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Industrious written for the NM Dept. of Labor on contract with Starlight Publishing, Albuquerque NM © 2001 Rick McKinney You’re about to make one of the most important decisions in your life. But here’s the cool part about career choices: you can always change your mind. The job you take right out of high school is not likely to define your future. Based on current studies, chances are you will change your career at least once in your lifetime. Your first job is going to put cash in your pocket and help you determine, if not what kind of work you want to do, then certainly what kinds of work you don’t want to do. But before you go for the "process of elimination" career search method, there is a better way. Follow your heart. Despite what you read in the news, we live in comfortable times. Now more than ever, your chances of making money doing what you enjoy rather than what you think society expects of you are excellent. And New Mexico is a great place to start. I have had more jobs than anyone I know. Most of them were just to appease the pressures around me while I fought like a dog to stay true to what I already knew was my life’s work. I have worked at the post office, a score of restaurants, UPS, a mortgage company, a gas station, a newspaper, a mortuary, and many more. Now, I make money doing what I love: writing and creating art. Luck? No. Determination, yes. I cannot tell you how many adults I have met in my life who look at me with eyes of envy as they announce that they, too, are writers. Yet when I probe further, I find that they are butchers, bakers, candlestick makers, not writers. Get the message? I never liked advice, so let’s call these ideas. Ask yourself, "What’s my life’s work going to be?" On the road of my life’s work, I have learned the following. Happy travels. M otivation. Examine your motivation.Y es. Just say yes.L ook before you leap.I nterview your interviewer.F eel enthusiastic or move on.E ndeavor to do more than what’s asked of you.S tart your own business.W herever the web goes, there you are.O rganization and self-discipline are vital to your success in any field.R emember life is short, and you are not your job.K eep a sense of humor.
Engineering & Manufacturing New Mexico is where it all began for much of the engineering wonders of the modern age. Motivation. Examine your motivation. Are you career shopping solely according to salary? Or is your particular field of interest really a field of interest? Remember, money is worthless is you’re miserable. Tools once developed for military use at places such as Los Alamos and Sandia Labs have now made their way into the private sector and into our homes. Microcircuitry, the Internet, global positioning systems, fiber optics, all these owe at least part of their design and development to New Mexico. And though the job titles and industry needs are in a constant state of flux, the need for fresh new minds and ideas remains and with it, jobs. When a victim of the recent layoffs at the Phillips Semiconductor plant in Albuquerque went looking for a new job, she discovered that the need for her expertise, chemical engineering, was on the decline. "Everything is optics now," she said. "If I could go back to school, I would study mechanical engineering instead. All data transfer is going to fiber optics now." A quick look at Monster.com does indeed show an abundant need for mechanical engineers, especially related to optics and lasers. The big employers in engineering and manufacturing in New Mexico include Honeywell Technology Solutions, Lectrosonics, Lockhead Martin, and Adecco Technical. Sidebar updates 1998-2008: Electronic & Electrical Engineer 600 (18%) 130 Computer Engineer 470 (44%) 50 Safety Engineer 50 (17%) 10 Nuclear Engineer 20 (10%) 10 Mechanical Engineer 200 (17%) 40 Chemical Engineer 120 (24%) 20 Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineer 10 (4%) 10
Social Services A friend in need is a friend indeed. Yes. Just say yes. Having a yes attitude works wonders on your clients, patients, family, but most of all on you. If watching the television show ER makes you queasy, but you still find yourself drawn to helping others, social services might be the right place for you. Although police and firefighters also fall under this industry heading, most people associate social services with social work, counseling, psychotherapy and programs designed to lift up those less fortunate than ourselves. And there are no shortage of people less fortunate than ourselves. With rising incidents of violence in schools and the workplace, of homelessness and depression, now more than ever social service workers are in serious demand. The World Health Organization predicts that depression will become one of the most common disabling disorders in the world by 2020. And it is already a serious affliction in this country. Social service employers in New Mexico include the healthcare organizations listed in the Healthcare section, city and state agencies, charitable foundations such as J.F. Maddox foundation and McCune Charitable Foundation, as well as all of New Mexico’s colleges, universities, and secondary and elementary school systems. And why not later take what you’ve learned and start your own non-profit charitable organization? The hurdles to such endeavors are not as large as you would think. The benefits to society of your commitment to helping others, however, would be very large indeed. Sidebar updates 1998-2008: Social Worker 860 (43%) 110 Social & Human Services Assistants 730 (61%) 100 Residential Counselor 1,270 (34%) 210 Recreation Worker 730 (24%) 150 Psychologists 200 (18%) 40 Clergy 20 (33%) *
Contruction What’s that saying, "Build it and they will come?" Well, they’re already here, and the renovations and maintenance alone provide plenty of need for new workers.
Look before you leap. Before you go shuffling down to the nearest Wal-Mart or corporate chain eatery to take your place amongst the millions of uninsured minimum wage workers, read every page in this magazine. Most industries provide on the job training, internships that pay unskilled-but-eager-to-learn young people better than minimum with benefits to boot. Listen up, ladies! The roads of New Mexico need you! The federal highway administration requires that 6.9 percent of all highway construction workers be women. And according to Joe Kinnekin of the Associated Contractors of New Mexico, they’re way short of that number in many areas of the construction trade. What better chance to slip right in and learn a vital skill while earning well above the local burger joint wage. Male or female, the jobs are out there. And construction is way more than hammers and nails. Most obvious example: The Big I where all construction crafts come into play from heavy equipment operation to engineering overpasses. Then there’s the needs of every household: electricians, plumbers, heating and air conditioning specialists, each a well-paying trade and a skill that will never be obsolete. "We’re real short of skilled people," Kinnekin says. "We need civil engineers, cement masons, heavy equipment operators." Kinnekin says his contractors provide 1500-hour on the job training programs. The pay: 75 percent of the wage for the first half of the training, 90 percent for the duration. And the biggest difference between working for a contractor instead of, say, Subway: full 40-hour workweeks and time and a half over 40 hours (not to mention that bit about never becoming obsolete!). I’m sold. Where do I sign up? Sidebar updates 1998-2008: Carpenter 2,720 (27%) 540 new jobs Electrician 1,100 (26%) 200 new jobs Plumber, Pipefitter, Steamfitter 560 (21%) 90 new jobs Construction Manager 520 (30%) 80 new jobs Painter or Paperhanger 950 (30%) 170 new jobs Highway Maintenance Worker 160 (19%) 40 Wood Machinist 20 (20%) *
Retail A no brainer? Only because we are surrounded by it all our lives. But it takes a certain special person to sell. Interview your interviewer. One of the biggest complaints of people unhappy in their career is their "awful boss." Believe it or not, there are bosses out there you’d be delighted to work for. Find such a person and learn from them. Just open up any newspaper classifieds and look up "S" in the job listings and you’re in for some lengthy reading. In the free market economy of the western world, sales is everything. If you can sell, sell, sell, you are virtually guaranteed a job in the vast global marketplace. Begin where you live. Get your feet wet in retail, where there are thousands of entry-level positions exist for high school graduates. Cashiers and salespeople remain most in demand in the retail industry. Here you will learn how the industry works and how to relate to customers of all shapes, sizes and dispositions. Everyone is unique. A few years in retail will give you a keen sense of customer’s needs and desires. Then it’s onward and upward. Always aim high. A few years behind a cash register and you may be more qualified than you think for a move into corporate sales. When you move into positions that pay on commission, the sky’s the limit on your yearly earnings. If you can sell a customer on a brand of shoe or power tool or shampoo, you can sell high commission items such as cars and real estate. Sales isn’t for everyone. But if you’re good at it, and it makes you happy, go for it! Sidebar updates 1998-2008: Cashiers 6,620 (34%) 1,520 Retail Sales 7,570 (30%) 1,610 Counter or Rental Clerk 1,030 (30%) 240 Stock Clerk 960 (15%) 190 Demonstrators/Product Promoters 540 (41%) 90 Sales Person, Parts 220 (12%) 70
Education Education is a noble profession, and in New Mexico it is a profession most in need of teachers. Feel enthusiastic or move on. Just that. If you don’t like your job, jump ship. Life’s too short to waste half your life working a job you dislike, and your unhappiness will tarnish the work environment for others as well. There’s a career out there for you. While you’re pondering your career options, consider this: teachers (good or bad) exercise a greater influence on the future careers of their students than do parents or peers. One good teacher can put a student on a road to success they’d never dreamed of. That’s a lot of power and a lot of responsibility. But if it sounds like something that would interest you, there’s never been a better time to set your sights on gaining the education and training needed to teach. New Mexico is short of teachers in every discipline, seriously short. Bilingual teachers are in the greatest demand. The current shortage could change in the time it takes you to earn the required bachelor’s degree, but not likely. Thanks to recent changes in college training programs for prospective teachers, you’ll find out right away if teaching is for you. It used to be that a teaching student didn’t enter the "real world" of the classroom until their last year of college. Now that’s changed. What hasn’t changed is that teachers still get the whole summer off, just like the students! Let’s face it, teaching isn’t the highest paid profession out there. Most teachers do what they do because they love it. But that long summer vacation sure sweetens the deal. Ask anyone in any of the professions discussed in this publication and they’ll tell you what they miss most about their school years: a whole summer of freedom. Sidebar updates 1998-2008: Teachers, Secondary School 2,250 (31%) 460 Teachers, Elementary 1,540 (19%) 340 Teachers, Special Education 1,590 (43%) 190 Instructor/Coach, Sports 780 (31%) 100 Teacher, Vocational Ed. 1,470 (20%) 220 Teacher, Preschool & Kindergarten 1,140 (43%) 170
Technology Show me the money! Show me the future! Technology is it. Endeavor to do more than what’s asked of you. People move ahead in their careers by doing the exceptional, by innovating and expanding the possibilities laid before them. And you can only expand if you are happy in what you do. Okay, three guesses and the first two don’t count. What’s the hottest industry in the world right now? What’s that you say? Cloning the wooly mammoth? Uh, no. I said hottest, not coolest! Information technology. It’s everywhere. Think. Think Different. Think internet, intranets, LANs, WANs, SPAM, SHAZAM. Information technology is getting into everything, and if you’re smart you’ll get into it. But you have to go back to school. Or at least you should. Nicole Tannenbaum, Consulting Manager and former recruiter for The Kemtah Group, Inc., a full-service IT provider here in Albuquerque, says certificate training helps, but "sooner or later, lack of the college degree is going to hurt you." Tannenbaum says that though a college degree is less important for work in the infrastructure or technical side of IT, you’ve got to have a degree for database development. And that’s where the real money is. "Data architecture, data modeling, data warehousing, these all pay well into six figures." "I can’t encourage people enough (to enter the IT field)," says Tannenbaum. "It’s exciting, dynamic and wealthy." Sidebar updates 1998-2008: Systems Analyst 1,760 (69%) 190 Computer Scientists, NEC 440 (85%) 50 Computer Programmer 150 (9%) 70 Computer Support Specialist 1,790 (74%) 190 Database Administrator 170 (32%) 30 Computer Programmer Aide 30 (7%) 20
Business Business is wide open and full of options. Start your own business. Never have I heard an independent businessperson complain that they would rather be working for someone else. From the little fish to the whales, every New Mexico business began with an idea and someone courageous enough to make it happen. Somebody once said the business of business is business. Or was it the business of business is money? In any case, to say one is "in business" can mean just about anything short of ditch digging or writing poetry. Hot job titles in business are supervisors and managers. These are the women and men with the fat paychecks and ten times the stock options as the guy in data entry, yet very often with no more education or expertise than their underlings. They earn the money they do because they know how to manage people. And that is an invaluable skill. There are lots of stories of individuals who have started with a high school education or less and worked their way up into management positions, but your best bet is to go for that MBA, a master’s degree in Business Administration. Yes, it means back to school, probably for another seven years. But finance companies, insurance companies, banks, utilities, you name it, they all offer internships and work-study programs. This means that by the time you graduate with your MBA, you’ll likely already be working for a company you enjoy, and they will almost certainly want to keep you on. Business requires good organizational and communication skills as well as people skills and a knack for sales. All of these skills can be honed in entry-level positions while you’re on your way to your MBA. Grab an internship and we’ll see you when you’re CEO! Sidebar updates 1998-2008: General Manager/Top Executive 5,120 (25%) 870 Food Service & Lodging Manager 1,000 (25%) 170 Financial Manager 890 (21%) 160 Engineer/Natural Science/Computer Information Systems Manager 880 (35%) 130 Education Administrator 690 (21%) 150 Marketing/Advertising Public Relations Manager 740 (24%) 120
Hospitality & Tourism To visitors from crowded and overpriced places like the East Coast, San Francisco and Los Angeles, New Mexico is paradise, an easy sell. Wherever the web goes, there you are. I worked in the internet industry in San Francisco with people who drooled at the prospect of moving to someplace as spacious and beautiful as New Mexico. But the industry they work in is the very answer to their prayers. Tens of thousands of people from editors and writers to graphic artists, computer programmers, engineers, marketing and public relations people, travel agents, teachers and more all live one place and work sometimes thousands of miles away. New Mexico has so many beautiful and wonderful things to see and do. We have natural wonders like the Anastasi cliff dwellings, White Sands, Carlsbad Caverns, Shiprock, the Acama Pueblo and Taos, man-made wonders like the Balloon Festival and the Very Large Array, and even one outer space alien wonder: Roswell. Tourism is the second largest private industry in New Mexico. There are some 30,000 jobs attributed to tourism in the Albuquerque area alone. Do you think there’s a job for you? You bet! Recent boons to the local hospitality and tourism industry include the Explora Science Center & Children’s Museum, the new Hispanic Cultural Center, and the Balloon Museum scheduled to break ground in October of 2001. And thanks to Indian Gaming laws, the entire environment around Albuquerque is changing. For the tourism industry, it’s a change for the better with such improvements as the new Hyatt Tamaya at the Santa Ana pueblo and plans for hotel development at the Sandia and Isleta Casinos. Work in tourism locally, learn the ropes, and who knows where the future could take you! Africa? India? Japan? Someday, maybe even Mars! Sidebar updates 1998-2008: Wait Staff 3,390 (23%) 1,140 new jobs Food Service Manager 1,000 (25%) 170 new jobs Food Preparation Worker 1,060 (19%) 410 new jobs Amusement/Recreation Attendant 780 (26%) 130 new jobs Hotel Desk Clerks 270 (16%) 90 new jobs Bread & pastry baker 320 (24%) 70 new jobs Travel Clerks 60 (60%) 10 new jobs
Arts & Communication Starving artist? Only if you want to be. Good writing and artistic skills are needed in nearly every profession. Organization and self-discipline are vital to your success in any field. This is especially true of self-employed people such as freelance artists and writers. Freelancing may look easy, but it requires immense self-discipline to work without schedules, deadlines or a boss. There’s a phrase in the Dot-com world which says, "Content is King." Every web site needs fresh content, and that means words and pictures. And words and pictures are what writers and photographers love to create. If you’re into film-making, photography, wardrobe, special effects makeup or set building, local Art Director Kylene Wing is the person to talk to. Contracted by Southwest Productions, Wing is responsible for the art direction of all kinds of productions including national television commercials. "I never turn my back on a new person interested in learning about the field." What does Wing look for in a worker? "Sometimes common sense is the thing I look for most. After high school, it’s easy to get locked into a go-nowhere job." Wing says that production work, however, can lead to all sorts of future possibilities and that the starting pay beats the go-nowhere jobs hands down. "I can’t remember the last time I hired anyone for less than $10 and hour to start." So don’t let anyone tell you ever again that wanting to be a writer or an artist is a hopeless waste of time and energy. It isn’t. The modern world lives and breathes off entertainment and information. Although Albuquerque isn’t Hollywood (Thank God!), spinning outward from the grand performance halls of the university is a city full of smaller performance spaces where actors, dancers and musicians practice their arts. Remember: there are few things in life more satisfying than getting paid to do what you love. Sidebar updates 1998-2008: Designers, Excluding Interior 710 (46%) 90 *Writers & Editors 380 (29%) 70 Artists & Commercial Artists 380 (32%) 60 Technical Writers 280 (30%) 50 Photographers 100 (17%) 20 Musicians 30 (20%) 10 (*) Internet writing work is as available as one is diligent
Transportation & Warehousing On the back of nearly every big rig on the interstate are the words "We need drivers!" Remember life is short and you are not your job. Yes, I borrowed that line from the film Fight Club. But it’s a good one. UPS. Federal Express. Airborne. Americans want it there yesterday. That urgency, together with the incredible magnitude of product movement in this country, means jobs. Lots of jobs. Just take a drive along any one of our interstates and what do you see? Trucks. The modern interstate is a seeming endless line of trucks. And material movement means storage at one end of the road or the other. Storage means work for equipment operators, material handlers, managers and more. And the list goes on. Transportation means moving everything including people, not just product. New Mexico needs school bus drivers, taxi drivers, chauffeurs. Auto dealers, municipalities, bus companies, airports, the railroads, and utilities like electrical, gas and water all need skilled professionals. And as with the construction trade, these jobs usually offer great apprenticeship programs where you can earn while you learn. Sidebar updates 1998-2008: Truck Driver, Light 2,310 (33%) 330 Truck Driver, Heavy 1,870 (20%) 320 Bus Driver, School 960 (29%) 150 Driver/Sales Worker 300 (15%) 70 Operating Engineer 250 (21%) 50 Mechanic and Repair Helper 290 (21%) 90
Healthcare Give back to the community while learning invaluable skills and getting paid. Keep a sense of humor. A high-stress day in corporate finance or a 10-hour shift in the clean room of a microprocessor factory of today would probably give a 14th Century wood carver a heart attack. Stress in the workplace and information overload are commonplace today. If you happen to work the nightshift, remember to stick your head out the door and stare at the sky now and again. Consider how small we are in the Universe, and smile. Hey! Guess what? If healthcare is a field that interests you, you can start work tomorrow! Pharmacy technician, EKG technician, and clerical are three positions currently open to high school students at University Hospital. Of course, if you have your sights set on being a brain surgeon, start hitting the books now because you’ve got about twelve years of study ahead of you that will make the last twelve feel like summer camp. But if you’re open to starting in a paid, learning position, UNM’s Allied Health Recruiter Celeste Miller wants to meet you. "We encourage high school graduates to come in and explore their options." Eligibility for the pharmacy and EKG tech positions are as close at hand as picking up study materials, studying, passing a test and you’re in. "Once you are in the system, we provide workshops and seminars to promote growth within." University Hospital also provides tuition reimbursement for anyone wanting to become a Registered Nurse or Radiologic Technologist. For more information about your future in healthcare, check out www.hospitals.unm.edu or email Celeste at csmiller@salud.unm.edu. Sidebar updates 1998-2008: Registered Nurse 3,190 (30%) 500 Therapists 2,090 (47%) 290 Licensed Practical Nurse 780 (24%) 150 Physician 700 (18%) 130 Radiologic Technologist Technician 300 (41%) 40 Pharmacist 330 (32%) 60 Emergency Medical Technician 390 (40%) 60 [end]
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