Jobs Workshop: Recommend a job or field of study

Like many Kossacks, I'm looking for a job, and not necessarily what I was doing last. It sounds like a lot of people are gainfully, happily employed here, so I'd like some feedback from you. What job field would you recommend to your fellow Kossacks? Or what area of study would you recommend to us?

Is your company hiring? Do you find it hard to find good employees in your field? Does your community need a service or business that isn't there? What should we be learning or training for? Or conversely, what fields have too many people in them already? I'd like to be a technical writer but the last time I looked into it, I heard that about 40% of the tech writers in the Bay Area were unemployed. Is it any better now here, or in your area?

Here are the fields that I keep seeing jobs for:

• administrative assistant: you'll never make enough money to buy a house, and you'l be bored out of your gourd

• nursing: you get to cover for incompetent doctors, and you get to work the graveyard shift for years on end. Oh boy!

• retail clerk: ugh

• sales account rep: I'm morally opposed to selling people things they don't need, so that's right out

With regards to areas to go into or fields to study, all I've got is an area NOT to pursue: computer game development. Yes, this has piled on by EA Spouse, but it's all deserved. Jobs in this field not only make less money than equivalent jobs in other fields, but the burnout rate is also extraordinarily high. Companies make a habit of abusing their employees' time, mostly by paying them a straight salary then requiring 60+ hours each week. If you don't want to sign all your waking hours over to The Company, there are hundreds of game testers and programmers waiting to take your place. Then after you've worked as long as three years on a project, it's on store shelves for a couple months until it disappears into the black hole of obsolete software. It's a disgusting business and I'm glad to be rid of it.

One last question: I see a lot of accounting jobs on craigslist. My dad was an accountant, and while it's always been the cliche of the boring job, he made a good living with it. I think it might be a good job for someone like me who is quiet and methodical and conscientious. If you've got an accounting job, is it a good job, or is it boring?

[On a side note: did anyone else see last week's West Wing? Where Jimmy Smits' character admitted he'd lay off a lot of teachers, but hey, he'd re-train them as computer programmers! I'm sure that was freaking hilarious to all the out-of-work computer programmers, or the programmers who are now working retail jobs at a tenth their previous pay! I know I laughed and laughed. The American jobs situation is killing me inside.]

•  I am looking for works as well...

  Person 1: Jobs in Vancouver BC: AI (natural language processing) software development
  Person 2: Jobs in Seattle: Human services or education

  by Tom Kertes on Mon Jan 17, 2005 at 01:22:20 PM PDT

  •  computer game development

    for person 1: yes - you're right - crappola

    by Tom Kertes on Mon Jan 17, 2005 at 01:23:13 PM PDT

    •  Yes. Stay out of game development.

      It seems every video game-loving kid wants to move into the industry, but there aren't enough jobs to accommodate all of them - even if the jobs remain in America, which is not happening.

      by Jon Meltzer on Mon Jan 17, 2005 at 02:15:18 PM PDT

•  A link for you:

  jobwatch.org

  I think this Diary is a great idea, I hope it doesn't disappear quickly.

  Good luck to you.

  by DianeL on Mon Jan 17, 2005 at 01:22:32 PM PDT

  •  Thank you!

    Believe it or not, as I was writing the diary, somebody called me out of the blue to let me know about some work at his company. Maybe I should write jobs workshop diaries more often!

    Thanks for the link; I already had it bookmarked but hadn't visited it in a while. It seems that may people are saying there's a structural long-term employment problem, but I'm not seeing any solutions. I guess that would be asking too much! I've been toying with the idea of getting our local DFA (East Bay for Democracy) to offer some kind of job workshop or job referral service. Unfortunately I have no expertise or special experience, just some passion and rage at so many smart people being unemployed.

    A word after a word after a word is power. -- Margaret Atwood

    by tmo on Mon Jan 17, 2005 at 02:30:22 PM PDT

    •  You're welcome.

      The whole manner in which jobs are created, and the distincion between a vocation, versus 'a job,' will eventually be revisited, hopefully, sooner than later - if we don't destroy ourselves in the interim.

      At that point in time, hopefully, there will be the importance, so needed, placed on human life, and the needs of the human spirit.

      by DianeL on Mon Jan 17, 2005 at 05:39:38 PM PDT

•  if you want to suck bucks

  go to accounting.

  if you want to fill a need, learn Arabic and Middle East history.

  by Miss Devore on Mon Jan 17, 2005 at 01:24:02 PM PDT

•  on WW last week

  I laughed my a## off.  I spent 20+ years in data processing, everything from tab equipment operator ikn the Marines through systems analyst, manager and consultant.  As my hndle makes clear, I've gone the other way, in becoming a teacher.

  Computer programming is absolutely an exportable job that can be done anywhere.   It will be hard to maintain such jobs in the US.

  BTW  -- there are tose who have tried outsource teaching positions as well.  No, I do not mean being taught over the web by someone in another country.  I ahve seen cases of districts in the US importing science and math teachers from India.

  One thing a lot of these executives apparently do not realize.  It is actually quite easy to outsource their jobs.   Maybe we should.  Then because foreign citizens are barred from contributing to US political campaigns, we could dry up some of the funding upon which the Rethugs rely?

  So let's push outsourcing of managers and exepcially top executives  -- after all, they are the most highly paid, and for each job outsourced the savings to the company will be that much more.  :)

  by teacherken on Mon Jan 17, 2005 at 01:44:04 PM PDT

  •  Let's Outsource the Republican Party

    To China.

    1. They care at least as much about America as Republicans.

    2. They do better work.

    3. You can get a CEO for under a million a year.

    Result:  hundreds of billions a year savings to U.S. investors.

    by easong on Mon Jan 17, 2005 at 01:50:36 PM PDT

•  Don't diss nursing

  Yes, the hours suck and the glamour factor low, but for many people it is rewarding work, both financially and pyschically.

  I work in IT and if you learn programming and want to go into Defense contracting and are eligible for a security clearance, you can make some big $$.  Of ocurse, you need to sell your soul to the devil...  but that's a minor detail.

  by mlk on Mon Jan 17, 2005 at 01:52:12 PM PDT

  •  Not dissing nursing at all

    I'm not dissing it, just offering my explanation for why so many nursing jobs go wanting. I have nothing but the highest respect for people who are able to put up with the downsides. It's just a mystery to me that they can't seem to find a way to address the chronic labor shortages in that field.
    

    A word after a word after a word is power. -- Margaret Atwood

    by tmo on Mon Jan 17, 2005 at 02:24:08 PM PDT

  •  Well

    I work for a defense company. And I don't see myself as "selling my soul". Actually I think it is good because I am adding a progressive voice into what is most definitely a more conservative industry.

    by jiacinto on Mon Jan 17, 2005 at 03:10:09 PM PDT

    •  I tried it, didn't like it

      Maybe it was the company/project I was working for/on, but it was deadly dull and there was no independent thought/opinion allowed.  I felt like I couldn't be my more progressive self.

      by mlk on Mon Jan 17, 2005 at 03:27:50 PM PDT

      •  Well

        At my office several people I know voted for Kerry. While the general drift is probably one of conservativm, I was suprised to see Kerry get as much support as he did from my coworkers.

        by jiacinto on Mon Jan 17, 2005 at 03:44:07 PM PDT

•  Job recommendation

  How about Geographic Information Systems (GIS).  It's many different things - IT, engineering, government, analysis.  It's way too broad a field to explain in a short post.  Go to www.esri.com and that following links such as:  What is GIS?

  by frankf on Mon Jan 17, 2005 at 02:08:32 PM PDT

  •  Are you in the field?

    Are you in this field? I've heard GIS mentioned a couple times by other tech folks, but I never delved into it too much. Thanks for the link to the website.

    A word after a word after a word is power. -- Margaret Atwood

    by tmo on Mon Jan 17, 2005 at 02:25:39 PM PDT

•  Dental hygienists

  I know some people who are happy as dental hygienists.  Good money, plus you don't have to buy the insurance that the dentist does.

  I work in computer technical support.  Don't go into this field.  There is no future in it.

  by Subversive on Mon Jan 17, 2005 at 02:22:38 PM PDT

•  If you want to make a difference

  be challenged on a daily basis, creatively, intellectually, professionally

  and if you want to effect the future and have the courage and perseverence to do so without much indication that what you're doing is working...

  be a TEACHER

  and teach for social justice

  unfortunately, that means

  teach subversively

  by tepster on Mon Jan 17, 2005 at 02:25:18 PM PDT

  •  Enormous respect for teachers

    I have ENORMOUS respect for teachers. Both of my husband's parents are teachers and love it. His dad was a school teacher with the Oakland schools for forty years, long enough that he was the president of the teachers' union before they had any health benefits! He gets former students coming up to him all the time saying "Mr. Garske, I was in your history class and I've never forgotten it." And yes, he would qualify as a subversive. :)

    The Oakland school district is losing students at a fast clip though, and is closing around thirteen schools for the next year. I guess all the teachers they'll lay off will go teach in the suburbs, where all the families who can't afford a house in Oakland anymore have been pushed.

    I just don't think I could handle thirty kids all at once. I have a hard enough time being in a room with just a couple other people!
    

    A word after a word after a word is power. -- Margaret Atwood

    by tmo on Mon Jan 17, 2005 at 02:38:43 PM PDT

•  how about editor?

  If you have good grammatical/word skills, can you float yourself as an editor?

  I am in academic science, and we use an outside (self-employed) editor to vet and edit manuscripts for style, grammar and reference check before they are sent to journals.

  There may be some personal friendship type of contacts that can get you into this, my sense is that most of the work comes by word-of-mouth from happy users. Most universities do not offer this in-house.

  Good luck on the job hunt, and the trade of trades. And it was a good idea to ask kosreaders to suggest good and bad ideas.

  by riverlover on Mon Jan 17, 2005 at 03:02:39 PM PDT

•  I'm in the Bay Area

  and would love a new job too.

  What are your skills?
  What do you like?
  What did you do before?

  My job is on your list of unwantables, so I wouldn't recommend it.  I do make "okay" money, although some days I just want to hang myself 'cause it seems like it would be more fun.

  by East Bay Molly Girl on Mon Jan 17, 2005 at 03:02:53 PM PDT

•  Well

  If you live in the DC area, can get a security clearance, and are interested in national security, there are plenty of jobs in this area that pay well.

  by jiacinto on Mon Jan 17, 2005 at 03:10:48 PM PDT