<p>I know someone who didn’t attend college, and soon out of high school started working at one of the auto makers in Detroit (this was 25+years ago). She worked full-time, nonstop for 25 years (as did her husband, whom she met there). She and he retired before their 50th birthdays with full retirement benefits: monthly pension, health and dental insurance, new car discounts. Their house is paid for. Now they play in Vegas a couple of times a year.</p>
<p>Their child, who graduated with a BA in English, has been living with them and working part-time in retail since graduating a couple of years ago – can’t find a full-time job.</p>
<p>A couple of years ago, all of the parents of high school and college students at my office envied a colleague whose son was graduating from the Air Force Academy. He had a guaranteed job waiting for him. </p>
<p>But that’s short-term (and he graduated when job prospects were at their worst for everyone else). In the long term, I don’t know whether this young man will want to stay in the Air Force after his obligatory years of service are completed. There are things about it that he does not like. And it’s hard to say whether his experience will translate easily into a civilian job.</p>
<p>I’m not so sure about some of the other professions people keep mentioning – the ones that people will always need. Yes, people will always need them, but the quantity of services that they use may change. </p>
<p>For example, a few decades ago, it became more difficult to earn a living as a general dentist because the fluoridation of water decreased the amount of tooth decay. </p>
<p>The same sort of thinking might apply to the funeral business. An increasing number of families are choosing cremation, which requires fewer services from the funeral home than a conventional burial does.</p>
<p>I’m not even sure about nursing, but for another reason. There will certainly be a great need for nurses during the next couple of decades, as the baby boom generation reaches the years when people have the greatest need of health care services. But what about after the boomers are gone? The careers of today’s students will last beyond that point. Will there suddenly be a lot of unemployed health care professionals?</p>
<p>Researchers in science and math will always be needed. Be brilliant in your field and have a drive to learn and a thirst for knowledge and you will be rewarded.</p>
<p>As an uber-engineer let me chime in here - there is a tremendous variance in the productivity and quality of work of ‘good’ versus ‘ho-hum’ engineers, often by orders of magnitude especially in creative stuff like research or software. One may be able to convince enough people by acing ‘soft’ interviews and performance reviews but not for long…</p>
<p>Nonetheless, one can’t compete with the perception that ‘India is cheap, India is great’. With all due respect, it ain’t cheap if you factor in it takes 3-4 of them to outproduce one of us given their constant churn, project management costs are high, and (sorry to be blunt) the ones that we seem to hire are not anywhere near IIT quality… Likewise with China.</p>
<p>But again, good luck convincing management. I would not go near engineering today.</p>
<p>Having read Oldfort’s posts for years, I am sure she would have been successful in any field.</p>
<p>My accountant has done very well, probably because he has great social skills. He leaves the technical stuff for others on his staff.</p>
<p>I would have been happy if the worm had stayed in C.S. His first job after UG degree paid more than my job at that time. But his job wasn’t right for him. I’m hoping that grad school pays off in finding fulfilling work for him, be that academia or industry.</p>
<p>As others have said, a degree is a key that can unlock many doors. It is so important to find the right environment. </p>
<p>My first job was at a large hospital. I worked there for a dozen years. One of the psychiatrists set up a day care center across the street. Everyone worked 40+ hours, but hours were flexible. There was a lot of room to develop interests. When I took a salaried job a few years ago, the manager played favorites and several times had me cancel doctor appointments at the last minute. Under her authoritarian control, I would never have been able to raise a child nor care for ailing parents.</p>
<p>“Researchers in science and math will always be needed.”</p>
<p>Definitely not true, at least for many of the scientists I know. For example, jobs in organic/medicinal chemistry are extremely scarce now, due to downsizing in the pharmaceutical field and outsourcing of research to Asia. It will be decades (if ever) before those jobs come back.</p>
<p>Accounting, however, still looks good. I agree with jshain. My D and her classmates who interned with the Big 4 last summer already have job offers in their pockets, and they won’t graduate until 2012. D even got a substantial signing bonus.</p>
<p>“medicine” is a big field, and if we’re talking physician, then we’re also talking about debt. A recession-proof job may not be all so fabuluous after 8 years of borrowing. Sure you can work, but are you making any money?</p>
<p>The supply of physicians has stayed constant for the past 25 years at around 23,000-24,000 per year. Large numbers of baby-boomer physicians are now starting to retire, leaving a number of positions unfilled. </p>
<p>Average debt for medical school student has increased to $120,000. The median starting salary for a primary care physician is in excess of $150,000 and in excess of $225,000 across all specialties. Average starting salaries are still increasing every year.</p>
<p>Medicine will still be a very lucrative profession for quite a while.</p>
<p>Demand for musicologists is pretty much inelastic - there weren’t any jobs before, there aren’t any now, and there won’t be in the future. LOL!</p>
<p>Meanwhile, baby boomers who are just beginning to retire now will live into their 90s. The demand for geriatric nurses will grow for the next 30 years.</p>
<p>You can do a thought experiment with docs vs. nurses. Take both at age 18. Assume the nurse goes for a two-year AA degree, pays for it, but actually begins working as an LPN in the second year. Takes loans only equal to community college tuition. Takes the money that would have been paid for four-year tuition and invests it. Is hired after graduation, and works steadily til age 50. Now take future doc. Borrows all tuition for four years. Then borrows $250k for med. school, interns, then works as a resident. Then goes into private practice, borrowing $500k to set up practice as a GP. Who comes out ahead at age 50?</p>
<p>Alternatively, assume both had all the money needed for tuition, etc., and setting up a practice. One becomes a nurse, and invests all the extra at 8% over time, the other spends it all. Who comes out ahead at age 50?</p>
<p>IF a person is drawn to the sciences, I believe careers in healthcare will be a good bet going forward. Sure, maybe 30 yrs from now the demand with be less with us baby boomers leaving the planet. But healthcare will continue to morph as it has the last 30+ years that I’ve been in it FT.</p>
<p>There are SO many options beyond Nursing and MD. I am a Medical Laboratory Scientist and have to plug that option. But how about Physical Therapy, Pharmacy, Respiratory Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, Physician Assistant, Radiology technologist, the list is quite endless.</p>
<p>The environment of healthcare has and continues to change. It is a challenging workplace and not for the timid. But there is often flexibility, good salaries, great benefits and good opportunities for advancement for those inclined.</p>
<p>And I don’t think you have to be a science geek to work in allied health. Especially in higher positions, verbal, written and interpersonal skills are really important.
My math SAT a hundred years ago was way below my verbal and I’ve done OK.</p>
<p>However, a lot of math and science graduates do not make it into research jobs in their fields (which often need a doctoral degree). Math, statistics, and physics graduates do have decent alternative job prospects, since they are often recruited into finance and other well paying jobs for their math skills; biology and chemistry graduates tend to have much worse job prospects.</p>
<p>For those who find allied health careers interesting, the advantage is that a bachelor’s degree still can land you a career (or the start of one) right out of school.
Although I do think that most (all) Physical Therapists now have masters?</p>
<p>However, job and career prospects should not be the only reason to choose a major. You have to like what you are doing in order to be good at it, especially if it end up doing it for decades.</p>
<p>Job and career prospects can be used as a tiebreaker between majors you otherwise like (e.g. undecided between chemistry and chemical engineering? chemical engineering has better job and career prospects than chemistry), or give you a heads-up on the need to minimize debt and more aggressively seek internships if your chosen major does not have very good job and career prospects.</p>
<p>mini…several hospitals around here will not even interview LPNs. They only hire 4 yr RNs!</p>
<p>Also there is a strong trend where physicians are becoming employees of the hospital rather than having a private practice. New healthcare regs will be changing lots of things!</p>