California Careers - 12 Sept 2002

Creating a career is no easy job these days, especially in California. While new fields may offer many opportunities, rarely can they offer the longevity and stability necessary for a true career. Knowledge and technology change rapidly, businesses come and go, industries wax and wane, and economies rise and fall. Surviving throughout this requires both dynamic flexibility and as stable a field as one can hope for.

It is necessary to avoid those businesses that change managements or are sold, that face rapid technological or market obsolescence, or come into and go out of business too easily. It is necessary to avoid those positions, products, and services that can be made obsolete or redundant or that can be transferred, outsourced, or moved abroad too readily. If the work can be accomplished remotely it won't be done here. The larger the company the more difficult it is to avoid this. If you aren't moving up, you are moving out.

The more customized and unique the service or product, the more individual and personal the delivery, the more geographically bound or physically limited the field, and the more jurisdictional or political the ties, the greater the potential for a long term career in California. Owning one's own business is the most direct solution. Fields such as education and government, law and medicine, building, contracting, developing, and real estate, delivery and shipping, and personal sales and services are among the best in this regard. Many other fields, such as engineering, lack all of these and as a result cannot support career positions.

At the same time it is necessary to avoid those areas that are too narrow and specialized or too highly skilled and provide too small an employment base to provide long term opportunities. Otherwise one will end up commuting, moving, and traveling long distances and eventually exhaust the local possibilities. While most businesses operate most successfully in a niche, the niche and business will change over time. The skills you build must be the most ubiquitous and versatile and be transferrable to any business.

Expertise in an industry will become worthless when the industry fails and expertise in a field will become valueless when the field folds. The most valuable expertise is that applicable to any business, any industry, and any field. The broader the field, the more valuable it is. While specific knowledge is necessary in any field, knowledge of several diverse fields is more valuable than expert knowledge in any one field as it allows transitioning from a failing field to a more successful one. The same applies to subfields within a broad field.