How to Research High Paying Careers
Finding high paying careers that are a good fit for your natural abilities and your preferences and values need not be a difficult task. Salary information is an important factor when making decisions, and there are plenty of free, reliable resources that will help you find great jobs in your area.
Use Local Information Sources
Do ensure that the salary information you use is relevant to your local area. Depending on the field of work, salaries can vary widely depending upon your location. Ensure that the salary information source you use is at least based on data from your own country, and, better yet, seek out salary information from your state, or province and even your city to ensure you have the most accurate information possible.
Use Current Information Sources
Ensure that your sources of salary information are current. Check for a date to determine when the salary information you are using was collected or when it was last updated to ensure you are looking at numbers that are current enough to be accurate.
Use Several Sources of Information
Some sources of salary information tend to run a little bit high, while others tend to be a bit low. When researching career options with clients, I always find three sources of salary information in order to ensure my data is accurate.
How to Find the Highest Paying Careers
Start with a General Overview
Government sites typically provide good, general information on career salaries. Some sites will break their statistics down by state or province so you can get a more local view of the salary you could expect to earn in career that are of interest to you.
Two good places to start:
O*net for US salary information
NOC for Canadian salary information
Find Local Information
- Professional associations can be a good source of salary information. Some professional associations will post salary survey results on their websites. If you don't find salary information on the website belonging to the professional association that interests you, contact the association; they will be able to direct you to that information
- Job adds can also be a great source of salary information. Review local job ads for the type of work that interests you. While many employers do not post salary information on their ads, you will typically be able to find several ads that do contain salary information. Remember, the more local the information is, the better, so try to find ads for jobs in your area that note salary information.
- Information interviews are a fantastic source of salary information when you're seeking out. Keep in mind, if you contact someone who work in your field of interest to ask about typical wages, you need to ask carefully. Never be so direct to ask a person what he or she makes. Instead, ask what the typical starting salary is in the field. That will result in a better answer and won't make the person you're speaking with uncomfortable.
There's no need to be in the dark about the typical salary you can expect in your field of interest. Seeking out the highest paying careers that insterest you is simply a matter of completing a little bit of simple research.
