Best Careers 2009

In the Ahead-of-the-Curve Careers section, we describe 13 careers with a bright future that are too narrow or yet too small to be considered a Best Career. Examples: data miner, wellness coach, and, new this year, solar energy system technician.

A new section for 2009, Best-Kept Secret Careers, profiles 10 occupations that scored just below Best Career level but, because they're little known, may be easier to land a job in. Besides, we thought you'd enjoy hearing about the best careers you've never heard of. For example, do you know what a child-life specialist is? When a child faces an extended hospital stay, he's often greeted by a child-life specialist who helps acclimate the child to the hospital, role-plays scary medical procedures, gets the child some education, and injects, so to speak, a little fun into hospital life.

The Overrated Careers section profiles 13 careers that aren't bad, just overrated relative to their popular perception. Perhaps surprising inclusions: physician, lawyer, medical scientist, teacher, and chef. We deleted clinical psychologist from last year's list of overrated careers because ever more therapists are being trained in the more effective cognitive-behavioral approaches and because the recently passed Mental Health Parity Act could become be a full-employment act for psychologists. In place of clinical psychologist, we added farmer because growing numbers of people have romanticized visions of what it's like to run a small organic farm. For each overrated career, we suggest an alternative. For example, instead of being an attorney, consider being a mediator.

Career information changes rapidly, so all the career profiles in last year's package have been fully updated.

A Bit of Career Advice
Even if you or someone you love isn't looking for a new career, we hope you'll find the Best Careers 2009 package to be of value. It will bring you up to speed on today's and tomorrow's world of work and its most intriguing careers. That can be helpful in whatever occupation you're in.

And if you are searching for a new career, you're likely to find at least one worthy prospect among the 54 occupations profiled in the Best Careers 2009 package.

Choosing a career is one of life's most important decisions, so, of course, Best Careers 2009 is just a starting place. That's why each career's profile concludes with one or more websites and/or books for obtaining more information. You might also browse a textbook used in training for a candidate career. Would you be good at that stuff?

If none of the careers feel right, scan other annotated lists. For example, the Occupational Handbook consists of authoritative if dry few-page descriptions of 250-plus popular careers. The book, Cool Careers for Dummies (bias alert: I wrote it), contains lively but substantive one-paragraph introductions to 500-plus careers and self-employment opportunities, including many under-the-radar ones.