Good book "Great Careers in 2 Years".....


title: "Great Careers in 2 Years- The Associate Degree Option"
by: Paul Phifer

I picked up a copy of this as a used book at a local sale. For starters, its quite good.

Quote in sidebar page 7:

"The Department of Labor predicts that almost two-thirds of the 18.6 million new jobs between 1996 and 2006 will require less education that a bachelor's degree." (look it up on Amazon.com).

Although I did not read the book cover to cover, I did read the paragraph on salary for each of the 100 described fields. While most showed entry level salaries in the $20K-25K/year range, at least 50% of the specializations showed that experience and the right environments led to
salaries of at least $50k/year. About a dozen fields mentioned that salaries could be as high as $100+K/year. Only about another dozen showed salaries never going beyond 20K-30K/year. These are all from two year programs. None of the fields involved crapwork (eg. coal mining) or jobs that some SRCers consider "dull/boring" (eg. truck driving), or what most SRCers might consider a job "beneath them" such as waitstaff in a restaurant (where, at high end restaurants, tips can add up to $50/hr) . Most involve indoor work that would be air conditioned in the summer and
heated in the winter and no hazardous or heavy physical work (otherwise, I have substantial background knowledge that if you want to get into physical work and maybe outdoors, work for yourself, hustle your own business, work out of your house, then there are a lot of building trade and handyman jobs that you can easily make $40-60/hour and I know this first hand from: i) doing the work, ii) paying others to do the work and knowing how much time they put in for the fee, iii) talking to people who give credible stories, iv) newspaper articles which cite data).

The book had, in the beginning section, a fairly good discussion of accreditation issues, issues to be sought out and studied befor making a decision, and some common mistakes young people make in sellecting programs and then finding out that they can't get jobs or the jobs they get pay poorly and they don't know why. The book gave references to sources of further information (such as professional societies, websites, govt references, etc) which would be good places to help narrow down one's choices.

The biggest drawbacks here, as it is with the vast majority of career advice I've seen, fall into two categories: i) an insufficient amount or nothing at all regarding the downsides of some of these jobs (all jobs/careers have downsides, but you should know what they are, and ii) how difficult is it to get any of these jobs (applicant to job ratio, what kinds of resumes [and grade records] lead to interviews [let alone job offers], and more specifically how does one get those higher paying jobs).
One other thing is that one should be looking at a two year institution to
see if they track their placement rates and how is that working over recent
years (see the Dean of Students? Placement Office? Talk to the actual teachers?).

Out of all of the 100 specializations I read about, I would also estimate
that only about a dozen were such pure "deskjobs" that they could be vulnerable to offshoring (a key problem in today's modern semi-technology job markets).

So, if 3D wants to brag about his ChE BS student getting $60K/year job offers (but what about the "C" students, what about the flunk outs and drop outs?), and a four year program that most guys are not going to be able to do, then I can point out some easier options for less time that will get the bills paid and you can "have a life" and maybe even be more immune to age-discrimination problems down the road. Who wants a Walmart job or a convenience store job paying $7-8/hour?



.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Outsourcing jeopardizes U.S. chemical industry, expert says
    ... It's like you have a template for a what a professor in ChE must be and therefore that must be how I think/feel. ... Now why would starting salaries for BS ChEs go up if there are "no jobs"? ... If there were an oversupply of students, like in IT, salaries would drop, just like they have in IT. ...
    (sci.research.careers)
  • A new report by HRINC Cambodia provides benchmarks for salaries and compensation to help employers n
    ... Salaries and benefits ... A new report by HRINC provides some welcome ... facts and figures on salaries and benefits in Cambodia. ... sectors and jobs pay the most. ...
    (soc.culture.cambodia)
  • Re: The Snot Report (What technology jobs in the US?)
    ... iTV to come out soon, and I'll bet Steve Jobs just dreamed up the specs and hands over to same guys that took care of the details on the iPod. ... While most showed entry level salaries in the $20K-25K/year range, at least 50% of the specializations showed that experience and the right environments led to ... Agricultural Equipment Technicians ...
    (sci.research.careers)
  • Re: Why Women Should Worry About Retirement More Than Men
    ... Women earn an average of 76 percent of men's salaries. ... Does that shock you? ... No, because most women prefer softer, easier jobs that, ... by Marty Nemko ...
    (soc.men)
  • Re: Let me simplify it for you...
    ... who spent many years working temps in data entry ... jobs, was amused at a couple of jobs that she got to handle the data ... with operators whose salaries had been frozen. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.fandom)