Tuesday, December 2, 2014

It's Not Always about the Money

When it comes to choosing a career and picking a college major that will help you achieve your goals, money isn't everything. Job meaning counts for a lot too. That's why PayScale asks everybody who takes our survey if they feel like their job makes the world a better place. This list ranks 207 college majors by the percentage of graduates in each major who answer that question with a resounding "yes."
The major that leads to the most meaningful work is pastoral ministry - 93 percent of respondents told us their work definitely makes the world a better place. Graduates who chose this path definitely sacrifice income potential for good karma, since the median mid-career salary for pastoral ministry majors is only $46,000.
That doesn't mean that all meaningful majors lead to salaries. The second most meaningful major on our list is nursing (85 percent), which results in a median salary of $73,600 - not too shabby. And people with the highest-pay major on our list, petroleum engineering, don't seem to feel like they've sold their souls for a high income - 70 percent of them report high job meaning.
In general, high job meaning correlates with majors whose grads work with people and/or really get to do the work they want to be doing, not with high pay. Clinical laboratory science majors and child development majors score high. We also see majors related with sports and fitness rank as very meaningful - athletic training and sports medicine majors are near the top of the list.
Which majors rank as the least meaningful? Advertising (30 percent), graphic communication (29 percent),fashion merchandising communication (20 percent), fashion design (27 percent) and film production (23 percent) round out the bottom of the list.

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