As a professional newbie to the design world, I do have to agree with some of the career-path predictions made in Fast Company's article, 5 Design Jobs That Won't Exist in the Future. And yet, I don't think the future is as dire as the title or tweets make it seem - though it will require some repurposing of one's own design toolbox.
Some predictions seem more near-term than others. For instance, design researchers won't exist, as ethnographic research skills should be a key part of every design project (agreed). Others seem a bit more wishful thinking, i.e., Tim Brown's suggestion that "CEOs will need to be designers in order to be successful."
The second half of the article goes on to point out which design jobs will grow in the future. Having spent the last few years moving into the design strategy space, it was interesting to see this role held up as one for that potential future growth:
Design researchers may find fewer opportunities in the next 15 years, but Artefact's John Rousseau thinks design strategists will be indispensable. "The importance of design strategy will grow," he says. "Future design strategists will need the ability to understand and model increasingly complex systems"—for example, social media networks or supply chains—"and will design new products and services in a volatile environment characterized by continuous disruption and a high degree of uncertainty." In other words, a future defined by political, social, business, and tech disruption that can happen overnight. In such a future, Rousseau says, design strategists will be like ballerinas, dancing their companies in and out of trouble. "It will be more of a dance, and less of a march."