Jobs

[melclaros <melclaros@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 50137

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Maria Kirilenko 
<maria_kirilenko at y...> wrote:
> 
> My father said recently that wizards don't have very many 
employment options - namely, they can only work in the MoM. We, of 
course, know that's not true - they can also work in Hogwarts, in 
shops, on the Knight Bus and Hogwarts Express. But that's still very 
little!
> 
> So... any ideas for where else they can work *to earn money*? Death-
eating and 'taking a year off to get some first-hand experience at 
DADA' do not count!
> 
> Maria

This is funny because during a family discussion at the dinner table 
last night my son and I were getting into something about the point 
system at Hogwarts and it morphed into the situation in PS/SS where 
Slytherin won the house cup until Dumbledore decided that, no they 
didn't. That then morphed into a discussion of the general 
mistreatment of Snape and "Why doesn't he just quit?" to which Dad 
answered, far too pragmatically "Well he has to eat!"

So for most of today I've been wandering around thinking, "maybe 
that's part of why he joined the DE's." I can picture him at 18, too 
smart for his own good, refusing to bury himself in some dead-end job 
in an apothocary shop. But hey, he had to eat! "Now, this Voldemort  
is making an interesting offer...."

We've been given a limited view of the WW, that's true. We have a 
snapshot of the government--there is certainly plenty of beaurocracy, 
lots of jobs there. The economic system is, by muggle standards 
primative (I haven't noticed any mention of corporations--CEO of a 
corporate giant pharmacutical company would be a great job for 
IQuit!Snape). There doesn't seem to be wizard financial markets of 
any sort--they even subcontract banking to goblins. We have hints of 
other options, the wizard wireless and the Daily Prophet must hire 
occasionally, and there seems to be no shortage of magazines. 
Publishing looks to be one of the most successful businesses in the 
WW. It's where I'd invest my knuts, if there was a market in which to 
do so!
Perhaps this limited view of career options in the WW is because we 
are locked into learning about it as Harry learns about it. Perhaps 
as he experiences more of it, so will we.