[hugh3]

I'd argue that this sort of article applies mostly to the "glamourous" professions -- things that kids want to be when they grow up, jobs that will impress your nephews. Actor, musician, doctor, certain varieties of lawyer, physicist cough, athlete, artist, airline pilot.

These sorts of professions have a ready supply of suckers wanting in, which means that the competition is tough, the work is hard and the compensation is minimal at the lowest levels. For all of these professions, the advice is the same: there are definitely some cool bits to the job if you can reach the top, but it's a really tough slog, so don't go into it unless you just can't think of anything else you want to do with your life.

But then you've got the less glamourous professions. Accountant. Actuary. System administrator. Management consultant. Less glamourous varieties of law. Pet sitting. Running a lawnmowing business. And hundreds of other occupations which don't readily spring to mind because they don't impinge much on the public consciousness, but which exist and pay well and are good jobs for folks who can't think of anything else in particular that they'd like to be doing. Since there aren't huge masses of people clamouring to become actuaries, junior actuarial positions are actually well paid and generally reasonable jobs. On the downside, your nephews won't brag to their friends about their uncle the actuary.

Figuring out where programming jobs fit into this classification is left as an exercise for the reader.

[forensic]

Last I heard actuarial science is brutally competitive and quickly becoming a slog. Apparently all the asian math geniuses see it as their only way to please their grandparents without switching to medicine or law.

[hugh3]

How depressing.

[a3camero]

Actually the introductory salaries in law are quite high. They start in Canada at or above the average Canadian salary. First year lawyers make between $40-100k a year depending on who you work for (in Ontario). If you're willing to move there's also nearly guaranteed employment by going up north/rural areas.

[sliverstorm]

Being a doctor doesn't take 8+ years of education just because it's a competitive field.

[hugh3]

No, but the bit after you finish medical school and spend the next eight or twelve years as a sleep-deprived zombie working thirty-hour shifts for a crappy salary at a hospital you probably didn't choose is due to it being a competitive field.