Fields of Employment

How do most Austrians you know make a living?  I am sure there is a diverse field of employment backgrounds, just like there was a wide range of former political identity backgrounds (neo-cons to neo-libs, etc...)  Has your understanding of Austrian economics change your personal employment path?

I am a teacher and dorm master at a boarding school. By the way, I must urge Austrians to consider this line of work. Boarding schools offer advanced material, individual attention to the student, and curricular freedom - meaning you can teach Austrianism without any trouble, and actually be applauded for showing initiative. Economically, it's an ideal job for dealing with inflation and taxes - low pay, combined with being given a house, utilities, and 3 meals a day, as well as a variety of recreational and entertainment options. Increases in food prices don't hit you the same way when you live in a huge faculty house, and eat 3 meals a day cooked by an experienced, culinary-school trained chef. The atmosphere we strive for is roughtly 1950s, and quite nice, polite, and respectful. Except for a few programs, Austrians seem to see grad school as something to suffer through anyway, so this is a teaching option that doesn't require a phd or even, in some cases, a masters. If you want to go that way, most schools have generous funding available for part-time study. Also, boarding schools seem to struggle to get economics teachers. Finally, Austrians seem to have more interest than most in interdisciplinary work, and that is encouraged at boarding schools - if you have the knowledge, you can teach outside your department or team-teach.

 I have a degree in history and work at a call center as a customer service representative.  Blah.

IMO entrepreneurship or scholarship are the best routes for Austrians.  I feel like I was brainwashed to think that the best way to proceed professionally is to acquire a degree then go become a corporate drone working for the man at a big company, which I did (got my econ degree then went to work as a management and strategy consultant at a big firm).  It took me a couple of years to realize it wasn't for me, and that the historically proven method of success is the 3 step process of 1) becoming an apprentice and learning a craft, 2) saving capital and building connections in the process, with a mind towards... 3) starting your own business, using your saved capital and acquired knowledge/connections.

That's why I recently quit my corporate job and went back to waiting tables, to generate the capital needed to get my business off the ground.  I found a great product to sell in a strong market, with low start-up costs and through my own personal ingenuity have created an accessory to the product that grants me an overwhelming competitive advantage.  While I'm still trying to build up enough capital to get things rolling properly, I feel like I finally (at age 37) found the path that will enable me to achieve my dreams.  It's certainly not working for someone else.  It doesn't take a degree to learn how to buy low and sell high.

If you're not of an entrepreneurial bent, then scholarship would be a respectful option as well...  spreading the word is critical and to many fulfilling.

 

Spideynw:

 I have a degree in history and work at a call center as a customer service representative.  Blah.

Here's a tip -- blue collar workers must WORK FOR TIPS.  Do NOT work for wages...  get a job in a restaurant, any job.  You wil make MUCH more money, and have MUCH more fun.  I have a friend who recently graduated and took a temp job paying $20/hour.  At 35 hours a week he was making only $700/wk before taxes and ~$550/wk after taxes (or $140/day and $110/day), and he was constantly jealous of the income of both myself and his sister (both of us waiters).  As a waiter, even starting out at a crappy restaurant, you will make quite a bit more than that, and at a nice place you can make double or triple that (e.g. I make $250-350 per shift, averaging $1500/wk).  Even as a busser you'll make more than that $20/hour job, and let's be honest, you're probably making considerably less than $20/hour.  If you're ever going to get the capital needed to start a business, you must MAXIMIZE YOUR INCOME as quickly as possible (and, of course, minimize your outflows).

Quit that job and hit the hospitality section of craigslist!  Do it now!

 

maxpot46:

I feel like I was brainwashed to think that the best way to proceed professionally is to acquire a degree then go become a corporate drone working for the man at a big corporation,

I have similar sentiments.  We are taught to go to school, get good grades to get into college, get a degree to get a job and make good money, get married to have kids, and start the cycle all over. 

maxpot46:

Quit that job and hit the hospitality section of craigslist!  Do it now!

 

 I don't know.  I guess I could try it part time and see how it goes.  If I like it and I am making good money, then maybe I could switch...

I'm a high school dropout, so I don't have a particular field of employment. I usually do what seems interesting, or what is available (if I don't have the luxury of being picky). I use to be a factory worker. I worked as a bouncer. I bought and ran a grill when I was around 20. I drove a truck for awhile. At the moment I work in real estate. I suppose Austrian economics has peaked my interest in an academic career, but that's not going to happen.

JAlankatz, I'd be interested in something like that. Maybe you could PM me with a few more details on how you handle things? I've been considering becoming a professor, but what deters me is the idea of having to give lectures and so on. What you described sounds much more to my taste.

I've also considered entering the legal profession... perhaps I will. Or perhaps I will become a legal scholar of some sort. Either way, I think Maxpot is 100% correct. The current modus operandi of the workplace is influenced heavily by the state. Corporations, many of which divorced from the realities of the market by being sheltered from them, have taken to mimicking the state. It's only natural they'd gradually become more hierarchical and inefficient.

Libertas est Veritas:

I'm a high school dropout, so I don't have a particular field of employment. I usually do what seems interesting, or what is available (if I don't have the luxury of being picky). I use to be a factory worker. I worked as a bouncer. I bought and ran a grill when I was around 20. I drove a truck for awhile. At the moment I work in real estate. I suppose Austrian economics has peaked my interest in an academic career, but that's not going to happen.

Wow man.. was that fun?

 

mark111:

Wow man.. was that fun?

I guess, in the end, only the factory work wasn't fun. In everything else, I had and have enough breathing room. Working within rigid time constraints, like you have to with factory lines (or school, for that matter) just bugs me.

I was also a truck driver for about five years.  That is a profession that Austrian Economics and libertarianism should have wide appeal with all the government nonsense one has to put up with while on the road.  Log books, inspections, random urine tests and high fuel taxes.

Now I am contracting to a German engineering firm as a Unix Administrator working in railway automation.  I enjoy it, the pay is good but the taxes are deadly here in New York.

I used to work as a farm hand, factory worker, DJ, dishwasher, prep-cook, social worker, reptile breeder, archaelogist, fact checker, webmaster, art installer, and I run my own voIP re-seller business (but not very well).

The weirdest job I ever had was putting a bunch of snakes in coleman coolers to be taken to a photoshoot where all these "supermodels" were posing wearing little except for the snakes I worked with.  They made me sit in an area away from the models and would just call me to come and get the snake which I usually found under a towel or a bra.