<p>Are the 'Big 4' professions going to be out-shined in the future?</p>
<p>Proof:
Every kid with a B or above in high school wants to become a lawyer, doctor, MBA-related career, or an engineer. According to the supply-demand principle, won't these jobs' demand go down as the supply goes up, therefore increasing competition, and therefore leaving the 'average' graduates with a jd, mba, md, etc with a 'less-than-average' chance for a successful career with a 6-figure income?</p>
<p>That’s what everyone thinks. “Everyone” has wanted to be a lawyer, doctor, MBA-dude, or an engineer since the 1980’s. It really depends on the profession. Doctors and lawyer face intense competition because there’s so many of them. The same applies for business people, but the problem also has a lot to do with the fact that a lot of people don’t know how to “get in” through connections or experience etc… Engineers have it a little easier because technology is advancing at such a fast pace, but some professions (electrical) are stagnating due to numbers. Of course, software engineers have always had it easy because the industry is expanding so fast.</p>
<p>No, unfortunately the salaries for “average” (whatever that means) professions are not gonna go up because everyone wants to do a Big Four job. Big Four jobs require tons of skill and work, and having more of those people in industry will create even more demand. </p>
<p>Engineering: Remember, why have a human do a job when you can have a machine do it?
Medicine: Very tough schooling required, and a vital profession
Law: Again, very tough and expensive school required; also, lawsuits are very stressful games, so lawyers will ALWAYS charge a lot of money
Business: Good leaders are always good business</p>
<p>Remember this, though. DO what YOU want to do! There are many jobs outside of law, medicine, engineering, and business that pay a ton of money (academia, consulting, geological surveying,…and, heck, even plumbing can earn you six digits).</p>
<p>I have a B or above and I have no desire to be in any of those career fields. (I briefly considered engineering for trains and massive transit and what-not, but then decieded that that was too much science and math for me.)</p>
<p>Anywho… Just because people want to be these things… doesn’t mean that they are going to actually pursue it or even be able to. Generally speaking, you have about the same number of schools available as previously and about the same number of spots. The competition just increases to get into those schools.</p>
<p>On top of that, a lot of people who don’t get in the first time, decide to move on and find another profession that they can make money at.</p>
<p>BTW. It’s already difficult to make a six-figure salary with any of those professions. My dad’s a lawyer and my EFC is zero. Most of his lawyer friends have also been hit really hard right now. And I don’t see doctor pay increasing very rapidly in the near future. (We’re not going to mention every time they get sued. Sure, they have malpractice insurance… but they can be hurt in other ways, as well.)</p>
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<p>Generally speaking… lawyers only charge money when a case is won. In fact, the courts mandate how much money can be taken in lawyer fees if someone should win a case. On top of that, lawyers can also have their fees be denied by the court. It happened to my dad about three weeks ago.</p>
<p>But… I go to a private school and have many friends who are ‘loaded’. There are a fair amount of doctor’s kids. There aren’t many lawyer’s kids. We’ve got (for parents):
Accountants
Electricians
Farm
Oil
Gas Station Owners
Restaurant Owners
Hotel Managers
Teachers/College Professors
Army Officer</p>
<p>That’s just off the top of my head. You can make money at anything if you really try hard at it and find a niche.</p>
<p>I want to take my 4.2 and become a folk singer. I don’t want to contribute to this trend of people taking themselves way too seriously. Leave that to the ivy obsessed grade grubbers.</p>
<p>I think if people want to become one of the Big 4, they should really sincerely want to become that. Most people don’t actually end up in med or law school because they just didn’t sincerely want to go and take an internship, take that extra anatomy class, or something.</p>
<p>One of my friends is going into college as a pre-med, but she wants to go into accounting. Why is she doing premed, pushing herself with chemistry, which she hates? Her parents are determine to turn her into a doctor.</p>
<p>Most people drop out of pre-Big4 in the first few classes they have to take in college. At my university, Chemistry (prereq to Bio) is considered the ‘weeding out of the pre-med students.’ Most people drop out because it just isn’t their thing. We’re pressured to become who we don’t really want to be.</p>