As students either start or finish their education, they have only one question in mind: “What industry pays well?”. How do you choose a high-paying career and where? All reasonable questions, that Reddit users already tried to find the answers to.
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Key Takeaways
- High-paying jobs often require rare and well-developed skills, or entail work many are not willing to do. Examples include careers in healthcare, engineering, and specialized trades like electrical and plumbing.
- Reddit users highlight several high-revenue industries such as Construction Management (especially in healthcare), Tech Sales, Maritime, Scrum, and Engineering. Each comes with its own challenges and benefits.
- Statistical data for 2023 indicates that roles like CEOs, medical professionals, corporate lawyers, investment bankers, and data scientists are among the highest-paying positions.
Reddit is a place not only for jokes and memes but also for serious discussions. That’s why one user decided to ask a serious question of which career to choose to have a good salary.
Even though the OP already has a career and just wants to switch it, the discussion that followed their post will be relevant to those who haven’t yet started their career path as well. So, let’s dig deeper into what careers Reddit users see as most revenue-oriented once for today.
What Can Guarantee a High-Paying Job
Before we move to the examples of jobs with decent salaries, it’s important to understand what can catually help land such a job. Redditors had a few suggestions as to how you can become employed on a high-paying position:
“The most reliable ways to earn a high income is to either (1) have a valuable skill that not many others do, or (2) do work that not many others are prepared to do. Eg:
- Maths, computer science, actuary, corporate law, surgery/medicine, engineering, politics, sales, some trades (electrical, plumbing)
- Mining, oil & gas, construction, remote area / war zone contracting, rope access
Combine the two for some serious cash (eg engineering in oil & gas in a remote area)”
“Make sure you research what jobs you’re interested in too. I wouldn’t recommend tech / cyber security. There’s a lot of competition currently. People see the salaries and flock to them. Additionally cybersecurity is a position in which you constantly need to be on top of, knowing what’s going on in the world. From my experience, people are always listening to cybersecurity news, reading about new topics, and studying for new veers. They’re not a 9-5 job.”
“Pay is a function of replacement cost, value added and industry margins. A few examples: If you add a lot of value (usually equates to highly skilled), are very difficult to replace and you work in a high margin industry, you will make bank. I hire experts for certain jobs at over $500USD per hour. Highly skilled and easy to replace (English majors for example) don’t typically make a lot. Reddit is full of jaded liberal arts majors who learned this the hard way. Hard to replace and low skill can be a good spot if you don’t yet have a skill. If you’re willing to be a line cook in Northern Alaska, you can make real money.”
“Theres no big secret to it. The industries that pay the most are the ones that are most profitable. The jobs that pay the most are the ones in highest demand. The jobs in highest demand are the ones where the skillset is most difficult to find. In the US, its healthcare (and finance, to an extent). Pharma and MedTech for sure, but if a provider is highly profitable, they probably pay well. Within all of these industries, there are a ton of specialties like biotech, life science, statistics, every form of engineering, cybersec, manufacturing/supply chain, law, sales, marketing, clinical (lab tech, trial coordinator), project management and Quality/RA. On the provider side theres nursing, physician, physician assistant, dental hygiene, etc. If I were looking for a stable career path in the US, I would focus on healthcare.”
So, as it’s clear from the comments, skills, and cpecifically well-developed and rare ones, are the key to getting the job with a dream salaey. Now, as we got that question sorted out, we can move on to what industries actually pay well on the life experience of Reddit users.
Construction Management
“I have a Construction Management degree, work for a healthcare system as a Senior Construction Manager after 6 years of experience. My position ranges from 52hr to 75hr cap. The cap has been raised every year by roughly 6%, im at 65hr. This is a salary position so I’m roughly at 130k per year before bonuses. In the bluegrass state, will not provide the healthcare system for privacy reasons.”
“Agreed, I worked for a GC as a PM and it was pretty stressful and disorganized. Went for work for the Healthcare system basically doing the same thing just higher level and more internal setup, less travel, paid more, less stressful and the people were better. I recommend it to everyone who is looking. One thing about the economy, we will always have healthcare systems and healthcare will always be expanding.”
What’s inetresting, is that this trend could only be seen in regards to Healthcare industry. So, if you are thinking which field to choose to work in, this one is probably a better choice.
Tech Sales
“I’m in Tech Sales, pay is good, work is good if you enjoy a competitive environment. If you enjoy talking to people, might be a great option to consider! There’s room for growth, companies are usually willing to help you acquire the skills and knowledge needed to thrive so no need to spend on certification. Commission is always on the table so you if you make the effort, $$ will flow in”
“It depends on what you consider high-paying. The roles that pay the best in tech sales are the account executive roles, but those are difficult to get without experience. The quotas might mean you won’t stay in the position long either. The entry level roles in tech sales are business development representatives and sales development representatives. Since sales is a stressful field and turnover is high, you might find more success in account management or customer success than as an account executive.”
Here, note though, that it can be not the most exciting field of work. One Redditor mentioned that you can “expect to essentially pest businesses around 75 calls a day and carry a quota of around 10-15 completed good fit demos a month”. This, of course, can get emotionally draining, so keep that in mind when applying to similar positions.
Maritime
“Maritime industry is the best. There’s office jobs too. You can’t beat work life balance. You’ll have to start over If you decide to come on the boats which is where the big moneys at. I forgot to mention, any office job in maritime industry will be in logistics paying about the same. The dispatchers work 12 hours days but get like 1 week on, 1 week off. There’s always HR, accounting, and all that. “
Scrum
“If you have remotely good organization and people skills, I always recommend trying to get scrum certified (easy) and get an entry level scrum master role. Depending on the org, you’ll make 6 figures. From there, you can gain experience managing projects, get versed in the product space, and transition to a product manager role. Or you can stay in program mgmt and become a delivery lead at a consulting company, whatever. There are some good branching options. All pay well. Good luck!”
Engineering
“Bachelors in engineering. Making quite the bank and retirement is building up fast. Haven’t worried about money in 5 years. Don’t trash other degrees cause you didn’t choose the right one and utilized it to your full potential. Also no one in tech can give 2 shits about your sexuality. Side note: my junior engineer that I been training went from 75k to 95k in 8 months.”
“I’m an in-house oil and gas engineer doing pipelines. I’m jumping ship going from 88 to 144. It’s huge money. In the field? I could be breaking 200. If people need to get a jump on their feet, they can join the oil and gas doing field work. They’d be making 100k, but it is not easy on the mind”
The last commenter noted, however, that it’s a stressfull job were you might have to make sacrifices and that you might not even make it back home in rare cases (in field work specifically).
What Statistics Say
Let’s be clear, in today’s job market, almost every industry is highly competitive. So landing even an average-paying position is a good start. However, if you want to look at positions that bring more money and aim to that, we are certainly not the ones to stop you. So, here’s a list of most revenue-driven postions of 2023:
| Position | Median Salary |
|---|---|
| Chief Executive Officer (CEO) | $106,654 |
| Medical professional | $259,163 – $330,549 |
| Corporate Lawyer | $105,731 |
| Investment Banker | $102,260 |
| Data Scientist | $100,560 |
| Project Manager | $83,390 – $140,000 |
| Senior Software Engineer | $100,000 – $114,000 |
| Web Developer | $77,200 |
| Internet of Things (IoT) Solutions Architect | $116,780 – $155,000 |
| Engineering Manager | $122,994 – $138,342 |
| IT Systems Manager | $87761 – $127,000 |
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