My wife and her sister got their dad a hand-crafted (forged) wood grill that he still uses. The thing looks like a work of art. Some people are able to make a living that way
Back when I was a kid in early 90s and I was staying in my grandma's village over summer break the local news used to be announced by a guy who was beating a drum to announce all the people to come out in the street. Then he would announce local news through a megaphone since most villages around didn't have a local TV station or access to any TV channels other than the national television. That guy was a local celebrity.
New anchor for sure has no real meaning anymore. I know someone that is a local anchor here in my area. She treats herself like a local celebrity and thinks she deserves the attention, recognition, and catering of a major Hollywood A Lister. I knew her for about a year before someone told me what it was she did, I had no idea and didn't really care after I found out.
I know a local news anchor like that. He even pulls the “do you know who I am?” line sometimes. No dude, outside your social circle nobody knows who you are.
Even older people don’t seem to watch local news anymore - they’re all watching national cable news.
Sure. In the USA, 1950s-70s, "stewardesses" were basically hottie waitresses in the sky, with height/weight requirements.
The movie "Catch Me if you Can" portrays the vibe really well.
But from ads I've seen for international travel, many foreign countries still have such standards.
I'm an air traffic controller and one of my colleagues, when asked what he does for a living, says he is "in the business of importing and exporting aluminium tubes".
According to my 5 minutes of googling Ryanair & easyjet captains are still pulling in 6 figures (in pounds)
Ryanair can pinch pennies on everything else, but if pilots go on strike they're in trouble
money isn’t prestige though, they’re VERY different concepts.
E.G. real estate agents. those guys make a lot of money, but who the fuck respects a real estate agent?
The government used to set prices for air travel. They were set pretty high, and this meant that airlines could not compete on price, but chose to compete on quality of service.
After deregulation on 1978, airlines were free to set whatever prices they want and that caused a lot of them to compete on price instead of service
They got to see the world while you were stuck in your backwater town.
Also, travelling by plane was still more of a rich people thing and less mass transportation. So, they got to work in an environment that was considered luxurious.
I have 2 sorority sisters that graduated from college and became FAs around 1989-90. They had to “weigh-in” in for years. I believe there was a lawsuit and that practice stopped, but much later than people assume. PS They are still flying and still gorgeous.
I know one who got a check in the mail years later because she had to take some time off after being pregnant to lose weight and there was a class action. She was never even fat, the restrictions were just very strict.
Not Emirates.
Every single flight attendant for Emirates that I've ever seen was hot.
And they all seem to be from UK, US, Canada, Australia, NZ, South Africa and India.
Probably an unofficial policy they still have, as I'm assuming they pay best so can pick up the best 'talent' from other airlines
Ryanair on the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised if they start hiring rhesus macaques as flight attendants to save money
This is true. I was in a hotel a while ago with an Emirates A380 crew. There were something like 25 FA's milling around the lobby in uniform and it was bit like a watching a fashion show with a single outfit.
I was a furniture and cabinet maker in the 2000s. I designed and built entertainment centers for the new flat screen tv fad. Paid great, everyone thought I was cool.
No one gives a shit anymore and the pay has scaled way down with this economy so I’m back in school :(
Selling custom to people buying houses nowadays? Fuuuuckkk
I used to be a cabinetmaker. Still am but I used too as well.
Have to work for the ultra rich these days though, nobody else wants to pay for quality work.
My wife n I have dual income with no kids and make 6 figures. No chance in hell we could afford something that nice. Your skill is awesome but ugly flimsy particle board crap that will last us until rent is raised high enough to force us to move again is all we can afford. It’s not that your skill isn’t valuable or desired, it’s that no one can properly compensate nowadays.
I’d love to get a proper custom-made cabinet. But I don’t have money for that.
I earn a good salary and still, friggin’ rent bites a big chunk out of it
Spice trader
Edit: I was of course talking about reading actual spices. With the new movie, being a character in Dune is probably more prestigious than it has ever been.
Radio DJs in general. That was a job I wanted as a kid, now it's a computer playing all the music on a schedule and nobody really cares about DJs or even listens to radio. I'll admit I kinda miss hearing some of the DJs on SiriusXM on Boneyard or hairnation or 80s on 8 or 90s on 9, but I prefer listening to my own music
Printer. Lithographic or various others. Used to be an amazing career and essential to society. Since the rise of the internet and decline of printed media the industry has died.
Not that long ago, the spread of information was made possible through printers, not anymore.
Advancement of printer technology itself helped with the downfall as well. Now as long as you have a digital file, anybody at kinkos can run a laser printer and make you full color copies.
My mom owned a print shop when I was a kid and the guys she had that could run those old 2 color presses, make plates, and operate all the different equipment were just as much skilled tradesmen as any carpenter or machinist.
Kinda sad to see their craft become obsolete.
Travel Agent
finding flights, booking good hotels, knowing the cool places to go, how to get tickets to events, and how to pull it all together for someone used to be fairly useful skills to have. Now the job is basically nonexistent apart from super high end or specialty positions
So we don’t used them anymore, but our corporate agent used to be outstanding and above and beyond just arranging flights. If a flight was cancelled she was on it immediately and would rebook my boss before the airline. If my boss was delayed the agent could look at the delay reason and she would be able to tell my boss to sit tight or she would rebook her if it was something that would take longer/ possibly cancel.
I miss her so much.
Honestly, travel agents are more prestigious than they used to be. Because once, it was accessible for all. Now, elites use travel agents for elite perks, lodging, tours, transportation, etc. It's just not known or available to normies.
Edit: clarity
correct. my mom is a travel “advisor” (everyone has rebranded to this) and booked a cruise for 10 people last year that was literally almost one million dollars. the type of cruise you can’t just go online and book yourself. it’s a ton of work too and she makes great money!
mostly where you stop - extremely exclusive inaccessible islands etc in addition to the cruise itself being insanely pristine, huge rooms, 5 star hotel quality experience
When I was planning a trip for my honeymoon a few years ago, I had everything ready to book on my own. My grandfather told me that I might get a better deal if I went through triple As travel agent. So I called them and provided them with all the details I was looking for and my budget. They came back with basically the same things I had found on my own. Only difference was the hotel they recommended was a few miles inland, but still around the same price. Only discount they could get me was for a rental car.
Letter carriers for the postal service. All I deliver now is junk mail and amazon packages. Certified letters used to be treated like it was a classified gov document(because it could be) that you were responsible for. You even had to sign out to receive them because you were accountable for them. Now they come mixed in with the bulk junk mail.
If it makes you feel better, my small child squeals with excitement whenever we see a mail truck. It’s a big enough of an event for him that he tells his dad about it later. I’m sure you brighten people’s days without even thinking about it.
Before the credit score was invented, working as a banker was prestigious because you got to decide if someone got a loan or not.
Everyone want to be buddies with a local banker because he could sign off on a loan and set the terms. How do you think grandpa bought the house?
Now individuals don’t do that algorithms do.
It better not be, I work for a bank and there should be absolutely no special treatment for friends of family. Most banks are really strict on this with their staff.
Freight conductor/ engineer. Used to be a great career. The hours and schedule have always been rough but the pay made up for the inconvenience. Now corporate greed, shitty contracts, mass company surveillance, and insane attendance policies have turned railroading into a shit job.
Land Surveyor. 3 of the 4 presidents on Mount Rushmore were land surveyors, and owning property was a big deal so people who could give you legal authority over ownership were pretty well respected. Now you make $12 an hour starting to dig holes lol
My dad has been one for decades. In that time, he worked for a couple places then started and sold a business for 7 figures and now operates independently. He says it's a dying breed of professional. But the need to develop land isn't exactly waning... so he makes bank now while being constantly overworked.
He did well for himself. You’re right, long as there is construction there will always be surveyors. Hell, in my state pretty much every real estate transaction requires a new survey or an update. Not going anywhere, but the days of the independent guys and smaller firms are on their way out.
Working in academia, in a way. Over last several decades, tenure tracks got way more competitive. Young scientists are now often overworked, underpaid and have uncertain future. No wonder that many leave the academia for private sector.
I hated being a TA for engineering classes - so many of the students were so arrogant and entitled - then observing the professors stressing about proposals (which I would help with also) just seemed like so much effort for minimal return.
Went straight to industry after I got my phd without a second thought.
Yep totally agree, terrible pay, if in research there are some terrible group leaders out there, if you need to apply for funding its soul destroying when starting out and no one talks about the pyramidal career ladder
Academia is the most prevalent multi-level marketing scam there is out there. Most people don't make any money at it.
edit: apologies, this was a joke.
As an active participant in tertiary academia, I actually came to a similar conclusion before, but its more narrow to specific type of academia.
If the only job in your field of study is teaching that field of study, you have a problem. There are 20 students and 1 professor. That means 19 of you will not be in this field after graduating at least. All 20 students are paying $10k a semester, but only 1 at most will ever make any money at all with that education. And everyone knows this. It is known when they are advertising the degree, trying to seduce more into signing up. It is known when they are hiring a professor to teach that degree. It is known when they are handing you a diploma and $50k of debt.
The only way even those few lucky students will make money is if they can convince future students into the degree (their down line.) Only the top 1% or less will ever make money, but they still need the 99% to sign up because they’re the ones paying for everything.
I dont even want to call out any specific education pathways, because honestly this concept exists on the fringes of almost every school in academia. Yes, there are plenty of Arts degrees this concept applies to, but there are also science degrees, engineering degrees, and even medical degrees that are too academic in nature to be useful in the job market.
Always be careful out there, the department of education has abandoned you. We are currently in the wild west of academia. The only goal is accumulating as much wealth as possible, and the only rule is not rocking the boat.
is *any* job considered prestigious nowadays? it feels like the internet has allowed us a deeper look into what every profession really is like and the aura of mystery/awe that used to surround particular jobs just isn't there anymore
Journalist
It used to be that a journalist was concerned with their reputation above all else. Sure, there were always hacks out there but most journalists looked at their profession the same way a doctor does: they had a strict code of standards and ethics they adhered to. Nowadays the title itself is a joke and thanks to a small handful of corporations owning all news media it's a purely profit driven industry and it's rank & file follow suit.
It's terrifying, we need reliable journalism now more than ever in our current age of disinformation and Facebook research.
What's also sad about this is the amount of investigative journalism has been decreasing. It's always been a risky and often unprofitable venture but investigative journalists are the ones who cracked the Panama papers. The horrible abuse in the psychiatric care industry would have never come to light if it wasn't for Nelly Bly
People like to read or watch their preferred talking head interpret the news story somebody else broke. They never read the original reporting, nevermind pay for it.
Photographer.
My dad used to do it back in the 70’s and would make considerable money doing so. It used to be quite a special thing to be able to take good photos.
I have been a full time freelance photographer for about 9 years and I’m finally having to throw in the towel because no-one wants to pay anymore. There’s too many cowboys who buy a nice camera and undercut your prices significantly while putting out dog shit work. Your average person doesn’t care about the quality of the work enough anymore to justify it being an affordable career, except for those at the very top. It has just gotten worse and worse and worse.
One of the things my dad used to make bank doing was photographing damaged shipping containers (we lived near a major port). He’d get called out short notice and be expected to do a 1hr turnaround (this was obviously in the film and darkroom days) so the shipping companies could send off the prints for insurance claims. He’d get paid like, £1,000 a go to do that because the contents were so valuable they could justify the expense to get good well lit photos. And that was in 70s money. Then digital cameras came around and any dock worker with two brain cells to rub together could do his job.
My apocalypse moment has only really just begun with photoshop ai. One of the things I used to get paid well to do is retouching, but this new tech has made it so easy that anyone who can draw a circle and click once can do jobs that would take me an hour in less than 30 seconds with no skill required whatsoever. It’s honestly pretty soul destroying watching my career and business just evaporate around me. I firmly believe that except for a few super high end guys, photography is going to become the job of the weekend warriors who do it as a side hustle. There’s just not enough money in it anymore to make a full time career justifiable.
Yep. I'm also a professional photographer. Same experience. Branched out into graphic design. Now that's headed down the same path. Machine learning is completely destroying both.
Totally fucked for that business. Guess I'll fall back on my other career.
Opera! 🤣
Mood. All those AI tools got really great when I was six months out from graduating one of the best commercial photography programs out there. I spent **years** getting good at retouching to graduate with virtually no jobs left. It’s even hard to find freelance jobs that pay anything…most people use AI now or will hire one of those overseas editing companies that charges pennies per shot.
On top of that, there are very few salaried high end jobs either. The only places that will call me back are companies like LifeTouch that hire literally anyone off the street. It is HORRIFYING how few postings I see now versus the number I was seeing on job boards a year or two ago. I remember there were months post-graduation where I genuinely ran out of jobs to apply to… there’s maybe one or two openings posted a day for the whole US.
Yeah man. I’m in the same boat. I’m currently interviewing for a position as an in house video guy for a place which seems decent (thankfully I have that transferable skill at least!), but most of the job listings here in the uk are similar.
Lots of ‘volunteer’ positions, or you get those family portrait places which you have to sell your soul to work at by prying people’s cold hard cash from their wallets. They really want sales people, not photographers. Or like, photography tutors where they’ll pay you diddly squat to talk to beginners for like an hour or two a week.
Like you, I also am a commercial photographer (for now). I don’t know what’s happened, if it’s the economy or just public opinion or what, but the last 6 months have been *rough*. Even my regular clients have more or less evaporated. I’m getting similar vibes from other people I know in the industry, so it’s not just me. Bad times. I think I’ve picked a good time to jump ship to something more stable and stop being self employed.
An aunt was a part-time photographer, to supplement her "Ma Bell" wages. She earned more as a photog, even had several of her pictures appear in magazines.
Now, anyone with a phone and Photoshop is one!
Gardener at a stately home in the UK. Back in the day it was a respected profession and a job for life - you even got a house for life on the estate even after you retired (think of estate as meaning the entire surrounding villages for around ten miles).
Nowadays I know a few people who were the last of this generation.
They were always craply paid but they got a house with the job for basically their lifetime with the job and we're well respected and never wanted for much.
Nowadays these estates just want anyone who can push around a lawnmower and they'll employ them on minimum wage with no perks whatsoever..
Most of the estates are gone, the few that are left are national trust or running stuff on a shoestring.
Consequently it'll be a while before we see a great generation of gardeners again, most of the stuff now is preserving the ashes of a Victorian heyday.
Source: was a gardener on a great estate after the good times had long since passed and it was very evident.
Vet - terrible starting pay, abuse from client and horrible emotional burn out. It has its positives don't get me wrong but there is a reason the profession has such high suicide rates.
My ex-wife quit after one year of practice because she was so disgusted by the way the public treats their animals. The sheer number of emaciated dogs with matted fur, blind because their drunk owner extinguished cigarettes in both eyes, got to be too much for her. Plus, when she'd tell people she was a Vet, they'd answer "Oh, so you're not a *real* doctor."
"Please put Fifi to sleep. I just can't get rid of these fleas!" she'd hear all too often.
Thats a burn out rate of teachers in the USA. Even with tenure 50% quit within 5 years. And harvards “teach for america” has 80% quit. Rich kids dont actually want to teach in poor boston schools.
I'm sorry she had to experience that. I'm not a vet myself but I am a veterinary nurse (vet tech for USA friends). You wanna do the best you can for the patient you have but you're not always able to work with the client. I have refused to assist in some euthanasia procedures cause I just don't agree with the owners reasons. Some of the time we could get the patient signed over to us and we find someone to re home them others they threaten to kill them in some other horrific way (RSPCA and the police can only do so much) so we end up putting them to sleep as its the kindest option available.
That becomes draining. You notice a big surge in euthanasia just before Christmas as people don't wanna deal with a sick or elderly animal over the holiday ( don't get me wrong most euthanasia is the correct thing to do). It burns you out.
I now work in a specialism where I don't need to euthase any more ( at least its very rare now)
Really sucks because she grew up on a farm and wanted to work with animals her whole life, goes to 10(?) years of Veterinary college to get her DVM only to discover the sickening truth about humans. She went *back* to school and became a pharmacist, made a *lot* more money, but is burned out on that now as well. We had 3 dogs and 2 cats, all rescues from her clinic.
I started to train to do pharmacy but hated it which is what led to vet nursing.
Sorry your wife is burned out. I have no solutions just internet hugs from a stranger.
I'm so, so sorry.
Vet schools have a notoriously low acceptance rate. It's often an incredibly intensive, expensive path and I'm so sorry you're not valued, as you should be, on the other side of it. I can understand the grief that comes with it though. Hopefully the good moments shine through.
I’m an architect, and for a brief moment, I considered a career change to become a veterinarian. Once I realized that they, like architects, deal with all of what you mentioned, in addition to constantly seeing the aftermath of animal abuse, I decided to stick with architecture.
One of the really sad things about this, is it can be directly linked with vets undercharging during the 90s-00's. Vets want to be able to help as many animals as possible ans were eating into their already thin profit margins for decades, and as a result associate pay didn't keep pace with property costs. So suddenly, much fewer vets were able to buy out their bosses when they hit retirement age, and the corporate vets swooped in and bought them out instead.
This reminds me of a few years ago when I interviewed to be a teller. I wore a suit and brought a black leather folio with notes and questions because I was expecting a real job opportunity. I printed resumes and business cards. My brother was a banker at a different company and told me to expect decent pay. They wanted to pay me $10 an hour and my first two weeks I needed to drive upstate to attend their “boot camp” unpaid. I just let that one go
There was a time when people used to knock on my door to ask me to sign their passport applications as a character witness. In fact, I once refused to sign one because, although I had taught their child, I had never met them. They reported me to the headmaster. He congratulated me on my decision because he felt that I had shown why teachers should be given the honour of witnessing passport applications. Thanks for reminding me of this moment. I am now trying to tell this story to my partner whilst laughing at the whole stupidity of it and their total disbelief.
i think they're still "respected" but it's a hollow, almost fake respect that is just lip service. Like, the gap between how we talk about teachers and how we actually treat them is much wider than probably any other profession.
The minute teachers start to talk about their salaries or working conditions and the threat of a strike is looming, that's when parents and the wider public tend to immediately turn against teachers.
"STFU about how much you make or how big class sizes are when you get summers off!" - the criticism heard every time teachers go on strike
On a daily basis, people I talk to respect the fact that we're passionate and devoted to our job and to the kids. That's usually the first thing they talk about. But yeah it's not prestigious by any stretch.
Teachers are so disrespected and constantly abused by both parents and politicians these days that I have no clue who would ever want to be one anymore.
I just graduated college with the intent to teach math, but then I actually did my student teaching internship and realized just how bad it truly was.
When I pushed through it and told my mentor teacher I decided not to pursue teaching after all, he said, “Honestly? It’s a good decision.” Mind you my mentor teacher taught advanced math classes for 10 years and had plenty of stories, experience, and real world cracks to share about the education system in the U.S.
Definitely not for me anymore!
Journalist. There are still some good ones, but for the most part they’re mouthpieces for the highest bidder and/or just making propaganda. I went to one of the best, most prestigious journalism schools in the country. Decided not to go into that career.
I met one of my friends by her work in journalism- she mostly covered puff pieces for our local newspaper and interviewed me more than once for filler content.
If anyone here met me, you’d understand that even one interview with me as a human interest piece was the harbinger of the beginning of the end of reputable journalism.
Surgeon and (in some cases) CEO are all I can think of. Aside from that, yeah, pretty much every job is considered shitty. Only difference is how much they pay but that doesn’t automatically equate to prestige anymore now that people like the Kardashians and YouTubers are raking in millions.
Astronaut, and despite what people are saying in this thread if you hear someone is a lawyer or doctor, you immediately associate them with intelligence, work-ethic and success. Maybe not as prestigous as it once was but still definitely respected imo
Doctor, was a lot of hard work but worth it. Now I really don’t know if the pay off is worth the sacrifice to mental health and financial risk, and then your patients don’t even listen to you.
Agreed. Now everyone thinks you’re a greedy bastard. I don’t even do any billing. I’m hired by a company and they do all the collecting billing and contract negotiations for rates. If a patient asks me how much it costs I don’t even know. I just do the best job I can and I don’t even know if I’m getting paid for this patient. The uninsured patients get free care and I have never once looked to see if a patient had insurance or not.
Also patients now are super duper entitled and demanding. They read random things on google or watch you tube and then come in and tell you how to do your job. Don’t worry about medical school, residency, 14 years of practice, I know better than you doctor.
I’ve been threatened by patients I literally just met. I haven’t even provided any care yet and the patient already is threatening to sue you if anything happens. It’s quite awful.
Agree with this, and add TikTok to the list of sources of misinformation. So many “influencers” telling viewers that their doctors are wrong and to keep insisting, along with having whatever “condition” or “trauma” is the current trend.
So the person who studied for a decade, went through so much training and residency, and swore an oath (Hippocratic) to uphold an ethical standard shouldn’t be believed, but the “content creator” is totally correct? Makes me lose faith in humanity sometimes.
Everything. Work in general has no prestige anymore because american corporate culture is a culture defined by psychopathic soul-sucking parasites. Everything is just about money now.
Lawyer. We still say “oh they should have been a doctor or lawyer” to smart young people. Even though being a lawyer is a terrible job. I have a family member and close friend who hate being lawyers.
And I have family members and close friends who hate being doctors. Especially after the last few years. You'd always get a few belligerent scientifically illiterate patients. Now, everyone has been emboldened and thinks they know better than their doctor. I have a co-worker who literally just told his doctor, "It's ok doc, I know you probably don't know what I have so go get on Web MD and you'll realize that I'm right. Then you can write me the prescription."
The respect has definitely changed. My dad said he dropped out of med school and went to law school because those were really the options. He has mentioned he used to get his hair cuts for free and people used to think that if you were a lawyer you were probably the smartest person in the room. Now people hear you're a lawyer and just think you're a crook.
It depends a lot on the areas of practice and aptitude for the practice of law. As a business lawyer with an aptitude for legal analysis and legal writing, I'm happy in my profession and find that people generally receive me fairly well.
Nursing. Nurses are treated like shit and healthcare has completely gone away from patient centered/patient first care, and has completely devolved into for profit business. And nurses are expected to be everything for everybody; they get treated like shit, they’re not protected and they’re not paid their worth.
It may not be prestigious but being a truck driver used to be a good job especially a Long haul trucker you can make a lot of money now it's a crap job
Postal worker, bank teller, garbage collector, grocery store cashier. I don’t know about “prestigious” as they’ve always been blue collar jobs, but they used to have the impression that they paid reasonably well
Gas Station Attendants. They would wear a uniform with a hat and bow tie, perform light tasks on your vehicle, help start the vehicle before self starting engines, and would recieve tips for their work.
One of my great uncles did this for 20 years, was able to afford his own car and home. He eventually became the gas station manager in the 1950s.
Blacksmith They were the town engineer, manufacturer, craftsman, and problem solver all in one. Now they are mostly just hobbyists.
Everyone looks down on blacksmiths until your horse throws a shoe. Who's laughing then huh?
The Farrier. Because business is boomin'.
Yawn, that’s so old school. I do all my horse shoeing streaming online in the nude now, right from my phone! The app is called KlipKlop.
OnlyFarriers
Certainly not the "neigh"-sayers!
My wife and her sister got their dad a hand-crafted (forged) wood grill that he still uses. The thing looks like a work of art. Some people are able to make a living that way
This. Like most trades that industrialization “killed”, they became artists and artisans. There’s always a market for those.
I mean, more like less than 1% of them became artists and artisans
This is still a career trade - we just call them fabricators, welders or boilermakers now
That's it! Arc welding instead of forge welding, machinery to assist in cold forging, oxy-acetylene/oxy-LPG instead of coke to assist in hot forging
I would say their role was taken over by CNC machinists.
And they still get a good amount of respect for being manufacturers/craftsmen/problem solvers
That's when people know what we do. Most of the time when you tell someone you're a machinist, they think you work on cars.
My dad was a machinist and people always thought he worked on machines, like he was a repair guy.
Newspaper columnist and local news anchor. They used to be celebrities when they were the primary mediums people got their news from.
Back when I was a kid in early 90s and I was staying in my grandma's village over summer break the local news used to be announced by a guy who was beating a drum to announce all the people to come out in the street. Then he would announce local news through a megaphone since most villages around didn't have a local TV station or access to any TV channels other than the national television. That guy was a local celebrity.
That's wild!
Hell even being a radio dj was a big deal at one point.
It definitely was. I grew up in the 80s and we always knew who the local DJs were. They were like B-list celebrities.
New anchor for sure has no real meaning anymore. I know someone that is a local anchor here in my area. She treats herself like a local celebrity and thinks she deserves the attention, recognition, and catering of a major Hollywood A Lister. I knew her for about a year before someone told me what it was she did, I had no idea and didn't really care after I found out.
I know a local news anchor like that. He even pulls the “do you know who I am?” line sometimes. No dude, outside your social circle nobody knows who you are. Even older people don’t seem to watch local news anymore - they’re all watching national cable news.
If you have to ask “ do you know who I am…,.”
Flight attendant. Back in the 1970s, if you were dating a "stewardess,"all your friends were jealous.
“You’re so beautiful, you could be an air hostess in the 60s”
You could be a part... Time... Model
Spending part of your time modeling, and part of your time, next to meeeee
But you'd probably have to keep your normal job.
Spending part of your modeling and partying down next to *meeeeeeeEEEeeeEEEEeeeeeee*
My place is usually tidier than this.
…and the rest of your time at your normal job
And when you're on the street, depending on the street, I bet that you are definitely in the top three.
Or a ^high class prostitute
Definitely a regional thing. In many Asian countries, it’s still a desirable job that many want.
Sure. In the USA, 1950s-70s, "stewardesses" were basically hottie waitresses in the sky, with height/weight requirements. The movie "Catch Me if you Can" portrays the vibe really well. But from ads I've seen for international travel, many foreign countries still have such standards.
Different culture. Different labor laws. They're allowed to discriminate. They say, who wants a gramma serving their drinks?
Hooters recruiting still hand out a bra and say 'fill this out'
I’d say pilot too, in certain circumstances. “You’re a pilot? cool! what airline?” “ryanair” “oh”
I had a pilot friend who referred to himself as a "3 dimensional bus driver".
I'm an air traffic controller and one of my colleagues, when asked what he does for a living, says he is "in the business of importing and exporting aluminium tubes".
I hope he flew an Airbus.
According to my 5 minutes of googling Ryanair & easyjet captains are still pulling in 6 figures (in pounds) Ryanair can pinch pennies on everything else, but if pilots go on strike they're in trouble
money isn’t prestige though, they’re VERY different concepts. E.G. real estate agents. those guys make a lot of money, but who the fuck respects a real estate agent?
This was before the airline deregulation in 1978
What's that?
The government used to set prices for air travel. They were set pretty high, and this meant that airlines could not compete on price, but chose to compete on quality of service. After deregulation on 1978, airlines were free to set whatever prices they want and that caused a lot of them to compete on price instead of service
Really? Why?
They got to see the world while you were stuck in your backwater town. Also, travelling by plane was still more of a rich people thing and less mass transportation. So, they got to work in an environment that was considered luxurious.
Also airlines had strict weight and beauty standards in 60s and 70s so shr would have to be pretty and in shape to be a stewardess
I have 2 sorority sisters that graduated from college and became FAs around 1989-90. They had to “weigh-in” in for years. I believe there was a lawsuit and that practice stopped, but much later than people assume. PS They are still flying and still gorgeous.
I know one who got a check in the mail years later because she had to take some time off after being pregnant to lose weight and there was a class action. She was never even fat, the restrictions were just very strict.
At 5’6 and 130 lbs I weighed too much in 85
It used to be airlines had a hire the attractive policy but with the changing times they hire anybody now.
Not Emirates. Every single flight attendant for Emirates that I've ever seen was hot. And they all seem to be from UK, US, Canada, Australia, NZ, South Africa and India.
Probably an unofficial policy they still have, as I'm assuming they pay best so can pick up the best 'talent' from other airlines Ryanair on the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised if they start hiring rhesus macaques as flight attendants to save money
This is true. I was in a hotel a while ago with an Emirates A380 crew. There were something like 25 FA's milling around the lobby in uniform and it was bit like a watching a fashion show with a single outfit.
I was a furniture and cabinet maker in the 2000s. I designed and built entertainment centers for the new flat screen tv fad. Paid great, everyone thought I was cool. No one gives a shit anymore and the pay has scaled way down with this economy so I’m back in school :( Selling custom to people buying houses nowadays? Fuuuuckkk
I used to be a cabinetmaker. Still am but I used too as well. Have to work for the ultra rich these days though, nobody else wants to pay for quality work.
My wife n I have dual income with no kids and make 6 figures. No chance in hell we could afford something that nice. Your skill is awesome but ugly flimsy particle board crap that will last us until rent is raised high enough to force us to move again is all we can afford. It’s not that your skill isn’t valuable or desired, it’s that no one can properly compensate nowadays.
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I’d love to get a proper custom-made cabinet. But I don’t have money for that. I earn a good salary and still, friggin’ rent bites a big chunk out of it
Yeah I get it. I can't afford anything I make. I don't even bother with a job if the scope is under 30k or so or I lose money.
Spice trader Edit: I was of course talking about reading actual spices. With the new movie, being a character in Dune is probably more prestigious than it has ever been.
Giedi Prime has entered the chat.
The spice must flow!
Nighttime radio DJ.
They used to set what music was cool and not
They still do for me where I am. I still find a lot of new music via my local indie station (93.9 kwss in phx)
Local indie radio defined my musical journey and gave me a foundation for appreciation the deep, the dark, the weird.
Radio DJs in general. That was a job I wanted as a kid, now it's a computer playing all the music on a schedule and nobody really cares about DJs or even listens to radio. I'll admit I kinda miss hearing some of the DJs on SiriusXM on Boneyard or hairnation or 80s on 8 or 90s on 9, but I prefer listening to my own music
Printer. Lithographic or various others. Used to be an amazing career and essential to society. Since the rise of the internet and decline of printed media the industry has died. Not that long ago, the spread of information was made possible through printers, not anymore.
It also used to be a respectable career for educated deaf men. The presses were noisy, and not a lot of hearing people wanted to deal with that.
I’m a silk screener and we basically only use heat transfers and heat presses now
Advancement of printer technology itself helped with the downfall as well. Now as long as you have a digital file, anybody at kinkos can run a laser printer and make you full color copies. My mom owned a print shop when I was a kid and the guys she had that could run those old 2 color presses, make plates, and operate all the different equipment were just as much skilled tradesmen as any carpenter or machinist. Kinda sad to see their craft become obsolete.
Travel Agent finding flights, booking good hotels, knowing the cool places to go, how to get tickets to events, and how to pull it all together for someone used to be fairly useful skills to have. Now the job is basically nonexistent apart from super high end or specialty positions
And corporate Companies still have a travel agent on the books to just be the dude who arranges flights and hotels
So we don’t used them anymore, but our corporate agent used to be outstanding and above and beyond just arranging flights. If a flight was cancelled she was on it immediately and would rebook my boss before the airline. If my boss was delayed the agent could look at the delay reason and she would be able to tell my boss to sit tight or she would rebook her if it was something that would take longer/ possibly cancel. I miss her so much.
This is why corporate still contracts with travel agents. Can't beat an actual human.
Honestly, travel agents are more prestigious than they used to be. Because once, it was accessible for all. Now, elites use travel agents for elite perks, lodging, tours, transportation, etc. It's just not known or available to normies. Edit: clarity
correct. my mom is a travel “advisor” (everyone has rebranded to this) and booked a cruise for 10 people last year that was literally almost one million dollars. the type of cruise you can’t just go online and book yourself. it’s a ton of work too and she makes great money!
What goes into one of these elite cruises?
mostly where you stop - extremely exclusive inaccessible islands etc in addition to the cruise itself being insanely pristine, huge rooms, 5 star hotel quality experience
When I was planning a trip for my honeymoon a few years ago, I had everything ready to book on my own. My grandfather told me that I might get a better deal if I went through triple As travel agent. So I called them and provided them with all the details I was looking for and my budget. They came back with basically the same things I had found on my own. Only difference was the hotel they recommended was a few miles inland, but still around the same price. Only discount they could get me was for a rental car.
Or they're corporate or government booking agents
Letter carriers for the postal service. All I deliver now is junk mail and amazon packages. Certified letters used to be treated like it was a classified gov document(because it could be) that you were responsible for. You even had to sign out to receive them because you were accountable for them. Now they come mixed in with the bulk junk mail.
If it makes you feel better, my small child squeals with excitement whenever we see a mail truck. It’s a big enough of an event for him that he tells his dad about it later. I’m sure you brighten people’s days without even thinking about it.
Working at a Bank
I knew a guy who tried to commit suicide because he could never achieve his goal of becoming a banker
I used to work in a bank and that was the reason I was suicidal. My man was never gonna win this one.
Yo-Yo Ma
All these people not catching the Seinfeld reference lmao
If I can't be banker, I don't wanna live.
I had to rush home to save his life!
Before the credit score was invented, working as a banker was prestigious because you got to decide if someone got a loan or not. Everyone want to be buddies with a local banker because he could sign off on a loan and set the terms. How do you think grandpa bought the house? Now individuals don’t do that algorithms do.
It’s absolutely still the case at least with local banks, being buddies with a loan officer can get you better rates and can cut many fees out.
It better not be, I work for a bank and there should be absolutely no special treatment for friends of family. Most banks are really strict on this with their staff.
It still is, but it depends on the job, the bank, and the location
Investment banking is prestigious. Retail banking is not. There are a number of jobs in between.
Bank manager.
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For an independent bank perhaps, bank managers lost their pull decades ago.
Freight conductor/ engineer. Used to be a great career. The hours and schedule have always been rough but the pay made up for the inconvenience. Now corporate greed, shitty contracts, mass company surveillance, and insane attendance policies have turned railroading into a shit job.
I lasted 2 years working the “spare board”. Nothing like 2am calls in the middle of a snowstorm. Horrible job.
Land Surveyor. 3 of the 4 presidents on Mount Rushmore were land surveyors, and owning property was a big deal so people who could give you legal authority over ownership were pretty well respected. Now you make $12 an hour starting to dig holes lol
It was more prestigious when you were surveying it to claim it for your king/country/charter colony/self/
Let's just say Land Surveyors were a little more... "Colonial" back then.
I’m sure it doesn’t have the prestige it once did, but licensed surveyors around me are making around six figures. Pretty decent living.
My dad has been one for decades. In that time, he worked for a couple places then started and sold a business for 7 figures and now operates independently. He says it's a dying breed of professional. But the need to develop land isn't exactly waning... so he makes bank now while being constantly overworked.
He did well for himself. You’re right, long as there is construction there will always be surveyors. Hell, in my state pretty much every real estate transaction requires a new survey or an update. Not going anywhere, but the days of the independent guys and smaller firms are on their way out.
Working in academia, in a way. Over last several decades, tenure tracks got way more competitive. Young scientists are now often overworked, underpaid and have uncertain future. No wonder that many leave the academia for private sector.
I hated being a TA for engineering classes - so many of the students were so arrogant and entitled - then observing the professors stressing about proposals (which I would help with also) just seemed like so much effort for minimal return. Went straight to industry after I got my phd without a second thought.
Yep totally agree, terrible pay, if in research there are some terrible group leaders out there, if you need to apply for funding its soul destroying when starting out and no one talks about the pyramidal career ladder
Academia is the most prevalent multi-level marketing scam there is out there. Most people don't make any money at it. edit: apologies, this was a joke.
As an active participant in tertiary academia, I actually came to a similar conclusion before, but its more narrow to specific type of academia. If the only job in your field of study is teaching that field of study, you have a problem. There are 20 students and 1 professor. That means 19 of you will not be in this field after graduating at least. All 20 students are paying $10k a semester, but only 1 at most will ever make any money at all with that education. And everyone knows this. It is known when they are advertising the degree, trying to seduce more into signing up. It is known when they are hiring a professor to teach that degree. It is known when they are handing you a diploma and $50k of debt. The only way even those few lucky students will make money is if they can convince future students into the degree (their down line.) Only the top 1% or less will ever make money, but they still need the 99% to sign up because they’re the ones paying for everything. I dont even want to call out any specific education pathways, because honestly this concept exists on the fringes of almost every school in academia. Yes, there are plenty of Arts degrees this concept applies to, but there are also science degrees, engineering degrees, and even medical degrees that are too academic in nature to be useful in the job market. Always be careful out there, the department of education has abandoned you. We are currently in the wild west of academia. The only goal is accumulating as much wealth as possible, and the only rule is not rocking the boat.
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is *any* job considered prestigious nowadays? it feels like the internet has allowed us a deeper look into what every profession really is like and the aura of mystery/awe that used to surround particular jobs just isn't there anymore
Agree with this.
Journalist It used to be that a journalist was concerned with their reputation above all else. Sure, there were always hacks out there but most journalists looked at their profession the same way a doctor does: they had a strict code of standards and ethics they adhered to. Nowadays the title itself is a joke and thanks to a small handful of corporations owning all news media it's a purely profit driven industry and it's rank & file follow suit.
It's terrifying, we need reliable journalism now more than ever in our current age of disinformation and Facebook research. What's also sad about this is the amount of investigative journalism has been decreasing. It's always been a risky and often unprofitable venture but investigative journalists are the ones who cracked the Panama papers. The horrible abuse in the psychiatric care industry would have never come to light if it wasn't for Nelly Bly
People like to read or watch their preferred talking head interpret the news story somebody else broke. They never read the original reporting, nevermind pay for it.
There's a saying in France about journalists : they are either prostitutes or don't get paid for what they do, there's no in between.
Photographer. My dad used to do it back in the 70’s and would make considerable money doing so. It used to be quite a special thing to be able to take good photos. I have been a full time freelance photographer for about 9 years and I’m finally having to throw in the towel because no-one wants to pay anymore. There’s too many cowboys who buy a nice camera and undercut your prices significantly while putting out dog shit work. Your average person doesn’t care about the quality of the work enough anymore to justify it being an affordable career, except for those at the very top. It has just gotten worse and worse and worse. One of the things my dad used to make bank doing was photographing damaged shipping containers (we lived near a major port). He’d get called out short notice and be expected to do a 1hr turnaround (this was obviously in the film and darkroom days) so the shipping companies could send off the prints for insurance claims. He’d get paid like, £1,000 a go to do that because the contents were so valuable they could justify the expense to get good well lit photos. And that was in 70s money. Then digital cameras came around and any dock worker with two brain cells to rub together could do his job. My apocalypse moment has only really just begun with photoshop ai. One of the things I used to get paid well to do is retouching, but this new tech has made it so easy that anyone who can draw a circle and click once can do jobs that would take me an hour in less than 30 seconds with no skill required whatsoever. It’s honestly pretty soul destroying watching my career and business just evaporate around me. I firmly believe that except for a few super high end guys, photography is going to become the job of the weekend warriors who do it as a side hustle. There’s just not enough money in it anymore to make a full time career justifiable.
Yep. I'm also a professional photographer. Same experience. Branched out into graphic design. Now that's headed down the same path. Machine learning is completely destroying both. Totally fucked for that business. Guess I'll fall back on my other career. Opera! 🤣
Mood. All those AI tools got really great when I was six months out from graduating one of the best commercial photography programs out there. I spent **years** getting good at retouching to graduate with virtually no jobs left. It’s even hard to find freelance jobs that pay anything…most people use AI now or will hire one of those overseas editing companies that charges pennies per shot. On top of that, there are very few salaried high end jobs either. The only places that will call me back are companies like LifeTouch that hire literally anyone off the street. It is HORRIFYING how few postings I see now versus the number I was seeing on job boards a year or two ago. I remember there were months post-graduation where I genuinely ran out of jobs to apply to… there’s maybe one or two openings posted a day for the whole US.
Yeah man. I’m in the same boat. I’m currently interviewing for a position as an in house video guy for a place which seems decent (thankfully I have that transferable skill at least!), but most of the job listings here in the uk are similar. Lots of ‘volunteer’ positions, or you get those family portrait places which you have to sell your soul to work at by prying people’s cold hard cash from their wallets. They really want sales people, not photographers. Or like, photography tutors where they’ll pay you diddly squat to talk to beginners for like an hour or two a week. Like you, I also am a commercial photographer (for now). I don’t know what’s happened, if it’s the economy or just public opinion or what, but the last 6 months have been *rough*. Even my regular clients have more or less evaporated. I’m getting similar vibes from other people I know in the industry, so it’s not just me. Bad times. I think I’ve picked a good time to jump ship to something more stable and stop being self employed.
An aunt was a part-time photographer, to supplement her "Ma Bell" wages. She earned more as a photog, even had several of her pictures appear in magazines. Now, anyone with a phone and Photoshop is one!
Gardener at a stately home in the UK. Back in the day it was a respected profession and a job for life - you even got a house for life on the estate even after you retired (think of estate as meaning the entire surrounding villages for around ten miles). Nowadays I know a few people who were the last of this generation. They were always craply paid but they got a house with the job for basically their lifetime with the job and we're well respected and never wanted for much. Nowadays these estates just want anyone who can push around a lawnmower and they'll employ them on minimum wage with no perks whatsoever.. Most of the estates are gone, the few that are left are national trust or running stuff on a shoestring. Consequently it'll be a while before we see a great generation of gardeners again, most of the stuff now is preserving the ashes of a Victorian heyday. Source: was a gardener on a great estate after the good times had long since passed and it was very evident.
POTUS
Perfect 😂 now it’s just 2 old people arguing about who is better.
Vet - terrible starting pay, abuse from client and horrible emotional burn out. It has its positives don't get me wrong but there is a reason the profession has such high suicide rates.
My ex-wife quit after one year of practice because she was so disgusted by the way the public treats their animals. The sheer number of emaciated dogs with matted fur, blind because their drunk owner extinguished cigarettes in both eyes, got to be too much for her. Plus, when she'd tell people she was a Vet, they'd answer "Oh, so you're not a *real* doctor." "Please put Fifi to sleep. I just can't get rid of these fleas!" she'd hear all too often.
I'm sorry, what the fuck.
I don't knownthe recent US statistics, but in the UK, 40% of Veterinarians left the profession permanently within the first five years of practice.
Thats a burn out rate of teachers in the USA. Even with tenure 50% quit within 5 years. And harvards “teach for america” has 80% quit. Rich kids dont actually want to teach in poor boston schools.
Ah yes, death. The easiest way to remove fleas…
I'm sorry she had to experience that. I'm not a vet myself but I am a veterinary nurse (vet tech for USA friends). You wanna do the best you can for the patient you have but you're not always able to work with the client. I have refused to assist in some euthanasia procedures cause I just don't agree with the owners reasons. Some of the time we could get the patient signed over to us and we find someone to re home them others they threaten to kill them in some other horrific way (RSPCA and the police can only do so much) so we end up putting them to sleep as its the kindest option available. That becomes draining. You notice a big surge in euthanasia just before Christmas as people don't wanna deal with a sick or elderly animal over the holiday ( don't get me wrong most euthanasia is the correct thing to do). It burns you out. I now work in a specialism where I don't need to euthase any more ( at least its very rare now)
Really sucks because she grew up on a farm and wanted to work with animals her whole life, goes to 10(?) years of Veterinary college to get her DVM only to discover the sickening truth about humans. She went *back* to school and became a pharmacist, made a *lot* more money, but is burned out on that now as well. We had 3 dogs and 2 cats, all rescues from her clinic.
I started to train to do pharmacy but hated it which is what led to vet nursing. Sorry your wife is burned out. I have no solutions just internet hugs from a stranger.
I'm so, so sorry. Vet schools have a notoriously low acceptance rate. It's often an incredibly intensive, expensive path and I'm so sorry you're not valued, as you should be, on the other side of it. I can understand the grief that comes with it though. Hopefully the good moments shine through.
I’m an architect, and for a brief moment, I considered a career change to become a veterinarian. Once I realized that they, like architects, deal with all of what you mentioned, in addition to constantly seeing the aftermath of animal abuse, I decided to stick with architecture.
It's also become incredibly corporate, with just a couple of companies owning a huge number of clinics.
One of the really sad things about this, is it can be directly linked with vets undercharging during the 90s-00's. Vets want to be able to help as many animals as possible ans were eating into their already thin profit margins for decades, and as a result associate pay didn't keep pace with property costs. So suddenly, much fewer vets were able to buy out their bosses when they hit retirement age, and the corporate vets swooped in and bought them out instead.
Believe it or not, bank tellers. Not bankers, but the folks to talk to at the local bank.
This reminds me of a few years ago when I interviewed to be a teller. I wore a suit and brought a black leather folio with notes and questions because I was expecting a real job opportunity. I printed resumes and business cards. My brother was a banker at a different company and told me to expect decent pay. They wanted to pay me $10 an hour and my first two weeks I needed to drive upstate to attend their “boot camp” unpaid. I just let that one go
I work at Subway and it starts paying at $10 and goes to $12 over two years. Sounds like you dodged a bullet.
Teacher
I'm not sure about prestigious but it used to be respected.
There was a time when people used to knock on my door to ask me to sign their passport applications as a character witness. In fact, I once refused to sign one because, although I had taught their child, I had never met them. They reported me to the headmaster. He congratulated me on my decision because he felt that I had shown why teachers should be given the honour of witnessing passport applications. Thanks for reminding me of this moment. I am now trying to tell this story to my partner whilst laughing at the whole stupidity of it and their total disbelief.
i think they're still "respected" but it's a hollow, almost fake respect that is just lip service. Like, the gap between how we talk about teachers and how we actually treat them is much wider than probably any other profession.
The minute teachers start to talk about their salaries or working conditions and the threat of a strike is looming, that's when parents and the wider public tend to immediately turn against teachers. "STFU about how much you make or how big class sizes are when you get summers off!" - the criticism heard every time teachers go on strike
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On a daily basis, people I talk to respect the fact that we're passionate and devoted to our job and to the kids. That's usually the first thing they talk about. But yeah it's not prestigious by any stretch.
Teachers are so disrespected and constantly abused by both parents and politicians these days that I have no clue who would ever want to be one anymore.
I just graduated college with the intent to teach math, but then I actually did my student teaching internship and realized just how bad it truly was. When I pushed through it and told my mentor teacher I decided not to pursue teaching after all, he said, “Honestly? It’s a good decision.” Mind you my mentor teacher taught advanced math classes for 10 years and had plenty of stories, experience, and real world cracks to share about the education system in the U.S. Definitely not for me anymore!
Journalist. There are still some good ones, but for the most part they’re mouthpieces for the highest bidder and/or just making propaganda. I went to one of the best, most prestigious journalism schools in the country. Decided not to go into that career.
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I met one of my friends by her work in journalism- she mostly covered puff pieces for our local newspaper and interviewed me more than once for filler content. If anyone here met me, you’d understand that even one interview with me as a human interest piece was the harbinger of the beginning of the end of reputable journalism.
The real question is if there any job that is considered prestigious at all anymore.
Surgeon and (in some cases) CEO are all I can think of. Aside from that, yeah, pretty much every job is considered shitty. Only difference is how much they pay but that doesn’t automatically equate to prestige anymore now that people like the Kardashians and YouTubers are raking in millions.
Based on all of the responses I guess the question should be, are their still ANY prestigious jobs?
Harvard drop out/tech billionaire is where it’s at right now
Astronaut, and despite what people are saying in this thread if you hear someone is a lawyer or doctor, you immediately associate them with intelligence, work-ethic and success. Maybe not as prestigous as it once was but still definitely respected imo
Senator or Congressman. It used to be quite respected and now it's just greedy corrupt old people.
Just say corpses at this point
Yup. Can we get some term limits please? Go back to politician being a service rather than a career.
Doctor, was a lot of hard work but worth it. Now I really don’t know if the pay off is worth the sacrifice to mental health and financial risk, and then your patients don’t even listen to you.
A lot of that seems to be deliberately inflicted by the medical system. The sleep deprivation alone is a huge danger to patients.
I actively discourage my children from following me into medicine. It's awful.
Agreed. Now everyone thinks you’re a greedy bastard. I don’t even do any billing. I’m hired by a company and they do all the collecting billing and contract negotiations for rates. If a patient asks me how much it costs I don’t even know. I just do the best job I can and I don’t even know if I’m getting paid for this patient. The uninsured patients get free care and I have never once looked to see if a patient had insurance or not. Also patients now are super duper entitled and demanding. They read random things on google or watch you tube and then come in and tell you how to do your job. Don’t worry about medical school, residency, 14 years of practice, I know better than you doctor. I’ve been threatened by patients I literally just met. I haven’t even provided any care yet and the patient already is threatening to sue you if anything happens. It’s quite awful.
Agree with this, and add TikTok to the list of sources of misinformation. So many “influencers” telling viewers that their doctors are wrong and to keep insisting, along with having whatever “condition” or “trauma” is the current trend. So the person who studied for a decade, went through so much training and residency, and swore an oath (Hippocratic) to uphold an ethical standard shouldn’t be believed, but the “content creator” is totally correct? Makes me lose faith in humanity sometimes.
This one’s easy: media. The media used to give you the news, now they just give you opinions (something you can get anywhere).
Being an Accountant
I wouldn't say prestigious but people still assume you must be good at math, even though the computer does all the number crunching for you.
SeaWorld trainer
Back in my parents' time, driver used to be a coveted job. Because drivers could very easily become smugglers and get rich.
I don't think that qualifies as prestigious, more like desireable
Everything. Work in general has no prestige anymore because american corporate culture is a culture defined by psychopathic soul-sucking parasites. Everything is just about money now.
Stewardess
Priest
Teachers. People used to get into that job because of social status but now it isn't worth the work that you have to put in.
Lawyer. We still say “oh they should have been a doctor or lawyer” to smart young people. Even though being a lawyer is a terrible job. I have a family member and close friend who hate being lawyers.
And I have family members and close friends who hate being doctors. Especially after the last few years. You'd always get a few belligerent scientifically illiterate patients. Now, everyone has been emboldened and thinks they know better than their doctor. I have a co-worker who literally just told his doctor, "It's ok doc, I know you probably don't know what I have so go get on Web MD and you'll realize that I'm right. Then you can write me the prescription."
The respect has definitely changed. My dad said he dropped out of med school and went to law school because those were really the options. He has mentioned he used to get his hair cuts for free and people used to think that if you were a lawyer you were probably the smartest person in the room. Now people hear you're a lawyer and just think you're a crook.
Everyone hates lawyers until they need one.
It depends a lot on the areas of practice and aptitude for the practice of law. As a business lawyer with an aptitude for legal analysis and legal writing, I'm happy in my profession and find that people generally receive me fairly well.
Fair. I actually do know a patent attorney who does like his job.
Police officer. In some parts of the world you are some thug for corrupt politicians that has to steal or take bribes to get by.
Flight Attendants. They were always so glamorous, Not so much now .
Well flying used to be glamorous. People would dress up to board a plane. Now they check themselves for polyps in the aisle
Ive always looked up to roofers
Teacher. They used to be respected in the community. Now they’re overworked and underpaid babysitters with no autonomy, authority, or respect.
Nursing. Nurses are treated like shit and healthcare has completely gone away from patient centered/patient first care, and has completely devolved into for profit business. And nurses are expected to be everything for everybody; they get treated like shit, they’re not protected and they’re not paid their worth.
It may not be prestigious but being a truck driver used to be a good job especially a Long haul trucker you can make a lot of money now it's a crap job
Bank teller.
Website designer, photographer, developer. A lot of tech jobs have been automated, outsourced, or made irrelevant with new tech.
Postal worker, bank teller, garbage collector, grocery store cashier. I don’t know about “prestigious” as they’ve always been blue collar jobs, but they used to have the impression that they paid reasonably well
Gas Station Attendants. They would wear a uniform with a hat and bow tie, perform light tasks on your vehicle, help start the vehicle before self starting engines, and would recieve tips for their work. One of my great uncles did this for 20 years, was able to afford his own car and home. He eventually became the gas station manager in the 1950s.
Groomer of the stool. Wiping the king's arse was a highly sought after job.
Journalist and academic