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good jobs to have?

936 views 21 replies 21 participants last post by  BookGoddess 
#1 ·
ok, with all the gloom and doom going on, i have to wonder what will happen with unemployment rates.

DH is a nurse. i'd like to think that there will always be nursing jobs. that this will be a good job to have if the S HTF.

am i correct in thinking here, or should he learn another trade just in case of worst case scenario?
 
#2 ·
nursing is a very stable career as far as i know. people will always be getting sick and needing help right? i think its probably one of the most stable industries to get involved with. if he has a BSN he could always go for a masters in RNing and specialize or something but overall i think nursing is a great career.
 
#3 ·
Most jobs in health care are good to have. The health care industry is not experiencing a downturn the way other industries are. There will always be sick people, always be people who need health care, prevention and healing.

I'm a nursing school drop out (got pregnant and bought a house instead of returning) out 5 years. I have a tech job in health care, and I make as much as a nurse working in a private practice. Better still, the work is interesting, rewarding, and there's lots of growth potential once I finish getting all my credentials (requires an exam and 18 months experience--I have 3 more months). I'll probably not return to nursing school. ETA: In the past few months I've been contacted by a couple of health care head hunters, unsolicited. Go figure!

In my area there's still a serious nursing shortage. Actually there's a shortage across the board for experienced health care professionals. Lots of administrators and not many practicioners.
 
#5 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Parthenia View Post
Most jobs in health care are good to have. The health care industry is not experiencing a downturn the way other industries are. There will always be sick people, always be people who need health care, prevention and healing.

I'm a nursing school drop out (got pregnant and bought a house instead of returning) out 5 years. I have a tech job in health care, and I make as much as a nurse working in a private practice. Better still, the work is interesting, rewarding, and there's lots of growth potential once I finish getting all my credentials (requires an exam and 18 months experience--I have 3 more months). I'll probably not return to nursing school. ETA: In the past few months I've been contacted by a couple of health care head hunters, unsolicited. Go figure!

In my area there's still a serious nursing shortage. Actually there's a shortage across the board for experienced health care professionals. Lots of administrators and not many practicioners.
is your tech job?
I am interested in informatics.
 
#6 ·
DH works as a MST - med/surg tech. I think he'll be ok also. He also has his LPN. I'm a lab tech, although I only work 2 days a week. I also do bookkeeping from home. I'm seriously considering going back to nursing school. I do not see the medical field folding anytime soon.
 
#7 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by PJJ View Post
is your tech job?
I am interested in informatics.
I'm a sleep tech. I'll be eligible for the exam to become an rpsgt in a few months, but unless I go to work in a hospital, it won't have a huge impact on my salary. The nearest hospital that does sleep studies is a 50 minute drive from our house. I'll most likely stay at the private practice I currently work for. I'll take the exam anyway, because who knows what could change.

I work 3 nights a week, 7 pm to 7 am, and that's full time. It's interesting, rewarding work if you can stomach the hours. The schedule works well for our family, but it took some getting used to.
 
#8 ·
Post-secondary (college) teaching is usually pretty stable in rough times. When people lose their jobs, many go back to school and thus qualify for financial aid. Works out well for everyone since they are better qualified for jobs once the market goes back up.
 
#9 ·
I think nursing is about the most stable...and useful, both pesonally and for society in a LE type situation....I really dont think you can go wrong. if you really want to juice up his skill for a SHTF situation, have him transfer to a job in ER nursing, internal med nursing, or even peds....sonething where he will be using a lot of diagnostic and treatment type stuff...because lets face it, is a SHTF situation, its not like being an oncology nurse or geriatrics nurse is going to mean a lot..it will be about survival, there wont be rounds of chemo available, and if you get so old you need lots of care to stay alive..you won't.
that's my take.
 
#10 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by dogmom327 View Post
Post-secondary (college) teaching is usually pretty stable in rough times. When people lose their jobs, many go back to school and thus qualify for financial aid. Works out well for everyone since they are better qualified for jobs once the market goes back up.
Yes, but what we have found is that the full-time, saleried, fully benefitted positions are becoming scarce as colleges rely more on adjuncts to teach the courses. Have you found that at all?
 
#12 ·
Dh is a carpenter, and I hope it will work out for the best. He does commercial carpentry at this point, but he can be pretty versatile. Even if the economy collapses I figure we can barter his skills, because people still need things fixed. Also, government/healthcare buildings are happening consistently around here (libraries, hospitals, airport construction, road construction) so there isn't a shortage of projects in the forseeable future in our metropolitan area.
 
#14 ·
Federal government, bay-bee! It ain't glamorous and you have to be able to put up with a lot, but it doesn't get much more stable.

Plus, I get to telecommute, have flextime, full bennies, 6 hours of vacation earned each pay period and four hours of sick time (it all accrues), flex spending plans, and I got to bring my daughter to work with me until she was 6 months old. Hard to beat it.
 
#15 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by karne View Post
Yes, but what we have found is that the full-time, saleried, fully benefitted positions are becoming scarce as colleges rely more on adjuncts to teach the courses. Have you found that at all?
Dh is a tenured professor. I agree that it's a bit of a revolving door for non-tenured professors and instructors. They have a lot of professors that don't make tenure and move on.

Which leads me to say that while it's not a job you can just apply for, being a tenured professor is probably one of the most stable jobs out there. You can't be laid off, they can't downsize you out of a job, and the process of "getting rid" of you is lengthy and is only possible if you have screwed up royally (for example stealing research or some other potentially criminal offense).

If state universities close, then there's a lot more to worry about than just a job... the economy has completely collapsed.
 
#16 ·
My husband is the only plumber in town.


We're currently booked nearly a month out and the phone keeps ringing, so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping it stays busy. Second home owners (and some full-time residents) are still putting plenty of money into non-necessity remodels. A restaurant job is underway and there's always the emergency, "I have no water!" jobs. More expansion for returning families calls are coming in, too (i.e. need a second washer hook-up b/c the kids and grandkids have moved in, need another bath, etc.).

Collections are where I'm most concerned.
 
#17 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by karne View Post
Yes, but what we have found is that the full-time, saleried, fully benefitted positions are becoming scarce as colleges rely more on adjuncts to teach the courses. Have you found that at all?
My SIL and BIL have found the same thing. My BIL thought he had gotten around the issue when he started working as a dean. Unfortunately the politics involved with that job resulted in his termination a short time after a new president was appointed to the school. Both BIL and SIL are now pursuing more education in an attempt to make themselves better qualified for tenure positions.

Back to the OP, I do think that nursing is a good profession to be in at the moment. I'm actually contemplating going to nursing school myself.
 
#18 ·
My dh is in sales, which isn't the most stable job (especially as he sells building materials).

However, I'm a RN, and that allows us to feel some stability. At this point, I've only been a SAHM for 2 years, so my skills are fresh enough to be able to go back to work should I need to. I have confidence that I could always find a nursing job. Maybe not the one that I want the most, but there will always be some sort of nursing job out there.
 
#20 ·
My hubby and I are both teachers, and although we don't lead a glamorous life by any means, we feel COMPLETE comfort in the fact that our jobs are steady. We are in Texas, and they need more teachers than they can ever find.

We have enough to put 1K into savings a month, so I figure even if groceries go astranomical or gas prices triple, we could make it. I hate to think about it, but we feel good about our situation. Besides our mortgage and school debt, we don't have any other such as cc's or a car payment.
 
#21 ·
Dh is a tenured high school teacher. I'm an academic librarian at a state university where the librarians are faculty and I am tenured. The tenure process is a total PIA (we have to publish and do national service, just like the teaching faculty), but it certainly does give a measure of stability.

We've been through extremely difficult times before. The current situation is a career change for both of us, and it is a much, much more stable situation than before.

I agree that full time, tenure-track academic positions are hard to find, as adjuncts and part-timers are filling new vacancies.
 
#22 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Valkyrie9 View Post
Federal government, bay-bee! It ain't glamorous and you have to be able to put up with a lot, but it doesn't get much more stable.

Plus, I get to telecommute, have flextime, full bennies, 6 hours of vacation earned each pay period and four hours of sick time (it all accrues), flex spending plans, and I got to bring my daughter to work with me until she was 6 months old. Hard to beat it.

I was also going to say the Federal Government. Some agencies offer a day off every other week provided you put in 9 hours/day on the days you come in. Some federal agencies offer 2 days off every other week if you put in 10 hours a day. It seems like a lot but really the adjustment is more mental than anything. Plus the last hour of the day goes by fast since most folks are gone for the day.
 
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