

There is No Such Thing as a “Safe” Career (2011) - wulfgarpro
http://www.freedomtwentyfive.com/2011/01/why-im-leaving/

======
jpatokal
_The fundamental problem with a career in law is that you aren’t doing
anything of value for society._

I stopped reading there. Sure, there are scumbag lawyers out there, but
telling eg. the EFF or Creative Commons, not to mention your average underpaid
and overworked public defender, that they "aren't doing anything of value for
society" is a bit rich.

~~~
eli
Not to mention prosecuting Bad Guys who are totally guilty or suing people who
totally deserve it.

~~~
jval
Not to mention providing good commercial advice to help people manage
relationships with co-workers, investors, clients etc etc...

I can't believe there are people out there who with confidence can declare
that 1 million Americans are doing something that adds zero value to society.

------
TamDenholm
This is one of the continual discussions i have with my grandmother, who
worked a total of 2 jobs in her entire life, where as i, as a web developer
contractor/freelancer, can have as many as 20 "jobs" in a year. She worries
about my job security, even though i earn a ridiculous amount of money vs what
i _need_ to live, i save some, spend some and invest some.

I get hired ridiculously easy, its just unfair. Granted the odds stacked in my
favour immensely. I'm young, i travel anywhere within the UK for work and can
be on site with 24hrs notice, i have no dependents (other than my employees,
but my businesses independently cover their wages), my living expenses are
about 10% of my earnings, I live in a low cost city but work in a high income
city, I'm highly skilled (by the industry average, not by my standard) and my
industry is drastically under served by skilled workers.

Job security no longer means getting hired by a big company and staying there
for 30+ years, today, it means how easily you can get hired. Some of these
things you can influence, like skill, or choose, like flexibility on location
and times, and some are things outwith your control but can still be
exploited, like market demand.

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bmmayer1
"Ladies, there’s always the pole."

That was reductive and unnecessary. Otherwise a good piece.

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domdip
In the case of law, this is actually way too optimistic - an A-list school in
no way guarantees you'll "do all right for yourself" anymore. Horror studies
abound of even graduates of the top-5 finding themselves with loads of debt
and nothing but very low-paying jobs.

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stephenaturner
On the one hand, the headline is quite true, but the story is filled with
bigoted, idiotic stereotypes and ridiculous generalisations, written by
someone who clearly has an axe to grind and little sense to offer anyone.
Lame.

------
resu
Reading some of the other articles on this blog, this guy needs to realize
he's not a unique snowflake and has no business giving 'life advice' to
others.

e.g. [http://www.freedomtwentyfive.com/2013/03/where-does-it-
end/](http://www.freedomtwentyfive.com/2013/03/where-does-it-end/)

~~~
nutball
Guy's a far right 'neoreactionary.' Fuck him.

------
pnathan
The big differentiator in careers that I see time and again is hustle. I
rarely see people with hustle out of a job.

This is the mindset that ensures you will always have a job:

[http://slyoyster.com/music/2010/50-cent-will-shovel-your-
sno...](http://slyoyster.com/music/2010/50-cent-will-shovel-your-snowy-
sidewalk/)

If I lost my job, I would start selling my skills & abilities the next day,
working side jobs, whatever. Gotta hustle to make the ends meet.

You have to take a message to Garcia.

------
eli_gottlieb
Ok, so _what the fuck am I supposed to do?_

I'm 24, and I'm a CS grad student. I want to do research, or at least
research&development. I can code plenty well; hell, I'm typing from the end of
the workday at my sweet internship right now.

But if you're going to tell me that even tech will leave me broke and unable
to support a family at 35, what... what anything? Why anything?

Why pretend I have career aspirations if anything I can think of ends in being
broke and useless at 35? Why pretend I give half a damn about any of the work
I do if I can't ever rely on even a reasonably stable lifestyle, if everything
is just moonshot after moonshot before the unemployment line?

It's one thing when I hear that I'll probably never have a flying car or pet
robot [1]. It's another thing when I hear that I can't expect to ever have a
family or make it to retirement without plunging into poverty, _and I 'm part
of the privileged elite._

 _What. The. Fuck?_

PS -- I apologize for the obvious emotion in this post, but it's a worry I've
been carrying for a couple of years now.

[1] -
[http://thebaffler.com/past/of_flying_cars](http://thebaffler.com/past/of_flying_cars)

~~~
lolwutf
There's always management. That's my plan when I'm in my 40s/50s/tired of
coding age, at least.

Otherwise, don't worry about it, because there's lots of people out there
right now jumping around companies from year-to-year, doing that thing. It's
the norm for an industry, right now.

There _will_ be some conventional wisdom you can glean from colleagues, The
Market, and your own heart/personal development, when the comes time for that.

You're young. You don't need _all_ of the answers now, nor should you try to
come up with them which would inevitably cause you madness.

Plus, there will always be the Googles/Apples/Microsofts, etc of the world.
When you're ready for stability, move towards that pack.

~~~
sliverstorm
_There 's always management_

This is my plan. Good management of technical assets is (in my eyes)
absolutely essential to actually achieving anything noteworthy, so as an
experienced, storied old guy you can still provide value. Maybe even more
value than before.

