Top ten jobs to have
Salary.com and Money magazine just released a list of the top fifty jobs.
Here’s how they did the rankings:
Things that are bad are less than $50,000 average salary, dangerous, and small field with little room for advancement.
Things that are good are a growing field, low stress, flexibility in hours and working environment, creativity, and easy advancement.
Here are the top ten:
1. Software engineer
2. College professor
3. Financial advisor
4. Human resource advisor
5. Physician assistant
6. Market research analyst
7. Computer/IT analyst
8. Real estate appraiser
9. Pharmacist
10. Psychologist
I dove for this list as soon as I saw it, but the rankings are not as useful as you might imagine. However it made me happy to see that psychologist is up there at the top — it’s hard enough to go to a therapist, so I at least want to know that while I’m talking she is enjoying herself.
Why is a therapist necessarily a ‘she’?
* * * * * *
A therapist, of course, is not necessarily a she. Because we all know this, I don’t think it matters what gender I use. In a perfect world, English would not demand that each singular pronoun have a gender. But it’s the nature of the language, and at this point in the development of English, substituting a non-gendered, plural pronoun when the sentence does not call for one actually serves to deperaonlize the writing, I think. So, it’s a stylistic choice thoroughout the whole blog.
–Penelope
Pharmacist is #9???? Wow Im a pharmacist and I think it sort of sucks: long hours, lots of stress, little room for creativity, inflexible schedule, not much advancement, and working with the general public in a retail situation leaves A LOT to be desired… well I suppose if I could think of a better way to make more money I would (without going back to school)… #9.. unbelievable
Software Engineer??? Um… working under tight deadlines, sitting in front of a computer 8+ hours a day writing code, getting stressed over bugs and what not, being micromanaged, having little or no control is low stress?!?
Quite the opposite
Less than $50,000 a year, dangerous and little room for advancement?
Sounds like a normal day for a Factory Worker.
I know 10,000+ people who dream of taking the #10 job. If your working, in todays economy (regardless of education or experience) that makes it a Top 10.
Certainly a really awesome post. Well i really do agree that being a financial adviser is one o the best jobs. It really is great. Great post Penelope. keep it up. Cheers
Interesting criteria…
A note that some of these jobs might be nice to have (e.g. #2 College Professor – should be clarified as “Tenured College Professor”) but not necessarily a nice job to acquire; the prereqs can be grueling!
Things that are good are a growing field, low stress, flexibility in hours and working environment, creativity, and easy advancement.
I am in the field of Market Research and it is a varied and interesting job. You get to interact with both customers and companies in a whole range of industries all in the name of trying to improve the customer experience and giving the client the skills to do this.
I’m surprised to see Software Engineer profession in a top spot. I believe in 2009, it dropped to 12 place.
Outsourcing and pay squeeze cause a lot of stress. Many people leave this field.
You have to really like programming, problem solving to stay in this field for long. I see many people entering this field that are attracted by money, but usually they are the ones who are most unhappy.
Peter