Nuclear Engineer the Most Dangerous Job? Nope. Not Even Close

After the nuclear accident at Fukushima, people are thinking, "Surely, nuclear engineering is the most dangerous job in the world." Nope. Not even close.


Not to make light of a bad situation, but as I was inspired by the list of the Top 20 Most Dangerous Jobs in America (at the bottom of that article) where I found that working at a nuclear power plant wasn't one of the Top 20 dangerous jobs. In fact, according to Topix, being a nuclear power plant operator is so safe that it isn't even among the top 100 most dangerous jobs in America! See here. 

I was again reminded of the power of marketing in today's society and how hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each year to get the public to believe as God's gospel truth the things they believe. 


That so many people believe that nuclear power is such a dangerous thing, when the oil industry annually accounts for thousands of deaths from cancer and airborne pollutants (not to mention millions killed in US instigated wars for control of that oil) and that, for every one person killed by nuclear power, 4,000 die from cancers and diseases as a direct result of burning coal and the coal industry just shows a testament to the power of the big money spent by the coal and big oil industry on marketing in an attempt to get you to believe what you do.


I guess they've done a pretty good job.

It strikes me as quite curious that, in some times, people are very anti-fossils fuels. Like when they complain about the environment, pollution or even (chuckle) Man Made Global Warming... Then at other times, like after the recent earthquake and tsunami, they completely drop that kind of thinking and go whole hog against nuclear power.

How, pray tell, do westerners think they are going to support their energy guzzling lifestyles? Well, recent events show that far too many people panic and don't think... So I guess that answers my question right there, doesn't it? 


People don't think.

Of course, people complain about these things while, at the same time, they have three TV's at home - of course one is a energy sucking giant screen; they have three stereos and central heating. They live the lifestyle of constantly leaving the lights on in the house in rooms they aren't using and live a life of general energy wastefulness. They also show their hypocrisy when they pollute the environment by throwing their trash away on the streets or when they go camping or on picnics. Nor do they properly separate their refuse to help recycle their garbage.

WHAT IS THE MOST DANGEROUS JOB IN THE WORLD? READ ON!

As an aside, it has always struck me as odd how people can carry full cases of beer and food up a mountain to go camping or to a picnic, but seem incapable of carrying down consumed, much lighter, empty containers after the party is over.

But, I suppose, that's a discussion for another time.

Let me give you a caveat here as to why these things irritate me about some people. One usually doesn't like to toot one's horn (except I do every chance I get) and since no one does if for me, I have to do it myself: We have no TV at my home - haven't had one in nearly 10 years. No stereo. No central heating. Absolutely never leave the lights on in unattended rooms and are very energy conscious. We use power boxes and completely shut off the power in unused appliances so that even the built-in clocks are off when not in use... 


In fact, even though I don't believe that CO2 is a problem concerning global warming, we always close the toilet seat cover as closing the toilet seat shows good manners and proper upbringing and, from what I understand, closing the toilet seat cover, when not in use, cuts down about 45 kilograms of CO2 released into the atmosphere annually from one toilet.

Do I do these things, and teach my children to do the same, because I worry about the environment (and their manners)? Yes. It's partly that. I do have four children. I do worry that we need to keep the rivers and mountains and beaches clean. But I do these energy saving things mostly because I am an incredibly frugal person (a cheapskate) and do not believe in unnecessarily throwing money away supporting big oil and big power companies.


If I can save $10 a month on electricity and gas, that's $10 more dollars that I can invest in precious metals or save.

But, I am getting off the point of this post. The point is that working at a nuclear power plant is not even listed in the Top 20 Most Dangerous Jobs in America - it is not even in the top 100 - yet it is perceived (in a very comical way, too) as a very dangerous job.

This allows me to give you an undeniably good example of how TV has influenced the thinking of today's society immensely.

I am reminded of Homer Simpson working at Mr. Burns nuclear power plant in Springfield. 

Why am I reminded of Homer Simpson? Well, because, if America's most famous cartoon character - a guy who is loved, yet seen as a buffoon - a guy who represents Mr. Average America to people all over he world - works at a nuclear power plant, then I think that makes a strong statement. I think that is a statement  that just about anyone can agree with concerning the perceived safety of working at such a place.

Now, all I can say is that from watching the Simpson's and from examining popular trends and cultural ideas, in spite of the facts and historical record, I think anyone who watches TV would believe that nuclear power is a very dangerous thing; much more dangerous than the most dangerous jobs.

The fear of nuclear power is certainly much more glamorous and it sparks the imagination of Hollywood much more than the top 3 most dangerous jobs in the world put together: Being a fisherman, logger or farmer? Probably fun. But not as fun a Science Fiction, Spider-man, radioactive aliens from space and 1950's horror movies like "The Day the Earth Stood Still."

That Homer Simpson - who works at one of these places in a cartoon that ridicules nuclear power every episode - could win the award as the "Best American of All-Time," beating out such luminaries as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, is a testament to how people all around the world - if they thought about it rationally for a moment - would most probably agree with me.....


That Homer Simpson's way of thinking and fouled up logic is pretty indicative of the average American's way of thinking... Laugh all you want, but Homer Simpson is the average American guy.


The problem is not that Homer Simpson is a self-centered, foolish, illogical (but lovable) oaf. The problem is that there are 10 million American adult males just like him... (Too bad it seems that a huge percentage of us are not in the least lovable, excepting to our moms...)

Working at a nuclear power plant is probably not an ideal job, but it pays a hell-of-a-lot more and is much safer than many other jobs. According to PayScale, starting pay for nuclear engineers - including bonuses and profit-sharing - is between $53,104 ~ $127,398 per year. 


Not bad for a guy or girl straight out of college.


Even considering the current problems at Fukushima with current deaths still at zero (and hopefully to remain that way) compared to the 11 immediate deaths on the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion and the annual U.S. Minerals Management Service report of 69 offshore deaths, 1,349 injuries, and 858 fires and explosions on offshore rigs in the Gulf of Mexico alone from 2001 to 2010. 

Whether you are Homer Simpson, or someone just like him, in today's America, a person could do much worse for a job than becoming a nuclear engineer. In spite of all its warts and negative publicity, the nuclear industry still compares quite favorable in safety and pay to any other form of energy.


And now, to finally answer the question as to what is the most dangerous job in the world? Even though it is not legal in many countries, the world's oldest profession is also its most dangerous. As All Most reports:

What do you think is the most dangerous job in the world? I bet it would surprise you that the most dangerous job in the world is not even legal in most U.S. states. The most dangerous job in the world is prostitution. I know what you are thinking, prostitution isn’t even a job. But the definition of a job is a regular activity performed in exchange for payment.

Prostitution is named the most dangerous job because of this stat; the murder rate for a prostitute is 204 to every 100,000!!!

Social Media for Businesses - Create an Online Persona

Creating a useful and powerful way to utilize social media for businesses and corporations can be tricky. Social media is not conducive to "in-your-face" advertising. In fact, if a company is not careful using social media such as Twitter or Mixi to sell product, it can completely backfire and be a total turn-off. A good way to get many people to stop following your, say, Twitter account or blog is to consistently bombard them with information that says, "Buy Me!" or "Sale!" Not cool. Think about it... Would you look forward to, or like to read, blogs or tweets like that?

American icon Betty Crocker sold millions... 
She never existed except on boxes and TV

For your websites and social media to be effective, they need to give and not to take. The killer blog and/or Twitter will be giving away great content for free and doing it consistently. Then the receivers pass the information on for you.

Just as your website should not be a one-way sales brochure, so should your social media usage be geared towards giving away something for free to the receivers so that they actually look forward to your tweets and updates.

I am about to start helping some friends of mine with their online sales of adult beverages. Sure, they have a great line-up of the usual suspects; e-mail magazine, easy to look at web page, etc., but they need something different. They need that extra "Umph!" to push them over the edge. They need something that sets them apart from the competition. While all the other online beverage retail sites say basically the same thing, my friend's site needs to take it one level higher.

As Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap fame would say, "These go to eleven."

Yep. Go to eleven. With all the millions of sites on the Internet doing something near or similar to what you are doing, how do you go to eleven?

I'll tell you; give away great content.

Many companies start up their own business blogs or order their staff to write Twitter pushing company product. These never go well... For one, the people asked to do the blogging or the tweets are not the kind of people who should be, or are good at, blogging... Or they might even think, "This sucks. I hate doing this Twitter, but my boss makes me do it." Resentful staff do not make good bloggers...

Think about that for a minute. If the person that you've ordered to blog is not very motivated to do a good job, do you think they will be able to write great material? And everyone knows, in this day and age, if the material on the Internet is not great, then it doesn't cut it.

If the person writing the Twitter or blogs doesn't like it, then why in the world would the "outside" people want to read it? I don't think they would. In fact, if the blog or Twitter is poor, or is not gaining traction or popularity, I'd suggest stopping it until you do find a formula that "works."

Here's a tip: Instead of forcing one of your staff members to do the blogging or Twittering, why don't you have a brainstorming session at the office (maybe after work with a few drinks?) and come up with a virtual person? An online persona? How about a sort of "Internet Milli-Vanilli" to represent your company (for you younger people in the crowd who do not know who Milli Vanilli is, please ask your parents....) Make the character fun. This way, you create a fun atmosphere around this person and it also allows the online persona to have more personality and state more likes and dislikes online.

Make your own Colonel Sanders; or, even better, make your own Bart Simpson as your sales rep. Why not? Who wouldn't want Bart Simpson to be their sales rep? Sometimes he says it like it is. What great promotion!

Everyone loves a character who is sassy, talks back, has an opinion, and not kissing ass and telling us how wonderful the world is all the time.

Volkswagen did this and the results were fantastic. They created an online persona whose name was Helga. The staff of Volkswagen got together and created Helga. Who she is; how old she is; her hobbies; likes; dislikes, even where she was born. She was an immediate Internet hit... And she doesn't even really exist.

(1) Helga on Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/misshelga

Her catch copy says, "Don't be sucking." 

 Hilarious! I love it! 

Now, don't think that this sort of thing is so easy to do. If you realize that a character like, say, Homer Simpson was a creation that has a consistent personality, then you'd realize that this same "creation of a persona" process took place in the birth of Homer. The staff of the Simpson's got together and worked on the characters for a long time before they came to fruition. Homer is funny because he is who he is...

This didn't happen on a whim. It was planned; the creators of Homer Simpson, or Helga, or even Betty Crocker got together and decided everything about this persona... Everything! Every conceivable detail about who they are and what they like...Probably even up to who their parents  were.

This sort of persona creation can be fun and it should allow your company employees to have fun with the tweets and blogs for the virtual character.  It also takes the extreme pressure off that one staff member (who could be slightly resentful) who is supposed to write the blogs and Twits.

You can ask the staff to blog or tweet when they have a good idea... (Like I said, if your staff hates blogging, then you have the wrong people doing it)... If your own staff just won't budge, then there are hundreds of thousands of good people all around who'd love the opportunity to work and write for you as "piece-work." Or, heck, like I said, if the character is fun, you might even find that you like doing the blogging. It's always fun to write behind a mask, if you are so inclined to writing.

Or why not even hold an online contest on your web page or forum whereby your e-mail magazine members (new and old) can join a contest where they can win some great prizes by either writing some great text for you or even creating your character? There are a million and one ways of doing this and the ceiling is your imagination.

So don't forget, the point of the Internet and the blogs and Twitter: Do Not Take! Do not do "in-your-face" sales! Give great content free and create a buzz...

When you create a buzz, they will come... Even if your buzz creator doesn't really exist.

(1) Helga from The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott.  Page 179


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Keywords: Helga, David Meerman Scott, New Rules of Marketing & PR, Twitter, Internet, blogs, free content, buzz, Internet Milli Vanilli, Mike Rogers, Marketing Japan, Mike in Tokyo Rogers, Betty Crocker