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

[Anonymous]

Cultural heritage. Museums, archeology, public history. The job market is oversaturated and as a relatively successful mid-career person, I'm unlikely to hit 6 figures in my 30s.

[Anonymous]

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

[Anonymous]

I’ve only skimmed the responses but I would comment not so much for what to avoid but what to consider as a woman. If you want kids, look for a professional that has regular hours and doesn’t involve travel. I worked in finance and it’s not a career path that is adaptable to be home for a 6pm dinner. Yes, of course you partner can pick up the slack or you can hire great help or maybe you have parents to step in, but my husband didn’t want to sacrifice his own career,
No parents willing to help and my nanny selections were horrific.

[Anonymous]

So what I’m getting from this thread is all professions suck.

Personally, I’m a lawyer and I am not one of those don’t be a lawyer types. Yes, there have been some hard years but overall I have made it work for me. It’s not for everyone but there are a lot of worse jobs to have that pay a lot less.

[Anonymous]

Journalism. My husband and I are both in the industry and it's the only college degree we won't pay for our children to get.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve only skimmed the responses but I would comment not so much for what to avoid but what to consider as a woman. If you want kids, look for a professional that has regular hours and doesn’t involve travel. I worked in finance and it’s not a career path that is adaptable to be home for a 6pm dinner. Yes, of course you partner can pick up the slack or you can hire great help or maybe you have parents to step in, but my husband didn’t want to sacrifice his own career,
No parents willing to help and my nanny selections were horrific.

I agree with this. I worked in financial services consulting for many years. Travel Sunday-Thurs/Fri long, long hours, weekend work. Forget being home at 6pm for dinner, you're a total absentee parent no matter what great help you have. It's soul-sucking work and I knew in my early 30s it would be entirely incompatible with being a parent. Or at least the kind of parent I wanted to be. The people who do really well (95% men) I also thought were deluding themselves they were anywhere near decent parents or partners. Lots of cheating too.

[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.

Is that even true anymore? Last I checked, there were more women going into medical school than men.


I also think that many of the aforementioned "women's" roles are more difficult and have a higher level of responsibility than was previously assigned to them, and we are finding that out as more and more women who are driven to succeed in their careers aren't choosing nursing and teaching anymore. I am not saying that the overall quality of people in those roles has gone down, but those rare people who are both brilliant and driven in a particular field and are needed to help it thrive just aren't choosing those fields any longer, and they are missed.

[Anonymous]

PhD scientist - wasted my youth!

[Anonymous]

Another journalist here. It has actually been a great career for me as I stumbled into a niche area that has turned out to be incredibly stable with a fair amount of flexibility. But the field has changed so much since I started almost 30 years ago that I couldn't recommend it to someone.

[Anonymous]

I’m the women’s roles vs men’s roles poster.

The pp is correct: I’m saying women aren’t always thinking about how to make the most money from a job. Which is largely the point.

Also, the hours in an industry will never change if there’s no women in them. Women going into a field changes the dynamics of an industry.

More women are going to law school and even med school, but there still aren’t enough women going to business school or into engineering or the hard sciences. There are still so few women in the c suite and on corporate boards. Some industries like corporate real estate are just utter boys clubs, but they make a shit ton of money.

Also, women should learn about personal finance. The basics are really not that hard.

Gets me frustrated when I see women picking career paths where money is almost an afterthought.

[Anonymous]

Also, lucrative careers makes it easier to have more help with childcare and outsourcing of household chores. Makes life easier for everyone.

Also, careers like teaching are not easier on women and in fact they are often harder. The summers off thing is not even worth it. Also, teacher moms can’t even pump easily or go to a doctors appointment midday as easily as in an office job. It’s stuff like this you don’t learn until you’re already working.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another journalist here. It has actually been a great career for me as I stumbled into a niche area that has turned out to be incredibly stable with a fair amount of flexibility. But the field has changed so much since I started almost 30 years ago that I couldn't recommend it to someone.

Exactly. There are some OK tracks for longtimers, but those paths are gone and I would recommend against anyone joining field now. Or really joining the field post-2008.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Journalism. My husband and I are both in the industry and it's the only college degree we won't pay for our children to get.

Can you guys get out, one or both of you?

[Anonymous]

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.

I completely agree, but they did acknowledge they weren’t the same.

I have a degree in Computer Science. My daughter wants to be an Engineer. When I tell people that, they get uncomfortable. Even though they know what I do is technical. I tried a few times to follow it up with “I don’t know. Maybe she will be a Special Education Teacher” and it is immediately followed by coos and encouraging remarks. I asked a friend, who’s son wants to be an engineer (his Dad has the same degree I have from the same school). She said that people are always encouraging when she mentioned it.

There are definitely people with an aptitude for things that end up in completely different areas because they don’t even know the difference. Had my parents not insisted I choose something else, I’d have been a journalist, and from this thread you can see maybe that would t have been an awesome field to start in 1997 with the Internet booming at the time. I’m so glad I didn’t do what people expected me to do.