Har-de-har

By now, regular readers (and even irregular ones) will have noted a common theme at this address, that all career advice dispensed on the Internet is worthless, especially if it's dressed as news.

Our latest specimen comes from Investopedia, by way of Yahoo news. It's one of those useless lists of jobs that are desirable for one reason or another. In this case, the desirable feature is that they are supposedly low-stress jobs.

The story hews to the common formula, which is to dredge up the list and coyly neglect to mention that one doesn't just walk in off the street, say one wants one, and demand top dollar. The formula also demands that sources, if any, be at least ten years old, and that the overall context bear no relation to reality.

The envelope please. Our candidates for low stress jobs that anyone can get are:

• Physical Therapist
  
  
• Computer Software Engineer
  
  
• Civil Engineer
  
  
• Technical Writer
  
  
• Massage Therapist

You're all welcome. As a technical writer, I knew you could use the laugh at the end of your stress-free week. Technical writing is very stress-free these days, because to have job-related stress you have to have a job, eh? On a recent occasion when I was approached about a position within my skill set, I had to delay my reply to answer a phone call. By the time I called the recruiter, the req. was gone. There had been 35 applications within 15 minutes of the req. being posted. This, mind, was for a three-month contract whose annual rate worked out to much less than $47,000-$98,000.

For my next stress-free job, I want one writing these Internet business fantasies. I imagine the pay is chump change plus all the hallucinogens you can swallow.