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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any science job related to biomedical/pharmaceuticals/biology/medicine

TERRIBLE

Why? My wife is in biotech R&D and loves it. Happiest with her job of anyone I know. Maybe it’s your organization?

Because the field is oversaturated beyond belief. It's always nice doing biotech R and D until the job layoffs hit and/or your company cuts a research division or is acquired. Then you have to go out and find a new job with the insane amount of competition out there. Biotech is massively oversaturated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What Career Path Did You Choose That You Strongly Advise Against?

Healthcare.

But from the sound of this conversation, there are no or few recommended, rewarding career paths.

I think of my work now as simply a way to get my pay and then get out of there to get home to my real life. Mid 40s with 20 years of working and probably another 20-30 ahead of me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Librarian. I previously loved my job, but salaries have been flat for so long, it's not worth taking out loans to pay tuition, if your parents or trust isn't paying.

+1. Technology has really changed the job, too. It's not about books and finding answers for people anymore. It's all about data management. The expectations are high and the budgets are low. Also, the job market is lousy. My company used to have 10 professional librarians. Now, there are only 2.

If you're a public librarian, you also get to play social worker to the homeless, drug addicted and mentally ill populations.

I don't regret my career, but I do cringe whenever I hear someone say that they're pursuing an MLS because I think they'll be in for a rude awakening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Physician
The work is intellectually interesting and I feel like I am doing something worthwhile. Additionally, most of the patients are delightful (or at least interesting) and they teach me so much.

BUT as time has gone on the system has evolved so that the administrators have proliferated, and they have consolidated and expanded their power. So basically I work for idiot administrators who have a business degree with no understanding of medicine (if they compare us to “highly trained technicians - like a plumber or mechanic” one more time I am going to freak out), make slightly MORE money than us (one admin said she “would not get out of bed for what they pay doctors here”), work 9-5 (and g-d forbid they work a holiday! But they’d be delighted to report me if it takes me >15 minutes to reply to a page on a holiday), and just view us as numbers (RVU generators). They also won’t come in during covid (apparently every single admin is immunosupressed?), but are happy to send us 6000 useless emails a day, I guess to prove they are actually “working” from home. But then I have to yank off all my PPE and reply to their dumb emails “in a timely fashion” so they don’t report me. The higher level admins have also begun “encouraging” the older/middle aged docs to leave, and replacing them with MDs straight out of training and PA/NPs because the old guys cost too much money. Apparently competence and experience are of no value anymore. Because $$$. And if we make more money then we can hire more administrators!

Also I have 9 years of training after college and about 15 years experience, and I make less than my friends who are govt lawyers. So, stop with your complaining lawyers!

Well, that turned into a rant. But if things continue this way then being a physician won’t make sense anymore, which is sad, because medicine can be rewarding and fun - and on a great day you can even save someone’s life. Which is pretty cool.

This is sad. And scary for what’s in store for us as a society in healthcare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many people will say law.

I'll start - law.

+ 1 million! I'll never let my son go to law school if I can help it.

I used to dissuade people from going into law in the early years but now I've changed my tune. I think it's a very flexible field particularly for women. This, however, only applies if you have your own practice or work in a small firm. Law is really one of the few fields where if all else fails, you can hang up your own shingle and work totally for yourself. It's very liberating. Being an attorney has allowed me to work at home rearing 3 kids. That said, I don't make BigLaw bucks so that's the trade off. But it is flexible.

This.

[Anonymous]

Teacher. 1000× wrong career.

[Anonymous]

Journalism! Ha! No sign of true journalism anywhere. Hope it makes a comeback one day.

[Anonymous]

Pharmacy. The field is so over saturated. 20 years ago I could get a new job in a day. Not so anymore.

[Anonymous]

No one has mentioned dentistry. Very surprising.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one has mentioned dentistry. Very surprising.

Why is it bad?
It is very hands on but no outsourcing.

[Anonymous]

Political staffing/Political operative

The environment is completely toxic in the vast majority offices. The hours are brutal. The pay sucks. People outside of your work network feel like your job is an invitation to vent their frustrations or opinions when you are off the clock. Others try to use you for your proximity to perceived power (in most cases it isn't much 'real' power). You have to be extremely careful expressing opinions about anything. You spend a lot of time putting out fires, managing liabilities, and being told that you can't do whatever it is that you got into it to do, usually because of people in your own party more than the other side. It is truly soul sucking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one has mentioned dentistry. Very surprising.

Why is it bad?
It is very hands on but no outsourcing.

I’ve read that it’s one of the professions with high suicide rates. This was many years ago, so things could have changed. Plus, outsourcing isn’t the determining criterion here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many people will say law.

I'll start - law.

+ 1 million! I'll never let my son go to law school if I can help it.

I used to dissuade people from going into law in the early years but now I've changed my tune. I think it's a very flexible field particularly for women. This, however, only applies if you have your own practice or work in a small firm. Law is really one of the few fields where if all else fails, you can hang up your own shingle and work totally for yourself. It's very liberating. Being an attorney has allowed me to work at home rearing 3 kids. That said, I don't make BigLaw bucks so that's the trade off. But it is flexible.

This.

This is interesting. I wonder if people have this idea there are really just a few ways to be a lawyer, so people don’t think creatively about how to make the field work for them. Law doesn’t really attract risk-tolerant types, and I think it’s hard for everybody to be creative about how to make a living. Maybe if we have people asking us about law, we should say the field is best when you find ways to make it work for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one has mentioned dentistry. Very surprising.

Why is it bad?
It is very hands on but no outsourcing.

I’ve read that it’s one of the professions with high suicide rates. This was many years ago, so things could have changed. Plus, outsourcing isn’t the determining criterion here.

Why? It doesn't seem particularly stressful, high income, lots of time off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many people will say law.

I'll start - law.

+ 1 million! I'll never let my son go to law school if I can help it.

I used to dissuade people from going into law in the early years but now I've changed my tune. I think it's a very flexible field particularly for women. This, however, only applies if you have your own practice or work in a small firm. Law is really one of the few fields where if all else fails, you can hang up your own shingle and work totally for yourself. It's very liberating. Being an attorney has allowed me to work at home rearing 3 kids. That said, I don't make BigLaw bucks so that's the trade off. But it is flexible.

This.

This is interesting. I wonder if people have this idea there are really just a few ways to be a lawyer, so people don’t think creatively about how to make the field work for them. Law doesn’t really attract risk-tolerant types, and I think it’s hard for everybody to be creative about how to make a living. Maybe if we have people asking us about law, we should say the field is best when you find ways to make it work for you.

DP. The field is much better now, for men and women, than when I entered the profession almost thirty years ago, as long as you aren't a litigator. Litigation in all setting tends to allow little flexibility and work/life balance.