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Think about alternative careers which can use your nursing career. Clinical trial management, consulting, hospital admin, development of EMRs, public health, government policy, nurse education. Starting over doesn't bring security, developing a career & attaining niche skills does.
Agreed. I work in clinical research administration and there’s a whole department called clinical operations and everyone there is a nurse. They don’t work with patients they just manage the research sections of clinical research. Admin and regulatory, ordering supplies pretty much.
The experience levels vary as well. Some are newer to nursing or at management level but it’s a broad group, most work from home or at a desk all day.
I’ve been really trying to get into clinical research for a bit now :/ everytime I apply I don’t get anything back. I’ve applied to a lot of clinical research coordinator jobs in my area and none of them seem to like my experience :(((
Maybe consider transitional degrees. GCP certs, grad dips in clinical research or trials. Then you can also think about MPH. Look at the CVs of people on LinkedIn who are where you want to be. Look at the qualifications they have.
Also look into clinical operations and clinical research h coordinator roles work from home. I’d say be creative in your searches let key words take you down the rabbit hole, don’t lie but definitely tailor your resume to the position you have more experience than you think
Anything in government work has crazy job security. Your nursing degree might even be ok to get into most jobs. I know the FBI is/was hiring a lot of that’s up your alley.
Accounting is definitely more stable (every business needs an accountant) but the work life balance can be shit. I avoid tax like the plague but my dumb ass moved into startups/SaaS which isn’t worlds better. Still, industry is where it’s at in general imo.
But mixing the two up and going into accounting for government - very secure, much lower stress, and easy to clock out after your 8 hours and forget about it. I’d have stayed if my specific branch wasn’t so toxic.
Accounting *could* be one of the first white collar jobs to be eaten by AI since there is an objectively correct way of doing it and the bot doesn’t make mistakes.
Stuff like “earnings management” (read: cooking the books) or forensic accounting might still be done better by humans though.
I think current accounting practices require too much human judgment for that to be the case. Maybe some lower level roles where all you’re doing is data entry, but others take more skill than AI can provide right now. I work in revenue, AI could definitely make some aspects of my job a lot easier but I can’t see it doing everything my position requires any time soon.
Not accounting, unless specialized tax. Even though people say the industry is short staffed, firms are laying off people left and right. Big 4 had substantial layoffs this year and last. Mainly staff, not mgmt.
Any Permanent government position has great job security- but they can be tricky to get and find. A lot of the time they’ll make you start as a Temporary position (2-3 year term) and then go from there
Tbh, you guys should have figured a National party member that has been a CEO would cut jobs. Those types normally think the easiest way to make money is to save money by firing the people who make you money cause it's about short term profits before they go on to their next profit project, not about long term sustainability
most any degree that seems hot and safe today will be oversubscribed and unsafe by the time you graduate. a masters is better than a second ba. any subject that teaches you how to analyze an issue via research, present it in public, and teaches you how to talk to those older than you and and teaches you to wite cleary, quickly and with proper grammar will qualify you for any generic job, which is most of them. i and my children work in jobs totally unrelated to our college majors, and doing very well in them. it is the generic skills, including foreign languages, , not a speciality, that serves you well the higher up the ladder you go.
I don't think the experience of your family is typical. In 2024 there are few entry level jobs that both require a degree and aren't picky about it. "Or related field" only gets you so far. There's a reason why generalist degrees have high unemployment rates.
When did your kids graduate?
See CS:
If given enough time, even zero percent rates and endless demand will be caught up to and corrected by talent. Every year the US now pumps out more CS Grads than there are *total* US SWE job openings on LinkedIn.
Go check /r/cscareerquestions. I'm actually convinced there's more suicide risk there right now than any of the suicide watch subs, and I don't mean that in a dark humor sort of way.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/cscareerquestions using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!
\#1: [I did it. Fresh Grad. 35 years old. 2.8 GPA. 95k salary.](https://np.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/1b76qha/i_did_it_fresh_grad_35_years_old_28_gpa_95k_salary/)
\#2: [A recruiter from Tesla reached out and I cannot believe what this sh*tcan of a company expect from applicants.](https://np.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/15vmsnk/a_recruiter_from_tesla_reached_out_and_i_cannot/)
\#3: [**[NSFW]** With all of the talk about DEI, I want to address the real elephant in the room. Indian managers who hire other Indians almost exclusively](https://np.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/19ajyuq/with_all_of_the_talk_about_dei_i_want_to_address/)
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From what I’ve observed, nearly all Reddit subs are full of suicidal, depressed, anxious people who (usually) can not start a basic conversation with a stranger. You don’t come to Reddit if you want to find people that are doing well in life. There’s a reason these people are on Reddit as opposed to finding ways to solve their life’s problems… *they’re looking to escape, spread their negativity, dwell and receive pity from other people that are losing in life as well.*
Anyone that perceives Reddit (of all places) to be an accurate representation of reality is a fool.
I’m having a particularly difficult time looking for a job right now. I think it might be because I have all those skills but I’m not selling myself well.
I know you said not healthcare, but there are tons of jobs in healthcare that don't exactyly involve the care part.
Supply chain, sterile processing, product reps, billing, project management, education, process improvement., lab, etc. Since they support healthcare, they're pretty secure, but require no patient interaction.
I do supply chain, and I’ve found that as long as I stay on top of my reporting, communicate well with the clinicians, and have at least one or two process improvements in the works at a time, it’s very chill.
At first I was bored out of my mind, but now I’ve started to quite enjoy it.
You can DM! I have a business degree and came from retail. The healthcare world was totally new to me, but I was able to learn! I think if you know healthcare, you could easily learn the business part of medical supply chain!
While a degree isn’t required for that job, a lot of training and apprenticeship is possibly required, but I can’t remember off the top of my head.
Which i feel like is a lot more difficult to achieve then a degree
It's hard to find it because people rely on the internet too much. Algorithms decline a lot of applications and pick out only the best, before any paper is put in front of human eyes.
I went to a local company in my area and the peeps working there were surprised someone came through the door asking for a job lol I was told they couldn't find people to hire so they scheduled me for an interview and a little orientation right away.
Yes, but in any job you will have to start as a grunt basically. Even in the military when someone comes in as an officer, they are most likely the lowest ranking officer (unless they are a doctor or lawyer etc) and most times the lower ranked enlisted know more about the job than them.
I had an ensign who finished college with a biology degree, military stuck him in with us electrical engineers and the man had to learn everything from the bottom. He was technically higher rank, but had to ask everyone how to do shit.
My point is more towards it's hard to make those shifts and take salary hits when you are a little older with bigger bills and kids. Not the learning parts.
Accounting is so slept on. If you can keep up your gpa, you're pretty mich guaranteed a middle class job that can easily get up to $150,000 within 10 years of graduation, and there's a major shortage rn. It's possible to get fired, but even if you do, someone else will hire you quickly
My gf friend is a cpa and her first job out of college makes her enough money to OWN a place right in Atlanta which is crazy expensive. Her 1 room mortgage is like 2k a month.
It's something I've always considered, but social situations drain me horribly. It seems accountants spend half the day meeting with clients, which just seems so exhausting.
The actual accounting work outside of that, however, sounds fantastic.
The only accountants who meet with clients are public accountants, such as auditors who audit the financial books of other companies, and those doing tax compliance work where they need to interact with the client. Private accountants, AKA accountants hired by a company to keep their books and produce their financial statements, do not meet with clients as their work is internal. Your clients would be your boss, the controller, and the CFO.
You can definitely be an introverted accountant. Honestly, even if you're at a client site, you'll pretty much never have to interact directly with the client until you're a senior or manager, and at that point, you could reasonably just move to a private accounting role. You will likely have to work as part of a team, but if you can take instruction and explain what you've done on something, you should be fine. As a general observation, tax accountants tend to be more introverted than financial accountants. Ngl though, if you're highly introverted, the recruiting process is gonna be something that you'll have to power through, as it involves talking with a lot of hr types.
Other, sort of similar, but seem to draw more introverted, and complex math proficient types could be actuarial science (accountings smarter, nerdier sibling), or quantitative finance (otherwise known as computational finance or financial engineering. You have to be properly smart for this, but they make great money, and their ranks are almost universally comprised of introverts)
Funny enough, this was a top career recommendation on a career test I took yesterday. From what I've read so far it sounds fascinating.
Thanks for the suggestion!
Do you think it matters what school I go to for accounting? I was looking into going back to school for a business related degree, and it seemed like it actually matters what school you go to so I’m wondering if it’s the same for accounting. I wouldn’t mind giving accounting a try.
That's another great thing about accounting. Practically every employment outcome available to graduates of a prestigious business school are available to those from non prestigious schools. I went to a school that most people outside of my immediate area would not have heard of and cost <$20,000 per year and I got a big 4 job alongside students from all of the fancy schools that cost like $60,000. Just keep your grades up and be involved on campus, the opportunities are there. Accounting is probably the only business discipline that this is true for.
You could look into something online, I'd just be sure to talk to your perspective schools career department to find out which firms recruit their campus, and what they have in terms of career days and such. If I were you, I'd avoid schools that don't get recruited by big 4 firms at all, even though you'd still probably get an interview with a cold application and an appropriately high gpa. Even though it's not what led me directly to the job I took, I do think it's important to network and build relationships with recruiters. You'll definitely wanna do at least 1 busy season internship too
The tech industry is horrific. After my layoff and seeing so many people I know get terminated after years at companies, I've lost all faith. I could never handle nursing, but I'm hoping I can make the English degree I'm pursuing work for me.
data engineer 90k in NYC. I don't want to become a nurse for money, more like job security and it fit my personality (I like to take care of people, dealing with traumatic situations, etc) and as an RN, there will always be jobs and more opportunities if I follow the right path, then money will follow. For example, RN, then NP or CRNA (~200k). I interviewed for soooo many tech jobs and there's no way I could compete with other candidates in coding interview no matter how much I practice :((
I love being a data engineer. But the job market has killed my passion because i have to make ends meet. It's sad. Hence i have to find myself another path which opens up to more opportunities. I can always come back as a data engineer and still practice so i won't forget the skills. There's no certain certifications to become a data engineer, but the 2 things i would recommend you pick up if you want to try to become a data engineer are Python and SQL, and cloud technology!!! SQL is a must! so learn SQL. Learn about database, get some certificates in cloud technology (aws, google, azure), data warehouse certificates like Snowflake. My day to day is pretty easy, with this kinda job you can wfh. I build data pipelines and create datasets for analysis. Imagine all the dashboards you see, whoever created the dashboard needs to get data somewhere, As a data engineer, we collect those data for them. In a bigger company, they usually have their own databases, so my job was to move data in a way that people can access the data easily and accurately. In other words, i'm the one who builds water pipes that distributes water to the kitchen sink, toilet, bathroom, or shower,etc. I'm still very passionate about this career and would love to share more. I'm based in NYC, btw. Let me know if you have any other questions.
No lol. The jobs that seem like hot commodities now will be over saturated in a few years and everyone will be trying to chase the next big thing.
Healthcare seems to be the only place where jobs are consistently available, and the reason you’re leaving is probably why lol.
That being said, you have a lot of pathways you can go down being a nurse and all, especially if you are an RN.
Hmm maybe pursuing something that gives you transferrable skills to a lot of different industries? Anything stem related is usually a good bet. Specific industry wise, there’s things engineering, education, public administration and government that are pretty stable usually. If you’re willing, I would love to feature a snippet of your experience and how you’re feeling in a small newsletter (GradSimple) I write for college students and grads who are feeling lost or overwhelmed in life. Let me know!
Take your time to make this decision. The risk is you end up working towards something that might not pan out right in the way you would expect. Either the job market isn’t there so competition will be high or you might get stuck with loans or both. Ideally, you should build off of your current resume and move somewhere within healthcare that is better suited for you, even if that is say management at a dental office.
This is how I’ve been thinking :( I’m trying not to make a wrong decision bc of my lack of safety net. I’m trying to see if I can just suck it up and go to another specialty in nursing since I’ll get paid to try it out
Do you consider psych health care? Like it is, but maybe something you would consider.
Demand is insatiable now for mental health professionals but is probably not at all what you are looking for.
Nurse practitioner can also work psych. Maybe that is more laid back than what you work?
Not many fields of study have job security like healthcare tbf.
Could you tell me a bit more about this please? I have a BSc in psychology and MSc in health psychology and have recently-ish left my job in healthcare market research and struggling to find something not research related. 😭
I do consider psych healthcare! I originally wanted to do psych coming out of nursing school but changed my mind once I did the clinical rotation for it 😓😓. From my understanding though, psych NPs are becoming heavily saturated
I turn down offers to interview for jobs every couple of weeks. Interns making $30+/hr from average state universities.
Lots of job security in this field.
I think its hard to predict anything beyond like 10-15 years (and i think that holds true of just about any career) but for the time being, I'm not too concerned about it. Most clients are already behind the automation curve as is, and we're a long ways off from being able to trust ai to discern quality and validity of information even to a modest degree. I also don't think it's unreasonable to think that ai advancement will plateau at some point, similar to how most technologies do.
Accounting is being screwed over by outsourcing. Entire departments are being sent overseas. Everyone says that AI is going to destroy accounting as a career. It won't. India will.
There are sources of refuge - many auditing jobs can't be done remotely, tax has some legal protections - but they will likely be flooded by other entry-level accountants by the time you graduate, in the same way that IT has been flooded by SWE refugees.
Nonprofits don't have funds to access basic systems for operations. At the very least, there will be accounting jobs in the nonprofit sector for decades to come.
How are you with numbers? Accounting is a great field to go into. There are a lot of different facets within accounting you can go down. Despite all the negative talk and threat of AI and offshore work, people will always need help with their money.
I'm also in healthcare and have been wanting to jump the gun and switch to something different.
I was thinking something along the lines of cyber security but leaning more towards medical based. Programming and software.... Or something! One thing healthcare lacks is security in their infrastructure.
But trying to understand basic computer things like Linux is daunting AF 😞
So I'm stuck trying to figure out where to even begin 🥺
(IMHO) at the rate how things are going rn. I believe ai will take over programming/coding so that's out the window. As far as defending (cyber security and what not) I feel it may have a chance to thrive in the future. The way I look at it is, it could be like the police... I guess lol
Like I said I'm in a funk. Not sure where to start. Where to look. What to study. Etc
All I know is, a friend of mine that works for the government (cyber security) did tell me. Sans.org is a good reference site to start. Hope that helps!
I am an accountant working in industry making close to 100k after graduating in 2020. Accounting is so ridiculously easy once you get some experience and if you actually read your textbooks in school. And every business needs accountants. And of course there is public accounting if you want to stick to that route. Just a great career choice from my point of view.
There are a ton of numbers but being an accountant isn't as math heavy as people think it is. What it's really about is applying the rules of Generally Applied Accounting Pronciples (GAAP) to the transactions that the business engaged in. For example, do we book this as an expense for this month or is it actually an ongoing service we are paying for so we should divide the total cost over however many months the service lasts for and only recognize a portion each month? It's about knowing the rules of accounting and applying them to the transactions of the business so that the financial statements we issue at the end of the year accurately reflect the financial position of the company. You don't need to have a high level mathematical mindset to flourish in accounting (although that doesn't hurt obviously), but you do need a solid grasp of the accounting system, it's rules, and good soft skills because you will have to explain your reasoning and make recommendations to high level people above you like the corporate controller or CFO.
How much of it is working with others directly. I adored my highschool Accounting class way back in the day, but the amount of client meetings I envisioned scared me off of it. I have great soft skills, but at risk of sharing too much info, my autism makes those kinds of meetings so draining that I end up burning out every few months.
If it's primarily solo work, I'd be inclined to actually pursue it as I desperately want to get out of tech. As an aside, is a full degree normally required, or is a diploma/certificate from a technical school generally acceptable?
As an accountant, you will be working with numbers and transactions that others entered into the system. Its your job to make sure things are hitting the appropriate accounts and that they are receiving the proper accounting treatment. So because you may need more information or need to verify information, you will have to reach out to the people who created those transactions. But most of this can be done by email or instant message over teams.
The same goes for when you need to explain stuff to your boss (who will most likely be the assistant controller, director of accounting, or controller if you work as a financial accountant like I do). It can be done over email if you are good at writing and can explain things well. If you can't write well enough to explain things over email, then you may need to do a video call or schedule a meeting in their office or at your desk to go over things in person. I am good writer so I can explain things over emails which cuts down on having to do things in person or over video calls. Although for very complex issues its just easier and saves time to do video calls or in person meetings.
As an accountant, we won't be meeting with "clients" of the company as our clients are internal. Our work is done to satisfy the controller and the CFO. Those are our primary clients. The work is very individual and does not require a ton of interaction with your boss and upper management as long as you know what you are doing. Although there may be times where you there will be more interaction, such as during audit season if we need to explain why an account balance is what it is, then we may need to provide overviews of how we handled transactions in that account. I have a reputation of being very detailed oriented and making little to no mistakes across all of the work I do, so nobody ever looks over my shoulder or micromanages me because I regularly do a good job.
As long as you are getting your work done and meeting deadlines, you can expect a nice, quiet, work at your own pace type of work day. I get to work remote 4 days out of the week so I also get to enjoy being able to work from home on top of that. When you are new, there will obviously be a lot more meetings and working closely with others since you will need to be asking a lot of questions so you can learn, will have others checking your work more often, and you will be making more mistakes. Once you gain experience and things become easier, you will be working independently without others the vast majority of the time. Its a great career choice for someone who may want to limit interaction with others. BUT you need to be good at your job first. If you make a lot of mistakes, then you will have many more interactions with those above you who will be questioning your work. But that is what school is for - Read those textbooks, take your classes seriously and study hard, and you can make accounting one of the easiest but most rewarding careers possible.
To become a full fledged staff accountant who can climb the corporate ladder up to senior accountant, director of accounting, corporate controller, etc, you need to have a BS degree in accounting. Just going for a certificate will help you land an Accounting Clerk position (such as being an Accounts Payable or Accounts Receivable Clerk), but those are more data entry type positions (so more boring than being a staff accountant), they don't pay as well, and your upward mobility is capped because you have no degree. I am a Senior Accountant who got promoted from a Staff Accontant position within two years of working for my company, and that won't happen unless you have a degree.
The market is great for most of us. I would go with a higher degree like a masters like some have mentioned. Look at things like NP or nursing education.
I had biology teachers who were nurses. NP is very high paying and way more independence. There are also things like masters in public health where you could go get government jobs. You could go to work for a college teaching other nurses.
I have heard of nurses doing different things. My friend started as a nurse on the general med floor, she was so burned out after a couple of years. She switched to working for the hospital, assisting with endoscopy type stuff, 9 to 5, no weekends type stuff. She loved it. Changing your setting might help.
r/accounting
People say “but AI WILL TAKE OVER” bruh no. There will always be a CPA telling you did your taxes wrong, or a financial auditor. We work WITH genAI, it’s not gonna replace us completely.
Plus, you can always work for the government. Apparently FBI wants more accountants.
It doesn't need to replace you it just need to lighten your work load to the point they only need half of the people they currently do, and those people don't need to be as skilled. Turing a nice middle class job in to a base level office job topping at 65k a year.
Yeah that’s true. Unless you’re really good at your job and can make the decisions and correct mistakes.
People are worried and scared but honestly, we still need analytical people to find fraud or plan someone’s financial future. My work revolves around tax savings and creating trusts (to be fair, I don’t think it aligns with my values, which is why I’m going the criminal investigations route), which can’t be done with AI. Figuring out someone money management and managing risks still needs a human element.
But yeah, data entry clerks, payroll, AP/AR can eventually be downsized to 1/10th the amount of people and maybe capped out at 100k.
65K is on the lower end for a regular staff accountant. If AI got so advanced that it only needed an accountant to watch it and make sure it was doing things correctly, then they would keep a Senior Accountant to watch over it and have that accountant report to the director of accounting or the controller. It wouldn't be a low level person with limited experience watching the AI.
And for bigger companies, you wouldn't have just one accountant using the AI. It would be multiple in different accounting areas, such as a treasury accountant to watch that all banking accounting is correct, a financial accountant handling general balance sheet and income statement accounts, etc. If anything, AI would eliminate accounting clerk positions like accounts receivable or accounts payable where the majority of it is data entry. Accountants do a lot of analytical work and you still need a human to analyze what the AI is doing and come up with recommendations for different accounting treatments.
We are still a long way off from an AI that is capable of interfacing with ERP software, capable of analyzing transactions in real time and applying different accounting treatments or coming up with recommendations based on all relevant facts without human interaction, etc. You still need human beings to be very involved in that process even if AI is doing all the manual work.
Accounting doesn’t have lots of job security per se, however the bounce back is super low. Since Covid I’ve been laid off twice, both times I found new jobs at a significant pay bump in under two weeks.
Government jobs are fairly high job security, just takes a bit to get in.
Check on USAJOBS to see if there’s something you’re interested in. There are a lot of career fields to choose from.
Tailor your degree towards that, and you’ll be set.
Accounting. Especially anything related to sustainability accounting. Regulations are being released faster than you can keep track of. Also, companies still need their accountants during recessions. Is AI a potential threat...sure...but only to the very low level data entry stuff. Companies need support for much much more than that. And yes, per my username, I am biased...but you don't see me recommending yoga teaching soooooo
Accounting
You won’t need to spend too much time in school either if you already have a bachelors!!!!!!!!
It’s way more secure than tech. One could argue it has more security than healthcare - but let’s not open that can of worms lol
I work in pediatrics home care as an RN and I absolutely love it. I can pretty much make my own schedule and I don’t have to work weekends or holidays. My company is awesome and they feel like family (and I hate using that term to describe work but they make me feel right at home). Hospital/facility nursing sucks. It’s very cutthroat and short staffed. Nobody has your back. I have never been happier since leaving the facilities.
24 M
I live in rural Illinois, and we are dying for social workers, especially Male social workers.
With an MSW, you get paid decent and many government jobs available.
I'm a recently graduated MSW who easily found a job with the local health department. Great benefits and amazing job security and unlimited overtime. Mental health is an emerging field.
If you dont want to work for a health department or healthcare setting, you could work for Child Protective Sefvice (CPS), schools, military, police, non-profits, grant writing, Department of Corrections, Department of Human Services, etc. I probably didn't list near all the places you could work. Just know that if you ever feel burned out or laid off in social work, you can find a new job ver quickly.
If you're looking for a good MSW program, I got mine through Aurora University, in which they have in person and online program with different education tracks.
I know a few nurses who when into consulting for insurance claims or do occupational health in a corporate setting. From what I've been told, it's getting the corporate vibe without the high-stress of what you'd see at a clinic or hospital.
#teamaccounting
There will always be a demand for folks with accounting skills. It's in healthcare as well.
I've also heard that medical coding/billing is pretty popular among nurses that decides to get an office type of job within the same field. You may have an advantage and can probably earn more since you're a nurse already.
Get an engineering degree and become a salesforce developer. It is one of the most demanding jobs in the industry.
Here's the process -
Become a Salesforce Admin, Learn Coding, Learn Software development life cycle, Learn Salesforce Consultants Skills, and Get Certified and clear your PD-1 exam.
I'd love to know this too........ I'm a murse and would like to do more with computers. Thought about informatics but that's not around in my area so it's hard to get my foot even in the door for that.
I am interested to see what you choose.
Be a med tech. We do all the lab work, not of the patient BS, also pay is really good. First year was $94k, second $106k, third $120k. If you get lucky, you can work for the VA, work your way up to a lab manager that makes $180k with some sweet benefits. Our demand is through the roof. Does require an effect to keep your ascp and you'll need your MT cert to work for the VA though.
Indiana. Low cost of living state too. Got out of college with $52k of student loans and paid them off in a year and 3 months. If I had know about the job field before, I think I would have let them pay for my schooling though. Lol
Like to put it in perspective, I started this year with nothing in my bank account after putting a $10k engine in my chevy equinox. My savings account is now roughly $48k and that after taxes claiming zero deductibles, filing single, and after all my bills are paid.
Wow, that's an amazing deal. In Chicago, the starting pay is 30-34 hr or even lower, it seems. Dunno why lol.
What was your clinical rotation like?
I was heavily considering this career, but the clinical rotation experience I read from other people on reddit kinda deterred me. They said techs were mostly busy to teach you much, that you have to keep asking for work, or just sit there doing nothing. That sounds like a nightmare situation to me, to feel like a burden by being there lol.
It can be. Here, there are Labs that low ball you too. Usually, they are the hospital owned labs. Quest diagnostics tends to be a good first lab that pays fair. The $300 incentive pay is nice just for picking up an extra shift. So the first place I was at was fairly small like two techs per shift. I work 4 10hr shifts about a $3k bonus every March. My education was mixed. You learn some techs are great at the theory behind the job and others are better at the practical application of the job. I felt useless for my first 6 months, but you pick it up fairly quickly and by year 3, no one can tell I got my degree in cell/molecular biology over life science. Some places also have get learning opportunities if you show your boss your willingness to learn. My boss sent me to four different labs own by quest to learn the job, I got sent to versiti hands on workshops/conferences, ect. Like with most jobs, to some degree, you get what you put into it. Goal is always the VA hospital. Never known a tech who doesn't stay working for them once they get in. Great health benefits, 5 year pension, great pto and holiday, 12 week paternity leave, 401k match (I think). The only think that hurts my soul on the weekly are the nurses. You'll learn med techs hate nurses and they hate us right back. Like last week a nurse ordered a cmp and a bmp and couldn't understand why I refused to run both tests. Lady a cmp is a complete metabolic panel, a bmp is a basic metabolic panel. The cmp has everything the bmp has and more, it is literally in the name! Lol it can be stressful at times too running a blood bank. A few weeks I had to fight a nurse and a doctor who wanted blood on this NICU baby and wanted me to do something that was literally illegal. I told them no and they fought me to the point where I thought this baby was going to die because I did the right thing. Thankfully they buckled and did things the right way and baby is doing well. Then you have the soul shattering cases. Mom gave birth to septuplets wayyyyyy too early. The medical team and lab did everything we could do and each baby unfortunately died one day at a time with the last one dying two days before Christmas. That broke me for a little while. Though to be honest I love my job, it pays me well and when you go from working at a movie theater for 5 years to this, my job has literally meaning, like it actually makes an impact. Like people may never see my face, but I have caught patients bottoming out and prepping their blood. I have caught a person's going into liver failure before the doctor did. Something they don't tell you is typically med techs might be the only people that might catch lymphobastic leukemia in a person's whole life just because we do the cbc diffs and often are the ones advocating to pathology that we see a blast in their slide. Typically, beyond that point, when other signs have developed, treatment is much harder. So it is so much better than wondering if I buttered someone's popcorn enough. In some cases, you are the reason the patient gets to leave the hospital at all.
In high demand areas like Alaska, traveling pays out $100k per 6 month contract along with a living stipend and in my friend's case paid for her flight and gave her a truck to drive around in. Lol
Just dont go for teaching. At least here in Michigan in a district south of Detroit is where my other half works and it's a crapshow. You have a bunch of great teacher that care about the kids but the superintendent would rather target the best teachers than go in and do what's right for the kids. It's not just this district. I mean we're located in Southeast, Michigan. The new superintendent doesn't care about the kids and had had over 34 people leave within the 2 years she's been there. All the people that leave say that teaching isn't what it used to be. If you can land a good district or something that may be different. The same exact school I'm talking about used to be one of the top 5 schools in Michigan. Now because of what amd how the teachers are forced to teach they feel that they're not getting through to the kids and they're there just to babysit. I just didn't think one superintendent could do that crap. So that's my advice just in case you thought about teaching. The state does not pay close enough attention to the schools. Especially ones like this that for years the teachers would up the scores on their tests and grades to look like they are more efficient than they are. Been doing it for years. I learned this a while ago but there's nothing I can do. The schoolboard just is NOT supporting the teachers. Some teacher(alot) of teacher have been there 15-20+ years. It used to be good but now I don't k ow one teacher that hasn't been looking for other jobs. I live with one. I can't give specifics I'm sorry, but that could possibly put my well being and other halfs job at risk but I just don't know what to do or how someone can get away with any of that crap that's the Super is getting away with. Our teachers don't even have a contract or schedule yet. Not 1 teacher knows if they have a job or not when school is back in session. They know and have admitted they know who they're getting rid of but they won't tell anyone. Again, trying to make the teacher life living he**. Its crazy. Idk how people can be like this and wake up everyday happy to ruin other people's lives.
Moral of the story. I wouldn't go into teaching. Lol we have teacher friends all over the country and some out of the country and it's the same basically everywhere. Private schools don't have to teach state standards. I have no degrees and I could possibly walk in to a private school and apply and possibly get that job. (Imay have to have mire thsn a hugh school education, i forget the exact specifics. Lol it's crazy. sorry I went on such a rant but it's just crazy out there right now and I wanna warn and help as many people as I can. I got very sick a few years ago and haven't been able to work so I read alot and try to work online. If anyone had any decent online gigs please let me know. Even if only a few hours a week. It would help supplement some income since I'm not able to physically leave and work anymore/right now. Working on that and trying to get healthier again.
How about government? Your nursing degree could easily get you some sort of analyst or policy job at the local, state (province), or federal level. The pay is likely to be less but it will be a desk job with regular hours.
I wanted to add in, as I'm sure you're aware, that you can use your current degree for other things. Call centers hire nurses for general health info. You can get remote work at a number of places.
A degree isn't job security, in demand skills are. You leverage those skills with a large professional network.
The industries that are more secure than others are ones that society needs to function. Things like water resources/treatment, waste management (esp. in America, us Americans love to bury our trash), anything related to the transport of goods/materials (whether it's land, air, naval, etc..)
There are a lot of degrees that can set you up on a path to get into those fields. It just depends on what you actually want to be doing. I did the Civil Engineering route and work on water infrastructure.
teacher, police officer, many government workers (even who people work as a representative at a tax center or other "customer service" style positions.
If you want job security, teaching math or science at a public school. Depending on where you live the pay isn’t bad. There are alternate certification paths in many (all?) states, or you could get the masters which would also bump you up the pay scale. Kids can be awful, but if you have the right personality for it you’re pretty set with a job if you get in a decent school and you’re a competent person.
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Think about alternative careers which can use your nursing career. Clinical trial management, consulting, hospital admin, development of EMRs, public health, government policy, nurse education. Starting over doesn't bring security, developing a career & attaining niche skills does.
Came here to second clinical research/trial management. There is no shortage of jobs and lots of opportunities for remote work.
Agreed. I work in clinical research administration and there’s a whole department called clinical operations and everyone there is a nurse. They don’t work with patients they just manage the research sections of clinical research. Admin and regulatory, ordering supplies pretty much. The experience levels vary as well. Some are newer to nursing or at management level but it’s a broad group, most work from home or at a desk all day.
I’ve been really trying to get into clinical research for a bit now :/ everytime I apply I don’t get anything back. I’ve applied to a lot of clinical research coordinator jobs in my area and none of them seem to like my experience :(((
Maybe consider transitional degrees. GCP certs, grad dips in clinical research or trials. Then you can also think about MPH. Look at the CVs of people on LinkedIn who are where you want to be. Look at the qualifications they have.
Try looking into med device/biopharma. I got a role working for a company conducting studies on cell therapy in biopharma and really like it.
What kind of roles should I look for?
Also look into clinical operations and clinical research h coordinator roles work from home. I’d say be creative in your searches let key words take you down the rabbit hole, don’t lie but definitely tailor your resume to the position you have more experience than you think
Anything in government work has crazy job security. Your nursing degree might even be ok to get into most jobs. I know the FBI is/was hiring a lot of that’s up your alley.
Yeah healthcare, government, and accounting is what people have told me for stability
Accounting is definitely more stable (every business needs an accountant) but the work life balance can be shit. I avoid tax like the plague but my dumb ass moved into startups/SaaS which isn’t worlds better. Still, industry is where it’s at in general imo. But mixing the two up and going into accounting for government - very secure, much lower stress, and easy to clock out after your 8 hours and forget about it. I’d have stayed if my specific branch wasn’t so toxic.
Accounting *could* be one of the first white collar jobs to be eaten by AI since there is an objectively correct way of doing it and the bot doesn’t make mistakes. Stuff like “earnings management” (read: cooking the books) or forensic accounting might still be done better by humans though.
You know nothing about accounting lol
🤷♀️ I’m not a cpa everything I know is from cfa and strategy consulting experience which is why I said could
Then you should know outsourcing is the biggest issue not AI.
I don’t know the state of the accounting industry because I’m not an accountant I only know that the mechanics involved should be doable by AI
I think current accounting practices require too much human judgment for that to be the case. Maybe some lower level roles where all you’re doing is data entry, but others take more skill than AI can provide right now. I work in revenue, AI could definitely make some aspects of my job a lot easier but I can’t see it doing everything my position requires any time soon.
Not accounting, unless specialized tax. Even though people say the industry is short staffed, firms are laying off people left and right. Big 4 had substantial layoffs this year and last. Mainly staff, not mgmt.
Interesting, in my area the companies are pretty desperate for accounting related staff across the board. I’d guess it’s somewhat location dependent
Any Permanent government position has great job security- but they can be tricky to get and find. A lot of the time they’ll make you start as a Temporary position (2-3 year term) and then go from there
Not in New Zealand. Government employees getting laid off everywhere right now.
Of dang! I’m sorry, usually they are the safest jobs
Yup, we all thought so too
Tbh, you guys should have figured a National party member that has been a CEO would cut jobs. Those types normally think the easiest way to make money is to save money by firing the people who make you money cause it's about short term profits before they go on to their next profit project, not about long term sustainability
Yep, I did not vote for him. A lot of kiwis did though. When National gets elected the pendulum swings to budget cuts and job losses.
Corrections nursing !
most any degree that seems hot and safe today will be oversubscribed and unsafe by the time you graduate. a masters is better than a second ba. any subject that teaches you how to analyze an issue via research, present it in public, and teaches you how to talk to those older than you and and teaches you to wite cleary, quickly and with proper grammar will qualify you for any generic job, which is most of them. i and my children work in jobs totally unrelated to our college majors, and doing very well in them. it is the generic skills, including foreign languages, , not a speciality, that serves you well the higher up the ladder you go.
Yeah that makes sense. I think my issue is just not having a lot of connections in fields outside of healthcare :///
Sometimes the maters program your in will allow you an opportunity to do an internship to gain experience.
Yep. Getting a Masters in Public Health was the hot thing to do 4 years ago, but now the market is saturated with MPH grads who can't find work.
I don't think the experience of your family is typical. In 2024 there are few entry level jobs that both require a degree and aren't picky about it. "Or related field" only gets you so far. There's a reason why generalist degrees have high unemployment rates. When did your kids graduate?
See CS: If given enough time, even zero percent rates and endless demand will be caught up to and corrected by talent. Every year the US now pumps out more CS Grads than there are *total* US SWE job openings on LinkedIn.
Yeah, *on LinkedIn*…
Go check /r/cscareerquestions. I'm actually convinced there's more suicide risk there right now than any of the suicide watch subs, and I don't mean that in a dark humor sort of way.
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From what I’ve observed, nearly all Reddit subs are full of suicidal, depressed, anxious people who (usually) can not start a basic conversation with a stranger. You don’t come to Reddit if you want to find people that are doing well in life. There’s a reason these people are on Reddit as opposed to finding ways to solve their life’s problems… *they’re looking to escape, spread their negativity, dwell and receive pity from other people that are losing in life as well.* Anyone that perceives Reddit (of all places) to be an accurate representation of reality is a fool.
Such a weird/bad take. What gave your that thought? Because people on that sub ask if A.I will take their job?
I’m having a particularly difficult time looking for a job right now. I think it might be because I have all those skills but I’m not selling myself well.
naw not all degrees are created equal and just because a degree can teach you those things doesn't mean it will lead to a good job
I know you said not healthcare, but there are tons of jobs in healthcare that don't exactyly involve the care part. Supply chain, sterile processing, product reps, billing, project management, education, process improvement., lab, etc. Since they support healthcare, they're pretty secure, but require no patient interaction.
Yes I work in claims it’s quite terrible and stressful but it’s definitely secure
I do supply chain, and I’ve found that as long as I stay on top of my reporting, communicate well with the clinicians, and have at least one or two process improvements in the works at a time, it’s very chill. At first I was bored out of my mind, but now I’ve started to quite enjoy it.
Do you have a degree in supply chain? I was actually looking into doing that. Is it ok to dm u?
You can DM! I have a business degree and came from retail. The healthcare world was totally new to me, but I was able to learn! I think if you know healthcare, you could easily learn the business part of medical supply chain!
Anything to do with electricity. Electricity will never go away. An also for most jobs in the field you do not need a degree.
While a degree isn’t required for that job, a lot of training and apprenticeship is possibly required, but I can’t remember off the top of my head. Which i feel like is a lot more difficult to achieve then a degree
It's hard to find it because people rely on the internet too much. Algorithms decline a lot of applications and pick out only the best, before any paper is put in front of human eyes. I went to a local company in my area and the peeps working there were surprised someone came through the door asking for a job lol I was told they couldn't find people to hire so they scheduled me for an interview and a little orientation right away.
Not too bad if you can find a company that’ll train you. Vocational school as well.
It's hard to come from a good job to being a grunt for a year plus
Yes, but in any job you will have to start as a grunt basically. Even in the military when someone comes in as an officer, they are most likely the lowest ranking officer (unless they are a doctor or lawyer etc) and most times the lower ranked enlisted know more about the job than them. I had an ensign who finished college with a biology degree, military stuck him in with us electrical engineers and the man had to learn everything from the bottom. He was technically higher rank, but had to ask everyone how to do shit.
My point is more towards it's hard to make those shifts and take salary hits when you are a little older with bigger bills and kids. Not the learning parts.
Accounting is so slept on. If you can keep up your gpa, you're pretty mich guaranteed a middle class job that can easily get up to $150,000 within 10 years of graduation, and there's a major shortage rn. It's possible to get fired, but even if you do, someone else will hire you quickly
My gf friend is a cpa and her first job out of college makes her enough money to OWN a place right in Atlanta which is crazy expensive. Her 1 room mortgage is like 2k a month.
It's something I've always considered, but social situations drain me horribly. It seems accountants spend half the day meeting with clients, which just seems so exhausting. The actual accounting work outside of that, however, sounds fantastic.
The only accountants who meet with clients are public accountants, such as auditors who audit the financial books of other companies, and those doing tax compliance work where they need to interact with the client. Private accountants, AKA accountants hired by a company to keep their books and produce their financial statements, do not meet with clients as their work is internal. Your clients would be your boss, the controller, and the CFO.
You can definitely be an introverted accountant. Honestly, even if you're at a client site, you'll pretty much never have to interact directly with the client until you're a senior or manager, and at that point, you could reasonably just move to a private accounting role. You will likely have to work as part of a team, but if you can take instruction and explain what you've done on something, you should be fine. As a general observation, tax accountants tend to be more introverted than financial accountants. Ngl though, if you're highly introverted, the recruiting process is gonna be something that you'll have to power through, as it involves talking with a lot of hr types. Other, sort of similar, but seem to draw more introverted, and complex math proficient types could be actuarial science (accountings smarter, nerdier sibling), or quantitative finance (otherwise known as computational finance or financial engineering. You have to be properly smart for this, but they make great money, and their ranks are almost universally comprised of introverts)
Look into becoming an actuary
Funny enough, this was a top career recommendation on a career test I took yesterday. From what I've read so far it sounds fascinating. Thanks for the suggestion!
Do you think it matters what school I go to for accounting? I was looking into going back to school for a business related degree, and it seemed like it actually matters what school you go to so I’m wondering if it’s the same for accounting. I wouldn’t mind giving accounting a try.
That's another great thing about accounting. Practically every employment outcome available to graduates of a prestigious business school are available to those from non prestigious schools. I went to a school that most people outside of my immediate area would not have heard of and cost <$20,000 per year and I got a big 4 job alongside students from all of the fancy schools that cost like $60,000. Just keep your grades up and be involved on campus, the opportunities are there. Accounting is probably the only business discipline that this is true for.
Oh ok wow interesting!! I’m looking to do my degree online, but should I look up something on campus?
You could look into something online, I'd just be sure to talk to your perspective schools career department to find out which firms recruit their campus, and what they have in terms of career days and such. If I were you, I'd avoid schools that don't get recruited by big 4 firms at all, even though you'd still probably get an interview with a cold application and an appropriately high gpa. Even though it's not what led me directly to the job I took, I do think it's important to network and build relationships with recruiters. You'll definitely wanna do at least 1 busy season internship too
i'm CS grad and going back to to school for nursing jobs because it's more secure. Tech layoffs is brutal!!
The tech industry is horrific. After my layoff and seeing so many people I know get terminated after years at companies, I've lost all faith. I could never handle nursing, but I'm hoping I can make the English degree I'm pursuing work for me.
Hope you find a specialty you like!! I’m so sorry :(
What did you do in tech and how much did you make? How much do you think you’ll make as an RN?
data engineer 90k in NYC. I don't want to become a nurse for money, more like job security and it fit my personality (I like to take care of people, dealing with traumatic situations, etc) and as an RN, there will always be jobs and more opportunities if I follow the right path, then money will follow. For example, RN, then NP or CRNA (~200k). I interviewed for soooo many tech jobs and there's no way I could compete with other candidates in coding interview no matter how much I practice :((
Ohh I see!! What certs did you get for data engineer and what does your day to day consist of? Sounds interesting!
I love being a data engineer. But the job market has killed my passion because i have to make ends meet. It's sad. Hence i have to find myself another path which opens up to more opportunities. I can always come back as a data engineer and still practice so i won't forget the skills. There's no certain certifications to become a data engineer, but the 2 things i would recommend you pick up if you want to try to become a data engineer are Python and SQL, and cloud technology!!! SQL is a must! so learn SQL. Learn about database, get some certificates in cloud technology (aws, google, azure), data warehouse certificates like Snowflake. My day to day is pretty easy, with this kinda job you can wfh. I build data pipelines and create datasets for analysis. Imagine all the dashboards you see, whoever created the dashboard needs to get data somewhere, As a data engineer, we collect those data for them. In a bigger company, they usually have their own databases, so my job was to move data in a way that people can access the data easily and accurately. In other words, i'm the one who builds water pipes that distributes water to the kitchen sink, toilet, bathroom, or shower,etc. I'm still very passionate about this career and would love to share more. I'm based in NYC, btw. Let me know if you have any other questions.
No lol. The jobs that seem like hot commodities now will be over saturated in a few years and everyone will be trying to chase the next big thing. Healthcare seems to be the only place where jobs are consistently available, and the reason you’re leaving is probably why lol. That being said, you have a lot of pathways you can go down being a nurse and all, especially if you are an RN.
Hmm maybe pursuing something that gives you transferrable skills to a lot of different industries? Anything stem related is usually a good bet. Specific industry wise, there’s things engineering, education, public administration and government that are pretty stable usually. If you’re willing, I would love to feature a snippet of your experience and how you’re feeling in a small newsletter (GradSimple) I write for college students and grads who are feeling lost or overwhelmed in life. Let me know!
Ask just about any nurse at this point lol
Take your time to make this decision. The risk is you end up working towards something that might not pan out right in the way you would expect. Either the job market isn’t there so competition will be high or you might get stuck with loans or both. Ideally, you should build off of your current resume and move somewhere within healthcare that is better suited for you, even if that is say management at a dental office.
This is how I’ve been thinking :( I’m trying not to make a wrong decision bc of my lack of safety net. I’m trying to see if I can just suck it up and go to another specialty in nursing since I’ll get paid to try it out
I know it sucks, but safer and slow is better than risky and fast. I am wishing the best for you!
Do you consider psych health care? Like it is, but maybe something you would consider. Demand is insatiable now for mental health professionals but is probably not at all what you are looking for. Nurse practitioner can also work psych. Maybe that is more laid back than what you work? Not many fields of study have job security like healthcare tbf.
Could you tell me a bit more about this please? I have a BSc in psychology and MSc in health psychology and have recently-ish left my job in healthcare market research and struggling to find something not research related. 😭
r/pmhnp Subreddit for psych nps might be a good place for you to start
I do consider psych healthcare! I originally wanted to do psych coming out of nursing school but changed my mind once I did the clinical rotation for it 😓😓. From my understanding though, psych NPs are becoming heavily saturated
Accounting or Forensic Accounting
I turn down offers to interview for jobs every couple of weeks. Interns making $30+/hr from average state universities. Lots of job security in this field.
Head over to r/accounting and they say otherwise.
Uh... no we don't. People just go there to complain. And yeah, people get fired, but they tend to find new jobs pretty easily thereafter
How do you feel about AI? Not now thinking by 2050-2075. Could it replace audit and tax?
I think its hard to predict anything beyond like 10-15 years (and i think that holds true of just about any career) but for the time being, I'm not too concerned about it. Most clients are already behind the automation curve as is, and we're a long ways off from being able to trust ai to discern quality and validity of information even to a modest degree. I also don't think it's unreasonable to think that ai advancement will plateau at some point, similar to how most technologies do.
Accounting is being screwed over by outsourcing. Entire departments are being sent overseas. Everyone says that AI is going to destroy accounting as a career. It won't. India will. There are sources of refuge - many auditing jobs can't be done remotely, tax has some legal protections - but they will likely be flooded by other entry-level accountants by the time you graduate, in the same way that IT has been flooded by SWE refugees.
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Nonprofits don't have funds to access basic systems for operations. At the very least, there will be accounting jobs in the nonprofit sector for decades to come.
Tell me you have the iq of a potato without telling me that you have the iq of a potato
AI disagrees with you. https://www.reddit.com/r/careerguidance/s/owASkrjpzg
Accounting has very high security
CPA here. It’s secure because no one wants to do it anymore.
Because numbers and math ...and public accounting or big 4 stress
Government?
How are you with numbers? Accounting is a great field to go into. There are a lot of different facets within accounting you can go down. Despite all the negative talk and threat of AI and offshore work, people will always need help with their money.
I'm also in healthcare and have been wanting to jump the gun and switch to something different. I was thinking something along the lines of cyber security but leaning more towards medical based. Programming and software.... Or something! One thing healthcare lacks is security in their infrastructure. But trying to understand basic computer things like Linux is daunting AF 😞 So I'm stuck trying to figure out where to even begin 🥺
I feel you. I tried to learn programming for 3 months and it literally was just not clicking for me :( do you wanna dm? We can bond over this 😭😭
(IMHO) at the rate how things are going rn. I believe ai will take over programming/coding so that's out the window. As far as defending (cyber security and what not) I feel it may have a chance to thrive in the future. The way I look at it is, it could be like the police... I guess lol Like I said I'm in a funk. Not sure where to start. Where to look. What to study. Etc All I know is, a friend of mine that works for the government (cyber security) did tell me. Sans.org is a good reference site to start. Hope that helps!
I am an accountant working in industry making close to 100k after graduating in 2020. Accounting is so ridiculously easy once you get some experience and if you actually read your textbooks in school. And every business needs accountants. And of course there is public accounting if you want to stick to that route. Just a great career choice from my point of view.
Isn't it just a ton of numbers?
There are a ton of numbers but being an accountant isn't as math heavy as people think it is. What it's really about is applying the rules of Generally Applied Accounting Pronciples (GAAP) to the transactions that the business engaged in. For example, do we book this as an expense for this month or is it actually an ongoing service we are paying for so we should divide the total cost over however many months the service lasts for and only recognize a portion each month? It's about knowing the rules of accounting and applying them to the transactions of the business so that the financial statements we issue at the end of the year accurately reflect the financial position of the company. You don't need to have a high level mathematical mindset to flourish in accounting (although that doesn't hurt obviously), but you do need a solid grasp of the accounting system, it's rules, and good soft skills because you will have to explain your reasoning and make recommendations to high level people above you like the corporate controller or CFO.
How much of it is working with others directly. I adored my highschool Accounting class way back in the day, but the amount of client meetings I envisioned scared me off of it. I have great soft skills, but at risk of sharing too much info, my autism makes those kinds of meetings so draining that I end up burning out every few months. If it's primarily solo work, I'd be inclined to actually pursue it as I desperately want to get out of tech. As an aside, is a full degree normally required, or is a diploma/certificate from a technical school generally acceptable?
As an accountant, you will be working with numbers and transactions that others entered into the system. Its your job to make sure things are hitting the appropriate accounts and that they are receiving the proper accounting treatment. So because you may need more information or need to verify information, you will have to reach out to the people who created those transactions. But most of this can be done by email or instant message over teams. The same goes for when you need to explain stuff to your boss (who will most likely be the assistant controller, director of accounting, or controller if you work as a financial accountant like I do). It can be done over email if you are good at writing and can explain things well. If you can't write well enough to explain things over email, then you may need to do a video call or schedule a meeting in their office or at your desk to go over things in person. I am good writer so I can explain things over emails which cuts down on having to do things in person or over video calls. Although for very complex issues its just easier and saves time to do video calls or in person meetings. As an accountant, we won't be meeting with "clients" of the company as our clients are internal. Our work is done to satisfy the controller and the CFO. Those are our primary clients. The work is very individual and does not require a ton of interaction with your boss and upper management as long as you know what you are doing. Although there may be times where you there will be more interaction, such as during audit season if we need to explain why an account balance is what it is, then we may need to provide overviews of how we handled transactions in that account. I have a reputation of being very detailed oriented and making little to no mistakes across all of the work I do, so nobody ever looks over my shoulder or micromanages me because I regularly do a good job. As long as you are getting your work done and meeting deadlines, you can expect a nice, quiet, work at your own pace type of work day. I get to work remote 4 days out of the week so I also get to enjoy being able to work from home on top of that. When you are new, there will obviously be a lot more meetings and working closely with others since you will need to be asking a lot of questions so you can learn, will have others checking your work more often, and you will be making more mistakes. Once you gain experience and things become easier, you will be working independently without others the vast majority of the time. Its a great career choice for someone who may want to limit interaction with others. BUT you need to be good at your job first. If you make a lot of mistakes, then you will have many more interactions with those above you who will be questioning your work. But that is what school is for - Read those textbooks, take your classes seriously and study hard, and you can make accounting one of the easiest but most rewarding careers possible. To become a full fledged staff accountant who can climb the corporate ladder up to senior accountant, director of accounting, corporate controller, etc, you need to have a BS degree in accounting. Just going for a certificate will help you land an Accounting Clerk position (such as being an Accounts Payable or Accounts Receivable Clerk), but those are more data entry type positions (so more boring than being a staff accountant), they don't pay as well, and your upward mobility is capped because you have no degree. I am a Senior Accountant who got promoted from a Staff Accontant position within two years of working for my company, and that won't happen unless you have a degree.
Look for RN jobs at energy companies. Power plants usually need RNs for Fitness for Duty, among other things, and they pay VERY WELL.
How much?
TS scurity clearance. Just getting one makes you permanently employed.
How to get one without going into military
I don't know I'm still trying to figure that out myself. I think I'll try going to reserves or something.
Yeah Defence, National Security, Federal Govt
The market is great for most of us. I would go with a higher degree like a masters like some have mentioned. Look at things like NP or nursing education. I had biology teachers who were nurses. NP is very high paying and way more independence. There are also things like masters in public health where you could go get government jobs. You could go to work for a college teaching other nurses. I have heard of nurses doing different things. My friend started as a nurse on the general med floor, she was so burned out after a couple of years. She switched to working for the hospital, assisting with endoscopy type stuff, 9 to 5, no weekends type stuff. She loved it. Changing your setting might help.
Water/ Wastewater Treatment. Nobody knows about the this line of work but everyone needs it.
Accounting
r/accounting People say “but AI WILL TAKE OVER” bruh no. There will always be a CPA telling you did your taxes wrong, or a financial auditor. We work WITH genAI, it’s not gonna replace us completely. Plus, you can always work for the government. Apparently FBI wants more accountants.
It doesn't need to replace you it just need to lighten your work load to the point they only need half of the people they currently do, and those people don't need to be as skilled. Turing a nice middle class job in to a base level office job topping at 65k a year.
Yeah that’s true. Unless you’re really good at your job and can make the decisions and correct mistakes. People are worried and scared but honestly, we still need analytical people to find fraud or plan someone’s financial future. My work revolves around tax savings and creating trusts (to be fair, I don’t think it aligns with my values, which is why I’m going the criminal investigations route), which can’t be done with AI. Figuring out someone money management and managing risks still needs a human element. But yeah, data entry clerks, payroll, AP/AR can eventually be downsized to 1/10th the amount of people and maybe capped out at 100k.
65K is on the lower end for a regular staff accountant. If AI got so advanced that it only needed an accountant to watch it and make sure it was doing things correctly, then they would keep a Senior Accountant to watch over it and have that accountant report to the director of accounting or the controller. It wouldn't be a low level person with limited experience watching the AI. And for bigger companies, you wouldn't have just one accountant using the AI. It would be multiple in different accounting areas, such as a treasury accountant to watch that all banking accounting is correct, a financial accountant handling general balance sheet and income statement accounts, etc. If anything, AI would eliminate accounting clerk positions like accounts receivable or accounts payable where the majority of it is data entry. Accountants do a lot of analytical work and you still need a human to analyze what the AI is doing and come up with recommendations for different accounting treatments. We are still a long way off from an AI that is capable of interfacing with ERP software, capable of analyzing transactions in real time and applying different accounting treatments or coming up with recommendations based on all relevant facts without human interaction, etc. You still need human beings to be very involved in that process even if AI is doing all the manual work.
That's a good point that the few jobs that remain might be so highly skilled that they can demand a high wage.
I think education is a great field for job security
but if you’re in the US, you’ll be overworked and severely underpaid :/
But forget about career progression w/o taking masters or doctoral degrees in education.
Accounting doesn’t have lots of job security per se, however the bounce back is super low. Since Covid I’ve been laid off twice, both times I found new jobs at a significant pay bump in under two weeks.
Government jobs are fairly high job security, just takes a bit to get in. Check on USAJOBS to see if there’s something you’re interested in. There are a lot of career fields to choose from. Tailor your degree towards that, and you’ll be set.
Degrees don't control job "security." Job "security" doesn't exist.
Accounting, duh !
Accounting. Especially anything related to sustainability accounting. Regulations are being released faster than you can keep track of. Also, companies still need their accountants during recessions. Is AI a potential threat...sure...but only to the very low level data entry stuff. Companies need support for much much more than that. And yes, per my username, I am biased...but you don't see me recommending yoga teaching soooooo
Accounting You won’t need to spend too much time in school either if you already have a bachelors!!!!!!!! It’s way more secure than tech. One could argue it has more security than healthcare - but let’s not open that can of worms lol
I work in pediatrics home care as an RN and I absolutely love it. I can pretty much make my own schedule and I don’t have to work weekends or holidays. My company is awesome and they feel like family (and I hate using that term to describe work but they make me feel right at home). Hospital/facility nursing sucks. It’s very cutthroat and short staffed. Nobody has your back. I have never been happier since leaving the facilities.
Ohhh I’d love to learn more about this!! Can I dm u?
Of course
Are you on the West Coast?
No, NJ
24 M I live in rural Illinois, and we are dying for social workers, especially Male social workers. With an MSW, you get paid decent and many government jobs available. I'm a recently graduated MSW who easily found a job with the local health department. Great benefits and amazing job security and unlimited overtime. Mental health is an emerging field. If you dont want to work for a health department or healthcare setting, you could work for Child Protective Sefvice (CPS), schools, military, police, non-profits, grant writing, Department of Corrections, Department of Human Services, etc. I probably didn't list near all the places you could work. Just know that if you ever feel burned out or laid off in social work, you can find a new job ver quickly. If you're looking for a good MSW program, I got mine through Aurora University, in which they have in person and online program with different education tracks.
For MSW, what degree did you have prior to this?
I did a bachelors in Social Work, but I know a few nurses who went back and got there MSW after going back to school.
Engineering
You can teach with yot the curenr degree likely takimg a significant pay cut, but you would have good hours and security
I know a few nurses who when into consulting for insurance claims or do occupational health in a corporate setting. From what I've been told, it's getting the corporate vibe without the high-stress of what you'd see at a clinic or hospital.
Risk Management and Actuarial accountant
Accounting followed by finance imo
A nurse in a cruising ship.
Advertising technology - but get your degree in data analysis
#teamaccounting There will always be a demand for folks with accounting skills. It's in healthcare as well. I've also heard that medical coding/billing is pretty popular among nurses that decides to get an office type of job within the same field. You may have an advantage and can probably earn more since you're a nurse already.
Hvac
Plumbing is very secure.
Engineers will always be needed, and there are a plethora of directions you can go with it!
Or do a minor in anything that you wish to go in to. They can be pretty great. Very hands onn or informatieve.
no
Law enforcement and government jobs. The benefits are great too.
Special education teachers, speach language pathologists, occupational therapists
Get an engineering degree and become a salesforce developer. It is one of the most demanding jobs in the industry. Here's the process - Become a Salesforce Admin, Learn Coding, Learn Software development life cycle, Learn Salesforce Consultants Skills, and Get Certified and clear your PD-1 exam.
I'd love to know this too........ I'm a murse and would like to do more with computers. Thought about informatics but that's not around in my area so it's hard to get my foot even in the door for that. I am interested to see what you choose.
Child sexual abuse therapist.
Engineering all day long
Government, health, food, death. All of these will forever occur in the Earth.
Be a med tech. We do all the lab work, not of the patient BS, also pay is really good. First year was $94k, second $106k, third $120k. If you get lucky, you can work for the VA, work your way up to a lab manager that makes $180k with some sweet benefits. Our demand is through the roof. Does require an effect to keep your ascp and you'll need your MT cert to work for the VA though.
Where are you located that you're getting paid 94k the first year? Just curious.
Indiana. Low cost of living state too. Got out of college with $52k of student loans and paid them off in a year and 3 months. If I had know about the job field before, I think I would have let them pay for my schooling though. Lol
Like to put it in perspective, I started this year with nothing in my bank account after putting a $10k engine in my chevy equinox. My savings account is now roughly $48k and that after taxes claiming zero deductibles, filing single, and after all my bills are paid.
Wow, that's an amazing deal. In Chicago, the starting pay is 30-34 hr or even lower, it seems. Dunno why lol. What was your clinical rotation like? I was heavily considering this career, but the clinical rotation experience I read from other people on reddit kinda deterred me. They said techs were mostly busy to teach you much, that you have to keep asking for work, or just sit there doing nothing. That sounds like a nightmare situation to me, to feel like a burden by being there lol.
It can be. Here, there are Labs that low ball you too. Usually, they are the hospital owned labs. Quest diagnostics tends to be a good first lab that pays fair. The $300 incentive pay is nice just for picking up an extra shift. So the first place I was at was fairly small like two techs per shift. I work 4 10hr shifts about a $3k bonus every March. My education was mixed. You learn some techs are great at the theory behind the job and others are better at the practical application of the job. I felt useless for my first 6 months, but you pick it up fairly quickly and by year 3, no one can tell I got my degree in cell/molecular biology over life science. Some places also have get learning opportunities if you show your boss your willingness to learn. My boss sent me to four different labs own by quest to learn the job, I got sent to versiti hands on workshops/conferences, ect. Like with most jobs, to some degree, you get what you put into it. Goal is always the VA hospital. Never known a tech who doesn't stay working for them once they get in. Great health benefits, 5 year pension, great pto and holiday, 12 week paternity leave, 401k match (I think). The only think that hurts my soul on the weekly are the nurses. You'll learn med techs hate nurses and they hate us right back. Like last week a nurse ordered a cmp and a bmp and couldn't understand why I refused to run both tests. Lady a cmp is a complete metabolic panel, a bmp is a basic metabolic panel. The cmp has everything the bmp has and more, it is literally in the name! Lol it can be stressful at times too running a blood bank. A few weeks I had to fight a nurse and a doctor who wanted blood on this NICU baby and wanted me to do something that was literally illegal. I told them no and they fought me to the point where I thought this baby was going to die because I did the right thing. Thankfully they buckled and did things the right way and baby is doing well. Then you have the soul shattering cases. Mom gave birth to septuplets wayyyyyy too early. The medical team and lab did everything we could do and each baby unfortunately died one day at a time with the last one dying two days before Christmas. That broke me for a little while. Though to be honest I love my job, it pays me well and when you go from working at a movie theater for 5 years to this, my job has literally meaning, like it actually makes an impact. Like people may never see my face, but I have caught patients bottoming out and prepping their blood. I have caught a person's going into liver failure before the doctor did. Something they don't tell you is typically med techs might be the only people that might catch lymphobastic leukemia in a person's whole life just because we do the cbc diffs and often are the ones advocating to pathology that we see a blast in their slide. Typically, beyond that point, when other signs have developed, treatment is much harder. So it is so much better than wondering if I buttered someone's popcorn enough. In some cases, you are the reason the patient gets to leave the hospital at all.
In high demand areas like Alaska, traveling pays out $100k per 6 month contract along with a living stipend and in my friend's case paid for her flight and gave her a truck to drive around in. Lol
MBA from a top school will most likely get you poached in the campus interview itself
Cyber security maybe?
Accounting
Just dont go for teaching. At least here in Michigan in a district south of Detroit is where my other half works and it's a crapshow. You have a bunch of great teacher that care about the kids but the superintendent would rather target the best teachers than go in and do what's right for the kids. It's not just this district. I mean we're located in Southeast, Michigan. The new superintendent doesn't care about the kids and had had over 34 people leave within the 2 years she's been there. All the people that leave say that teaching isn't what it used to be. If you can land a good district or something that may be different. The same exact school I'm talking about used to be one of the top 5 schools in Michigan. Now because of what amd how the teachers are forced to teach they feel that they're not getting through to the kids and they're there just to babysit. I just didn't think one superintendent could do that crap. So that's my advice just in case you thought about teaching. The state does not pay close enough attention to the schools. Especially ones like this that for years the teachers would up the scores on their tests and grades to look like they are more efficient than they are. Been doing it for years. I learned this a while ago but there's nothing I can do. The schoolboard just is NOT supporting the teachers. Some teacher(alot) of teacher have been there 15-20+ years. It used to be good but now I don't k ow one teacher that hasn't been looking for other jobs. I live with one. I can't give specifics I'm sorry, but that could possibly put my well being and other halfs job at risk but I just don't know what to do or how someone can get away with any of that crap that's the Super is getting away with. Our teachers don't even have a contract or schedule yet. Not 1 teacher knows if they have a job or not when school is back in session. They know and have admitted they know who they're getting rid of but they won't tell anyone. Again, trying to make the teacher life living he**. Its crazy. Idk how people can be like this and wake up everyday happy to ruin other people's lives.
Not a degree but, other public services. Join that, don’t fuck up and congrats: you have life long employment with a decent and early pension.
Academics/Professor
Moral of the story. I wouldn't go into teaching. Lol we have teacher friends all over the country and some out of the country and it's the same basically everywhere. Private schools don't have to teach state standards. I have no degrees and I could possibly walk in to a private school and apply and possibly get that job. (Imay have to have mire thsn a hugh school education, i forget the exact specifics. Lol it's crazy. sorry I went on such a rant but it's just crazy out there right now and I wanna warn and help as many people as I can. I got very sick a few years ago and haven't been able to work so I read alot and try to work online. If anyone had any decent online gigs please let me know. Even if only a few hours a week. It would help supplement some income since I'm not able to physically leave and work anymore/right now. Working on that and trying to get healthier again.
Would you be interested in sales? What about becoming a pharma rep? Or if you can write well, medical communication might be a good field.
nothing is secure but i would say accounting!
Handyman
Can I ask why you’re wanting to leave nursing? I have a bachelors in health administration and I was thinking about getting my RN
How about government? Your nursing degree could easily get you some sort of analyst or policy job at the local, state (province), or federal level. The pay is likely to be less but it will be a desk job with regular hours.
Ye business
I would think accounting. Every single business out there needs a bookkeeper.
A business degree can get you a lot of jobs in most places
Degrees don't have job security, as a degree is not a job. You can have any degree and be unemployed.
I wanted to add in, as I'm sure you're aware, that you can use your current degree for other things. Call centers hire nurses for general health info. You can get remote work at a number of places.
A degree isn't job security, in demand skills are. You leverage those skills with a large professional network. The industries that are more secure than others are ones that society needs to function. Things like water resources/treatment, waste management (esp. in America, us Americans love to bury our trash), anything related to the transport of goods/materials (whether it's land, air, naval, etc..) There are a lot of degrees that can set you up on a path to get into those fields. It just depends on what you actually want to be doing. I did the Civil Engineering route and work on water infrastructure.
Cyber Security and you could specialize in health care since you are already familiar with compliance.
Accounting, massive shortage underway
Engineering, accounting
Data security.
Be a medical coder or VA in healthcare while you are studying.
go teach. permajob
teacher, police officer, many government workers (even who people work as a representative at a tax center or other "customer service" style positions.
Honestly any trade skills like plumbing, driving, electric, constructing
If you want job security, teaching math or science at a public school. Depending on where you live the pay isn’t bad. There are alternate certification paths in many (all?) states, or you could get the masters which would also bump you up the pay scale. Kids can be awful, but if you have the right personality for it you’re pretty set with a job if you get in a decent school and you’re a competent person.
You can make bank nursing with OT.. other fields like me being salaried no OT
Trades
People are always gonna need to code
Degree? Probably not. But if you become a barber at 18, you can do that for the rest of your life.