Recent College Grads, These Are the Top Jobs in the US
The time right after graduating college is an exciting yet nerve-wracking one. The decision between working your way up at your dream company via an internship, accepting that full-time job offer or taking the biggest leap of all with a gap year is a huge one. Luckily there are studies out there for recent grads nervous about their job prospects to assure you that the market is actually pretty hot.
Our friends at Fast Companysifted through a study + chatted with experts to determine the top jobs for recent bachelor’s degree recipients and broke ’em down into four categories: entry-level salary, percentage growth, satisfaction and most meaningful.
To initially identify a broad list of jobs, Fast Co examined the most recent edition of the nation’s largest job survey of this kind from Michigan State University’s Collegiate Employment Research Institute (CERI). The results from the more than 5,000 companies that responded revealed employers are expected to hire 120,000 new grads in 2015, the highest rate since the 1999-2000 dot-com boom. SAY WHAT?!
The media outlet all about business + innovation then narrowed the lists down with the help of salary site PayScale, which helped to identify jobs with the highest salaries, the most job satisfaction and most significant meaning. The standout job is biomedical engineering, which landed on all four lists. While we aren’t hiring for that particular role here at Brit + Co, we do have several open opportunities that did make a list or two. Check out the top jobs below, then visit our job board ;)
Top Salaries (by Entry-Level Median Pay)
1. Associate Investment Banker ($73,829)
2. User Experience Designer ($67,532)
3. Front End Developer/Engineer ($61,653)
4. Biomedical Engineer ($60,752)
5. Forensic Accountant ($60,397)
6. Clinical Research Associate ($59,068)
7. SalesForce.com Administrator ($59,050)
8. Web Analyst ($56,285)
9. Energy Analyst ($54,204)
10. Product Marketing Specialist ($53,488)
Top Jobs by Percentage Growth
1. Product Marketing Specialist (31.6%)
2. Business Development Associate (31.6%)
3. Process Analyst (26.7%)
4. Biomedical Engineer (26.6%)
5. Web Analyst (24.5%)
Top Jobs by Job Satisfaction
1. Web Analyst (81.25%)
2. Biomedical Engineer (79.66%)
3. Product Marketing Specialist (78.38%)
4. Salesforce.com Administrator (75%)
5. Process Analyst (74.19%)
The Most Meaningful Jobs
1. Clinical Research Associate
2. Energy Analyst
3. Biomedical Engineer
4. User Experience Designer
5. Food Technologist
Recent college grads: Did the job you’re applying for — or already have — make the list? Let us know in the comments.
(h/t Fast Company, photo via Rob Stothard/Getty)