Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

DP. The field is much better now, for men and women, than when I entered the profession almost thirty years ago, as long as you aren't a litigator. Litigation in all setting tends to allow little flexibility and work/life balance.

PP here adding one important point. If you want to go into the legal profession and intend to chart your own path for better work life balance or to raise a family, think long and hard about the financial burden you are taking on, both for undergrad and for law school. Yes, there is legal work available that isn't as all consuming as big law, but the pay is much less.

That is 100% true. I'm the PP rearing 3 kids. I left my prior law firm once I had kids to start up my own firm. I did not have undergrad loans and only law school loans from a public school (thank goodness). The first few years of going solo, I made peanuts and would not have been able to make it work had I not had a working spouse. After the first two years, though, I was making decent enough money to contribute but creating that pipeline and book of business - if you don't carry it over - takes time and that may not work for all. If you can make it work, though, it is incredibly flexible down the road. I don't report to a boss, need to meet any billable requirements, and can be more selective with clients and manage my own time. It makes life easier but you do need to account for the firm build up in the beginning which can be hard.

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.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NY Times Business section has an article about how robots are going to blow out accounting, medical, and legal jobs. One question though, robots don't buy groceries, clothes, or cars. How does the economy operate with millions of high paying positions going away? Executives of course will always get their money. Hope they like living in gated communities with armed guards.

That is why the idea of minimum income have strong support from technology companies.

Universal basic income. Must be combined with government regulations on prices or else it wouldn't matter if you're guaranteed $1000 a week but a carton of milk costs $1500. But what really needs to happen is a global move away from capitalism to an economic system that makes sense when most labor is done by robots. Not going to happen on an individual country level -- would have to be the biggest project the UN (or a new UN-like body with actual enforcement power) ever took on.

Whatever you’re on, you’ve probably had enough.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NY Times Business section has an article about how robots are going to blow out accounting, medical, and legal jobs. One question though, robots don't buy groceries, clothes, or cars. How does the economy operate with millions of high paying positions going away? Executives of course will always get their money. Hope they like living in gated communities with armed guards.

That is why the idea of minimum income have strong support from technology companies.

Universal basic income. Must be combined with government regulations on prices or else it wouldn't matter if you're guaranteed $1000 a week but a carton of milk costs $1500. But what really needs to happen is a global move away from capitalism to an economic system that makes sense when most labor is done by robots. Not going to happen on an individual country level -- would have to be the biggest project the UN (or a new UN-like body with actual enforcement power) ever took on.

Anonymous wrote:Pharmacy. The field is so over saturated. 20 years ago I could get a new job in a day. Not so anymore.

My Dad is a Pharmacist and my Mom wouldn’t let me major in Pharmacy in college (meaning she refused to pay for the degree) in 1997 because my Dad’s job changed so much over time and there was so much ageism. He likes what he does, but people don’t understand what they do and how important their expertise is, so they’re constantly hearing how they’re useless and not real medical professionals and working at a big chain is an insane amount of work. Now it’s just got too many graduates. Many of them have PhDs in other fields mentioned here and they couldn’t find jobs so they go to Pharmacy School to do something practical.

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.

Anonymous wrote:Journalism! Ha! No sign of true journalism anywhere. Hope it makes a comeback one day.

omg seriously yes. Was a great career until about 2007, max.

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

Why would you put yourself through all of that, many of my friends want to be seen so they can marry successful and not have to work.

Anonymous wrote:Educated cop

I have a master degree, went into “law enforcement “ to make a difference.

Did child abuse/homicide most my career.

Started with a training officer who taught how to legally beat people if you are in a bad mood.

Spent evenings with extreme racists, short men with Napoleon complex, people with little understanding of the law or constitution.

Best part was making friends with 7-11 workers, Dunkin’ Donuts workers, gas station workers, etc.

Spent most my life with people going through the worst days of their life and thankful I had a masters in psychology.

Frustrated that I had a better understanding of law than most prosecutors, judges are the most ego driven group I have ever dealt with ... most lawyers and judges I dealt with had seriously unhealthy relationship with alcohol.

Watched “tiger teams” be formed ever time a white woman was killed, while I alone worked on the rest of the cases. Journalists would demonize my POC victims and paint white victims as heroes and white perps as “mentality ill” when they were just down right evil or selfish.


You get the idea.

Hmmmm.......

Still waiting for the name and pic of the POC cop who killed Ashli Babbit to be publicly identified and arrested. And charged with murder.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Librarian. I previously loved my job, but salaries have been flat for so long, it's not worth taking out loans to pay tuition, if your parents or trust isn't paying.

+1. Technology has really changed the job, too. It's not about books and finding answers for people anymore. It's all about data management. The expectations are high and the budgets are low. Also, the job market is lousy. My company used to have 10 professional librarians. Now, there are only 2.

If you're a public librarian, you also get to play social worker to the homeless, drug addicted and mentally ill populations.

I don't regret my career, but I do cringe whenever I hear someone say that they're pursuing an MLS because I think they'll be in for a rude awakening.

Yep, former librarian here. I was lucky enough to land a job right out of library school, but the pay is ridiculously low and the chance of advancement is just depressing. I cannot stress how much of my masters program (which I otherwise enjoyed!) was focusing on the crummy job market. People keep saying that there is going to be a massive retirement wave, but that hasn't happened. I really enjoyed the digital aspects of the job but was constantly finding that any training I wanted had to be done on my own time (and budget). And I got tired of justifying my job.

Also, the glass escalator effect is terrible, so if you are a woman looking to advance you have that working against you as well!

Oh, and why did I become a librarian? Simple...because both my parents were lawyers and they spent my entire childhood complaining, ha.

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.

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

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one has mentioned dentistry. Very surprising.

Why is it bad?
It is very hands on but no outsourcing.

I’ve read that it’s one of the professions with high suicide rates. This was many years ago, so things could have changed. Plus, outsourcing isn’t the determining criterion here.

Why? It doesn't seem particularly stressful, high income, lots of time off.

Because they cause people pain and have to observe that all the time. Also people don't really like going to the dentist. However, I have known dentists that have decent hours and make decent money once they are established.

We have a close family friend who is a dentist. He said one reason it's really tough is because even top-notch dental insurance is terrible. His clientele is mostly middle to upper middle class people with dental insurance. He sees patients all the time who desperately need root canals, have abscessed teeth, multiple cavities, etc and they put off treatment because some of that stuff easily reaches into the thousands of dollars even with insurance. He will try to work with clients on payment plans or refer them to dental schools that offer reduced fees whenever he can but obviously that's not a solution for everyone.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one has mentioned dentistry. Very surprising.

Why is it bad?
It is very hands on but no outsourcing.

I’ve read that it’s one of the professions with high suicide rates. This was many years ago, so things could have changed. Plus, outsourcing isn’t the determining criterion here.

Why? It doesn't seem particularly stressful, high income, lots of time off.

Because they cause people pain and have to observe that all the time. Also people don't really like going to the dentist. However, I have known dentists that have decent hours and make decent money once they are established.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

DP. The field is much better now, for men and women, than when I entered the profession almost thirty years ago, as long as you aren't a litigator. Litigation in all setting tends to allow little flexibility and work/life balance.

PP here adding one important point. If you want to go into the legal profession and intend to chart your own path for better work life balance or to raise a family, think long and hard about the financial burden you are taking on, both for undergrad and for law school. Yes, there is legal work available that isn't as all consuming as big law, but the pay is much less.