Will Part of Professional Class Be Wiped Out by the Downturn?

ABA Journal ^

[freespirited]

Erm. Engineers, Software Developers, Doctors, and other assorted Professionals will always find a gainful employment and/or figure out alternatives for themselves. “Writers” ... what, exactly, of value, in terms of wealth creation, do they provide ?

They edit and/or re-write the manuals and research papers produced by the engineers, software developers, and doctors so that these works of genius are coherent and comprehensible.

[GOP Poet]

I guess their liberal politics and their globull warming were more important than their jobs, security, and overall survival. Go figure. Lots of ‘em voted for this yahoo.

[JasonC]

Journalists aren't providing a service that people want. They are stealing past investors money to write fish-wrap hymns to their messiah, one lie after another, the same one over and over everywhere, 24/7, year in and year out. Then they don't understand why their papers go bankrupt.

[JasonC]

They can't even spell, let alone get technical stuff right.

[Leisler]

So long as there are engineers, there will be jobs for writers.

[Leisler]

"And as professionals, they have perfected how to do their narrow job well. But many have little direct business sense or experience.”

It's called 'gaming the system'. Or in a Darwinian sense, too perfect fit for a fragile environment.

I suppose lawyers could go back to religion where they can live off the work of others by 'reading the sacred babble' to us unwashed in local, state, and federal codes.( why do you think they call'm 'codes'?)

[EVO X]

I have spent 30 years refining and expanding my craft — system level, DBA level, application level, management level, functional level.

I wouldn't think there would be a shortage of DBAs with governments at all levels expanding their watchful eye over us citizens...

[TSgt]

That is why I always keep “my hand in” when I am managing a project — it lets me keep my more basic tools sharp and also lets me bring them into the management realm.

freedumb2003,

you are spot on correct!

That is the same advice I gave my fellow IT managers. Stay somewhat functional and don't be a pure manager.

I manage project managers as well as projects and maintain a broad operations range and knowledge. Pure managers who only manage people are easier to cut.

Worst case, I can fill a variety of roles instead of being stuck at a certain level.

[The Duke]

I have spent 30 years refining and expanding my craft — system level, DBA level, application level, management level, functional level.

The last fella I knew with that background got replaced by cheap folks from India. Before that he was a technology directory for one of the largest law firms in the nation.

Today he's working odd jobs - sometimes involving computers, but always involving a screwdriver.

[Jimmy Valentine]

We are feeling sorry for lawyers, writers and editors now?

Crazy old world.

Been a long time since I drove a truck, but I haven't forgotten how.

[Lazamataz]

OOO RAH, soldier.

.NET 3.5, (ASP n C#) with heavy AJAX, SQL from sprocs all the way to tuning, JScript, C++ if absolutely necessary, and about 20 years in the field.

No problem for me, yet.

[ichabod1]

They’d do away with doctors entirely if they could find enough nurses.

A poster on another thread the other day may have had it right: Mortuary science and the funeral industries are going to be growth arenas.

[ichabod1]

Maybe they’ll shoot them.

[kjam22]

For some reason when I read this I kept thinking about the old bottom the ocean joke....

[codercpc]

And I will code your services, and send out that bill!

I am also safe, for now. Wish I could say the same for my husband, who works manufacturing and found out today that he will be working one week, lay off one week for at least the next month.

[Jim Noble]

Well, there are lots of "professional" jobs that need to be wiped out, never to return.

Americans need to make stuff, dig stuff out of the ground, and grow stuff.

They do NOT need to govern stuff, regulate stuff, and push paper around.

There is an entire generation of college graduates, heavily female and heavily urban, who have been making six-figure incomes and consuming useless crap while doing nothing of value.

I expect what is about to happen will affect them to a significant degree.

[Jim Noble]

presumably most have done it not to get rich but because they thought they could make a difference

OK, things are different now. They have reached their goal of "making a difference".

Hope they're happy.

IMO, the "make a difference" faction will be lucky to avoid mass executions and just be allowed to return to productive work, but part of the charm of Obamunism is that no one, myself included, has a CLUE about how and when it will come to an end.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

The “professions” - particularly law, was a bubble waiting to burst.

No offense to any legal Freepers, but I hate lawyers as a general rule. The bar associations have hijacked our court system... good riddance...

[Fire_on_High]

They keep the trainer class who show those of subpar intellect how to use tools such as broom, shovel, and spatula afloat.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

there are no jobs for the professionals such as writers and editors who “can’t build roads,”

They can't write very good newspapers either, so why is this a problem?