Don't Get Too Caught Up in Hot Job Trends

Posted on January 30, 2006

Mary Ellen Slayter warns people in a Washington Post article not to get too caught up in the latest "hot career" data. One batch of data she mentions is data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Maybe you should. But please base your decision on something other than their relative "hotness" at the moment. I mean, Jake Gyllenhaal is pretty hot at the moment, too, but that doesn't make him the boy for me. Same goes for you and these oh-so-fabulous careers that everyone is talking about.

Every time one of those lists of the hottest careers or industries comes out, usually based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, I receive a steady stream of questions from readers asking me whether they should pursue one or more of these fields.

Perhaps the most disturbing came from a young man who wanted to know if he should study to be a nurse or an electrical engineer. I told him I didn't know what unnerved me more: the thought of being cared for by a nurse who should have been an electrical engineer or vice versa.

Slayter does suggest career seekers look at the Occupational Outlook Handbook. Yes, it is also produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics but it contains detailed information about hundreds of hundreds of professions. Slayter also says career seekers look closely at issues like work hours, education time commitment, pay scale to see if the job will match your needs. She also suggests making sure the job matches a job seeker's character strengths.



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