BOOK RANKING JOBS SEVERELY FLAWED.

Byline: BILL BECHER

Mommas, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys ... or fishermen ... or loggers. Instead, make 'em stay in cubicles and labs. And never go outdoors.

That's the message in the ``2002 Jobs Rated Almanac'' - The Best & Worst Jobs, which annually publishes a list ranking 250 jobs. The book puts outdoor gigs such as cowboy (248), fisherman (249) and lumberjack (250) at the bottom of the job heap, and careers such as biologist (1), actuary (2) and financial planner (3) at the top.

Obviously written by a couch potato, the book rates jobs according to ``environment, income, outlook, physical demands, security and stress.''

I called a biologist (1) who also happens to spend her weekends teaching fishing (249). A sort of yin and yang, manic-depressive, career choice.

``The best part about being a biologist is making a difference,'' said Carole Kurahara, an associate scientist at Amgen in Thousand Oaks, who has worked on cancer treatments. As a biologist involved in genetics she also likes the sense of discovery in her lab.

``It's really interesting to look in the incubator in the morning and see what's looking back at you,'' she said.

Kurahara teaches fly-fishing on weekends with her husband, Jan, an attorney (51). She said one of the drawbacks of being a biologist is working indoors, and fishing gets her outside.

``Fish live in good places,'' she said. She admits she sometimes kids her husband about his lower-ranked job.

Maybe he should give up being an attorney (51) for a job as a paralegal assistant (8). That's the way this book rates these two jobs. Because lawyers tend to be pretty smart, I figured that after this book came out, there would have been a stampede outside the courthouse as lawyers chucked their lousy jobs to become legal assistants.

I called the UCLA Law School and talked to Barbara Varat, an associate dean, who told me, ``Absolutely not, no way'' had any students switched from law school to become paralegal assistants. Plenty had gone the other way, trying out the law as assistants and then going to law school to become lawyers for the increased prestige and money.

To see whether this was a fluke, I checked the listings for dental hygienist (27), which outranks dentist (92). Charles Shuler of the USC School of Dentistry said the number of dentists who have become hygienists is ``zero.''

Obviously, something is seriously flawed in this book.

Most jobs with challenge get low marks, regardless of pay, and working outdoors has lots of challenges (and low pay).

Commercial fisherman Tim Overstreet said the job can be dangerous and not rewarding financially, but he loves it. He's also a sport-fishing captain who's learned to lead marine education programs for schools as an alternative to fishing.

``It keeps us busy and gives us a sense of doing something right - teaching the kids,'' Overstreet said. ``But we're fishermen at heart.''

The guy who should be on suicide watch, as he is both a lumberjack and a fisherman, is Dan Leichty. He's actually a fishing guide, a fisherman who gets tips, which might be what's keeping him from falling on his chain saw.

I asked him whether he'd considered switching careers, such as to financial planner or actuary, the person who fudges the books for insurance companies. But he isn't going to give up either outdoor job to sit in an office and sell mutual funds.

``I made my choices a long time ago,'' Leichty said. ``The Sierras get in your blood.'' Leichty is a fifth generation lumberjack.

``There's always cheap thrills involved in logging,'' he said. ``When a tree doesn't fall the right way, it could be hazardous to your health in a permanent sort of way.''

Leichty said he now chases fish with a graphite rod instead of packing a 30-pound chain saw. So he's heading in the right direction, having moved up one notch, out of the career cellar to No. 249.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Dan Leichty has two of the worst jobs one could have, according to the ``2002 Jobs Rated Almanac.''

Bill Becher/Special to the Daily News