When I was in college and didn’t know what to do with my life, my dad offered this career advice: be a certified public accountant. Why?

“Because,” he said. “People will always need their taxes done. They’ll always need financial advice. With a CPA license, you can always hang out a shingle and put food on the table.”

It was good advice, and it’s still relevant today. So relevant, it’s the same advice I gave to my kids when they reached the same age and were equally unsure about their futures. They don’t have to become CPAs (one did). But they should become professionals licensed by the state. It’s the best job security ever.

State licensing boards have come under scrutiny this year. A Cato Institute report accuses these boards of over-extending their power and there are initiatives this year to curtail their power. Some of these arguments are not without merit. And I’m sure the system can be refined in various ways. In the meantime, my advice remains the same: get a license. Despite arguments against, state licensing is a powerful job protector.

Become a licensed beautician, pharmacist, engineer, cosmetologist, nurse or landscaper. Take advantage of the data-construction boom and get licensed in a construction trade like electrical, plumbing, home improvement, fire inspection.

These jobs are never going to be replaced by technology. AI-based tools and robotics will help improve productivity and will certainly be able to do more hazardous tasks. But they will need to be operated by humans who are licensed professionals.

And it’s critical that the license is government-issued, and not some certificate issued by some podunk college or company that’s basically earned by paying a fee. Having a state license means you’ve worked through an educational program and most likely sat for an exam that has validated your competence. For many professions like mine, you’re required to keep up annually with ongoing educational requirements. All of these professions are represented by countless associations, groups and organizations that support their members with education, resources, mentoring, job connections and even healthcare.

Getting a professional license will result in a higher-paid job, certainly more than another applicant without one. It brings credibility. It demonstrates commitment. It doesn’t guarantee you a job, but it serves as a form of reference that you are competent at what you do and disciplined to get a license.

In earlier times, professionals needed to pay someone to serve as an apprentice in order to learn a trade. Now the state provides that service. And in many cases their requirements are even tougher. To receive my CPA license in Pennsylvania, for example, I needed to not only have a college degree, but pass an exam and work in public accounting for two years. This is why some trade schools are reporting more than a 35% increase in enrollment since 2020. It’s why state licenses have increased as much as 30% over the past few decades driven not just by fee revenue but by demands from consumers that they work with someone who’s gone through a vetting process.

Having a state license not only provides you with a leg up to get a job, it also better enables you to start your own business, if you so choose to do. It’s why the Wall Street Journal reports that private-equity firms are turning the lowly contractors into millionaires, as they’ve been scooping up home services like HVAC – that is, heating, ventilation and air conditioning – as well as plumbing and electrical companies.

I pity the people who work at companies and aren’t licensed professionals, the customer service agents and software developers and marketing and accounting staff members, many of whom will be replaced by AI in the next few years.

Over the next few years, much of the work currently done by many CPAs will be replaced by AI. Software will competently do research, prepare tax returns, analyze financial statements and make financial planning recommendations. But these are just things that will make the smart people in my profession even smarter. Like any other trade, there is much that we do that a bot will never be able to. We advise. We console. We evaluate. We communicate. And the best will become expert with many AI tools that our clients will never have the time or the inclination to master.

These clients will assume their professionals and advisers are taking advantage of technology to do their jobs, just like we’ll assume that our contractors are using the latest tools to do their work quicker and better. And they’ll be right. The coming tech boom is about to launch a boom in people who do things with their hands and minds. And becoming licensed by a state will be increasingly valuable.

My dad didn’t always get it right. But on this, his opinion remains more relevant than ever.