In another thread I started about how the field of Architecture is doing, which sucks, the field for lawyer’s was brought up as well and that sucks as well. I was curious if there is actually anything out there today that is doing well and that has jobs for people in it who want to pursue it. It just seems like every time you hear about the financial state of things it’s always bad news constantly.
Lawyers are having trouble finding jobs? That may be true in some places, but my niece who recently passed the bar in California had a job lined up 6 months in advance. I think the answer depends to a large extent where you are willing to live. Software engineers are doing pretty well in Silicon Valley, but in North Dakota not so much.
Skilled trades, welders, electricians, plumbers. There was a mantra a few years back that only 4 year degreed programs were worth pursuing. Leaves a shortage of the listed positions. Read an article over the weekend that the electrical linemen in Fla. fixing the hurricane damage made roughly $50/hr. One guy they interviewed planned on grossing $30k by the end of his one month duration. Albeit with 16 hour days 7 per.
Also every few days a suicide bomber position seems to open up.
Want to take care of old people? I’ve priced out construction projects for at least eight new senior facilities in the Chicago area this year so far.
Or take PoppaSan’s advice and learn how to build retirement facilities.
No, the field sucks. 
Here is a list of most promising fields for 2017. I have a job that is a combination of several of those listed (lead Systems Analyst in medical device manufacturing logistics) and I can confirm that we are booming. I need more people to help me but the only way to get them is to hire promising ones and then train them from scratch myself but it is hard to even find people willing to do that despite the high pay and generous benefits.
Hahaha
The OP was asking which fields to avoid.
Well, I said that the field isn’t easy and has its ups and downs, but that architecture is doing great in DFW. You made it sound like architecture was once a prestigious pay type of job and were disappointed to learn it’s no longer the case. I don’t think that was ever the case, except in movies, going by what much older colleagues have told me.
I’m not sure if this thread is one asking for advice or if you just wanted to discuss the topic in general. If it’s the former, can you give us more information to go on? What’s your education, location (and ability to relocate) and preferences? Knowing that architecture is great in DFW doesn’t help you a bit if you are 50 and unable to relocate.
From this thread and the last, it sounds like you want a job, any job, that has great pay and security. Neither of these will matter if it’s a job you truly can’t stand. I’m very sure that morticians make way more than architects, but it’s not a field most can handle.
Where do you live??
Seriously though, have you noticed any consistent reason why it’s hard to find people? On the job training in a high paying field seems pretty rare these days. Is it unusually stressful? Insane hours? Constant travel?
Information security (my field) is doing well. Penetration testing, incident response, forensics, compliance… most of those areas are looking for more warm bodies.
None of that. Quite the opposite. It is just in a secure manufacturing and distribution facility with lots of controls. It is just a foreign environment that most people aren’t used to. Most IT workers want office environments like Office Space for some reason. We don’t do that. I have to wear safety equipment even in my IT industrial job and I think it is awesome. It is like the white collar version of Dirty Jobs except I occasionally have to get dirty too. There just aren’t a lot of people that specialize in industrial IT, especially distribution and manufacturing.
The dirty little secret though is that it is easy once you know what you are doing (granted, that can take over a year even for an experienced person) but after that, it is mostly smooth sailing. I usually work less than 40 hours a week except during peak times and there are no rules about breaks, lunches or anything like that. If everything is working correctly, all you have to do is hang out in my office or walk around and talk to people about potential issues. The biggest problem I have is figuring out who can cover me during my 5+ weeks of vacation.
Most people in IT in the Boston area go for finance, pie in the sky startups or actual technology companies. There aren’t very many people that are willing to commute to an out of the way industrial facility to learn about manufacturing and logistics IT. I can imagine that Amazon has the same problem even though it is a thriving career field.
Depends on where you live, and what area of law you specialize in.
But most lawyers do mostly mundane work like wills, contracts, house sales, etc. That’s a big, and lucrative part of their income.
But automation has moved on from replacing unskilled labor jobs. Many white collar clerical jobs (really pink collar – they were mostly women) are already gone. When I was a child, my parents’ small business employed 2 secretaries, a bookkeeper & a file clerk – a similar business nowadays would have none of them. Now they are starting to automate many of these basic tasks that average lawyers do. That’s taking away a good share of their income. (I recently revised my will. Without a lawyer, just based on a previous will and some online work.) I can’t see that trend slowing, so long-term, the job market for lawyers will probably stagnate.
Similar for many professional level jobs.
Quicken/Quickbooks has put a dent in the starting-level accounting profession. TurboTax, etc. is affecting the tax-prep business. (A friend recently went through a lengthy training course for H&R Block. He said that it was clear to him after that training that their agents made their real money not from doing tax preparation, but from selling various financial products to the clients.) I’ve even seen tests of computerized medical diagnosis that is approaching the quality of that of specialist MDs.
But like Poppasans said, the basic trades seem to be still going strong. People are still doing remodeling/upgrades to their houses, landscaping their yards, etc. And much of this work is not very amenable to automation.
His title says that. His post says: " I was curious if there is actually anything out there today that is doing well and that has jobs for people in it who want to pursue it."
Well, the first industrial revolution was about augmenting (and replacing) muscle power, this second one is about augmenting (and replacing) brain power, the third… who knows. Personalities? Reality?
Anyway, the answer is sales. Learn to meet people, find out about them and their situations, and offer solutions. From bartending to insurance to industrial products to medicines to whatever, go into and learn sales. It’s a skill that can carry you until the day you die regardless of technological changes, will make you a lot of money, and once you master it, many of the skills are transferable across industries and products.
I know a man, sells medical products. 2 years ago, he became a quadriplegic. However, he is still able to maintain a 6-figure income because all he really does is talk to people and ask them to buy. He had to arrange things - hire a staff person to process the orders - but he’s still a million dollar producer despite the massive shift in his life. And all because he dedicated his time to learning how to call doctor’s on the phone, talk to them, and convince them that his brand of medical products was worth their investment.
I know this advice is anathema to the SDMB - people here hate salespersons as much as they hate Comcast technical support - but it’s worth considering.
As a Strategy Manager, I would agree with many of the professions on that list. Particularly the ones related to data or data analytics.
I write software for autonomous vehicle controls. The minimum qualifications are pretty tough, but we’re hiring like mad. I imagine this field will be a “growth industry” for quite a while.
Omg, I would LOVE that kind of job! My first programming job was for a computer chip assembly plant (prior to automation and offshoring). I would occasionally have to don a “bunny suit” to go into a clean room to talk to people and could wear a white lab jacket when cold without people snickering at me. At that time I was dating a guy who was a programmer for a food processing plant and occasionally got to walk through his plant with him. Manufacturing just fascinates the hell out of me.
But you say you’re in Boston? Bummer. You don’t happen to have another location in northern Virginia do you?
That’s what Mike Rowe Works is about - reminding people that there’s work out there for people willing to work. There’s a mindset that only a degreed position in a comfy office is the only one worth having. People who want to work with their hands, to actually *do *things seem to feel the need to apologize for it. I don’t get it.
I share an office with a rookie engineer. His dad is a pipefitter, and he seems to feel like he has to justify his dad’s career all the time. I certainly don’t look down on the man because of that - I’m glad there are still people who want to do such work. I’m willing to pay the folks who work on my car or clean my gutters or clean out my septic tank because I don’t want to or am not able to do those things. And they have no need to be embarrassed about their chosen paths. Frankly, people who look down on skilled workers should be ashamed of themselves.
Heck, even unskilled labor has its place. Why do you mock the person in the paper hat asking “Do you want fries with that?” Without that person, you wouldn’t be getting your fries, or your burger. Nobody needs a work snob.
excellent post and excellent example-though tough on the individual. 
The ability to sell is central to most people’s long-term income growth. At least in my experience. And selling ranges from calling up doctors (in the example above), to taking a large government contract and turning the promise into actual dollars. In other words, it covers the gamut. But it all includes the ability to understand and relate to others and to convince them that what you have is the best option for them. Anyone who can do that is always the income producer for the firm and the one person the firm can’t afford to mess with.
Of course that doesn’t always hold true-but in those cases the problem is the firm, not the employee, and is a real good clue that it is time to turn one’s experience into a raise at a new job. In that case feel sorry for the engineer sitting next to the salesman. She is putting up with the same BS and has a much harder time documenting her value to prospective employers.