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

[Anonymous]

Like others have said: law and journalism.

I'd also say professor (tenure track).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Social work. Low pay, not respected, no work life balance, stressful.

Social workers are the unsung heroes, and apparently the key to everything in social justice reform. I'm still not sure how that will work given the low pay, lack of respect, and incredible stress.

Ha!

I am the ED doc who just posted above, and this has been a running joke among the social workers and police I work with.

[Anonymous]

Accounting

No matter how you slice it, it's a support function.

You are treated as the armpit of the company because you're not designing, making, selling, or marketing

Along with HR and legal, you are the first people to lose your job if there is a merger

It is difficult to differentiate yourself in the job market because you can't quantify a lot of your achievements vs. those of a salesperson

A lot of accounting jobs are being offshored to places where people earn a pittance of a US salary

[Anonymous]

I can always count on these threads to bring all my fellow ex-journalists to the yard

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many will say engineering. Rough road for a woman in the oversaturated male dominated industry. If it's not management diminishing your work, it would be the clients. Many days I ask myself why did I not peruse medical school. Ugh...

I have mixed feelings about this. I definitely had a rough start in a male dominated engineering career, and once I had kids the lack of flexibility was killing me. But my old boss retired and my new younger boss is definitely more flexible and doesn’t belittle my work. I make decent money and my job is stable. Maybe once all the old guys retire it won’t be so bad!

This. I got a Phd in engineering very early in my career and I was able to jump ahead. While I think it would have been much much easier to be a male, I have done well and now can work less and earn more. I don't know what else I would have done, honestly.

[Anonymous]

Marketing: No matter how much you keep up with current trends, no matter how high-performing you are, it is a young person's game. Appearance and youthfulness matters.

Engineering: My husband would agree with earlier comments on how frustrating it is working with the long-timers, some of which continue to stay on in their 70's. They are rude, demanding and generally mess thing up all the time and don't say anything until it is too late. Then they call in my DH to fix things and blame him for the delays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Accounting

No matter how you slice it, it's a support function.

You are treated as the armpit of the company because you're not designing, making, selling, or marketing

Along with HR and legal, you are the first people to lose your job if there is a merger

It is difficult to differentiate yourself in the job market because you can't quantify a lot of your achievements vs. those of a salesperson

A lot of accounting jobs are being offshored to places where people earn a pittance of a US salary

Maybe if you're talking about low-level accounts payable and Accounts receivable. But CPAs will continue to be in huge demand and there are a lot of really good jobs for CPA holders.

[Anonymous]

Government contracting. I dislike being at the behest of clients and I hate proposal work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Journalism.

Lasted 20 years before leaving; should have left after 10 years at most.

+1

For me it was magazines. Almost all kaput or online, much reduced full time staff, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many will say engineering. Rough road for a woman in the oversaturated male dominated industry. If it's not management diminishing your work, it would be the clients. Many days I ask myself why did I not peruse medical school. Ugh...

I have mixed feelings about this. I definitely had a rough start in a male dominated engineering career, and once I had kids the lack of flexibility was killing me. But my old boss retired and my new younger boss is definitely more flexible and doesn’t belittle my work. I make decent money and my job is stable. Maybe once all the old guys retire it won’t be so bad!

This. I got a Phd in engineering very early in my career and I was able to jump ahead. While I think it would have been much much easier to be a male, I have done well and now can work less and earn more. I don't know what else I would have done, honestly.

I think there has been a marked change in engineering over the past 20 years, at least in the areas not attached to computers/IT/AI, etc. Companies are now looking for female STEM because they are starting to recognize the value in diverse workforces. Plus, if the companies are public, more and more investors are demanding it.

I'm a P.E. who wound up as a lobbyist - there aren't very many like me, and I'm highly valued because of my engineering background.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is this thread just for women? I'll assume it isn't. I'm a man and was a teacher before it made more sense to be a SAHD for a while.

Any time I meet someone who is thinking of becoming a teacher I encourage them to talk to at least a dozen current teachers.

Teaching in and of itself is great. Kids are usually great. But there are so many things about the job that are awful.

+1

I hated my years as a teacher. Admin was straight up from hell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many will say engineering. Rough road for a woman in the oversaturated male dominated industry. If it's not management diminishing your work, it would be the clients. Many days I ask myself why did I not peruse medical school. Ugh...

I have mixed feelings about this. I definitely had a rough start in a male dominated engineering career, and once I had kids the lack of flexibility was killing me. But my old boss retired and my new younger boss is definitely more flexible and doesn’t belittle my work. I make decent money and my job is stable. Maybe once all the old guys retire it won’t be so bad!

This. I got a Phd in engineering very early in my career and I was able to jump ahead. While I think it would have been much much easier to be a male, I have done well and now can work less and earn more. I don't know what else I would have done, honestly.

I think there has been a marked change in engineering over the past 20 years, at least in the areas not attached to computers/IT/AI, etc. Companies are now looking for female STEM because they are starting to recognize the value in diverse workforces. Plus, if the companies are public, more and more investors are demanding it.

I'm a P.E. who wound up as a lobbyist - there aren't very many like me, and I'm highly valued because of my engineering background.

Depends on the field of engineering. Including experience in the related field. Not all engineering industries are as processive as you may think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hospitality industry. The hours are terrible and your coworkers are not the best representative of society. My brother is in a no where mid-management position. Glad I went to law school and love working as an attorney. It’s all relative.

So curious what your brother thinks of you and your judge-y self.

[Anonymous]

progressive^

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Social work. Low pay, not respected, no work life balance, stressful.

Social workers are the unsung heroes, and apparently the key to everything in social justice reform. I'm still not sure how that will work given the low pay, lack of respect, and incredible stress.

Ha!

I am the ED doc who just posted above, and this has been a running joke among the social workers and police I work with.

Same, every social worker I know is like and whenever this is brought up as a good idea. The pay and respect would have to go waaaaaasy up for this to happen and have a chance in hell of actually working.

Which we already know won’t happen, so.