Best Jobs in America
MONEY Magazine and Salary.com rate careers on salary and job prospects.
MONEY Magazine and Salary.com
General and operations managers
Rank: Unranked. See top 50 best jobs.
Top job in field: Operations Director
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Average pay: $98,854
  Salary Total compensation
(includes bonus)
75% in this career make more than: $71,443 $75,345
50% in this career make more than: $84,806 $93,018
25% in this career make more than: $102,369 $113,782
Top potential compensation (5% make more):   $319,047

10-year job growth: 17.04%
Total jobs 2004: 1,806,991
Forecast 2014: 2,114,858
Average annual growth (including new jobs and net replacement): 64,869

Career description
Plan, direct, or coordinate the operations of companies or public and private sector organizations. Duties and responsibilities include formulating policies, managing daily operations, and planning the use of materials and human resources, but are too diverse and general in nature to be classified in any one functional area of management or administration, such as personnel, purchasing, or administrative services. Includes owners and managers who head small business establishments whose duties are primarily managerial.

Top 10: Highest-paying careers
  Average salary
Chief Executives $254,643
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Sales manager $135,903
Financial services sales agents $130,385
Financial managers $128,910
Dentist $122,883
Financial advisor $122,462
Natural sciences managers $116,504

Do you deserve a raise? Before plucking up the nerve to go in and ask for a raise, know what your assets and vulnerabilities are.

1. If you left the company, how easy or hard would it be for the company to replace you?
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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.