Your advice... Choosing a Profession

[Papa bear]

As a recruiter, I would advise anything in business, IT, or engineering.

Anyone not going to college would do well with any skilled trade or as a machinist. Skilled machinists are one of the most difficult positions to fill nationally right now.

Good luck!

 

[Lazarus]

Make money to support yourself first.
Save the world second.

 

[Ronstar]

My advice would be to do what you enjoy. And do it well. It will make the next 30-40 years of work worth living.

 

[Katsmeow]

A huge minority of kids won't go to or graduate college. So, what should they do as they reach the critical age of 17 and face career decisions.

I know so many successful, happy construction workers, auto mechanics, plumbers, electricians etc. that are in high demand and make a good income. And, I also know many professionals that enjoy the same job security and inome. I guess what I'm trying to say is college isn't the only answer and we shouldn't push kids into college if it isn't right for them.

I entirely agree about alternatives to a college degree. One point - while a bit more than a majority of people in the US attend some college, only a minority ever attain a bachelor's degree. The large majority of American's do not hold a bachelor's degree.

At the local community colleges you can train for a lot of careers that don't require a bachelor's degree. And, for many students - in fact, I would argue for most students - they are better served by such a course of training.

 

[UnderTheRadar]

Nursing. Bang for the buck the best career choice in my opinion. 2 yr degree and there is always a demand.

 

[pb4uski]

Nursing. Bang for the buck the best career choice in my opinion. 2 yr degree and there is always a demand.

DS is taking an LNA training course right now. It is a lot more involved than I thought it would be and that is but the first baby step. He's using it to get a better sense if he likes that kind of work (and be able to support himself). If he likes it, then I hope he'll move on into nursing.

He's not much for academics tho, more a hands on kind of kid with a good heart.

 

[boatfishandnature]

more a hands on kind of kid with a good heart.

Just the kind of people we need more of to make this a truly wonderful world .

 

[citrine]

I could never understand finding a job/career and doing it for 30-40 years....what a boring way of life for me!!
I did the college thing, the corporate thing....and now I do what I love so it is not work for me at all.

Physical therapy/Rehab
Nursing
Neuromuscular Massage therapist/Trigger Point Therapist
Auto-mechanics (DH cannot find a decent mechanic because no one is going into this)
Nursing
Business (Geriatric care, Pet sitting...one of my clients in NY makes over 100K doing this!)

 

[poorcarver]

Engineering will be outsourced to the lowest international bidder (ask any big firm architect about outsourcing to India). If it is about staying employed, find things that have to be done locally, heavy equipment maintenance, skilled auto/diesel mechanic, skilled machinist (to the degree anything will ever be machined in the US again), primary medicine, nursing, PT.

 

[Tyro]

An activity (in lieu of "j*b") you love is not w*rk. You will do your best and beyond, especially if/when it's something you believe in as well as love (sleeping at night and being able to look at yourself in the mirror are more important that salary, IMO). I've done this twice during my life -- most satisfying and worst paying occupations I've ever had, and wish I were still doing either if I could.

Doing something you hate (and/or w*rking for someone you hate) "will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired."*

*Quote from Office Space. I'd sit down with any kid and watch it, and then discuss careers afterward.

Tyro

 

[Walt34]

Also consider something that requires a physical presence. It is difficult to imagine outsourcing firefighting, plumbing, or electrical work. We settled today on FIL's house, not luxury lving but not a starter home either, and the buyer is a young Master Electrician. They don't give those certs out in cereal boxes.

Construction is another, if one likes building things. Design (architect) is one thing. Making it go from paper/computer to real is quite another.

 

[ERhoosier]

I would advise the 17 year old to go into healthcare or learn Chinese. Both skills are even better,

Truer words have not been posted!

 

[jollystomper]

I am biased towards anything in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) fields, as those are the skills even basic jobs are going to require more of.

However, more important than going off to college to study is to get involved with people. Get involved in a student organization or seek an internship or volunteer in a field they think they might want to work in. Contact people who are in that field not to ask for a job, but to find out how they got there and what they attribute to that success.

Finally, cultivate skills that, in my view, will be applicable to any field and can make a difference:
- The ability to continually learn and apply new things.
- The ability to listen and actually hear what others are saying.
- The ability to speak and present a topic in front of others (bonus if you can present it in terms that .
- The ability to work with others on a project and meet deadlines.
- The ability to disagree without getting angry or insulting.
- The ability to thank and praise others when they have done something well.

 

[ICNTR]

Tough question. It gets back to the age old delima of..."Shall I follow my passion, or shall I choose a lucrative, logical career?"

I chose Mechanical Engineering which was not my passion. I actually struggled at math prior to college. My logic was, if I could master my weakness then I would be much more well rounded and equipped for anything. (......strange, I know!)
Good news is that math got easier. Better news is, a good work ethic, remembering to focus on my customer, and my "logical career choice" allowed me to retire at 41.
So now I am trying to remember what my passions are so I can get back to those!

That was a very long way to say that in my experience, engineering was a great choice that always seemed to have a very high demand.

 

[JoeWras]

Also consider something that requires a physical presence. It is difficult to imagine outsourcing firefighting, plumbing, or electrical work. We settled today on FIL's house, not luxury lving but not a starter home either, and the buyer is a young Master Electrician. They don't give those certs out in cereal boxes.

Construction is another, if one likes building things. Design (architect) is one thing. Making it go from paper/computer to real is quite another.

Good point.

I'd add HVAC, automobile repair and telecom specialists to the list.

These trades continue to get more and more technical, requiring good problem solving and computer skills.

 

[Gumby]

I am biased towards anything in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) fields, as those are the skills even basic jobs are going to require more of.

However, more important than going off to college to study is to get involved with people. Get involved in a student organization or seek an internship or volunteer in a field they think they might want to work in. Contact people who are in that field not to ask for a job, but to find out how they got there and what they attribute to that success.

Finally, cultivate skills that, in my view, will be applicable to any field and can make a difference:
- The ability to continually learn and apply new things.
- The ability to listen and actually hear what others are saying.
- The ability to speak and present a topic in front of others (bonus if you can present it in terms that .
- The ability to work with others on a project and meet deadlines.
- The ability to disagree without getting angry or insulting.
- The ability to thank and praise others when they have done something well.

I would add a few other skills that will be useful no matter what the eventual field of employment:

- cultivate the ability to write clearly and comprehensively but concisely. It doesn't matter how smart you are if you cannot communicate your ideas to others.

-- develop a reputation for reliability. This means being on-time, every time and everywhere. It also means doing what you say you'll do. Under-promise and over-perform.

-- learn humility. You won't always be the smartest guy in the room, and the most unlikely people sometimes have something to offer.

-- learn to handle failure. If you live long enough, you are bound to fail at something. When you do, admit it forthrightly, take what lessons you can, apologize to those whom you have failed, and move on.

 

[Tyro]

I'm not sure why I didn't mention this before, but there isn't necessarily any rush to decide on a career or college. When I graduated HS, I still wasn't sure what I wanted to do, or even whether I wanted to go to college, so I worked for a year in a job that was typical for a HS graduate (albeit at the lower end of the pay scale, as it was all I could get at the time).

Working in a sweatshop for crap wages was the best motivator I could have had. Conditions were lousy, boss was a tyrant who truly held his employees in contempt (we were below him in every way). After 6 months of that I decided college was a pretty good idea if only to broaden my employment prospects. I spent the second six months saving and applying to schools, quit & went to a state university college on partial scholarship and paying my own way, and graduated 3rd in my class because what I wound up studying were things I wanted to learn/do rather than the waste of time most of HS was (for me).

I went through a few career changes as I previously mentioned, but that's another issue.

Tyro

 

[Candy83]

If you were at the point of advising an educational pathway for a 17 year old, what direction(s) would you point to... for satisfaction and security?

A job that cannot be, pardon me, jobbed out to other countries. A job that cannot be, pardon me once more, jobbed out to machinery.

This may seem unexciting ... but I would recommend being a plumber. That is one field not too many are trying to get into. And there are people who would turn their nose up out at the idea of doing that. But plumbers make damn good money. Of course it's not for just anyone.

 

[Tyro]

A job that cannot be, pardon me, jobbed out to other countries. A job that cannot be, pardon me once more, jobbed out to machinery.

I'm reminded of the closing lines of Dinner at Eight (1933):

Kitty: I was reading a book the other day.
Carlotta: Reading a book?
Kitty: Yes. It's all about civilization or something. A nutty kind of a book. Do you know that the guy says that machinery is going to take the place of every profession?
Carlotta: Oh, my dear, that's something you need never worry about.

 

[Candy83]

I'm reminded of the closing lines of Dinner at Eight (1933):

 

[haha]

Not many have mentioned entrepreneurship, perhaps because of the makeup of this board. It isn't for everyone, but neither is endless school or working in a large organization for everyone.

If one is not a techie, it seems to me the best preparation, probably through a bachelors degree in almost any local school, would be accounting and finance. With that and a good head, someone will always find niches to fill, and if any outsourcing is to be done, this person will be the beneficiary, not the victim.

Ha

 

[Katsmeow]

I think the problem with many of the responses is that they are almost exclusively based upon which career is likely to result in economic success or security. I don't disagree with much of those ideas.

The problem is that in advising an individual 17 year old it becomes far more important what that 17 year old is willing to do and is able to do. Not everyone is capable of every career. Not everyone is willing spend his or her working life in a career that is hated, even if that person is good at that career. In actuality, the discussion needs to start with questions to that 17 year old to find out more about that particular 17 year old.

Nothing is wrong with accounting or engineering, for example, as careers....unless the student in question is not interested in those fields or those fields doesn't fit within the talents of that student.

 

[Walt34]

I'm not sure why I didn't mention this before, but there isn't necessarily any rush to decide on a career or college. When I graduated HS, I still wasn't sure what I wanted to do, or even whether I wanted to go to college, so I worked for a year in a job that was typical for a HS graduate (albeit at the lower end of the pay scale, as it was all I could get at the time).

I did that too, for six months after HS graduation I unloaded trucks at a department store with another HS buddy who also didn't know what to do. I sort of had an idea of what to do but didn't know the best route to get there.

He went in the Navy and made a career of it, I went to the community college, earned the two-year degree, then was hired by the County police department and stayed 29 years.

One thing that still sticks in my mind is the speaker at the college orientation day. I started college mid-semester, and the guy said he was always struck by how quickly the room got quiet when he was walking to the podium. Unlike first-semester students, these were kids who were not there because their parents told them to go. These kids had given it some thought and wanted to be there and learn something.

So for a HS graduate to take a menial job for a year or so to think things through is not necessarily a bad decision. As long as that menial job doesn't last 20 years.

 

[walkinwood]

I am biased towards anything in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) fields, as those are the skills even basic jobs are going to require more of.

However, more important than going off to college to study is to get involved with people. Get involved in a student organization or seek an internship or volunteer in a field they think they might want to work in. Contact people who are in that field not to ask for a job, but to find out how they got there and what they attribute to that success.

Finally, cultivate skills that, in my view, will be applicable to any field and can make a difference:
- The ability to continually learn and apply new things.
- The ability to listen and actually hear what others are saying.
- The ability to speak and present a topic in front of others (bonus if you can present it in terms that .
- The ability to work with others on a project and meet deadlines.
- The ability to disagree without getting angry or insulting.
- The ability to thank and praise others when they have done something well.

+1 Beautifully put.

 

[Redbugdave]

This may seem unexciting ... but I would recommend being a plumber. That is one field not too many are trying to get into. And there are people who would turn their nose up out at the idea of doing that. But plumbers make damn good money. Of course it's not for just anyone.

A couple of the fellows I hunt with are plumbers. In many ways, I envy them. They work hard at times, and are always in need and never out of work. They do make good money and are in control of their lives. They have their own businesses and really are entrepreneurs. I do not look down on the guys in the trades. Most of us depend on our jobs...but these guys are in control of a business and have the opportunity to make a killing.

What good is an MBA or whatever and you can't get a job?