The 30 Fastest-Growing Jobs And Careers For The Next 10 Years

Contributed by Jack Kelly

If you are starting out your career or have been in the workforce for a while, it's important to look into the future. Hockey star Wayne Gretzky famously said, “I skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been.” It's the same way with your career. You  need to look forward. Anticipate the emerging trends. Figure out how you can leverage your skills to pivot toward a fast-growing career instead of being stuck with a job that’s going nowhere.

I write about the monthly jobs report compiled by the United States Department of Labor. Every month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows how many new jobs were created or lost. The data captures a moment in time. This division, as you can imagine, has access to a wealth of information and statistics about jobs and careers. 

While most economists, Wall Street professionals and nerdy guys like me pay attention to the monthly jobs reports, the BLS has some compelling reading for proactive people who strongly desire to advance their careers. It has put together lists of the fastest-growing jobs and careers. Additionally, the BLS shares how much these roles pay.

Before we go into the jobs, let’s look at the sectors that offer rapid growth. To start with, the BLS anticipates that overall employment in the U.S. will grow from “153.5 million to 165.4 million over the 2020–30 decade, an increase of 11.9 million jobs.” 

Employment in the restaurant, bar, travel, hotel and what’s referred to as the “leisure and hospitality sector,” as a catch-all, is projected to increase at the fastest rate. This will occur in response to the the country’s reopening and recovery. During the pandemic, workers in the leisure and hospitality space were one of first to lose their jobs or get furloughed. Now, due to nearly insatiable demand, the jobs have come roaring back. The bounceback has been so enormous that restaurants and businesses complain they can’t find enough workers. Large corporations, such as Walmart, Amazon and Target, have had to respond by offering sign-on bonuses, increases in wages and free tuition to entice people to join their companies.

As you can imagine, in the current and eventually post-pandemic environment, healthcare will take precedence. Understandably, concerns about our health and safety will propel the healthcare and social assistance sector’s continued growth. This space is “projected to add the most jobs of all industry sectors, about 3.3 million jobs over 2020–30.” 

A rising demand for the care of an aging Baby-Boomer population, longer life expectancies and continued growth in the number of patients with chronic conditions will call for a steady need for healthcare providers.

Technological advancements are expected to keep growing at a fast pace. We see an acceleration in artificial intelligence, robotics, self-driving vehicles, cryptocurrencies, gaming, virtual reality, online collaborative video platforms and the metaverse. There will be needs across the gamut, ranging from large tech giants to scrappy startups. As business continues moving online, demand will outstrip the supply of suitable job candidates. 

According to the BLS, “Computer and mathematical occupations are expected to see fast employment growth as strong demand is expected for IT security and software development, in part due to increased prevalence of telework spurred by the Covid-19 pandemic.” The downside is that technological changes facilitating increased automation are expected to result in declining employment for office and administrative support occupations.

Tangentially, there will be a large need for people to interpret the vast amount of data to help business leaders make smart, informed decisions. Demand for new products, such as the Internet of Things, and for analyzing and interpreting large datasets are also expected to contribute to fast employment growth for statisticians, information security analysts and data scientists.

We are likely to see a retirement boom. This will open up opportunities for younger workers. Demographics show that by 2030, Baby Boomers will be at least 65 years old. As they age, many will start retiring or leave the workforce. The BLS states, “The increasing share of people ages 65 and older contributes to a projected labor force growth rate that is slower than much of recent history, as well as a continued decline in the labor force participation rate, because older people have lower participation rates compared with younger age groups.”

Other trends, such as moving toward environmentally friendly initiatives, the massive adoption of pets during the pandemic, a mental health crisis, working from home and the desire to improve our health and lives, will create all sorts of new opportunities.  

Here are the jobs that the U.S. Labor Department and BLS project will be the fastest growing jobs going into 2030, along with the median annual pay:

• Wind turbine service technicians: $56,230
• Nurse practitioners: $111,680
• Solar photovoltaic installers: $46,470
• Statisticians: $92,270
• Physical therapist assistants: $59,770
• Information security analysts: $103,590
• Home health and personal care aides: $27,080
• Medical and health services managers: $104,280
• Data scientists and mathematical science occupations, all other: $98,230
• Physician assistants: $115,390
• Epidemiologists: $74,560
• Logisticians: $76,270
• Speech-language pathologists: $80,480
• Animal trainers: $31,520
• Computer numerically controlled tool programmers: $57,740
• Genetic counselors: $85,700
• Crematory operators and personal care and service workers, all other: $28,420
• Operations research analysts: $86,200
• Actuaries: $111,030
• Health specialties teachers, postsecondary: $99,090
• Forest fire inspectors and prevention specialists: $42,150
• Interpreters and translators: $52,330
• Athletic trainers: $49,860
• Respiratory therapists: $62,810
• Substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors: $47,660
• Food preparation and serving related workers, all other: $27,080
• Nursing instructors and teachers, postsecondary: $75,470
• Woodworkers, all other: $33,630
• Phlebotomists: $36,320
• Software developers and software quality assurance analysts and testers: $110,140

How to choose a career path in three easy steps

 

Choosing a career path doesn’t have to feel like staring into a crystal ball. Try our step-by-step guide.

If you ask someone to sketch out an ideal career path, they’ll probably draw a straight line, rising upward like a backslash. You decide what you want to be when you grow up, go to vocational school or college or snag an entry-level job, and then hop up the professional ladder rung by rung, promotion by promotion, like some kind of business-savvy Super Mario.

But that’s not what a typical career path looks like anymore; work has changed. Nowadays, our career paths take us on scenic strolls through meadows, daring passes over ravines, winding climbs to majestic mountain peaks. And, yes, sometimes they take us down a rocky road, and we trip, only to regain our footing with a little more experience to carry down the trail. (By the way, here’s how to explain those job slipups in a job interview.)

The point is not that you can’t chart the course of your own career path. It’s that we have to be brave, embrace the unknown and embark with as many tools to help on the journey as possible.

With that in mind, let’s talk about how to choose your career path.

What is a career path?

A career path is the broad course you want your professional life to take. It could begin with a destination — like a dream job or a personal goal related to work, such as home ownership or owning your own business — or start with something clear, like an interest in a certain field, and then wind into the mist ahead of you, leading somewhere you’ve yet to discover. Each professional move you make — every class you take, job you work, raise you earn — is a milestone in the story of your career path. And usually, the best stories surprise you.

Some people have a singular vision for their professional lives. They know exactly where they want to live and work and set about getting there like a dad with an old-fashioned atlas planning the route to the family vacation. Say you want to work in administration at a school. If you’re one of these lucky, clear-eyed people, you might chart your career path something like this:

Get a bachelor’s degree in education.

Get a job as a teacher at a public school.

Take on more responsibilities as a department chair.

Get promoted to an assistant principal role and improve school performance.

Finally, snag that principal job.

Congrats to this talented educator! But for most of us, things aren’t so clear-cut. Planning a career path can feel like staring into a crystal ball, wondering where life will lead. So let’s talk about how we can take the lead in our own lives.

Choosing a career path

You don’t have to map out your entire life from birth to death to get started on a career path. Let’s take it a step at a time.

1. Start small

If we were to ask your best friend what makes you happiest, what would they say? OK, so watching baseball might not seem like the most helpful answer. But what can you learn about yourself from it, other than the obvious fact that you like sports? Do you enjoy the social aspect of the game? Maybe you like organizing the watch parties, getting all the snacks together. Maybe you’re all about the math — where we see athletes running around a diamond, you see equations, formulas, possibilities.

The point is, even if you don’t have a dream job in mind just yet, you do have interests, skills, inclinations. Ask yourself, ideally, would you rather work on a team, or hole up on your own? Would you like to work with numbers, or food, or creative people, or your hands?

You can’t know what your dream job would be until you know yourself. Start there. Make a list of all your past jobs, education and experience. Then list all the skills you learned from them. Which skills felt the best to use? These days, skills are the most important factor in getting hired.

All you need to do is focus on what makes you, well, you. Start this journey with a small step.

2. Look down the road

By now, you’ve identified your core abilities, mapped out your values and explored your general interest in this or that field. Now it’s time to do some concrete research.

What kinds of jobs are available in the field you like? Read job descriptions carefully to see which roles sound right for you. If a certain job catches your eye, it’s time to reverse-engineer the process of getting there. These questions will help you chart your course:

How many years of experience does someone need to do this job?

What kind of education is required to do this job?

What does this job typically pay, and does that align with my life goals?

What jobs did people in this position work previously?

With the answers to these questions in mind, try to answer that dreaded interview question: Where do you see yourself in five years? Make a rough sketch of how long you’ll need to study, or work in other roles, before arriving at your destination.

3. Think big-picture

Remember everything we said about how a good hike doesn’t just beeline to a destination, but takes detours? How that’s what makes it a good hike? Here’s where that really comes into play.

Odds are, you are not going to decide what kind of job you want today and walk right into it tomorrow. That’s OK. You’re playing the long game. If your dream job means you need to go to school, and going to school means you need to get a part-time job, look for a part-time job where you could flex some skills you’d use in your ultimate goal — even if the job seems unrelated. If you want to be a realtor, you can gain plenty of experience in communication, persuasion and economics by working as a sales associate or customer service representative.

Don’t get discouraged if the road is long. Even if it feels like you’re walking in the wrong direction, you’re ultimately taking steps toward your goals.

How to say thank you for the interview (with examples)

 

How to write the perfect interview follow-up email that will keep you front of mind for the hiring manager.

So you’ve just come out of an interview, you’re pretty sure you nailed it, and now you’re planning what to wear for your first day at your new job. But before you get carried away, there’s something you need to do to keep yourself at the front of the hiring manager’s mind: the thank you email.

We show you how to write the ultimate ‘thank you for the interview’ email, explaining why it’s important and how it can help you secure the job.

Why write a thank you email after an interview?

When you write a follow-up email after your interview, you give yourself another opportunity to influence the hiring manager’s decision. No matter how well the interview went, people are busy and can forget key things. A thank-you email puts you back in their minds and can swing things in your favor.

A thank-you email also offers a personal touch. It shows that you care, and could set you apart from other candidates who haven’t bothered.

Be sure to send your thank-you email no more than 24 hours after your interview. It’s a little thing that can make a big difference.

What to include in a thank-you-for-the-interview email

What you say, and how you say it, can make all the difference in your interview follow-up email. Here are a few key sections worth including:

• Subject line

• Personalized introduction

• Appreciation

• Experience recap

• The next step

An engaging subject line

The subject line is the thing people will see first in their email inbox. You should use this to convey the meaning of your message, so something simple like, “Thank you for your time today,” or, “It was lovely to meet earlier,’ can do the job in a quick, succinct way.

There are a few ways you can get people to click on your subject line.

• Make it personal
. Using someone’s name in a subject line makes them pay attention.

• Use verbs
. Saying something like, “Read more about why I’m right for this role” gives the reader an action to take.

• Keep it short. 
A subject line should be a quick, catchy call to action. Don’t overcomplicate it.

A personalized introduction

Don’t go straight into the meat of your email. Start with a quick hello, keeping it as friendly or formal as the interview was. If they used their first name, you should use it too. If they wore a suit and insisted you call them Sir or Miss, that’s the route to follow.

The same goes for the salutation you choose. ‘Hello’ might work for most people, but others will prefer a ‘Dear’.

A little appreciation

Now for a tiny bit of sucking up. Only a touch, we promise. Start your emailing by expressing how grateful you are for the interviewer’s time. Be sure to include the job title so they can put two and two together. Something like, “Thanks for your time earlier. It was great to discuss the position of <job title> with you face to face and get the chance to explain why I think I’m right for the job,” would be perfect.

Remind them of your experience

Recap what makes you so good for the job. This could just be a few lines that go over what you discussed in the interview, or even link to some examples of work that would back your experience up.

Try something like: “As mentioned, I believe my experience in running multiple financial projects would make me a great fit for the role. Having led teams of accountants in the past and overseen highly successful auditing procedures, I am confident I have what it takes to succeed in this position and am looking forward to helping your business continue to grow.”

A nudge to take the next step

Time to wrap things up. Let the hiring manager know that you’re open to further communication and that you’re ready to start work. If you have a notice period to work though at your current job, it could be worth mentioning that too as the quicker they hire you, the quicker you’ll be ready to rock.

Go for something like, “Please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions. I’m excited about what we can do together and look forward to hearing back from you.”

Don’t forget to include your contact information such as your email address and phone number.

11 jobs that pay $35 an hour

 

Many vocations provide such a median pay rate of $35, or around $70,000 per year.

Budget analysts, registered nurses, laboratory staff, and power plant operators all share something in common. They are just a handful of the numerous jobs with a median hourly wage of $35, or around $70,000 per year.

If a salary like that appeals to you, consider any of the 11 positions listed below. These occupations require varied degrees of training and experience, so if you don't have the necessary credentials, think about what measures you should take to acquire one of these well-paying jobs.

1. Accountant and auditor*
Job description: Accountants and auditors prepare and examine financial records. They ensure that financial records are accurate and that taxes are paid properly and on time. They also assess financial operations and work to help ensure that organizations run efficiently.
Typical education level: Bachelor's degree. It also helps to become certified within a specific field of accounting. Many accountants become Certified Public Accountants.
Median hourly pay: $36.19

2. Budget analyst
Job description: Budget analysts help public and private institutions organize their finances. They prepare budget reports and monitor institutional spending.
Typical education level: Bachelor's degree, though many employers prefer a master's degree.
Median hourly pay: $36.16

3. Registered nurse
Job description: Registered nurses provide and coordinate patient care, educate patients and the public about various health conditions and provide advice and emotional support to patients and their family members.
Typical education level: RNs usually take one of three education paths: a bachelor's degree in nursing, an associate degree in nursing, or a diploma from an approved nursing program. They also must be licensed.
Median hourly pay: $34.14

4. Fashion designer
Job description: Fashion designers create original clothing, accessories and footwear. They sketch designs, select fabrics and patterns and give instructions on how to make the products they designed.
Typical education level: Bachelor's degree in fashion design or fashion merchandising.
Median hourly pay: $35.18

5. Genetic counselor
Job description: Genetic counselors assess individual or family risk for a variety of inherited conditions, such as genetic disorders and birth defects. They provide information and support to other healthcare providers, or to individuals and families concerned with the risk of inherited conditions.
Typical education level: Master's degree in genetic counseling or genetics, and board certification.
Median hourly pay: $35.85

6. Geographer
Job description: Geographers study the Earth and its land, features and inhabitants. They also examine phenomena such as political or cultural structures and study the physical and human geographic characteristics of regions ranging in scale from local to global.

Typical education level: Bachelor's degree. A master's degree and work experience are typically needed for more advanced positions.
Median hourly pay: $36.02

7. Nuclear medicine technologist
Job description: Nuclear medicine technologists operate equipment that creates images of areas of a patient's body. They prepare radioactive drugs and administer them to patients. The radioactive drugs cause abnormal areas of the body to appear different from normal areas in the images.
Typical education level: Nuclear medicine technologists typically need an associate degree from an accredited nuclear medicine technology program. Formal education programs in nuclear medicine technology or a related health care field lead to a certificate, an associate degree or a bachelor's degree. Technologists must be licensed in about one half of the states; requirements vary by state.
Median hourly pay: $36.06

8. Power plant operator
Job description: Power plant operators, distributor, and dispatchers control the systems that generate and distribute electric power.
Typical education level: High school diploma or equivalent
Median hourly pay: $34.17

9. Dental hygienist
Job description: Dental hygienists clean teeth, examine patients for signs of oral diseases such as gingivitis and provide other preventive dental care. They also educate patients on ways to improve and maintain good oral health.
Typical education level: Associate degree. All states require dental hygienists to be licensed.
Median hourly pay: $34.96

10. Insurance underwriter
Job description: Insurance underwriters decide whether to provide insurance and under what terms. They evaluate insurance applications and determine coverage amounts and premiums.
Typical education level: Bachelor's degree
Median hourly pay: $34.93

11. Diagnostic medical sonographer
Job description: Diagnostic medical sonographers operate special imaging equipment to create images or to conduct tests. The images and test results help physicians assess and diagnose medical conditions. Some technologists assist physicians and surgeons during surgical procedures.
Typical education level: Associate degree.
Median hourly pay: $34.08

5 common interview questions and how to answer them

 

Here are five of the most common interview questions, as well as what the employer is looking for in your response.

An essential part of interview preparation is formulating answers to specific questions. And there are some standard questions that frequently come up during an interview. Here are five of the most common interview questions, as well as what the employer is looking for in your response.

1. Tell me about yourself
This is the most predictable yet sometimes the most frustrating of all interview questions. The interviewer has a copy of your résumé in front of her so why ask the question? This is simply your opportunity to present yourself in the best possible light.

For best results:

• Focus on three or four areas within your résumé that are relevant to the job opening.
• Be concise. Limit your moment in the spotlight to two or three minutes maximum.
• Show enthusiasm. Hiring managers love a genuinely interested candidate.
• Don’t get personal. Focus solely on your professional achievements.

2. What do you know about the company?
A vital element to interview preparation is researching the company, including its background, structure and current industry trends. Employers are most impressed by candidates who have taken the time to thoroughly investigate their brand. To stand out from the competition, always check current press releases or company updates on the morning of your interview to reiterate your enthusiasm and interest in the role.

3. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
This is another favorite from the lineup of interview questions and answers. Responding to the strengths element of this question should be relatively straightforward if you have thoroughly analyzed the job posting and identified the key skills needed. By highlighting your personal strengths that most closely match the company’s needs, you are emphasizing your suitability for the role. When it comes to weaknesses, restrict it to just one. It’s not a trick question; everyone has weaknesses. The key is to demonstrate your willingness to work on improving them. Admitting to a weakness also shows a level of self-awareness.

4. Why do you want to leave your current position?/Why do you want this job?
Most candidates typically respond to this question by outlining what benefits they will gain from accepting a particular job. The employer ideally wants to know not only what the company can do for you but what you can do for the company. What aspects of your qualifications and experience will add value to the organization if you are offered this job? If you are currently employed but miserable in your present role, it is essential to focus on the benefits of joining the employer, rather than how terrible your predicament is. A negative attitude is one of the principal reasons that new employees fail to succeed in a new job.

5. Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?
Unless you’ve been peering into your crystal ball recently, it’s impossible to give an accurate answer to this question. What the employer is looking for is an indication of long-term commitment. If you are the preferred candidate, will their investment pay off? Your response should imply that you intend to stick around and grow your career with the company. You may also want to turn the tables and ask the hiring manager where she sees the company in five years’ time.

How resume skills became the most important factor in hiring

 

Learn to identify your skills — and use them to get a new job.

Today’s competitive labor market is as wild as the Old West, and when it comes to hiring, there’s a new sheriff in town: skills.

The seismic disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic has fractured neat, linear career tracks and shifted the balance between hiring managers desperate to fill open positions and job seekers looking to earn more for their hard work. As a result, where you’ve worked in the past isn’t quite as important as what you can do now — and what you’ll be able to do in the future. In other words: your skills are your greatest asset.

Skills will get you hired

We recently teamed up with The Harris Poll to pick the brains of thousands of hiring managers and workers, and it turns out those brains were full of all kinds of fascinating things. But one thing in particular jumped out: people are getting hired because of their skills far more often than they used to be. Let’s break it down with some bullet points:

• Hiring managers’ top priority for 2021 is skills-based hiring.
• Moving forward, 85% of hiring managers will focus less on candidates’ prior titles and more on job skills and experience.
• So-called “soft-skills,” like communication and organization and time management, are superpowers. The overwhelming majority of hiring managers says they are important; more than half of hiring managers say they are very important.

• 88% of hiring managers say they hire based on soft skills, then provide job-specific training.
• And that’s exactly what workers want; 89% of them say they’d be comfortable starting a job based on their core skills, expecting to learn more as they settle into the role.

Why this could be good for the labor market overall

Even before the pandemic, storm clouds were gathering over the labor market. The skills job seekers had cultivated weren’t matching up with the abilities hiring managers needed. The growing inconsistency came to be known as the skills gap, and despite efforts to fix the problem, a variety of factors have made it an ongoing challenge that is impossible for workers and hiring managers to ignore.

• In 2019, 23% of workers felt they did not have all the skills necessary to advance in their careers.

• But today, that number has nearly doubled to 44%.
• Hiring managers are even more worried about the skills gap; 69% say it’s a concern.

The good news is that skills-based hiring may be an antidote. By hiring people based on core skills, then providing training, employers give people a chance to gain new skills, level up in their professional lives and advance their careers. And a better-trained workforce with a diverse set of skills is sure to help close the skills gap. Still, training is easier said than done. Only 31% of workers strongly agree that their companies are providing good on-the-job training. And when companies don’t pony up, the burden of training falls to workers, 65% of whom have taken a class or workshop outside of work to learn skills they need for their jobs.

Though training isn’t a universal opportunity just yet, the good news is that hiring managers and workers agree that it’s a necessity:

• 89% of hiring managers say an increased emphasis on training and development would be beneficial to all employees.

• 91% of workers say the same thing.

Use your skills to find a new job

If you’re looking for a job, the skills section of your resume is your best friend. Distill all your work down into the skills you used to get things done, and list them prominently in the skills section of your resume. Here are some marketable skills you might want to include (or learn):

• Communication. Show people that you're a good talker and a good writer. You can get your point across in a professional way.
• Teamwork. Offer evidence of when you’ve worked well with other people and the results you achieved together. It makes the dream work, after all.
• Adaptability. Things change, so prove you can change with them. Maybe your business updated its systems and you helped train your team on how to use them.
• Problem solving. Talk about how you provided solutions to issues, especially if those solutions brought in more money or made something easier.
• Creativity. Let your creative side shine. Some jobs will depend on this and will want to see how you’ve come up with ideas and brought them to life.

If you have the right skills, you’ll be empowered not just to get a new job, but to enter a new industry altogether. More and more workers are looking to bring their expertise to bear on entirely new fields. Transferable skills — those skills you developed in one type of work that apply to other types of work — are like a job market passport. If you’d like to identify your transferable skills, check out our comprehensive guide on the subject. In the meantime, here are some examples of how someone might apply their transferable skills to switch jobs:

Old position	Transferable skills	New position
Salesperson	Industry knowledge, verbal and written communication, writing, budgeting	Marketing manager
Restaurant manager	Customer service, communication, staff scheduling, management experience	Retail supervisor
Waiter/Host	Time management, interpersonal skills, hand-eye coordination	Delivery driver
Cashier	Problem-solving skills, professionalism, verbal communication	Customer service
Homeless shelter volunteer	Empathy, ability to perform physical tasks, communication of complex topics in accessible language	Home health aide

Top skills to put on your resume

We recently did some digging to find out which resume skills are the most in-demand right now. Here are the top three:

• Customer service. If you can deal with customers, you’re in demand — customer service is listed on 5.8% of all our jobs. It’s the skill hiring managers want more than anything else.
• Sales. Prove you can sell and you’ll do a good job of selling yourself. Sales is listed as a skill on 4.55% of our jobs. If you’ve got it, people want to see it.
• Business development. Hiring managers want to see that you can bring in the big bucks, manage projects and run with new ideas. Business development also shows that you’re a good networker — another soft skill that delivers solid results.

What else you should know about skills

To recap: it’s more important than ever to frame your work experience through resume skills.

• Hiring managers want to hire people based on their skills, then provide job-specific training.
• Still, many workers work on developing new skills outside of work by taking classes, participating in workshops or volunteering.
• The skills section of your resume is very, very important.

• Customer service, sales and business development are currently the most in-demand skills.

Workers and hiring managers agree — building the workforce of the future means we all need to focus on what we can do, not just where we’ve been. So if you’re ready to find your next job, it’s time to level up those skills.