Mom Was Wrong in Steering You into Majoring in STEM - What You Should Have Done Before Demand Fell Off the Cliff

 Mom, along with the career departments in universities, meant well. They talked turkey with you and nudged you forcefully into STEM majors. Those are: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. 

Now this. As Axios documents among the disciplines getting hit hardest with plummeting labor-market demand are:

Software Development - Down 29%

Mathematics - Down 26%

Scientific Research - Down 20%.

In those fields it is increasingly difficult to get a job, hold a job, and move on to better jobs. Professional anonymous network Reddit Jobs confirms the findings of Axios. Here in this thread are detailed the now-typical suffering that is standard in a job search in a STEM area. 

What is happening in STEM, of course, is not a new pattern. Often we invest time, money, hope, and the opportunity cost in gaining training and hands-on experience in a niche that is marketable - at the time. As time passes, the labor-market changes. 

That was the poignant undoing of the law graduating classes of 2008 and 2009. They entered law school when demand was okay for lawyers. Then came The Great Recession. At least 6,000 seasoned lawyers got the ax and demand went poof for inexperienced lawyers. Some of those locked out never made it back in. 

After the boom demand for lawyers during the pandemic there are now growing terminations, mostly positioned and packaged as performance related. Fishbowl Big Law has this all-too-typical posting:

"Big law associate with 2 years litigation experience + 1 year transactional. Just got let go from my firm because work was very slow over the last ~6ish months."

Here is the thread.

Back in the mid 1970s, the market for university professors in the humanities blew up. Those of us in doctoral programs finishing up our dissertations had nowhere to go. Outside academia there tends to be bias against those perceived as "overeducated." It took us about five years to land a career path that paid well.

The takeaway: There are no safe harbors for skills. When employed always be assessing how what you're doing can be transferred to other lines of work. In addition, acquire the training and experience for what is marketable or soon will be. That's exactly how my coaching clients continue to work for income into their 70s. They keep chasing what they put out there on a resume.

In transition in your career? Need more income? Healing from a professional setback? Intuitive career coaching.

“On the menu” of services are Tarot readings, both spreads and one-card pulls. Complimentary consultation.

Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com or text 203-468-8579.