It seems almost everyone has a “sky-is-falling” attitude toward the economy these days.

You know we’re in trouble when long-time NPR commentator Daniel Schorr starts singing depression era songs.

“I have found myself reflecting on the recession, no depression, that I experienced in my youth,” said 92-year-old Schorr in his analysis yesterday of our present economy. After describing the horrific economic tragedy of the Depression, he then was asked by Liane Hansen, the host of NPR’s Weekend Edition, about the music of the era. He said there was one song he remembered, “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime.”

It’s a haunting song about the Great Depression written by Yip Harburg.

They used to tell me I was building a dream, and so I followed the mob,
When there was earth to plow, or guns to bear, I was always there right on the job.
They used to tell me I was building a dream, with peace and glory ahead,
Why should I be standing in line, just waiting for bread?

Once I built a railroad, I made it run, made it race against time.
Once I built a railroad; now it’s done. Brother, can you spare a dime?
Once I built a tower, up to the sun, brick, and rivet, and lime;
Once I built a tower, now it’s done. Brother, can you spare a dime?

Here’s a more updated version by George Michael I love:

While it was a great radio moment, hearing Schorr sing the old tune a cappella, I couldn’t help but think these type of comparisons are hurting all of us.

I know, Starbucks is closing 600 stores and with that 12,000 jobs will be lost. And the U.S. auto industry is in a tail spin. Not to mention banking and the brokerage industry. Thousands of jobs among hourly workers, and even among the mansion set have been hacked and slashed.

But are we really talking economic collapse? There’s been so much shrill in the media lately and among politicians that it got me wondering if we really should be making any analogies to the Depression.

Since I didn’t live through that time I figured I had to ask a historian if our present economic state mirrors the Depression, or have we all lost our minds?

“I’d be happy to offer my two cents though you ask quite the large question,” says Peter Cole, an associate professor and labor historian from Western Illinois University.

“My short answer is no, we are nowhere near the economic conditions of the Great Depression, fortunately,” he maintains.

Phew!

“While foreclosures are at the level that they were then, seeing that unemployment is SO much lower that there’s really no comparison,” he adds.

You all might be wondering why I’m making such a big deal out of this. Why I care that some people equate our present situation to something much more dire.

The reason is simple, if we think the sky is falling we may be apt to make rash career decisions right now. We may be convinced to accept less pay or benefits because everything is falling apart, and oh, aren’t we lucky that an employer has offered us a job at all.

This is never a good way to navigate through your work life, with a sense of panic.

Look, it is bad out there right now. We’re all struggling with higher prices and many of our jobs could be up on the chopping block, but we have to resist this crowd mentality of fear. There are still jobs to be had and many companies are stilling turning in profits.

So, take a deep breath and concentrate, with a level head, on your own situation and your own job opportunities.

Clearly, there are economic problems, but our worries may be feeding the flames.

Here are some more of Cole’s insights:

The tremendous anxiousness of most US workers and the powerlessness most feel, the ever-dwindling number of folks with employer-based health and retirement benefits, the very real fear that globalization will result in more jobs lost (not just in manufacturing), the seemingly-endless decline of US organized labor (essential, I believe, for a healthy society and economy with a large middle class) all suggest real issues that dramatically affect the lives of us workers as well as the entire economy. Just look at the stats on number of strikes today compared to previous decades; SO much lower. That, too, is a result of not just Bush’s anti-worker National Labor Relations Board and the Department of Labor but longer trends of corporations cavalierly ignoring US labor law because they know no enforcement is happening.

I wouldn’t say that the problems we are facing our trivial, not by a long shot, but I wouldn’t say that they have risen (or, perhaps, I should say fallen) to the level of the 1930s. Of course, it was the economic crisis of the 30s that produced many of the programs that ALL Americans have benefited from for almost a century as well as a revitalized labor movement that greatly democratized workplaces and our nation. Americans are more individualistic today but I believe that a dose of collective action would be quite beneficial. But Americans and US workers are scared and individualistic and unions are weak, if attempting to rectify that.

Now I understand being spurred to take “collective action”. But that can only be spurred by anger and disgust on the part of workers who believe they’re getting the shaft, and not because pundits, journalists and politicians pull a Chicken Little on us and have everyone running scared.

Readers often ask me to help them figure out what type of job or profession they should pursue. Lately, this question has come up even more frequently as people lose their jobs, or feel the ax is near, and figure this is a good time to go into a career they can really love.

I wish I had a career crystal ball so I could tell all of you what path you should follow when you’re ready to change careers, or just out of school wondering what to do with the rest of your life.

I don’t.

While individuals have to do this career homework themselves, there are tools out there to help you narrow your search.

I’m not adverse to personality and career tests. There are pitfalls, and I’ve written about those in the past. But overall, they can give you a good starting off point.

Today, I decided to take a couple of tests myself to see what type of job may suit my personality. Don’t worry, I’m not giving up my day job. I was just curious and figured it might help all of you to see if my results are on target or not. I’ve also asked my intern, Katherine, to take both tests. This will give us a good gauge of what these tests come up with for two people at very different points in their careers, one established, the other trying to figure out what the heck she should do.

I decided to Google “career test”.

The first site I came up with was something called SimilarMinds.

The test was short and sweet and here’s what it came up with for me:

You are an Inspirer, possible professions include - conference planner, speech pathologist, HR development trainer, ombudsman, clergy, journalist, newscaster, career counselor, housing director, character actor, marketing consultant, musician/composer, artist, information-graphics designer, human resource manager, merchandise planner, advertising account manager, dietitian/nutritionist, speech pathologist, massage therapist, editor/art director.

You all probably noticed that “journalist” is included it the types of jobs that would work for my personality. But so are “speech pathologist” and “clergy.”

Here’s Katherine’s results:

Guardian, possible professions include - counseling, ministry, library work, nursing , secretarial, curators, bookkeepers, dental hygienists, computer operator, personnel administrator, paralegal, real estate agent, artist, interior decorator, retail owner, musician, elementary school teacher, physical therapist, nurse, social worker, personnel counselor, alcohol/drug counselor.

This tests seems to me to be a bit like what you’d get from a fortune teller at a carnival. They usually tell you things that a broad and far reaching, and hope you jump on one something they say that applies to your life.

I’m not sure what you really get out of something like this.

I decided to do another test that had a bit more meat behind it, so I asked Juliet Wehr Jones of career counseling website CareerKey what she suggested, and she sent me The Career Key test.

This test costs about $10 to take and it’s much more elaborate and includes many more questions.

I scored highest on in the “Artistic” category with “Social” right behind. And I was able to be a bit more proactive with this test picking the types of jobs I would like so “poet,” “editorial writer,” and “bartender” were all on my list. That works for me.

Katherine scored highest in the “Social” category and these are the jobs that were most suited for her, according to the test:

Clinical or Counseling Psychologist
Counselor
Social Worker
Licensed Practical Nurse
College Teacher
Fitness Worker

So, what did we get out of these tests. I pretty much figured out I’m doing what I should be doing. But if I ever decide to make a change, I may open up a bar.

Katherine says she got more out of the Career Key test. “That technically I should be some kind of counselor. I think there’s a little bit to it.”

But, she adds, “real estate agent. Never. Just no.”

And, “if I was a nurse I’d probably kill somebody or something. Like ‘oops, wrong medicine. Sorry.’”

The one thing I would caution is that a bad test could actually do more harm than good at a time when you might be vulnerable and trying to figure out what your next step should be.

Lawrence K. Jones and Juliet Wehr Jones, both of Career Key, offered these tips for people wondering how to choose the right test:

* Consider taking a high quality career interest inventory. The best valid interest inventory will do four things: help you understand yourself better, match you with careers that are likely to lead to satisfaction and success, suggest careers you had not thought of, and give you comprehensive information about each one. Through this process, you learn about yourself, the pros and cons of each job option, which helps you make a successful career decision.

* For a serious career decision, choose a serious, valid test. Quizzes, games, sorters, profilers, and finders that assess and match you with jobs are all career tests. To be helpful, they must be valid measures. But few of them are. For a test to be “valid,” there must be published, scientific evidence that it measures, in fact, what the author claims it measures. If you want accurate information about yourself and job options that fit you, take a valid test.

* Make sure the test website contains information about the test’s validity. It should mention specific studies or offer a professional manual you can see. A manual will describe validity studies. If no such information is available, avoid using it.

* Look beyond credentials, links, and endorsements. A Ph.D.’s endorsement or authorship does not make a test valid; anyone, with or without a Ph.D. can create an invalid career test. Links from schools, government and professional organizations are well-intentioned, but often unreliable.

* Seek the help of a professionally trained career counselor who recognizes the importance of test validity. They can help you choose the right test and help you interpret your results. The National Career Development Association, www.ncda.org, provides helpful consumer guidelines on selecting a counselor and CounselorFind of the National Board of Certified Counselors, www.nbcc.org, can help you find a certified counselor near you.

But the bottom line is, no test will ever tell you what you should be doing with your life.

If you rely on any one test, or any one person to make such decisions you might as well just invest in a crystal ball.

There’s an essay in the New York Times magazine today on how the “New Deal” is never coming back.

The author, a Democrat, puts out a challenge to his party — Come up with a plan to replace the “New Deal”.

The New Deal, which spawned Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and a pact between business and government: “Business, you provide a living wage and benefits, and government, you fill in the gaps with programs to help those who fall through the gaps.”

The author, Dalton Conley, puts it more eloquently:

Government and big business had an understanding, famously embodied by the line, “What’s good for the country is good for General Motors, and vice versa.” Employers, in turn, agreed to pay their (male) employees a living wage and provide generous benefits. Men, in turn, had an obligation to provide for their dependents. To complete the sequence, the state would step in if any of these links broke down by providing a minimal level of support in the case of unemployment, death, desertion or disability.

Conley makes some good points about providing new systems where people can become part of a pool and buy affordable health insurance, and creating savings incentives.

But alas Conley does not tackle what is probably the biggest problem in our economic structure today, the demise of a living wage.

Wages in this country have been stagnant. Jobs that once paid a good wage, where workers could have a solid middle class life and send their kids to college are disappearing. All the major U.S. automakers are laying off or offering buyouts to huge chucks of their workforces so they can replace them with employees who will work for half the money. And large retailers, such as Circuit City, a recent example, are showing veteran workers the door so they can also fill their jobs with people that will take less.

Last night, I was talking with my neighbor who told us his dad — who without a college education, worked for AT&T as a telephone repair man — and his mom — who was a stay-at-home mom — where able to raise seven kids and provide for them without ever getting help from the government.

Is that possible today?

Paying someone a fair salary will go a long way in providing for the nation’s middle class. We can have endless programs to fill in the gaps, but how will they work if the gaps are like black holes able to consume a whole segment of the population that once hoped it could fend for itself if only they were paid enough.

When I get to my desk every morning, I pull up an array of sites. I go to CareerDiva first, of course; then I log onto my Gmail account, my Hotmail account, my YouBiz blog on MSNBC, and I also log into my LinkedIn and Facebook accounts.

As you can imagine, I get a host of emails and messages that are work related and often address pretty serious issues. But this morning I got a message from my 12-year-old nephew Grant. He sent me a greeting card via Facebook.

It looks like the kitten is drunk and the message on the photo says: “Iz no drunk. Now givz me the keys.”

I called him and asked him why he sent it to me. He said, “I don’t know.”

I said, “What do you mean, you don’t know?” He then said, “I was trying to send something else and that one came through. I don’t know what happened.”

I wondered what he intended on sending me. He said, “It was a picture of a cartoon character saying, ‘Respect my authority.’” He added, “do you know South Park? It was Cartman.”

OK, I’m not totally an old fart. “I know Cartman,” I replied, a little miffed.

So why was he sending me this silly message? Grant, a pre-teenager, doesn’t think of social networking sites as a tool to get you ahead in your career.

“I think Facebook is for talking to your friends. It’s pretty fun. You can play games and stuff,” he says.

When I got his drunk cat message this morning, I cringed a bit. My column today on MSNBC.com is about how older workers have a tough time getting another job when they’re laid off, and a big chunk of the advice I offered these employees was to get on social networking sites.

But often job seekers, especially older ones, tell me they just don’t feel comfortable joining these groups. They see them as a haven for young kids who want to talk about hooking up and the latest cyber game.

Grant’s drunk cat lent a bit of credence to their claims.

I admit, there’s a lot of silliness on many of these sites, but don’t throw out the kitten with the spiked bath water.

You can obviously create a network of friends to help you in your job search, but you can also join different networking groups that are specific to your interests. I recently was asked to join a job-searching group on Facebook and it’s jam packed with helpful information.

And at my LinkedIn account I can actually see who’s looking at my profile. This is particularly handy for me when I want to know where I might get the most positive feedback when I pitch a story idea.

Anyway, among the silliness there is substance.

And, honestly, I love that I can hear from my nephew and find out what’s going on in his life. Ten years ago, do you think a 12 year old would have picked up the phone to call his aunt?

Thank you Internet.

Okay, I try not to toot my own horn, too much. But many months ago I wrote about how this would be a tough summer for teens looking for employment. And surprise, surprise, it looks like I was right.

Newspapers across the country, from Michigan to Delaware, have been writing about the problem this week.

From the Detroit Free Press:

Metro Detroit teens might find plenty of opportunities to volunteer this summer, but landing a paid job will not be as easy. And many area employers say teens who have not applied for jobs yet have even slimmer hopes of gainful employment.

And the Wilmington News Journal reports:

Gallucio’s Cafe in Wilmington used to have a handful of teens working part time during the summer, but now those positions have been replaced with full-time and year-round employees.

“Things have changed. The opportunities that were here aren’t here anymore,” said Bob Losey, Gallucio’s owner. “It’s harder for businesses to give summer jobs.”

Losey said that while he has a few teenagers on staff, most of his employees are older and were hired before the summer.

I know, it’s hard for people to plan ahead, especially for younger people. But unfortunately, it will be the savvy teens who were thinking about summer jobs months ago that had the pick of the crop.

There are lots of things working against teens. The economy is at the top of the list. But also, immigrants and older workers are increasingly muscling in on jobs that were once mainly a haven for young kids, things like restaurants, landscaping and clothing shops.

From my MSNBC.com column that ran in March:

A report put out this month by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University states that “the summer 2008 job outlook for teens looks particularly bleak.”

During the recession of 2001, the teen employment rate plummeted, says Joseph McLaughlin, research associate with the center, maintaining that teens are typically the hardest hit group during tough economic times. “We could be headed toward a historic low in the teen employment rate this summer,” he warns.

Adding to the problems, he says, is the growing number of older workers going after traditional teen jobs in retail and food services, and also the increase in illegal and legal immigrants vying for those jobs.

“Employers view adults as more responsible than teens, and they don’t have to worry about them going back to school,” he notes.

Teens need to keep this in mind when they head over to a store or restaurant and decide to fill out an application.

Please don’t wear shorts and flip flops if you want to make a good impression. I know, it’s summer, you’re out of school and you want to let it all hang out. But just don’t let it hang out too much when you meet a prospective employer.

Here are some sites teens can check out right now: TeenJobSection.com; JobDoggy.com and Groovejob.com.

And here’s some sound advice for parents from Debi Yohn, author of “Parenting College Students: 27 Winning Strategies for Success.”

“Have them talk to parents of their friends, teachers, and adult friends of the family. The teen can let everyone know they are looking for a job,” she notes. “You might role-play this with them so they are more comfortable. But remember, let them do their marketing. Do not do it all for them. You will deprive them of the lesson.”

I know, this is hard for us parents to do. But if we don’t, they’ll end up sitting on our couches and watching TV until they’re 30.

For years my husband Andy has been telling me about his favorite TV show growing up, Ultraman.

I actually thought he made this character up because I had never heard of him. Turns out it never aired in New York City so I missed it, but it was big in the Philadelphia area, where my husband grew up.

Many times Andy described the character’s red suit and how he shot rays out of his hands, but, as you can imagine, this was difficult to visualize.

That is until recently, when Andy unearthed a YouTube video of his childhood hero.

Here it is:

This is the strangest and weirdest video, and the music, so corny. But when I watched this odd character on my computer screen I understood my husband better than I had before. Trust me, Ultraman says a lot about my husband and his personality.

So, I decided to ask some successful people what their favorite TV characters were growing up.

Why? Because I can. Just kidding.

I figured it might help all of us get a tiny glimpse into what has shaped motivated individuals.

OK, this is some of what I got:

“My favorite childhood show was the Jetsons because it inspired me to think about how technology might be used in the future to improve peoples’ lives. I also liked that George Jetson only worked 3 hours per day, 3 days per week, a lot less than most of us work now!”

– Dan Abelon,
 Founder of SpeedDate.com


“Pogo and his friends - because there was always a lot of wise-cracking and there never appeared to be parents around!!!”

–Charlie MacCormack, president and CEO of Save the Children

“My favorite show: Bozo’s Circus, the most popular show on Chicago’s WGN-TV.
Parents waited for years to get tickets to the show. I never got into the show, so I finally got tickets for my sons, wife and me 15 years ago. However, a crisis at work (Sears), kept me from attending with them. My younger son, Brad, was selected from the audience to play the “bucket game,” which he won. I was crushed on many levels. And the show was finally canceled about five years ago.”

–Ron Culp, managing director, Ketchum’s Midwest operations

“I was a young kid in South Africa, we did not have any television at all. It was the governments policy at the time not to allow television and it was only in the mid 70’s when I was about 20, that television was finally introduced. I well remember that we all sat glued to our newly bought television sets when the first broadcast was aired. It started with a single program at 8 pm every night and that was it. The program was ‘The Brady Bunch’ and that was the sum total of the programming for much of the first year. I remember watching the program with my family almost every night and it was the talk of the town, since there was no other TV programs to talk about.”

– Anthony Viderqauz, CEO of California Closets

“As a very teeny girl I always loved Wonder Woman. I’m not sure if it’s because as a child of Holocaust Survivors I loved that a woman could take on the evil Nazis, or if it was because Lynda Carter was such a mellow superhero- and always so well accessorized (I even mention that in my book!) Seriously, I joke about finding your superpowers but I think that I learned a lot from Wonder Woman about how to be a woman in business.
-Wonder Woman worked in a male dominated industry, and while most people underestimated her, she was always the one to save the day
-Wonder Woman understood the notion of sisterhood being powerful (um, guess she’d have had to coming from an island of women) and yet she was gracious and always appreciative of the strength of others
-She started out as a privileged princess and yet was able to carve out her niche in the professional world (with the career available to her during that era)
-Her superpowers very much reflected the intuition and skills attributed to women, only to the nth degree.”

–Rachel Weingarten, president of GTK Marketing Group and author of “Career and Corporate Cool”

Our role models do say something about us, acknowledges psychologist and career coach Debra Condren, who is also the author of “Ambition is Not a Dirty Word.” “But it’s just one piece,” she adds.

Since many of the business leaders today are in their 40s and 50s and grew up on shows like Superman and Wonder Woman, it will be interesting to see what the next few generations, brought up on Barney and Hanna Montana, bring to the world of business.

No matter who we connect with, these characters may be a good way of getting back to our “inner child,” explains Nancy D. O’Reilly, a clinical psychologist and founder of womenspeak.com. She suggests going back and remembering your childhood hero and even hanging a picture up to motivate you in your life today.

“We would all like to think of ourselves as either possessing or wishing to possess certain characteristics we see in these characters,” she explains.

Hmm. Where does that leave me?, I asked O’Reilly. I identified with Bugs Bunny.

“Bugs Bunny is cute and funny,” she answers, “but he can kind of be a pain in the butt.”

OK, I’ve revealed too much.

What was your favorite TV show character or superhero?

“They think I’m going to grad school,” my intern says about her parents.

“Are you?” I ask.

“I don’t know,” she replies.

This is the conversation I had with my intern Katherine this morning. She just finished finals and, if she passes all her tests, will be a college senior next year.

Turns out, once every few weeks her parents ask her about what she plans for her future. They ask her about going to graduate school, about the steps she’s taking now to get her on the right career road, etc., etc.

Her common response is something like, “I’ll figure it out later.”

I’m listening to this closely because I have two young kids. Even though they’re 5 and 8, I’m wondering already how I will be when they’re at that critical crossroads, just a few steps from the real work world.

Obviously, Katherine doesn’t like her parents haranguing. She talks about them, when it comes to this issue, as if they were a two-headed monkey on her back constantly saying, “What’s your plan? What’s your plan?”

I had her call her mother Liz this morning to ask why they feel compelled to do this.

On why she pesters Katherine: “Hoping that you’ll take the ball and run with it.”

Liz feels compelled to keep on top of her daughter, “Because the stakes are much higher and you need to look at things much earlier in your life now.” As early as high school, she believes. “There are lots of opportunities you can take advantage of but you have to plan for them and get to them earlier. You have to involve them otherwise they won’t know how to make decisions.”

This all seems to make sense for us parents today. We are so much more involved in our kids lives than previous generations.

But as college kids take their finals, or prepare for graduation, it might be a good time to ask ourselves if parental badgering is helpful, or do we need to climb down from our kids’ backs already?

I asked Nicholas Aretakis, author of “No More Ramen: The 20-Something’s Real World Survival Guide”, what his take was and he shared this personal story from when he was in his first semester of college more than 25 years ago:

“I had my weekly call home, advising my parents of my struggles. They weren’t the most sophisticated or well educated (my Dad quit high school to join his 5 elder brothers in WWII, and saw serious combat action in Iwo Jima), but they said something that would have a resounding impact on my life. ‘Do the best that you can, we are proud of you regardless.’ After that conversation, I realized that the only pressures that I had to worry about were the pressures that I placed upon myself. The next semester I made the Dean’s List, and I graduated from Hobart College Cum Laude a year early, which enabled me to get into Columbia University, which opened many doors that contributed to my success over the years.”

That said, he doesn’t think parents should just cut the cord on college kids.

Here’s some advice he offers on helping, but not monkey-on-your-back type helping. It’s long but I thought parents would appreciate me taking up as much cyber space as possible for this:

1. Establish strong and honest communications with your children. Don’t be dictatorial, be supportive. Share pertinent stories of others and experience. If they find you helpful, they will come to you for help and accept some of the tutelage you can provide
o Ask your child, “What do you want to do?” This is much better than saying, “You need to find a job”.
o Help them find their way, but don’t be pushy, and don’t pressure them
o Determine if the option of them moving back home is open, and agree on some timelines and guidelines (if they move back into the nest)
o Be an open minded “sound-board” for you child, even if some of the initial ideas may not be either practical or wise
2. Become a “mentor” for your children, and encourage them to find others that will be qualified- professors, counselors, relatives, friends of the family, bosses or colleagues, etc.
o Mentorship can help you uncover a career direction or accelerate pursuits
3. Gain an understanding of what special talents or skills your children possess, and whether there is any potential career path that could be pursued
o Do they have any idea on what products or services they would like to design, develop, market or sell?
4. Encourage children to utilize the Career Services provided at their college
o Employers come to schools looking for particular skills, education or experience
o As a student or alumni, you can gain free access to postings made available by national services (e.g. MonsterTRAK, NACElink)
5. Get an idea on whether they have any career aspirations. Encourage spending time with individuals in similar fields, research prospective employers (management, direct supervisor, peers, culture)
o Spend few hours or a day “on the job”, getting an idea of the nuances of the job, gaining a flavor of whether you are cut out for this path
o www.CareerTours.com now offers short videos on prospective employers and specific positions, encourage your child to navigate and get a glimpse of some potential job options
o Encourage internships (paid or unpaid)- accomplishing several key factors:
§ gaining valuable work experience, positioning young adults when they graduate;
§ getting a better sense of a particular job or career path;
§ expanding their professional network – leading to strong references or other potential employ
o Visiting prospective employers’ websites, Google related companies and the particular industry (is it growing, in decline, exciting?)
o Interview with as many employers as practical- compare jobs, pay, benefits, culture, etc. (we provide free downloadable templates at www.NoMoreRamenOnline.com)
6. Ensure that your children understand the commitments of the job, particularly early on when they may need to “pay their dues”
o The path to more glamorous assignments starts with logging in time performing some of the less desirable tasks exceptionally well (the old cliché of “starting in the mail room)
7. Teach fiscal responsibilities
o Everything in the “real world” has an associated cost (we provide downloadable “budget templates”, visit www.NoMoreRamenOnline.com)
o Make sure that they compare the entire compensation packages from employer to employer- base pay, bonus, stock options/purchase plans, 401(k) plans- matching contributions, vacation, work hours, perks (e.g., travel or meal), culture, and some of the intangibles
8 Determine if graduate school is requisite?
o If so, can parents help their children financially to continue education, or would the child be saddled with excessive debt upon completion?

Great words for all you monkeys out there.

A “Sex and the City” tour guide?

Yes, that’s Lou Matthews’ job.

Riding around Manhattan on a tour bus filled with tourists from all over the world, from Texas to Serbia, Matthews shares trivia from the HBO series and points out hotspots the four sex-obsessed characters frequented on the show.

Matthews’ story is the first in a series I’m launching on CareerDiva today which I’m calling: Quirky jobs.

Matthews’ job is definitely unusual and in high demand right now as the first “Sex and the City” movie is set to hit movie theaters later this month.

“Sex” devotees have been heading to the Big Apple in droves to feel the beat of the city Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda call home and to vicariously live out these wacky gals’ adventures.

Matthews, herself a “Sex” addict, came across a Craigslist job posting a few years ago with tour guide company On Location Tours and jumped at the chance to apply for the “Sex” tour.

Being an aspiring actress herself, she felt the job would be a perfect fit. So she sent in her resume and headshot and ended up landing the gig, which pays about $25 an hour to start. Training included taking the tour three times and then she was handing the microphone and told, “your on.”

Thanks goodness she had experience interacting with people doing promotional work for tradeshows, and she’s often “the girl giving out free drinks.”

In her “Sex” job she has to be a social butterfly and be on all the time.

“It’s demanding,” says Matthews. “It’s kind of like doing a one-woman show.”

She typically meets the tourists at the fancy schmancy Plaza Hotel on Fifth Ave., and the bus is almost always filled to capacity with about 55 people. They tour about 40 “Sex” locations and all the while Matthews tantalizes tourists with tidbits from the show.

The biggest ooo’s and ahhs come when the group stops at the “Pleasure Chest,” a sex shop in the West Village. That’s where Charlotte buys the rabbit vibrator that she eventually gets addicted to, Matthews notes. “It’s a great ice breaker,” she adds.

Other stops include Magnolia Bakery, where Carrie told Miranda she had a crush on Aidan while the two friends were chomping on cupcakes.

And she also engages the tourists in a vote on whether Carrie should have ended up with Aidan, you know the guy from my “Big Fat Greek Wedding”, instead of Mr. Big, you know the guy from “Law and Order.”

The vote, she says, typically splits 50-50, but she admits to me that she’s partial to Aidan.

But what about the “Sex” girls’ biggest love interest, Cosmos?

Alas, Matthews does not drink the gals’ favorite cocktail on duty, but the bus does make a stop at Onieal’s bar, which is actually called Scout on the show and is frequented by the show’s characters, and the tourists are offered discounted Cosmos for $9. (Hey, it’s Manhattan.)

And forget the expensive clothing the women wear on the show.

As a struggling actress, Matthews can’t pony up the big bucks for Manolo Blahniks or Dolce&Gabbana, but she maintains, “I have an interest in fashion and I like to put myself together. But since I’m dashing around the city I wear chunky high heels, not stilettos.”

She’s proud of her job, which is basically part time with 16 hours a week so she has lots of time to pursue acting jobs when she’s not touring, and friends brag about what she does. But she admits she had trouble telling her dad because he never heard of the show. Being from Ohio, she worried he’d freak when he found out she does a “Sex and the City” tour.

Turns out, “he was cool about it.”

Now, being a “Sex” tour guide is probably not a life-long career.

So, what does this twenty something, who wouldn’t give her exact age because she’s “an actress”, see herself doing in the future?

“In an ideal world, I’ll be working on comedic projects,” she says. “But if this tour is still part of my life in five years I’ll embrace it.”

Cosmo anyone?

Most of us have humdrum careers compared to celebrities.

So, we don’t face the types of choices they have to every day.

No one has asked me to pose half naked in Vanity Fair. I did pose naked many years ago for a good friend who was a photographer, but hardly anyone saw those pictures, except for a few perverts at her photo show in New Jersey who ended up following me around all night.

And what would have happened if those photos did end up on the nightly news. I probably would have ended up struggling just as I did, working for one crummy publication after the other, trying to make enough money to eat something other than Ramen noodles and make a name for myself in journalism.

Now I’m not saying I’m not hot. It’s just that when Eve, the lowly reporter for a trade publication, which I was back then, takes her clothes off it’s just not going to have the same impact as a young kid billionaire from a Disney show.

So why did Miley Cyrus strip down for Vanity Fair?

According to a Newsday blog called “The TV Zone”, the Hannah Montana show is actually losing some of its luster.

“Ratings for the all of the show’s daily airings among kids, ages 2 to 11 slid 6 percent from the first quarter to the fourth quarter of 2007, while said ratings plummeted 16 percent from the first quarter of ‘08 to the second quarter of this year. I repeat: Sixteen percent. For the money demographic, ‘tweens from 9 to 14, the decline was sharper: 19 percent over that period.”

The blog authors’ surmise, the “Show’s in decline and Miley needs to figure out her second act.”

These guys are brilliant. She’s a performer folks, an actress, a singer. It’s all about getting your face, voice and butt out there or you die.

I’m scratching my head as to why everyone is so upset, especially parents who let their kids watch that dumb show. (OK, my daughter has watched it. So sue me.)

The show is about a little girl that lives a double life. One as a normal kid and one as a rock star.

A rock star! Last I heard rock stars are pretty raunchy. Come on parents out there.

Suddenly it’s: “we hate Miley.”

Give the gal a break.

Her parents threw her into the work world, a pretty tough work world, at a pretty young age. She really has little choice now but to make sure the gravy train keeps rolling.

Let’s use a different example here. Think of yourselves, adults out there. When you start a career, even if you don’t really like it you get to a point where the money is good so you hang on. Sometimes we even do unethical things, or at least unsavory things, so we don’t rock the job boat.

This girl hasn’t even had the luxury of experience behind her, or parents with sense; yet we point fingers at her. At least most of us grownups know better.

Come on. Tell me you guys wouldn’t take your clothes off if it meant keeping your gig and the promise of riches.

Lately people have been asking me what jobs are recession proof. And parents want to know what they should encourage their children to go into.

I always include healthcare in my response, but I want to narrow that a bit today. Think critical care doc! There’s a huge shortage and it’s only going to get worse.

Yes, becoming a doctor takes a lot of education and money. But if it’s something you’re up to, or you think your kid would be up to, send them down this path now.

I got an email from a friend who works at a local hospital organization here in Wilmington called Christiana Care Health System and was surprised at how bad the shortage of intensive care doctors is in the U.S.

He talked about how the shortage in Maryland was so dire that six hospitals there were planning on using physicians at Christiana Care to electronically monitor intensive care patients in the neighboring state.

He sent me a press release on the plan, known as eICU:

Made possible by a $3 million grant from CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield (CareFirst), the eICU® Program marries medicine and technology to bring critical care physicians, also known as intensivists, to areas facing a shortage in this specialty.

Studies have shown improved patient outcomes and decreased lengths of stay for patients in intensive care units (ICU) managed by critical care physicians. Yet many hospitals – especially those in rural America – do not have the resources to keep these kinds of physicians on site 24 hours a day.

The six hospitals, known collectively as Maryland eCare, united two years ago to find a solution to the critical care physician shortage. It is the largest collaboration of independent hospitals in the country – and the only such partnership in the state of Maryland – to establish this model of care for its patients.

OK, I love technology as much as the next guy, but this announcement makes me worry about the health care system in this country and a shift in the profession of medicine that has more and more doctors not wanting to do the hard work that’s sometimes necessary.

There was an informative story in the Wall Street Journal this week titled, “As Doctors Get a Life, Strains Show,” and it talks about how younger doctors want work-life balance and that means saying know to the harder gigs and to round-the-clock patient care.

Dr. Marc T. Zubrow, Medical Director of Maryland eCare and Director of Critical Care Medicine at Christiana Care, says it’s just a fact of life.

“There are only 6000 intensivist in whole country,” he says. “There’s a shortage of people that go into it because it’s a tough lifestyle and doesn’t pay that well.”

According to the Health Services and Resources Adminstration:

By 2020, the nation will need at least 2,600 critical care physicians, or as many as 4,300. The current supply of 1,900 intensivists is expected to grow to 2,800 by 2020, which would appear to more than meet the minimum. But this lower estimate is based on a practice pattern that is quickly being eclipsed, according to HRSA.

Currently, one-third of patients in intensive care are treated by a critical care physician. But hospitals are pushing for a more optimal level of care, where two-thirds of intensive care patients are treated by an intensivist. To achieve this level of care, 4,300 intensivists would be needed by 2020, which, the study projects, would mean a shortfall of 1,500 physicians.

The HRSA report cited lifestyle and reimbursement as the biggest barriers to boosting medical residents’ interest in the subspecialty.

Although demand for intensivists has increased after studies showed that care from the specialists can improve patient outcomes and shorten hospital stays, not enough young physicians are willing to take on the long, demanding hours of a critical care doctor, says pulmonologist Michael Alberts, MD, president of the American College of Chest Physicians.

In the Northeast and midAtlantic region the salary starting out is about $200,000, explains Dr. Zubrow, but if you’re a third year medical student and looking at a quarter million in loans you might wonder if you should go into plastic surgery, instead of the grueling intensive care job.

So why did Dr. Zubrow choose intensive care if it’s so bad? “I’m crazy,” he quips.

And he loves the drama of the ICU. Some other traits that make him the perfect ICU doc, he is a multi-tasker, can handle a lot of information at once, and likes the fast pace. If this describes you, go for it!

Also, Dr. Zubrow adds, there’s a movement to allow critical care docs work more in teams and do shift work so they’re not killing themselves during endless shifts.

I know, everyone wants it easy today. I can understand that. But who is going to staff our hospitals in the years ahead? I don’t know about you, but I’m not so sure I want a doctor remotely monitoring me in the ICU.