Every age has its professions that will not outlive the generation. When horses held sway in the West (there were fears that Chicago would drown under their dung), the blacksmith was an honoured professional. He was venerated in poetry. “His brow is wet with honest sweat/He earns whate’er he can,” said Longfellow. “No more the smith his dusky brow shall clear,/Relax his ponderous strength, and lean to hear,” said Goldsmith. “The blacksmith is dead, the forge is unlit;/The strong body lies with the white over it,” said Fullerton.

Yet even in the rhyme of the equine’s heydays, there seemed to be warning signals. Today, the world horse population is in decline. Between, 2009 and 2011, it fell by 1 million each year, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. That should be a good number of blacksmiths out of a job yearly.

Not everybody agrees that the blacksmith should pack his bags and go home. Says CareerOverview, a website for career and job resources: “Yes, blacksmiths exist outside of the World of Warcraft, but they just don't enjoy the same prevalence and visibility as they did in the pre-Industrial era. These days, they keep the ancient craft alive through both functional and decorative arts -- even taking on apprentices of their own to ensure that the painstakingly detailed techniques do not permanently die out.”

CareerOverview lists other professions one thought dead and buried but are still apparently alive, though not exactly kicking. The goldsmith (it’s obvious CareerOverview has never visited India); the cobbler (the shoe is not pinching yet); the worm grunter (for most of us, he didn’t exist. But this grubber for worms to be used as bait by fishermen will survive until the tree huggers promote fish too to the endangered species list); the data entry clerk (one thought this was the age of big data); and the milkman (he is in a bad moo these days).

Yet one day the milkman too will succumb. In the cities, the cows are no longer coming home; the milkman no longer milks the cow in front of you. The data entry clerk will not remain a standalone job because everyone is contributing to data entry.

“Every individual has to evolve,” says Mumbai-based HR consultant D. Singh. “Think of Theodore Levitt. He told businesses to ask themselves: ‘What business are we in?” The buggy drivers who looked beyond their horses and defined their business as transportation survived.”

So if you are in an endangered job, ask yourself: “What profession am I in?” The postman doesn’t have too long an innings left. Mobile telephony (which is killing the landline) and email have had a major impact on traditional mail. UK Royal Mail, for instance, expects letter volumes to fall 4-6 per cent per year. The Indian Postal Service is, meanwhile, recruiting 410 postmen for the Andhra Pradesh region; the written test is on October 24. (Give it a shot; the author of Confessions of an India Woman Eater, Sashti Brata, was a postman in London.)

But the postal service doesn’t really have its head buried in the sand. For instance, it has introduced special rakhi envelopes made of waterproof material. The future is not in letters but in parcels.

So that’s where the postman should see opportunity: in the booming courier services. What about joining Google to add detail to Google Maps; nobody knows his area better than a postman.

The bigger opportunity, however, is in the logistics side of ecommerce sites. Flipkart and its delivery agencies are desperately looking for people.

In fact, companies like Dominos are complaining that its delivery boys are deserting to join the Amazons and the Snapdeals.

Look at the list (see Box). With a bit of imagination, every endangered job can be extrapolated to a profession with potential. Let nobody find a solution for the taxman, however. Like the blacksmith, the taxman has also been the subject of verse:

If you drive a car, I'll tax the street,

If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat.

If you get too cold I'll tax the heat,

If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet.

(George Harrison; The Beatles)

Like slavers and Spanish inquisitors, there are some professions that don’t deserve a future.

TAXMEN & POSTMEN

The most endangered jobs of 2014

Postman
Farmer
Meter Reader
Newspaper Reporter
Travel Agent
Lumberjack
Flight Attendant
Drill Press Operator
Printing Worker
Tax Examiner and Collector

Source: CareerCast