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What will be this generation's "If you want a good job just go to college!" career advice? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by ericbomb@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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When I was in school, I was always told "If you get a college degree you'll on average make 500k more over the life time of your career regardless of what you get your degree in!"

Then as I finishing school, it was all about "If you get into tech you'll make big bucks and always have jobs!"

Both of those have turned out not great for a lot of people.

Then whenever women say they're struggling with money online, they get pointed to OF... which pays nothing to 99% of creators. Also very presumptive to suggest that, but we don't even need to get into that.

So is there a field/career strategy that you feel like is currently being over pushed?

(My examples are USA, Nevada/Utah is where I grew up, if maybe it's different in other parts of USA even.)

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[-] superkret@feddit.org 38 points 2 weeks ago

Any career advice coming from the prior generation is useless because it doesn't apply to your generation.

Even starting a major because everyone's currently hiring in that field is useless. By the time you're finished, so will all the other students who started at the same time to get a good job down the line.

I gave up my initial plan of becoming an ecologist and went into IT for job security. And now I'm about to be laid off cause the company I work for is close to going under, for the third time.

Meanwhile friends of mine who started their careers as social workers, physical therapists, nurses and in the trades are buying houses while I live in a moldy apartment.

My advice is to just do what interests you, you probably won't starve. Also, disregard this advice if you're just starting out your career. I'm 40, so my experience won't be helpful to you 20 years younger people.

[-] golli@lemm.ee 12 points 2 weeks ago

Physical therapists, nurses and people that went into trades I can see making good money, but social workers I am kind of surprised to hear. I thought those were for the most part not paid as well compared to how taxing their jobs can be.

[-] superkret@feddit.org 5 points 2 weeks ago

Depends. My friend who went that route positioned herself in a freelancer consultant role for government institutions and schools.
She makes 6 figures.

[-] golli@lemm.ee 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

That makes sense. I can definitely see consulting work paying top dollar in many different professions.

But that seems to me like she has carved out a lucrative niche for herself, which wouldn't scale as advice for a larger number of people. Whereas with the other professions you can probably make good money even just doing more "regular" work.

[-] stoly@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

Social workers doing clinical therapy at the federal level make bank.

[-] bamfic@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

Nurses seem really unhappy

[-] golli@lemm.ee 2 points 2 weeks ago

(disclaimer that this is purely my impression from what i've seen mentioned online, not firsthand knowledge)

Which isn't necessarily mutually exclusive. I was under the impression that the problems have more to do with high workloads and work environments that are chronically understaffed, not necessarily because of low salaries. Not claiming that all nurses are payed well, but it seems like that at least in the US there is a somewhat reasonable path to making good money (assuming you are willing to switch jobs and maybe continue to get sought after qualifications along the way).

[-] Blaze@lemmy.cafe 11 points 2 weeks ago

I gave up my initial plan of becoming an ecologist and went into IT for job security. And now I’m about to be laid off cause the company I work for is close to going under, for the third time.

Sorry to hear

[-] slurpeesoforion@startrek.website 3 points 2 weeks ago

It wasn't long ago that I heard that analytics was about to be replaced by AI.

[-] 11111one11111@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

But who do you think is hiring you? Strictly people of your same age?

[-] superkret@feddit.org 1 points 2 weeks ago

Just be careful of whether they're giving advice that benefits you or them

this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2024

171 points (97.2% liked)

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