BEST PAYING JOBS: WHERE ARE THEY?

Where will the best paying jobs come from in the next five years? According to Nuala Beck, author of Shifting Gears: Thriving in the New Economy, the most jobs are being created in the temporary help industry, food service, and local government.

If you have neither skills nor interest in any of the hot industries what do you do? Do your own survey of an industry you do like. Start with a literature search at the library. The industry may be medium cool, but if you do your homework, you should isolate several hot companies.

Information on each company should include:

• Headquarters address, division/subsidiaries addresses.

• Gross revenues for each year

• Number of employees, salary ranges, kinds of jobs.

• Name of top five management people.

• Products/Services including competitive ranking.

• Recent product innovations/failures.

• Names of possible contacts from trade press.

• Names and industry rankings for competitors.

• Layoff, reorganization, re-engineering.

We can go on for another page, but you get the idea. If you look carefully, you can find out enough to predict the company’s future yourself. You can decide to pursue or avoid it. The point: it does not matter what industries are hot if your heart is elsewhere.