Would you recommend your job to your children?

[Anonymous]

It seems like my lawyer friends hate it and wouldn't recommend. Ditto for doctors and teachers.

Anyone have a job they would actually recommend for their children?

[Anonymous]

You don't have to hate it to not recommend it - you might just see that it's just a changing job market. I hear a lot about veterinarians being bought up by PE for example. I have a parent who spent his career fixing equipment no one uses anymore: it was a good job and he liked it but he knew it wouldn't outlive him.

I think it's better to consider the kind of work environment you want, and geographically where the work can be done, and then see what's out there.

[Anonymous]

I’m a lawyer and would not recommend it. There are so many easier ways to make a living.

[Anonymous]

I'm an engineering manager and it's good. But also because my company is employee owned and chill.

[Anonymous]

I love being a lawyer but I wouldn’t recommend it because it doesn’t suit my kids’ strengths, and at least around here the commute combined with family needs is brutal (thanks 5x a week RTO policies). I’d recommend it to someone who could practice in a smaller legal market in a less crowded area. Say, Philadelphia or Richmond. Although if I didn’t have kids it wouldn’t be an issue.

[Anonymous]

I'm a lawyer and love working as a lawyer. My field is trial law for a governmental agency. I would highly recommend government work and also my specific job to my kids if it suited their personalities.

[Anonymous]

I’m a CPA and have a decent work-life balance and earn decent money. When I was younger, I never would have thought that this would be my career, but here I am. I am not at all passionate about my work and am 100% ok with that.

Would I recommend it to my kids? Sure, I guess. But they think it’s totally dull and lame.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a lawyer and love working as a lawyer. My field is trial law for a governmental agency. I would highly recommend government work and also my specific job to my kids if it suited their personalities.

I'm a lawyer and also like my job a lot. I'm m in house. I'd recommend it, but you do have to be strategic about your career. It's easy to get stuck.

[Anonymous]

I'm a public interest lawyer and love it. I would only recommend it if the PSLF program continues. Alas, both my kids prefer stem over writing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a lawyer and love working as a lawyer. My field is trial law for a governmental agency. I would highly recommend government work and also my specific job to my kids if it suited their personalities.

I imagine you put in more than 40 hrs during trial and trial prep? Are you compensated with OT or just comp time?

[Anonymous]

I'm a lawyer and enjoy it, but frankly I think my kid could do better.
For a lot of people, including me, lawyer is a reliable transition path for kids from working class or LMC families. The next generation has more options, and is more likely to have a safety net that makes it easier to take risks.

[Anonymous]

I'm a lawyer and mostly like it, but I would not recommend it to my son because he has different interests, and the amount of writing required would be a killer for him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a lawyer and enjoy it, but frankly I think my kid could do better.
For a lot of people, including me, lawyer is a reliable transition path for kids from working class or LMC families. The next generation has more options, and is more likely to have a safety net that makes it easier to take risks.

What do you think "better" is? I thought medicine may be better in that it seems more purposeful and often higher paying, but people on here complain about that as well. As an aside, I think it would be difficult to go from WC/LMC to BigLaw. Maybe from a funded Ivy undergrad, though.

[Anonymous]

Wow. I want to sincerely thank you for posting this question, as this framing has really helped me!

Yes, I would recommend my job to my kids whole heartedly. I work in political data.

The pay is solid ($115k) I'm doing work that supports my values, coworkers are pleasant, leadership is very understand of work life balance and having to deal with kid stuff (everyone in my chain of command has very young kids). I can come in late to go to a kid's assembly, or leave early to take my kid to soccer and no one cares. If my sick kid is in the background or even interrupts work calls, everyone's fine with it. The work itself is fine/good, and I have a lot of control over my day.

I sometimes think about leaving - while we're mission driven, and I believe in the mission, my enthusiasm has wained a bit, and I'm not sure that the work we do is actually the best path forward. And the flip side of all the loosey-goosey flexibility is that... a lot of my coworkers don't work very hard, there's not a lot of accountability, and it's really hard to get people to meet deadlines or have a sense of urgency. So sometimes I dream of moving somewhere where there's little more passion and urgency.

But your framing has really helped me see this morning that my job is pretty awesome. And I needed that. So thank you!

[Anonymous]

Yes. I'm an actuary. My son will take his first exam as a senior in HS. My daughter 2 years behind wants to be a doctor, but I hope she becomes an actuary instead. Her skills in math and intelligence are out of this world. When we play poker her card counting skills are truly amazing.

I'll recommend the job to them because it has good life balance, pays well and has a high barrier to entry.