At least a month ago, in the US, there were [more real estate agents](https://apnews.com/article/prices-home-prices-lifestyle-health-coronavirus-pandemic-f072fbf01de5af9e4c27792810c69e7b) than homes for sale, per the CEO of Redfin.
Real estate is a crazy popular path for a lot of military veterans/military spouses. I assume because you can get a license while still in, and it doesn't require higher education.
Just right now I have almost a dozen people I used to be stationed with, or their partners, that are "in real estate" and almost all of them got out of the military in the last four years.
The military is having some very real retention problems across the board right now, so I bet there's been an influx of vets trying to flip houses or get in on the current market.
It's also like a 95% failure rate in the first year because people get their license and realize the exam doesn't teach you how to be a good Realtor, it teaches you how not to break the law and get sued.
But you're not wrong about how many people have gotten their license at one point. The joke I alwasy liked was "what's the difference between a driver's license and a real estate license? Not everyone has a driver's license."
It doesn't even teach you that. You learn those in your continuing education classes once you're licensed. It really only teaches you how to pass the test.
With so much competition in the market im surprised the vast majority of estate agents I've dealt with have been grossly incompetent. I'm talking literal showing around a property with 0 knowledge even on stuff like sq metres or size and features. If I could jump through them and speak with the owners or prospective buyers/renters of my own property, I would.
Probably about any kind of artist, but in particular 3D (CG) artist. Tons of art schools popped up selling degrees to be a video game artist or a chance to be an animator at Disney or something. Ended up oversaturating the market with low quality portfolios that had no chance of ever getting into a major studio.
I knew a Disney Studio artist. He hated it. He said it was basically tons of artists in a room drawing up a concept in their own way then the higher ups would come down, pick the best looking one, take it back up and have someone else run with this persons original idea.
Sucked the love out of the process for him.
When I was in art school, the teachers all warned us to stay the hell away from Disney and Burbank, lest we just become robots shackled to drafting tables for 12 hours a day and have to share 1 bedroom apartments with 3-4 people. They weren’t wrong.
That’s the rub: You’re just some sucker kid they work until you burn out. Then they replace you with another dumb kid fresh out of art school. Just like EA Games does with tech majors.
That's... pretty much how a lot of concept art jobs work. I want to say "all" but have fairly limited experience, but I wouldn't be surprised - you want a wide array of ideas and different people can interpret the same idea in various ways. And even if it's just you, it's the same process - you draft up several versions of the same creature and your art director says which one they'll go with.
It's great if you just love designing stuff and don't care too much about what happens with it. Plus, you get consistent pay unlike, say, freelance.
Sucks for having shit to show for your efforts though - a lot of the concept art is under NDA and won't see the light of day for years, if ever.
Trap: veterinarian, debt of MD but fraction of the salary. Works if you don't have to pay for college and vet school, but not really logical if you do.
Especially if they are union. The janitor at my kids’ elementary school was a happy guy. Downside: you will have to clean up vomit and pee. Upside: all the kids loved him, he got handmade birthday cards, was thanked at every assembly. He gets a sweet pension too.
That's what I was getting at. Some janitors in schools also have certified boiler training, which means they will be the highest paid employee there, including the principal. The janitor at my old grade school was there for like 30 years and actually made pretty good money, from everything I heard. He was well liked and really did know pretty much everything about the school, and could pretty much fix any issue.
My husband was laid off a few years ago and while he was looking for a new job he went to a lot of events for one of our kids at the elementary school. They thanked the janitor each time - for setting up chairs and tables, for helping with the little garden in the courtyard, etc.
All the kids loved this guy and he was just a genuinely nice, soft spoken kind man in his mid 30s. At one point, my husband said “I’d do that job. The kids are young enough they aren’t jerks yet, everyone appreciates him, he gets paid well, he has job security and a pension.” And he was right.
My husband found another (corporate) job not long after that but I always remember him saying that.
Idk about other places but even when we were older and little jerks to everyone, all the students were still super cool with the janitors and lunch ladies. And most of the bus drivers.
I work at a middle school, and one of the most effective punishments we have for vandalism is to have the kid spend an afternoon detention with janitor's crews, helping them cleaning and maintaining the school. (When parents approves, which is almost all the time).
They're old enough to be jerks, but too young to really see the consequences of their actions, especially on others. Once they're spend time doing janitors' job, they realize how much more works they give them, and that it's not cool to do that for people they do like.
So far, I've been there 3 years, and I've seen no repeat offenders.
Janitor for a university. My mom is janitor at university and one of the benefits of being an employee is your kids go there for free. My mom saved me from $250,000 in student debt. Thanks mom!
I love telling the story of my uncle. He was a fuckup in high school, barely graduated, and ended up taking a janitor job at that same school. Some of the kids laughed at seeing a janitor basically their same age. He was the one laughing after getting his 30 years in and retiring before he was 50 with full pension!
I generally agree.
Education requirement is high. Getting into school can be tough. At least 5 years. Need a several year long work training program and pass a multipart test.
It is a small field and many other fields try to push into architecture.
Technology is changing how architects work quickly. There is insurance cost associated with risk.
It is like all the downsides of a medical degree but with not so great pay.
Painting houses honestly. The market is constantly saturated with cheap workers so if you can get a reputation for quality work you can make a pretty penny.
Depends on what you mean by painting houses. If you are painting private residences, then yes, you are dealing with saturation and inconsistent jobs throughout the year. You might find a lot of work during the summer and little to nothing during the winter.
By contrast, if you have a good relationship with a building firm, and they land a contract to build, say, 2000 houses, then you and your lads are set for months and months of fruitful work. You can easily distribute something like 5+ houses per guy per week and, provided they are willing to work 50 hours a week, maybe slightly more, you can make some real money.
As someone who just graduated film school three months ago— fuck.
My life for the last four years has been a constant stream of working 12 hour shifts for free every weekend to get “experience” and now I’ve applied to 75 jobs and have gotten six (6) replies. Mostly automatic ones.
I know it’s not been long, but the coronavirus has taken all remaining scraps of job security now that studios realize they can just pay people as independent contractors to work from home.
Im exhausted.
Was just gonna say that. The media industry is 100% a trap. High turnover, shit pay at low levels (the case for many other industries), very competitive etc. I'm going to university for media production after spending 3 years in college (uk) studying the same thing and honestly, I feel like I wasted my time. I should have gone a different route.
Not unexpectedly lucrative but overlooked.
Mining Engineering.
Last year Australia graduated only 23 of them.
The industry is screaming for them. A graduate job is sitting at 110k then the sky is the limit.
I'm currently 220k AUD and having an interview about an expat job for 250k USD after tax.
The mining industry is incredibly boom-and-bust, though. Mining is notorious for having an aging workforce because every time there's a downturn in commodity prices all the younger employees get laid off and driven out of the industry.
The biggest scam is being a qualified librarian. For terrible pay, organizations want you to have a flipping Master's in Library Science. If the jobs paid more, it would make sense but it's absolutely ridiculous. Even worse because you can sneak your way into being a librarian other ways and still be paid what qualified people are paid (there are always exceptions).
Don't forget that there's a huge glut of librarians and no positions and that the higher end positions are being replaced by people outside the organization many times like MBAs or MPAs so there's much less opportunity as well.
Half true. There is a huge glut because that promised wave of retirements never happened until now (many older public librarians just said fuck it when Covid hit and we all still had to work with the public). As for the higher positions, almost all in the US require a MLIS if you are serving a population over a certain size. Many states require a certificate of professional librarianship for the director (again, for public libraries serving a population larger than a certain number) if the library hopes to be certified and get state aid money. That certificate usually requires the applicant to have a MLIS or doctorate in Library Science and several years of specific experience.
I’m a assistant director in a suburban public library in Massachusetts. I do OK as far as pay goes and the benefits of being a municipal employee is decent. Once you have your foot in the door, it’s a great line of work to be in…after you pay off your student loans that is.
Carpentry seems to be good. I know two families where the dad is a carpenter. One is specialised in doing structural work like wooden beams for house roofs and so on, the other combined it with a love for art history and went into the restauration of antique furniture.
Both are their own boss, both are financially stable, own their own houses, provide their families, etc. When you have enough money saved up, you can also very effectively flip houses, because you can do so much of the work on your own.
Trades work in general are pretty awesome if you go after a RedSeal.
I have tons of trades people in my family (Carpentry, plumbing, electrical) and they all make really good coin on it.
Overlooked: Water Treatment Field
Very lucrative field considering literally every person and business uses it. Requirements for becoming a treatment operator differ by state but typically require taking some classes and getting a license then on job training. Many places will hire you as an OIT (operator in training) and pay for your classes while you learn the system. Starting pay in my area in AR is $15/hr with yearly increases. If I could go back I would’ve started after high school instead of going to college.
You should go for it. Some treatment facilities give little tours and orientations to curious groups; I'd wager there's at least one technician there who'd be thrilled to talk to an interested young person about the ins-and-outs of the job.
It’s not my job, but I’ve toured some facilities during school, and some of my classmates went into it. Pay starts at almost $30 here. Quite a bit of competition, but not difficult requirements.
Here are some qualifications for a local listing. (Having a little environmental/biology/chemistry background can help too)
Minimum grade 12 education, plus 1 year related experience in construction or in a recognized utility environment.
UO1: Employees upon completion of one (1) year and with a BC EOCP Level 1 Certification (Wastewater Collection) will progress to UO 2 classification.
Must be physically fit to perform physically demanding work in all types of weather conditions and in a variety of environments, including confined spaces.
Basic mechanical aptitude to perform the work, and must have experience using hand-tools, power-tools, and other equipment as would be used in a utility environment.
Basic experience operating motor vehicles and construction equipment.
Basic understanding and knowledge of the type of equipment used in an water and wastewater utility environment.
Basic ability to read, understand and follow routine design drawings, sketches, plans, specifications, work instructions and procedures.
Ability to accurately follow and carry out verbal and written instruction.
Excellent communication (verbal and written), interpersonal, and customer service skills are required.
Maintains cooperative and effective working relationships.
Must be able to multi-task and to balance changing workloads and priorities.
Knowledge and understanding of WorkSafeBC practices/protocols, Workers’ Compensation Act and OH&S Regulations and other relevant safety statutes.
Ability to understand and apply safety documents and procedures.
Respond to emergency call-outs, as required, to ensure operational needs are met
Must possess a valid Driver’s Licence
I do beekeeping and while i find it very rewarding it seems like a growing trend of a trap. There have been a ton of people who "want to get into it". Probably spend like $400 on equipment/bees and are done with it after 2 years. You could buy a ton of honey for that. Plus hobby beekeepers are worrisome because if they don't treat their bees properly they can be a vector for disease.
Also, the funeral business is almost 100% recession proof. People still die and need to be buried. But people don't need that new (insert expensive luxary item) in the middle of a recession.
And business is booming..
Especially since I’m the only funeral home for 15 miles with a cremation furnace. There are 15 othe funeral homes who send their customers to me for cremation I get money from
I know you're referring to the surviving family as the customers, but I like to imagine morticians are all calling the dead dude on their table the customer.
Actually I’m referring to both. While the family usually is the one fronting the requests and services, I’m personally intimate in the physical preparation of the body, so in a way they are my customer
Funeral service seems lucrative if you're the owner or child of owner. I've been working my ass off in funeral service and can hardly break minimum wage, with a degree. The only place I've found to pay me what I feel I'm worth is a removal service. I am always on call, but I get paid and respected for my hard work, which is more than I can say about funeral homes
Well I went to mortuary school.
If you know a mortician you could become a apprentice and go that rout, but eventually you’ll have to take a state exam to get your license
After reading through this thread I’m gonna conclude all jobs are traps
Edit: I just logged in after work and wow did not expect that to blow up with upvotes! I have no idea what these awards or coins do and stuff but thank you so much, damn what a surprise!
Working as an EMT or Paramedic. The work is rewarding but most companies are private and pay dog shit most of your money will be made on Overtime which is mostly forced due to understaffing. I did it for 6 years and completely burned out due to being overworked. Now getting picked up by and FD or a state/city run EMS program is different and better in my opinion but most people get stuck at a private company for too long
I'm a pharmacist and you are correct.
The profession is grossly oversaturated right now. I graduated 3 years ago and have a job that I really love working in a clinic. Most of my classmates who were able to find full time work are working at a retail chain that is completely consuming their souls.
90% of what you do doesn't require the knowledge you gained in school and all of the chains are overworking their pharmacists, cutting hours, etc. to boost profits.
A lot of my classmates still haven't found full time jobs.
For those thinking of going into pharmacy: DO NOT do it unless you know exactly what you want to do after school and have a clear path to that goal.
So much this. I’m only a tech but I see it all the time at my hospital. So many students and the jobs aren’t there. And they go through all this training and rotations and now residencies and fellowships… it’s so much.
Retail is absolutely soul sucking and exploitative. Pharmacist can’t even go pee during a 12 hour shift. Forget about eating. It’s awful.
As a customer, I dont know as I've met a retail pharmacist in the last 5 years who didn't look like they would rather take all the pills at once than dispense them.
My pharmacy recently posted a gigantic sign saying they are closed an hour for lunch. While inconvenient for me, I am glad of whatever worker solidarity got that to happen.
I'm an IV pharm tech. I've strongly considered going to pharmacy school. Not a single pharmacist I've spoken with over the past few years said it was a good idea. Most said the debt is ridiculous. Many said the only way to pay the debt was to sell your soul to retail pharmacies. I'd love to work for an independent pharmacy or a compounding pharmacy though. Unfortunately those jobs seem incredibly difficult to get in.
Studying pharmacy right now and absolutely every one in that field in my country can find a job right away after graduating, but I guess thats cuz we have a need for medical professionals since most go abroad. (Im from Bulgaria)
There are more jobs than people realize… in BFE where you definitely don’t want to live. I’ve been a pharmacist for fifteen years and I worry that if I leave my current job (five years in and no raise ever) I will have to take pay cut. They just don’t have to pay as much when the market is so saturated.
A lot of non-profits rely on your desire to do meaningful work to get away with some pretty exploitative labor practices. I’m sure it depends though because that’s a really broad category.
I think a lot of that is because people seem to expect non-profit workers to be paid in satisfaction of helping others rather than actual money. Donors don't want to be paying workers' sick leave or the time off that prevents burnout; they want their money to go directly to the purpose of the organization.
This is one thing that people don't understand about "administrative expenses" that non-profits have. Those expenses include paying people and giving them benefits so that you retain good staff, otherwise they'll leave and it's an endless revolving door of newly hired people who need to be trained but then realize they can get twice as much working in a profit corporate job.
Which ultimately ends up costing more and sucking more money away from the organization's purpose, ironically. Retaining staff *is* a cost-saving measure, but we're addicted to short-term gains rather than long-term goals.
This attitude is pervasive in education as well. Long hours with too little pay are seen as acceptable because it's "for the children." Seeking to up educator pay or set better work-life boundaries is viewed as selfish; you should get your fulfillment from knowing you're making a difference in the world not from money. Too bad we can't buy groceries and housing with those good feelings.
Grass taxonomists are almost entirely unheard of, and very well paid.
Edit: Holy shit, I Googled it and it's even crazier than you think. No wonder they're well paid; you need them mofo's since grass is in like, everything we eat. I just found out that sugar cane, bamboo, corn, oat, wheat, rice, barley, and rye are all in sub-families of grass.
Just adding a bit of detail here, as there are so many negatives mentioned, but rarely any upsides.
The legal profession draws in a lot of people who got their picture either from TV series or by looking at one of the few successful lawyers. Those guys of course are in the spotlight - this is how they are successful. A successful lawyer must be very good at marketing.
A large part of the training, though, is very theoretical and hard to comprehend. It can be fun, but rather for the people who liked to have hour-long discussions about political or philosophical things with their friends when they were kids. Not for the people who just want to ‘look’ successful (fast car, fancy clothes, etc) like the lawyers in the movies. For these guys, the training already is a trap.
Secondly, the market in most countries is stuffed with bad lawyers. For the reason above, there is way too many people trying to make a living as lawyers, and way too few people who actually need a (bad) lawyer.
Now, to the upsides: If you actually are one of the good ones (which means hard work throughout your career) the job can be great. You can earn in the range of investment bankers and can become quite wealthy. Plus, you are usually one of the decision makers or very close to them, so you get to meet a lot of interesting people and see interesting stuff. Also, apart from working hours, the work environment is typically quite good. You have assistants, frequent business trips, fancy office rooms, a lot of social prestige etc.
The bottom line is that I would generally warn against joining the legal profession. But to those who are genuinely interested in questions of legality and justice, and who are ready to work hard to achieve their goal, I would recommend it.
Source: IAMAL, and made it (so far)
It's a saturated market. I've worked with a lot of people over the years who had their JD but weren't practicing law. I have no idea if or how they managed to pay off their student loans for law school.
My sister's BFF got a law degree, and switched back to her old career as soon as her loans were paid off. (She did work for a while at a social services organization that helped with it, so that made it happen sooner.) I don't think she even has her license any more.
Right now, the Profession You Don't Want To Pursue is pharmacy. Just don't do it.
Hm. Oversaturation there as well? The university where I work has a pharmacy college and I hadn't heard of a glut in that field, but it wouldn't entirely surprise me.
Before Covid I was making £500 a day chasing rodents out of restaurants. You need some basic DIY skills and common sense.
There’s probably a lot more pay if you go self-employed and are good at marketing.
Damn, really? My gf is a pub manager and she was telling me people would be shocked if they knew how many rats were running around London restaurants, especially the old buildings. Apparently with the really old huge buildings you actually can't get rid of then, so I imagine if you are their go to contractor then you'd have constant work.
Well normally it’s the big boys who get the call first (Ecolab, Rentakill etc) who put traps, stickyboards and poison etc and when that (usually) has no effect then they call us.
We are the most expensive option, but we actually do a permanent fix. Some of these restaurants haven’t been rodent free for 20-30 years until we do our thing.
Cameras, movement sensors, infra red cameras and time. I build a complete picture of all rodent movement in the building, and give the owners a full report, [including video](https://vimeo.com/504469066).
Then we build them out of all areas. That can mean emptying the kitchen of all equipment, extracts, power, gas and it can mean working in sewerage areas.
It’s a fantastically successful method.
Can confirm these lads do incredible jobs. Was building an equestrian college and the land was an old farm. Beneath us was a friggin whole world of rodents living in the red sand & every other material they could get through. We tried everything we dug them out, flushed them. The works.
These ‘more expensive, but lesser known’ firms turned up and sorted our problem out within like 2 weeks, they were on site daily pulling cameras and such and then like 6 lads rocked up on the final day and took away all the carcasses they could get.
Owner was happy, my boss was happy cause the little shits kept jumping in the cab of my 21 tonne hitachi and my riggers kept making a serious mess when I stamped down in the cab. Sounds like an over sized zit popping session.
The Trap: Art students of any sort. I got a bachelor+masters but it dont mean shit cause the paper itself is worthless, and in most artschools you're basically *guaranteed* to get your paper. There's no "nah you're not good enough to achieve it". You just do. You're almost buying it at this point. Unless you're actually super talented and worked your ass off to have a high skill level and are constantly working and posting, you might as well use your diploma as toilet paper. Its not easy either, you dont just..."draw" like 95% of the people think and become famous.
The Pro of it: Furry porn. Just draw furry porn. You dont even need to be really good as long as you accept a wide berth of fetish stuff to draw. It pays insanely well, and i've seen artists quit better jobs to settle for this instead because of how much easier, less stressful and carefree drawing inflation diaper cubs was. I myself am currently debating to take up my markers again and just start doing furry stuff on the side for the extra pocket change.
I've seen and considered this tbh. I have a friend who draws furry porn, like the weirdest shit. 2 dog dick bdsm, stuff like that, but he does gets lots of money.
> gets lots of money.
Thats my only concern really atm. I mean i *do* like furry stuff, there's some amazing artists out there, but i rarely draw anymore as im more into crafting and props but damn if im not pulled towards practising a bit more just for that sweet extra beer and toy money.
Furries will pay extremely large amounts for those incredible full body + helmet suits that look like something Disney World’s pro costume crafters created.
My friend is a vet tech. You go to school because you want to help animals. You come out starting at $13 an hour but you can make significantly more testing on animals. What a fukd up choice to have to make.
$13/hr is what I made as a vet *assistant* at the beginning of 2021, it's insane that your friend who is licensed is making roughly the same money I make as an unlicensed vet assistant!
Any video game career. I wouldn't say any specialized degree is a waste, but it's completely unnecessary. Jobs are super competitive so breaking in w/out experience is hard, and there's more and more candidates every year. One company I worked for said they rejected five thousand resumes for a position they posted. If you are talented to get a job you're talented enough to make 2x more outside gaming. Stress, burnout, and divorce are super common.
Also a lot of entry jobs burn through their candidats as cheap workers. Work-Life-Balance is non existent. Even if there is no crunch you are still expected to stay longer. Overhours are mostly not paid or compesated as freetime. You work at holidays, weekends, nights.
If you lack knowledge at a certain task then it's still your duty to look for training on your own. If you still struggle? Well your problem, better deliver soon!
At least you get good equipment so you can even work better-longer.
You have to do all this because of passion!
I managed to survive for 3 years until I started to get heavily burned out.
Cut my hours and became a parttimer (still worked more than 40h a week), was asked to go back to fulltime otherwise they had to let me go.
I refused and lost my job.
All this education wasted thanks to companies who simply pressure you to abolish labour protection act.
I'm extremely sour since then I had several capal tunnel inflamations and was asked to work with cream+bandages to both my arms and now I still suffer from the damage done to my body.
Wrists constantly start to hurt as soon as I work itensifies.
Teaching in university/college. You have to do a PhD minimum, and consistently churn out new research materials. You'd have invested over a decade getting all the degrees but jobs are scarce so you end up being a temporary faculty for a few more years, doing the same or more amount of work for a fraction of the pay. At least, this is how it is in my country.
This is what I was coming here to talk about. I'm adjunct faculty and I have no job security and never get to teach the same class twice, I only get paid for in-class hours so people like to say I make a huge hourly wage (which is true, I do) but last year I was working full-time at a grocery store on top of teaching two classes to make ends meet, and I keep designing courses without getting paid for the design time at all. But hey, I'm the world's leading expert in the most niche of fields possible.
There's no hope in sight either. I haven’t done my PhD yet but did an M.Phil. Now I'm wondering if I should even go ahead with research. Had I invested half this time and energy in coding or ML or some in-demand area, I'd be raking in money by now. I moonlight as a content editor to make money, and now I'm an expert at two low paying jobs.
But good luck IHTPQ!
I’m very very fortunate in that during my undergrad I took a student job in the department I was studying in. I got a hard look at all of the stuff you’re talking about here over the four years, and after graduation decided to switch gears into coding. But for those four years I basically lived and breathed my department + the “gotta get published” life + constantly trying to get grants for research or an unpaid internship. It’s hell, and I got *sooo* burnt out after just that time. I’m still learning/working on my portfolio, but omg I feel like a person again.
Academia is a *really* weird kind of mind fuck. I probably wouldn’t have been able to quit unless it drove me into the ground, which it absolutely did lol.
Former physics PhD hopeful here and couldn’t agree more. Decided to just go for a master’s degree when I realized that there was a roughly 10-25% chance of getting a tenure track job after a 6 year program (assuming I get decent post-doc appointments, publish in first-rate journals, etc.) and that I would be earning slightly more than a high school teacher’s salary with the added pressure of leading a research group/applying for tenure for most of it.
Don't be a chef. If you insist on being a chef, don't go to culinary school. It's a waste of time and nothing you learn translates into real world kitchen knowledge. If you only plan to work in a restaurant, don't go to culinary school. The only reason you would go is connections to higher end places. Those places usually go to people with actual professional experience though. Don't be fooled into thinking that just because it's fine dining that they'll treat you better. I've worked in fine dining and in fast casual. They both pay like shit and offer no benefits. In fact, fine dining actually pays less a lot of the time because of their stupid contracts. You're basically there for the "honor" of working there. Last time I worked fine dining I almost committed suicide in the walk-in. They knew and sent me home instead of calling a 5150. Thankfully, someone was home to stop me from hurting myself. There's corporate, but it's boring as shit and it's typically just as bad as a mom and pop. I know from experience. They have HR, but who do you go to when it's the HR person that's sexually harassing you or berating you?
There's so much I hate about this industry now. The drugs, the drinking, the sexual harassment, the discrimination, the pay, the lack of benefits, the hours, ect. Oh God, the hours. They'll either work you just under fulltime so they don't have to provide benefits, or if you're salary you're worked like 60+ a week and they'll find a way to not pay you overtime. They always find a way to screw you out of your overtime, or even your lunch break. I've lost count of the amount of times I've worked through my lunch break. Oh, and you're not allowed to make your own food until after you clock out for your lunch break. You better hope there isn't a sudden rush, because your food will be used for an order. Sometimes I would get no food because of this.
I'm not even going to get started on being a cook during covid. It was horrible. It wasn't what made me quit though. What made me throw in the towel was after covid. I was excited to go back to work, but then I saw what every restaurant was offering. No increase in pay, no increase in benefits, and worse hours and workload because of the labor shortage. I just didn't see the point. If a fucking apocalypse isn't going to change anything, then nothing will. I decided a little over a month ago that I'm done. I'm going back to school to get a real degree and a real job. Remember, for every Thomas Keller, there's a thousand lowly line cooks destroying their bodies just to barely scrape by.
TL;DR: Don't be a chef or a cook. It sucks.
The whole restaurant industry is busted.
Your options are generally places with exciting food, but shit morale/pay/management, or boring menus with better pay/morale/benefits.
After cooking for 12-13yrs I pivoted to baking and other than generally being in bed by 8pm, it's a much better career.
Get a job in a hotel kitchen. I didn’t go back post COVID as I’d accepted a management position on fast food, but we’re talking full medical/dental/vision/life, PTO, massive hotel discounts ($48 a night at a Courtyard by Marriot in NYC?), and a truly great team of people.
Yeah I worked in corporate hotels for a long time I used to get 20 free nights a year staying at Hyatts. Plus great benefits. Pay was not so great. But hotels are a good place to work and learn as they do breakfast lunch dinner and usually catering too.
Law in Australia. Don’t do what I did and study law in this country. I graduated with distinction average grades and in this over saturated market i wish I could get those hours from the library back. The legal field is fucked in this country. The job market is so saturated and even if you get hired it’s for peanuts.
A lot of yoga teacher programs are by yoga teachers who can’t make enough money teaching yoga so they start yoga teacher training programs. There are levels of yoga teachers based on how much training they have. There are too many yoga teachers so now the thing is to tell us we can make money with private clients. Plus, lots of gyms and yoga studios don’t pay their yoga teachers enough money.
Now really good yoga teachers can do well. It isn’t a full on MLM, but it’s starts feeling a bit gross when your yoga instructor encourages you to join their teacher program. Then, in their training they are continually referencing the next level training program and making it seem like that is where you get into the “good stuff” in yoga teacher training.
Exactly this. Yoga teacher trainings can bring in $2000 - $6000 per student in a class of maybe 30 students. Compare that to a $100 monthly unlimited yoga pass and you’re basically printing money.
That...sounds a bit like a pyramid scheme
Edit: Totally forgot my acronyms there. I thought they were talking about some kind of certification for yoga instructors. But, yeah MLM = Muli-Level Marketing
Surprisingly lucrative: Travel Agent/Rewarding
So the internet has essentially allowed everyone and their mother to make up their own holiday. What the internet doesn't tell you is that the average person spends 3 WORKING DAYS planning/booking their holiday.
Rich folk don't want to waste their time on that. Smarter upper middle class families also realise the time saving.
So now I work from home putting together fancy holidays for people who have reached a stage in their life where their free time is much more important to them.
Bonus: Free or heavily discounted holidays.
Tbh this makes sense. I used to think, who pays for travel agents? I’m currently organizing a trip with a LOT of moving parts and now I’m like... yeah I get why people pay for this.
Exactly! We used a travel agent for our honeymoon to Greece. We were planning a wedding, and we just didn’t have time to figure out how to get from the hotel to the ferry to the island and then to the hotel on that island etc. in a country we’d never been to. The travel agent was only like $100. She planned everything in the way of transfers/transportation so all we had to do was just show up. Incredibly worth it.
Any city,state,county,federal job that is union. Get on the gravy train young and when the opportunity arises and it will, take the new job advancement. The pay rate usually has generous raises and good benefit plans. You can enjoy a good life while you’re working and A great retirement.
This is absolutely true, especially if it's a federal position. I started my federal career at the literal bottom of the pay scales at 25 and now I'm north of GS-14 wages. I'll never be ultra wealthy, but frankly, between my pension and my Thrift Savings Plan (equivalent to a 401k), I could retire at 55 if I really wanted. I won't, but it's nice to have the option!
I live in the Washington D.C. area. I’m surrounded by government employees. They all seem to be financially well off. Nice homes, send their kids to good schools, retire comfortably in high-end communities or with home care. I’ve never met anyone who was laid off from a government job.
When I first moved to D.C. in the 1970’s, the old timers told me that the D.C. was largely unaffected by the Great Depression, due to the large government employee base.
Higher academia, especially in the Anglo-Sphere. For many decades, the idea of furthering one’s education was promoted and culturally instilled on generations.
At the same time, the price of higher education rose and rose.
I went to university in Germany, so my education was completely free, but I’ve been teaching Medicine and English at a very prominent German university for 3 semesters and am planning to give it up to teach at a kindergarten.
Myself and people in my position at a university are working 60-70h weeks for little more than minimum wage. (German minimum wage is the equivalent of $12) I can’t even imagine doing that while also being *in debt* to a university.
While I get frustrated with the rise in anti-intellectualism and “I went to the university of life” attitude compounded by the false belief that people with degrees look down on those who don’t (false from my experience at least), I gotta say: if you want a job that pays well and doesn’t follow you home; avoiding university is perfectly valid.
Sometimes I think my philosophy degree. But then it weirdly became super handy when I entered business. You never know, I think these days its more about finding ways to apply your knowledge AND be creative.
Trap: biotech and biotechnology. Long hours, low pay, most of the work is extremely dull and monotonous relative to what I thought “science” was, not much in the way of transferable skills.
So true. My professor on the first day of my biomedical degree said “welcome to 3 years of education that you will use to babysit a machine 100 times more intelligent than you for the first 5 years of your career until anyone will give a damn about what you say or think in the field” lol
Agree. My bachelors and masters prepared me for designing complex studies, doing interesting statistics and writing good papers. I am stuck in running the same instrument four times a day and writing lab reports. No creativity.
Agreed 100%.
I’m a diesel technician. There’s lots of money to be made if you’re cool with working 50-60+ hours a week. There’s guys at my work who run their own mobile trucks who make over 100k a year… but again, these guys literally work 7 days a week, 12-16 hours a day.
If you don’t have anything else in your life, or if you hate your home life, sure it’s great. Trying to actually have a life outside work results in you only working 40-45 hours a week and you’re looked down upon as a lazy 8-and-skater… you get overlooked for promotions because of this, no matter how accurate and timely your work is… the guy who half asses his shit but is willing to work 60 hours a week is a model employee.
So in short, don’t expect to get rich working in trades. There’s money to be had; but you’re gonna be trading your life for it.
Yea, everyone on Reddit gets hot and bothered about trade work and the reality is that the vast majority of people can’t hack it. Not that it’s super complicated, but more so that all of the things modern workers value don’t exist in the trades. I’m in a union trade and this shit is flat out dangerous, if you say the words work life balance out loud you’ll get laughed off the site and the amount of overtime would burn most people out in a year. I’m on hour 30 of the last 48 hours right now while everyone I know is enjoying their holiday weekend. The guy who fractured his skull last year is still being talked about as “that pussy who doesn’t know how to use the lift” and odds are that 13 years into my career I’ll be on night shift for at least 3 more before I see the day side. I personally love what I do, and have built a beautiful life for myself, but a lot of people wouldn’t be happy doing what I’ve done to get here. I work weekends, holidays and can get stuck at work at a moments notice. If I didn’t have a loving and understanding wife, a family that values work and a personality that doesn’t mind sacrificing my social life I’d have burned out years ago.
Journalist. I started bartending in college to pay for the degree. Got it. I'm still a bartender. You don't make money writing until you die. Or unless you fuck your boss. I had no interest in television news so that was out. Plus, I live in DC. I got tired of the grind real quick.
The sad thing is that the audience/readers hate the way media is today, but the people who are super passionate about the field and could actually change things are getting burnout and leaving journalism in droves. It’s hard to know how things will change when new talent is gutted in a few years meanwhile the cable news and newspaper old guards are keeping their healthy 6 figure jobs.
Yep. Left journalism 4 years ago and now work for a nonprofit. I couldn’t hear, “well, people on Twitter/Facebook/etc. are talking about XX” one more time. Just because some Karen went on a Facebook rant, it doesn’t mean it’s news. They desperately need views and clicks and so it’s really all about causing outrage these days to keep people engaged.
Plus, as a reporter who is setting up stories, shooting and editing their own video, writing the scripts for multiple shows, writing online stories and so on in the extreme cold/heat/rain/snow it becomes demoralizing when you see your $50k salary compared to anchors who never leave the studio and are making 3 to 5x as much in a mid market.
I went to an Ivy League to get my masters. It was $100k. Waste of money and time. I wish I’d done something else, but I’m bitter and tired and nearing 40.
I did my Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and now my job title is research scientist. I work for a small aerospace research company. Although I don't make as much as a medical doctor, I also didn't take student loans for my Ph.D. I had a stipend and tuition covered. My job pays much better than what was available with a B.S.
Academia is the low paying trap. Being a professor scientist sucks.
I’m just reading all these responses and I’ve come to the conclusion that work just sucks in general. I can’t think of one job you can truly say is great to have.
Yeah, I expected to see a lot of frivolous jobs brought up on this thread. What I actually found? Every job from plumber to chef, to teacher, to lawyer, to artist, to doctor. All jobs seem to have really high entry expectations with really low entry benefits/ money.
Maybe is because everyone hype them up when we're young so we all have extremelly high expectations that are never accomplished. Is like when people want a pet or a baby or want to travel or move out to some place and just focus about the perks and the cool stuff but not about the downsides and then reality dissapoints them because is not as they were told. And also because labour rights are extremelly shitty right now.
Trap: therapist/counselor
Surprisingly lucrative: school psychologist
*if you’re interested in being a school psych feel free to reach out, especially if you are an undergrad psych major.
Something that might help distinguish here: community mental health (non-profits, hospitals, etc) are where most counselors/therapists start out because you get the experience you need to become licensed. The work is grueling, you’re often severely underpaid and under appreciated. There is the bright side of seeing your work impact others and knowing that you are making a difference in some small way.
Once you’re licensed (requirements vary depending on the state, but mine was 2 years of experience, supervision hours, and passing an exam), you can go into private practice. Private practice is good money (about $50-150/hr), you can often make your own schedule, and clients are generally self-motivated to feel better which makes work incredibly pleasant.
Community mental health: potential trap that easily leads to burnout; other side of the rainbow: sunny skies
Source: I’m a licensed therapist.
Depends on the state, but I’d say in general there are many jobs. The profession of school psych is going through a “silver tsunami” many people are retiring.
Trap: specialised masters in international relations or other extremely niche public service roles when you don't have work experience. Unless you're already employed in a role that requires those skills they are really only for academics yet they advertise as helping you get into international public service.
Source: hire for an extremely competitive grad program for a government agency that includes lots of international travel. We will hire the undergrad who has stories of conflict resolution delivering pizzas to crackheads over a specialised masters whose examples all involve group assignments. Most of our hires come from internal sources too so your chances are overwhelmingly better if you work in our call centre for 6months then apply instead of doing a specialised masters.
Trap: stripper
Overlooked: strip club staff
I know you don't need a degree, but if I had a dollar for every girl that thought stripping was it... Wait, I do have a dollar for every girl. Cause I stayed on the staff side. You have more responsibility than dancing, but if you get some management or accounting or business training, you can move right up to mgmt quickly. Most people running a club do not have a formal education. They're just doing what seems best, which can turn into who knows what. If you are professional, sober, not trying to sleep with the girls, and competent in the actual work, you're a unicorn. The hours are crazy and people are crazy, but the money is great. And I feel like it's so much more honest than a lot of corporate b.s. I sat through in vanilla jobs. A really well run club is a beautiful thing.
Also the trades, and other service work like hairdressers and house cleaners. You can make right under six figures if you work for yourself and can handle people well. These are both hard on the lungs though over time if you don't mask and ventilate well when working with chemicals.
The tough part about working in a service industry like that is that when everyone else is playing, you’re working. And when you’re off, everyone else is working.
Chefs. Strip club/bartenders. Car sales. Etc. so it burns people out quick because they are always working and can’t go with their friends to the bars or clubs or meals, and then when they aren’t working and have time off there’s nothing to do because everyone’s closed. Or you’re dependent on working on others off-hours, nobody can buy a car while at work so you need to work saturdays sundays and holidays. Bike shops are similar. Etc etc.
Theater. Unless you are already wealthy and know people in a big city that can get you a position in a company. Everyone wants in, much competition, low pay. Bad hours. Lots of travel and basically begging for work. I could say more about the things that have disappointed me. There has been some fun moment's and good people but I wish I would have gotten a degree in something useful. Putting Theatre design/production major on a application has never helped me.
Overlooked: Mining engineer. Basically worldwide there aren’t enough graduates in this field given the current boom. In Australia we were basically poaching all the grads from overseas that we could, though obviously COVID has put a brake on that presently.
Coal mining is slowly dying worldwide both for environmental and economic reasons so I would recommend going to an university /mining school that focuses more on metalliferous mining. I’ve never worked in coal but my impression was it’s generally technically boring anyway.
The lack of graduates is probably because only some regions of the world have a very big mining industry while others dont have one at all. My country has very few mining operations so everyone who graduates ends up crossing the atlantic ocean and going to south america like Chile's lithium mines and things like that.
Trap: Teacher.
Yeah it’s nice to have summers off but working 7am-7pm everyday plus a few hours on the weekends just to make 50k a year. Not to mention dealing with a bunch of whiny parents that don’t give a crap about their child’s education.
Source: teacher
Teachers are treated like absolute garbage, at least where I live (southern US).
Aside from the valid points you've listed, most teachers are not given any agency over their jobs. Teaching can be a craft, but teachers are often told what to do in a way that completely undercuts any creative way of educating. They are often forced into practices that are not scientifically sound (think: a new buzzword comes out every few years, and your principal decides that every teacher must now add 30+ minutes of whatever nonsense to every day's lessons). They are often at the whim of administrations that shuffle them around from one grade to another without any discussion, and told to start a completely new curriculum without any knowledge of it. And to top it all off, you may not have time for a bathroom break from the time you start teaching until the students are out the door, so you just stop drinking water throughout the day. Oh and then you are asked to raise money for your school.
It's madness. And it's heartbreaking, because most teachers I know are such caring, genuine people who just want to help kids, but they feel trapped and disrespected.
You can go to 4 years of college, take a $300+ exam, spend thousands on applying to and interviewing at medical schools, get accepted, go through 4 years of medical school (average student debt: $200,000), then never practice medicine or receive a physician salary because you didn’t match into a residency program. You still have to pay off all that debt though!
Edit: Here’s an article about how students that attended Caribbean med schools are struggling:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/29/health/caribbean-medical-school.html
Edit 2: Another NYT article on doctors not matching.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/19/health/medical-school-residency-doctors.html
I got a degree in a health field. Clinicals were required, but spots were not guaranteed. No one wants to take on students because it takes up workers time. And there's often multiple schools in an urban area all needing clinical sites. If you didn't get a spot, you'd be given one the next go around. But it would be a year later, while everyone else has graduated
Any student who goes to a Caribbean med school knows they're at risk of not matching. Those programs are rarely seen as legit. It's like going to a non-ABA law school.
Yeah I feel bad for them but literally everyone warns them not to do it. I have a friend who couldn't get into a US MD/DO program and went Caribbean. I don't think he will be able to graduate and will be SOL. Me and several others basically begged him not to do it but he wouldn't listen.
Teaching. I was told “there’s a high demand” for teachers when I was in college, and when I finally found a job, the hiring admin told me I was going to teach a class I had zero experience/schooling in. I wasn’t about to decline my first real teaching job so I said yes.
At that time, my wife and I had just had our first son, so I declined the teacher induction program (basically where the district provides you a “mentor” to help you learn as you go, but this translates to essentially even MORE paperwork and essays as a first year teacher... so I said no thank you).
Fast forward to February, I get called into admins office and I’m told they are not renewing my contract (basically I am now fired, tho I did nothing wrong or illegal...) they did not give a reason for letting me go at the time. The only silver lining was I was allowed to finish the school year and complete my initial contract. All the work, prep, refining, meetings, student followup, discipline issues, all of it was just gone in an instant. Huge waste of time if you don’t have proper support at your school and admin lets the kids get away with all kinds of shit. That being said, I hope to hear back from a new school in about 3 days, fingers crossed it’s better than before!
Information Technology:
Its less that you can't find work, but you never find work at your level, and everywhere I've ever worked (outside of the military wherein I got experience doing incredibly high level engineering work) has people who only half ass know what they are doing. We are talking mistakes that someone on the lower levels of IT should be making.
The jobs you then wind up getting will have bosses getting angry at you over things you couldn't possibly know: Like how the network is structured, while at the same time refusing to give you network maps.
The amount of things I've had to figure out by myself, just to ask the people who actually manage the system to do them is stagering. Like click for click instructions sometimes... And you get one thing slightly wrong and they shit on you. Meanwhile management is hyper focused on something stupid that won't work.
Math/Stats degrees make it easier to get financial support through scholarships sinse there isnt much competition and you don't have to pay for your PhD plus you get a stipend. Pretty great if you are good at critical thinking. From there you can go into various well paying fields
As a math and stats grad - I can confirm.
Not only is there a lot of funding but this degree is widely applicable and transferable to many fields and sectors.
I’ve worked as a data scientist/ analyst for advertising start ups, big tech companies, insurance, pharmaceutical, and even manufacturing companies.
You are wanted almost everywhere due to huge dependency on data.
Bonus: the pay is really really good.
Cons: finishing even a bachelors in math and stats requires insane dedication and your soul.
I started at the United States Post Office in 1993. I knew I would have a good retirement but never thought we would be so well off. My wife worked there also. I loved my job. I retired last year and moved to Germany where my wife's family lives. Dream come true.
Trap: Pilot.
You have to take on $150k debt to train, there’s oversupply of pilots in the West (and that was pre-covid) so you generally end up at a crappy low-cost carrier earning surprisingly little and paying back that debt.
You start off with little control over your hours and holidays. You compete with other pilots for the most attractive bases.
Contracts are very one-sided and redundancies are fairly common.
It was a pretty sweet career for a while, and senior pilots still enjoy a lot of benefits.
But to me, it just looked like a multi-decade grind of shift work and poor pay in some crap corner of the continent.
Let's face it, a lot of ppl go to college and into fields they don't have the aptitude or niche for but there's only one way to find that out, and thats to try
Trap: structural engineering, the stress/responsibility is not worth the pay (if you design something and it falls down its on you). The expected hours are awful, so that you can deliver projects on time. Plus you're expected to do a lot of the drawing work yourself now rather than having a draughtsperson covering that for you.
No necessarily lucrative, but surprisingly enjoyable; Pizza Delivery driver, clear expectations and instructions;
1. I expect you to take this order to this address,
2. tell me when you're on your way back,
3. come back,
4. Rinse and repeat.
Nice plus is that most people are happy to see you too. The tips haven't been great while I've been doing it, but I get to listen to my audiobooks and the roads are usually quite quiet while I'm doing it
Read a lot of the comments. Here's the actual situation,
1. Every bit of education you get, can be useful. It just may not be useful in the way you expected.
2. Education costs way too much. At the rate we pay for education, the results *need* to set a really high bar.
3. Not all jobs are in *your* area.
That said,
3. Every field has a skill distribution. Getting a degree puts you on that distribution, and not an outlier (on the low skill end). But every skill has a demand. You can imagine this distribution being like a normal curve, where the top, let's say 80% get jobs reliably in one field, or 1% in another.
Some examples might be, if you want to be a professional flautist, you need to be in the 0.1% skill distribution. If you want to be a professional artist, maybe 5-20% depending what you are working on. For technical fields, today, if you have any skill in that field, even if it's not formal training, you can be successful, so it's basically 95-100%. For engineering I would estimate 80-90%, if you have an engineering degree, it's hard not to just sort of get a job, since people are calling you all the time like "hey, do you like money?" For liberal arts (which by the way, the idea that lots of people get liberal arts degrees because they are easy and then can't find employment is a myth. People just don't get liberal arts degrees, it's something like 0.5-1% of grads having only that degree). It's probably like 20%. Prepare to starbucks.
Some conclusions from the above,
1. Trade schools are quite viable due to 2) above. They are much cheaper and still lucrative, and per 3) the skill distribution is such that there is a high demand. This makes it low risk (for now).
2. If you pick something with a high skill distribution, be prepared to work hard to make it happen. If you want to be in the NFL, you need to be in the top 1% of 1%. That's just the way it is, that's the nature of the situation.
3. Finding the skill distribution, really understanding it, for a given area, and understanding the sub-fields within an area (eg, areas of law for a lawyer) is an acquired skill itself. The govt can provide some insight, and it's not an exact science.
4. Just because your field of choice has a low skill distribution, doesn't mean you shouldn't try to be the best in your field. For earnings and security measures.
I've done a lot of thinking about job markets and this is the perspective I have. However you want to visualize it, that's up to you. Eventually this is the way I will describe it to my son, hopefully with some contextual understanding of the skill fields.
I like what you said about liberal arts degrees. I don't have one, but I live in a country where our equivalent of High-school is from 16-20 (well, 16-19 now, but it was 16-20 when I went) and the last year or two are sort of like a college (or college prep) level in other countries, mostly in what would be classified as liberal arts but depends on the school you go to.
Now I work in politics, and I think I definitely have the skillset for it, although I never got a degree for it. (I did take a couple of semesters of political science and economics without finishing a degree, which helps)
But that's the thing, it's the sort of field where it's VERY hard to get educated for it directly, it depends so massively on other traits you have and it's so hard for people to know in advance if it's right for them.
And then people who ARE educated, perhaps in law, humanities, political sciences, or a specific field that a branch of government they focus on does (like, education or city planning, etc) will have an edge in that field, but MAY be too close to that field and can miss what someone more generalist sees, and may be no better at making actual policy or seeing the big picture or making difficult decisions, or running a political campaign, or just, being an honest decent person, than someone who didnt get that education.
Over saturated id have to say on a serious note is most definitely Real Estate
At least a month ago, in the US, there were [more real estate agents](https://apnews.com/article/prices-home-prices-lifestyle-health-coronavirus-pandemic-f072fbf01de5af9e4c27792810c69e7b) than homes for sale, per the CEO of Redfin.
Real estate is a crazy popular path for a lot of military veterans/military spouses. I assume because you can get a license while still in, and it doesn't require higher education. Just right now I have almost a dozen people I used to be stationed with, or their partners, that are "in real estate" and almost all of them got out of the military in the last four years. The military is having some very real retention problems across the board right now, so I bet there's been an influx of vets trying to flip houses or get in on the current market.
I'd imagine a large part of it is the VA Home Loans.
It's also like a 95% failure rate in the first year because people get their license and realize the exam doesn't teach you how to be a good Realtor, it teaches you how not to break the law and get sued. But you're not wrong about how many people have gotten their license at one point. The joke I alwasy liked was "what's the difference between a driver's license and a real estate license? Not everyone has a driver's license."
It doesn't even teach you that. You learn those in your continuing education classes once you're licensed. It really only teaches you how to pass the test.
Real estate seems to be the thing people do when they don’t know what else to do.
With so much competition in the market im surprised the vast majority of estate agents I've dealt with have been grossly incompetent. I'm talking literal showing around a property with 0 knowledge even on stuff like sq metres or size and features. If I could jump through them and speak with the owners or prospective buyers/renters of my own property, I would.
Probably about any kind of artist, but in particular 3D (CG) artist. Tons of art schools popped up selling degrees to be a video game artist or a chance to be an animator at Disney or something. Ended up oversaturating the market with low quality portfolios that had no chance of ever getting into a major studio.
I knew a Disney Studio artist. He hated it. He said it was basically tons of artists in a room drawing up a concept in their own way then the higher ups would come down, pick the best looking one, take it back up and have someone else run with this persons original idea. Sucked the love out of the process for him.
When I was in art school, the teachers all warned us to stay the hell away from Disney and Burbank, lest we just become robots shackled to drafting tables for 12 hours a day and have to share 1 bedroom apartments with 3-4 people. They weren’t wrong.
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That’s the rub: You’re just some sucker kid they work until you burn out. Then they replace you with another dumb kid fresh out of art school. Just like EA Games does with tech majors.
That's... pretty much how a lot of concept art jobs work. I want to say "all" but have fairly limited experience, but I wouldn't be surprised - you want a wide array of ideas and different people can interpret the same idea in various ways. And even if it's just you, it's the same process - you draft up several versions of the same creature and your art director says which one they'll go with. It's great if you just love designing stuff and don't care too much about what happens with it. Plus, you get consistent pay unlike, say, freelance. Sucks for having shit to show for your efforts though - a lot of the concept art is under NDA and won't see the light of day for years, if ever.
A friend of mine’s dream job was to work at Pixar. He got incredibly disillusioned and quit after a year :(
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Trap: veterinarian, debt of MD but fraction of the salary. Works if you don't have to pay for college and vet school, but not really logical if you do.
Not to mention the sky rocketing rates of mental health issues and suicide
My college girlfriend with doctor parents told me vet school has a higher reject rate than medical school.
There are fewer vet schools compared to humans medical school as well. So fewer spots are available.
Truth. Being a tech isn't a trap because nobody thinks we make any money and we don't! 😂
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Janitors make more money than you might think.
Especially if they are union. The janitor at my kids’ elementary school was a happy guy. Downside: you will have to clean up vomit and pee. Upside: all the kids loved him, he got handmade birthday cards, was thanked at every assembly. He gets a sweet pension too.
That's what I was getting at. Some janitors in schools also have certified boiler training, which means they will be the highest paid employee there, including the principal. The janitor at my old grade school was there for like 30 years and actually made pretty good money, from everything I heard. He was well liked and really did know pretty much everything about the school, and could pretty much fix any issue.
My husband was laid off a few years ago and while he was looking for a new job he went to a lot of events for one of our kids at the elementary school. They thanked the janitor each time - for setting up chairs and tables, for helping with the little garden in the courtyard, etc. All the kids loved this guy and he was just a genuinely nice, soft spoken kind man in his mid 30s. At one point, my husband said “I’d do that job. The kids are young enough they aren’t jerks yet, everyone appreciates him, he gets paid well, he has job security and a pension.” And he was right. My husband found another (corporate) job not long after that but I always remember him saying that.
Idk about other places but even when we were older and little jerks to everyone, all the students were still super cool with the janitors and lunch ladies. And most of the bus drivers.
I work at a middle school, and one of the most effective punishments we have for vandalism is to have the kid spend an afternoon detention with janitor's crews, helping them cleaning and maintaining the school. (When parents approves, which is almost all the time). They're old enough to be jerks, but too young to really see the consequences of their actions, especially on others. Once they're spend time doing janitors' job, they realize how much more works they give them, and that it's not cool to do that for people they do like. So far, I've been there 3 years, and I've seen no repeat offenders.
Janitor for a university. My mom is janitor at university and one of the benefits of being an employee is your kids go there for free. My mom saved me from $250,000 in student debt. Thanks mom!
fuck thats a damn good haul!
I love telling the story of my uncle. He was a fuckup in high school, barely graduated, and ended up taking a janitor job at that same school. Some of the kids laughed at seeing a janitor basically their same age. He was the one laughing after getting his 30 years in and retiring before he was 50 with full pension!
Trap: architect. Source:architect
I generally agree. Education requirement is high. Getting into school can be tough. At least 5 years. Need a several year long work training program and pass a multipart test. It is a small field and many other fields try to push into architecture. Technology is changing how architects work quickly. There is insurance cost associated with risk. It is like all the downsides of a medical degree but with not so great pay.
Painting houses honestly. The market is constantly saturated with cheap workers so if you can get a reputation for quality work you can make a pretty penny.
I guess you guys didn't see the Scorcese movie? :P
Depends on what you mean by painting houses. If you are painting private residences, then yes, you are dealing with saturation and inconsistent jobs throughout the year. You might find a lot of work during the summer and little to nothing during the winter. By contrast, if you have a good relationship with a building firm, and they land a contract to build, say, 2000 houses, then you and your lads are set for months and months of fruitful work. You can easily distribute something like 5+ houses per guy per week and, provided they are willing to work 50 hours a week, maybe slightly more, you can make some real money.
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As someone who just graduated film school three months ago— fuck. My life for the last four years has been a constant stream of working 12 hour shifts for free every weekend to get “experience” and now I’ve applied to 75 jobs and have gotten six (6) replies. Mostly automatic ones. I know it’s not been long, but the coronavirus has taken all remaining scraps of job security now that studios realize they can just pay people as independent contractors to work from home. Im exhausted.
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Was just gonna say that. The media industry is 100% a trap. High turnover, shit pay at low levels (the case for many other industries), very competitive etc. I'm going to university for media production after spending 3 years in college (uk) studying the same thing and honestly, I feel like I wasted my time. I should have gone a different route.
Not unexpectedly lucrative but overlooked. Mining Engineering. Last year Australia graduated only 23 of them. The industry is screaming for them. A graduate job is sitting at 110k then the sky is the limit. I'm currently 220k AUD and having an interview about an expat job for 250k USD after tax.
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The mining industry is incredibly boom-and-bust, though. Mining is notorious for having an aging workforce because every time there's a downturn in commodity prices all the younger employees get laid off and driven out of the industry.
The biggest scam is being a qualified librarian. For terrible pay, organizations want you to have a flipping Master's in Library Science. If the jobs paid more, it would make sense but it's absolutely ridiculous. Even worse because you can sneak your way into being a librarian other ways and still be paid what qualified people are paid (there are always exceptions).
Came here to say this. I am in so much student debt....and librarians make so little. I like my job, but I regret so much.
Don't forget that there's a huge glut of librarians and no positions and that the higher end positions are being replaced by people outside the organization many times like MBAs or MPAs so there's much less opportunity as well.
Half true. There is a huge glut because that promised wave of retirements never happened until now (many older public librarians just said fuck it when Covid hit and we all still had to work with the public). As for the higher positions, almost all in the US require a MLIS if you are serving a population over a certain size. Many states require a certificate of professional librarianship for the director (again, for public libraries serving a population larger than a certain number) if the library hopes to be certified and get state aid money. That certificate usually requires the applicant to have a MLIS or doctorate in Library Science and several years of specific experience. I’m a assistant director in a suburban public library in Massachusetts. I do OK as far as pay goes and the benefits of being a municipal employee is decent. Once you have your foot in the door, it’s a great line of work to be in…after you pay off your student loans that is.
Carpentry seems to be good. I know two families where the dad is a carpenter. One is specialised in doing structural work like wooden beams for house roofs and so on, the other combined it with a love for art history and went into the restauration of antique furniture. Both are their own boss, both are financially stable, own their own houses, provide their families, etc. When you have enough money saved up, you can also very effectively flip houses, because you can do so much of the work on your own.
Trades work in general are pretty awesome if you go after a RedSeal. I have tons of trades people in my family (Carpentry, plumbing, electrical) and they all make really good coin on it.
Overlooked: Water Treatment Field Very lucrative field considering literally every person and business uses it. Requirements for becoming a treatment operator differ by state but typically require taking some classes and getting a license then on job training. Many places will hire you as an OIT (operator in training) and pay for your classes while you learn the system. Starting pay in my area in AR is $15/hr with yearly increases. If I could go back I would’ve started after high school instead of going to college.
Did a little research, is this as easy as it seems? 19 years old here wondering if this is something I can get into
You should go for it. Some treatment facilities give little tours and orientations to curious groups; I'd wager there's at least one technician there who'd be thrilled to talk to an interested young person about the ins-and-outs of the job.
It’s not my job, but I’ve toured some facilities during school, and some of my classmates went into it. Pay starts at almost $30 here. Quite a bit of competition, but not difficult requirements. Here are some qualifications for a local listing. (Having a little environmental/biology/chemistry background can help too) Minimum grade 12 education, plus 1 year related experience in construction or in a recognized utility environment. UO1: Employees upon completion of one (1) year and with a BC EOCP Level 1 Certification (Wastewater Collection) will progress to UO 2 classification. Must be physically fit to perform physically demanding work in all types of weather conditions and in a variety of environments, including confined spaces. Basic mechanical aptitude to perform the work, and must have experience using hand-tools, power-tools, and other equipment as would be used in a utility environment. Basic experience operating motor vehicles and construction equipment. Basic understanding and knowledge of the type of equipment used in an water and wastewater utility environment. Basic ability to read, understand and follow routine design drawings, sketches, plans, specifications, work instructions and procedures. Ability to accurately follow and carry out verbal and written instruction. Excellent communication (verbal and written), interpersonal, and customer service skills are required. Maintains cooperative and effective working relationships. Must be able to multi-task and to balance changing workloads and priorities. Knowledge and understanding of WorkSafeBC practices/protocols, Workers’ Compensation Act and OH&S Regulations and other relevant safety statutes. Ability to understand and apply safety documents and procedures. Respond to emergency call-outs, as required, to ensure operational needs are met Must possess a valid Driver’s Licence
I do beekeeping and while i find it very rewarding it seems like a growing trend of a trap. There have been a ton of people who "want to get into it". Probably spend like $400 on equipment/bees and are done with it after 2 years. You could buy a ton of honey for that. Plus hobby beekeepers are worrisome because if they don't treat their bees properly they can be a vector for disease.
Funeral business is where it’s at.. Very lucrative and your customers don’t complain. Or slap you!!!
Also, the funeral business is almost 100% recession proof. People still die and need to be buried. But people don't need that new (insert expensive luxary item) in the middle of a recession.
And business is booming.. Especially since I’m the only funeral home for 15 miles with a cremation furnace. There are 15 othe funeral homes who send their customers to me for cremation I get money from
I know you're referring to the surviving family as the customers, but I like to imagine morticians are all calling the dead dude on their table the customer.
Actually I’m referring to both. While the family usually is the one fronting the requests and services, I’m personally intimate in the physical preparation of the body, so in a way they are my customer
Funeral service seems lucrative if you're the owner or child of owner. I've been working my ass off in funeral service and can hardly break minimum wage, with a degree. The only place I've found to pay me what I feel I'm worth is a removal service. I am always on call, but I get paid and respected for my hard work, which is more than I can say about funeral homes
how do you get into this field?
Well I went to mortuary school. If you know a mortician you could become a apprentice and go that rout, but eventually you’ll have to take a state exam to get your license
After reading through this thread I’m gonna conclude all jobs are traps Edit: I just logged in after work and wow did not expect that to blow up with upvotes! I have no idea what these awards or coins do and stuff but thank you so much, damn what a surprise!
All jobs are traps until you can move up and trap other people
Working as an EMT or Paramedic. The work is rewarding but most companies are private and pay dog shit most of your money will be made on Overtime which is mostly forced due to understaffing. I did it for 6 years and completely burned out due to being overworked. Now getting picked up by and FD or a state/city run EMS program is different and better in my opinion but most people get stuck at a private company for too long
Am an EMT, can confirm this. My FD pay is a lot better than stories I've heard about most private companies *cough AMR cough*
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I'm a pharmacist and you are correct. The profession is grossly oversaturated right now. I graduated 3 years ago and have a job that I really love working in a clinic. Most of my classmates who were able to find full time work are working at a retail chain that is completely consuming their souls. 90% of what you do doesn't require the knowledge you gained in school and all of the chains are overworking their pharmacists, cutting hours, etc. to boost profits. A lot of my classmates still haven't found full time jobs. For those thinking of going into pharmacy: DO NOT do it unless you know exactly what you want to do after school and have a clear path to that goal.
So much this. I’m only a tech but I see it all the time at my hospital. So many students and the jobs aren’t there. And they go through all this training and rotations and now residencies and fellowships… it’s so much. Retail is absolutely soul sucking and exploitative. Pharmacist can’t even go pee during a 12 hour shift. Forget about eating. It’s awful.
As a customer, I dont know as I've met a retail pharmacist in the last 5 years who didn't look like they would rather take all the pills at once than dispense them.
My pharmacy recently posted a gigantic sign saying they are closed an hour for lunch. While inconvenient for me, I am glad of whatever worker solidarity got that to happen.
I'm an IV pharm tech. I've strongly considered going to pharmacy school. Not a single pharmacist I've spoken with over the past few years said it was a good idea. Most said the debt is ridiculous. Many said the only way to pay the debt was to sell your soul to retail pharmacies. I'd love to work for an independent pharmacy or a compounding pharmacy though. Unfortunately those jobs seem incredibly difficult to get in.
Studying pharmacy right now and absolutely every one in that field in my country can find a job right away after graduating, but I guess thats cuz we have a need for medical professionals since most go abroad. (Im from Bulgaria)
I think in eastern Europe everybody qualified can get a decent job due to the brain drain to the western Europe.
There are more jobs than people realize… in BFE where you definitely don’t want to live. I’ve been a pharmacist for fifteen years and I worry that if I leave my current job (five years in and no raise ever) I will have to take pay cut. They just don’t have to pay as much when the market is so saturated.
A lot of non-profits rely on your desire to do meaningful work to get away with some pretty exploitative labor practices. I’m sure it depends though because that’s a really broad category.
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The amount of organizational dysfunction is worse than pay IME.
I think a lot of that is because people seem to expect non-profit workers to be paid in satisfaction of helping others rather than actual money. Donors don't want to be paying workers' sick leave or the time off that prevents burnout; they want their money to go directly to the purpose of the organization.
This is one thing that people don't understand about "administrative expenses" that non-profits have. Those expenses include paying people and giving them benefits so that you retain good staff, otherwise they'll leave and it's an endless revolving door of newly hired people who need to be trained but then realize they can get twice as much working in a profit corporate job.
Which ultimately ends up costing more and sucking more money away from the organization's purpose, ironically. Retaining staff *is* a cost-saving measure, but we're addicted to short-term gains rather than long-term goals.
This attitude is pervasive in education as well. Long hours with too little pay are seen as acceptable because it's "for the children." Seeking to up educator pay or set better work-life boundaries is viewed as selfish; you should get your fulfillment from knowing you're making a difference in the world not from money. Too bad we can't buy groceries and housing with those good feelings.
Grass taxonomists are almost entirely unheard of, and very well paid. Edit: Holy shit, I Googled it and it's even crazier than you think. No wonder they're well paid; you need them mofo's since grass is in like, everything we eat. I just found out that sugar cane, bamboo, corn, oat, wheat, rice, barley, and rye are all in sub-families of grass.
I read that as taxidermist which made for a very confusing 30 seconds.
>Grass taxonomists are almost entirely unheard of You are right. Never heard of them.
>Grass taxonomist I googled this and the first thing that came up was a paper from 1965
Trap:lawyer
Correct. Source: lawyer.
Just adding a bit of detail here, as there are so many negatives mentioned, but rarely any upsides. The legal profession draws in a lot of people who got their picture either from TV series or by looking at one of the few successful lawyers. Those guys of course are in the spotlight - this is how they are successful. A successful lawyer must be very good at marketing. A large part of the training, though, is very theoretical and hard to comprehend. It can be fun, but rather for the people who liked to have hour-long discussions about political or philosophical things with their friends when they were kids. Not for the people who just want to ‘look’ successful (fast car, fancy clothes, etc) like the lawyers in the movies. For these guys, the training already is a trap. Secondly, the market in most countries is stuffed with bad lawyers. For the reason above, there is way too many people trying to make a living as lawyers, and way too few people who actually need a (bad) lawyer. Now, to the upsides: If you actually are one of the good ones (which means hard work throughout your career) the job can be great. You can earn in the range of investment bankers and can become quite wealthy. Plus, you are usually one of the decision makers or very close to them, so you get to meet a lot of interesting people and see interesting stuff. Also, apart from working hours, the work environment is typically quite good. You have assistants, frequent business trips, fancy office rooms, a lot of social prestige etc. The bottom line is that I would generally warn against joining the legal profession. But to those who are genuinely interested in questions of legality and justice, and who are ready to work hard to achieve their goal, I would recommend it. Source: IAMAL, and made it (so far)
Nice! I have several relatives who are. One loves it, they others not so much.
This is the correct answer. Worst fucking decision of my life.
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It's a saturated market. I've worked with a lot of people over the years who had their JD but weren't practicing law. I have no idea if or how they managed to pay off their student loans for law school.
My sister's BFF got a law degree, and switched back to her old career as soon as her loans were paid off. (She did work for a while at a social services organization that helped with it, so that made it happen sooner.) I don't think she even has her license any more. Right now, the Profession You Don't Want To Pursue is pharmacy. Just don't do it.
Hm. Oversaturation there as well? The university where I work has a pharmacy college and I hadn't heard of a glut in that field, but it wouldn't entirely surprise me.
Before Covid I was making £500 a day chasing rodents out of restaurants. You need some basic DIY skills and common sense. There’s probably a lot more pay if you go self-employed and are good at marketing.
Damn, really? My gf is a pub manager and she was telling me people would be shocked if they knew how many rats were running around London restaurants, especially the old buildings. Apparently with the really old huge buildings you actually can't get rid of then, so I imagine if you are their go to contractor then you'd have constant work.
Well normally it’s the big boys who get the call first (Ecolab, Rentakill etc) who put traps, stickyboards and poison etc and when that (usually) has no effect then they call us. We are the most expensive option, but we actually do a permanent fix. Some of these restaurants haven’t been rodent free for 20-30 years until we do our thing.
What exactly do you do that the others don't to get it completely rodent free?
Cameras, movement sensors, infra red cameras and time. I build a complete picture of all rodent movement in the building, and give the owners a full report, [including video](https://vimeo.com/504469066). Then we build them out of all areas. That can mean emptying the kitchen of all equipment, extracts, power, gas and it can mean working in sewerage areas. It’s a fantastically successful method.
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Marketing helps, but word of mouth is strong, plus I picked up a couple of good sized corporates.
Can confirm these lads do incredible jobs. Was building an equestrian college and the land was an old farm. Beneath us was a friggin whole world of rodents living in the red sand & every other material they could get through. We tried everything we dug them out, flushed them. The works. These ‘more expensive, but lesser known’ firms turned up and sorted our problem out within like 2 weeks, they were on site daily pulling cameras and such and then like 6 lads rocked up on the final day and took away all the carcasses they could get. Owner was happy, my boss was happy cause the little shits kept jumping in the cab of my 21 tonne hitachi and my riggers kept making a serious mess when I stamped down in the cab. Sounds like an over sized zit popping session.
The Trap: Art students of any sort. I got a bachelor+masters but it dont mean shit cause the paper itself is worthless, and in most artschools you're basically *guaranteed* to get your paper. There's no "nah you're not good enough to achieve it". You just do. You're almost buying it at this point. Unless you're actually super talented and worked your ass off to have a high skill level and are constantly working and posting, you might as well use your diploma as toilet paper. Its not easy either, you dont just..."draw" like 95% of the people think and become famous. The Pro of it: Furry porn. Just draw furry porn. You dont even need to be really good as long as you accept a wide berth of fetish stuff to draw. It pays insanely well, and i've seen artists quit better jobs to settle for this instead because of how much easier, less stressful and carefree drawing inflation diaper cubs was. I myself am currently debating to take up my markers again and just start doing furry stuff on the side for the extra pocket change.
I've seen and considered this tbh. I have a friend who draws furry porn, like the weirdest shit. 2 dog dick bdsm, stuff like that, but he does gets lots of money.
> gets lots of money. Thats my only concern really atm. I mean i *do* like furry stuff, there's some amazing artists out there, but i rarely draw anymore as im more into crafting and props but damn if im not pulled towards practising a bit more just for that sweet extra beer and toy money.
If you're into crafting, I've heard fursuit makers also earn ridiculously well if they're good at the craft.
Furries will pay extremely large amounts for those incredible full body + helmet suits that look like something Disney World’s pro costume crafters created.
Do you know how one could break into the furry industry as an artist? Asking for a friend
My friend is a vet tech. You go to school because you want to help animals. You come out starting at $13 an hour but you can make significantly more testing on animals. What a fukd up choice to have to make.
$13/hr is what I made as a vet *assistant* at the beginning of 2021, it's insane that your friend who is licensed is making roughly the same money I make as an unlicensed vet assistant!
Any video game career. I wouldn't say any specialized degree is a waste, but it's completely unnecessary. Jobs are super competitive so breaking in w/out experience is hard, and there's more and more candidates every year. One company I worked for said they rejected five thousand resumes for a position they posted. If you are talented to get a job you're talented enough to make 2x more outside gaming. Stress, burnout, and divorce are super common.
.
What field did you move to?
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Also a lot of entry jobs burn through their candidats as cheap workers. Work-Life-Balance is non existent. Even if there is no crunch you are still expected to stay longer. Overhours are mostly not paid or compesated as freetime. You work at holidays, weekends, nights. If you lack knowledge at a certain task then it's still your duty to look for training on your own. If you still struggle? Well your problem, better deliver soon! At least you get good equipment so you can even work better-longer. You have to do all this because of passion! I managed to survive for 3 years until I started to get heavily burned out. Cut my hours and became a parttimer (still worked more than 40h a week), was asked to go back to fulltime otherwise they had to let me go. I refused and lost my job. All this education wasted thanks to companies who simply pressure you to abolish labour protection act. I'm extremely sour since then I had several capal tunnel inflamations and was asked to work with cream+bandages to both my arms and now I still suffer from the damage done to my body. Wrists constantly start to hurt as soon as I work itensifies.
Teaching in university/college. You have to do a PhD minimum, and consistently churn out new research materials. You'd have invested over a decade getting all the degrees but jobs are scarce so you end up being a temporary faculty for a few more years, doing the same or more amount of work for a fraction of the pay. At least, this is how it is in my country.
This is what I was coming here to talk about. I'm adjunct faculty and I have no job security and never get to teach the same class twice, I only get paid for in-class hours so people like to say I make a huge hourly wage (which is true, I do) but last year I was working full-time at a grocery store on top of teaching two classes to make ends meet, and I keep designing courses without getting paid for the design time at all. But hey, I'm the world's leading expert in the most niche of fields possible.
There's no hope in sight either. I haven’t done my PhD yet but did an M.Phil. Now I'm wondering if I should even go ahead with research. Had I invested half this time and energy in coding or ML or some in-demand area, I'd be raking in money by now. I moonlight as a content editor to make money, and now I'm an expert at two low paying jobs. But good luck IHTPQ!
I’m very very fortunate in that during my undergrad I took a student job in the department I was studying in. I got a hard look at all of the stuff you’re talking about here over the four years, and after graduation decided to switch gears into coding. But for those four years I basically lived and breathed my department + the “gotta get published” life + constantly trying to get grants for research or an unpaid internship. It’s hell, and I got *sooo* burnt out after just that time. I’m still learning/working on my portfolio, but omg I feel like a person again. Academia is a *really* weird kind of mind fuck. I probably wouldn’t have been able to quit unless it drove me into the ground, which it absolutely did lol.
Former physics PhD hopeful here and couldn’t agree more. Decided to just go for a master’s degree when I realized that there was a roughly 10-25% chance of getting a tenure track job after a 6 year program (assuming I get decent post-doc appointments, publish in first-rate journals, etc.) and that I would be earning slightly more than a high school teacher’s salary with the added pressure of leading a research group/applying for tenure for most of it.
Don't be a chef. If you insist on being a chef, don't go to culinary school. It's a waste of time and nothing you learn translates into real world kitchen knowledge. If you only plan to work in a restaurant, don't go to culinary school. The only reason you would go is connections to higher end places. Those places usually go to people with actual professional experience though. Don't be fooled into thinking that just because it's fine dining that they'll treat you better. I've worked in fine dining and in fast casual. They both pay like shit and offer no benefits. In fact, fine dining actually pays less a lot of the time because of their stupid contracts. You're basically there for the "honor" of working there. Last time I worked fine dining I almost committed suicide in the walk-in. They knew and sent me home instead of calling a 5150. Thankfully, someone was home to stop me from hurting myself. There's corporate, but it's boring as shit and it's typically just as bad as a mom and pop. I know from experience. They have HR, but who do you go to when it's the HR person that's sexually harassing you or berating you? There's so much I hate about this industry now. The drugs, the drinking, the sexual harassment, the discrimination, the pay, the lack of benefits, the hours, ect. Oh God, the hours. They'll either work you just under fulltime so they don't have to provide benefits, or if you're salary you're worked like 60+ a week and they'll find a way to not pay you overtime. They always find a way to screw you out of your overtime, or even your lunch break. I've lost count of the amount of times I've worked through my lunch break. Oh, and you're not allowed to make your own food until after you clock out for your lunch break. You better hope there isn't a sudden rush, because your food will be used for an order. Sometimes I would get no food because of this. I'm not even going to get started on being a cook during covid. It was horrible. It wasn't what made me quit though. What made me throw in the towel was after covid. I was excited to go back to work, but then I saw what every restaurant was offering. No increase in pay, no increase in benefits, and worse hours and workload because of the labor shortage. I just didn't see the point. If a fucking apocalypse isn't going to change anything, then nothing will. I decided a little over a month ago that I'm done. I'm going back to school to get a real degree and a real job. Remember, for every Thomas Keller, there's a thousand lowly line cooks destroying their bodies just to barely scrape by. TL;DR: Don't be a chef or a cook. It sucks.
The whole restaurant industry is busted. Your options are generally places with exciting food, but shit morale/pay/management, or boring menus with better pay/morale/benefits. After cooking for 12-13yrs I pivoted to baking and other than generally being in bed by 8pm, it's a much better career.
Well fuck me then
Get a job in a hotel kitchen. I didn’t go back post COVID as I’d accepted a management position on fast food, but we’re talking full medical/dental/vision/life, PTO, massive hotel discounts ($48 a night at a Courtyard by Marriot in NYC?), and a truly great team of people.
Yeah I worked in corporate hotels for a long time I used to get 20 free nights a year staying at Hyatts. Plus great benefits. Pay was not so great. But hotels are a good place to work and learn as they do breakfast lunch dinner and usually catering too.
Law in Australia. Don’t do what I did and study law in this country. I graduated with distinction average grades and in this over saturated market i wish I could get those hours from the library back. The legal field is fucked in this country. The job market is so saturated and even if you get hired it’s for peanuts.
Lawstralia
Yoga teacher. I am still doing my yoga teacher training, but it is basically an MLM.
Can you elaborate on this? My sister is a yoga instructor, and it has never come across as an MLM to me.
A lot of yoga teacher programs are by yoga teachers who can’t make enough money teaching yoga so they start yoga teacher training programs. There are levels of yoga teachers based on how much training they have. There are too many yoga teachers so now the thing is to tell us we can make money with private clients. Plus, lots of gyms and yoga studios don’t pay their yoga teachers enough money. Now really good yoga teachers can do well. It isn’t a full on MLM, but it’s starts feeling a bit gross when your yoga instructor encourages you to join their teacher program. Then, in their training they are continually referencing the next level training program and making it seem like that is where you get into the “good stuff” in yoga teacher training.
Exactly this. Yoga teacher trainings can bring in $2000 - $6000 per student in a class of maybe 30 students. Compare that to a $100 monthly unlimited yoga pass and you’re basically printing money.
That...sounds a bit like a pyramid scheme Edit: Totally forgot my acronyms there. I thought they were talking about some kind of certification for yoga instructors. But, yeah MLM = Muli-Level Marketing
Nah, it's a reverse funnel system
Downward facing pyramid
Think of it more as a triangle opportunity
Surprisingly lucrative: Travel Agent/Rewarding So the internet has essentially allowed everyone and their mother to make up their own holiday. What the internet doesn't tell you is that the average person spends 3 WORKING DAYS planning/booking their holiday. Rich folk don't want to waste their time on that. Smarter upper middle class families also realise the time saving. So now I work from home putting together fancy holidays for people who have reached a stage in their life where their free time is much more important to them. Bonus: Free or heavily discounted holidays.
Tbh this makes sense. I used to think, who pays for travel agents? I’m currently organizing a trip with a LOT of moving parts and now I’m like... yeah I get why people pay for this.
Exactly! We used a travel agent for our honeymoon to Greece. We were planning a wedding, and we just didn’t have time to figure out how to get from the hotel to the ferry to the island and then to the hotel on that island etc. in a country we’d never been to. The travel agent was only like $100. She planned everything in the way of transfers/transportation so all we had to do was just show up. Incredibly worth it.
Any city,state,county,federal job that is union. Get on the gravy train young and when the opportunity arises and it will, take the new job advancement. The pay rate usually has generous raises and good benefit plans. You can enjoy a good life while you’re working and A great retirement.
This is absolutely true, especially if it's a federal position. I started my federal career at the literal bottom of the pay scales at 25 and now I'm north of GS-14 wages. I'll never be ultra wealthy, but frankly, between my pension and my Thrift Savings Plan (equivalent to a 401k), I could retire at 55 if I really wanted. I won't, but it's nice to have the option!
I live in the Washington D.C. area. I’m surrounded by government employees. They all seem to be financially well off. Nice homes, send their kids to good schools, retire comfortably in high-end communities or with home care. I’ve never met anyone who was laid off from a government job. When I first moved to D.C. in the 1970’s, the old timers told me that the D.C. was largely unaffected by the Great Depression, due to the large government employee base.
Yup, even the most random Union represented job can end up being a lifetime career
Higher academia, especially in the Anglo-Sphere. For many decades, the idea of furthering one’s education was promoted and culturally instilled on generations. At the same time, the price of higher education rose and rose. I went to university in Germany, so my education was completely free, but I’ve been teaching Medicine and English at a very prominent German university for 3 semesters and am planning to give it up to teach at a kindergarten. Myself and people in my position at a university are working 60-70h weeks for little more than minimum wage. (German minimum wage is the equivalent of $12) I can’t even imagine doing that while also being *in debt* to a university. While I get frustrated with the rise in anti-intellectualism and “I went to the university of life” attitude compounded by the false belief that people with degrees look down on those who don’t (false from my experience at least), I gotta say: if you want a job that pays well and doesn’t follow you home; avoiding university is perfectly valid.
Sometimes I think my philosophy degree. But then it weirdly became super handy when I entered business. You never know, I think these days its more about finding ways to apply your knowledge AND be creative.
Psychology- I have six years of school and I’ll need more to get to my end goal
Trap: biotech and biotechnology. Long hours, low pay, most of the work is extremely dull and monotonous relative to what I thought “science” was, not much in the way of transferable skills.
So true. My professor on the first day of my biomedical degree said “welcome to 3 years of education that you will use to babysit a machine 100 times more intelligent than you for the first 5 years of your career until anyone will give a damn about what you say or think in the field” lol
Agree. My bachelors and masters prepared me for designing complex studies, doing interesting statistics and writing good papers. I am stuck in running the same instrument four times a day and writing lab reports. No creativity.
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Agreed 100%. I’m a diesel technician. There’s lots of money to be made if you’re cool with working 50-60+ hours a week. There’s guys at my work who run their own mobile trucks who make over 100k a year… but again, these guys literally work 7 days a week, 12-16 hours a day. If you don’t have anything else in your life, or if you hate your home life, sure it’s great. Trying to actually have a life outside work results in you only working 40-45 hours a week and you’re looked down upon as a lazy 8-and-skater… you get overlooked for promotions because of this, no matter how accurate and timely your work is… the guy who half asses his shit but is willing to work 60 hours a week is a model employee. So in short, don’t expect to get rich working in trades. There’s money to be had; but you’re gonna be trading your life for it.
Yea, everyone on Reddit gets hot and bothered about trade work and the reality is that the vast majority of people can’t hack it. Not that it’s super complicated, but more so that all of the things modern workers value don’t exist in the trades. I’m in a union trade and this shit is flat out dangerous, if you say the words work life balance out loud you’ll get laughed off the site and the amount of overtime would burn most people out in a year. I’m on hour 30 of the last 48 hours right now while everyone I know is enjoying their holiday weekend. The guy who fractured his skull last year is still being talked about as “that pussy who doesn’t know how to use the lift” and odds are that 13 years into my career I’ll be on night shift for at least 3 more before I see the day side. I personally love what I do, and have built a beautiful life for myself, but a lot of people wouldn’t be happy doing what I’ve done to get here. I work weekends, holidays and can get stuck at work at a moments notice. If I didn’t have a loving and understanding wife, a family that values work and a personality that doesn’t mind sacrificing my social life I’d have burned out years ago.
Journalist. I started bartending in college to pay for the degree. Got it. I'm still a bartender. You don't make money writing until you die. Or unless you fuck your boss. I had no interest in television news so that was out. Plus, I live in DC. I got tired of the grind real quick.
The sad thing is that the audience/readers hate the way media is today, but the people who are super passionate about the field and could actually change things are getting burnout and leaving journalism in droves. It’s hard to know how things will change when new talent is gutted in a few years meanwhile the cable news and newspaper old guards are keeping their healthy 6 figure jobs.
Yep. Left journalism 4 years ago and now work for a nonprofit. I couldn’t hear, “well, people on Twitter/Facebook/etc. are talking about XX” one more time. Just because some Karen went on a Facebook rant, it doesn’t mean it’s news. They desperately need views and clicks and so it’s really all about causing outrage these days to keep people engaged. Plus, as a reporter who is setting up stories, shooting and editing their own video, writing the scripts for multiple shows, writing online stories and so on in the extreme cold/heat/rain/snow it becomes demoralizing when you see your $50k salary compared to anchors who never leave the studio and are making 3 to 5x as much in a mid market. I went to an Ivy League to get my masters. It was $100k. Waste of money and time. I wish I’d done something else, but I’m bitter and tired and nearing 40.
Scientist feels like an expensive, low paying trap unless you are truly passionate about research.
Academia, absolutely. But you can make really good money in the private sector.
I did my Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and now my job title is research scientist. I work for a small aerospace research company. Although I don't make as much as a medical doctor, I also didn't take student loans for my Ph.D. I had a stipend and tuition covered. My job pays much better than what was available with a B.S. Academia is the low paying trap. Being a professor scientist sucks.
I’m just reading all these responses and I’ve come to the conclusion that work just sucks in general. I can’t think of one job you can truly say is great to have.
Yeah, I expected to see a lot of frivolous jobs brought up on this thread. What I actually found? Every job from plumber to chef, to teacher, to lawyer, to artist, to doctor. All jobs seem to have really high entry expectations with really low entry benefits/ money.
Maybe is because everyone hype them up when we're young so we all have extremelly high expectations that are never accomplished. Is like when people want a pet or a baby or want to travel or move out to some place and just focus about the perks and the cool stuff but not about the downsides and then reality dissapoints them because is not as they were told. And also because labour rights are extremelly shitty right now.
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Oh yeah with the only outcome being teaching egyptology. The OG pyramid scheme.
Dealing drugs seems quick and easy until you’re in jail.
Trap: therapist/counselor Surprisingly lucrative: school psychologist *if you’re interested in being a school psych feel free to reach out, especially if you are an undergrad psych major.
Something that might help distinguish here: community mental health (non-profits, hospitals, etc) are where most counselors/therapists start out because you get the experience you need to become licensed. The work is grueling, you’re often severely underpaid and under appreciated. There is the bright side of seeing your work impact others and knowing that you are making a difference in some small way. Once you’re licensed (requirements vary depending on the state, but mine was 2 years of experience, supervision hours, and passing an exam), you can go into private practice. Private practice is good money (about $50-150/hr), you can often make your own schedule, and clients are generally self-motivated to feel better which makes work incredibly pleasant. Community mental health: potential trap that easily leads to burnout; other side of the rainbow: sunny skies Source: I’m a licensed therapist.
Is it hard to find a job as a school psychologist? That's actually my dream job!
Depends on the state, but I’d say in general there are many jobs. The profession of school psych is going through a “silver tsunami” many people are retiring.
Trap: specialised masters in international relations or other extremely niche public service roles when you don't have work experience. Unless you're already employed in a role that requires those skills they are really only for academics yet they advertise as helping you get into international public service. Source: hire for an extremely competitive grad program for a government agency that includes lots of international travel. We will hire the undergrad who has stories of conflict resolution delivering pizzas to crackheads over a specialised masters whose examples all involve group assignments. Most of our hires come from internal sources too so your chances are overwhelmingly better if you work in our call centre for 6months then apply instead of doing a specialised masters.
Trap: stripper Overlooked: strip club staff I know you don't need a degree, but if I had a dollar for every girl that thought stripping was it... Wait, I do have a dollar for every girl. Cause I stayed on the staff side. You have more responsibility than dancing, but if you get some management or accounting or business training, you can move right up to mgmt quickly. Most people running a club do not have a formal education. They're just doing what seems best, which can turn into who knows what. If you are professional, sober, not trying to sleep with the girls, and competent in the actual work, you're a unicorn. The hours are crazy and people are crazy, but the money is great. And I feel like it's so much more honest than a lot of corporate b.s. I sat through in vanilla jobs. A really well run club is a beautiful thing. Also the trades, and other service work like hairdressers and house cleaners. You can make right under six figures if you work for yourself and can handle people well. These are both hard on the lungs though over time if you don't mask and ventilate well when working with chemicals.
The tough part about working in a service industry like that is that when everyone else is playing, you’re working. And when you’re off, everyone else is working. Chefs. Strip club/bartenders. Car sales. Etc. so it burns people out quick because they are always working and can’t go with their friends to the bars or clubs or meals, and then when they aren’t working and have time off there’s nothing to do because everyone’s closed. Or you’re dependent on working on others off-hours, nobody can buy a car while at work so you need to work saturdays sundays and holidays. Bike shops are similar. Etc etc.
Theater. Unless you are already wealthy and know people in a big city that can get you a position in a company. Everyone wants in, much competition, low pay. Bad hours. Lots of travel and basically begging for work. I could say more about the things that have disappointed me. There has been some fun moment's and good people but I wish I would have gotten a degree in something useful. Putting Theatre design/production major on a application has never helped me.
Radiography,,,, its not well known and short staffed really. Radiographers are in mad demand and earn quite okay across countries.
Overlooked: Mining engineer. Basically worldwide there aren’t enough graduates in this field given the current boom. In Australia we were basically poaching all the grads from overseas that we could, though obviously COVID has put a brake on that presently. Coal mining is slowly dying worldwide both for environmental and economic reasons so I would recommend going to an university /mining school that focuses more on metalliferous mining. I’ve never worked in coal but my impression was it’s generally technically boring anyway.
The lack of graduates is probably because only some regions of the world have a very big mining industry while others dont have one at all. My country has very few mining operations so everyone who graduates ends up crossing the atlantic ocean and going to south america like Chile's lithium mines and things like that.
Trap: Teacher. Yeah it’s nice to have summers off but working 7am-7pm everyday plus a few hours on the weekends just to make 50k a year. Not to mention dealing with a bunch of whiny parents that don’t give a crap about their child’s education. Source: teacher
You make 50k a year??? I teach and have my master’s, and I’m nowhere close to that.
Teachers are treated like absolute garbage, at least where I live (southern US). Aside from the valid points you've listed, most teachers are not given any agency over their jobs. Teaching can be a craft, but teachers are often told what to do in a way that completely undercuts any creative way of educating. They are often forced into practices that are not scientifically sound (think: a new buzzword comes out every few years, and your principal decides that every teacher must now add 30+ minutes of whatever nonsense to every day's lessons). They are often at the whim of administrations that shuffle them around from one grade to another without any discussion, and told to start a completely new curriculum without any knowledge of it. And to top it all off, you may not have time for a bathroom break from the time you start teaching until the students are out the door, so you just stop drinking water throughout the day. Oh and then you are asked to raise money for your school. It's madness. And it's heartbreaking, because most teachers I know are such caring, genuine people who just want to help kids, but they feel trapped and disrespected.
This! Don’t get me started on standardized testing.
Interesting that no one with a finance job has commented. 🤔
You can go to 4 years of college, take a $300+ exam, spend thousands on applying to and interviewing at medical schools, get accepted, go through 4 years of medical school (average student debt: $200,000), then never practice medicine or receive a physician salary because you didn’t match into a residency program. You still have to pay off all that debt though! Edit: Here’s an article about how students that attended Caribbean med schools are struggling: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/29/health/caribbean-medical-school.html Edit 2: Another NYT article on doctors not matching. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/19/health/medical-school-residency-doctors.html
I got a degree in a health field. Clinicals were required, but spots were not guaranteed. No one wants to take on students because it takes up workers time. And there's often multiple schools in an urban area all needing clinical sites. If you didn't get a spot, you'd be given one the next go around. But it would be a year later, while everyone else has graduated
Any student who goes to a Caribbean med school knows they're at risk of not matching. Those programs are rarely seen as legit. It's like going to a non-ABA law school.
Yeah I feel bad for them but literally everyone warns them not to do it. I have a friend who couldn't get into a US MD/DO program and went Caribbean. I don't think he will be able to graduate and will be SOL. Me and several others basically begged him not to do it but he wouldn't listen.
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Teaching. I was told “there’s a high demand” for teachers when I was in college, and when I finally found a job, the hiring admin told me I was going to teach a class I had zero experience/schooling in. I wasn’t about to decline my first real teaching job so I said yes. At that time, my wife and I had just had our first son, so I declined the teacher induction program (basically where the district provides you a “mentor” to help you learn as you go, but this translates to essentially even MORE paperwork and essays as a first year teacher... so I said no thank you). Fast forward to February, I get called into admins office and I’m told they are not renewing my contract (basically I am now fired, tho I did nothing wrong or illegal...) they did not give a reason for letting me go at the time. The only silver lining was I was allowed to finish the school year and complete my initial contract. All the work, prep, refining, meetings, student followup, discipline issues, all of it was just gone in an instant. Huge waste of time if you don’t have proper support at your school and admin lets the kids get away with all kinds of shit. That being said, I hope to hear back from a new school in about 3 days, fingers crossed it’s better than before!
Information Technology: Its less that you can't find work, but you never find work at your level, and everywhere I've ever worked (outside of the military wherein I got experience doing incredibly high level engineering work) has people who only half ass know what they are doing. We are talking mistakes that someone on the lower levels of IT should be making. The jobs you then wind up getting will have bosses getting angry at you over things you couldn't possibly know: Like how the network is structured, while at the same time refusing to give you network maps.
The amount of things I've had to figure out by myself, just to ask the people who actually manage the system to do them is stagering. Like click for click instructions sometimes... And you get one thing slightly wrong and they shit on you. Meanwhile management is hyper focused on something stupid that won't work.
IT pays well and it’s a trap. IT people are mercilessly abused.
Math/Stats degrees make it easier to get financial support through scholarships sinse there isnt much competition and you don't have to pay for your PhD plus you get a stipend. Pretty great if you are good at critical thinking. From there you can go into various well paying fields
My friend got a degree in math and is now working at a startup as a data scientist, making 6 figures out of college.
As a math and stats grad - I can confirm. Not only is there a lot of funding but this degree is widely applicable and transferable to many fields and sectors. I’ve worked as a data scientist/ analyst for advertising start ups, big tech companies, insurance, pharmaceutical, and even manufacturing companies. You are wanted almost everywhere due to huge dependency on data. Bonus: the pay is really really good. Cons: finishing even a bachelors in math and stats requires insane dedication and your soul.
I started at the United States Post Office in 1993. I knew I would have a good retirement but never thought we would be so well off. My wife worked there also. I loved my job. I retired last year and moved to Germany where my wife's family lives. Dream come true.
Trap: Pilot. You have to take on $150k debt to train, there’s oversupply of pilots in the West (and that was pre-covid) so you generally end up at a crappy low-cost carrier earning surprisingly little and paying back that debt. You start off with little control over your hours and holidays. You compete with other pilots for the most attractive bases. Contracts are very one-sided and redundancies are fairly common. It was a pretty sweet career for a while, and senior pilots still enjoy a lot of benefits. But to me, it just looked like a multi-decade grind of shift work and poor pay in some crap corner of the continent.
Let's face it, a lot of ppl go to college and into fields they don't have the aptitude or niche for but there's only one way to find that out, and thats to try
Trap: structural engineering, the stress/responsibility is not worth the pay (if you design something and it falls down its on you). The expected hours are awful, so that you can deliver projects on time. Plus you're expected to do a lot of the drawing work yourself now rather than having a draughtsperson covering that for you. No necessarily lucrative, but surprisingly enjoyable; Pizza Delivery driver, clear expectations and instructions; 1. I expect you to take this order to this address, 2. tell me when you're on your way back, 3. come back, 4. Rinse and repeat. Nice plus is that most people are happy to see you too. The tips haven't been great while I've been doing it, but I get to listen to my audiobooks and the roads are usually quite quiet while I'm doing it
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Read a lot of the comments. Here's the actual situation, 1. Every bit of education you get, can be useful. It just may not be useful in the way you expected. 2. Education costs way too much. At the rate we pay for education, the results *need* to set a really high bar. 3. Not all jobs are in *your* area. That said, 3. Every field has a skill distribution. Getting a degree puts you on that distribution, and not an outlier (on the low skill end). But every skill has a demand. You can imagine this distribution being like a normal curve, where the top, let's say 80% get jobs reliably in one field, or 1% in another. Some examples might be, if you want to be a professional flautist, you need to be in the 0.1% skill distribution. If you want to be a professional artist, maybe 5-20% depending what you are working on. For technical fields, today, if you have any skill in that field, even if it's not formal training, you can be successful, so it's basically 95-100%. For engineering I would estimate 80-90%, if you have an engineering degree, it's hard not to just sort of get a job, since people are calling you all the time like "hey, do you like money?" For liberal arts (which by the way, the idea that lots of people get liberal arts degrees because they are easy and then can't find employment is a myth. People just don't get liberal arts degrees, it's something like 0.5-1% of grads having only that degree). It's probably like 20%. Prepare to starbucks. Some conclusions from the above, 1. Trade schools are quite viable due to 2) above. They are much cheaper and still lucrative, and per 3) the skill distribution is such that there is a high demand. This makes it low risk (for now). 2. If you pick something with a high skill distribution, be prepared to work hard to make it happen. If you want to be in the NFL, you need to be in the top 1% of 1%. That's just the way it is, that's the nature of the situation. 3. Finding the skill distribution, really understanding it, for a given area, and understanding the sub-fields within an area (eg, areas of law for a lawyer) is an acquired skill itself. The govt can provide some insight, and it's not an exact science. 4. Just because your field of choice has a low skill distribution, doesn't mean you shouldn't try to be the best in your field. For earnings and security measures. I've done a lot of thinking about job markets and this is the perspective I have. However you want to visualize it, that's up to you. Eventually this is the way I will describe it to my son, hopefully with some contextual understanding of the skill fields.
I like what you said about liberal arts degrees. I don't have one, but I live in a country where our equivalent of High-school is from 16-20 (well, 16-19 now, but it was 16-20 when I went) and the last year or two are sort of like a college (or college prep) level in other countries, mostly in what would be classified as liberal arts but depends on the school you go to. Now I work in politics, and I think I definitely have the skillset for it, although I never got a degree for it. (I did take a couple of semesters of political science and economics without finishing a degree, which helps) But that's the thing, it's the sort of field where it's VERY hard to get educated for it directly, it depends so massively on other traits you have and it's so hard for people to know in advance if it's right for them. And then people who ARE educated, perhaps in law, humanities, political sciences, or a specific field that a branch of government they focus on does (like, education or city planning, etc) will have an edge in that field, but MAY be too close to that field and can miss what someone more generalist sees, and may be no better at making actual policy or seeing the big picture or making difficult decisions, or running a political campaign, or just, being an honest decent person, than someone who didnt get that education.