AskReaders: What is a great career path that kids in college aren’t aware exists?

11-15 Great career path kids aren’t aware of

11. Funeral director, mortician, and embalmer. It takes very little college to become one and they pay well. Funeral directors usually even get a free house out of the deal.

Also HAZMAT cleanup. Like 18 months of school for a $60,000 USD per year job. Plus you get to travel all over the world.

12. I work as an inspector for a solar company. I was trained like an electrician and make enough as an 18-year-old to live on my own right after graduation. The solar field is booming (again, at least where I live) and it’s possible to work your way up to general electrician, electrical journeyman, foreman, etc.

13. Finish your bachelor’s (in anything) and complete a one month full-time CELTA course. You can find a place to study this course in pretty much every country in the world. Then move to Sydney (or Dubai, etc…) and teach English as a Second Language (ESL) to foreigners.

In Sydney, for example, you can get a job working for one of the major universities. They teach English to foreign students who want to study at the university, and who have all the necessary requirements to do so except for the required English level, and so they take a 10-week course hoping to improve their English enough in time for enrolment.

The one I worked at has ~2,500 foreign students enrolled in one of these pathway courses (mainly Chinese, Korean, Brazilian and students from the Middle East, etc.) and employs ~230 teachers. They pay $92/hr, plus 17.5% contribution to your super fund, and a full-time teaching load is 4 hours of teaching a day (2x 2 hour lessons). That’s $1,840 a week, or $95,000 p.a., plus super! The lesson prep time is almost non-existent, as the universities have been running these courses for so many years that they’ve tailored all the material to be ready to serve.

The demand for English teaching from foreigners is increasing at a huge rate and will continue to do so for many years.

14. Be a professional white person in China. No joke, a buddy of mine just goes around and visits factories with executives. It helps to be blonde and have blue eyes.

15. Hearing Aid Practitioners. I don’t think many people realize just how many practitioners are going to be needed in not too distant future. The baby boomers are getting older and a lot of them will need hearing aids. Along with that, you have the iPod generation who crank headphone volumes too loud.

16-20 Great career path kids aren’t aware of

16. Court Stenographer. It’s a three-year program (on average – took me four to finish), but if you’re proficient in grammar, have strong language skills, have solid finger dexterity from playing an instrument or video games, and are able to work independently, it’s an incredible career. You work from home most of the time, lawyers very rarely schedule depositions before 10:00 a.m., you can make your own schedule, and the pay is great. Your pay reflects how hard you want to work and the jobs you’re getting, but I made $65,000 my first year and nearly $80,000 my second. I then took a hiatus and decided I wanted to travel, and I’ve been traveling the world for a year but plan to go back to stenography when I return to the States. Currently taking a dump in my Laos guesthouse.

17. Very few people know this but Blacksmithing is something still practiced in today’s society. Very few colleges have courses in it and I believe that mine is the only one that you can get a degree in it (Southern Illinois University of Carbondale). I am a student in this program. It is immensely fun. I have made knives, art, pedestals, hammers. I love talking about what I do but very few people understand it and there is quite a job market for it too.

18. Geomatic Engineering, aka Land Surveying, most surveyors are old, for instance the average age of a surveyor in the state of California is in the mid to late fifties, which means you will definitely get a job out of college and you can quickly work your way up to a decent 6 figure income once you get your professional license.

19. I went to a job fair at a local casino on a whim. Here is the path I took to become a Casino Manager:
Pit Clerk – Data Entry, general monkey boy for Table Games.

Dealer – In-House training to deal blackjack, learned new games as I went along. This was where I started making in the $60-70k range.

Table Games Supervisor – I learned all the games, proved myself by working any shift and handling guests with tact and friendliness.

Pit Manager – Continued to develop as a leader, earned respect from other supervisors, did a lot of training of new supervisors.

Asst Casino Manager – Learned slot operations, handled higher limit guests, interfaced across the property in managing guest issues and requests.

Casino Manager – Responsible for all casino operations. +$100k. Lots of work, very entertaining, constantly rewarding. Never a dull day, and much respect from coworkers and guests alike. Billionaires want to be your friend and supermodels try to schmooze you.

20. Speech therapy. If they haven’t had speech therapy, most people don’t really know what it is or think of it as a career choice, but it’s a well-respected, upper-middle-class income field with reasonable hours, a lot of independence, and tons of jobs available. Yes, you have to get a master’s degree, but you’re nearly guaranteed a job within three months of graduating if you’re willing to work in a school (paid summer vacation? I think yes).

In medical facilities and in schools, you’re part of the rehab team, working alongside physical and occupational therapists (and psychologists, depending on your setting). In the hospital, that means you take referrals from the doctors but you make your own clinical decisions about treatment. In the schools, teachers and other RSPs make referrals but you’re really doing your own thing. Or, you can open a private practice and take orders from nobody (except the licensing board, of course). When you go to conferences and trainings, you get to meet the other kind, caring, educated, intelligent, like-minded people in the speech therapist community.

The most fulfilling part of the field, though, in my opinion, is the fact that you spend your days directly helping people. It’s a wonderful feeling to go to work and actually see the difference you’re making for your students, patients, and their families, and to be appreciated for it.