Career Options and the Educational Requirements for Them (Blog Post #3)

In my second blog post, I showed the positive relationship between one’s level of education and the amount of money one can earn over one’s career. I also showed the positive relationship between one’s level of education and one’s chances of being employed. In my first blog post, I mentioned that jobs vary in terms of the qualifications that are required of job candidates. Qualifications can come in the form of levels of education that are required, specific skill sets, and/or one’s previous work experience. So in this blog post, which continues to fall under the personal finance theme of earning income, I will attempt to tie together career options available to us after we leave school (whether that be high school or college) and the educational requirements specific to them. Why tie these together? Because if our goal eventually will be to achieve financial independence and financial stability in our lives, then we will need to gain knowledge, develop skills, and get jobs after we leave school in order to be in a position to earn income.

The higher the level of education you receive, the more likely you are to be employed and generally (although not always) the greater the amount of money you potentially can earn over your lifetime.[1] If you decide to go to college and get a college degree, your field of study in college can strongly influence the field of work you eventually go into, and your field of work can strongly influence how much money you make during your career. The earlier, therefore, that we can begin to understand both the typical educational requirements to work in different fields and the skill sets that are most valued in them, the earlier we can begin to identify and plan the educational paths we may want or need to take to ultimately achieve our goals both with regard to the field in which we want to work and the amount of income we want to earn.

To be clear, there are thousands and thousands of job types one can choose to pursue in one’s career. The following, therefore, is by no means intended to cover a complete list of career options. Rather, it is intended to simply highlight, at a high-level, some of the different avenues that we can potentially pursue after we leave school, whether that be high school or college. To keep things simple, I first will segment career options based on typical educational requirements – specifically those which typically do not require a college degree (although in some cases may require special training and/or licensing/certification), those which typically do require a college degree, and those which usually or always require both a college degree and an advanced degree. Examples of advanced degrees are Master’s degrees, Doctoral degrees (such as a Ph.D. degree), and a Professional graduate degree (such as a Doctor of Medicine for aspiring medical doctors and a Juris Doctor degree for aspiring lawyers). Obviously each employer imposes its own educational requirements, so one employer may demand a higher level of education than another for the same type of job.

Now, for those who choose to go onto college and get a college degree, let’s segment typical career options based on field of study. To maintain consistency, I’ll use the same fields of study in college that I referred to in my second blog post where I compared annual and career income potential by field of study.

Given that 1) our level of education (especially whether we choose to attend college and get a college degree) can strongly affect a) our chances of employment and b) the amount of money we earn during our careers, 2) our field of study, in the case of those who choose to go onto college and get a college degree, can strongly influence the field of work we eventually go into, and 3) our field of work can strongly influence how much money we make during our career, it makes sense now to try to tie together -- in the case of those of us who choose to go onto college and get a college degree – fields of study with the potential career options that can result from them.

The following list is by no means intended to cover a complete list of career options based on field of study. Rather, it is intended to simply highlight examples of different career paths that someone with a college degree potentially can be a good fit for based on what they decided to study in college.

Ø Field of study: Engineering and architecture.

• An electrical engineer, civil engineer, mechanical engineer, chemical engineer, aerospace engineer, petroleum engineer, metallurgical engineer.

• An architect.

• Jobs in consulting (e.g., highly specialized subject matter consultants).

• A college professor.

Ø Field of study: Computer science, statistics, and mathematics (e.g., computer science, computer & information systems, statistics, mathematics, applied mathematics).

• A software developer.

• Certain types of IT (Information Technology) jobs besides software development.

• Various types of jobs in finance (e.g., investment research; investment management; risk management).

• Various types of jobs in consulting (e.g., IT-related).

• Various types of jobs in government (e.g., national security-related jobs).

• A K-12 teacher.

• A college professor.

Ø Field of study: Business.

• Accounting.

• Various types of jobs in business across all industries, excluding IT-related jobs (e.g., sales and marketing; Research & Development; business operations; corporate strategy; finance & accounting; customer service; communications; human resources; executive management).

• Various types of jobs in finance, excluding IT-related jobs (e.g., commercial banking; investment banking; sales & trading; investment research; investment management; investment strategy; risk management; operations; private wealth management / brokerage; prime brokerage; an economist; a personal financial advisor; a company's internal corporate finance / business development group; insurance; consumer finance).

• Various types of jobs in real estate, excluding IT-related jobs (e.g., real estate finance; real estate development; real estate brokerage; property management).

• Various types of jobs in consulting (e.g., management consultants; industry consultants for all types of industries; functional consultants such as IT consultants, strategy consultants, sales consultants, marketing consultants, communications consultants, operations consultants, and human resources/executive search/organizational development/leadership consultants; highly specialized subject matter consultants; investment consultants; economic consultants; political consultants; regulatory consultants; legal consultants; geopolitical consultants).

• Various types of business-related jobs in the entertainment industry (e.g., producers, publicists, a sports agent, a celebrity agent).

• Advertising.

• Public relations.

• Corporate communications.

• Jobs in a management role.

• A lawyer (e.g., at a law firm; in-house for a company or organization; for the local, state or federal government).

• Jobs in government (e.g., an economist).

• Jobs in non-profit organizations, including think tanks (e.g., an economist).

Ø Field of study: Physical sciences (e.g., chemistry, physics, geology, oceanography, meteorology).

• A chemist.

• A physicist.

• A geologist.

• An oceanographer.

• A meteorologist.

• A K-12 teacher.

• A college professor.

• Jobs in business within select industries (e.g., pharmaceutical and biotechnology, chemical manufacturers, aerospace and defense, oil and gas, technology).

• Jobs in government (e.g., at specific government agencies).

• Jobs in consulting (e.g., highly specialized subject matter consultants).

Ø Field of study: Healthcare.

• A medical doctor.

• A psychologist.

• A psychiatrist.

• A hospital administrator.

• A physician assistant (PA).

• A registered nurse (RN).

• A nurse practitioner (NP).

• A physical therapist (PT).

• An occupational therapist (OT).

• A speech/language pathologist.

• A medical research scientist.

• A social worker of various types.

• A K-12 counselor or K-12 social worker.

• A special ed teacher.

• A dentist.

• A pharmacist.

• A veterinarian.

• Jobs in finance (e.g., healthcare-related investment research; healthcare-related investment management; healthcare-related investment banking).

• Jobs in business (healthcare-related businesses).

• Jobs in consulting (e.g., a management consultant in the healthcare industry; a healthcare industry consultant; highly specialized subject matter consulting; a healthcare-related investment consultant; a healthcare industry regulatory consultant).

• Various types of jobs in government (e.g., a staff member in the executive or legislative branches of government, at the local, state or federal level).

• Jobs in non-profit organizations, including think tanks.

Ø Field of study: Social sciences (e.g., political science/government, international relations, economics, sociology, criminology).

• Various types of jobs in government (e.g., a staff member in the executive, legislative, or judicial branches of government, at the federal, state or local level; a diplomat; an intelligence analyst/officer; an economist; local and Federal law enforcement; a politician).

• Various types of jobs in non-profit organizations, including think tanks.

• A lawyer (e.g., at a law firm; in-house for a company or organization; for the local, state or federal government).

• Journalism/media (print, broadcast, digital).

• Public relations.

• Communications (e.g., government / political communications; corporate communications).

• Jobs in business (e.g., government lobbying groups and corporate communications groups of businesses within highly regulated industries, such as aerospace & defense, communications, healthcare, financial services, transportation).

• Jobs in finance (e.g., an economist).

• Various types of jobs in consulting (e.g., highly specialized subject matter consultants; aerospace & defense consultants; economic consultants; political consultants; regulatory consultants; geopolitical consultants).

• A local, state, or federal government lobbyist.

• A K-12 counselor or K-12 social worker.

• A social worker of various types.

• A college professor.

Ø Field of study: Biology and life sciences (e.g., biology, environmental science, ecology, neuroscience).

• A medical doctor.

• A medical research scientist.

• A psychiatrist.

• A psychologist.

• A physician assistant (PA).

• A registered nurse (RN).

• A nurse practitioner (NP).

• A physical therapist (PT).

• An occupational therapist (OT).

• A speech/language pathologist.

• A clinical social worker.

• A biologist.

• An environmental scientist.

• An ecologist.

• A neuroscientist.

• A pharmacist.

• A K-12 counselor or K-12 social worker.

• A non-clinical social worker of various types.

• A special ed teacher.

• A K-12 teacher.

• A college professor.

• A veterinarian.

• Jobs in finance (e.g., healthcare-related investment research; healthcare-related investment management; healthcare-related investment banking).

• Jobs in consulting (e.g., healthcare consultant; scientific consultant; highly specialized subject matter consultant).

Ø Field of study: Communications and journalism.

• Journalism/media (print, broadcast, digital).

• Jobs in business across all industries (within a company’s communications department).

• Corporate communications.

• Government / political communications.

• Advertising.

• Public relations.

Ø Field of study: Natural resources and agriculture (e.g., natural resources management, agriculture, forestry, animal sciences, plant science, food science).

• A scientist.

• Jobs in government (e.g., at specific government agencies).

• Jobs in consulting (e.g., highly specialized subject matter consultants).

• Jobs in business (e.g., natural resources-related businesses like energy and mining businesses; agricultural-related businesses).

• Jobs in non-profit organizations, including think tanks.

Ø Field of study: Law and public policy (e.g., pre-law studies, public policy, public administration, criminal justice).

• A lawyer (e.g., at a law firm; in-house for a company or organization; for the local, state or federal government).

• A local, state or federal government lobbyist.

• Various types of legal-related jobs in the entertainment industry, in addition to being a traditional lawyer (e.g., a sports agent, a celebrity agent).

• Various types of jobs in finance (e.g., investment banking; investment research; investment management; a company's internal corporate finance / business development group).

• Various types of jobs in consulting (e.g., legal and regulatory consultants for all types of industries; highly specialized subject matter consultants).

• Various types of jobs in government (e.g., a staff member in the executive, legislative, or judicial branches of government, at the federal, state or local level; a diplomat; an intelligence analyst/officer; local and Federal law enforcement; a politician).

• Various types of jobs in non-profit organizations, including think tanks.

• A paralegal.

Ø Field of study: Industrial arts, consumer services, and recreation (e.g., transportation sciences and technologies, parks).

• Jobs in business (e.g., manufacturing-related businesses where skills needed to work with tools and machinery are needed; transportation and logistics-related businesses).

• An urban planner.

• A regional planner.

• Various types of jobs in consulting (e.g., highly specialized subject matter consultants).

Ø Field of study: Humanities and liberal arts (e.g., English language, literature, history, religion, ethnic studies, cultural studies, foreign languages, philosophy, art history, writing).

• An author.

• A K-12 teacher.

• A college professor.

• Various types of jobs in government (e.g., a diplomat; an intelligence analyst/officer; Federal law enforcement).

Ø Field of study: Arts (e.g., music, drama and theater arts, film, photography, graphic design, fine arts, studio arts, visual and performing arts).

• An actor.

• A musician.

• An artist.

• An art curator.

• A photographer.

• A graphic designer / web designer.

• A K-12 teacher.

• A college professor.

Ø Field of study: Psychology and social work.

• A psychologist.

• A psychiatrist.

• A non-clinical social worker of various types.

• A K-12 counselor or K-12 social worker.

• A clinical social worker.

• A medical research scientist.

• Jobs in business across all industries (within a company’s human resources department).

• Jobs in consulting (highly specialized subject matter consultants).

Ø Field of study: Education (e.g., general education, elementary education, early childhood education, secondary teacher education, special needs education, subject-specific education).

• A K-12 teacher.

• A special ed teacher.

• A college professor.

• Jobs in consulting (highly specialized subject matter consultants).

Once you are able to identify what fields of work and/or fields of study you may actually be interested in and what are your eventual personal income goals, hopefully, with the assistance of these last two blog posts, you will be in at least a little bit of a better position to think about and identify the educational and career paths you may wish to consider and ultimately take in order to try to achieve financial independence and financial stability in your life.

I would love to hear from you. Any ideas, experiences, thoughts, comments and questions….please do share.

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[1] “The College Payoff”, 2021, The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (an independent, nonprofit research and policy institute affiliated with the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy); United States Department of Labor, https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2021/data-on-display/education-pays.htm.