Great Careers: Urban Planner and "Others"

by Valorie Delp | More from this Blogger

22 Apr 2008 01:41 AM

This is the blog to watch if you're looking to change careers or are just starting to consider what your career options will be. The best careers are chosen based a variety of factors including prestige, pay, and job security.

Urban Planning

Being an urban planner requires that you wear several different hats. Civil engineer, diplomat, and architect are among a few. In large areas you can probably specialize in something like redeveloping neighborhoods and building them up, but in smaller communities you would do it all. You have to choose projects, field interests from competing developers' interests and immerse yourself in data before making a decision. It also requires a master's degree in planning. Median salary for this job is $68,800.

Careers I Think Are Not So Great

That was the last on the list of great careers according to U.S. News and World Report. However, there were a few careers in which I disagreed and thought that they were not in fact the greatest careers. None the less, they deserve mentioning.

Clergy--This career got knocked off the list because I would like to think that clergymen don't choose this career in the same way that you might choose becoming a teacher. They also listed the median salary of a man of the cloth as around $68,000 but I know very few pastors that make that much--and I live in a major metropolitan area.

Ghostwriter--This is someone who writes something for someone else. I think it's a crummy career on two counts. First of all, most ghostwriters I know (and remember, being a writer myself--I know quite a few) wish that they weren't ghost writing. They'd like to see their own name in the byline. On top of that you have to willingly accept seemingly silly edits from the person who you're writing for and finally, ghost writing can be ethically questionable. (It isn't always--but it can be.)

Investment Banker--While this job is by far the highest paying job out of the jobs listed, it also requires an ability to play cut throat office politics and to work insanely crazy 60 to 70 hours per week.

Valorie Delp shares recipes and kitchen tips in the food blog, solves breastfeeding problems, shares parenting tips, and current research in the baby blog, and insight, resources and ideas as a regular guest blogger in the homeschooling blog. To read more articles by Valorie Delp, click here.

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Hello everybody! My name is Valorie and I am one busy lady! When I'm not writing or editing for families, I am busy trying to get my brood of 5 in line.

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