sput
Bluelighter
I guess you're somewhat on the right track with the dentistry consideration. The easiest jobs with the highest pay in the shortest amount of time will probably be something like dentists, physicians' assistants, physical therapists, optometrists, etc. All of these are professional practitioners that begin their careers immediately after finishing school with no post-graduate residencies. Personally, I wish I would have gone down one of these career paths instead of the one that I have, but that's really just a personal preference. You don't necessarily have to own your own business to do well in any of these fields either. Physical and occupational therapists, for example, can contract with school districts or home-nursing programs and make close to or over six digits.
The business route is an option, but let me be perfectly honest. I recently completed my MBA with a top-ten graduate business program. I could be making far more money than I do now, but in the business world, your payoff is truly the direct result of the amount of work that you're going to be putting into your career. Among other duties, I review and revise worker and sub-contractor agreements with a tech recruitment firm. Most of my work is done from home, and I generally work from nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, four to five days a week. The money isn't anywhere near what you'd consider fantastic, but I make a decent living all things considered. Truth be told, I could be making six digits, but in order to earn that sort of money, I'd be working six to seven days a week, ten to twelve hours a day in a high-pressure environment.. Successful business people live, eat, sleep, dream, and sweat their jobs. Theirs is a work driven by passion.
I (obviously) work with programmers and engineers, and let me tell you, their job market is not the greatest at this moment in time. Well, maybe I shouldn't quite phrase it like that. It's probably better to say that their job market is not the glorified get-rich-quick, you've-got-a-guaranteed-job-after-graduating environment that it once was just a few years ago. Programmers that I see walking into entry-level and mid-level positions typically make around forty to fifty grand a year. Good, but not great. Engineers will make a bit more, but another hurdle all together is appearing for so many of the applicants in the tech field. Once upon a time, an undergraduate computer science or an engineering degree guaranteed you a job. That's not the case anymore. As techology improves exponentially, more and more employers want specific technology training (acoustics labs, a.i., robotics, etc.). Where does this come from? Research-oriented grad studies. A master's degree at a research-intensive school virtually guarantees a great job, but you'd reaaaally have to enjoy what you study. And let's be honest. An M.S. in computer science or engineering is no easy task. To top it all off, the tech market is very, very volatile. As more and more projects within companies start and end, a lot of programmers and engineers outlive their usefulness. Jobs are beginning to last only a few years on average. I know there are those willing to argue with me that there are many good, long-lasting careers, but they are truly becoming fewer in number. Factor all of this with way too many unqualified candidates (you wouldn't believe how many schools will brand someone with an engineering or programming degree with the student knowing virtually nothing), and the market is one that can be conquered, but times have definitely changed in just the last five or six years.
Let's face it. A six figure salary is something only the fewest will ever earn, and unfortunately, one of the best guarantees to being miserable as a working adult is choosing a career based on its rewards and not your own likings. If you want to be a teacher, then so be it. Lots of people live happily on forty thousand dollars (or less) a year. Personally, if I were choosing just based on work involved and rewards guaranteed, I'd probably go through a physician's assistant program. The pay is great, and you will work straight out of school. But that's just me. Good luck, and don't worry too much about what you're going to do just yet. You're still in high school and have plenty of time to make up your mind.
The business route is an option, but let me be perfectly honest. I recently completed my MBA with a top-ten graduate business program. I could be making far more money than I do now, but in the business world, your payoff is truly the direct result of the amount of work that you're going to be putting into your career. Among other duties, I review and revise worker and sub-contractor agreements with a tech recruitment firm. Most of my work is done from home, and I generally work from nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, four to five days a week. The money isn't anywhere near what you'd consider fantastic, but I make a decent living all things considered. Truth be told, I could be making six digits, but in order to earn that sort of money, I'd be working six to seven days a week, ten to twelve hours a day in a high-pressure environment.. Successful business people live, eat, sleep, dream, and sweat their jobs. Theirs is a work driven by passion.
I (obviously) work with programmers and engineers, and let me tell you, their job market is not the greatest at this moment in time. Well, maybe I shouldn't quite phrase it like that. It's probably better to say that their job market is not the glorified get-rich-quick, you've-got-a-guaranteed-job-after-graduating environment that it once was just a few years ago. Programmers that I see walking into entry-level and mid-level positions typically make around forty to fifty grand a year. Good, but not great. Engineers will make a bit more, but another hurdle all together is appearing for so many of the applicants in the tech field. Once upon a time, an undergraduate computer science or an engineering degree guaranteed you a job. That's not the case anymore. As techology improves exponentially, more and more employers want specific technology training (acoustics labs, a.i., robotics, etc.). Where does this come from? Research-oriented grad studies. A master's degree at a research-intensive school virtually guarantees a great job, but you'd reaaaally have to enjoy what you study. And let's be honest. An M.S. in computer science or engineering is no easy task. To top it all off, the tech market is very, very volatile. As more and more projects within companies start and end, a lot of programmers and engineers outlive their usefulness. Jobs are beginning to last only a few years on average. I know there are those willing to argue with me that there are many good, long-lasting careers, but they are truly becoming fewer in number. Factor all of this with way too many unqualified candidates (you wouldn't believe how many schools will brand someone with an engineering or programming degree with the student knowing virtually nothing), and the market is one that can be conquered, but times have definitely changed in just the last five or six years.
Let's face it. A six figure salary is something only the fewest will ever earn, and unfortunately, one of the best guarantees to being miserable as a working adult is choosing a career based on its rewards and not your own likings. If you want to be a teacher, then so be it. Lots of people live happily on forty thousand dollars (or less) a year. Personally, if I were choosing just based on work involved and rewards guaranteed, I'd probably go through a physician's assistant program. The pay is great, and you will work straight out of school. But that's just me. Good luck, and don't worry too much about what you're going to do just yet. You're still in high school and have plenty of time to make up your mind.
