171

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

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by ericbomb@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

80 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.)

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] superkret@feddit.org 38 points 1 month 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 1 month 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 1 month 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 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month 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 1 month ago

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

[-] bamfic@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Nurses seem really unhappy

[-] golli@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month 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 1 month 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 1 month ago

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

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

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

[-] superkret@feddit.org 1 points 1 month 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)

Ask Lemmy

27268 readers

3163 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

6) No US Politics.

Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.