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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many people will say law.

I'll start - law.

Law. Let’s keep the chain going.

I chose law, and it was the best thing I ever did. Not all legal jobs are bad. I've got a great salary, flexibility, and I enjoy my job. It's all about which legal job you choose.

And which one would you recommend? A fed job?

[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.

+1. There are so many legal jobs out there that pay well and are flexible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many people will say law.

I'll start - law.

Law. Let’s keep the chain going.

I chose law, and it was the best thing I ever did. Not all legal jobs are bad. I've got a great salary, flexibility, and I enjoy my job. It's all about which legal job you choose.

And which one would you recommend? A fed job?

I would recommend a fed job, but not all fed jobs are created equally. There are lots of horrible fed attorney jobs I'd never want. You have to really look around and see what is available.

[Anonymous]

Re: law -- I think like anything, the more you know about yourself and what kind of job you want, the better off you will be in your career. I always recommend that people take time off between college and law school if they can, and to NEVER go to law school just because you can't figure out what else you want to do in life. I took 2 years off between college and law school and worked 1 year as a paralegal at a firm, and one year as a legal assistant for a fed agency. I learned that I never wanted to work for a firm, that I wanted a big agency, and that I didn't want to be a litigator. So when I went to law school, I didn't waste any time applying for big law jobs or for litigation positions. I went for the jobs I knew I wanted. That made all the difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Re: law -- I think like anything, the more you know about yourself and what kind of job you want, the better off you will be in your career. I always recommend that people take time off between college and law school if they can, and to NEVER go to law school just because you can't figure out what else you want to do in life. I took 2 years off between college and law school and worked 1 year as a paralegal at a firm, and one year as a legal assistant for a fed agency. I learned that I never wanted to work for a firm, that I wanted a big agency, and that I didn't want to be a litigator. So when I went to law school, I didn't waste any time applying for big law jobs or for litigation positions. I went for the jobs I knew I wanted. That made all the difference.

So true. 1/2 the kids in law school are only there because they didn't know what else to do, and many went straight from undergrad. Bad combo that leads to having no idea what you want to do with your chosen profession.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Corporate accounting. This department is considered a cost center that adds no value.

How?
You are the one repotting the cost.
Am I missing something?

[Anonymous]

Teaching. After having my own kids I can’t do a day at school then come home and deal with my own kids. I became a nurse then an NP. I work part time and make the same amount of money as I did teaching and can leave work at work. Made this change over about 10 years from mid 30s-mid 40s.

[Anonymous]

History degree. No help

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Corporate accounting. This department is considered a cost center that adds no value.

How?
You are the one repotting the cost.
Am I missing something?

Most companies look at accounting as a necessary evil to be done as cheaply as possible. You're not bringing in sales.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

TERRIBLE

Why? Several of us here would like to know why these fields are so terrible? They're terribly important. I have a kid heading into the workplace in a year in these fields.

Because it's massively oversaturated. Companies can push salaries low because there is so much supply of labor. Supply is inelastic because tons of people are naive. They have altruistic visions of doing science to cure cancer and any other disease and claim it isn't about the money. That's all good and dandy for a while until you get stuck with a low paying deadend biotech job or job loss. Job security in biotech is notoriously fickle, muchoreso than most industries. Job layoffs are constant. Companies are always abruptly cancelling projects and closing divisions, acquiring buyouts and laying off staff, or are just laying off people if they hit a snag with development. Then when you go out and try to find a new job you have to compete with all of the other 500 people applying for the same position because of huge labor oversupply in the industry.

I knowsny people in biotech. Their resumes are littered with job experience after job experience. My old boss, for example, had almost 6 jobs with all different companies over the course of only about a decade. All different parts of the country too. Can you imagine trying to start a family or settling down and buying a house when you have to consider you may need a new job every 2-4 years? It's extremely unstable. After a certain point, you get desperate and get hired as a temp or work for a shitty low paying CRO because you need work. So many biotech companies these days hire staff using temp agencies because scientists are a dime a dozen.

Stick with the business development or sales side of biotech if you're adamant staying in the industry. The research side is terrible. The only svitbce based part worth it is if you can get into the development and manufacturing side where you often need highly particular experience to manufacture complex biologic products. But you're not doing pure research. Manufacturing knowledge and skills are always in much more demand and are rarer.

NP. This was an informative read!

I’m currently in a biomedical science PhD program... working on cancer. A little over a year ago I decided I didn’t want to go into any position requiring more bench work post-graduation. Academia is incredibly toxic, and I didn’t realize that until I was embedded in grad school. You’ve also shed a lot of light on the industry-side for me with what you’ve posted.

Due to the toxicity we face, I’ve made it sort of a mission to tell my fellow classmates and schoolmates to prioritize their lives with a healthy work-life balance. My mentality is to get in, get my experiments done, and peace the hell out of lab. It’s incredibly rare for me to go in on weekends (only when I have a 6 day experiment), I largely work 5-8 hour days, and I could care less what my PI, lab manager, committee, and lab mates think of that.

My mentor doesn’t even provide me with adequate mentorship. It’s laughable. I’ve long since lost the “people pleasing” mentality I had for most of my educational career. I’m not bending over backwards over the course of 6-7 years for a PI that can’t even bother to train/mentor me as he should. I’m all about just respecting others, but wholly pleasing myself. Everyone else’s opinion of that be damned.

I’m living my best life because of this firm mindset, and I plan to go into medical/science/grant writing after graduation. A career that will satisfy me intellectually, and make use of my amazing writing experience and skillset. Hopefully this will be a good career, even if it’s still within this realm. 🥲

[Anonymous]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYwQT2TIfWw

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll bite. Teaching. And sadly after this year there will be many others that feel that way. I encourage women to find a different path if they are interested - physical therapist, occupational therapist, speech therapist, etc. You can still work with kids but get more respect, more career opportunities and be able to go part time with more ease if you want to.

Question for you about something I've been wondering. I'm an attorney and at one point in my career, I was job sharing with my partner working half the week and me working the other half. Do you think this is something that could be done in teaching to provide more flexibility?

It can be done! I know of a few that offered this when I lived in Colorado (not sure if they still do.) It was mainly used by teachers with young children. They were even able to share daycare providers that way. I’d love to do that here. I work as a part-time assistant because full-time teaching demands and hours don’t work for us right now.

I hope that the pandemic will cause us to think about ways that we can improve every profession to improve the professional services we deliver while improving the work-life balance of workers, and not just those with families. Job sharing requires a very good relationship between participants, but it can lead to less stressed and therefore more productive workers.

Four day work week! It’s a whole movement. Join us!

How can I join this movement? Is there a website?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Like others have said: law and journalism.

I'd also say professor (tenure track).

Why is everyone saying law? DH is a govt attorney and it’s a nice gig.

[Anonymous]

Human Resources. I'm 15 years away from retirement and hope I can last. Nothing is about humans anymore. It's all about data. Employees hate you for implementing or enforcing policies created by Leadership. Leadership doesn't appreciate you (until a pandemic) but that was last year, now we are just overpaid and useless. Recent grads with a degree are very picky about what they want to do. Training and employee relations is the appealing sexy side of it. But don't want to do any of the administrative work involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Human Resources. I'm 15 years away from retirement and hope I can last. Nothing is about humans anymore. It's all about data. Employees hate you for implementing or enforcing policies created by Leadership. Leadership doesn't appreciate you (until a pandemic) but that was last year, now we are just overpaid and useless. Recent grads with a degree are very picky about what they want to do. Training and employee relations is the appealing sexy side of it. But don't want to do any of the administrative work involved.

I’m in HR too and wow you’re jaded PP. I’ve been in this space for 24 years. Still love what I do. So much so that after I retire, I will likely stay in HR somehow - consulting, non profit, volunteer work. I Appreciate the opportunity to make companies and people better from within. I think I’ve been lucky. I’ve worked at some phenomenal companies with amazing cultures. Had a seat at the table, credibility, respect, budget to make material changes. I’ve traveled the world in business class. Now I’ve also worked during my early years at a couple toxic god awful, watch your back type of places. I’m thankful for those experiences now that I’m older - they taught me a lot - mostly what not to do, and what to avoid as I progressed in my career. So as I kept moving on, I knew what I was looking for in an organization. I think 15 years is a long time to try and ride anything out. That can be soul crushing. Can you make a switch? Go into one of the niche areas - exec recruitment, analytics, talent management? Or Find another organization where you Would Be Valued for your experience? When I first saw this thread, I actually thought - wow most people would be surprised by my opinion - but I Would Not put HR as one of the To be Avoided professions. It can be fulfilling and when you rise in private industry it can be rather lucrative - I make as much or more than some lawyers on this forum. And my masters was a mere 20 months and $20k. The ROI has been huge.