10 Jobs Hiring the Most 2006 Graduates

Your career is your most valuable financial asset. By getting a college degree and managing your career to its full potential, you can earn millions of dollars in extra income throughout your lifetime. A key to this is getting a good job from the start.

Here's a list from CareerBuilder that lists the 10 jobs hiring the most 2006 graduates as well as the average starting salary for each. Their list:

• Accounting (private) -- $45,817
• Management trainee -- $38,482
• Financial/Treasury Analysis -- $46,335
• Sales -- $38,830
• Project Engineering -- $50,365
• Consulting -- $50,120
• Design/Construction Engineering -- $48,109
• Accounting (Public) -- $44,668
• Teaching -- $30,377
• Field Engineering -- $50,812

Other than "pick something you'll love doing," my only advice is to look at total earning potential when selecting a career. While it's great to start out at a high salary, it's not that great if the salary levels off fairly quickly and hits a ceiling. Engineering is notorious for starting out with an above-average salary, but then advancing much slower and ultimately being surpassed by other professions. Many of my grad school friends were engineers who had hit a salary cap, wanted more, and as such came back to school to earn their MBA.

Comments

[Jerry]

Good point on picking something that has upward mobility. I was sucked into the pharmacists job about seven years ago. GREAT starting pay (retail), but zero upward mobility in retail. I wouldn't say I've hit a ceiling, but what scares me is that new grads out of pharmacy school are only making about $5K less than me, and I've been here for seven years already.

Good post.