Job Search. 250 Best-Paying Jobs

We kept this introduction short to encourage you to actually read it. For this reason, we don't provide many details on the technical issues involved in creating the job lists or descriptions. Instead, we give you short explanations to help you understand and use the information the book provides for career exploration or planning. We think this brief and user-oriented approach makes sense for most people who will use this book.

Who This Book Is For and What It Covers

We created this book to help students and adults learn about high-paying careers and the educational and training pathways that lead to them. Employers, educators, program planners, career counselors, and others will also find this book to be of value.

If you are a young career planner and high income is important to you, this book can be especially useful. Are you impatient with the idea of starting at the bottom and working your way up the corporate ladder toward a better-paying job? The research of labor economists shows that you are right to set your sights high for your first job. Economists compared the earnings of people who started out in lower- and higher-paying jobs and found that those who began at a lower level generally had not caught up to the others even 10 or 20 years later. So you are wise to use this book to identify a high-paying job as your initial career goal.

People who are considering a career change later in life will also find this book useful. Do you feel stuck in a low-paying job? This book can point you toward high-paying jobs that are a good fit with your interests and, perhaps best of all, do not require a great amount of additional education or training. You will be particularly interested in the lists of highpaying jobs organized by level of required education or training.

To create this book, we started with approximately 900 major jobs at all levels of training and education. From these, we selected those with earnings of at least $46,300 per year. That figure represents an income level higher than what three-quarters of Americans earn as wages. The national median wage for all jobs is $29,430. Part I contains lists that rank these high-paying jobs according to many criteria, including earnings, growth, openings, education level, and interest area. Part II contains job descriptions for all of the jobs. We think you will find many of the job lists in Part I interesting and useful for identifying high-paying career options to consider, even if they require you to get more education or training. The job descriptions are also packed with useful information.

Cautions About Choosing a Career Based on the Earnings

One of the most important reasons people work is to earn money, and many people aspire toward the best-paying job they can obtain. On the other hand, it is often said that money cannot buy happiness. This book is not the appropriate place for a philosophical discussion of the comparative merits of wealth versus poverty, but some cautionary statements are warranted nevertheless if you are basing your career choice largely on the criterion of earnings.

Working at a job means a lot more than just collecting the pay. It means putting in the required hours, doing the required tasks, being exposed to a particular work setting and to coworkers, and experiencing all the many other aspects of work. Therefore, when you choose a career goal, you need to consider all its potential rewards, as well as its possible drawbacks. Will you find the work interesting? Is the work setting an environment where you will feel comfortable? Will you work with people who don't get on your nerves? Does the work impose stress, travel, long hours, or physical demands that you would not be able to tolerate? This book can help answer some of these questions. For example, one set of lists in Part I breaks down the high-paying jobs by interest fields and another set breaks them down by personality types so you can identify jobs that are more likely to suit you. The job descriptions in Part II can also help you get some insights into the work. Finally, the appendix shows which skills are most closely associated with high-paying jobs. Nevertheless, any job choice you make using this book should be tentative, and before you make a commitment you should investigate the work in greater depth, ideally from seeing and talking to people on the job.

To qualify for entry to a high-paying job, you'll probably need to get some additional education or training. If you turn to the lists in Part I that group jobs by the amount of required education or training, you'll see that most of the high-paying jobs require a commitment of several years of preparation. You can learn the name of the specific educational or training program that you'll need to complete by looking at the job description in Part II. But the name of the program by itself does not tell you all you need to know about it. Can you can meet the program's demands for time, money, and motivation, which may be considerable? Is it offered in a location near you or where you are willing to relocate? What sorts of academic skills does it require? Do you feel comfortable in the setting where the learning will take place (e.g., library, classroom, lab, or clinic)? To answer these questions, you need to look at brochures and catalogs from providers of education and training and speak to people who are currently in the program, as well as people who have completed it and are now in the workforce.

After you talk to people in the career or preparatory program, you may start to question the assumption that more income is always better. You may find that earning a very high income will reduce some other satisfactions. For example, qualifying for a high-paying career may require you to complete years of study or an arduous training program. It may mean working under the stress of making decisions with high financial risks or with life-or-death consequences. And it may demand long work hours and travel that interfere with family life and leisure-time activities.

To gain more insights into the nature of high-paying jobs, we investigated whether certain aspects of work context are more closely associated with high income than others. Using data from the U.S. Department of Labor and a statistical procedure called correlation (which shows how well one variable can predict another), we found that various aspects of work context are better than others for predicting high income. Here are the factors that are most closely associated with high income:

Freedom to Make Decisions

Electronic Mail

Letters and Memos

Structured versus Unstructured Work

Coordinate or Lead Others

Impact of Decisions on Co-workers or Company Results

Responsibility for Outcomes and Results

Telephone

Importance of Being Exact or Accurate

Face-to-Face Discussions

Consequence of Error

Spend Time Sitting

Level of Competition

Indoors, Environmentally Controlled

Frequency of Conflict Situations

Public Speaking

Contact with Others

Exposed to Radiation

Some of these factors may sound pretty good to you-for example, "Freedom to Make Decisions." But consider the responsibilities that accompany this freedom: "Impact of Decisions on Co-workers or Company Results," Responsibility for Outcomes and Results," "Importance of Being Exact or Accurate," and "Consequence of Error."

Are some of the factors listed here unappealing or even distasteful to you? Be aware that not every high-paying job has all of these characteristics. For example, people who find indoor work confining may find satisfaction as Park Naturalists or Insurance Appraisers, Auto Damage. People with an aversion to public speaking may work as Credit Analysts, Electronics Engineering Technicians, or Dental Hygienists. But the highest-paying jobs are likely to have the largest number of these characteristics, so you need to decide how you feel about each of these factors (among others) and determine how much they characterize the kind of work you are considering. If a job on a list in Part I appeals to you because of its income, read its description in Part II thoroughly and don't stop there-explore it in depth using some of the resources listed at the end of this introduction under the heading "Sources of Additional Information."

Note that "Level of Competition" is one of the factors listed above. A lot of other people may be pursuing the same high-paying career goal that appeals to you, so you need to get a realistic sense of your chances of entering and succeeding in the job. One clue may be found in this book's information about how fast the job is growing and how many job openings are expected-figures you can find both in the lists in Part I and in the job descriptions in Part II. But this tells you only the demand for the occupation, not the supply of job-seekers, so you need to do more research to find out the amount of competition you may expect. The Occupational Outlook Handbook is a good place to start, and people who do the hiring or have recently been employed can also supply useful insights. If you talk to someone who works for an educational or training institution, especially a for-profit venture, remember that what they tell you may be partly a sales pitch, and be sure to ask about their recent jobplacement track record.

After reading all these cautions and learning more about the highest-paying jobs, you may decide to lower your salary expectations and aim for a job that falls somewhere in the middle or lower range of the high-paying jobs in this book. This does not mean choosing a life of poverty! Remember that every job in this book pays, on average, better than what threequarters of Americans earn from their work. Furthermore, the jobs in this book are ranked by their average earnings. Why not aspire to be an above-average earner in your occupation? One of the lists in Part I identifies 20 jobs with a few "star" earners, but every occupation has at least a few workers whose pay greatly exceeds the average. Here are some factors that can increase your chances of becoming one of those high-end earners:

You have outstanding natural abilities.

You become highly skilled.

You move into a specialization, geographic location, or industry where demand is high but you have little competition.

You have a flair for self-promotion.

You take on managerial duties.

You work out a business arrangement to direct your work output to a very large market.

For example, you won't find Chefs and Head Cooks included in this book because the average earnings are $32,330. But those employed by the government earn an average of $50,950, and the head pastry chef at the White House, who was paid $120,000 per year, recently left that job for a position at a casino hotel where he could earn almost double that salary. Chefs who author best-selling cookbooks and who get television shows earn even more. So it is possible to be a high earner even in an occupation that, on average, does not offer outstanding pay. But to achieve that exceptional income, you will have to beat the odds. You may have to expend exceptional effort, such as working long hours, to establish yourself in the occupation, perfect your skills, and demonstrate your abilities. Reaching peak earning power in your occupation also can take many years and put strains on your home life.

So as you explore the jobs in this book, keep in mind that every career choice involves tradeoffs; you will have to give up some things to get other things. But if you follow up on the research that you are beginning by using this book, you can identify the job that will require you to give up the least in order to get a comfortable income and other satisfactions.

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eBook	250 Best-Paying Jobs


Table of Contents 250 Best-Paying Jobs Where the Information Comes From The Best-Paying Jobs Lists Useful links Career Job Search Electrician Jobs Engineering Architecture Jobs Director Job Search Gila River Casino Jobs Good Part Time Jobs New Careers NYS Jobs Exchange IT Project Manager Job Description Welding Jobs How to Find a Job Warehouse Workers Jobs Looking for Hotel Jobs RN LPN Jobs Central Government Jobs Tags job search job interview skills career assessment work from home jobs communication skills preparing for a job interview job interview question	Introduction We kept this introduction short to encourage you to actually read it. For this reason, we don't provide many details on the technical issues involved in creating the job lists or descriptions. Instead, we give you short explanations to help you understand and use the information the book provides for career exploration or planning. We think this brief and user-oriented approach makes sense for most people who will use this book. Who This Book Is For and What It Covers We created this book to help students and adults learn about high-paying careers and the educational and training pathways that lead to them. Employers, educators, program planners, career counselors, and others will also find this book to be of value. If you are a young career planner and high income is important to you, this book can be especially useful. Are you impatient with the idea of starting at the bottom and working your way up the corporate ladder toward a better-paying job? The research of labor economists shows that you are right to set your sights high for your first job. Economists compared the earnings of people who started out in lower- and higher-paying jobs and found that those who began at a lower level generally had not caught up to the others even 10 or 20 years later. So you are wise to use this book to identify a high-paying job as your initial career goal. People who are considering a career change later in life will also find this book useful. Do you feel stuck in a low-paying job? This book can point you toward high-paying jobs that are a good fit with your interests and, perhaps best of all, do not require a great amount of additional education or training. You will be particularly interested in the lists of highpaying jobs organized by level of required education or training. To create this book, we started with approximately 900 major jobs at all levels of training and education. From these, we selected those with earnings of at least $46,300 per year. That figure represents an income level higher than what three-quarters of Americans earn as wages. The national median wage for all jobs is $29,430. Part I contains lists that rank these high-paying jobs according to many criteria, including earnings, growth, openings, education level, and interest area. Part II contains job descriptions for all of the jobs. We think you will find many of the job lists in Part I interesting and useful for identifying high-paying career options to consider, even if they require you to get more education or training. The job descriptions are also packed with useful information. Cautions About Choosing a Career Based on the Earnings One of the most important reasons people work is to earn money, and many people aspire toward the best-paying job they can obtain. On the other hand, it is often said that money cannot buy happiness. This book is not the appropriate place for a philosophical discussion of the comparative merits of wealth versus poverty, but some cautionary statements are warranted nevertheless if you are basing your career choice largely on the criterion of earnings. Working at a job means a lot more than just collecting the pay. It means putting in the required hours, doing the required tasks, being exposed to a particular work setting and to coworkers, and experiencing all the many other aspects of work. Therefore, when you choose a career goal, you need to consider all its potential rewards, as well as its possible drawbacks. Will you find the work interesting? Is the work setting an environment where you will feel comfortable? Will you work with people who don't get on your nerves? Does the work impose stress, travel, long hours, or physical demands that you would not be able to tolerate? This book can help answer some of these questions. For example, one set of lists in Part I breaks down the high-paying jobs by interest fields and another set breaks them down by personality types so you can identify jobs that are more likely to suit you. The job descriptions in Part II can also help you get some insights into the work. Finally, the appendix shows which skills are most closely associated with high-paying jobs. Nevertheless, any job choice you make using this book should be tentative, and before you make a commitment you should investigate the work in greater depth, ideally from seeing and talking to people on the job. To qualify for entry to a high-paying job, you'll probably need to get some additional education or training. If you turn to the lists in Part I that group jobs by the amount of required education or training, you'll see that most of the high-paying jobs require a commitment of several years of preparation. You can learn the name of the specific educational or training program that you'll need to complete by looking at the job description in Part II. But the name of the program by itself does not tell you all you need to know about it. Can you can meet the program's demands for time, money, and motivation, which may be considerable? Is it offered in a location near you or where you are willing to relocate? What sorts of academic skills does it require? Do you feel comfortable in the setting where the learning will take place (e.g., library, classroom, lab, or clinic)? To answer these questions, you need to look at brochures and catalogs from providers of education and training and speak to people who are currently in the program, as well as people who have completed it and are now in the workforce. After you talk to people in the career or preparatory program, you may start to question the assumption that more income is always better. You may find that earning a very high income will reduce some other satisfactions. For example, qualifying for a high-paying career may require you to complete years of study or an arduous training program. It may mean working under the stress of making decisions with high financial risks or with life-or-death consequences. And it may demand long work hours and travel that interfere with family life and leisure-time activities. To gain more insights into the nature of high-paying jobs, we investigated whether certain aspects of work context are more closely associated with high income than others. Using data from the U.S. Department of Labor and a statistical procedure called correlation (which shows how well one variable can predict another), we found that various aspects of work context are better than others for predicting high income. Here are the factors that are most closely associated with high income: Freedom to Make Decisions Electronic Mail Letters and Memos Structured versus Unstructured Work Coordinate or Lead Others Impact of Decisions on Co-workers or Company Results Responsibility for Outcomes and Results Telephone Importance of Being Exact or Accurate Face-to-Face Discussions Consequence of Error Spend Time Sitting Level of Competition Indoors, Environmentally Controlled Frequency of Conflict Situations Public Speaking Contact with Others Exposed to Radiation Some of these factors may sound pretty good to you-for example, "Freedom to Make Decisions." But consider the responsibilities that accompany this freedom: "Impact of Decisions on Co-workers or Company Results," Responsibility for Outcomes and Results," "Importance of Being Exact or Accurate," and "Consequence of Error." Are some of the factors listed here unappealing or even distasteful to you? Be aware that not every high-paying job has all of these characteristics. For example, people who find indoor work confining may find satisfaction as Park Naturalists or Insurance Appraisers, Auto Damage. People with an aversion to public speaking may work as Credit Analysts, Electronics Engineering Technicians, or Dental Hygienists. But the highest-paying jobs are likely to have the largest number of these characteristics, so you need to decide how you feel about each of these factors (among others) and determine how much they characterize the kind of work you are considering. If a job on a list in Part I appeals to you because of its income, read its description in Part II thoroughly and don't stop there-explore it in depth using some of the resources listed at the end of this introduction under the heading "Sources of Additional Information." Note that "Level of Competition" is one of the factors listed above. A lot of other people may be pursuing the same high-paying career goal that appeals to you, so you need to get a realistic sense of your chances of entering and succeeding in the job. One clue may be found in this book's information about how fast the job is growing and how many job openings are expected-figures you can find both in the lists in Part I and in the job descriptions in Part II. But this tells you only the demand for the occupation, not the supply of job-seekers, so you need to do more research to find out the amount of competition you may expect. The Occupational Outlook Handbook is a good place to start, and people who do the hiring or have recently been employed can also supply useful insights. If you talk to someone who works for an educational or training institution, especially a for-profit venture, remember that what they tell you may be partly a sales pitch, and be sure to ask about their recent jobplacement track record. After reading all these cautions and learning more about the highest-paying jobs, you may decide to lower your salary expectations and aim for a job that falls somewhere in the middle or lower range of the high-paying jobs in this book. This does not mean choosing a life of poverty! Remember that every job in this book pays, on average, better than what threequarters of Americans earn from their work. Furthermore, the jobs in this book are ranked by their average earnings. Why not aspire to be an above-average earner in your occupation? One of the lists in Part I identifies 20 jobs with a few "star" earners, but every occupation has at least a few workers whose pay greatly exceeds the average. Here are some factors that can increase your chances of becoming one of those high-end earners: You have outstanding natural abilities. You become highly skilled. You move into a specialization, geographic location, or industry where demand is high but you have little competition. You have a flair for self-promotion. You take on managerial duties. You work out a business arrangement to direct your work output to a very large market. For example, you won't find Chefs and Head Cooks included in this book because the average earnings are $32,330. But those employed by the government earn an average of $50,950, and the head pastry chef at the White House, who was paid $120,000 per year, recently left that job for a position at a casino hotel where he could earn almost double that salary. Chefs who author best-selling cookbooks and who get television shows earn even more. So it is possible to be a high earner even in an occupation that, on average, does not offer outstanding pay. But to achieve that exceptional income, you will have to beat the odds. You may have to expend exceptional effort, such as working long hours, to establish yourself in the occupation, perfect your skills, and demonstrate your abilities. Reaching peak earning power in your occupation also can take many years and put strains on your home life. So as you explore the jobs in this book, keep in mind that every career choice involves tradeoffs; you will have to give up some things to get other things. But if you follow up on the research that you are beginning by using this book, you can identify the job that will require you to give up the least in order to get a comfortable income and other satisfactions. back to top Next page
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