Ask HN: Which professions are impossible to get because the oldies never retire? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Which professions are impossible to get because the oldies never retire?

15 pointskevindeasis19 comments

Tenure in higher education is probably one of the hardest ones... some legal and medical programs are pretty locked down as well.

Came here to say this. I am fond of saying that when I was in grad school, I was preparing to enter a profession where I'd literally have to wait for someone to die to get a job.

Scientific glassblower: http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-caltech-glassbl...

Oddly enough, I think there are a lot of positions in the maritime industry like that. Harbor pilot comes to mind.

The ATF (Alcohol Tobacco Firearms enforcement agency in the US) was on a hiring freeze for a long time because no one retired and the size of the agency was fairly fixed. They're expecting a huge wave of retirements in the near future and are now hiring like crazy (relatively speaking, anyway).

In the mid-80's my dad had an offer from the ATF that he would have accepted, had the USPS not lost/damage/delayed the delivery of said offer... It arrived in a plastic bag with a postmark from 3+ months prior.

Supreme Court Justice.

At the risk of looking ignorant (because I am) have there been any exploratory works on imposing term limits on SCOTUS justices?

EDIT: Is 'exploratory' the correct term, at least in the PoliSci crowd?

There's the time Roosevelt was on a mission to get the New Deal passed, and threatened to pack the courts if they kept ruling his legislation unconstitutional. The Chief Justice changed his position very quickly when that threat came up.

Packing the courts involved creating 6 additional spots on the court(chosen by the President), if existing justices didn't retire by 70.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judicial_Procedures_Reform_Bil...

To impose term limits on them you'd need to pass an amendment to the Constitution, since Article 3 Section 1 of the Constitution implies that Supreme Court Justices (and other Federal judges) can serve indefinitely, except if impeached for lack of "good behavior".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_Three_of_the_United_St...

Or just law in general. Law school grads are getting screwed.

roughly 20% of my friends are going into law. Some of them haven't really looked at the job outlook/ market

Monarch of Great Britain

Congress

It's funny, but I should have mentioned that one as well... Higher level politics is pretty locked in too, though that may change drastically in the next decade in the US.

Particularly the Senate.

Librarians. For years our professional associations cried there would be a shortage and convinced people to go to library school (real librarians have a Masters degree). Now people aren't retired, and when they do retired their position is either not filled or filled with a part timer.

Some branches of engineering. Civil and corrosion are mostly locked up by established firms, led by founders.

Oligarch

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