Table Of ContentIntroduction
PART I: THE BEST & WORST 200 JOBS
1. Overall Rankings: The Big Picture —the Jobs Ranked with Job
Descriptions
2. Environments Ranked: The Basic Day —Surroundings and Work
Schedules
3. Incomes Ranked: Pay Scales —Beginning, Midlevel and Top
4. Outlooks Ranked: The Future with Hiring Prospects
5. Stress Ranked: Stress Levels on the Job
6. Methodology: How Rankings are Determined for the 200 Jobs
PART II: GETTING THE JOB
7. How to be “One”: What You Need to Land the Job
8. Contacts & Help: Current Job Openings Online and Helpful Organizations
Epilogue by Tony Lee
Copyright and Credits
S
ince 1988, the Jobs Rated Almanac, with its rankings of the nation's best and
worst jobs, has captivated the public and been a prominent news item on the day
of its release. Thanks to extensive media coverage, it's likely you've heard about
our rankings at some point, such as our top-ranked job overall (this year
actuary), or the most stressful or highest paying jobs. But there is much more to
know beyond our rankings if you hope to find the best job for you, and that's
what this book is intended to provide.
Our long-established rankings have a long history of getting people talking…
and thankfully thinking, too. The reasons are many. In some cases it’s just being
nosy about how good your cousin’s job really is or how much your neighbor
makes. It’s also been a veritable guide to intelligent career planning, ranging
from what to major in at college to starting over in a new career field in the
midstream of your career.
We’ve done something different in this new edition that makes our rankings
even more meaningful. We have devoted about 40% of the content to getting the
job! We've never done that before. And we've also leveraged our partner site,
CareerCast.com, the internet’s premiere source of where to find the best current
job openings, by linking them together within this book. In sum, it’s about the
best jobs and how to get them.
A Perfect Marriage
With the publication of this latest edition, the Jobs Rated Almanac and
CareerCast.com have combined our strengths. The former is the oldest and most
established ranking of jobs in the U.S., while the latter takes you right to
companies looking to fill jobs. Now, in one volume, you not only have all the
important data about each of the 200 surveyed jobs—duties, surroundings,
income, hours, the future and more—you also have a vast array of helpful
information that will help you land the job, courtesy of CareerCast.com.
The Best Jobs
Part I of the almanac, “The Best and Worst Jobs,” has in-depth information
about the jobs and their rankings. There are separate chapters pertaining to job
descriptions and environment, income and pay scales, hiring outlook and stress
levels that you can reasonably expect at each of the 200 jobs surveyed. While we
present a clear picture of today’s jobs and all the data, we also strive to give you
a futuristic glimpse of what each occupational group can expect years down the
line. Income details span from entry level to advanced. We also provide each
job’s growth or decline in employment through 2022. These are essentials that
are often overlooked in too many career plans, but not in the Jobs Rated
Almanac.
Valuable Online Links
This is the first edition of the almanac that links our text to the Internet. In
many instances there’s more information beyond just our text that you can
access. Many links take you to the Bureau of Labor Statistics from which many
of our descriptions were derived. We provide over 1,000 links overall, some
which give greater detail to our succinct job descriptions and other text. Among
the links to valuable websites that you should know about are professional and
trade organizations found in Chapter 8, “Contacts & Help.” Here you will also
be able to view current job openings.
Job Openings Online
Part II, “Getting the Job,” is largely the practical side of managing your career;
that is, what you must study or get your degree in, as well as how to present your
skills to employers and convince one to hire you. There also are two chapters in
Part II that will help you land a job: Chapter 7, “How to Be the One” and
Chapter 8, “Contacts and Help.” The former chapter details what you’ll need to
be credible when applying for jobs; the latter chapter has valuable “Job
Openings Online” from CareerCast.com We estimate there are more than
100,000 current jobs here waiting for the right applicants. The aforementioned
links to organizations in Chapter 8 will help you spot trends and events you
might want to attend, even if you are not yet employed in the profession.
We Stay on the Cutting Edge
As the working world evolves, so do the jobs we add and eliminate from our
research each year. In this year's report, we've incorporated a range of new
positions, including some that don’t yet have a large talent pool but will as time
passes, such as Social Media Manager, Data Scientist and Sustainability
Manager. For each of these positions, there are many more open opportunities
than people with experience in those fields to fill them. Conversely, we eliminate
jobs each year where future growth in that occupation makes it endangered. For
example, keep an eye on meter readers in the years ahead – it’s likely they'll
soon disappear as a profession due to advancing technology.
To make sure you select a career with a long, prosperous future, review our
rankings in detail and watch for frequent free updates on CareerCast.com.
H
ere we provide two things every jobseeker should know: 1. a description of the
job and 2. how particular jobs compare to one another, “the Overall Ranking.”
By overall we mean taking everything into consideration; that is, the things we
rank in this book, which are: 1. environment, 2. income, 3. outlook and 4. stress.
Each of these four “core criteria” have a chapter devoted to it after this one.
In this chapter, we also provide a description of each job; that is, “what you
do” at work. You will find these descriptions in alphabetical order by job later in
this chapter. For convenience, in these alphabetical listings we provide the
Overall Ranking and other data, which is explained below.
THE OVERALL RANKINGS
Overall Rankings refer to the sum of the rankings in each of the above four
core criteria. In the Overall Ranking system, it is assumed that each of the four
core criteria (environment, income, outlook, and stress) is equally important.
Overall Rankings scores are derived by adding together the individual rank
that each job has received in those categories. Because a high rank in an
individual category means it is more desirable than a low rank, this ranking
system translates to the lowest score being the most desirable, hence the lower
the score, the higher the Overall Ranking.
To be clear, each of the four core criteria is ranked 1-200 (there’s 200 jobs,
each with its own score in each of the four categories, or “core criteria” as we
alternately refer to them.). The score for each category is determined by a
number of factors for each criterion. For example, in the Income chapter, one
factor we use to determine the income score and subsequent rank is “beginning”
income (what new workers start at); another is mid-level; there are two more
factors, advanced income and potential income growth. Refer to Income and Pay
Scales chapter to learn more about these factors. Be aware that in each of the
four chapters about the core criteria, there are factors we use to determine the
score for each criterion. The introductions to the other chapters on the core
criteria also explain the other individual factors we use to calculate the
categories scores for environment, income, outlook and stress.
The Overall Ranking System
Now that you understand the factors that go into the scores for each core
criteria, we can explain how the Overall Scores and subsequent Overall Ranks
are determined.
Here’s an example: the top ranked job in the Overall Rankings is actuary. Its
environment rank is 4; income rank is 27 and so on. Cumulatively, the ranks of
all four criteria total 80, rendering actuary with the lowest score, hence it is the
#1 job in the Overall Rankings. The lowest overall rank is reporter (newspaper).
Its environment rank is 196; income rank is 148 and so on. Cumulatively, the
ranks of newspaper reporter total 737, the highest score in the Overall Rankings,
putting it in the basement at number 200 out of the 200 jobs. The job might
sound glamorous, but reporters work a noisy newsrooms (or even war zones or
amid protesters), they compete with each other to “get the scoop,” their incomes
are moderate and newspapers are laying off reporters. It’s a tough job that earn
them low rankings the four categories: environment, income, outlook and stress.
Adding it all up, it hit the bottom of the Overall Rankings.
Job Descriptions
We provide job descriptions, which—given the complexity of some of the jobs
— can be a little anemic in a paragraph or two. Since a short description is
helpful however, we provide one for each. We also provide online links that go
into more detail. Each job in this chapter is presented with something that looks
like the below:
What Accountants and Auditors Do (more online)
Below the hyperlink is our brief job description, usually a paragraph or so.
Click on the link and it takes you to a somewhat detailed description of the
