10 booming jobs and how to get them

Demand for biomedical engineers is projected to grow a whopping 72% between 2008 and 2018. What other careers on Money and PayScale.com's list of America's best jobs will see big opportunities, and what do hiring managers look for?

2 of 10
BACKNEXT
2. Telecommunications Network Engineer
Telecommunications Network Engineer
Best Jobs rank: 21
10-year growth: 53%
Median pay: $87,000

Demand for people skilled in managing large networks -- particularly the stability of telephony voice, data and wireless -- is on the rise.

That's especially true at Harris Corp., a Melbourne, Fla.-based communications and information technology company that supports the U.S. Navy's and Marine Corp's Internet network.

With more than 700,000 users who cannot go down, it's up to Harris employees to keep the network humming even at night and on the weekends.

"It's not typically a 9-to-5 job," says Michael Higgins, director of communications assurance. "What you really look for is someone is really enjoys the technology and is excited about it."

Those candidates are surprisingly easy to spot, he says: "During an interview, [you know] when someone's eyes light up when talking about the latest developments in optical switching or dense wave division multiplexing and they are excited about these new technologies."

NEXT: Physician Assistant

Last updated October 11 2010: 7:56 AM ET
Note: We looked at jobs from the top 100 with the highest 10-year growth rate. When there were multiple job titles from the same category, we selected the job with the highest current total employment.
Full list: Top 100 America's best jobs offer great pay, work that's satisfying, and big growth opportunities. More
20 Top-paying jobs Anesthesiologists take home a median $290,000 salary annually. What other great jobs offer big paychecks? More
'I have the best job in America!' Meet 10 people lucky enough to have the top careers on our list, and see why they love their jobs. More
Special Offer

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.