The guys at Cosmic Variance posted on the 10 best jobs as rated by the aptly domain-named jobsrated.com. Shockingly, jobsrated.com has more extensive ratings than just a top ten. Physicist comes in at #13 on the list, interestingly sandwiched between #12 Philosopher and #14 Parole Officer. The point is that in their rating system, I could go to ITT Tech's School of Criminal Justice for two years and only drop one stop on the list of best jobs. Maybe it's time for a career change...
That, however, is not what I'm blogging about. I am more intrigued by their bottom ten list. According to these guys, lumberjack is at the bottom of the list due to high stress, low pay, poor employment prospects, and potential injury from falling, 100-ton chunks of wood. Here's the rest of the bottom ten, from worst to less worst:
1. Lumberjack
2. Dairy Farmer
3. Taxi Driver
4. Seaman
5. Emergency Medical Technician
6. Roofer
7. Garbage Collector
8. Welder
9. Roustabout (Oil Rig Worker - I didn't know what it was either at first)
10. Ironworker
The only surprise in there for me was #5 EMT. I know it can't be pleasant to deal with bleeding/broken/dying people all the time, but it seems a whole lot better than collecting garbage or working on an oil rig.
The moral of this post - if grad school gets you down because you have to take the comprehensive exam in two days and you want to consider other professions, do consider working with paroled convicts or discussing Kierkegaard, but steer clear of saving lives and cutting down trees.
Being a physicist is much better then being a mathematician could ever be!
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