My Ratings of Popular Careers

By Marty Nemko

The 2002 book, The Jobs-Rated Almanac, attempted to rate careers. Alas, in its attempt to be as objective as possible, it seems to have missed the mark. For example, its #2-rated career is actuary. Yes, it’s lucrative and the working conditions are safe, but most people would find a life of analyzing insurance statistics, pardon the pun, deadly.

In contrast, this resource bases its ratings on both objective and subjective criteria. The objective information is gleaned largely from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook and the subjective information is a distillation of what I’ve learned from my confidential discussions with 2,400 clients plus countless conversations outside the office. I have always been fascinated by people’s work, so for decades, I’ve been asking people—at parties, in supermarket lines, everywhere--to tell me about their job.

Of course, a career that is excellent for one person is poor for another, but I believe valid generalizations can be made. While I’m issuing caveats, please also remember that each career profile is based on a relatively small number of interviews. This resource should be but one data point in a thorough effort to choose a career. At the end of each profile, I list additional resources: a link to a more detailed profile of that career in the Occupational Outlook Handbook (henceforth referred to as OOH), the Web site for an association of people in that career, and/or a book I believe would be helpful in exploring that career. If after reviewing those resources, a career continues to be of interest, conduct one or more informational interviews with and job shadows of people in that career. That approach will maximize your chances of being satisfied with your career.

EXCELLENT

Audiologist – One-on-one helping careers are rewarding and are usually in pleasant work environments. Audiology is my favorite. Pay and prestige are excellent and the job market will be strong because, as the boomers age, their hearing fades. And audiologists will be offering ever better hearing aids. The annoying conventional instruments are being replaced by ever more pleasing computer-controlled ones. A final plus is that audiology is an under-the-radar career—few people consider it, so competition isn’t as keen as it deserves to be. One downside: universities’ relentless push to keep more students longer is contributing to the growing trend to make audiology programs doctoral.

To learn more

OOH profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos085.htm

American Academy of Audiology: www.audiology.org.

David DeBonis’s book: Survey of Audiology.

Optometrist - This is another one-on-one helping career that will serve the massive numbers of boomers. I like this career one notch less well than audiologist because technological breakthroughs don’t seem as imminent.

To learn more

OOH profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos073.htm

Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry: http://www.opted.org

Veterinarian – Veterinary medicine offers substantial advantages over being a physician. You get to perform a wider range of procedures because, in a number of specialties, board certification isn’t required. Plus, most veterinary medicine is fee-for-service, so you needn’t be bogged down with labyrinthine regulations and paperwork. One downside: veterinary offices tend to be loud: lots of barking.

To learn more

OOH profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos076.htm

American Veterinary Medicine Association: www.avma.org.

Gene Witiak’s book, True Confessions of a Veterinarian.

Professor - This career offers stimulating work, lots of autonomy, status, and a pleasant work environment. The current tight job market should start to improve because there was a wealth of hiring in the 60s, and most of those professors are approaching retirement age. And, long-term, the job market should remain good because we’re in an era of degree proliferation: Ever more students go on to college and ever more adults return to school.

The professoriate does have downsides. Colleges, more than most organizations, like to hire faculty part-time and/or on a temporary basis. Over 30 percent of faculty hold part-time positions, and that percentage is increasing. It’s ironic that college classes decry the way management treats labor, yet when colleges hire, they assiduously try to avoid providing health care and job security. Another downside of this career is that office politics are often intense--in few workplaces, is there as much conniving over so few resources. A final downside: it’s often dangerous to express politically incorrect opinions. The most visible recent example was when Harvard president Lawrence Summers, in a private brainstorming session, when explicitly asked to be provocative, dared opine that genetic predisposition might partly explain the paucity of female scientists. A campuswide and then nationwide media outcry ensued. Likely, Summers saved his job only because he promised to spend $50,000,000 to increase the number of female scientists.

To learn more

OOH profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos066.htm

American Association of University Professors: www.aaup.org.

John Goldsmith et al’s book, The Chicago Guide to Your Academic Career: A Portable Mentor for Scholars from Graduate School Through Tenure.

Librarian – This is an underrated career. Most librarians enjoy helping patrons to dig up information, learning things in the process, and ever seeing the latest books and online resources, all in a pleasant environment. The need for librarians, alas, will likely not grow as patrons increasingly can find needed resources by themselves on their computer. The job growth will be in non-traditional settings: information brokers and in private corporations, nonprofits, and consulting firms.

To learn more

OOH profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos068.htm

American Library Association: www.ala.org.

Priscilla Shontz’s book, The Librarian's Career Guidebook.

Clergy – This career allows for unmitigated do-gooding: Clergypersons play a significant role in major life events: birth, marriage, crises, and death. Plus this career offers status, normally modest work hours, pleasant work environment, and often good salaries. Clergypersons needn’t necessarily have unquestioned faith in God. I’ve spoken with a number of clergy who have deep questions about the nature of and even existence of a supreme being.

To learn more

Charles Foster’s book, Educating Clergy.

Contact a respected clergyperson.

Engineer – For the person who enjoys using math and science to create products, this is an enjoyable career. Turnover is very low, although twice as many women leave the profession. Alas, training is long, grueling, and often irrelevant. A person sitting on a plane with me, an engineer for General Dynamics, said that 95 percent of what he learned in college (a prestigious one), was irrelevant to his work. Another downside of an engineering career is that the U.S. job market will likely worsen because ever more engineering work can be done on computer, and thus can be done anywhere in the world. Countries such as China and India produce many times as many engineers as does the U.S., high quality engineers, who will gladly work for 80 percent less than U.S. engineers currently demand.

To learn more

OOH profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm

Junior Engineering Technical Society: www.jets.org.

Nicholas Basta’s book, Opportunities in Engineering Careers.

Speech Therapist - Speech therapy is another of my favorite one-on-one helping careers. The client improvement rate is higher than, for example, in psychotherapy or oncology, and the training is shorter and less science-intensive. The latter is significant because, today, many college-level science courses are—for most students--very difficult and boring, not a great combination. Speech therapists who work in schools have relatively short workdays and work years. They may also work in hospitals, clinics, and in private practice. Many speech therapists choose a combination.

To learn more

OOH profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos099.htm

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association: www.asha.org.

Occupational Therapist – Here’s another great one-on-one helping career, in which you can work in multiple settings. For example, you might see clients in a hospital in the morning, in their homes in the afternoon. Success rate is high because you’re often teaching a person simple workarounds for their limitations, for example, how to button a shirt even though one arm is paralyzed. Plus, with the aging boomers, the job market should remain strong. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, this is one of the fastest growing occupations. Alas, this is another career in which length of training is increasing. As of 2007, a master’s degree will generally be required.

To learn more

OOH profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos078.htm

American Occupational Therapy Association: www.aota.org.

Physical Therapist – This is another one-on-one helping career that will be in demand-- the Boomers will increasingly need help recovering from their strokes, replaced hips, and other infirmities.

To learn more

OOH profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos080.htm

American Physical Therapy Association: www.apta.org.

Physician Assistant – For most physicians, the fun part about being a doctor is diagnosing and treating patients, and doing patient education. The not-fun parts are the paperwork, managing the office, the more than decade-long training which often costs $200,000 followed by a 100-hour-per-week internship and residency years. Physician assistants enjoy many of the benefits of being a physician with few of its liabilities. Under a doctor’s supervision, often quite indirect supervision, physician assistants do diagnosis, treatment, and patient education, but training takes just two to three years. And their paperwork and management responsibilities are few. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this career will be among the fastest growing, as health care organizations cut costs by using physician assistants instead of physicians. Salaries are not doctor-level, but respectable. As of December, 2005, the average physician’s assistant earned $76, 417.

To learn more

OOH profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos081.htm

American Academy of Physician Assistants Information Center: www.aapa.org.

J. Michael Jones’ book, A Kernel in the Pod: The Adventures of a "Midlevel" Clinician in a Top-level World.

Pharmacist – You’re not just filling prescriptions; you’re often the front-line health care provider. And well-paying jobs are available, not just in store pharmacies but in hospitals and on research teams. Unfortunately, as in many other fields, the training requirement has been ratcheted up: now a Doctor of Pharmacy degree is standard, which typically requires seven years of post-high-school education.

To learn more

OOH profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos079.htm

American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy: www.aacp.org.

Fred Gable’s book, Opportunities in Pharmacy Careers.

Counselor/Psychologist (Fair)/Personal Coach (Excellent). It wasn’t long ago that the experts thought that problems such as schizophrenia and depression were caused by bad parenting. So, countless patients were subjected to years of fruitless and expensive psychotherapy. Now, it’s clear that these and other psychological problems have largely physiological roots. I believe that in the coming decade or two, an ever larger proportion of emotional problems’ causation will be identified as physiological. So, it may no longer be worth the many years of training required to be a clinical psychologist—usually a doctorate plus thousands of hours of supervised training.

To learn more

OOH profile: http://www.bls.gov/ooh/life-physical-and-social-science/psychologists.htm

The American Psychological Association: www.apa.org.

Jeffrey Kottler’s book, What You Never Learned in Graduate School: A Survival Guide for Therapists.

There will, however, always be a need for professionals willing to help clients address their lives’ practical problems. Often what’s required is not an exploration of the problem’s familial roots as a traditional psychotherapist would do, but someone to help the client set goals, an action plan to achieve it, keep on task, and to be supportive when the client feels scared or deflated. Some psychotherapists, who practice cognitive or rational-emotive therapy, do those things, but personal coaches, also known as career and life coaches, can be adequately trained in far less time. For example, see www.coachu.com.

To learn more

International Coach Federation: www.coachfederation.org

Julie Starr’s book, Coaching Manual: The Definitive Guide to the Process, Principles & Skills of Personal Coaching.

Having a PhD in educational psychology from Berkeley and then taught in four graduate schools including Berkeley, I’ve become convinced that psychologist training programs have been padded into doctorate-length marathons not because there’s so much that aspiring psychologists need to know, but mainly because universities make more money the longer students are in school and because graduate students are free or low-cost research slaves for professors.

Electrician – Among the trades, this is my favorite. You’re less likely to ruin your back or knees than are, for example, carpenters or plumbers. And demand for electricians is likely to grow faster than in other trades because of our ever more electrified world. Another plus is that this career, like all the trades, is among the most offshore resistant. Most electricians are trained by a paid four-year apprenticeship combining community college training with on-the-job supervised practice.

To learn more

OOH profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos206.htm

National Electrical Contractors Association, www.necanet.org.

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers www.ibew.org.

Fire Fighter – All the firefighters I’ve met like their jobs. They find the disadvantage of irregular hours living in a firehouse outweighed by their exciting, rewarding firefighting and emergency medical efforts. Plus, typically, only a high school diploma or perhaps a two-year fire science degree is required. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, fire fighting ranks 14^th in likelihood of dying on the job. That is daunting but note that ranking 1 and 2 are truck driver and farm worker, careers most people don’t think of as inordinately dangerous.

To learn more

OOH profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos158.htm

International Association of Fire Fighters: www.iaff.org.

Steve Delsohn’s book, The Fire Inside: Firefighters Talk About Their Lives.

GOOD

Politician – Yes, politicians always have to have their hands out, and some pay back donor largesse to society’s detriment, but most politicians I’ve met try diligently to be fine leaders. And while the wheels of government turn most slowly and inefficiently, at least its goal is benevolent. No specific training is required to be a politician, although you must be instantly likeable and a compelling speaker. The biggest downside is job instability but if after a couple of losses, you decide to switch careers, the connections you’ve made will likely help you land a job.

To learn more

William Endicott’s book, An Insider’s Guide to Political Jobs in Washington, DC.

Dentist – I like this career better than physician even though more patients dread the dentist and many dentists develop back problems from leaning over patients all day. In balance, I prefer dentistry because training is shorter, success rate higher, and paperwork simpler.

To learn more

OOH profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos072.htm.

American Dental Association: www.ada.org.

Jeffrey May’s book, The Art and Science of Being a Dentist: Leading Dentists Reveal the Secrets to Professional and Personal Success.

Physician – In my view, this career is more trouble than it’s worth. The compensation is declining as is the prestige, with more and more patients, thanks to the Internet, feeling they’re more knowledgeable than a doctor about their condition--and sometimes they’re right. Also, unless employed by a health network such as Kaiser Permanente, many physicians are drowning in insurance and Medicare paperwork. Plus, getting into the field is no picnic. As an undergraduate, you must take tough science and math courses, then four years and as much as $200,000 worth of medical school, followed by a few years of low-pay, 100-hour weeks of internship and residency. I believe a wiser option is nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant.

To learn more

OOH profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos074.htm

Association of American Medical Colleges: www.aamc.org.

Laurence Savett’s book, The Human Side of Medicine: Learning What It's Like to be a Patient and What It's Like to be a Physician.

Human Resources Professional - HR professionals come in three major flavors: personnel recruiter, benefits expert, and organizational development specialist. The latter is a particularly enjoyable career: training staff in communication skills and helping to mediate problems among employees. Organizational development professionals warn that a downside of the field is in managing diversity. For example, diversity training sessions often devolve into very angry affairs. And when persons of color are disciplined or terminated, they often take legal action, which require very time-consuming and stressful depositions.

To learn more

OOH profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos021.htm

Society for Human Resources Management: www.shrm.org.

Shawn Smith’s book, The HR Answer Book.

Social Worker – Despite the stress and frustrations, most social workers like their job. It’s not surprising: Much of their job is to give away resources compliments of the taxpayer: cash, rent subsidies, child care, food stamps, health services, job training, etc. Pay isn’t as bad as it used to be, averaging $48,248 as of December, 2005, and social work remains one of the last professions with excellent job security—not only is it a government job, no plausible scenario exists under which the need for social workers will decline. This is another career in which the training requirements have been ratcheted up: Now, a master’s degree is usually required.

To learn more

OOH profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos060.htm

National Association of Social Workers: www.socialworkers.org.

Linda May Grobman’s book, Days in The Lives Of Social Workers: 50 Professionals Tell "Real-Life" Stories From Social Work Practice.

Computer programmer – Many programmers love their career—their job is to work on puzzles. Plus, the field is advancing quickly, so there’s always something new to learn. The problem with the career is that programming can easily be done anywhere in the world. And with so many excellent programmers in China and India willing to work for a pittance, US programmers will have a hard time convincing employers they’re worth a middle-class salary.

To learn more

OOH profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos110.htm

Association for Computing Machinery: www.acm.org.

Francis Glassborow’s book You Can Do It!: A Beginners Introduction to Computer Programming

Registered Nurse – This career’s greatest reward is that nurses are often critical to patients’ recovery. Nursing also has less lofty advantages: The average salary for a basic staff nurse is $57,496, and in many cities, nurses often earn over $100,000 a year. And job security is excellent—nursing is among the fastest growing careers. Plus, just a two-year degree will generally land you a job and a four-year degree will give you a wide range of choices: from neonatal to hospice. And when you’ve had enough of plain ol’ nursing, you can, with only a moderate amount of additional training, become a nurse anesthetist or nurse practitioner, the latter who functions much like a basic-care physician. Caveat: Every year, nurses are responsible for thousands of patient deaths. Please only consider this career if you are truly caring and detail-oriented.

To learn more

OOH profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos083.htm

American Association of Colleges of Nursing: www.aacn.nche.edu.

Claire Fagin’s and Suzanne Gordon’s book, Life Support: Three Nurses on the Front Lines.

Scientist – At a very senior level, most scientists have a great career: concoct your own research ideas, delegate the massive repetitious work to underlings, present findings at conferences all over the world, and maybe cure a disease. Alas, few of those positions exist. To land one, you first need a PhD in a demanding field. It’s not easy to be admitted to such a program, and it takes an average of six years to graduate. After you complete it, you’ve only just begun. Often, you can’t find a decent job, so you’re forced to take a one- or two-year postdoc—more education and a tiny stipend. Why is it so difficult to land a job? According to a Rand study, there’s a 30 percent oversupply of PhDs in such fields as molecular biology. Yet I’ve not heard of universities cutting back on the number of admissions to doctoral programs. There are bachelor’s and master’s level jobs as scientists, but these generally offer little autonomy: You’re a functionary, doing relatively routine tasks at the PhD’s behest.

To learn more

OOH profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos047.htm

Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology: www.faseb.org.

Nancy Rockwell’s book, Who Wants to be a Scientist?: Choosing Science as a Career.

Military Officer – This job title is a catchall for hundreds of professional occupations: from manager to physician, accountant to engineer. A military career has many pluses: excellent free training, extensive benefits, and esprit de corps unmatched in most civilian jobs. Of course, you must accept a bureaucracy to end all bureaucracies and that you’ll likely be forced to transfer to places you otherwise might not have chosen. (Aberdeen, TX anyone?) And, oh yes, there’s a small chance you’ll get your head blown off. Among the routes in are enlistment, Officer Candidate Schools, and the prestigious service academies: West Point (Army), the Naval Academy, Air Force Academy, and Coast Guard Academy. Those service academies offer small classes taught by unusually dedicated instructors. When I visited the Air Force Academy, the cadets were more enthusiastic about their college experience than students at any of the 100+ colleges I’ve visited, more so, for example, than those at Harvard and Stanford.

To learn more

(NOTE: The OOH profile for this career was not omitted in error. The OOH elected to not profile military careers.)

US Department of Defense: www.todaysmilitary.com.

Bill Harris’s book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Careers in the U.S. Military.

Administrative Assistant/Secretary. Many of my clients crave being the right-arm person, and this career affords that opportunity. Not withstanding Hollywood portrayals of the secretary’s life, this can be a fine career. Trusted administrative assistants may have quite a varied workday: draft a letter, appease a client, research on the Internet, plan a luncheon, create a PowerPoint presentation, organize the boss’s file system, prepare a spreadsheet, and screen mail and calls. And unlike the boss, admins are usually out the door at 5:00 with no work to take home. Plus, in major cities, a good admin can earn $70,000-$90,000. And increasingly, bosses allow their admins to work at home at least one day a week.

To learn more

OOH profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos151.htm.

International Association of Administrative Professionals: www.iaap-hq.org.

Brenda Bailey-Hughes’s book, The Administrative Assistant.

Photographer – As with most artistic careers, to succeed you must be talented and a dedicated marketer. For example, one of my clients makes a living as a photographer by taking close-up action photos of children playing a sport and selling them to the proud parents. She takes pictures at karate studios, ice skating rinks, Little League games, pee-wee soccer leagues, high school sports events, etc. Today, to be competitive, a photographer must be expert at using Photoshop to edit digital images and use the Web well for sales and marketing.

To learn more

OOH profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos264.htm

Professional Photographers of America: www.ppa.com.

Donna Poehner’s book, 2006 Photographers Market.

FAIR

Journalist - If you can land a decent paying job, journalism is a great career. There are opportunities for creativity, you’re often learning something new, and you feel you make a difference. Alas, many factors are conspiring to make it ever more difficult to land a journalism job that pays a middle-class salary. Print and broadcast organizations are merging or folding, and many remaining ones are using ever more nationally syndicated content. Thousands of bloggers and other citizen journalists are doing journalism for free, and in not too distant future, search engines will provide on-demand custom “newspapers,” based on information from multiple news organizations.

To learn more

OOH profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos088.htm

Society for Professional Journalists: www.spj.org.

Stephen Warley’s book, The Vault Career Guide to Journalism and Information Media.

Architect (Fair), Landscape Architect (Excellent) – Many outsiders think this is a terrific career but they don’t realize how long it takes before an architect gets to design a building. They must first complete a five-year BA or masters. Then there’s a three-year internship. After that, many architects in firms must spend years designing just components of a building, such as the heating, ventilating and air conditioning system. Going off on your own may not be a solution. Most people who hire architects are older and reluctant to trust designing their building to a 20-something.

To learn more

OOH profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos038.htm

American Institute of Architecture: www.aia.org.

Roger Lewis’s book, Architect? A Candid Guide to the Profession.

Neat niche: landscape architecture. Because most landscape architecture projects don’t have as many components, young landscape architects may get to design entire projects. Also, the training is shorter: you typically can get a job with just a bachelor’s degree and a one year or shorter internship.

To learn more

OOH profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos039.htm

American Society of Landscape Architects: www.asla.org.

Nicholas Dines and Kyle Brown’s book, Landscape Architect's Portable Handbook.

Teacher – On its face, it would seem that teaching is an ideal career: relatively short work day and very short work year, terrific benefits, lifetime job security, and pay that has risen so that, in many metropolitan areas, the average teacher salary is now more than $60,000. Then why would one-third of all new teachers leave the profession within five years? Because most new jobs are in low-income areas, which have always been challenging, but more so now, with education politicos insisting that all students—from special education to non-native speakers of English to the gifted-- be in the same class. That’s a Herculean challenge even for the most talented and workaholic teacher.

To learn more

OOH profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos069.htm

www.bls.gov/oco/ocos069.htm,

Recruiting New Teachers, Inc., www.recruitingteachers.org.

Pearl Rock Kane’s (ed) book, My First Year as a Teacher.

Accountant/Actuary. This is among the fastest-growing fields. There’s always some new government mandate that keep accountants ever more in demand. The mandate du jour is the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, a full-employment act for accountants, which requires companies to submit a comprehensive report annually that describes and evaluates the firm’s internal accounting control system. While some accountants love the precision and detail of this career, many ultimately find it deadening. They also dislike that they are often the bearers of bad news: “No, you can’t deduct this,” “Yes you need to provide documentation about that,” “No, we can’t afford that.” Management accountants, including chief financial officers and comptrollers often have a much more interesting career, involved in strategic planning. Alas, for every management accountant, there are a number of accountants slogging through internal audits, supervising bookkeepers, and cranking out fat tax returns.

To learn more

OOH profile: http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos001.htm

American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, www.aicpa.org

Jason Alba’s book, Vault Career Guide to Accounting (Second Edition)

Marketing/Advertising/Public Relations - Some people love these careers: the fast pace, the glamour, that it consists of discrete projects with deadlines—you work hard and then it’s over, with a sense of having completed a project. However, a number of thoughtful people who entered this career sooner or later felt it’s empty: selling sizzle, not steak. Many people go into these fields hoping they’ll get to do ad campaigns for non-profit causes, but those represent only a tiny proportion of the available work, and much of that is pro-bono and/or divvied up among the best and/or most well-connected employees.

To learn more

OOH profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos020.htm

American Marketing Asssociation: www.marketingpower.com.

Public Relations Society of America: www.prsa.org.

Careers in Advertising & Public Relations: The WetFeet Insider Guide

Manager/Executive. Managers and executives don’t have it easy. Unless you’re at the top, you’re often in a vise between your boss pressing your work group to produce more and faster while your supervisees complain they’re already overworked. And unlike worker bees who typically get paid overtime starting at 5:01, managers and executives don’t get an extra dime even if they’re cranking ‘til midnight. Plus, it’s ever more difficult to get rid of a problem employee. And for all that, the media doesn’t give managers or executives much respect. For example, there’s an endless procession of books about bad bosses. Sample titles: A Survival Guide for Working With Bad Bosses: Dealing with Bullies, Idiots, Back-Stabbers, and Other Managers from Hell; Recycle Your Boss: 99 Ways to Put a Bad Boss to Good Use; How to Work for an Idiot: Survive & Thrive--Without Killing Your Boss. I’ve yet to see a book titled, A Survival Guide for Coping with Bad Employees or How to Supervise an Idiot.

To learn more

OOH profile: http://www.bls.gov/oco/oco1001.htm

My article, The World’s Shortest Management Course.

American Management Association: www.amanet.org.

Small Business Owner – This is the only career that enables you to instantly go from unemployed to CEO, even if you’re a high school dropout. But to avoid being one of the four in five businesses that go out of business in the first five years, you must be a self-starter and have a simple, low-risk business idea. Usually the best ones are proven successful business concepts placed in a location with high potential demand and little competition. Two of my favorite such concepts are: college financial-aid counseling service and well-located espresso or soup carts.

To learn more

The Edward Lowe Foundation: www.edwardlowe.org.

The Small Business Administration: www.sba.gov.

Paul and Sarah Edwards’ book, Why Aren't You Your Own Boss?

POOR

Attorney: If starting over, 75 percent of lawyers wouldn’t choose to be attorneys again. A similar percentage would advise their children not to become lawyers. It’s usually contentious and there’s pressure to be unethical. And, not withstanding what’s portrayed on law TV shows, much of your time is spent on painstakingly detailed research. In addition, those fat-salaried law jobs go to only the top few percent of an already high-powered lot.

Many people go to law school hoping to do so-called “public interest” law. (In fact, much work not officially labeled as such does serve the public interest.) Alas, the competition for those jobs is intense. For example, I know someone who attended a Top-Three Law School where she was editor of a law journal, applied for a low-paying job at the National Abortion Rights Action League, and despite interviewing very well, was not offered the position.

To learn more

OOH profile: http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos053.htm

American Bar Association: www.abanet.org.

Deborah Schneider’s and Gary Belsky’s book, Should You Really Be a Lawyer?

Artistic careers (includes performing, fine art, and fiction writing) - These are the world’s best hobbies and world’s worst careers. Expressing our creativity is among our most primal needs, so primal that the competition even for volunteer work in the creative arts is intense. For example, this month, I auditioned for a part in a Bay Area production of Death of a Salesman. Despite that none of the actors, even the lead, would get paid a dime, 100 actors, many with degrees in acting and who had appeared in dozens of plays (usually for no money) tried out. (No, I didn’t get cast.) What about the true professionals? Eighty percent of actors in the Screen Actors Guild (those who have already acted in a movie) earned less than $5,000 a year from their acting.

To learn more

OOH profile: http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos092.htm

Salesperson – Most salespeople tell me that, sooner or later, they ultimately didn’t feel good about a career in sales. After all, if the product were that good, it would usually sell itself or merely require a $10 an hour order taker or $15 an hour product explainer. When salespeople earn a good living, it’s usually because they are able to convince prospects to buy what—in the absence of high-pressure, soft-sell, and/or deceptive sales practices-- the prospect wouldn’t have bought. Can a life be truly considered well-led when all you’ve done is convince people to buy what they otherwise wouldn’t?

Some of my clients and people I’ve met do enjoy selling: they enjoy “the thrill of the kill” (closing the sale), the money, the competition with fellow salespeople to get their name on the salesperson-of-the-month plaque, but more reflective people, I believe, would be well served by avoiding a career as salesperson.

To learn more

OOH profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos119.htm

Manufacturer’s Representatives Educational Research Foundation: www.mrerf.org/pubs/articles.htm.

Louise Kursmark’s and Edward Newill’s book, Sales Careers.

Police Officer – Police salaries are generally excellent, often reaching six figures in major cities, but it is dangerous: ranking as the fifth most dangerous career, and in gritty urban areas, far more dangerous still. Also, the career often isn’t psychologically rewarding: you’re merely keeping a lid on a problem that is far bigger than police officers can solve. In addition, the media relentlessly bashes the police, so you’ll probably be viewed askance when you tell people you’re a cop.

To learn more

OOH profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos160.htm

Neal Trautman’s book, Police Work : A Career Survival Guide