Career options for DH

amother

Coffee

Thu, May 21 2015, 6:16 pm

Anyone here can help me with career options?

DH is smart, he loves researching in general. He is good with history, genealogy, is science-literate and has good mathematical skills. I think if he would need to choose a career in one such subject, it would be science-related. He is also great with languages - he can proofread, translate and edit in many languages; for example, he's done seforim and popular scientific articles. He was thinking of going into editing, since he has done it before as a side job, but I don't think it's an area that one can support a family - correct me if I'm wrong.

He's not the type to be a business owner/manager.

Any ideas...directions?

SRS

Thu, May 21 2015, 7:57 pm

What working experience does he have and in what areas? Is he supporting the family already?
I see you mention editing as not enough to support a family and that he has experience in that area. There are people who do research, writing, and editing and can put food on the table. Has he worked outside of the Jewish world? There are lots of opportunities out there for the aggressive.

Last edited by SRS on Thu, May 21 2015, 8:00 pm; edited 1 time in total

finallyamommy

Thu, May 21 2015, 8:00 pm

I'm assuming you're talking about an area in which he'd be able/willing to go back to school for something more specialized? If so, I was also going to say actuary or accountant. I assume you live in America, but if in Israel (or really, in America too), multiple languages would serve him well. He might be able to teach them, especially at a private school where he wouldn't necessarily need an education degree. When you say science-literate - would he want to go into some kind of medical thing? A two-year program as a dental hygienist, for example, supposedly yields a great salary, or I think also ultrasound technicians or even nurses (I'm guessing there's a shortage of male nurses). That's all I've got offhand. Good luck!

amother

Coffee

Thu, May 21 2015, 11:07 pm

doctorima wrote:

Actuary or accountant come to mind since he's good at math.

Anything business or finance-related is not for him.

MagentaYenta wrote:

What does he want to do?

He doesn't know. I think his real dream job would be editing seforim from manuscript and researching their historical background. He enjoys researching, and does genealogy as a hobby.

SRS wrote:

There are people who do research, writing, and editing and can put food on the table. Has he worked outside of the Jewish world? There are lots of opportunities out there for the aggressive.

He hasn't worked outside of the Jewish world. But he is great at research and editing. Also, what do you mean by aggressive?

esheschayil wrote:

When you say science-literate - would he want to go into some kind of medical thing? A two-year program as a dental hygienist, for example, supposedly yields a great salary, or I think also ultrasound technicians or even nurses (I'm guessing there's a shortage of male nurses). That's all I've got offhand. Good luck!

Things involving humans (living or otherwise) are not for him. He needs a job that involves paper and a computer, and at most some test tubes...

Bruria wrote:

Does he have a degree?Is he thinking of going to college or grad school? Does he want a career that requires no degree? This info will help you get better answers!

He doesn't have a degree, but he is willing to study. He has no formal education past a high-school diploma.

Bruria

Fri, May 22 2015, 12:19 am

A career in computer science or engineering would be great options, the catch is how much is he willing to study. Sciences and math in college are harder and take much more time to study than in high school, calculus and a class in C++ for example would require him to study daily, and I'm not even counting the other courses he would have to take at the same time.

Question is, does he have to work while getting his degree ?Because that also makes a huge difference, since getting a degree in these areas and working at the same time could be difficult.

Take all this into consideration while finding his career, also time, tuition fees, if he has to work or not, also if you already have kids how to balance all this, make an informed choice before he chooses anything.

seeker

Fri, May 22 2015, 1:33 am

While editing in general is not much of a career, I hear there is considerably more demand (and better pay) for technical writing/editing/translating. So if he has a good head for science, language, and editing, he may be able to make a good career out of writing/translating/editing science books/articles/journals, technical or medical manuals, etc. I am not sure what exactly it takes to qualify for this kind of job but it may be worth looking into because you said he would love to stick with editing, you're shying away from that due to lack of demand/benefit, and he has a good head for science and languages.

Frumdoc

Fri, May 22 2015, 7:56 am

If hiscdream is to work with seforim, why doesn't he look around at the jewish publishers, starting with asking a biggie, like Artscroll? Find out what he would need to do to become an editor/ researcher there for seforim.

All jobs involve working with people, especially science or lab based ones where people tend to work in teams, it is not isolated sitting at a bech stuff but lots of joint planning and shared activities /roles.

There are hundreds of post kollel out of work technical writers and low to mid range programmers in Israel at least, so it may notbe the best idea, it is a v popular and obvious choice and pretty easy to train for at least at the basic level, so the market may be flooded.

SRS

Fri, May 22 2015, 12:40 pm

amother wrote:

He hasn't worked outside of the Jewish world. But he is great at research and editing. Also, what do you mean by aggressive?

By aggressive I mean he will need to be business and marketing minded. He would need to intern, hit the pavement running, make connections in the right places. Policy shops, think tans all appreciate writers, editors. But it is very tough to break in.

amother wrote:

He doesn't have a degree, but he is willing to study. He has no formal education past a high-school diploma.

This is a huge problem for what I mentioned about. A lot of the writing, editing, research positions are in academia. With only a high school diploma, he probably should get into a community college and start knocking off courses one by one, hopefully finding some direction along the way as he takes core classes.

SRS

Fri, May 22 2015, 12:56 pm

OP, it sounds like your husband has identified his weaknesses, primarily disliking business AND disliking working with people. It is positive to identify and understand weaknesses. But, the way of the world is that these skills are necessary at some level. I think it is valuable, once a weakness is understood, to make small steps to combat that weakness. That isn't to say that every accountant needs to become the life of the party or every scientist needs to become the companies top salesman, but one can and should chip away at weaknesses piece by piece. Business, I.e. making money for oneself/the corporation one works for, has to be the priority of even the guy in the lab with the test tubes or for the editor who needs cognizant to how to turn a book into a money maker. Kollel might be one of the few places were a person can just learn and be lishma.