When you think of the most influential people on the planet, who comes to mind? I just went to the 2010 TIME 100 Poll, and here is a decent sample of candidates who TIME selected: Barack Obama (Valid), Sarah Palin (Hah), Stephen Colbert (Northwestern stud), Cheryl Cole (Hot and talented, but makes no sense on this list), Jimmy Fallon (How the hell did Jimmy Fallon get on this list?) and 195 more.
However, there is one person who should be on this list. As you have probably realized by now, I like annoying people by withholding information for as long as possible (read: before someone threatens to set me on fire), so I do not plan on making this too easy for you. Thus, I am going to provide you with a five relatively suspect clues:
1. This person is not a name, but rather a type of profession.
2. This person gets paid to present not necessarily true, yet still influential information.
3. This person’s average salary is $91,146 (this probably does absolutely nothing for you).
4. This person is commonly mistaken for another profession that starts with the letter “m.”
5. This person was played by Nicolas Cage in another Nicolas Cage classic (and by classic, I mean, cut your hair, Nicolas Cage, and show some emotion)
If the Nicolas Cage clue didn’t give it away, the correct answer is: the weatherman! BAM! Imagine how amazing being a weatherman is. First, in a decent percentage of cases, weathermen aren’t even meteorologists! They get paid to wake up at 3 a.m., get Ron-Burgundy-pampered with make-up to remove any traces of fatigue (I could use some of that make-up – people are actually going to start calling me “Bags” in the next couple of years) and provide information that is correct approximately 10 percent of the time. Then they get to parade around town as people recognize them as those good-looking gentlemen who are masters of the weather clicker rather than the very reasons why they sweated through their Banana Republic fleeces on a date-walk in that in-between summer and fall weather. But I digress.
The point I am trying to make here is, if you were to switch up your thinking and conjecture a list of the most influential, glamorous professions on the planet, surely you would put politician (for better or for worse), investment banker (money makes the world go round), doctor (a given, unless you are an undertaker and need repeat business), marketer (maybe I meant to say, ideas make the world go round?) and actor (I loathe the very thought that Nicolas Cage influences me in any way), just to name a few.
NU grooms us to excel in these professions because we can make a huge impact on a large scale (and I will have more to say on these professions next week, with the addition of the case-interview obsessed). But honestly, if you want a glamorous position in which you can make an impact, look no further than the microcosmic weatherman-meteorologist. Like the weatherman, there are many under-the-radar professions that are more glamorous than you may initially think. However, this time, I will let you come up with this list; I have to schedule my meeting with the meteorology department. Yes, I know this department doesn’t exist. It’s too glamorous.
Quick side-note: great work, weathermen, on predicting yesterday’s 60 degree aberration. Too bad I didn’t check said aberration and promptly proceeded to sweat through my suit and mud-flood my dress shoes.
Steve Hofmann is a Weinberg junior. He can be reached at [email protected].
