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Surprising salaries for jobs you’d never imagine

bbc.com

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Re: Surprising salaries for jobs you’d never imagine

#31

Post by tormeh »

kerkeslager wrote: post #20
jonnathanson wrote: post #12

Not surprised at all re: construction workers. That they can make hundreds of thousands of dollars per year is sort of a semi-open secret. The catch is that construction is a feast or famine occupation. During building booms, contractors and workers can make a small fortune. During busts, they can go bust. New York is a great place to be a construction worker, as there always seems to be a steady supply of new projec…

What does it take to get into construction? I wouldn't mind doing physical labor for a change of pace. I would love to learn construction skills and I could always go back to programming when the construction market busts.

When the construction market busts a lot of stuff busts with it, usually. It's not a good time to hunt for a new job. Not saying that your idea is not going to work out well, but be prepared for some bumps in the road.

Re: Surprising salaries for jobs you’d never imagine

#32

Post by endianswap »

crdoconnor wrote: post #25
rm999 wrote: post #24

I really dislike this - an article with unverified sources and no original content in the BBC, what I consider a very reliable, ethical news source. To me this is yet another example of the cheapening of modern journalism - quora has been "partnering" with several "content distribution partners" including BBC to market themselves while doing the newspapers' jobs. > Quora exec Marc Bodnick sees the media deals as a wi…

>I really dislike this - an article with no original content and unverified sources in the BBC, what I consider a very reliable, ethical news source. About that... http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilmidgley/2014/06/03/bbc-news-... I personally thought that the BBC News jumped the shark when they introduced a "BBC Capital" section. It really rammed home Chomsky's point about major newspapers having a "business" section b…

Oh the irony in linking to a third-party contribution to Forbes as your source of this news. Is this what each newspaper's online presence is going to devolve into across the industry?

Re: Surprising salaries for jobs you’d never imagine

#33

Post by crdoconnor »

endianswap wrote: post #32
crdoconnor wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I really dislike this - an article with no original content and unverified sources in the BBC, what I consider a very reliable, ethical news source. About that... http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilmidgley/2014/06/03/bbc-news-... I personally thought that the BBC News jumped the shark when they introduced a "BBC Capital" section. It really rammed home Chomsky's point about major newspapers having a "business" section b…

Oh the irony in linking to a third-party contribution to Forbes as your source of this news. Is this what each newspaper's online presence is going to devolve into across the industry?

LOL, true. In my defense it was the first hit in Google.

Judging by the time it took to dig this up, BBC could do with some SEO work:

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-28342929

Re: Surprising salaries for jobs you’d never imagine

#34

Post by e40 »

Working your way up to store manager has its perks. According to Murray Godfrey a Wal-Mart store manager “of a store in a moderate-sized locale can easily make $200k plus bonuses based on sales.”

Don't forget the other part of the job: scheduling much of the just above minimum wage workforce under you to work less than 30 hours/week so they don't get benefits.

Re: Surprising salaries for jobs you’d never imagine

#35

Post by mr_poo_pantz »

chengiz wrote: post #10

> In India, hair dressers can earn more than employees in the software industry. During a recent visit to the salon... Are they really using Quora as a reference? Even if this is honest, the responder went to probably one of the top salons in Bangalore, in which case the same would hold in Western countries. Most hair dressing jobs in India are low paying, and most of the rest are average paying.

I think it is valid - often hairdressers go onto owning their own salon, and from there rapid income increase. Software engineers in India are fourteen-thousand-a-penny.

Seriously. We fired one programmer for $100k, and instead hired 10 indian software engineers at $10k a piece. They are not exactly great programmers, but they are hungry (literally, we banned lunchtime!), and they work long hours.

Good times!

Re: Surprising salaries for jobs you’d never imagine

#36

Post by rpedela »

rm999 wrote: post #24

I really dislike this - an article with unverified sources and no original content in the BBC, what I consider a very reliable, ethical news source. To me this is yet another example of the cheapening of modern journalism - quora has been "partnering" with several "content distribution partners" including BBC to market themselves while doing the newspapers' jobs. > Quora exec Marc Bodnick sees the media deals as a wi…

I know the dog walking statistics are in the ballpark for San Francisco at least since I know a few people who do that. Regardless, I do generally agree with your point of view.

Re: Surprising salaries for jobs you’d never imagine

#37

Post by mikewhy »

dghughes wrote: post #17

The oil boom in northern Alberta, Canada is another good example of high paying jobs without any skill or at least education. Many small towns and fishing villages have been de-populated of men aged 20 to their 40s who went to work in the oil fields. Going from seasonal work drawing unemployment benefits to $100,000+ working six months and all your food and lodging paid for even free tickets to fly to and from home.…

> Small town poor boy makes it big can create some assholes.

A lot of them came back to Newfoundland and the feeling is pretty much the same. That province is going through an oil boom of its own and the influx of yuppies, crime and condos is excruciating

Re: Surprising salaries for jobs you’d never imagine

#39

Post by Roboprog »

mr_poo_pantz wrote: post #35
chengiz wrote: post #10

> In India, hair dressers can earn more than employees in the software industry. During a recent visit to the salon... Are they really using Quora as a reference? Even if this is honest, the responder went to probably one of the top salons in Bangalore, in which case the same would hold in Western countries. Most hair dressing jobs in India are low paying, and most of the rest are average paying.

I think it is valid - often hairdressers go onto owning their own salon, and from there rapid income increase. Software engineers in India are fourteen-thousand-a-penny. Seriously. We fired one programmer for $100k, and instead hired 10 indian software engineers at $10k a piece. They are not exactly great programmers, but they are hungry (literally, we banned lunchtime!), and they work long hours. Good times!

You think you're funny, but you're not.

I went to India for my job about 2 years ago. Actual sign by the break room: "Food is not allowed in the pantries" or something like that (don't make a mess eating here).

The company does have an actual cafeteria where you can have more than coffee and tea, though, as well as street vendors outside the security gates. Who knows, maybe the street vendors make more than my coworkers :-)

Re: Surprising salaries for jobs you’d never imagine

#40

Post by mgkimsal »

bluewolf wrote: post #27

The dog walking job, at $96,000, is a flat-out lie. I owned a dog walking company for several years. There is lots of competition and no barrier to entry.

Agreed. It's someone extrapolating out 1 45 minute dog walk @ $X/hr x Y dogs, saying "they work 6 hours per day".

Yeah... perhaps of actual 'walking'. This says nothing about the time required to actually market your business, sign people up, deal with angry customers, not to mention deal with sick dogs, cleaning up crap for multiple dogs daily, and dealing with year-round weather.

If you're in an area where there's enough business to support $100k/year in dog walking, you still can't afford to live well, because that $100k will buy you relatively little.

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