In today’s The Wall Street Journal Online – Career Journal there’s an article about the “Best Careers in 2006”. The WSJ researchers came up with 8 careers:
Curriculum and instructional coordinators
High-school special-education teachers
Hospital and clinic managers
Management consultants and analysts
Medical researchers
Physical therapists
Sales, marketing and advertising managers
Social workers, counselors and related managers
First they interviewed people to learn about what matters to them in their jobs. They learned that people desire 4 things:
• Good intellectual stimulation
• Strong job security
• High level of control and freedom in what to do
• Extensive direct contact with customers/clients
They compared these qualities with job descriptions from the Department of Labor and came up with the 8 careers. (If it wasn’t the WSJ, I might think this sounds like a stretch. But until Mr. Murdoch takes control, I’ll assume that there’s some rigor here.)
OK – so why is this worth talking about? Well, I spend my days talking to people who live with chronic illness and struggle to make their jobs fit their needs. Clearly the 8 careers aren’t right for everyone but if you can draw these kinds of conclusions based on the general population, could we say that some jobs would make more sense than others depending upon the chronic illness you live with?
I’m not so sure it’s so easy. If you’re a painter and you lose your sight, should you find new work, even though you love what you do? I wrote about such a woman, Alice Wingwall, several years ago in my eNewsletter, Out In Front. Well, Ms. Wingwall continued to paint after she lost her sight and was more successful than ever.
But what if you’re a physical therapist (on the list above) and you have rheumatoid arthritis? You might love what you do but you can no longer physically do it.
I was once a video producer (at the beginning of my career) but I couldn’t lug the equipment or keep up with the physical requirements of the job. And then when I ran an inner city mediation program in a high school, 20 years later, I left that job because the hours were so difficult. I loved what I did each time but couldn’t figure out how to make it work.
I don’t know. Maybe we could use a good list of the right jobs for people with various chronic diseases to work with?
Rosalind
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