[MonteQuest]

I think it would behoove us to take a moment and reflect upon our occupations. Will your job or even your industry survive peak oil?

Will NASCAR?

Will advertising?

Car insurance?

Motorhomes?

Tourist industry?

The suspected list is endless.

Myself, I am a MacGyver type. An EMT, ex-law enforcement, ecologist, desert naturalist, and an all-around jack of all trades in the construction industry. I’m not too worried about being needed.

How will you fare? Tell us how secure you feel your job is, and why.

[PenultimateManStanding]

Barring total collapse, teachers will still have a job. I'm not sure about a little restaraunt though, which provides me with about a third of my income. I'm planning now to get some state of the art hearing aids and looking for a full time teacher post instead of substituting. Of course if the State hasn't got any money then they can't pay the teachers! How can you really know about this, Monte? The future is so murky.

[Schweinshaxe]

My job isn't even secure pre-peak (programmer).

But I don't care. I hate my job anyway.

I'll survive.

[meekoil]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Schweinshaxe', 'M')y job isn't even secure pre-peak (programmer).

[EnergySpin]

Doctors will always have a job ... all those death certificates to be filled out down the dieoff curve.

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PenultimateManStanding', ' ') How can you really know about this, Monte? The future is so murky.

[cynthia]

I am a fraternity cook. I can't imagine post peak oil that my job will exist. The cost of food alone will make those bad boys decide they can fend for themselves. (that is if there are any students to be had when the draft is revived).
I am paid a decent salary that amounts to about $20 an hour. I work part time 20-25 hours a week during the school year.
I imagine my gardening, baking and sewing skills will become more valuable post peak. I am also a lay homeopath and herbalist.
Don't know if my writing skills will amount to anything as I am flexing my writing muscle now working on my frat cook memoir. (I can't help it, they hand me too much material to ignore.

[evilmonkeyspanker]

I am very safe, the world will always need great web-developers
Plus, I am also very skilled with the fork and spoon so I should be okay

[Tyler_JC]

Marketing may be a vital skill early on.

When a company is in trouble, the sales and marketing staff are the last ones to go. HR is the first casuality. Same with customer relations. It doesn't really matter if your customers can get instructions on how to fix the product.

But if you aren't selling a product, the company vanishes.

Restaurants will take a major hit PP.

As gas prices continue to rise, more people will decide to eat-in rather than go to Friday's, Chili's, or any of the other lower end family restaurants.

I work the window at an ice cream place. I don't believe I would have a job given $6+ gasoline.

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tyler_JC', 'M')arketing may be a vital skill early on.

[BrownDog]

I'm a computer programmer in a financial organization. Double whammy.

I have lots of other skills, however, that will make much more sense post-PO. I'm mechanically inclined, can weld, can also do all sorts of construction/repair work. I actually like this kind of work more than what I do "for a living", it's just that the pay is better in the short term, and it helps me save up for the land.

[Laurasia]

I work in Customer Service in one of those overnight package delivery outfits. It, and my job, will not survive much longer. However, as things start their inexorable downhill slide, I expect to be VERY busy, explaining to customers why their packages are stranded in You Name It because there's no fuel left to get them to their destination. Hopefully retirement will come before the final crunch. (but then there may be no retirement money left in the pot for me - ouch)

Regards,

L.

[rostov]

I'm a total loser and completely fucked up.

Unix and storage administrator for a Manufactoring plant which is dying. Forget about it sterring to PV. Heh.

Trying desperately to get more skills.

[JBinKC]

I work in a casino which oddly enough has been one of the strongest industries since the tech bubble. Oddly enough strength in that sector is a big indicator of current desparate times and will bode well as more people hit the skids. However, once the skid row peak much like peak oil there begins the great decline of the business.

[jato]

I am law enforcement with seniority. As long as the county government is receiving money I will have a job.

[venky]

Graduate student (EE) considering a PhD. Trying to get into renewable energy. Hope that by the time I graduate, there is a new government in Washington, one that has its priorities straight. But in anycase I think there will be more funding for renewables.

[ubercrap]

Somebody makes $20/hour as a cook? Seriously, I want to shoot myself now. Good thing I don't have a gun. My utterly worthless field is industrial design. I work as a furniture designer. I had to beg, plead, whimper, and grovel just to get my pay up to the equivalent of about $18.25/hour. Don't get me wrong, I love designing, but I never expected to be shit on by the corporate instituition this much. Just one aspect of my job encompasses entire other fields. I actually worked in a job functioning as graphic designer for a time, and I considered that to be one of my weakest skills! I'm not quite at this level, but some designers I've known were top notch professional-level artists, illustrators, graphic designers, 3D CAD modelers and model makers wrapped into one. I've actually been in a situation where I was working with a professional model maker (at a contract house to execute my design) that was obviously less skilled than I was, who I'm sure was making more money than I ever will. The CAD monkeys where I used to work would come in and harass us constantly about the legitimacy of design in general. The stupid part is some of the designers were actually better CAD jockeys than they were. The situation is absolutely ludicrous! Anyway, I'll be glad if the whole damn field gets flushed down the toilet. For me, it has been a career that can be equated to a dysfunctional relationship of some sort. Can you tell I'm bitter? As for skills, I am remarkably gifted in just about everything, but as a person, I'm an absolute wreck. In a post-peak world, I see myself as most likely dying.

[AmericanEmpire]

I work in a factory that makes heaters for industrial applications. We are in trouble just like any other USA manufacturing pre-peak so there's no way in hell the company will survive post peak.

[Jake_old]

I run a small payrol company servicing the recruitment industry, I'm sure will do pretty well in the immediate future, as companies want to hire and fire at will.

Resigned and went self employed and part time some time ago, Its cost effective for them (the owners) and good for me.

I can repair personal computers, networks and expect a high demand for this skill immediately post peak.

Learning about growing food on a small scale (allotment).

Getting fit (went for run for first time in years last night.)

I make a wicked home brew and wife can make nice wine.

Wife knows about contaminated land and weed ecology(a little).

So job is only semi secure but not too worried about it.

BTW, you programmers will be needed like never before in the near future, but you will probably have to go self employed and lower you prices

[eastbay]

I am law enforcement with seniority. As long as the county government is receiving money I will have a job.

Jato and other cops and feds...

... will always have a job post peak money in the budget or not. That is one occupation that will survive post-peak. The worst that can happen is it may end up something like impoverished Third World cops who earn $.50/hr and have to free- lance the rest, but there will always be a need for tough men (and women) ready and willing to do violence on others in an effort to maintain an acceptable level of social stability.

In the not-too-distant future the pay schedule in the wealthier parts of the world may differ significantly from the salary charts currently used.