Hot Jobs Are Still Out There

Peter Hirschmann may not be the only person on the planet ensconced in a makeshift military post, trying to ensure a weapons platform will kill as many of the enemy’s people as possible. But he may be one of the few having fun with it.

Hirschmann is a game designer, one of the many professions that, despite the economic slowdown, remain a job seeker’s market.

But the career categories on these “hot” lists aren’t all dream jobs. They include translator, human resources manager, private sports coach, actuary, physical therapist and technical writer, as well as game designer.

“It’s hard to keep people because good game designers are worth their weight in gold,” said Hirschmann, 29, who leads a team of game designers. His Electronic Arts command center, decorated with camouflage netting, is in an office building near the J. Paul Getty Center.

Computer game designer made the top 10 hot careers in “The Everything Hot Careers Book” by Ronald Reis, chairman of the technology department at Los Angeles Valley College. Game designers typically earn $25,000 to $60,000 annually, plus royalties and bonuses.

Reis’ is one of many “top job” lists updated frequently. The selections tend to be subjective, but here are some of the hot jobs, what it takes to get them and what they pay:

* Interpreter. One needs to look only as far as the new U.S. census figures to understand that the field of interpreters and translators will be booming for decades.

Hector and Norma Orci, a husband-and-wife team, own and operate a business that shows what is possible for those with multilingual skills. Their Los Angeles-based firm is a Latino advertising agency called La Agencia de Orci y Asociados that employs 90.

“Most of the work we do, about 95%, is for Spanish consumption,” said Hector Orci, a native of Sonora, Mexico.

“We have people who have full mastery of English and Spanish,” Orci said. “But what we do is more involved than straight translation, which is generally less graceful and less communicative. We have to rewrite or adapt the message to present the original intent.”

Being bilingual or multilingual and having additional skills can make a worker especially valuable to employers.

“We have been carrying a dozen to two dozen vacancies. We need people with mastery of the Spanish language, but also the specific training for the job, like art director,” Orci said.

“In our company, we have openings for account supervisors, copywriters and broadcast producers, and we are looking aggressively,” he said. “Junior translators can earn from $40,000 to $80,000 to $85,000 with lots of experience. A good art director is $65,000 and up, and copy editors are worth their weight in gold.”

Orci’s clients have included American Honda, Verizon, Washington Mutual, Shell Oil, Allstate Insurance and Krispy Kreme.

Orci worked for the international McCann-Erickson agency when he was asked to open a Los Angeles office in the early 1980s. He went independent in 1986 and hasn’t looked back.

“We are growing rather fast, at 20% a year. Our billing last year topped $80 million, and we are shooting for $95 million this year,” Orci said. “My mother always said if I mastered English and Spanish that I would make a lot of money, and she was right.”

* Information technology, systems or network administrator. Vicky Franklin, 28, had something of a rough start in her native Oregon.

On her own since age 15 through a state law that allowed youths to be legally emancipated from their parents, she graduated from high school a year later and managed a 1,300 combined score on her SATs.

One of her fondest childhood memories was learning how to write computer code with her uncle when she was 6, but she said she would never work with computers. That didn’t last. By 16, Franklin was helping businesses set up their internal computer networks.

After years in a jack-of-all-trades lifestyle that included everything from being a mechanic to driving a truck, she returned to her earliest fascination. Now she moves from region to region, working as an information technology administrator on a contract basis.

Franklin is finishing a job for Sonco Worldwide, shifting the company from Novell and Unix systems to a Windows NT-based work system.

“We had to upgrade their computers, upgrade their networking hubs and set them up with a [high-speed] DSL [Internet connection] system,” Franklin said. “I like IT because I get to do a lot of different things rather than get pigeonholed. I get to do Web work one day, database the next. I don’t get stagnant.”

Network administrators can start at $40,000 to $50,000, according to Reis, and average just under $77,000 with six or seven years of experience. As an IT administrator, Franklin said, she can clear $80,000 to $100,000, enough for a 25-acre spread in Coos Bay, Ore. “Our little slice of paradise,” she said.

* Graphic designer. Some hot careers carry important caveats.

The economic climate can vary sharply by region, as the experience of Amos Klausner, 29, shows. Klausner runs the San Francisco chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts.

Graphic designers can earn $34,500 to more than $64,000, but there is something of a job crunch in the Bay Area.

“The downturn happened immediately here,” Klausner said. “It was like turning off a faucet. Just six to eight months ago we would have about 15 to 20 job openings posted on our Web site, and no one was calling me about needing a job. Now we have just two job openings posted, and a lot of people are calling me and looking for new jobs.”

Klausner blames the sudden scramble on the Bay Area-Silicon Valley dot-com fiasco in which designers joined the new gold rush and lost jobs in the fallout.

Some of the region’s design firms made the same mistakes, Klausner said, forgoing a diversified portfolio of clients and focusing entirely on dot-coms and other start-ups.

“Those are the design companies that suffered the most,” Klausner said, adding that, overall, the Bay Area graphic design community remains vibrant.

The outlook is far brighter for Alex Swart, an award-winning graphic designer and president, creative director and self-styled “player-coach” for the SwartAd agency in Los Angeles.

“We’re always looking over our shoulder and we don’t want to live in a fool’s paradise, but it is said that the entertainment industry is recession-proof, despite the threat of strikes,” said Swart, whose company’s recent work includes a huge banner for the 2001 Academy Awards on the east wall of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences building in Beverly Hills.

“I’ve been working steadily for 15 years. We opened this shop five years ago and haven’t looked back, and we’ve increased our revenues every year. Los Angeles is a very good town if you are a creative person.”

Swart loved to draw as a child in Amsterdam and always thought of himself as an artist.

“I always loved the movies and entertainment,” he said. “When I went to college, I looked for a way to marry these tools. I studied fine art, drawing and painting.”

Swart obtained an undergraduate degree in visual arts at UC Davis and a master’s in television and film from San Diego State.

“I went to a one-day seminar at USC on film marketing and suddenly it clicked,” he said. “There were people applying their artistic abilities, in words and pictures, to sell movies.”

Although his college education laid the groundwork for his career, Swart said it wasn’t essential to his success.

“In entertainment design, it’s very good to be interested in everything,” Swart said. “You are always pulling from the things that interest you. The broader your frame of reference, the better.

“The skill I recommend in this business is being able to sell yourself,” he said.

“You can get your experience in retail, from selling something like clothing, greeting and meeting people and learning how to close a sale. Even being a waitress is very, very valuable. Not everyone is naturally outgoing.”

* Financial planner. Mid-range to successful financial planners can earn $100,000 to $200,000, depending on how they work and for whom, sources say.

There has been a surge of demand for financial planners, but the demographics are important to consider. By at least one account, the current demand is primarily in one generation.

“It’s mostly us baby boomers who are starting to get scared,” said Scott Shires of the Shires Financial Group in Aurora, Colo., who gives his clients the following mantra: Spend less than you earn, invest only in the things you understand, and don’t get greedy.

“It’s not a lot of younger people who blew it and are suddenly coming to their senses,” Shires, 48, said. “These folks are in their mid-40s to early 50s, have 15 to 20 serious earning years left and want to review what they’ve done to see if they really can retire when they want.”

Shires, whose straightforward approach to investing has been quoted in Money magazine and other publications, has this caveat for those seeking a career in financial planning: “Basically, you are helping people who then move on,” he said.

“They don’t need you anymore. It can be very daunting to acquire brand-new clients year after year.”

Having a license is required to offer professional advice and to sell various investment instruments such as mutual funds.

Many people put the CFP or ChFC designation behind their professional name, showing they have become a certified financial planner or a chartered financial consultant. Both credentials require extensive study and continuing education.

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Other hot jobs:

* Private Coach. Gone are the days when only the adults had personal trainers. Now, more and more parents are hiring coaches for their children. Income: $40-$50 an hour and up. Previous coaching experience or a successful athletic career are important.

* Public Relations Specialist. “This is not a field for baby-faced amateurs. In PR, you are almost like a bodyguard. Sometimes, you’re there to take a bullet,” Reis’ book says. Income: $49,000 to $150,000 annually.

* Residential Real Estate Agent. The Internet has begun to transform the way people buy and sell homes, but it hardly ever pays to jump into battle without an agent. Requires considerable study to obtain a license. Income: based largely on the market you work in, but commissions are usually 5% or 6%, split with the company you work for. Your share from the sale of a $500,000 home would be $12,500 to $15,000.

* Auctioneer. Attend a accredited auctioneering school. Start off with benefits and charities. “After practicing and practicing, they can become popular and established.” Income: a flat rate or a percentage of sales. Some can earn $500 to $1,500 a day.

* Court Reporter. In a society that loves to sue, demand for this job will remain strong, but this goes far beyond the courtroom now to include closed-captioning of television programs, among other things. Becoming a CSR or certified shorthand reporter is important. Requires a considerable investment in equipment. Two to four years of technical training is a must and various states have stringent certification requirements. Income: median is $54,000 and depends on the time you are willing to devote. Some can make more than $100,000 a year.

Source, Ronald Reis.