What career would you recommend with today's market economy?

[renter16]

Originally Posted by calnbs

If you can sell, you will always have a job. Sales is for the few who have talent/skills. Those that have it, are often very well off. Sales does not discriminate as well. Whether you are 18 or 70. Black, white, or blue. Male or female. If you graduated from Harvard or have a 6th grade education. If you can sell, you will make money.

You won't find too many 18 yr. old making $40K-$50K a year, two months after his high school graduation in many fields, I've seen it in sales. You don't see too many 65 year old immigrant with a 6th grade education and broken English making 2 million dollars a year in other professions, I've seen it in sales.

I wouldn't want my main source of income to be a sales job because when you have a bad week or month then your job is in jeopardy.

[calnbs]

Originally Posted by renter16

I wouldn't want my main source of income to be a sales job because when you have a bad week or month then your job is in jeopardy.

Then you were never meant to be in sales in the first place. Many people think that they belong in sales, truth is, only 20% really do. The rest of the 80% "think" they belong but they don't. No shame in that. I've been there too. I wasn't good enough to be in the 20%.

[renter16]

Originally Posted by calnbs

Then you were never meant to be in sales in the first place. Many people think that they belong in sales, truth is, only 20% really do. The rest of the 80% "think" they belong but they don't. No shame in that. I've been there too. I wasn't good enough to be in the 20%.

You have a point because I have a friend who has been in sales since 2011 and he is good at what he does which is why he is still employed.

[RJ312]

Some sort of STEM occupation or a trade (plumber, HVAC repair, etc.).

[redguard57]

Depends on your aptitude and interests. If you suck at math, then STEM will be miserable for you. Everyone on here shouting STEM does not know you. That may or may not be a good idea.

Don't believe the haters on here that say any liberal arts are worthless. There are people on C-D who like to think that anyone who did not learn how to fix cars or how to do security analysis or engineering will have to be a McDonald's cashier for life.

I have 2 BA degrees, double major in history and geography and a masters in history. The geography side did involve STEM and knowing GIS is helpful skill. I found a job teaching history, in 4 months when I actually started looking seriously, who'dve thought? Next year I will have tenure and thus job security more than most people & I am going to target administrative roles in a few years where the real money in education resides.

My wife has a freaking PhD in medieval history (we met in the graduate program), the most "useless" thing you could imagine, but her graduate work involved a lot of quantitative analysis & she gained killer writing skills. She found a job in 5 weeks after graduation. I'll admit I was expecting for her to be looking for much longer & was pleasantly surprised. The job she got will probably grow into much higher paying positions than I will ever get.

[ProffessorZoom]

Maybe we should just accept the fact it's game over.

[TwinbrookNine]

Originally Posted by Achelois

Most girls aren't taught to do anything electrical, mechanical or trades-related. When I was in school, girls weren't even permitted to take those classes--this set up a vicious cycle where women who weren't allowed to learn skills couldn't pass those skills down. Then you see that women don't have those skills, so you think women CAN'T have (as in are unable to to learn or have no aptitude for) those skills.

When I was young, I wanted to be an electrician but was told I couldn't because nobody hired women. You are confusing nature and nuture. Even now, when women want to do these things, they are at a disadvantage. How many dads (I say dads because not to many moms had dads who taught them they way they taught sons) even today teach their daughters. If women want to go into trades as an adult, they are years behind already.

I wanted to learn some woodworking, so I took a class that was advertised at the local vo-tech as beginner level. I wanted to make a small table. Not only was I the only woman there, the male "beginners" all were experienced with lathes and sanders and routers and really just needed to improve their skills not learn from the beginning. Naturally, I required more of the instuctor's time. This aggravated people, but I stuck it out and now have a nice tilt-top table beside my armchair.

You seem to have a very negative, bitter view of women. I don't see women putting down men as a whole group the way I see disparaging commenting like yours. I cannot "sweat copper pipes", whatever that may be, but then I was never taught to do so. Can you administer an anesthetic safely?

Just what exactly do you want me to say about women? Huh? "Standing toe to toe, not a novice anymoe..."?


I told you the facts. That's all there is to say. There are both boys and girls with no mechanical instinct. It's a fact of life. For whatever reason, more girls lack a mechanical instinct than boys. Probably in the genes. I did not create those genes. 60+ years of observation, however, makes me expert at this. How many 7 year old girls do you know who knew what a spanner wrench is...and could use one? I knew one.


If you don't know what sweating copper pipes means, you're no plumber. But...that's not to say you couldn't learn. Have someone teach you. Then get back to us.

[redguard57]

I struggle to put together IKEA furniture. More than once I'll put on a piece backwards or something. I can do a little more with cars, for whatever reason the engineering of cars makes more sense to me than house stuff.

So I respect the people who can do all that.