I’ve seen and read a slew of articles the past few days relating to the job market for college graduates. Some, like Money’s online Family Finance page, present a Goldilocks and the Three Bears (“Just right”) edition of this ongoing saga with the headline: How New College Grads Can Beat the Tough Job Market. Meanwhile, at the Boston Globe, the take is that everyone is soon to live happily ever after, as the headline, For New College Grads, Job Market is best in a Decade, implies. The Money piece by Dan Kadlec resonated with me much more than the viewpoint shared by Megan Woolhouse at the Boston Globe. In particular, the last two paragraphs where Mr. Kadlec discusses the merit of getting an internship as a way to land a job, calling it, “smart planning.”
I have some more “smart planning” in store for you all today. It involves an article from February of this year posted by Glassdoor.com Blog and titled, 25 Highest Paying Jobs in Demand. Reading the article on Browse mode will not do it justice. Most people will just scroll from the top of the page down to the end and say something like, “How interesting…I should’ve been a Doctor.” From the look of it, it does seem that being a Physician is the way to go, since it earned pole position. Glassdoor.com could’ve done better with the information it gleaned from its study, visually, that is. Before we move forward, you should take the time to read about the methodology at the bottom of the article.
Being a science major and educator, I thought I could show you something even more interesting given the same data. Why would I bother? Helping future and current undergraduates, as well as people currently searching for a job, was my motivation. Glassdoor.com has given us valuable insight, and someone needs to decipher it with a social scientist lens…why not me? So here it goes.
First I created a chart on Excel ranking these 25 highest, most in demand jobs, by average base salary. Behold:
Table 1
Rank
|
Job
|
Openings
|
AvgBaseSalary $
|
1
|
Physician
|
7984
|
212270
|
2
|
Pharmacy Manager
|
1787
|
131099
|
3
|
Software Architect
|
3229
|
130891
|
4
|
Software Dev. Manager
|
2249
|
123747
|
5
|
Finance Manager
|
9224
|
123534
|
6
|
Solutions Architect
|
3530
|
121522
|
7
|
Lawyer
|
5520
|
120424
|
8
|
Analytics Manager
|
1408
|
115725
|
9
|
IT Manager
|
17161
|
115642
|
10
|
Tax Manager
|
3622
|
114966
|
11
|
Pharmacist
|
9160
|
114715
|
12
|
Product Manager
|
9918
|
113959
|
13
|
Physician Assistant
|
43678
|
110871
|
14
|
Supply Chain Manager
|
1667
|
106632
|
15
|
Data Scientist
|
3433
|
105395
|
16
|
Security Engineer
|
2060
|
102749
|
17
|
QA Manager
|
1689
|
101330
|
18
|
Computer Hardware Eng
|
1264
|
101154
|
19
|
Marketing Manager
|
14179
|
100229
|
20
|
Database Administrator
|
9041
|
97258
|
21
|
UX Designer
|
2010
|
96855
|
22
|
Human Resource Mgr
|
7220
|
96406
|
23
|
Software Engineer
|
99055
|
96392
|
24
|
Business Dev Manager
|
11037
|
95139
|
25
|
Sales Engineer
|
5508
|
90899
|
As you can see all of these jobs pay greater than 90K, with Physician at number one ($212,270). But now let’s bring “Number of job openings,” into focus:
Table 2
Rank
|
Job
|
Openings
|
AvgBaseSalary $
|
1
|
Software Engineer
|
99055
|
96392
|
2
|
Physician Assistant
|
43678
|
110871
|
3
|
IT Manager
|
17161
|
115642
|
4
|
Marketing Manager
|
14179
|
100229
|
5
|
Business Dev Manager
|
11037
|
95139
|
6
|
Product Manager
|
9918
|
113959
|
7
|
Finance Manager
|
9224
|
123534
|
8
|
Pharmacist
|
9160
|
114715
|
9
|
Database Administrator
|
9041
|
97258
|
10
|
Physician
|
7984
|
212270
|
11
|
Human Resource Mgr
|
7220
|
96406
|
12
|
Lawyer
|
5520
|
120424
|
13
|
Sales Engineer
|
5508
|
90899
|
14
|
Tax Manager
|
3622
|
114966
|
15
|
Solutions Architect
|
3530
|
121522
|
16
|
Data Scientist
|
3433
|
105395
|
17
|
Software Architect
|
3229
|
130891
|
18
|
Software Dev. Manager
|
2249
|
123747
|
19
|
Security Engineer
|
2060
|
102749
|
20
|
UX Designer
|
2010
|
96855
|
21
|
Pharmacy Manager
|
1787
|
131099
|
22
|
QA Manager
|
1689
|
101330
|
23
|
Supply Chain Manager
|
1667
|
106632
|
24
|
Analytics Manager
|
1408
|
115725
|
25
|
Computer Hardware Eng
|
1264
|
101154
|
Physician, at number 10, with 7,984 job openings, suddenly doesn’t look untouchable. Someone just looking at Table 2 would say the way to financial security begins with a major in Software Engineering—nice pay at $96,392 and plenty of current job openings at 99,055. Our work is done, right? Not so fast! If you are seriously concerned with “smart planning,” you would also want to know at minimum one last thing, education. How much would someone in these professions need to be “educated,” meaning, how much college do you need to do as a requirement of these jobs?
It wasn’t easy, but I searched for education requirements for all 25 jobs listed here. I used, Study.com for most of my findings, and when I was in doubt, I also visited the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is what I came up with:
Table 3
Job
|
Entry-Level Education
|
Physician
|
Doctor of Medicine
|
Pharmacy Manager
|
Doctor of Pharmacy
|
Software Architect
|
Bachelor's
|
Software Dev. Manager
|
Bachelor's/Masters
|
Finance Manager
|
Bachelor's/Masters
|
Solutions Architect
|
Bachelor's
|
Lawyer
|
Juris Doctor
|
Analytics Manager
|
Bachelor's/Masters
|
IT Manager
|
Bachelor's/Masters
|
Tax Manager
|
Bachelor's
|
Pharmacist
|
Doctor of Pharmacy
|
Product Manager
|
Bachelor's
|
Physician Assistant
|
Masters
|
Supply Chain Manager
|
Certificate/Bachelor's
|
Data Scientist
|
Bachelor's/Masters
|
Security Engineer
|
Bachelor's
|
QA Manager
|
Bachelor's
|
Computer Hardware Eng
|
Bachelor's
|
Marketing Manager
|
Bachelor's
|
Database Administrator
|
Bachelor's
|
UX Designer
|
Certificate/Bachelor's
|
Human Resource Mgr
|
Bachelor's/Masters
|
Software Engineer
|
Bachelor's
|
Business Dev Manager
|
Certificate/Bachelor's
|
Sales Engineer
|
Bachelor's
|
Let me describe each “Entry-Level Education” description as written about at Study.com.
- Certificate/Bachelor’s: Jobs where a student could take courses at a technical school, earning a certificate or also apply a Bachelor’s degree to land this job. In other words, a Bachelor’s is recommended, but not required.
- Bachelor’s: A minimum requirement of a Bachelor’s for the job.
- Bachelor’s/Masters: A job with a Bachelor’s requirement, but a Masters recommended.
- Masters: A minimum requirement of a Masters for the job.
- Doctor’s: The highest possible degree is a requirement for the given job.
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Then I did something fancy. I wanted to rank these same 25 jobs with all three column headings (pay, openings, and education) in consideration. Why? To show you what are the current 25 top paying jobs with the most openings AND factoring in education. In order to rank the jobs using a scale I assigned a total value of 25 for pay, 25 for openings, and 50 for education. A Physician, for example, gets a score of 1 (pay) + 10 (openings) or 11/50 IF we just looked at Table 1 and Table 2. Since there were 5 entry-level education descriptions, I assigned any job requiring a Certificate/Bachelor’s 10 points, while jobs requiring a Bachelor’s were given 20 points, and so on. In this case, more point is a BAD thing. I think we can all agree that money aside, more education is always better. But this being a fin blog, and providing money sense being a prime directive of this blogger, more college education will always mean more debt, unfortunately. Now how do the top 25 highest paying, most in demand jobs, stack up? Behold:
Then I did something fancy. I wanted to rank these same 25 jobs with all three column headings (pay, openings, and education) in consideration. Why? To show you what are the current 25 top paying jobs with the most openings AND factoring in education. In order to rank the jobs using a scale I assigned a total value of 25 for pay, 25 for openings, and 50 for education. A Physician, for example, gets a score of 1 (pay) + 10 (openings) or 11/50 IF we just looked at Table 1 and Table 2. Since there were 5 entry-level education descriptions, I assigned any job requiring a Certificate/Bachelor’s 10 points, while jobs requiring a Bachelor’s were given 20 points, and so on. In this case, more point is a BAD thing. I think we can all agree that money aside, more education is always better. But this being a fin blog, and providing money sense being a prime directive of this blogger, more college education will always mean more debt, unfortunately. Now how do the top 25 highest paying, most in demand jobs, stack up? Behold:
Rank
|
Job
|
Pay
|
Openings
|
Edu
|
Total
(100 max)
|
Avg.
|
1
|
Product Manager
|
12
|
6
|
20
|
38
|
0.38
|
2
|
Business Dev Manager
|
24
|
5
|
10
|
39
|
0.39
|
3
|
Software Architect
|
3
|
17
|
20
|
40
|
0.4
|
4
|
Solutions Architect
|
6
|
15
|
20
|
41
|
0.41
|
5
|
Finance Manager
|
5
|
7
|
30
|
42
|
0.42
|
5
|
Analytics Manager
|
8
|
24
|
30
|
62
|
0.42
|
5
|
IT Manager
|
9
|
3
|
30
|
42
|
0.42
|
6
|
Marketing Manager
|
19
|
4
|
20
|
43
|
0.43
|
7
|
Tax Manager
|
10
|
14
|
20
|
44
|
0.44
|
7
|
Software Engineer
|
23
|
1
|
20
|
44
|
0.44
|
8
|
Supply Chain Manager
|
14
|
23
|
10
|
47
|
0.47
|
9
|
Database Administrator
|
20
|
9
|
20
|
49
|
0.49
|
10
|
UX Designer
|
21
|
20
|
10
|
51
|
0.51
|
11
|
Software Dev. Manager
|
4
|
18
|
30
|
52
|
0.52
|
12
|
Physician Assistant
|
13
|
2
|
40
|
55
|
0.55
|
12
|
Security Engineer
|
16
|
19
|
20
|
55
|
0.55
|
13
|
QA Manager
|
17
|
20
|
20
|
57
|
0.57
|
14
|
Sales Engineer
|
25
|
13
|
20
|
58
|
0.58
|
15
|
Physician
|
1
|
10
|
50
|
61
|
0.61
|
15
|
Data Scientist
|
15
|
16
|
30
|
61
|
0.61
|
16
|
Computer Hardware Eng
|
18
|
25
|
20
|
63
|
0.63
|
16
|
Human Resource Mgr
|
22
|
11
|
30
|
63
|
0.63
|
17
|
Lawyer
|
7
|
12
|
50
|
69
|
0.69
|
17
|
Pharmacist
|
11
|
8
|
50
|
69
|
0.69
|
18
|
Pharmacy Manager
|
2
|
21
|
50
|
73
|
0.73
|
And the winner is…Product Manager! Martin Eriksson tells you what exactly is a product manager in the most lucid way online.
You can see now that Physician dropped all the way to number 15. Sure it’s great pay, and there are always openings, but the education that is required is sure to leave you debt ridden. However, since the pay is high, if a new Doctor can keep from buying a boat in the first ten years on the job, they should be able to rid themselves of their college loans in no time, i.e., by living within their means. For me, the job of a Physician is the only one I would not hesitate to recommend to a high school student, given our economy. All others come with “ifs” and “buts.” Students who are considering law and pharmacy, BUYER BEWARE!
This has been another installment of Common Core Money blog, and if you liked what you just read then you should rank me number one and Subscribe to this blog! Thanks for reading!
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