Anonymous
Post 11/21/2025 19:29     Subject: Re:Would you recommend your job to your children?
I'm a teacher (sped)and my husband is a currently laid off software developer. Zero out of ten stars, would not recommend. My daughter would likely make an amazing teacher, I love my job for the most part but I've told her to apply her talents elsewhere.
Anonymous
Post 11/21/2025 15:55     Subject: Re:Would you recommend your job to your children?
I was a teacher and would not recommend it. It's exhausting and the pay is crap compared to what my peers are making at this age in other careers. I moved into a different area in private school education and am really loving it.
Anonymous
Post 11/21/2025 15:51     Subject: Would you recommend your job to your children?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Yes. I'm an actuary. My son will take his first exam as a senior in HS. My daughter 2 years behind wants to be a doctor, but I hope she becomes an actuary instead. Her skills in math and intelligence are out of this world. When we play poker her card counting skills are truly amazing.

I'll recommend the job to them because it has good life balance, pays well and has a high barrier to entry.


I am also an actuary, and my take is somewhat different. A high barrier to entry only matters if the companies feel compelled to hire credentialed actuaries. In reality, you only need a handful of people to sign things, and the rest of the worker bees can be whatever, there isn’t much a bright finance grad can’t learn on the job. Plus, with the hollowing out of the middle class and democratization of investments, the actuarially intensive products like whole life and IDI are shrinking, and more spread or regulation based arbitrage stuff is in (speaking from the life/annuity side).


I thought actuary was on the list of jobs AI will kill...


Not as long as a human has to sign things and be responsible for what they sign. The regulators will never allow AI to “sign”.
Anonymous
Post 11/21/2025 15:47     Subject: Would you recommend your job to your children?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Yes. I'm an actuary. My son will take his first exam as a senior in HS. My daughter 2 years behind wants to be a doctor, but I hope she becomes an actuary instead. Her skills in math and intelligence are out of this world. When we play poker her card counting skills are truly amazing.

I'll recommend the job to them because it has good life balance, pays well and has a high barrier to entry.


I am also an actuary, and my take is somewhat different. A high barrier to entry only matters if the companies feel compelled to hire credentialed actuaries. In reality, you only need a handful of people to sign things, and the rest of the worker bees can be whatever, there isn’t much a bright finance grad can’t learn on the job. Plus, with the hollowing out of the middle class and democratization of investments, the actuarially intensive products like whole life and IDI are shrinking, and more spread or regulation based arbitrage stuff is in (speaking from the life/annuity side).


I thought actuary was on the list of jobs AI will kill...
Anonymous
Post 11/21/2025 15:38     Subject: Would you recommend your job to your children?
Anonymous wrote:Yes. I'm an actuary. My son will take his first exam as a senior in HS. My daughter 2 years behind wants to be a doctor, but I hope she becomes an actuary instead. Her skills in math and intelligence are out of this world. When we play poker her card counting skills are truly amazing.

I'll recommend the job to them because it has good life balance, pays well and has a high barrier to entry.


I am also an actuary, and my take is somewhat different. A high barrier to entry only matters if the companies feel compelled to hire credentialed actuaries. In reality, you only need a handful of people to sign things, and the rest of the worker bees can be whatever, there isn’t much a bright finance grad can’t learn on the job. Plus, with the hollowing out of the middle class and democratization of investments, the actuarially intensive products like whole life and IDI are shrinking, and more spread or regulation based arbitrage stuff is in (speaking from the life/annuity side).
Anonymous
Post 11/21/2025 15:12     Subject: Would you recommend your job to your children?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I'm a lawyer and enjoy it, but frankly I think my kid could do better.
For a lot of people, including me, lawyer is a reliable transition path for kids from working class or LMC families. The next generation has more options, and is more likely to have a safety net that makes it easier to take risks.

What do you think "better" is? I thought medicine may be better in that it seems more purposeful and often higher paying, but people on here complain about that as well. As an aside, I think it would be difficult to go from WC/LMC to BigLaw. Maybe from a funded Ivy undergrad, though.


I went from a state undergrad to T10 law school to BigLaw. You don't need an Ivy, especially if you're going to grad school after. But most people don't want BigLaw for their kids, either.

By "better" I really meant something less oversaturated than law, and with more headroom to make your own path. Just knowing about different medical specialties or seeing how people start and own businesses/practices is eye opening if you didn't grow up with that.

Agree on starting businesses and practices, which you can actually do as a lawyer.
Anonymous
Post 11/21/2025 13:18     Subject: Would you recommend your job to your children?
No, definitely not. It is high workload, decent pay, but working as a tech consultant is grueling work and something I fell into vs something I wanted. No one likes a consultant. Or a lead project manager. We're bossy and always telling people what they need to do!

I'd much rather that my son pursue a professional degree. He's interested in law, and I will not dissuade him. I have a few lawyer friends and they all get excited that he's interested and love to share stories.
Anonymous
Post 11/21/2025 12:46     Subject: Re:Would you recommend your job to your children?
I'm an academic who has gone back and forth between consulting and government positions. A funded PhD in a STEM field is a good base for a career, especially if you develop more applied experience.
Anonymous
Post 11/21/2025 12:45     Subject: Would you recommend your job to your children?
I would recommend my type of job. It's very creative and uses all of my various degrees and career backgrounds. I'd encourage my child to think about what captivated them as a child, and see how that can link into a career. I almost don't feel like I'm working because I would probably do this without getting paid. I will probably never retire.

So even if my job is very specific to me and I don't recommend it to someone who doesn't have this niche passion, I would highly recommend my child to profitably pursue a passion, yes.
Anonymous
Post 11/21/2025 12:44     Subject: Would you recommend your job to your children?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I'm a lawyer and enjoy it, but frankly I think my kid could do better.
For a lot of people, including me, lawyer is a reliable transition path for kids from working class or LMC families. The next generation has more options, and is more likely to have a safety net that makes it easier to take risks.

What do you think "better" is? I thought medicine may be better in that it seems more purposeful and often higher paying, but people on here complain about that as well. As an aside, I think it would be difficult to go from WC/LMC to BigLaw. Maybe from a funded Ivy undergrad, though.


Why do you think it would be hard to go from WC/LMC to Biglaw? I did, and honestly it was so much easier for me than any of the other associates I worked with. I had had several manual labor jobs with very long hours, and grew up on a farm so went home from those and worked more. Biglaw was easy and I was by far the top biller of my year, every year. I got paid a ton of money to sit in a chair and work with my brain. I think it was a lot harder for the wealthy kids who had never had worked more than 8 hours before in their lives.
Anonymous
Post 11/21/2025 12:42     Subject: Would you recommend your job to your children?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I'm a lawyer and enjoy it, but frankly I think my kid could do better.
For a lot of people, including me, lawyer is a reliable transition path for kids from working class or LMC families. The next generation has more options, and is more likely to have a safety net that makes it easier to take risks.

What do you think "better" is? I thought medicine may be better in that it seems more purposeful and often higher paying, but people on here complain about that as well. As an aside, I think it would be difficult to go from WC/LMC to BigLaw. Maybe from a funded Ivy undergrad, though.


Ugh, DCUM...

You don't need to go to "BigLaw" to have a wonderful career practicing law. Sigh. In fact, it is probably best avoided by most.
Anonymous
Post 11/21/2025 12:38     Subject: Would you recommend your job to your children?
Lawyer here. Probably not? Depends on the kid. I think it is truly a noble profession and some thrive in it. But most are miserable. So ... it depends. Probably not.
Anonymous
Post 11/21/2025 12:30     Subject: Would you recommend your job to your children?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I'm a lawyer and enjoy it, but frankly I think my kid could do better.
For a lot of people, including me, lawyer is a reliable transition path for kids from working class or LMC families. The next generation has more options, and is more likely to have a safety net that makes it easier to take risks.

What do you think "better" is? I thought medicine may be better in that it seems more purposeful and often higher paying, but people on here complain about that as well. As an aside, I think it would be difficult to go from WC/LMC to BigLaw. Maybe from a funded Ivy undergrad, though.


I went from a state undergrad to T10 law school to BigLaw. You don't need an Ivy, especially if you're going to grad school after. But most people don't want BigLaw for their kids, either.

By "better" I really meant something less oversaturated than law, and with more headroom to make your own path. Just knowing about different medical specialties or seeing how people start and own businesses/practices is eye opening if you didn't grow up with that.
Anonymous
Post 11/21/2025 11:11     Subject: Would you recommend your job to your children?
I've worked in finance in private and public and I have recommended to my kids.
Anonymous
Post 11/21/2025 11:02     Subject: Would you recommend your job to your children?
I work in finance and I would generally recommend it - but not specifically for my kids, neither of whom are mathematically inclined.