Landing a good job is undoubtedly a great achievement for all of us, and those who made the grade can be genuinely happy. Yet for some of us – in fact, for many of us – it doesn’t mean that we are completely and truly satisfied. Sometimes of an evening, when we get round to soul searching, we realize that this is not what we have been dreaming of. And know what, if you relate to it, you are not alone! Statistics say that eight or nine employers out of ten discover that their dream job has eluded them – even if they profess to have fun at their current one. Now that is something that probably needs changing.
Although only 12% of the people involved cited earnings as the most important feature of a dream job, we may as well look into the matter for you to make fitting comparisons.
Among the best-paid jobs we find anesthesiologists who rake in $269 thousand annually on average; a little less than that receive surgeons, followed closely by experts like obstetricians and gynecologists ($234K), oral and facial surgeons ($232K) ; it certainly looks like hospitals and clinics round off highly-paid experts whom we trust with our physical well-being. Number five is orthodontists (around $228K), next come psychiatrists
and pediatricians whose pay approaches the sum of $200 thousand. Between $168 and $173 thousand hover dentists and prosthodontists. Following them are other medical professions. But the salary is often not a #1 reason to choose a particular job.
Things are vastly different when we approach the dream. Here medicos lose their ground fast, and the first place is taken firmly by the profession of an actor. The wish to be universally recognized appeals to hearts. The second dream job is a baker, then follow bead-and-breakfast owner, a brewer, a chocolatier – you can’t get round yummy jobs for popularity! Other favorites include dog day-care, fashion and interior design, running a hotel or a production company. Photographers run quite high on the list.
Therefore, many people would like to be creative and independent, that’s fine. But then again, how much money can it bring them? A spot of investigating reveals that last year jobs related to food preparation occupied the lowest rung of the ladder, not reaching the notch of $25 thousand per year; too bad for those who dream of coming up with designer cakes! Arts and entertainment don’t promise high wages either with a median sum of $58,950. Personal care and service doesn’t get you higher than $27,270 – so dog-caring won’t actually make you that rich.
Now being children we can hardly be expected to dream of some professions that are on the rise nowadays; younger kids when asked will venture to be ballerinas and musicians, astronauts and scientists, teachers and doctors as they reach their teens. They are liable to change their minds when they grow older yet – sticking to those professions who stand little chance of capturing the imagination of the young generation.
So, can there be any walks of life that successfully combine creativity and impressive wages? Suppose we go for another kind of information; what can we dig there? Software developers occupy the highest place with $100,080 median salary. Here’s a creative job that brings in a nice wad of money. And $100K is not the limit – if we consider, say, software engineer salary in New York we can discover that figures like $120K are quite within the grasp, and $150K for those exceptionally gifted isn’t something unheard of. Now that’s some food for thought, isn’t it?
Apart from medical professions which come into their own on the list, we encounter marketing manager (drawing the median salary of $144,140) – an occupation very creative in its way. Math wizards can settle for actuaries and mathematicians – while you wouldn’t have thought about these in your green years, now you can find there scope for personal development – and a median wage of about $114 thousand. Your forte is not numbers but words? No 38 job is speech-language pathologist earning up to $85K which is not bad.
The task of choosing a suitable occupation is not a simple one – the more investigation you conduct, the more interesting propositions you can come up with. And who knows, maybe it’s still worth chasing your dream job, too?
