What is the Highest Paying Job?

Introduction

Unfortunately, not all job salaries are made equal. And whilst it is true that there are many factors deciding what the ideal profession for you is, such as contributing to your community and society in general, your own preferences, whether you want your job to be complex or simple, creative or streamlined or even your psychological make-up – extrovert or introvert – the monetary rewards factor remains a huge incentive.

Highest Paying Job

After all, by committing to a profession you are basically saying you are willing to spend roughly a third of your remaining life doing the very thing your job entails. Your time investment has to have a significant financial return in order to make it worth your while, does it not?

After searching through the length and breadth of the Internet, we have concluded that, in general, the highest paying jobs are those that require lengthy training as well as years of education in order to get into. So, if you are looking to enter the higher, elite echelons of monetary rewards you would do well to direct yourself towards them.

Business Insider

According to Business Insider, the highest paying job, with a staggering $187,876 median base salary is being a physician. A physician, medical practicioner, or simply doctor is a professional who practises medicine, the science of promoting, treating or restoring health in patients. There are dozens of medical specialties a physician can specialize in, like dermatology, cardiology, gastroenterology, neurology and endocrinology. To specialize in one such medical specialty, the physician undergoes further training and education, so that they are better able to manage and treat complex medical problems and situations of said field.

Generally speaking, a medical practicioner holds a solid understanding and knowledge of medicine, such as physiology, the science of medicine – underlying diseases and their treatment – as well as an adequate competence in its practical appliance.

Forbes

Forbes paints a similar picture. Again, the highest paid job in the United States is that of a specialized medical practicioner, the cardiologist – a doctor trained to diagnose and treat conditions of the heart and blood vessels. Based on data provided by LinkedIn, Cardiologists make an annual, median salary of $356.000. Cardiology is an extremely complex field, with many cardiologists further specializing in one or more of its different areas – for example, pediatric cardiology, the diagnosis and treatment of heart problems in children, or cardiovascular surgery, the specialty of performing operations on the heart, lungs and blood vessels.

As its patient’s case is different, a cardiologist thoroughly reviews their medical history and perform various physical examinations, such as checking their blood pressure, weight and heart condition. Often times, undergoing additional testing such as x-rays or blood tests, reveal extra findings, so a cardiologist is likely to reccommend them.

Glassdoor

In its Local Pay Report, the company review and career recruiting website Glassdoor concluded that the highest paying job in the United States is that of the pharmacist, with an annual pay of $126,989. When compared to the annual median base pay in the United States, which comes up at roughly $52.000, pharmacists evidently make more than twice the money the average American makes. A pharmacist is a healthcare professional who practices pharmacy, the field of health science that focuses on effective – and most importantly, safe – medication use.

A pharmacist, essentially, prepares medications for patients, after reviewing and interpreting physican orders. They control medications by monitoring drug therapies, detecting therapeutic incompatibilities and advising interventions as necessary. They also provide information by answering patients’ questions on drug therapies, unless these questions require the specialized knowledge of a medical doctor.

Health Sciences are King

Three different, reputable sources bring data to the table that confirms the highest paying jobs currently are on health sciences. Whether the top dog is a pharmacist, a physician or a cardiologist – though according to  what we have seen, cardiologists do seem to come out on top, based on median salaries – it matters not. The general consensus is that if you want to earn the highest possible salary, you should aim for a career in one of the requirement heavy health science professions.

When it comes to health science professions themselves, it seems like there is a direct corellation with the difficulty of entering a given profession and its potential monetary rewards. Being a doctor, for example, while certainly more difficult than becoming a nurse, is much more likely to position you in the highest echelons of paying salaries.

High paying alternatives

While the claim that the health care industry seems to be paying the most is well backed up by now, this does not mean to say that there are no other, viable alternatives in other fields. In fact, in many cases, there are jobs that come second only by a very slight margin. These more often than not are related to legal studies, tech industries, or information technology.

For example, one such job is that of senior corporate counsel – a laywer that focuses exclusively on the legal needs of the company they work for. Another high paying job is that of the applications development manager, a professional who works to maintain a business’s operations by planning, organizing and supervising all activities related to the companies software.

Being a Business Owner

As is hopefully obvious from this article, there are a great number of jobs that can provide you with an aweworthy salary and allow you to live a very lavish lifestyle. What needs to be stated, however, is that if you really want to make as much money as possible, getting a job is probably a losing proposition. The common and quickly verifiable fact of life is that the richest people on the planet are business owners – they offer a service or product in exchange for money. Often times they do so on a multi-national or even worldwide range. As you can probably imagine, their profits are higher than the highest paid cardiologist’s, attorney’s or software developer’s salary will ever be.

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