# Looking for a dream job **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 28, 2025, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-dream-job/1020223 "2025-06-28T07:40:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2025, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-dream-job/1020223/61 "2025-06-30T19:20:50Z")
I taught before BASIC was heavily used by people. My CS professor friends dreaded the inrush of the BASIC kiddies who were sure they were great programmers. I had thought about quoting Dijkstra about it. I might still have that copy of SIGPLan notices floating around somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2025, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-dream-job/1020223/62 "2025-06-30T19:42:12Z")
The contrary case is that now most students will start learning with Python with enforced whitespace, core language features and libraries that make I/O, testing, and reuse extremely easy, and object-oriented-associated programming by default, and then go onto a language like Java or C++ only to realize how much more badly implemented and difficult OOPS is in those languages. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-dream-job/1020223/63 "2025-07-01T07:21:01Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Unless your first language was BASIC That was my second, though I don’t count it. LOGO was my first. I do know Visual Basic, but I also don’t count it, I am trying to scrub that knowledge from my brain… ---
**Author:** ![longtry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/839c29/32.png) [@longtry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/longtry)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-dream-job/1020223/64 "2025-07-01T16:02:03Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > which may mean that some of the advice you’re getting in your thread, which may be perfectly applicable to someone who lives in North America, may or may not be relevant to your situation, simply because of the nature of jobs and careers in your part of the world. While that’s true, I think chances are still high that things are cross-applicable. My criteria aren’t culture-specific, so a job that satisfies them in the US most likely will do so in SEA. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-dream-job/1020223/65 "2025-07-01T16:40:41Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Unless your first language was BASIC Not my first, but one of my first few. Granted, my teacher was one of the inventors. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-dream-job/1020223/66 "2025-07-01T18:30:20Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Granted, my teacher was one of the inventors. Did you go to Dartmouth? When I visited my girlfriend, now wife, who was a grad student at Dartmouth in 1976 I wrote her a BASIC program on the DTSS. I never had used it before, but it was not exactly tough to figure out. Kind of a idiot version of Fortran. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-dream-job/1020223/67 "2025-07-01T19:11:59Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Kind of a idiot version of Fortran. Dude, ‘idiot’ is not the preferred nomenclature; ‘developmentally delayed’, please. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-dream-job/1020223/68 "2025-07-01T19:13:10Z")
I assure you, I considered and rejected several stronger versions of that term. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-dream-job/1020223/69 "2025-07-01T19:15:07Z")
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/vq_pjh1y2Ec/hqdefault.jpg "The Big Lebowski- Phillip Seymour Hoffman laugh") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq_pjh1y2Ec) Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-dream-job/1020223/70 "2025-07-01T19:37:17Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Did you go to Dartmouth? Ayup. I had Prof Kurtz for a few courses and met Kemeny a couple of times. Even there we moved off Basic fairly quickly. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-dream-job/1020223/71 "2025-07-01T23:16:47Z")
> [@longtry](#): > > > [@mnemosyne](#): > > > > be a very niche specialist in something where the pay is very high but demand is low or flexible > > This is exactly 1 of the directions I thought about. Niches could be where a person with decent skill can earn lots of money, yet be at ease. Your example of 12y+ education is too extreme for me to withstand, but my gut feeling is that there are niche careers out there that require 2-4y. You want niche? I sometimes buy hand made wooden puzzles from the karikuri group in Japan. It takes both skill and talent to do that well, as you need both a clever idea and also an excellent technical implementation. I doubt anyone gets rich doing it, I believe some of the craftsmen make a living selling them. Yes, the puzzles are expensive. Puzzlegal ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-dream-job/1020223/72 "2025-07-02T00:47:02Z")
Graphic Designer! If you’re a freelancer, you have a lot of freedom: pick the clients you want/fire the ones that are problems. It might drive an extrovert nuts, because most of the time, it’s just you and a sketchbook in a diner, then you and a laptop/iPad in a coffee shop (notice: no need for an office). And there’s no “Certification Process”: No way for someone to say “Hey, wait, you’re not a bona fide designer.” _BUT,_ I did pay my dues by a decade of working hard\* for someone else before striking out on my own. \*Though working late (and the occasional weekend) on a creative project was a blast! A fellow designer worked for a couple of ad agencies/design “boutiques”, and, when he struck out on his own, his clients said “Can we keep working with you?” ("Well, if you _insist…"_) 😉 Now, in his 60s (with a good 401k), he’s working 10-30 hrs /wk, and only for clients he cares about (mostly non-profits). ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-dream-job/1020223/73 "2025-07-02T00:51:20Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Like others have said I think any trade would be good. Stay away from roofing, though. The pay isn’t good enough for the brutality and danger. Be aware that many if not most of the trades wear your body out. Quite literally. Money is good but you pay a price. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-dream-job/1020223/74 "2025-07-02T03:54:27Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Be aware that many if not most of the trades wear your body out. Quite literally. Money is good but you pay a price. Indeed. The father of my grad-school roommate had spent his adult life doing flooring and carpeting work. At the time that we were roommates, his dad was in his late 40s or very early 50s; by that point, his knees were shot, and he had reached the point that he was struggling to do his job. ---
**Author:** ![longtry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/839c29/32.png) [@longtry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/longtry)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-dream-job/1020223/75 "2025-07-02T04:03:40Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > t takes both skill and talent to do that well, as you need both a clever idea and also an excellent technical implementation. I doubt anyone gets rich doing it, I believe some of the craftsmen make a living selling them. Seeing that karakuri is a Japan thing, perhaps it’d take dozens of years practicing to reach proper levels. I heard anecdotes that sushi makers aren’t allowed to even touch a fish in the 1st year(s). > [@digs](#): > > Graphic Designer! I remember somewhere just above in this thread, it’s been warned that GD is 1 of the careers threatened by AI. > [@Ulfreida](#): > > Be aware that many if not most of the trades wear your body out. Quite literally. Money is good but you pay a price. That’s my concern too. Purpose of point A is largely to protect my bodily & mental health. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-dream-job/1020223/76 "2025-07-02T13:19:31Z")
The best job I ever had, though it might not be flexible enough for you, was teaching at a Polytechnic (a tech school or a community college). I started part time (just one class a week), but eventually taught full time (4 classes a week). Though this might vary, there was no degree or certification needed (my work experience was good enough… the head of our department only had a 2-yr Associates Degree). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-dream-job/1020223.md?page=3)