Speech Pathologist

I work in tech (in an highly technical role requiring a masters but often people have phds) and took a year off for each of my kids. One of the leaves corresponded with a change in job and the other one was arranged with the company I work for. They held my job for the year. I also have unlimited PTO, remote working and can be at the bus stop every day the kids come home, and complete flexibility and support from my management. The men on my team are just as involved dads as I am a mom, and are often holding their babies in our zoom meetings. I make 200k per year so it’s a great career both for the financial security it gives me in addition to the work life balance.

Now, I don’t know think in my career I’d be able to take a significant amount of time off. Like taking off multiple years unless I stay somewhat up to date doing free lance or occasional contract work. I don’t see that often.

Anonymous wrote:Don't do this OP: I did because I wanted to have a family and children, so I thought going into education was the answer.

Fast forward 20 years: I was unable to have kids (we tried for years) and now I have a poor paying frustrating profession; retirement can't come soon enough.

If they are inclined towards health care or therapy of some sort, those careers may have more flexibility. The problem is that no one has a crystal ball and you have no idea who will be able.to have children.

Earning the most money possible would.have helped me deal with infertility more than a flexible career choice..

This.
As a physician, I know fertility struggles are common enough that one should not pick a career based on this alone. Also, a person may not meet their partner til later in life. I just had a friend get married last year, first marriage, at the age of 43. She had been looking but just hadn’t met the right person til now. She is fortunate to have just had a baby. But she has been working for 22 years since college. I can’t imagine working for 20+ years at a job you don’t like with the hope of meeting a partner and having a baby.

Anonymous wrote:Proposal writing / management or any writing/editing jobs. Also very doable to do remotely and even part time.

Those jobs are so unstable and not secure at all. Feast or famine.

I'm a speech pathologist. The education part is rough to get through. But after I finish my CFY (clinical fellowship) for 9 months, I can work from home doing teletherapy and can leave and go back pretty much at any time because there is a high demand.

Anonymous wrote:We are in DMV. Telling my kids to find careers that have opportunities in DMV. They can have kids then and we will provide childcare. Of course, they also need affordable housing and good schools.

USA has really become very pathetic.

Where would you say is 'better'?

Anonymous wrote:Not physician. You get a gap on resume and you get stigmatized. Its really difficult to rejoin.

Not really. Physicians are in very short supply. I took 6 months off and was able to go back.

Nursing

Architect. Before taking the break have great photo documentation of built work, exemplary drawings and all ARE exams finished. If you can, keep doing small projects, even a built-in closet, while SAH. Maintain networks, especially with previous employer(s). When the time comes to rev the career back up, call those people for referrals and, if you were good, they will open the door for you.

Anonymous wrote:I would say any job should be jump in jump out in this day and age. Anyone who says otherwise is an inflexible soul and I would hate working for or with them.

I work in IT. Total jump in and out.
Maybe a hair stylist would need to get the latest training so that we don't all have perms? Maybe a mechanic to learn the latest electrical parts? In any case if you can't learn you are a terrible worker anyway, doesn't matter if you've been plodding along for a solid 20 years.

I'd rather be with people who can jump in and out and pick up new skills.

Pharmacists.

I’m a SAHM and I wouldn’t advise my daughters to stay home. I would advise them to work in a job that allows flexibility, PT, and WFH options.

Ideally I’d love to have a nanny and a flexible job that allows me to be around a lot to enjoy the fun stuff (school plays, play dates, music classes) but doesn’t leave me feeling trapped and exhausted the way being a SAHM does (waking up napping baby to rush to preschool pickups, schlepping multiple children everywhere, always feeling isolated/alone, etc)

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that a few people said IT while one person categorically said not IT.

I’ve seen women in medicine (not nursing but GP/pediatrics or even specialties like ENT and cardio) be able to step out or scale way back for a few years and then return to FT. After return I haven’t seen them go as far as setting their own practice or anything, but I think it’s more because they don’t want the stress. I imagine they could after their kids leave home for college.

There’s IT and there’s IT. Federal contracting IT, administration of servers and domains and user permissions— that stuff changes fairly slowly and is easy to ramp up on new procedures.

IT like developing software and building a product on latest cloud platform with integrated ML or whatnot, that changes fast. 7 years ago it was all JavaScript and big data, and while the LLM use big data I think we are looking at another change.

Interesting that a few people said IT while one person categorically said not IT.

I’ve seen women in medicine (not nursing but GP/pediatrics or even specialties like ENT and cardio) be able to step out or scale way back for a few years and then return to FT. After return I haven’t seen them go as far as setting their own practice or anything, but I think it’s more because they don’t want the stress. I imagine they could after their kids leave home for college.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have two teen DD’s. Both have expressed a hope that they can SAH or go part time when their children are young. Yea they know it’s not guaranteed, etc. But there are definitely some careers that seem more conducive to this than others. What are careers that provide independence/financial stability but also flexibility for the early kid years? Nursing is one that came to mind.

Typical woman jobs. Nursing and teaching.

However as a woman with a career that provides much more financial stability than those stereotypical jobs, I have a career in IT (which is absolutely not for people who want to take long breaks) I’m able to work from home and have an incredibly flexible schedule. I would hate being shackled to a building as many of these mom careers go. Bonus is I’ve been able to secure both my kids with incredible summer internships in both high school and college at various technology companies, giving them a huge leg up. Privilege is a thing and I’m going to leverage it as much for my kids as possible. I think it’s pretty cool that my boys are following in my foot steps and not their father who is an attorney. They probably see my job as wayyy more flexible and better COL than their dad who is always in court or visiting clients/colleagues.

As a SAHM, I have been able to help my kids secure incredible summer STEM research internships with many prestigious DMV organizations for HS and college - from medical to IT focused careers. Its called being an average clued in and educated parent in DMV.

There is not one public school student in my social circle that has not interned or volunteered for resume and skill building during summer or the school year starting from MS.

Please let the grownups talk. Thx.