Mar
11
2010
Remains of the Day: The Best Jobs in America Edition [For What It's Worth]
Step inside for lessons from the life of Albert Einstein, more snazzy HTML5 demos, and an infographic look at the best jobs in America. More »
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Donate some spare change so I can buy myself a cup of coffee
The job list sure seems dominated by what I would tend to think of as left-brain oriented jobs, but I guess those are also the very people who would utilize such a chart for a career choice. Otherwise, for all the artsy-fartsy types out there, follow your bliss…
pale_blue_eyes
Number 1 on the list?
I guess I can’t complain being that my department has a PS3 and a 52″ LCD just for slow days while there are (3) 42″ around the office for midday sporting events like the NCAA March Madness coming up.
Glad I stuck with IT/IS when most of the students in my major and CS dropped out/switched majors when the bubble burst back in 2001.
sycks23
@Curare: I’m actually in my second year of actuarial science and I’m still having the hardest time explaining to people that what I do is extremely hard when compared to pretty much every other major. Especially people studying in engineering, they don’t get it at all.
pettiblay
@pettiblay: I expected to see actuaries on that list, but I’m an actuary and slightly biased
However, you are right that when considering the difficulty to become an actuary, it would be placed in the ‘not much fun’ category.
Curare
Mh.. I’m a software architect, but I think the best job is the one that makes you happy.
perlhacker
@TheFlyingFish: they put you to sleep! the risk involved in anesthesia is very very high. they screw up=patient dies…there is a HIGH level of legal responsibility. you also need to be extremely smart and be aware of all the drugs you are administering the patient. gotta know how they interact and should be able to predict what happens specifically for each patient.
Additionally they work a LOT of hours…and being on call is a pain!
btw…im not an anesthesiologist. I just know one.
Gmanpawned
Hmm, harmony would be a great app for the Courier.
Aurailious
@UnderLoK: Plus, Bill seems like a nicer guy.
Aurailious
Wow my old job that I hated is on the list. I guess I am a weirdo.
scidgy
Oh my gosh, I need to change majors to Anesthesiology…
kzrssk
Wow. Software Developer is up there. Aren’t those jobs going over-seas?
kb
Having a job today is the best job.
SirFenwick
I’m not seeing fluffers. Though, I’m pretty sure it outranks us graphic designers. By far.
iomatic, I still love you
@Kiri Komori: Yeah, really. Plus, it seems to me like they don’t do nearly as much. I’m not an anesthesiologist or anything, but it would seem that their field is so much narrower that they should be paid a lot less than, say, a general-practice physician. Then again, what do I know?
Maybe it’s the union.
TheFlyingFish
Wow – my day job is up on the list. That’s…kind of scary considering how much I hate it. Maybe I just need to do the same thing at a different company?
phoenix
@battra92: Funny how I seem to feel the same way and am in the same field. But what the heck else do we do?
upirons001
@baltwade: Pretty much like any government job huh?
pettiblay
If you don’t take into account the difficulty of the job (assume that you have the required potential for each job), actuaries often come out on top in a lot of surveys. CNN Money takes into account the difficulty of each job, which makes pretty much impossible for a job as an actuary to be #1.
pettiblay
Awful methodology. If you start with only professions that are above $65,000 median, ignore the cost of advanced degrees required for many of the jobs (which you’re stuck with even if you can’t find work in the field or choose to leave it), ignore the qualifications necessary to get the job, ignore the distribution of salaries (a lot of the good jobs seem to be good for the folks established in the field, not so much for the folks getting in now), and use a haphazard method of dividing up jobs, yeah, you’re going to get a list of “nice work if you can get it” jobs that’s dominated by healthcare professionals and upper-tier IT jobs.
jfpbookworm
There are more IT Project Managers than System Engineers, but the IT Project Managers make more money.
/Why doesn’t that come as a surprise
lordargent
@baltwade: Sounds to me like a lot of government jobs.
dmtofree
@Rescue9: That’s because they’re not subdivided the way doctors and IT folk are. That’s the entire upper tier of the legal sector they’re lumping together.
And frankly, lawyers belong nowhere on that list. The field is *not* growing (new associates are having their employment deferred), hours for a new associate are astronomical, and job satisfaction is very low.
jfpbookworm
@delightt: They seem to think it’s a growth field, as well – presumably because a lot of older profs will leave the profession. However (at least at the schools I’m aware of) there’s a trend to move toward adjuncts and non-tenured positions, so I’m not convinced that that’s a realistic projection.
jfpbookworm
@UnderLoK: As far as I know his name is not Bill Jobs, so joke fail
Nitesh Singh
Working to #3, but it’s a long, hard slog; it’s going to be bloody hard to get a #3 job, and it’s only getting harder. And I don’t know about that pay scale. Job satisfaction’s going to be a big thing when I get there, but there’s going to be all sorts of crap in there as well. Frankly, I’m surprised it’s #3..
delightt
I think my wife’s job should be high on the list: Government Research Scientist. She makes well over 100k, very little stress, flexible work schedule, good benefits, good retirement, lots of time off, travel if she wants too, and unless she kills someone she basically can’t be fired.
baltwade
I’m an IT Analyst and let me tell you, the pay is nowhere near that – at least not where I live.
I do make more than the average in my area, though but I eally can’t see myself doing this in 10 years. Honestly, the stress, monotony and soul eating is just too much to bear.
Honestly, there are days I feel like going to my high school and kicking my guidance counselor.
battra92
No Assistant Crack Whore on the list?
costanza007
It’s not exactly the same thing, but Harmony reminds me of an art tool I saw a while back, called Alchemy:
[al.chemy.org]
It’s an odd little plugin-based app that can do different effects on the lines as you draw them, including allowing you to make sounds into a microphone to modify the line shapes.
It’s an interesting way to get inspiration or make odd patterns.
Marand
Heh, bloggers are no where to be found.
Stallion
@xnowimcoolx: Cool! As a college professor, I can tell you two things–the job is not low stress if you’re at a research university and are ambitious, and their pay numbers don’t account for discipline, which is absurd. Still, it’s a lot of fun, and while it’s stressful, it’s less so than, say, air traffic controller or day-trader.
DangerousLiberal
Woo Hoo! <= Systems engineer right here. Yes, it’s a great profession.
FrankenPC
@UnderLoK: Users complain about the evil network admins, but the admins don’t usually start out that way. The users make you evil. (Well, some of them)
I can only imagine the stress you deal with. Just managing a small network with a few users can be a huge headache if the users barely computer literate.
EDIT: Stray italic tag of doom.
Marand
I’m aiming for a number 12, not a bad rank if I do say so myself
I’ve always wondered why anesthesiologists are paid way so much. I mean its a ridiculously high amount, around 70k more than other doctors. To put it in different words, they are paid the entire salary of a college professor more than other doctors.
Kiri Komori
@Marand: I would take Bill, he’s retired… Well that and he has way more money
UnderLoK
I’ve been running networks (Windows, Linux, and some AIX for Catia and what not) for 15 years and not only has the pay sucked, the stress can be mind blowing at the wrong company.
While the money can be good, most of the positions I have had haven’t been worth the money (stress + time = money that is)… You remember that scene in Fight Club where he goes off on his boss and says to himself “I used to be such a nice guy”? That is me, except it wasn’t due to a split personality. Stress in extreme doses can ruin your ability to be that guy.
UnderLoK
Made the top 10!
PaintTheSkyGrey
See what I said about Epidemiologists? My fiancee, on the other hand, is a PA, and she buys me things… Useful things. (I buy my own toys.)
RenRen
wow. I always joked about it before, but I really am grossly underpaid. Is this take-home or total compensation?
josefismael
@Unionhawk: How about video games that make you feel like you’re being productive?
orbitbreak
…how about productivity apps that feel like video games? Is that too much to ask for? Because I need one…
Unionhawk
We need a new word. ‘Cool’ falls short of describing harmony. HTML5 rocks.
By the way – works in FF. Works better in Chrome.
Terry
They totally left out Chiropractor… I love what I do and compared to other healthcare professions, it’s low stress.
Al Jameson
Currently working on #30.
comodidit
The career I’m aiming for is #3 on the list!
xnowimcoolx
It’s pretty sad that there are almost twice as many lawyers as any other profession on the list.
Rescue9
“Best Jobs in America?”
“Steve”
Don’t groan, somebody had to make the joke.
Marand