Best jobs for fast growth

17 of 20
BACK NEXT
17. Structural Engineer

best jobs, fast growing, structural engineer
Median pay: $78,500
Top pay: $113,000
10-year job growth: 24%
Total jobs: 70,000
The job: As a structural engineer, you'll spend the bulk of your time poring over blueprints of buildings, bridges, tunnels or other sites. But you'll also get to enjoy the great outdoors, overseeing the construction and maintenance of projects. There may not be a slew of new projects at the moment, but there is growing opportunity for engineers in the maintenance of existing buildings and infrastructure.

How to switch: Would-be engineers should have a bachelor's degree in an engineering specialty, if not a master's. A solid background in math is also a must. Many engineers must also be licensed through the states where they practice and take continuing education classes to stay up to speed on the changing technologies in their field.

Quality of life ratings:
Personal satisfaction Benefit to society Low stress Flexibility
B B C B


Subscribe to Money Magazine
Do Structural Engineers have great jobs, or what?
From the November 2011 issue
Notes: All pay data from PayScale.com. Median pay is for an experienced worker (at least two to seven years in the field). Top pay represents the 90th percentile. Job growth is estimated for 2008-18. Total current employment level is estimated number of people working in each specific job.

Sources: PayScale.com, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and MONEY research
Video
Using Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts for 7,000 titles, MONEY and compensation experts PayScale.com identified jobs requiring a bachelor's degree that have strong growth prospects, and eliminated any with fewer than 10,000 positions nationwide, plus those requiring advanced degrees that take more than three years. More

Comments? E-mail the editors

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.