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People looking for recession-proof professions
For a person who favors stability, Sean Doyle has had a rough decade.
He jumped into computer sales in 1992, when anything that smacked of technology held the promise of big bucks and early retirement.
By MELISSA ALLISON
Chicago Tribune Billings Gazette
Instead, Doyle became a casualty of the technology bust.
Laid off in July 2001 when Rosemont, Ill., tech services company Comdisco Inc. filed for bankruptcy, he is among thousands of workers now seeking careers with greater stability, both in terms of job security and a reliable salary in lieu of unpredictable, make-or-break commissions.
"I knew going into teaching that it would be solid income," said Doyle, who is working toward a master’s degree in elementary education at National-Louis University in Evanston, Ill.
Victims of the economic downturn – and some working people nervously looking over their shoulders – are turning to teaching, nursing, library science and other areas they might never have considered seriously in the past.
Corporate workers who never dreamt they could be laid off are especially prone to switch careers, disheartened by the trust they placed in corporate America.
"Part of what comes with the downturn in the economy is a feeling of disappointment. People feel like, ‘I trusted the corporate world, and I’m not willing to put my life into something I don’t believe in now,’ " said Prudence Dalrymple, dean of the graduate school of library and information science at Dominican University in River Forest, Ill.
Enrollment for the school’s master’s program is up 22 percent for this school year, to more than 400 students.
The number of students in National-Louis’ master’s degree program in teaching doubled this year to about 1,500.
"There’s so much demand we can’t even keep up with it," said spokesman Christian Anderson, who says the median age of students there is 37.
"A lot of these people could be making much more in the corporate world," he said. Teachers tend to make roughly $30,000 a year out of college and end up averaging about $45,000, although special-education teachers make more.
But people will settle for less money when they have been out of work for months or years, especially if they always wanted to try their hand at something else anyway or are fed up with the ups and downs of corporate life.
"A lot of professionals are coming back to school, saying, ‘I’ve been downsized, so now I’m going to downsize my life and do something that’s more compelling,’ " Anderson said.
Teaching isn’t the only field with an influx of midcareer professionals.
Last year, the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University saw its graduate program applications almost double, said Dean Loren Ghiglione.
"That doesn’t just happen. It’s because people are saying to themselves in this economy, ‘If I’m going to take a break, this is the time to go get a master’s degree,’ " Ghiglione said.
Not every graduate program has been affected the same way, possibly because people are not reacting solely to the economy, he said. Many people are seeking more meaning in their work.
"Sept. 11 caused a lot of people to think about what they were doing with their careers and lives," Ghiglione said.
Even workers in traditionally stable jobs have switched careers, he said, "and I’m guessing they felt they wanted to do something socially significant."
That type of altruism is a primary reason Dean Sheila Haas gives for booming interest in a second-degree program at Loyola University Chicago’s Niehoff School of Nursing. It allows people with bachelor’s degrees in other areas to earn a nursing degree at an accelerated pace.
"They all tend to talk altruistically about wanting to work one-on-one with people and not feeling fulfilled with what they were doing," Haas said.
But the economy plays a role as well, she said.
"People who have been at dot-coms or other areas where the market plummeted are looking for (jobs) where they might fit. Nursing is a good fit for people with computer backgrounds, because it’s information-driven," Haas said.
Nurses also command fairly high salaries, partly because of a severe nursing shortage that is expected to worsen over the next couple decades.
The starting salary for a nurse in the Midwest is lower than the East and West coasts, at about $40,000 a year, Haas said. With evening and weekend rotations, the salary often reaches $50,000 a year.
But employment experts caution that there is no such thing as a recession-proof job. "People said it was the computer industry for a while," said Sharon Worlton, a manager at LDS Employment Resource Services.
"There are certain industries that are coming up, but they’re not going to be recession-proof. I just talked to a guy in health care who was saying there aren’t enough nurses. But a lot of people will go into that, and then we’ll be in a glut again," Worlton said.
Phil Willman, head of national recruiting for a unit of Manpower Inc. that works with higher-paid professionals, agrees that there is no perfectly stable career path. Still, he and other employment experts agree that certain careers are more stable than others.
Engineering, for example, might never be a hotshot career, but it is not likely to slip into severe crisis either.
"Now that the information technology boom has hit a wall, engineering jobs are more prominent," Willman said.
Auditors also tend to do well even during recessions, he said. "Everyone is looking hard at their books, and there’s more need for auditors. In this particular recession, there is increased visibility for that kind of position," he said.
Willman said this downturn is different from others he has seen. "People have been impacted hard by this recession, and it’s people who never thought they would be. They’ve been out of work for a while," he said.
Not everyone who wants security fits the profile, of course. Paul Jones, a self-employed Chicago carpenter, began working toward his master’s degree this month.
He’s not a victim of downsizing, and his business has not been unduly harmed by the recession. But, like many others in his class, Jones wants a new challenge and greater stability.
There’s no security at all in carpentry, he said. "I want a job with insurance and benefits."
Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.
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