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Don't let your babies grow up to be ...

Real estate agents. A job prestige poll shows folks have little regard for them but admire firefighters and teachers.

By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE
Published July 27, 2006

Firefighters, doctors, nurses and teachers, rejoice. People think your job is very prestigious. Take a bow.

As far as real estate agents, stockbrokers and, ah, even pesky journalists go, well, let's just say people aren't quite as giddy about your efforts, however proud.

Yes, it's polling time again. And on Wednesday, Harris Poll released the results of its effort to measure public perceptions of 23 professions, with firefighters ranking on top, not far ahead of doctors and nurses and teachers. Real estate agents finished dead last. In all, 1,020 people were polled.

Please note: Pollsters aren't ranked.

For firefighters such as Lt. Rick Feinberg, 46, a St. Petersburg firefighter, the poll is a reaffirmation of what he already knows: When a house is on fire and you show up with a hose, people tend to look fondly on you.

"They're calling you because they have an emergency and they're happy to see you," Feinberg said. "I almost became a cop. Putting people in jail isn't a bad thing."

But he notes that doing so doesn't necessarily make one Mr. Popularity.

For the record, police rank seventh from the top among the 23 occupations polled with 43 percent of those surveyed saying they associated very great prestige with the job. That compares to 63 percent for firefighters.

Feinberg recalls the sorrowful tale of a 30-year veteran of the department who retired and became a code enforcement officer, an ego-bruising experience. Feinberg said, "All of a sudden, people didn't want him on their property anymore."

Some occupations seem to give people a visceral reaction. To steal a line from Henny Youngman: Take real estate agents. Please. (We are, of course, kidding.)

For one, Tampa real estate agent Mary Kelly doesn't get it. She's proud of her work. She helps people. She makes dreams come true.

"I don't feel like a Rodney Dangerfield," she said. "I think I get a lot of respect."

Teaching was the only profession to post a noticeable improvement in respectability over the years. In 1977, 29 percent of those surveyed thought the job had very great prestige. That's now up to 52 percent, ranking teachers fifth.

"Without teachers, you wouldn't have doctors and lawyers," said Quincy Dwayne Ham, 24, a high school teacher in Seminole. "That makes you feel good."

And you wouldn't have reporters and stockbrokers either.

Many people seem to be ambivalent about farmers. They're in the middle of the pack, right behind clergy but ahead of those ever-maligned members of Congress. About 36 percent of people rank farming as having very great prestige.

Frankly, it puzzles Plant City strawberry grower Carl Grooms that farmers didn't poll better than clergy, what with sex abuse scandals in recent years.

"I don't know of no farmer who's been on the front page every day for swindling people or doing wrong," Grooms, 57, said. "The fireman's got to eat. The preacher's got to eat. Without farmers, where they going to get their food?"

Hey, lawyers have to eat, too, and they're ranked several notches below farmers with 21 percent ranking the profession as having very great prestige. They were the only profession to post a noticeable decline over the past 25 years, though they still remain far ahead of real estate people at 6 percent.

Clearwater attorney Tom Carey, 55, understands why attorneys don't win popularity contests. But he's old enough to know something else: "People don't like lawyers until they need one," he said.

Kelly, the real estate agent, laughs when a reporter asks for her age, perhaps, she suggests, revealing why journalists don't fare well in polls.

"Let's just say I'm over 21," she said.

Oh, about those reporters: Just 16 percent rank the job as very prestigious.

William R. Levesque can be reached at levesque@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3436.

PRESTIGIOUS JOBS

Harris Poll respondents were asked which jobs have "very great prestige."

The top five ... :

1. Firefighter, 63 percent

2. Doctor, 58 percent

3. Nurse, 55 percent

4. Scientist, 54 percent

5. Teacher, 52 percent

... and the bottom five:

23. Real estate agent, 6 percent

21. tie Stockbroker, 11 percent

21. Business executive, 11 percent

19. (tie) Actor, 12 percent

19. Union leader, 12 percent

[Last modified July 27, 2006, 01:05:44]