College Courses.com Education & Career Blog

I have to admit that I enjoy job market literature so much more when it is in list form. Lists quantify information, make topics easier to understand, and equal less reading for everyone. So even though Forbes.com posted this article last month, I couldn’t pass up a chance to talk about the 25 best-paying jobs in America versus (yup, you guessed it) the 25 worst-paying occupations.

For those of you who love lists as much as me, and pictures for that matter, I’ll direct you to the interactive slide shows that the site created outlining these lists. Here is the link for the 25 best-paying positions, as well as one for the 25 worst-paying. These slides offer details like the mean annual pay for each job, how much the salaries have increased since last year, and which region offers the highest pay rates for each position.

In terms of the article itself, the second half reads somewhat like a disclaimer, warning that the lists are merely a study of averages. Forbes used data from a government survey to compile its findings, and while we may not all trust the government, there really isn’t anywhere else to get this type of information, so let’s just run with it. Things to remember about the lists are that the numbers are representative of 2006, only 800 jobs were researched in the survey, and that the study couldn’t track or include household workers, the self-employed, and partners in unincorporated organizations.

Needless to say there is a margin of error involved, but the lists still represent a valuable resource for anyone investigating the nation’s job market. Whether you hope to change jobs or remain within the same industry, you can find out what you should be making and which locations hold the most opportunities for you. So let’s sum up these lists for everyone right now…

No big surprises in who dominated the best-paying jobs, with medical professions grabbing 13 out of the top 15 spots. If you were thinking about taking your parents’ advice and becoming a doctor or a lawyer, I’d advise you to stick to medicine…of literally any kind. Lawyers only made it to #16, with a mean annual wage of $113,660. I suppose you could settle for that too.

Anesthesiologists surpassed surgeons this year to reach the #1 position with yearly earnings of $184,340. Aside from airline pilots and air traffic controllers, management positions filled the rest of the list. If you aren’t interested in a career in medicine, schools that offer degree programs in management or administration are relatively easy to find. Browse CollegeCourses.com for management degrees in the areas of marketing, computer and information systems, sales, and finance.

Even though these salaries are impressive, some of you may consider them a little low to be the highest in our country. When averaging together so many salaries, that’s just what happens. The slide shows include the top-paying state and metro areas for each job, some of which boast an annual wage that doubles the national average.

It is also difficult to gauge the value of overtime earnings and alternative compensation. The author of the Forbes article, Paul Maidment, throws in the particularly extreme example of Steve Jobs to prove his point. The Apple co-founder and CEO’s salary equaled the misleading amount of $1 last year. He didn’t push for a raise, seeing as his stock options alone earned him over $645 million.

The same type of situation also exists with the worst-paying jobs. It is impossible to track undocumented workers who are paid less than minimum wage. As a result, the lowest annual income on the list belongs to fast food prep and service workers at $15,930. Hardly a livable wage, but still higher than what some people earn. The next lowest paid are fast food cooks, dishwashers, and dining room and cafeteria attendants. As you can assume, the food, hotel, and leisure industries occupy most of the spots on this list.

So even though many of the positions on the best-paying list require advanced degrees, you can’t beat the salaries they offer. And in terms of pursuing the career you love, don’t feel discouraged if you found it on the worst-paying list. I know I may sound redundant when I say this, but look into the field of management. Supervisors and administrators are needed in almost every line of work. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the food and leisure industries are constantly growing and an administrative position in hospitality management actually yields a good income. Remember, the lists offered by Forbes aren’t definitive, it all depends upon your location, your situation, and the dedication that you bring to the job.

Cowboys are moving aside for the nuclear power process technicians of the world. Well, they are in Texas at least.

A shortage of vocationally-trained workers has prompted various communities in the Texas Gulf Coast region to organize programs to groom students for specialized positions. (Think welders and machinists.) Liberty County, located two counties over from Houston, formed Liberty County Workforce Academy to prepare for the shortage, which will result from petrochemical plant expansions in neighboring Jefferson County. In order to familiarize surrounding areas with the program, the county launched a five-month pilot session that finished up two months ago in May, which was well received by many of those who participated.

Meanwhile, Matagorda County (about three counties over from Liberty) renovated an abandoned Kmart building into a training center for nuclear power plant workers. Students taught there will hopefully fill jobs generated because of the South Texas Project, a local plant that transforms nuclear energy into electricity and that is set to double in size in the next few years.

Former farmhand and self-proclaimed cowboy Tyler Adams, 19, intends to take advantage of a scholarship that will fund his classes at the nearby training facility. Nuclear power process technicians pull in about $60,000 a year, which Adams admits he will need if he ever wants to start a family of his own.

The makeshift academy in Liberty County (and the inspiration for the Matagorda program) operated night classes with the help of community college instructors. Participants covered topics like welding, process technology, and industrial maintenance. In preparation for the upcoming fall session, the directors have set up additional locations and included course material in subjects like diesel mechanics. Certification training will also be available for technicians involved in the emergency medical, dental, and nursing fields.

Essentially, Texas has started to create institutions that pick up where vocational training leaves off in high school, allowing students who wouldn’t normally attend college to receive the training they need for these specialized jobs. Many of the courses offered through this program also count towards associate degrees if the participants choose to continue on with their education.

Because of impending refinery expansions in the Gulf Coast region that look to total $15 billion, authorities project a shortage of close to 12,000 industrial workers in process technology, maintenance, and construction jobs in Texas. The Matagorda territory in particular has years before the applications for their plant renovations go through, but the programs are eager to start training students now. The paid apprenticeships at the plants require two-year technical associate degrees, and the actual apprenticeships can take several years to complete. In addition to the technology programs, the Matagorda facility plans to bring in technical college instructors to cover the construction trades.

Even though public schools are lessening their emphasis in vocational education, the industrial growth in Texas proves that college graduates with technical degrees will be in high demand in the upcoming years. Our site includes extensive information on colleges in Texas, many of which happen to be technical schools.

So if you are looking for skill-based job opportunities, remember that employers in Texas are on the hunt for ambitious workers. The projected shortage has inspired communities to form their own schools, but these programs can only offers students preliminary training. If you are serious about making one of the trades outlined above your livelihood, you will need a more advanced degree from an established school, and CollegeCourses.com is the perfect place to start your research.

In an article posted this morning on CNNMoney.com, Fortune Senior Editor-at-Large Geoff Colvin makes a bold claim: “Corporate America has to make IT jobs sexy again, or suffer the consequences.”

Personally, a job in information technology never really screamed ’sexpot’ to me, but its bland reputation never seemed to hurt its popularity either. Colvin asks us to think back to the days of the Y2K craze, when the appeal of an undergraduate degree in computer science reached a 20-year high. Today, two issues are plaguing our chances of winning the “global battle for infotech supremacy,” as Colvin puts it. This struggle isn’t over the most impressive chips and software, but instead over how effectively our businesses use technology and compete within an increasing virtual marketplace.

The first obstacle we face is the under-qualified force of chief information officers (CIOs) employed within our nation’s corporations. CIOs require extensive grooming, deep strategic insight, and excellent communication and leadership skills. The Society of Information Management estimates that companies need to double their number of competent CIOs to be at acceptable level. Offshoring won’t be an option for these types of jobs in the future, because high-ranking professions often require face-to-face interaction with potential clients.

So what exactly does a CIO do? Well, eJobDescriptions.com writes that:

The Chief Information Officer (CIO) is accountable for directing the information and data integrity of the enterprise and its groups…this includes all data centers, technical service centers, production scheduling functions, help desks, communication networks (voice and data), computer program development, and computer systems operations…

…He or she provides overall management and definition of all computer and communication activities within the enterprise…[and offers] direction as the enterprise grows…

Another site gives a detailed list of roles that CIOs often assume, such as “Chief Innovation Officer” and “Chief Identity Officer.” I recommend downloading the full PDF file if this position really interests you.

So even though Colvin cites ineffectual training as the reason for the lackluster crop of CIOs today, there is no harm in modeling your education around the skills you will need for upper management. If employers know that it will take significantly less effort to train you, why wouldn’t they hire you? To simplify your job searches in the future, take a look at the schools that our site links to, such as Jones International University or Warren National University, which both offer master degree programs in IT management.

I know I mentioned that there were two issues with IT jobs that Colvin discussed in his article, and the second one has more to do with making technology sexy again. It appears that the younger generations, or what Colvin dauntingly terms the “talent pipeline’s beginning,” are thoroughly bored with this industry. The Fortune editor observes that, “America’s kids have concluded that infotech is a dead-end field for nerd losers, and they’re avoiding it like last month’s ringtone.”

In terms of this problem, I only have one suggestion: it is our job to make IT cool again, or sexy, or whatever it needs to be. The first step is browsing schools on collegecourses.com like the ones I listed above. (Try University of Phoenix too.) I say this because I have gauged the sex appeal of a computer, and I think everyone’s best bet (especially when trying to come across as sexy in the IT field) is to rely on their education and the success that follows it. If you have kids of your own, don’t worry too much. Having a job trumps being cool right around the time you start dropping hints that it’s time for them to move out.

I found another interesting article on Forbes.com from Wednesday entitled “For Job Market, Green Means Growth,” and I started to feel ambitious. So you get two posts today.

It talks about the merger of professional organizations with environmental interests, and the explosive growth of green businesses over the last few years (5% annually since 2004). Representing a $265 billion industry that is expected to expand even more in the future, green corporations are generating new jobs like crazy. In the article, Brian Wingfield writes:

The greening of industry is creating a constellation of new careers, and they’re not your everyday forestry professions. Many of them are environmental twists on old professions, like law, or…journalism. Others are engineering careers tied to research in renewable technologies like wind energy and ethanol production.

The piece goes on to give descriptions of specific professions like green architects and emissions brokers. Also, various universities are instituting joint MBA/Environmental Science programs to fulfill this shift in the market. Expert Joel Makower advises students who plan to pursue a green job to “learn all they can about business.”

Easy enough. The majority of the colleges linked to our site have business degrees, so feel free to browse them until you’re green in the face. (That may not make sense, but I still like the sound of it.)

It is that time of the month again, and although I assume that many of you couldn’t contain your feverish excitement and already took a peek at it this morning, I am going to recap the monthly employment situation report for all of you now. Released today at 8:30 a.m., the June report came a little late this month, as Bureau of Labor Statistics employees were too busy grilling hot dogs and taking in fireworks displays to keep us concerned citizens up to date on our nation’s payroll data. Insensitive, I know, so I won’t keep the precious information from you a minute longer. June went a little something like this…

We saw an increase of 132,000 jobs this past month, which brought our total payroll employment to an even 138 million. This is a slight drop from May, with revised numbers indicating that we experienced an increase of 190,000 jobs two months ago. The unemployment rate remained unaffected again at 4.5 percent, which equates to roughly 6.9 million unemployed people in the United States. Between May and June, the employment-population ratio and the labor force participation rate stayed the same, standing at 63.1 percent and 66.1 percent, respectively.

The service industry eased its way to the top yet again as the main contributor to this month’s strong growth in jobs. Health care employment increased by nearly 30,000 positions in June, raising the total expansion in health care and social assistance since June 2006 to over 410,000 jobs. In particular, hospitals, residential care facilities, and nursing added the most to this month’s progress.

As I mentioned in last month’s blog, several of the prestigious universities listed on this site have numerous health care, health administration, and nursing degree programs to choose from. Our home page is easy to navigate, with the schools separated so that you can conduct state-specific searches. Links to over 30 online colleges are also located on the left hand side of the page.

Other areas that showed promise include food services and drinking places (+35,000 jobs), wholesale trade (+20,000 jobs), and government-related occupations (+40,000). Forbes.com columnist Matthew Kirdahy posted an article today that analyzes these government job openings a little more in-depth. For readers pursuing a career in state, local, or federal government, Florida Metropolitan University Online operates associate, bachelor, and master degree programs in Criminal Justice, while Kaplan University offers students the option of an associate’s in Criminal Justice, a BS in Criminal Justice, or a Terrorism/National Security Certificate.

Wages increased by another 6 cents per hour in June, which brings the national hourly earnings to an average of $17.38. The average workweek also experienced a slight boost to 33.9 hours. This means that if you are completely average, you are making about $590 a week. And that, my friends, about sums up what I set out to do.

If you are already hungry for July’s numbers, don’t worry too much, August 3 will be here before you know it, or at least before I make another speculative post about U.S. Department of Labor employees and what they do on their days off.

Whether you are 21 or 61, mention of the phrase “job search” usually triggers feelings of fear and dread, and for some of us, there is even a little incompetence sprinkled on top of that. I can think of very few people who delight in the tasks of researching companies, sending out resumes, and interviewing with potential employers. I would even venture to say that it is the more qualified candidates who experience the most stress and anxiety when applying for jobs. If you spend thousands of dollars on a college education, you should certainly be able to sell yourself as a valuable employee…right?

Well, no. We all know that the inconsistent labor market forever pains the lowly job seeker (a term I use with the utmost empathy), but many of us never stop to consider the other side of this equation. Do you think that big-name companies actually enjoy sorting through their inboxes on Monday mornings, inundated with the latest batch of bland resumes and uniform cover letters? Finding the perfect employee is tedious work, and a recent article on the Area Developer site explains how the staffing industry is stepping in create a niche for itself in the wake of this tiresome process.

In actuality, the employment industry encompasses much more than a niche. Just last year, the American Staffing Association reported that staffing firms employed an average of 2.9 million temporary and contract workers per day. National organizations like Snelling Staffing Services and Spherion Corporation operate over 200 and 650 offices, respectively. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics also weighed in on the growing popularity of staffing firms, predicting that personnel supply services will be the fifth fastest-growing industry through 2010.

These firms succeed mainly because of our culture’s emphasis on time. When spots open up at a company, other employees are often working overtime to fulfill the additional workloads until replacements are found. So employers turn to these personnel specialists for a quick and simple solution to their hiring needs. Most staffing companies cater to the requests of the organizations that hire them, whether it be to fill temporary, contract, temp-to-hire, or career positions. The services of firms like Snelling and Spherion extend throughout the country and beyond, with their main objective being to pair companies in need with capable employees. Employers are capitalizing on the growth of these services, with cost-effectiveness and the quality of the search results inspiring more and more organizations to experiment with this trend.

This creates a few opportunities for the job seekers I mentioned above. If you are interested in a specific job, contact a staffing agency in your area about their current openings. I know this sounds a lot like the painful job search I mentioned before, but it will most likely yield better results, seeing as finding candidates for other companies is a personnel firm’s main source of income (i.e., they actually want to read your resume). Many firms conduct their initial searching over the web, so it may be helpful to also take a look at an earlier post I wrote about job searching on the internet.

If you are attempting to narrow down your field of study and are looking to pursue your degree in a promising discipline, use this booming industry as your motivation. Browse the colleges listed on our website, such as University of Phoenix, DeVry University, and AIU, which offer degrees in Human Resources, Human Resource Management, and other related areas. With the way this industry is currently growing, staffing firms will soon be on the hunt for competent employees of their own, rather than for their clients.