Fiat Lux

It's been years since I regularly read the Village Voice, but there's a recent article that makes a point I've been saying for some time now. In looking at the last few years of my career, I've had to say, "I guessed wrong when I chose a career doing technology marketing. I thought the sector wouldn't fall as hard as it did, or even if it did fall, I had enough connections and a good enough resume to keep employed." I guessed wrong and paid the price. And now the Voice is looking at this same issue:

Choosing a career path is a high-stakes gamble on where the jobs are likely to be two or four years down the road. Guess wrong and you could end up at a dead-end retail or fast-food job, slowly climbing out of a deep, dank hole of debt. Guess right, and you'll enter a job market that offers less security than ever.

I'm older than the people the author highlights as examples, but he has profiled my life too, down to the choices I made when my career crumbled and I needed to take a job - any job - to keep it together. I try hard not to wallow in self-pity over what happened. I certainly don't think the world owes me a career. But it's damn hard to build a life when the career choices you make go so swiftly from right to wrong.

Here's a look at the future:

May marked the nation's third straight month of job growth, but the long-range view is mixed. For the best handicapping, you want the job market equivalent of a Las Vegas line-maker, the Bureau of Labor Statistics in Washington, D.C. Every couple of years officials there release the mother of all occupational outlooks, the 10-year employment projections. The most recent one, published in February, projected 21.3 million net new jobs through 2012. Construction jobs should keep growing (expect to see a million more by 2012). The strongest service-sector bets are in education, health care, and state and local government. The single best choice may be to join the ranks of registered nurses (623,000 new jobs).

But here's the depressing news: Of the top 10 occupations with the rosiest projections, seven are by and large poorly paid McJobs: retail (596,000 new jobs by 2012), customer service (460,000), food preparation (454,000), cashiers (454,000), janitors (414,000), waiters and waitresses (367,000), and nursing aides (343,000). And the BLS admits its numbers don't distinguish between full-time jobs with benefits and part-time or temp work. In other words, there will be plenty of jobs, but far fewer careers.

I have been giving a lot of thought recently to going back to school and finally getting a Master's degree. According to this, I should be looking at nursing school if I want some career stability and even then, who knows what will happen 5 years from now.

My Depression-era grandparents would probably tell me that work is not meant to be something you like, so go to nursing school. But I have no interest whatsoever in doing it. Perhaps I'm like one of the out of work buggy whip makers who were unable to let go of the career they used to have - except that technology and marketing are neither of them going away. Hence my thought that what I really need is an MBA. Of course, getting one would mean even more debt and more time off the job market. A scary thought given our financial situation. But is staying still even an option anymore?

Tip of the hat to Whoviating for the link.