underrated and overrated professions.

[Curious George]

What is the most underrated profession? why?

What is the most overrated profession? why?

Are there any professions that we would be better without? why?

 

[LuisDantas]

What is the most underrated profession? why?

Teacher. And I don't even mean college teacher. The education of early years is a dire basic need for society to survive, yet it is a sorely undervalued profession.

What is the most overrated profession? why?

Take your pick of anything based in military or law - Judge, Lawyer, Politician, any military career. Those are the movers and shakers of society, quite unfortunately. But they should not be allowed to have any true importance, for they are not suited to such responsibilities, and can never be.

Personally, I have come to the conclusion that people should not be allowed to attempt to earn a living out of law study. It is all but impossible to do such an attempt without losing one's way, and society can't really afford that.

Are there any professions that we would be better without? why?

Lawyers, actually, and at least arguably military as well. Both activities can only survive by creating at least as many avoidable problems as they can arguably "solve". Judges are just barely justifiable, as are politicians.

 

[Erebus]

Take your pick of anything based in military or law - Judge, Lawyer, Politician, any military career. Those are the movers and shakers of society, quite unfortunately. But they should not be allowed to have any true importance, for they are not suited to such responsibilities, and can never be.

While I agree with all of this I do feel that they're not necessarily overrated. With the exception of military careers they're all pretty much despised and distrusted, most people see them as being a career in lying and lining your pockets.
With that in mind I'd have to go for professional sportsmen as the most overrated jobs. These are people who earn staggering amounts of money for basically just playing games and yet people look up to them as heroes.

For the underrated jobs I think anything in the medical and educational areas that doesn't have quite the same glamour as some other jobs. People are less impressed by primary school teachers than they are with university lecturers and people overlook the nurses when there are doctors around.

 

[Daemon Sophic]

While I agree with all of this I do feel that they're not necessarily overrated. With the exception of military careers they're all pretty much despised and distrusted, most people see them as being a career in lying and lining your pockets.
With that in mind I'd have to go for professional sportsmen as the most overrated jobs. These are people who earn staggering amounts of money for basically just playing games and yet people look up to them as heroes.

For the underrated jobs I think anything in the medical and educational areas that doesn't have quite the same glamour as some other jobs. People are less impressed by primary school teachers than they are with university lecturers and people overlook the nurses when there are doctors around.

I agree with Shyanekh here.
I would also add farmers into the underrated group. Also, within the society of the U.S. (i.e. sports and tough talk above thinking and foresight), the researchers (Ph.D.s and others who attempt to advance human society and our general level of knowledge) are greatly underrated.

 

[Quintessence]

I find it interesting that teachers are mentioned here when I personally consider teachers among the most prestigious career paths on the planet. No, prestigious is the wrong word. The teacher archetype is something deified in my path.

When I think "underrated" professions, I think of service jobs. You know, the sorts of jobs many of us had as teenagers and consider to be unworthy of dedicating our lives to. Hell, these kinds of jobs aren't even given the dignity of being called professions in the first place! The level of cultural disrespect we have for our cashiers and burger flippers is kind of off-putting, honestly.

 

[LuisDantas]

While I agree with all of this I do feel that they're not necessarily overrated. With the exception of military careers they're all pretty much despised and distrusted, most people see them as being a career in lying and lining your pockets.

Being overrated while also facing a lot of mistrust is still being overrated, I think.

 

[Revoltingest]

The most underrated profession is the landlord. We have the toughest & most thankless job in the country, with our meager reward being the joy of service & a few million dollars now & then. We're like a father figure to our tenants, working long hours to guide them thru life's trials & tribulations.

 

[NicholaiHel]

I would say the most underrated position is the student. It doesn't make money, shapes the rest of the person's life, and enlightens society. If it was held in higher regard there would be more interest and a more educated citizenry.

The most useless profession would have to be the 'famous' people, which could be related to sports or acting, which doesn't contribute to society, yet is paid the most in society. Really, any job that makes more than 100k a year (arbitrary big #) becomes a drain. That same service can be provided for less after all.

The profession we could do without is the many that don't contribute substantive worth to society. Yes, its vague, but it must be said.

 

[Penumbra]

Teachers are underrated, I think. I even considered the teaching profession in college (physics teacher), but the pay was way lower than engineers so I picked engineering. If they pay people less than what they could get with the same degree in other fields, then it's not surprising that a lot of physics teachers are people that aren't really qualified to teach physics, because qualified people are harder to find for the pay they offer.

Some people mentioned military, lawyers, and judges as being overrated, but I think they're pretty important. I'm glad there were soldiers around when Hitler came to power and when the Japanese Empire was ravaging nearby countries. I think armed forces are often misused, but I think the actual profession of soldier is an important role. Lawyers have the reputation of being the people that sue people, but for every instance like that, there's a lawyer defending that person. There have always been lawyers challenging the laws for gender equality, racial equality, LGBT equality, and so forth. Then there are the lawyers that prove the guilt of criminals to keep the public safe. And only a fraction of lawyers are trial lawyers. Most lawyers are working behind the scenes, doing mundane things like helping you legally set up a business, helping you copyright your brand, helping you interpret laws to run your business properly, helping to protect consumers from fraudulent businesses, managing legal aspects of real estate, and so forth. The United States over-glamorizes lawyers in my view, but interpreting and arguing for the laws in specific cases is a pretty universally important function in any place where there is not anarchy, and a profession that requires 7 years of post-secondary schooling (in the U.S.) is generally going to be paid well.

I think celebrities are generally overrated, because I don't think that, say, a star quarterback or an A-list actor is contributing more to society than a physics teacher, even though they may make 500x as much money and have millions of people that like them.

But it all comes down to supply and demand and scale; money is not sorted out according to contribution. If you make a popular album, you can sell it to millions of people and then travel around performing the music in front of tens of thousands of people at a time. If a company is making a $150 million movie and they know that having Brad Pitt as the leading actor rather than a decent no-name actor will probably double the box office result, then that's tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in extra revenue and they'll have to pay Brad a portion of that because his opportunity cost of doing that for another movie at the same time is so high. If you can throw a football really well and a million people watch you do it each week in the stadium or on television and buy merchandise with your name on it, then the team can pay you $20 million to stay because another team will gladly pay it.

To the person that said any pay over $100k is a big drain, that's not true. Competitive companies actively seek out the best people (even going so far as to try to poach them from competitors in many cases) for top engineers, top MBAs, and so forth, because their contribution to the company at that level (senior financial analyst, lead product developer, etc) can be several times the pay they get. If they were a drain, they wouldn't be hired or maintained in corporations, except in a few poorly run areas.

CEOs are an area that is typically overrated, because studies have shown that excessively paid CEOs are statistically the ones that don't do as well.

 

[Awoon]

The most underrated profession is the landlord. We have the toughest & most thankless job in the country, with our meager reward being the joy of service & a few million dollars now & then. We're like a father figure to our tenants, working long hours to guide them thru life's trials & tribulations.

You are describing bar tenders. But BT's only get a few pick ups at closing time.:run:

 

[Aquitaine]

Perhaps most Underrated in my opinion

Mother/Father, as in a Teacher and role-model of one's children. Second to that, would be the "professional" Teachers, as in primary/secondary education etc (Kindergarten, Junior School, Middle School, High School for those not in the UK ).



Perhaps most overrated in my opinion

Celebrities. Actors, Footballers etc. Many of our career-politicians, and I'm sure many of those in "the city" working for the massive Financial Institutions.



Perhaps most abused/misused in my opinion

Anything relating to the military, Infantry and other "Combat" positions in particular. People working in the "Sex Industry".

 

[LegionOnomaMoi]

What is the most underrated profession?

Teachers. They have one of the most important jobs in the world (less so for professors, but that's not their fault) and they get paid next to nothing. The good ones aren't singled out the way they should and the system works against them much of the time ensuring that in general they will be blamed for things that aren't their fault even if they try like mad.

Are there any professions that we would be better without? why?

I believe Shakespeare said something about killing all the lawyers. There are lots of positions and jobs that we'd be better without. The problem is that either they are a "necessary" evil or we could really live without them completely but people are willing to pay them anyway (like a lot of publicists, plastic surgeons, and lobbyists).

 

[DallasApple]

Its unanimous .Teachers . That includes non professional teachers as in devoted parents and grandparents.

 

[LegionOnomaMoi]

That includes non professional teachers as in devoted parents and grandparents.

How about "unpaid professional teachers" instead of non-professional?

 

[Penumbra]

One thing that people seem to say about teachers and pay is that they get the summer off, so it's okay to have low pay.

But what that logic doesn't take into account is that teachers often work more than 8 hours per day during their work. Speaking of secondary teachers in particular, they teach a few classes per day and have well over a hundred students in total, and with a few graded things each week, that's several hundreds of things that need grading each week. This usually is not able to be finished at work during their periods of free time during the day (it's not a lot of time, they may see students during that time, etc), so many teachers are always bringing papers around with them outside of work to be graded during their personal time. And developing lesson plans is generally something that has to be done on personal time, which from what I've heard particularly takes a lot of time when they are new, because more experienced teachers already have established lesson plans that need less change each year than developing a new set from scratch.

Basically, 50 hours per week for 40 weeks per year, and 40 hours per week for 50 weeks per year, are both 2000 hour work years.

 

[DallasApple]

How about "unpaid professional teachers" instead of non-professional?

I can go with that.

 

[Slapstick]

Perhaps most Underrated in my opinion

Mother/Father, as in a Teacher and role-model of one's children. Second to that, would be the "professional" Teachers, as in primary/secondary education etc (Kindergarten, Junior School, Middle School, High School for those not in the UK ).

I agree. Good roles models don't really exist. Which is why I think so many people turn to religion or whatever else it is that influences their thoughts or beliefs.

Perhaps most overrated in my opinion

Celebrities. Actors, Footballers etc. Many of our career-politicians, and I'm sure many of those in "the city" working for the massive Financial Institutions.

I agree with this 100%. Celebrities and Politicians are like two nuts in a fruit a basket.

Perhaps most abused/misused in my opinion

Anything relating to the military, Infantry and other "Combat" positions in particular. People working in the "Sex Industry".

I don't necessarily agree with this. Abused and misused can be said about anything regardless of the profession - if you want to call it that. I have known people who were in the military, that went on to Universities (LSU and Harvard) and are very successful people - who have real world - first hand experience of being in different types of situations and have world views on things that were totally different than when they joined. If anything, I would say they are better, more knowledge people because of it. I'm not saying war or the porn industry is the answer to anyone's problems, by any stretch of the imagination. All I am saying is that a handful of people doesn't speak for an entire group. No matter how idiotic or stupid some may be.

 

[Erebus]

Being overrated while also facing a lot of mistrust is still being overrated, I think.

Fair enough

 

[Monk Of Reason]

Obviously teachers are the most underrated. Most overrated would be CEO. CEO is a very important job but its not as amazing as one would think and they are paid far too much on average.

 

[apophenia]

the most underrated profession is the landlord. We have the toughest & most thankless job in the country, with our meager reward being the joy of service & a few million dollars now & then. We're like a father figure to our tenants, working long hours to guide them thru life's trials & tribulations.

roflmao ! I advocate for my newly arrived Indian neighbors who get wickedly ripped off by landlords. They are treated like lambs to the slaughter, because they have no clue about Australian law, and have a cultural tendency to avoid conflict.