What are the most attractive professions for so-called millennials, born between 1981 and 2000? Completely comfortable in the digital world, fluent masters of social media and in many cases aware that STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields are the most important to study, this generation is finding success in several professions that barely existed five years ago, like social media manager, data scientist analyzing big data sets, and advertising account executive, a profession that is on its second life cycle in a new incarnation with an online focus.
CareerCast, the Carlsbad, CA jobs website that puts out an annual “best” and “worst” jobs list, plus subsidiary lists like best jobs for women, best jobs for people with disabilities and best jobs for introverts, is inaugurating its first-ever best jobs for millennials list. “We were getting a lot of feedback from college professors who use our best jobs lists,” says CareerCast publisher Tony Lee. “One professor asked us if we’d thought of doing a report just for millennials.” With baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) retiring, millennials constitute the largest generation in the labor force, at 56.3 million, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. CareerCast thought this group was ready for its own best jobs list.
To put it together, CareerCast took its annual list of “best” jobs, which it releases in April. That list ranks 200 jobs according to measures like degree of competitiveness and amount of public contact (both viewed as negatives) and physical demands like crawling, stopping and bending, and also work conditions like toxic fumes and noise. It also looked at what it calls stress factors, including the amount of travel a job requires, deadlines, and physical risks like whether the workers’ or their colleagues’ lives are in danger while on the job. Then it uses Bureau of Labor Statistics figures to calculate median income and the ten-year growth outlook between 2012 and 2022.
For the Millennial list, it took the “best” jobs and overlaid two measures having to do with millennials’ participation in each field. It evaluated professions where the share of millennials has had the biggest increases in the last five years. It also looked at professions where millennials already constitute the majority of the workforce, and where that number has not fallen over the last five years.
Some of the jobs on the list are traditionally entry-level positions like computer systems engineers, which is a typical starting point for someone with a bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer systems engineering. Civil engineer is another such job, a destination for a graduate just out of school.
Financial planning jobs have a different profile, says CareerCast’s Lee. “There are a lot of millennials who have no interest in retirement planning,” he says. “But the financial planning companies want that generation so they can target millennials to service millennials.” As the millennial generation ages, puts the ravages of the great recession behind it, and starts to have kids, the picture is beginning to shift. “They’re in jobs and making money and they have to start thinking about the future,” says Lee.
Not surprisingly, eight out of ten of the jobs on the list are geared toward STEM graduates but there is some hope for humanities and social sciences students, who might consider working as an advertising account executive or social media manager. If your passion is theater or literature, it’s always wise to seek out another area of study that has a more promising job outlook. For instance my son has a close friend who goes to a well-regarded small liberal arts college. This 20-year-old has known for the past decade that her heart’s desire is to be an animator a Pixar. She works very hard at it, teaching herself new animation programs and devoting every school break to completing a new project. But she is also a math major who has learned to code. “Employers like to hire math majors because they know they’re comfortable with numbers and they are great problem-solvers,” she says. I have no doubt she’ll land a great job and I even think she’s got a shot at Pixar.
For CareerCast’s complete list of 10 best jobs for millennials, see our slideshow above or follow this link. CareerCast doesn’t rank it’s list but I’ve put them in order of highest to lowest median salary.
