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

[Anonymous]

Educated cop

I have a master degree, went into “law enforcement “ to make a difference.

Did child abuse/homicide most my career.

Started with a training officer who taught how to legally beat people if you are in a bad mood.

Spent evenings with extreme racists, short men with Napoleon complex, people with little understanding of the law or constitution.

Best part was making friends with 7-11 workers, Dunkin’ Donuts workers, gas station workers, etc.

Spent most my life with people going through the worst days of their life and thankful I had a masters in psychology.

Frustrated that I had a better understanding of law than most prosecutors, judges are the most ego driven group I have ever dealt with ... most lawyers and judges I dealt with had seriously unhealthy relationship with alcohol.

Watched “tiger teams” be formed ever time a white woman was killed, while I alone worked on the rest of the cases. Journalists would demonize my POC victims and paint white victims as heroes and white perps as “mentality ill” when they were just down right evil or selfish.


You get the idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Speaking of admin, I never should have gotten an admin job thinking it would lead to a career path outside of admin at a place I admired. Negative career tracking. Also, I regret getting an English degree, & going into education/nonprofits. All super low-paying, feminized professions that have no work-life boundaries. Both my parents were teachers & advised me against going into the field.

Agreed. As an admin in my career field with a M.A. I can’t get out of the stovepipe and seen as something other than admin. Should have held out for better position but was lacking experience.

[Anonymous]

Supervising government employees. Don't do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Educated cop

I have a master degree, went into “law enforcement “ to make a difference.

Did child abuse/homicide most my career.

Started with a training officer who taught how to legally beat people if you are in a bad mood.

Spent evenings with extreme racists, short men with Napoleon complex, people with little understanding of the law or constitution.

Best part was making friends with 7-11 workers, Dunkin’ Donuts workers, gas station workers, etc.

Spent most my life with people going through the worst days of their life and thankful I had a masters in psychology.

Frustrated that I had a better understanding of law than most prosecutors, judges are the most ego driven group I have ever dealt with ... most lawyers and judges I dealt with had seriously unhealthy relationship with alcohol.

Watched “tiger teams” be formed ever time a white woman was killed, while I alone worked on the rest of the cases. Journalists would demonize my POC victims and paint white victims as heroes and white perps as “mentality ill” when they were just down right evil or selfish.


You get the idea.

Thank you for your service and frankness

Non-POC need to know

[Anonymous]

I'm ten years out of law school and have met all my professional but not financial objectives (e.g., at a firm for 5 and then to government). Retirement path is looking good; student loans were not an anchor; family life is a refuge. Day-to-day, I enjoy my job, colleagues, and opposing counsel. However, I could never recommend law school to anyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm ten years out of law school and have met all my professional but not financial objectives (e.g., at a firm for 5 and then to government). Retirement path is looking good; student loans were not an anchor; family life is a refuge. Day-to-day, I enjoy my job, colleagues, and opposing counsel. However, I could never recommend law school to anyone.

sounds like you have done well. I'm 18 years out of law school and haven't met any of these financial goals, and I probably will not ever be happy in this career.

[Anonymous]

Marketing. You will always be one step away from the chopping block due to things entirely outside of your control.

I spent 10 years in marketing due to a very specific communications degree and finally got someone to take the chance on me breaking out of the field. I work in business development for a foreign government now.

[Anonymous]

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

Don't people know this already? This seemed obvious even 30 years ago, when I was in high school.

[Anonymous]

It seems obvious, but I still think women don’t think about making the most money possible the way women do.

[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.)

This has to be one of the most interesting posts here, along w the clown college performer and the physician abused by hospital admins. A student dying of lab burns is horrifying! I'm not surprised that law school seemed like a cake walk compared to organic chemistry. 15k is more than what I made as a liberal arts grad student, but I didn't have to work as a coat check.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, the way men do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It seems obvious, but I still think women don’t think about making the most money possible the way women do.

Agree, I went to a girls school that was all about educating and empowering women and teaching us that we could do anything and break the glass ceiling and all of that. But no one ever talked about how lucrative different careers were or prioritized making money - it was only about doing what you wanted to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It seems obvious, but I still think women don’t think about making the most money possible the way women do.

This. Women go to Columbia and graduate and aspire to get a low level admin job at a NYC nonprofit, while their male peers target jobs with money and develop skill sets.

Seven years later, the women are making $75k and married, hate their going no-where admin job that rarely has a meaningful difference on the world, and surprise.... when the discussion of babies comes along "it really just made sense for me to stay home because it just happened that DH made four times my salary".

Women: Aim higher. Jobs are jobs and, to the extent you derive pleasure from your job, that pleasure is almost surely rooted 99% in what you do day-to-day and not some larger feeling of doing good. Same thing for those who hate their jobs - they hate it because of the day to day. You can day-to-day at a shitty art collective nonprofit making peanuts, or you can do the same kind of day-to-day at McKinsey. Or a defense contractor. Even better: develop a skill set so you don't just do admin and organize office birthday parties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems obvious, but I still think women don’t think about making the most money possible the way women do.

This. Women go to Columbia and graduate and aspire to get a low level admin job at a NYC nonprofit, while their male peers target jobs with money and develop skill sets.

Seven years later, the women are making $75k and married, hate their going no-where admin job that rarely has a meaningful difference on the world, and surprise.... when the discussion of babies comes along "it really just made sense for me to stay home because it just happened that DH made four times my salary".

Women: Aim higher. Jobs are jobs and, to the extent you derive pleasure from your job, that pleasure is almost surely rooted 99% in what you do day-to-day and not some larger feeling of doing good. Same thing for those who hate their jobs - they hate it because of the day to day. You can day-to-day at a shitty art collective nonprofit making peanuts, or you can do the same kind of day-to-day at McKinsey. Or a defense contractor. Even better: develop a skill set so you don't just do admin and organize office birthday parties.

This is so true. I’m a woman who went to Columbia and took a $36k/yr job (in NYC!!!) when most of the men went to Wall Street. Luckily came to my senses and went corporate two years later, but didn’t know how to negotiate a salary and found out I was offered/accepted 35% less than my colleagues with the exact same background and role.

I’ve corrected and make good money now. But I am totally teaching my daughters to value making money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Supervising government employees. Don't do it.

This seems to be a common theme in DC. Nearly every gov supervisor I know hates it.