Risky Career Choices That Often Pay Off

There are some careers that you can pick where you know you will have a job as soon as you leave full-time education, and you will probably have that job for life. Jobs like trucking, elderly care, doctors, dentists, etc., are careers you can take to the bank. But, what of the riskier career paths? If we exclude celebrity, sports, and the arts, what other careers are risky and yet often turn out well for the learner?

Why Would a Career Path Be Risky?

There are some jobs you can train for and even take degrees in, and yet your services may never be needed. You may never get a job that fully exploits your qualifications and education. You may get smaller jobs or unrelated jobs, but your qualifications may never be used to their full potential.

Some Are Risky and Some Are Foolish

Those people in the late 2000s who took qualifications in the History of TV are probably not working in any sort of job that exploits their qualifications. The people who are still taking gender studies courses are wasting their time since it turns out their job can be done with a pamphlet passed around the office.

Some qualifications and career paths are foolish because they are based on trends, or because the number of jobs actually available for such people is so small that there is almost no chance of somebody being employed for their qualifications.

A Niche Job is Often Risky

The term “Expert” is often considered a niche job. An expert in the parrots at the zoo or an expert in Murano glass from Venice is a niche job and niche profession. And, even though it is tough to find jobs using your expertise, especially when your expertise took years of schooling, the fact is that such qualifications and experience almost always pay off.

It takes longer for these people to find a suitable job, but they almost always do. They may have to move cities, and they may end up doing something slightly different to what they first expected, but in most cases, these people find suitable employment in the long run.

Careers With Bigger Barriers to Entry

For the sake of this article, let’s rule out jobs like a brain surgeon or judge where years of schooling and experience are the biggest barriers. And, let’s examine jobs where the bigger barriers to entry are those of experienced competitors.

For example, a career as an urban planner can be quite lucrative. However, in most cases, the people who are hired first are the ones with plenty of proven experience. People who have successfully completed a course in urban planning will often have a very hard time finding entry-level employment. Under most circumstances, such people have to start work as interns or volunteers and then work their way up to part-time and full-time employment.

Physical Risk to Health or Human Life

There are careers that involve actual risk of bodily harm or even to your life. A career in the military is one example where physical risk and risk to human life is a very real threat. Yet, as most veterans will tell you, the job is rewarding and the money, insurance and pension plans are pretty good. Plus, your post-military prospects are often pretty good too.

Picking a career path that has a risk to your health can be a risky choice but only because such jobs frequently take unpredictable paths. You may have trained in sanitation and end up cleaning the blood out of massive grinding machines. You may have qualifications in infrastructure and find yourself walking tube and underground rail tunnels that are full of dangers to your long-term health. However, since the barriers to entry to health-risk jobs are so low, they often lead to long-term and profitable careers.

Be Aware of Which Industries are Dying

We all know we shouldn't take qualifications in industries that are dying. Nobody is taking VCR repair courses anymore. However, do not rule out any transferable skills. You may be training as a journalist in a world where journalism is dead, but the skills you learn will translate over into several online careers. Taking a risky career path may be more difficult but is often fairly rewarding. Just make sure that your career path is not jumping on a trend because the trend has often expired before an applicant is fully qualified for it.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or the management of EconoTimes