Choosing a career or changing careers is a big decision. What should I do? What career has the highest chance of success? How realistic is it for me to get a job in that field?
To help, we identified four entry-level jobs that pay at least $70,000 a year. All of these jobs have ample career opportunity as they are in fields that are growing, not shrinking. And, to top it off, we provided a Learning Path for each one that’ll give you the skills you need to get a job in that field.
Four entry-level jobs that pay $70,000, along with playbooks on how to get them, are:
- Data Scientist
Average US Starting Salary: $93,500
Data Scientist Jobs on LinkedIn: 9,000+
Learning Path: Become a Data Scientist
Why it’s such a hot job: Data science, simply put, is the most in-demand skill in the world. Seemingly every data pull we do into top skills has the same result: companies are searching the globe for data scientists.
Why? It’s because the digital world empowers companies to collect more data than ever before, which has the potential to be a huge advantage for them. The problem is they are in desperate need for people to make sense out of all that data, which is where data scientists come in.
- Software Engineer
Average US Starting Salary: $80,000
Software Engineering Jobs on LinkedIn: 85,000+
Learning Path: Become a Programmer
Why it’s such a hot job: Today, nearly every company has become a technology company. Even something as blue-collar and seemingly non-tech like John Deere has an increasingly digital element, as more and more of their equipment is connected to the IoT (not to mention a large portion of their marketing and sales are digital).
That’s where software engineers come in, building out those technological solutions serving everything from lawn mowers to Google search. And there has always been a dearth of software engineers out there, with companies looking to lure that talent in with high salaries.
- Security Engineer
Average US Starting Salary: $74,200
Security Engineering Jobs on LinkedIn: 15,000+
Learning Path: Become an IT Security Specialist
Why it’s such a hot job: All successful organizations are built on a foundation trust: their customers trust that using their products and services is safe. And yet, every week there’s a story of a data breach that erodes that trust and puts the livelihood of thousands of people at stake.
Hence, companies are obsessed with security and rightfully so: if that trust with their customers is broken, it’s nearly impossible to get back and the business suffers greatly.
- User Experience Designer
Average US Starting Salary: $72,000
User Experience Jobs on LinkedIn: 2,500+
Learning Path: Become a User Experience Designer
Why it’s such a hot job: As we’ve seen in all the jobs mentioned, the world is increasingly moving online. But all the great code, all the great data and all the great security doesn’t matter if people can’t easily understand and interact with your website in a meaningful way.
That’s where user experience designers come in, who look to turn all the great offerings software engineers produce into an experience that’s engaging and intuitive (also, it doesn’t hurt for it to be beautiful, either).
The other options out there
The following are four lucrative career paths. But choosing a career path shouldn’t come down solely to salary. Instead, focusing on your passions and going after a job that meets those is almost always a more rewarding – and ultimately more profitable – pursuit.