Occupational Prestige
The free section of the WSJ has an interesting survey on how members of the public view various professions in terms of prestige.
Those with the highest number of people putting them in the Very High Prestige column are not surprising: Firefighter (63%), Doctor (58%), Nurse (55%).
What is surprising from a selfish perspective is how low we Accountants are viewed, with just 17% placing us in the Very Great Prestige column. To add even more insult, this is lower than Lawyers (21%) and Congress Critters (28%). At least we’re higher than a few other professions, such as Stockbroker (11%), Realtor (6%).
According to the chart below the main survey results, we have been at around this level for well over 20 years.
I wonder if this kind of attitude will further discourage young people from entering our profession.