career strategy in the age of automation is simple but difficult: build a life around continuous learning. Not as a panic response, but as a mindset.
The workers who will thrive are the ones who stay curious, asking “how does this system work?” or “what is changing in my industry?”, prioritizing skills that compound over time. AI will replace tasks faster than it replaces people, as long as people continue learning and evolving alongside it. The future belongs to learners.
What societal changes do you foresee as necessary to support the fundamental changes to work?
We need to recognize that the labor transition ahead is not purely an individual responsibility. Markets move far faster than institutions, and if automation eliminates jobs more quickly than we create new pathways forward, inequality will widen.
To prevent that outcome, society will need stronger, coordinated investments in workforce retraining, accessible and affordable credentialing, lifelong education models that support adults at every stage of their careers, and safety nets that help people navigate periods of transition without falling behind.
The future of work cannot be defined by efficiency alone. It has to be grounded in dignity.
What changes do you think will be the most difficult for employers to accept? What changes do you think will be the most difficult for employees to accept?
Employers will struggle most with accepting that automation still requires human accountability. Cutting too deeply will backfire when customer experience collapses or institutional knowledge disappears.
Employees will struggle most with accepting that stability now requires adaptation. The era of learning once and doing the same job for decades is fading. Learning can’t remain a special project. It has to become part of adulthood.
Despite all that we have said earlier, what is your greatest source of optimism about the future of work?
My optimism comes from the fact that humans are endlessly inventive.Every major technological shift has created new categories of work we couldn’t have imagined beforehand. The challenge is the transition, but the opportunity is enormous. AI can remove drudgery and unlock more meaningful work if we guide it intentionally.
Historically, major disruptions to the status quo in employment, particularly disruptions that result in fewer jobs, are temporary with new jobs replacing the jobs lost. Unfortunately, there has often been a gap between the job losses and the growth of new jobs. What do you think we can do to reduce the length of this gap?
The best way to shorten the gap is to modernize how people reskill. Traditional education is often too slow, too expensive, and too disconnected from real outcomes. We need faster pathways, such as:
- micro-credentials
- employer-aligned training
- stackable certifications
- mobile-first learning
That’s exactly why Pocket Prep exists: to help people advance without having to pause their lives.
Okay, wonderful. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “Top 5 Trends To Watch In the Future of Work?” (Please share a story or example for each.)
1. The Rise of Human-in-the-Loop Work
AI will not eliminate humans. It will elevate human oversight.The fastest-growing roles will involve supervising automated systems, validating outputs, and stepping in when technology fails. We will see entire job categories emerge around AI quality control, escalation management, and ethical accountability.For example, healthcare systems are adopting AI-assisted documentation, but clinicians still need to verify accuracy because mistakes carry real consequences. The same will be true in finance, education, aviation, and customer service. The future of work will reward people who can combine technical fluency with human judgment.
2. Credentials Will Become the New Career Currency.
Degrees will still matter, but the labor market is shifting toward skills-first hiring.Professional certifications are becoming a faster and more targeted way for workers to prove competence. They also allow employers to hire based on verified capability rather than pedigree. This is especially important in fields like healthcare, IT, skilled trades, and project management, where credentialing directly connects to job readiness. The future workforce will be built on modular education: shorter, focused learning journeys that stack into long-term advancement. Continuous Learning Will Become a Core Job Requirement.
3. In the past, education was front-loaded. You studied early in life and then spent decades applying what you learned; that model is breaking.
The half-life of skills is shrinking, and workers will increasingly need to reskill every few years. Companies will begin treating learning the way they treat compliance or performance: not optional, but expected. The most resilient professionals will be the ones who treat curiosity as part of their identity, not something reserved for career emergencies.
4. Trust and Human Service Will Become a Competitive Advantage.
As automation spreads, human interaction becomes premium. Consumers will remember the companies that still provide empathy, clarity, and real support. Employees will gravitate toward workplaces that preserve meaning rather than reducing everything to metrics. In a world full of AI-generated noise, trust becomes the differentiator. I’d argue that it always was, but it’s become more important than ever. The organizations that win will not be the ones that automate the most. They will be the ones that automate thoughtfully while protecting the human experience.
5. Careers Will Fragment Into Modular, Multi-Stage Journeys.
The future will be less ladder, more lattice. Workers will move through multiple careers across their lifetime, often building on adjacent skills. An IT technician becomes a cybersecurity specialist. A warehouse worker becomes a logistics analyst. A nurse might advance into a nurse practitioner role, or specialize through additional credentialing in areas like critical care, oncology, or informatics. Instead of choosing one identity at age 22, people will build evolving portfolios of expertise overtime. The systems that support this reality, including credentialing platforms and lifelong learning tools, will shape the next era of economic mobility.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how this quote has shaped your perspective?
“One point doesn’t define you. Persistence does.”
Missing that final exam by one point, twice, forced me to reframe failure. I learned to see setbacks not as destiny, but as information that helps you decide your next move.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
I’d love to have breakfast with Satya Nadella. As fellow Seattleites, I’ve admired how he’s guided Microsoft’s reinvention by pairing AI transformation with cultural humility and a deep commitment to learning. That balance is exactly what the future of work demands.
Our readers often like to follow our interview subjects’ careers. How can they further follow your work online?
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterjosephmurphy/
- https://www.pocketprep.com/
- https://www.instagram.com/pocketprep/
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this. We wish you continued success and good health.
Thank you for having me!
References:
McKinsey Global Institute. Jobs Lost, Jobs Gained: Workforce Transitions in a Timeof Automation. https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/jobs-lost-jobs-gained-what-the-future-of-work-will-mean-for-jobs-skills-and-wages
World Economic Forum. The Future of Jobs Report.https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2025/
LinkedIn. Workplace Learning Report. https://learning.linkedin.com/resources/workplace-learning-report
Harvard Business Review. Collaborating with AI. https://hbr.org/insight-center/collaborating-with-ai
About the Article
“How do you prepare for the future of work?” To address this open question, Medium reached out to successful leaders in business, government, and labor, as well as thought leaders about the future of work to glean their insights and predictions on the future of work and the workplace. As a part of their interview series called “Preparing For The Future Of Work”, Medium interviewed Peter Murphy.
Peter is the CEO of Pocket Prep, a digital learning platform that helps learners prepare for high-stakes exams and professional certifications. Under his leadership, Pocket Prep supports learners across more than 140 exams in fields including healthcare, IT, and the skilled trades. As CEO, he oversees company strategy and product vision, with an emphasis on sustainable growth and long-term customer trust. Based in the PacificNorthwest, Peter is passionate about credential-based education and building tools that make professional advancement more accessible.
About the Interviewer
Phil La Duke is a popular speaker & writer with thousands of works in print. He has contributed to Authority, Buzzfeed, Entrepreneur, Monster, Thrive Global, and many more magazines and is published on all inhabited continents. He is the author of four books and a contributor to one more. His latest book Stop. Don’t Shoot! Preparing For and Surviving MassShootings and Rampage Attacks. deals with identifying and preventing MassShootings. La Duke believes this subject is so important that he sent copies to thePOTUS, the VPOTUS, and every US Senator who was seated as of January 7, 2023.
His first book is a visceral, no-holds-barred look at worker safety, I Know My Shoes Are Untied! Mind Your Own Business. An Iconoclast’s View of Workers’ Safety. His second book Lone Gunman: Rewriting the Handbook On Workplace Violence Prevention that deals with workplace violence, particularly directed at women, is listed as #16 on Pretty Progressive magazine’s list of 49 books that powerful women study in detail. His third book, Blood In My Pockets Is Blood On Your Hands is a step-by-step guide to getting worker safety right, and Loving An Addict: CollateralDamage Of the Opioid Epidemic is due to be released in 2025. La Duke also contributed a chapter to 1% Safer, a not-for-profit book, written by the “top game-changers and global thought leaders.”
Expertfile lists Phil La Duke as a top 25 thought leader in multiple areas. Inaddition to his writing, Phil sits on eight Biomedical Research Oversight Boardsand is a highly sought-after speaker. La Duke is currently employed as a COVIDCompliance and Production Safety Consultant for the film and television industry.
Follow Phil on Twitter @philladuke, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Phil-La-Duke-320996002174991/
His author’s page on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/~/e/B07G799XC6, or read his weekly blog www.philladuke.wordpress.com that he updates with the regularity of a turtle with too much rice in its diet.
