What fields, when you ask the people who work in them, are the most and least likely to encourage their loved ones (kids, friends, etc) to go to work in those fields if that person asks? If you asked your dad who was an accountant for his advice on joining that field, what % would encourage you to do it vs what % would discourage it?
I knew a variety of nurses when I was in college, several of them had mothers who were nurses. The mothers tended to discourage their kids from following in their vocational footsteps when the daughters chose that career path. I’ve even heard physicians do not have a very high % who, when asked, would encourage their kids to pursue the same career.
There has to be some career(s) with high rates of encouragement among people who work in them.
Actuaries seem to be very good at promoting their profession to their children, family members, friends’ children, neighbours’ children etc.
I’ve been doing actuarial graduate interviews for a number of years and one question that I always ask the students each year is “why the actuarial profession”? I reckon about two-thirds say that they were encouraged by an actuary whom they know, or a friend knows, or their maths teacher knows etc. I’ve been asked on many occasions to “have a chat” with a student who’s considering an actuarial career.
I don’t have any cites to back this up, but I’ve heard actors (as well as other performers, like singers) are more likely to discourage their children from going into acting. However, once the child shows he/she is determined to try acting, the parent becomes extremely supportive.
I honestly can’t think of any careers that people have encouraged me to go into other than just for the money; mostly everyone I have met who has spent 10-20 years doing the same thing kind of want out.
My dad always encouraged me to to go into business, because being a professor was too much work and too little money.
I was a college prof and I’m glad my kids didn’t go into the business. Things have changed horribly out there. Very few tenure track positions, a lot of part-timers paid really crappy salaries with no benefits, etc.
Colleges leveraged the myth that all profs make 6 figure salaries into a system where many now don’t even qualify as middle class.
Now, going into college admin- that’s the easiest way to get the big bucks.
Trying to land my first job in the architecture field I got plenty of people in the field telling me to stay away. Lines like “Do you live with your parents? Hope you like it cause you’ll be living there a long time.” “You want to be an architect? Good heavens why?”
I never did break into the field but know more than a handful that did and then eventually got out of it because it sucked the life out of them.
My specific experience was with playing the tuba. There are about ten jobs in the US for tuba players, meaning full-time jobs where practicing to keep your skills up combined with rehearsing & performing with whatever symphony you’re in is a full-time job. Any other tuba player in the country is probably working well over 100 hours a week, just to make ends meet: playing with the local symphony, playing in smaller groups, teaching private students, teaching at a local university…
This is something my teacher told me at my first lesson. I really wish I had paid more attention to what he meant: all ten of those jobs were held by guys in their 30’s and 40’s, which meant there wouldn’t be more than one or two jobs opening up within the first few decades after I graduated from college.
I would guess that trades would have the highest % of encouragement. Plumbers, electricians etc. They make a good living and it’s not such a bad life either.
Dear god no. I have worked in the trades, so have some members of my family, my girlfriend is a welder. Unless they are people who work in trades means they are an owner or the son of an owner, they are by far the most likely to discourage people. It is very unusual for anyone I know in the trees to do anything other than encourage and save so that their kids can have a higher education level.
There is the rare exception, but this might account for less than 10% of skilled trade jobs. Getting these positions are more a matter of luck, planning and knowing someone than anything else.
Nope, crack whore trainee is still the least desirable job. My assumption is a lot of the professional class jobs (professor, businessman, lawyer, scientist, etc) have become oversaturated and now they are pretty shitty professions unless you like low pay, no benefits, few openings, long hours, etc.
But I’m sure there have to be some jobs where people would encourage their kids to join.
I am a 3rd generation Tool & diemaker. I never planned to go into it, I just followed the course of least resistance. I liked it, was good at it, but I wouldn’t do it again, nor advise a young person to go into it. Manufacturing is a dirty, gritty business, long hours, nasty matierals, and generally low pay. Employers will pay you as little as they possibly can, and if your job can be exported to a lower labor region or country, you are screwed. The world labor market is like a cold, dead hand on manufacturing pay scales. My family was proud that I went into the trade, but now we all see it as a failure. I wa fortunate that I worked in a union shop, made good money, got a pension, but new workers get little more than minimum wage, and pensions are history.
I’ve been told by several people (of miscellaneous backgrounds) that my strengths and attitudes indicate that I should consider becoming a public school teacher (grade school or high school, not university teaching). A relative of mine who actually is a teacher gave me their short opinion - hell no, not because of anything I am or am not but because the work is terrible! Outrageous performance expectations, mediocre pay, and insane workplace politics that mostly consist of kissing principal and school board ass whenever it comes your way. Also very little actual teaching takes place - the biggest parts of the job are handling disciplinary matters and filling out compliance paperwork. Any other teachers agree, or is this more an opinion out of a dysfunctional district?