While researching career options, I've come to the conclusion that most people believe their industry is in the decline. Accountants, nurses, actuaries, programmers, ESL teachers, oil riggers and Australian backpackers agree that jobs are scarce and their market is flooded with new labor. Pretty much no one thinks that their industry is doing well and now is a good time to enter the job market. This is true even when I look at old forums that pre-date the recession.
I will now heavily discount these complaints when I'm researching whether a career is worth pursuing. Instead, I will seek objective information about entry-level pay and typical qualifications needed to start.
I do hear social workers complain about this, despite the fact that our field is growing. I try to base my idea of growth/decline in a field on the Bureau of Labor Statistics rather than people currently in a field (especially unemployed ones, who are the most likely to be writing about such things online). Plus a general metric than anything that caters to old people will be a good bet for the next few decades.
This is the public group instrumental rationality diary for the week of August 20th. It's a place to record and chat about it if you have done, or are actively doing, things like:
Or anything else interesting which you want to share, so that other people can think about it, and perhaps be inspired to take action themselves. Try to include enough details so that everyone can use each other's experiences to learn about what tends to work out, and what doesn't tend to work out.
Thanks to everyone who contributes!
Last week's diary; archive of prior diaries.