What will you be when you grow up?
 

Oprano is typically a more mature audience, so most of us have already laid our tracks and will ride them out.

But I was thinking the other day what it must be like to be a kid just graduating high school and trying to figure out what to do with your life. College or not, what's out there for a young man or lady?

Information Technology and all things related to it? There will always be jobs for people who know how to solve business problems with technology. But the bulk of the jobs such as coders, QA, even SAs and DBAs are in serious danger of offshoring.

Healthcare? Same deal, if you wanna dedicate a dozen years or so of your life and have the dedication and smarts to be a doctor, there'll always be money here. But walk around a doctors office or hospital and notice who the techs, RNs, etc are. Few are born on American soil.

Franchising? Again hard to compete with an arab or indian immigrant who is willing to work 70-80 hours a week to make $60-80K. And to make that level off one store, they employee their whole family. typical American doesn't wanna work that hard.

Basic labor such as textiles, manufacturing, etc, again headed offshore.

Customer service? Tech support? Help Desks? all great entry level positions, all also headed to India.

There are lots of white collar jobs still around, but not everyone is cut out for that.

Small business and entrepeneural endeavors have been the haven, but jobs are about to be lost to taxes there.

Re: What will you be when you grow up?
 

My housemates youngest daughter has been struggling with that very thing. She's in her second year at a community college, currently taking General Studies. She finally decided she wants to be a pharmacist, so has taken the steps to take some more directed courses the rest of this year and enrole in a university next year.

I'm glad I had to make those choices 30 years ago and not today.

Re: What will you be when you grow up?
 

My 3 year old told me yesterday she wanted to be a kangaroo when she grows up ... sounds like a good choice to me.

Re: What will you be when you grow up?
 

My daughter (26) Is currently in school for cosmetology.

My son (13) wants to be either a chef, or a massage therapist.

My daughter (12) wants to be a Vet...or be in some field relating to animals.

If I ever grow up, I want to be a Dominatrix :1DBH:

Re: What will you be when you grow up?
 

When I grow up I'm gonna be a Rock and Roll Star








.

Re: What will you be when you grow up?
 

I just started back into two more years of college. Going through the Computer Network Tech program at my local tech school. One of my daughters is into Nursing at ASU.

Re: What will you be when you grow up?
 

Been back to school a couple of times, currently taking classes to learn chinese (mandarin), last time was photoshop and other similar things.

I grew up in an era around these parts where you went to school, graduated high school or whatever, and got a J-O-B. Some of the people I went to school with are not on their 25th year at the same place, just to give you an idea. Things are shifting, and I can tell you that the current crop of students spend much longer in school and have much less of a clue as to what they want to do.

One thing for sure: They are learning plenty of things that won't be useful when they get that $10 an hour job as a telemarketer.

Re: What will you be when you grow up?
 

It's always good to stretch yourself every now and then. Last time for me was a Management/Accounting degree. It was totally for myself, not because I had some urge to do someone elses books every day (snore city!)

Chinese, that sounds fun actually. Spanish is on my list.

Re: What will you be when you grow up?
 

Be a college professor in something like chemistry. I have a couple of professor friends and they get laid like rock stars, never have to worry about a pay cheque...they have tenure....and they make a good living and every now and then they get a year off with full pay.

Re: What will you be when you grow up?
 

If you are interested in learning chinese, consider http://www.greatwallchinese.cn - this is a standard course taught all around the world for Mandarin, writing in simplified (relative term, trust me) chinese.

Re: What will you be when you grow up?
 

I know an easier way. Ride public transportation in Vancouver.

Re: What will you be when you grow up?
 

Nahh, that just teaches you bad pidgin cantonese, useless anywhere else besides Vancouver and parts of Hong Kong. Even my cantonese friends tell me not to bother ;)

Re: What will you be when you grow up?
 

Forget about all that macho shit and learn how to play a guitar!

Re: What will you be when you grow up?
 

The other thing that is changing is longevity of a job. My dad and grandfather both worked 35+ years at one company (not same company).

Now you do well to find a company that can exist 35 years...hell, a 10 year run without a change in ownership is a long time in tech.

Meanwhile most of the resumes you see from a guy with 10 years of experience will have at least 5 jobs on it. 5 years at one company makes you a real veteran.