How do lawyers (or fire fighters, or doctors, or accountants, or….) really feel about their jobs? Do they wish they’d picked a different career?
But on the other hand, how many young adults go into something they’ll probably fail at and/or hate? Or miss out on a career that everyone in it loves doing?
What People Want to Be
Asking Google How to Be One
Remitly gives a list of the top 20 “dream jobs,” as measured by the volume of “how to be a …” queries. Of course, if someone asks Google “how to be a YouTuber” that doesn’t mean they really plan that as a career, so we’ll look at this in other ways later.
1. Pilot 930,360
2. Writer 801,200
3. Dancer 278,720
4. Youtuber 195,070
5. Entrepreneur 178,380
6. Actor 176,180
7. Influencer 159,180
8. Programmer 125,310
9. Singer 121,430
10. Teacher 114,950
11. DJ 112,360
12. Blogger 104,600
13. Doctor 104,080
14. Professor 91,400
15. Flight attendant 88,240
16. Firefighter 84,300
17. Judge 83,800
18. Lawyer 79,030
19. Attorney 74,030
20. Psychologist 66,750
Hmm. Some of these are real careers, but how about “Influencer,” “DJ,” and “YouTuber”? Certainly there are some people who make Good Money doing that. But for most kids, “do that as a side hustle from your real job” is better career advice.
“Lawyer,” “Attorney,” and “Judge” all require more or less the same preparation (law school), with “Judge” requiring experience and some extra political smarts.
Other jobs, like “Dancer,” “Singer,” and “Actor” follow a very steep Power Law: a few people make huge money, and most make next to nothing.
College Degrees
A kid might dream about being a YouTuber, but earning a Bachelor’s degree signifies a little more commitment.
College Transitions tells us what degrees were awarded in 2022-23:
Business. 387,851
Health Professions. 257,282
Social Sciences & History 161,164
Engineering 128,332
Biology 126,590
Psychology 119,968
Computer Science 97,047
Visual & Performing Arts. 92,332
Communication/Journalism. 91,752
Education 85,057
Homeland Security, Law Enforcement, Firefighting 57,044
Parks, Recreation, Leisure, Fitness, Kinesiology 53,749
College Majors
Forbes tells us what people entering college are interested in:
Business 6.57%
Medicine/Pre-Medicine 5.99%
Psychology 5.36%
Biology 5.04%
Nursing 3.89%
Some Happiness Surveys
I thought it would be interesting to see how people who actually have the jobs feel about them. Also: does anyone crave the jobs that actually do make people happy?
From flair.hr
from CareerBliss:
(these seem more heavily weighted towards tech careers)
from MarketSplash:
US News Rates Those Dream Jobs
Pilot
Story. This actually IS a pretty good career. It’s not at all easy to qualify for, and not everyone is suited to it, of course. Career Explorer rates their job satisfaction “very high.”
Median Salary: $148,900
Unemployment Rate: 2.9%
Number Of Jobs: 5,600
Writer
Career Explorer rates their job satisfaction “very high.” But it also lists an average salary of $4/hour. It’s hard to make a living at writing.
Dancer, Singer, Entrepreneur, Singer, Influencer, DJ
US News doesn’t even rate those. Not real jobs.
Actor
Story. Overall Score 4.3 / 10. Career Explorer rates their job satisfaction “very high.” (But they also show an average salary of $1/hour!)
Median Salary: $35,880
Unemployment Rate: 21.5%
Number Of Jobs: 2,500
Get real, kids. I think that unemployment number is WAY too low. That other 78.5% are probably working as waiters or baristas.
Flight Attendant
Overall Score 5.4 / 10
Median Salary: $63,760
Unemployment Rate: 0.8%
Number Of Jobs: 12,600
At least you’ll have a job, once you become one.
Computer Programmer
There are many jobs that fit this description, more or less. I’m surprised how low some of these jobs score.
Computer Network Architect: Overall Score 5.0 / 10
Computer Programmer: Overall Score 3.9 / 10
Computer Support Specialist: Overall Score 4.2 / 10. (Did you try unplugging it and plugging it back in?)
Computer Systems Administrator: Overall Score 4.1 / 10
Computer Systems Analyst: Overall Score 5.2 / 10
Database Administrator: Overall Score 4.6 / 10
Data Scientist: Overall Score 6.6 / 10
Lawyer, attorney, judge
Story. Overall Score 5.9 / 10
Lawyers are notoriously unhappy. Career Explorer rates their job satisfaction “very low.”
I worked in the Patent Litigation division of Google for three years, and obviously met a lot of lawyers. They didn’t seem that unhappy to me, but then, they were at Google!
I think if you manage to get one of those Associate jobs at a Big Law firm, they work you to death, and then push you out after a few years, unless you make Partner.
Teacher
Several jobs here:
Elementary School Teacher: Overall Score 4.3 / 10
High School Teacher: Overall Score 4.3 / 10
Middle School Teacher: Overall Score 4.3 / 10
Preschool Teacher: Overall Score 4.6 / 10
Teacher Assistant: Overall Score 4.8 / 10
None of these are high-paying jobs, but they can be satisfying, for some people. Career Explorer rates their job satisfaction “low.” You have to be tolerant of the world’s stupidest bureaucrats, and angry parents as well.
Firefighter
Story. Overall Score 3.5 / 10.
On the other hand, Career Explorer rates their job satisfaction “very high.”
Psychologist
Several jobs here:
Industrial Psychologist: Overall Score 5.8 / 10
Psychologist: Overall Score 4.9 / 10
School Psychologist: Overall Score 4.7 / 10
Career Explorer rates their job satisfaction “high.”
Ikagai
I’m indebted to my niece Lisa, who’s an HR manager, for this one:
You might love DJ’ing or dancing, and you might also be good at it. Most likely that makes it a Passion. There are way too many people just as good as you are, and probably better.
So What Are the Best Jobs, US News?
Since we’ve been looking at their ratings of jobs, which are mostly not that great, let’s ask, “OK, so what are the best ones?”
Here are their “100 Best Jobs.” Let’s take the first 10:
Nurse Practitioner. Overall Score 7.4 / 10
Financial Manager. Overall Score 7.2 / 10
Software Developer. Overall Score 7.1 / 10
IT Manager. Overall Score 7.1 / 10
Physician Assistant. Overall Score 7.0 / 10
Medical and Health Services Manager. Overall Score 6.9 / 10
Information Security Analyst. Overall Score 6.8 / 10
Data Scientist. Overall Score 6.6 / 10
Actuary. Overall Score 6.6 / 10
Speech-Language Pathologist. Overall Score 6.5 / 10
Observations
Pilot
Bingo: a job everyone dreams about; and people who have it, like it; and it’s not an impossible job to get! And it pays well.
It’s not easy to get that gig, though. A lot of pilots served time in the military and have thousands of flying hours. And of course, you hold the lives of hundreds of people in your hands, which I imagine causes at least some stress. But if your kid wants to do it, don’t discourage him/her.
Data Scientist
This one appears several times. I did that job myself, before it had a name. It’s a great gig. If you like working with lots of data, and making deductions about it, then go for it. You can get a specialized degree in it nowadays.
Data science, like artificial intelligence, is mostly just shlepping data around. You have to collect it and organize it before you can do anything with it. They don’t tell you about that part.
Nurse Practitioner
This is indeed a very good job, but you’re probably not going to get that right out of school. You’ll have to pay your dues as a registered nurse for a long time, and get more education, too.
Nonetheless, you do get a lot of the doctor’s satisfaction of helping people, without the hell of medical school and internships.
Business Jobs
I’m lumping Financial Manager, Brand Manager, Marketing Assistant, Sales Operations Manager, Recruiting Manager, Customer Success Manager, and HR Manager together, as good jobs that a Business or Communications major might aspire to.
College Transitions tells us that all those Business majors are not on the wrong track.
Actuary
That one’s a surprise! It seems boring to me, too. But think about it: a job that pays well, has staying power, and you have a lot of autonomy. You can probably count on being able to leave by 5:30 pm everyday. And most people don’t want to do it, which is a good thing for you: less competition!
So picture these scenes at a noisy party:
He: And what do you do?
You: I’m an actuary!
He (glancing at watch): Oh, no, look at the time! Excuse me!
— or —
He: And what do you do?
You: I’m an actuary!
He: I’m going to go freshen my drink. Do you want anything?
The jokes on him. You’re the one with a satisfying job that pays well, has good benefits, and lets you have a life. He’s got to tell people who can’t log in to turn off their CAPS LOCK key and try again, all day long.
OK, this is only partially serious. I don’t actually know any actuaries. For all I know, they work you to death and then push you out at 50. I doubt it, though. It’s probably better than the best Civil Service job there is. Not that that’s saying much.