Where Else You Can Work: A Data Scientist's Tool to Explore Career Paths

Discover new industries and opportunities based on your current occupation using this interactive chart based on 2021 Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

If you are worried about artificial intelligence services like ChatGPT or automation replacing you at work, it might be time to explore some different career paths.

Enter the Where Else You Can Work tool by Data Scientist Nathan Yau. Here is what Yau wrote about the tool:

If you’re searching for a new job, it’s worth looking in different industries — instead of doing more of the same elsewhere, or in the other direction, switching to a completely new occupation. Maybe your current industry is saturated, but a different industry might require your skills.

The searchable chart below shows the industries that people work in, given a specific job. Industries are categorized in rows.

This is based on 2021 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The size of each square represents how many people worked in an industry with your occupation. Color represents industry categories.

Here is an example of the results for someone who works in cartography:

Judging by these results, a cartographer looking for a new path could look at the Government industry at the three main levels: Federal, State, and Local Government. Or, our out-of-work cartographer could pursue opportunities within the Science and Technical Services industry, which appears to be another industry that employs lots of map-makers.

Some of these industries, like the two mentioned above, do not come as much of a surprise in terms of employing cartographers. For one, I am a cartographer that works in government currently and worked for government, government contractors, and for a utility company in the past. There are lots of us in these industries.

But in this example there are a few surprises. The number of cartographers in the Administrative and Waste Management and Mining, Quarrying, and Extraction industries are two of those surprises.

Yau’s tool is worth a look if you are curious about your own industry and career options, or if you just like fun, interactive data science tools.