Best Paid Jobs
Discovering the Best Paid Jobs in the Country
Students often ask the question when planning their future – what are the best paid jobs and how do people get them? Adults ready for a career change may wonder the same thing. It is a worthy question. And a list of the 20 highest paying careers may surprise you.
All the best paid jobs require highly trained skills and multiple years of experience. No one can walk out of their final semester in college and nab a high paying career. Often multiple degrees are required. Internships, training and plenty of experience under your belt with also propel you towards one of these positions.
Most of the 20 best paid jobs in the United States are related to the medical field. That will mean an undergrad degree as well as years in medical school – the number depends on what specialization you go into.
Consider dentistry. A general dentist in their own practice will earn a little over $150,000 annually (on average). Prosthodontists, those who work with implants and dentures, are higher up on the best paid job list, making an average of closer to $170,000 per year. Oral surgeons – those who operate on the mouth to remove teeth and fix abnormalities – make even more at a $190,000 annual average. The highest paid dental position is the orthodontist, who will apply braces and corrective measures in their patient’s mouths, making an average of $194,000 each year.
Training, education and specialization in dentistry can make a difference in your salary of about 30%. The same principle applies in general medicine.
Family practitioners make an average of just over $160,000 per year, while internists – those specializing in working with internal organs in a non-surgical way – bring in almost $177,000 as an annual average. General surgeons (those who don’t specialize) are somewhere in the middle, making roughly $165,000 per year on average.
Once you enter into a specialty, your annual salary can all but sky rocket. Obstetricians and gynecologists make over $192,000 per year while Anesthesiologists are up over $197,000 on average. The highest paying career recorded in recent years is the surgeon, at an annual average salary of over $206,000. It may seem that the more crucial the care, the higher the salary – but nurses and other critical care positions are no where on the top 20 list.
If medicine is not your field of choice, consider a few of the other careers on the list of best paid jobs. Engineering managers are near the bottom at an at annual average salary of $120,000, while petroleum engineers – employed in the oil drilling business make a little less at $119,000 per year.
Lawyers are also lower on the list than those practicing medicine. The average lawyer makes just under $125,000 per year. Rounding out the careers that do not revolve around medicine are airline pilots at an average annual salary of around $119,000 and natural science managers at $123,000 per year on average.
Where are the actors, politicians, sports stars and musicians on this list? While some of these celebrities will make millions of dollars each year, it isn’t truly a career that a person can work towards with the realistic expectation of earning such an amount. While a doctor may not make what an A-list movie actor will, they can at least be sure than a certain number of years in medical school and a few more years in practice will have them earning one of the highest annual salaries in the country.
Each and every career on the list of best paid jobs requires extensive schooling and a large amount of drive and focus. Invest the time and effort into your education if you have the desire to achieve these levels of income one day. Until then, be content that the doctor who is operating on your health issue is making more money per year than the libel lawyer down on the corner does. There may be justice after all.