Niche Professions

I have been thinking about “niche” professions – those that only appeal to a relatively small number of people in the world. Often, these professions are looked down upon by those in similar professions – or by those who don’t know much about the profession in the first place (one example would be the veterinarian who takes care of my dog vs. the guy who has to inseminate an elephant.)

The advantage of being in a niche profession is that there’s plenty of room at the top. The problem, of course, is that a ton of dolts and wannabees self-proclaim themselves as experts and leaders and assume they’re at the top. They come up with new ways to describe what they do (e.g. sanitation engineer), and tell everyone who uses the old terminology that they’re idiots. Meanwhile, the real experts are the ones usually advancing the profession. The connected world we live in enables the loudest voices to be "experts" regardless of ability to do the job.

Interesting world we live in – isn’t it?