What Major is marketable today?

Parents Forum
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<p>@latichever:</p>

<p>It is important to consider both the percentage growth and the absolute number of openings projected. If there are only a small number of jobs right now, it only takes a relatively small number of additional openings to create a high rate of growth. The BLS projections aren’t exactly a secret, and the number of students who enter a field with high growth may well outnumber the quantity of entry-level openings in four years. Look at biomedical engineering. One thing I like about the Canadian Jobfutures service is that their projections include the number of job seekers as well as the number of openings.</p>

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<p>I agree with that, and I wish they would have some kind of statistic showing the relationship between job seekers and openings. But I suspect there is some association between the two. Geography shows a projected growth of from 0-999 jobs, but I would doubt there are thousands of geographers entering the market each year.</p>

<p>Google remains your friend. You can get an idea of projected seekers versus job growth. I searched on annual number of new RNs, and got this </p>

<p>“Projected Supply, Demand, and Shortages of Registered Nurses: 2000-2020”
<a href=“http://www.ahcancal.org/research_data/staffing/documents/registered_nurse_supply_demand.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ahcancal.org/research_data/staffing/documents/registered_nurse_supply_demand.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>And for pharmacists this</p>

<p>“New Pharmacist Supply Projections”
<a href=“http://www.nipcweb.com/Pharmacist_Supply_Projections.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nipcweb.com/Pharmacist_Supply_Projections.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>sryrstress - good to hear about the benefits of accounting from a real accountant. D is one of those kids who crammed in those 150 hours during her undergrad and will sit for the CPA exam this summer before starting work in the fall. We’ve talked about the work load she’ll have the next few years, but she knows she’ll have other options down the road, if she decides to work part-time later.</p>

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<p>Keep in mind that depending on what your kids like, some of the professions we’re talking about are a bit, ehem, less than, ehem, ‘sexy’. I mean, with all due respect to accountants, how exciting can accounting be versus, say, writing mobile phone apps? </p>

<p>Likewise, nursing requires a certain degree of empathy and people skills, and these may not be present. My first job was in medical research and I could not see doing it for a living - too much pain and suffering for my taste. Likewise, pharmacy and the like, for someone like me (poster boy for ADD/ADHD) who rarely, if ever, take anything seriously (I’m 52) would not be a good fit. </p>

<p>It took me a while (14 years in college) to find my niche but I am extremely happy with what I do, and I’m extremely good at what I do (design software for mobile communications and entertainment devices). But again, that’s not for everyone.</p>

<p>I’ve often voiced the opinion (largely disagreed with in CC) that students should know early on what they want to do with their lives, and if they like what they do, and are reasonably good at it, then it can lead to success. Going in a career only because there’s a lot of money involved, well, sign me up for plumbing if that’s the case, I have the looks, the tools, and the general skills, but not the interest. Likewise, while a pharmacist makes more than I do from behind a counter at the local Kroger’s, you could not pay me enough to sit behind a counter for 8 hours a day filling Rx’s. </p>

<p>Bottom line: don’t get into a field because it’s more ‘marketable’. Find out what you’re good at, and work to find ways to be marketable there. Or diversify your skills.</p>

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<p>“I mean, with all due respect to accountants, how exciting can accounting be versus, say, writing mobile phone apps?”</p>

<p>Well, there is creative accounting, but that can land you in jail.</p>

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<p>Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal: Rethinking the Business major
[Wealth</a> or Waste? Rethinking - WSJ.com](<a href=“Wealth or Waste? Rethinking - WSJ”>Wealth or Waste? Rethinking - WSJ)</p>

<p>Seems employers prefer grads who have developed critical thinking/analytical skills –</p>

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<p>

</p>

<p>Well, to each his own. To you, accounting sounds deadly boring. To me, software design sounds deadly boring! To my accounting-major-daughter, accounting is intuitive and fun. She likes the logic of it, the interaction she’ll have with clients , and the possibilites it offers, career-wise.</p>

<p>However, I hear that tax accounting is really boring…</p>

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<p>Accounting gets a bad rap, often from people who have no idea the opportunities and varied types of careers it can provide. That is a general statement and is not directed at turbo93.</p>

<p>Accounting is its own language and if one can combine that skill set with people skills, it can lead to almost anything in the business world. Every big idea entrepreneur needs to have a skilled numbers person on board or the business is going to sink fast. There isn’t a company or business out there that doesn’t need good financial advise.</p>

<p>Scout59–Best wishes to your D. My best advice is to pass the exam and work as hard as possible the first 10 years. If in public accounting, there will be lots (and lots) of hours, although S’s gf recently started at a large firm and she hasn’t worked as many hours during tax season as I did at that age. Depends on the firm and travel involved. Still, it is grueling. This will lead to many great choices down the road!</p>

<p>I also think it is beneficial to start in public accounting due to the huge exposure to many different types of clients. It also leads to job offers if/when someone decides to leave public for industry or government.</p>

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<p>I notice geology morphed into geography in this thread. Strange.</p>

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<p>LOL turbo, i couldn’t agree more!</p>

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<p>Thanks, sryrstress. D’s job is in public accounting (audit) and she is already well aware of the long hours. I think her internship last summer really opened her eyes! Her plan is much as you describe: work really, really hard at it and then decide where to go from there (maybe part-time work when she has a family? maybe government work?) I have been impressed already with the career counseling and mentoring she’s received from others at her future firm.</p>

<p>She’s pretty sociable and she has/had really good grades in her accounting classes. I think that combination partially explains the multiple job offers.</p>

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<p>I have to stand up for my accounting colleagues. Many people really do not have any idea what accountants do on a day to day basis. They think that the local CPA that does their personal taxes is the only sort of work available to accountants. In fact, accountants are able to work in any industry doing many different sorts of tasks. </p>

<p>I do not have an UG degree in accounting. I have an MBA with concentrations in finance and accounting but I worked in an investment bank in the finance/acctg departments for many years. As an accountant I learned the basics of the fixed income trading, equities trading, financing, and investment banking businesses. If I had wanted to transfer to any of those businesses I could have done that. Accountants do a lot more than just taxes and journal entries. Accounting classes can be less than stimulating but the practical application of accounting can be very interesting as accountants work on as many different problems as you can imagine. As an accountant I was involved in legal issues, operational issues and strategy issues in addition to my day to day accounting duties. </p>

<p>I would say that accounting can be a pretty interesting career if you do something other than personal taxes.</p>

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<p>Long hours? This is my first 3 day weekend since Thanksgiving… We have final software delivery (feature complete) end of May and going production in October. From Thanksgiving to now it’s been 60 hours a week, every week. Paid, thankfully :)</p>

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<p>My accounting major d. is going to end up as a “rainmaker” (if she doesn’t end up in a career in third world development). She’s already being groomed that way. She can do the desk work just fine, but it is her people skills that got her the job, and it is likely her people’s skills that her employers will most want to utilize. She’s finishing up her M.S. (and, we hope, her CPA) in her four years, and her job this year (while doing her M.S.) has been pre-auditing her own firm (so she’ll know it inside out by the time she officially joins full-time.)</p>

<p>I would note that my wife’s brand of nursing is the same. Her technical skills are just fine, but much of what she does is deal with families, with nursing home managements, with recalcitrant docs and pharmacies. Her stock-and-trade are her people skills and her negotiating skills. </p>

<p>Neither is as interesting as musicology, though. ;)</p>

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<p>When assessing which occupations are projected to grow in the future, I assume most posters are interested in which will grow in the United States-- many jobs are growing but are increasingly being outsourced to other countries. </p>

<p>Some excerpts from this link:
[Top</a> 10 Jobs that will (most likely and least likely) Be Outsourced | Resumebear Online Resume](<a href=“http://blog.resumebear.com/job-market/top-10-jobs-that-will-most-likely-and-least-likely-be-outsourced/]Top”>http://blog.resumebear.com/job-market/top-10-jobs-that-will-most-likely-and-least-likely-be-outsourced/)</p>

<p>**Reasons why jobs are outsourced:</p>

<ul>
<li>It can be automated.</li>
<li>It does not require physical proximity or person-specific skills.</li>
<li>It is considerably cheaper to produce somewhere else.**</li>
</ul>

<p>TOP 10 JOBS THAT WILL MOST LIKELY BE OUTSOURCED</p>

<pre><code>Computer Programmers
Pharmacy Technicians
Parts Salespersons
Telephone Operators
Billing and posting clerks and machine operators
Computer Operators
Data Entry Keyers
Word Processors and Typists
Tax Preparers
Medical Transcriptionists
</code></pre>

<p>TOP 10 JOBS THAT WILL LEAST LIKELY BE OUTSOURCED</p>

<pre><code>Financial Managers
Training and Development Managers
Training and Development Specialists
Meeting and Convention Planners
Loan Counselors
Health and Safety Engineers, except Mining Safety Engineers and Inspectors
Mining and Geological Engineers, including Mining Safety Engineers
Food Scientists and Technologists
Sociologists
Urban and Regional Planners
</code></pre>

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<p>High tech jobs can be outsourced, but only the rote coding part. Not the difficult part which usually means what to do in the first place. Even then, as costs in India or China increase every year, and US costs decrease (hmmm) and the expected leap in productivity over there never really occurs, I can well see an era where it’s more cost effective to have a lot of tech work done in the US than outsourced. We’re doing it.</p>

<p>My company has development centers all over the world (Eastern and Western Europe, India, and China) and we’ve seen how this all plays out in the last decade. No matter what Foxconn says about finding 8,000 industrial engineers in two weeks, if they could find 8,000 software engineers in two years, we could talk. At the end we (the US based engineers) are working our tails off not just to get the product to the market, but also to show that we are not ‘dead’ yet.</p>

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<p>Architecture jobs are linked to the economy, but they never get outsourced. And for the sort of work I do - mostly remodelling - when people can’t sell they remodel. And when people buy new houses, they remodel. I find my work is pretty steady, though I’ll never be rich.</p>

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<p>RE Pharmacy. Universities are opening pharmacy schools to get lots of tuition $. The huge sign on bonuses are gone. New grads are grateful for just about any job. We had a surplus in the 80’s then shortage and surplus now so who knows what will happen. The debt of the new grads is outrageous, $200K+, just a few years ago it was $100K.<br>
RE Nurses in So. CA-experienced RN’s in great demand, new grads are having a tough time right now.</p>

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<p>thumper,
“NP and PA folks will be actually providing the care while the doctor will be supervising them” - you are saying exactly the same as I am, MD will have a job, unles “supervising” means “no income”, usually “supervising” means “paid position with greater responsibilities”.</p>

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<p>Miami, I’m not saying that doctors won’t have jobs. What I AM saying is that APRN and PA folks could be doing most of the primary care. My kiddo wants to be a primary care provider, unlike yours who may want to be a supervisor.</p>

<p>I would say that careers in the health fields, especially geriatric care would be good ones.</p>