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

[Anonymous]

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

[Anonymous]

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

[Anonymous]

How many people will say law.

I'll start - law.

[Anonymous]

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...

[Anonymous]

Journalism.

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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Journalism.

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

+1
though for me it was more entertainment/tv production. No stability; no rewarding of intelligent work; all about ratings and cliques. Awful space to be in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many people will say law.

I'll start - law.

Law. Let’s keep the chain going.

[Anonymous]

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.

[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

This is good advice. So many women shoot so low with their career aspirations, focusing on "soft" jobs in non profits, etc. If you want to be an admin person, be an admin person in a fortune 500 company.

[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

Teaching and nursing are stable, in-demand jobs with a lot of location flexibility; nursing can also provide a good lifestyle if you specialize (eg, anesthesia or certain types of NP). Also, you can't count on being a tenured professor.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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?

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Journalism.

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

Spouse of a journalist. I totally agree. It is sad because it is such a public service but the hours and stress are brutal and money sucks so you can't outsource everything. My spouse works long and inflexible hours but makes less than a first year associate at a law firm. Even at most law firms, (pre COVID) you had a pretty good chance of being able to make a 7pm dinner reservation on a Friday if it was important to you, but that is impossible for our family. Plus because job market is bad, it is hard to jump ship if you have a difficult boss or aren't happy at your current gig.