What's a profession thay everyone needs?
So, I'm looking for a career change since I'm probably going to move to a city of approx 200K people. What's something that everyone needs either it's simple or more complex?
Not interested in funeral services 😛
Plumber or electrician.
Mechanic, mortician, nurse, doctor.
Especially in remote areas: doctor.
Electrical involves less working in messy situations but you'll also be cold more often.
I do think electrician offers more ways to specialize (network cabling, alarm tech, etc). Plumbing may also but I'm not as familiar.
HVAC tech as well. Good ones make a good deal more than people think and it’s really not that hard if you like working with your hands. The troubleshooting concepts aren’t that difficult.
If you're willing to deal with the later costs on your body, learn a trade.
Plumber, electrician, HVAC. Everyone needs something serviced, it's just getting your name out/getting with a good company. Bonus, these things can follow you anywhere. Big city to small townships.
Welding is another solid one. Good welders can be in high demand.
Again, be forewarned, take care of yourself now, and be ready for it to catch up with you down the line. It's rough on your body.
My brother is ten years older than me and works electrical. I worked as a cook then got into programming. I'm in my 50s.
We both have a chronic illness that causes spinal fusion. I look like a hunchback and his posture is normal.
So trades can wear you down, I got out of cooking for my health, but all the movement and exercise can be good for you if you don't wreck your back and knees, I guess.
Only thing with welding over plumber, HVAC and electrician is they are likely going to be needed at a specific location ie industrial plant, construction or automotive stuff they may or may not be in that town and he has to travel to get there.
Came here to say electrician. Or anything related to utility (gas, electric, water, Internet, transportation) maintenance. These are often "we need someone 365 days a year" jobs, because they are literally the ones maintaining infrastructure for the rest of us, but those jobs also pay well and are in demand everywhere there are people.
If you're not qualified for that stuff, consider starting with something like Flagging/traffic control. You'll start as the poor sap holding a sign in the rain, but you can study and eventually become the person who designs/approves the traffic control plans, etc etc. Pretty much all utility work requires traffic control.
Surveying/Right of Way/GIS, if you'd rather work in a cube
I would say plumbing, electrical or general contractor. At least around me theres a lot of people looking for people to help with things like painting the inside of a house, caulking/grouting, general landscaping.
IBEW will pay you to go to electrician school. They pay you.
Utility locators.
Everytime someone digs a hole, whether to install a fence post or dig a basement, existing utilities have to be located so they don't get hit. Its needed literally everywhere rural or city, and very understaffed.
But its long hours and outdoors. Less taxing than other trades though, and women can do it as it doesn't require much physical strength.
Sanitation engineer
You said you needed something more immediate, I'd say there's nothing wrong with being a waiter / waitress / bartender while learning something else. They're not the most secure jobs for sure, but they're not exactly going extinct.
Alternatively, hotel staff make a lot (at least a lot for the small town I grew up in).
If you're looking for a trade skill - HVAC, plumbing and being a mechanic will all be skills that will stick with you through life and they all pay pretty well.
Truck driving is really, really in-demand right now. If you're willing to drive 12-14 hours some days, shower at travel stops and sleep in your cab (at least, that's what I'm hearing a lot) then that could be for you.
You can get your EPA 608 for free in a few hours and get an HVAC job.
Garbage men. You can shut down a city pretty well by not collecting any garbage. But I hope you're not in the USA. The way I hear it it's mostly really hard dangerous manual labour in that backwards country.
I worked summers in high school with my town street maintenance department, shoveling asphalt in the Virginia heat and other assorted fun tasks.
One day the trash department was short a body and my boss volunteered me to help them for the day. It was the single hardest work day of my life, and we were done with our route by noon. I have no end of respect for the people that do that job.
In what country is it not?
I'm probably being ignorant because I don't know whether there's more to it, but Australian garbos drive a truck and control a big robot claw. They don't need to actually touch the bins.
It's a fuckin cushy number in most of Europe
Doctors. Always needed even in remote isolated towns.
True! But i can't spend 8 years studying I'm afraid. Need something more let's say immediate.
Physician and nursing shortages in the U.S. are going to become a larger problem over time. Nursing can already be a lucrative job, and is less demanding than being a physician.
In a city with no prominent industry, people will always needs healthcare, childcare, food, and maintenance on their belongings.
Healthcare: doctor, nurse practitioner, nurse, dentist, dental hygienist. Skin and hair care might be stretching the category, but everyone needs haircuts.
Childcare: teacher, ECE, nanny. Big spectrum here from no training required to professionally registered.
Food: production, supply, distribution, and sales. So farmer (but that's capital intensive), food maker (baker, chef, cook, butcher) or distributor or seller.
Maintenance: vehicles (tires, oil changes, body shop, parts, detailing), homes (carpenter, painter, gas tech, electrician, window installer, roofer, landscaper), appliances (appliance technician), power equipment (mechanic, blade sharpening).
Probably more, but that should be a pretty decent list to start with, and all should be pretty portable no matter where you go, save for certain licenses that may be specific to a state or province.
Starting during the Great Depression, my grandmother insisted that every one of her children become either a teacher or a nurse, because those were the only people who were never out of work during the Depression. Both can be hard jobs (in different ways), but if you're looking for something where you're constantly employable, that's where I'd start looking.
If you want a valuable job that no sane customer wants to abuse, dentistry is an option.
So either long medicine study, or you are assistant of a doctor that does want to make you as much as possible
Plumber and electricians are usually employable and paid well, so long the city has that setup. It really depends on the type of place you live though. Higher income city? Landscaper/groundskeeper or house cleaner are good options, people are willing to pay to not need to do normal house chores. Many farms nearby? Livestock vet or slaughter/butcher. Lots of tech? Software/electrical/mechanical engineer, city depending. Someone mentioned teacher but I'd say look at salary first. Location depending, many are not paid well and the job can require up to 70 hours/week, which can be less than minimum wage of the same location. They also mentioned nursing, which is pretty good, but may require long hours depending on where you work.
Basic human needs,
Food, water, shelter. Go into any of these and you should be good.
Long term needs would add healthcare, education.
Salespeople. I'm going to get downvoted for this, but there's always good sales jobs for the right person.
Do you know any CAD? Civil is desperate for CAD drafters and designers. Doubled my pay. I design Substations now.
How much do you make? What were you doing before?
I make $62k, or $30/hr. Previously I was a veterinary hospital receptionist for years and years.
I've done some in the past yes. Interesting.. Will explore thank you.
Just one word: plastics.
Nearly every single business either employs a full time CPA or uses a CPA firm to check their books.
Does the city of $200K have advertisements for city jobs? Rather than trying to be universally employable, maybe cater to where you actually are/will be?
Hand jobs and cheeseburgers
Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado has both of those covered.
what is your goal? Are you planning on moving to a different city and employeer every year, or just want to settle down in aspecific place?
there are lots of jobs. However some places have specifit needs. Some jobs can be worked remote from anywhere. Some jobs depend on word of mouth so you can't move after getting the skills.
Settle down there. Remote jobs seem interesting though usually require an IT degree.
you will often find the best bet is figure out what niche that city needs. Many cities have a specalty that is unique.
How about being a mason, I need one for brick work and they are hard to find. Home inspections is a good one too.
Home Inspector. Every home sale needs one, they cost 400-600 hundred. You are not liable for anything missed or that can go wrong in the future. Just need your ladder and flashlight
Do you really need 200,000 customers? Why not target something that enough people need to support you?
Like if you can find something 100 people in that city need, you’re fine.
It's like the 80-20 rule i get it. I thought about this and I tend to believe that such professions are either niche or take much time to learn and apply eg Doctor.
Generally, any trade will always have good job security and decent pay. Trucking, maintenance (welder, electrician, plumber, or mechanic (diesel or heavy equipment, auto is usually over staffed) and HVAC) and accounting seem to have been the most reliable trades to find work over the last 20 years or so. Construction is very boom and bust. Medicine and maintenance are VERY short staffed currently, especially in rural areas.
In 2008 I chose trucking. Initial training was 6 weeks and cost me $10,000 USD back in 2008 followed by 3 months over the road with a trainer. Hate the job, but the pay is decent-ish (I've generally made between $55K and $75K), it doesn't usually matter where you live and the few times I've found myself needing a new job I've been hired within 72 hours of applying for the position.
If you do go trucking, avoid any company with a Teamsters Union presence like the plague. Every Teamster I've met to date has been an complete and total self-important asshat and they seem to have a tendency to call strike just for the hell of it (Though they are payed well).
Any other union is probably fine.
I don't know if he's making good money or anything but in my town of around 100k there is one guy who is a bit of a jack of all trades (and to me it seems he could be a master as well, but I wouldn't know). He does stuff like copying keys, leatherwork, sharpening knives and so on. This is the guy you go to if you need some more obscure thing done. Might be something for you if you like that sort of stuff.
I know few people who earn a decent living as a "handyman". Jobs too small for contractors or not sure who to call, you call them. You can get a lot done with a truck or trailer, some basic tools and outdoor yard equipment.
Edit: word of mouth recommendations are now you grow the business. Always give out two business cards and ask them to pass one on. One guy sends out a carefully written, well designed email quarterly with things you might want to do around your home and his reasonable rates.
Interesting!
Beer, wine
Clean farming, medical (complete, mental/physical, many choices).
You could look into being a driver for Cisco: they supply a huge number of restaurants. Might give you connections that you could parlay into working for a different food distributor as either a driver or salesman. I also knew a guy who power washed businesses, like the exteriors. Just showed up and washed the outside walls. I had no idea this was a thing. I think he had to do it overnight though, so might be potentially dangerous in certain areas.
Like my grandmother used to say, there will always be a need for teachers and medical professionals.
Not promising either are easy to attain or will pay well though, much less have good working conditions.
Good luck!
Look into the trades.
Rock solid employability, especially if you're competent in self-employment.
You get to experience, 1st-hand, middle-class & upper-middle-class prejudice/contempt/denigration-programming, too
( which is useful karmically: many of us are unconsciously-wired to buy-into class-system-based-"validity"/status,
and facing into karma, or, as Yehoshua "Jesus" benJoseph said the same thing, "taking up one's cross", as a means of destroying the unconscious-ignorances that undermine our Eternities/Souls/CellsOfGod in THEIR evolution is strategically wise, see?
I don't want my Soul/ChildOfGod EVER getting caught in some life due to its unconsciousness, ever again!
Rip the unconsciousness-rule "strategy" right out from the ground, you know?
I needed 7y of outright-homelessness to finally crack my unconscious-mind's sticking-to-class-prejudice,
and I still haven't ripped out all of the remnants,
but the core of it cracked a decade ago, and my life is free-er as a result, the Eternity I'm just a little participant in, is no longer "stuck on a rock, in the rapids" of Eternity/karma...
Facing into karma, as a means of freeing one's Soul can be immensely empowering.
Also, smart tradespeople outcompete many, being able to make/earn their economic-autonomy much quicker than the "professional" rat-race/treadmill people do.
( partly that has to do with a good trade ticket taking only 1-2y, whereas a 4y university-degree is .. worthless, economically, worse, it is tons-of-debt. )
_ /\ _
ChatGPT, write a comment about how trades make for good stable jobs but then veer HARD into woo-woo bullshit about souls and stuff.
I want people to think twice about upvoting the initial good advice.