What Career Path Did You Choose That You Strongly Advise Against?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Architecture. Low pay, long hours, lots of big egos, old fashioned patriarchy galore.

I’ve since switched careers, best life decision ever and I make as much or more as my managers with 20 years experience in the architecture field.

I could have written this! Actually most of the moms I know have finally left. I was one of the first, and couldn’t believe how brainwashed we all were working 60 hour weeks for crap pay. Also the layoffs are crazy, and age discrimination. It’s brutal. The education though was extraordinary. It has prepared me for almost any professional situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Architecture. Low pay, long hours, lots of big egos, old fashioned patriarchy galore.

I’ve since switched careers, best life decision ever and I make as much or more as my managers with 20 years experience in the architecture field.

What did you switch to? I'm not an architect but I'm an interior designer working at an A/E firm. Pay cuts, layoffs, egos, long nights, and bullying. I'm so done with this shyt.

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Different pp but go for fed jobs. Look for design in the job description. Take the pay cut and know you will get back up very quickly. Otherwise look for project management roles with institutions/gov

[Anonymous]

Teaching

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Law. And I wasn't an attorney. I worked as a litigation paralegal for 12 long years. It was the most stressful job I've ever had. The pay was really good, but not worth the toll the job was taking on my physical and mental health. My supervising attorney was great. The work could be really interesting. The hours and the pressure were just awful.

I was a litigation paralegal in the government for 13 years until I switched professions. Curious? How much do you make? When I left almost 5 years ago, I was making 112K. I've always wondered if I could have made more in the private industry.

I made about 93K, depending on bonuses. But I worked in Memphis. Big difference in cost of living. I think you probably could have made more in this area. I have a friend making 120K. She has been a paralegal for about 12 years. I really liked the investigative work. I enjoyed working with clients. I liked the legal writing. I even enjoyed trial prep. But the never ending emergencies, the many late nights, and the stress really got to me after a while.

[Anonymous]

Teaching. It only works if your spouse is wealthy and doesn't leave you for another woman.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I started as a PhD scientist with a specialty in organic chemistry. It was miserable. So many huge egos. No HR for students or post docs. It was legit abusive. I had to vacuum and dust my advisor's office, pick up his dry cleaning and work as a coat check when he held a party at his home. I was essentially his slave for $15k/year. The lab working conditions were also far from safe. Another student in a next door lab died of chemical burns for lack of safety equipment. (This was at UCLA.) I'd never push my kid to go into a lab science.

Now I'm a lawyer. Law school was cake. My clerkship was amazing, literally the best job ever. Biglaw wasn't perfect, but was millions of times better than an academic research lab. Fewer hours. Less pressure. More HR rules. Less psycho behavior. I eventually moved in house and love my job. I think most employed lawyers who complain are whiners. (Those with big loans and no jobs have a point.)

Wow, this is interesting to read. I'm sorry you had that experience, PP. As a counterpoint, I have a friend who is a tenured organic chemistry professor at an Ivy, and he (and his family) all describe his life as charmed. He gets job security, amazing colleagues, intellectual stimulation, and lots of flexibility and work-life balance. He has told me many times that he was driven into the profession by love of chemistry and love of teaching, but he has been so impressed by the unexpectedly excellent quality of life that comes from academia (at least the tenured kind...I suspect it was more stressful up until then). He would recommend the career to everyone, but he does acknowledge it's incredibly hard to even get offered a position, let alone obtain tenure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Women should ask themselves what the traditional male equivalent is of whatever they’re traditionally considering, and consider that instead, because it’s usually more lucrative.

Example, teacher versus tenured college professor.
Nurse versus doctor
Cosmetologist versus dermatologist
Art teacher versus engineer
Admin assistant vs program manager

Obviously these are all very different jobs, but I hope you get what I mean.

Also, women should not shy away from things or jobs with numbers in them. Data science, business analysis, finance, corporate real estate, etc. I wish as many women were interested in business school as they are law school.

Lastly, I wish more women would run for office

What? Most of these are absurd and not comparable.

Cosmetologist: 6 wks. Dermatologist: More than 10 years.

Art teacher vs engineer? That's not even worth addressing.

They are absolutely ridiculous. They need to have similar educations/background requirements like:

Social worker (mainly female) vs probation officer (mainly male)
Daycare worker vs. sanitation worker
Cosmetologist Vs. welder/electrician

You guys did not get PPs point. She is saying, give a choice, many women settle for the easier role in that specific industry.

NP but the poster said "traditional male equivalent" and the examples provided are nowhere near equivalent.

[Anonymous]

Special ed teacher

[Anonymous]

law....its soul sucking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Special ed teacher

I can’t believe how miserable this job is now. You have to do the same amount of teaching as other teachers yet you have to do hours and hours of paperwork for IEP’s and attend an endless amount of IEP meetings. While most parents are great to work with there are about 10-20% of parents that are extremely difficult to work with either because they never respond and you have to track them down or because they expect you to spend 25% of your working hours dedicated just to their child, or their child is barely behind yet want a massive amount of services, or expect the whole system to shift. In theory it shouldn’t be the special Ed teachers problem it should be the districts. But the district throws special Ed teachers under the bus and expect them to meet unrealistic expectations on IEP’s that they agreed to based on how they staff positions.
Then you also have to deal with aggressive students who intentionally or unintentionally assault you and paras who are MIA.

[Anonymous]

Didn’t read the whole thread but I’m guessing I’m number 3,648 to say lawyer.

[Anonymous]

Tenured professor. The politics in academia are horrible and people get away with behaviors they never would in other professions. The slog to get your PhD and then tenure ruin your childbearing years if you're a woman. I have several friends who have left academia to teach in private schools and are much happier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Special ed teacher

I can’t believe how miserable this job is now. You have to do the same amount of teaching as other teachers yet you have to do hours and hours of paperwork for IEP’s and attend an endless amount of IEP meetings. While most parents are great to work with there are about 10-20% of parents that are extremely difficult to work with either because they never respond and you have to track them down or because they expect you to spend 25% of your working hours dedicated just to their child, or their child is barely behind yet want a massive amount of services, or expect the whole system to shift. In theory it shouldn’t be the special Ed teachers problem it should be the districts. But the district throws special Ed teachers under the bus and expect them to meet unrealistic expectations on IEP’s that they agreed to based on how they staff positions.
Then you also have to deal with aggressive students who intentionally or unintentionally assault you and paras who are MIA.

This x 1000. I’m hesitant to recommend teaching as a profession to anyone but would never recommend someone to teach in SpEd. That 10%-20% of parents truly have the ability to demoralize even the most optimistic of teachers. I am sympathetic to the parents that are unable to participate in the process but the entitlement of the super demanding parents, along with the non stop assessments, IEP meetings, dealing with admin, etc. has killed my joy. I am starting to tutor on the side and am regaining my LOVE for teaching reading again. I am also looking at going back to school to be an SLP.

[Anonymous]

Journalism unless you are from money or married money

[Anonymous]

Journalism!

It's so different now ... at most, I think a kid with a journalism degree could build a decent career as a content creator or marketing writer. But old-school journalism barely paid before and barely exists anymore.