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[Kumquat]

Yup, fish/animal dissectors report to the smelters immediately for me as well. Animal caretakers report to the marksdrawf squads.

Fish dissectors in particular because in all my late embarks the only 'fish' that exists is mussel.

Potash makers and glazers as well - wood is usually scarce enough as it is and tin has better uses as well, so I've never done any clear glass or glazed pots/whatever.

Yeah and hunters too, I'd rather catch all the interesting wildlife for taming/breeding programs. At least they usually become decent goblin pincushion makers.

I keep around a bunch of mason/architects so that they can build those smelters and such quickly, frequently making them mason/architect/mechanics as well.

Generally I try to do a little of everything possible in all my forts. They usually become laggy pieces of mess due to runaway production of glass coffins or stoneware crafts or just plain veggies though...

[MenacesWithSpikes]

As for most useless, I'd go for glass makers or clay workers. Got 0 of those. Got 1 beekeeper.

Glassmaking is one of the better professions!  If your map has sand and abundant wood/coal/lignite/MAGMAAAA, anyway...

Infinite supply of glass goods for trading, and glass trap components.  Goblins aren't normally fully armored...

[MenacesWithSpikes]

Useless professions where my fortresses are concerned:

Woodcrafting (I have many other professions for creating trade goods that do not involve using up valuable wood... it's good for making wooden bolts in a pinch but not much else)
Animal Dissection
Beekeeping
Fisherdwarf, after the first one.  That first one is fine, but I don't need 10 of them, seriously.

Professions I wish I got more of from migrants:
Farming (fields).  I don't like assigning Dabbling farmers.  The more skill the farmer has, the more crop production you get.
Great Mechanics/Weaponsmiths/Armorsmiths.
Bone Carvers.  I have one in my original 7, but I can't seem to get any from migrants.
Mechanics in general.

[Hyndis]

Legendary+5 glass makers are very versatile. They can make magma safe trap components and pump parts. They can make pots for food storage. They can make furniture. They can make trade goods. And they can even keep your jewelers busy decorating things forever.

All you need is magma plus a source of sand. If you have that, then you get infinite glass.

[MenacesWithSpikes]

I don't yet have magma access at this fort (it's at Z-level -100ish), but I do have plentiful bituminous coal. 

[Hyndis]

I don't yet have magma access at this fort (it's at Z-level -100ish), but I do have plentiful bituminous coal. 

You can build your magma workshops down at the magma level. You don't need to keep them at the same level as your fort.

[Loud Whispers]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Glassmaking is one of the better professions!  If your map has sand

No sand

and abundant wood

Used for metals

/coal

0

/lignite

Nope

/MAGMAAAA

Not even close

Infinite supply of glass goods for trading

I got an infinite supply of masterwork cloth goods for trading. And I get an infinite supply of clothes as bonus. Not that it matters since there are no caravans anyways. But who cares! Plenty of stone to give away

glass trap components.

Not a fan of traps. Only use them against the undead who've really made me mad. And for that I use stone traps and spiky things. No glass.

Goblins aren't normally fully armored...

Leave anything to chance, eventually the RNG will roll a 1 and everything will erupt in a fountain of magma and vomit.

And that is why to me glass makers are the most useless job.
And maybe doctors, because they never prescribe any treatment other than wereism.
Although I guess that makes them great scientists.

[Wellincolin]

Beekeping, woodcrafting and anything fishing-related.

I'm still traumatized by carps.

[MenacesWithSpikes]

Leave anything to chance, eventually the RNG will roll a 1 and everything will erupt in a fountain of magma and vomit.

That's beautiful!  I must sig this!!

[peskyninja]

All fishing related jobs, siege enginering and animal caretaking.

[Iosyn]

I do set up bee farms now and then, but they seem to take so long to make any amount of honey a dwarf will go rusty and/or starve first.

So, less to more useful: Glassmakers, Cheesemakers, Clothiers and Beekeepers. In that order. At least clothiers can be drafted as weavers when I breach a cavern, but even if I make some beehives on the first day of spring sometimes they aren't even ready to harvest by then and that annoys me to HFS and back. Everyone else usually gets stone detailing, hauling or sentry duty. In rare cases I'll even draft one as a mechanic or mason so my cagetraps and walls don't take forever to setup.

And then the next wave will have a high master mason or mechanic.
/facepalm.

[Pyro627]

I have never bothered with any specialized jobs at all. Beekeeping, cheesemaking, glassmaking, I don't even care.

I've recently begun bothering with weaving and clothesmaking, due to a lack of clothes, but that's it.

I have enough headaches already from distributing jobs for masons and carpenters and the like among dwarves with skills in multiple labors. For instance, I don't want my carpenter making stone crafts when I need beds, but he just got legendary stonecrafting from a mood, and he's already a master stonecrafter...

[zubb2]

HUNTERS

[wuphonsreach]

Glassmakers are very useful in these days of vampires.  Setup your residential blocks to overlook the dining room / meeting area, get extra room value (over a simple fortification) and get vampire detection.  Plus the old animal-powered watch towers require glass.

Granted, you can do both with gem windows, but you'll need an awful lot of gems for a 60 bedroom complex.

[SirAaronIII]

Strand extractors. Especially since they never come with any rank higher than Novice, or with any other skills.