NOT The Best Jobs For 2016

Last week, Fortune published an article titled ‘These Are the 25 Best Jobs for 2016’. It was based on Glassdoor’s rankings of jobs that have a combination of the most job openings and highest earnings potential.   

I argue that the title of the article was wrong – these are not the ‘best jobs’. The adjective best should be reserved for matching a job to an individual. That match goes beyond salary and number of openings – it needs to consider an individual’s interests, values, aptitudes, and desired work characteristics. A job that is best for one person may not be best for another. A more apt title would have been ‘The Highest Paying, Most In Demand Jobs of 2016”.

But regardless of the title, the article had some great facts/content. A few items that jumped out at me were:

• 70% were STEM jobs with another 20% that could potentially be categorized as a STEM job depending upon the type of product a person works on.
• These jobs pay more – 1.5 to 3.0 times more than the average mean wage in the U.S.
• Software engineer is the most in demand job with over 49K openings on Glassdoor right now.

You should take a look at the list with your kids. Help them to learn about the jobs on the list (our app already covers 72% of the list and we add new careers every month). Perhaps they will find that one of these STEM jobs is a best fit for their interests, values, and desired work characteristics. And it doesn’t hurt that the job is also in high demand and pays well! 

Source: http://fortune.com/2016/01/19/glassdoor-best-jobs/