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re: What are some good, high paying jobs that are undersaturated right now?
Posted on 6/1/26 at 7:49 am to LemmyLives
Posted on 6/1/26 at 7:49 am to LemmyLives
Where were you living in 2006 making $70/hr installing smoke detectors?
0
Posted on 6/1/26 at 7:51 am to Ramblin Wreck
quote:
I’m not a civil engineer but worked my last summer in college for a DOT. I took a job with an oil company out of college and started off making more money than engineers with masters degrees that had years of experience at the DOT. As a side note, I saw people that did absolutely zero work there the entire summer.
yep and if you are civil and get into the plants or oil....that is where it is at
but yea I have seen people get assigned 1 task at DOTD and told...make it last 6 months.
civil engineering can be great, but its not going to pay that much if you want to go work dotd or be a traffic engineer.
Posted on 6/1/26 at 7:54 am to lsu777
quote:
yep and if you are civil and get into the plants or oil....that is where it is at
I've worked with some civil engineering grads who were damn good facilities engineers.
Posted on 6/1/26 at 9:04 am to Chastains
If not concerned with AI taking over the profession, there’s a shortage of CPAs to take over all of the small to mid-sized public accounting firms.
Posted on 6/1/26 at 10:34 am to lsu777
quote:
al true but also depends on civil. so many go dotd...that is not a good career imo. also many tend to not want to specialize which is a mistake imo.
I gave dotd a go for a little while and went back to private consulting. I'd say both are having trouble hiring and retaining staff as well as dealing with the older guys moving on. 10–15-year engineers are becoming unicorns. Maybe it's a transportation sector thing.
As for specializing, I think it depends, too. Bridge, road, traffic, and hydraulics typically don't have an issue specializing since there's enough scope per project. I do get pulled into site civil/community development where I work, and that's where I think a civil engineer would do well to have a broad repertoire. Handling minor structural (retaining walls and shallow foundations) and hydraulics in addition to the site development would be ideal.
Posted on 6/1/26 at 11:04 am to SparkyWilson
quote:
I gave dotd a go for a little while and went back to private consulting. I'd say both are having trouble hiring and retaining staff as well as dealing with the older guys moving on. 10–15-year engineers are becoming unicorns. Maybe it's a transportation sector thing.
As for specializing, I think it depends, too. Bridge, road, traffic, and hydraulics typically don't have an issue specializing since there's enough scope per project. I do get pulled into site civil/community development where I work, and that's where I think a civil engineer would do well to have a broad repertoire. Handling minor structural (retaining walls and shallow foundations) and hydraulics in addition to the site development would be ideal.
agreed. what i meant by specializing is having a good working knowledge of most things but being an SME on 1 particular thing. I will say guys that understand repairs and brown field work compared to green field ......becoming a thing of the past. like you said....unicorns.
Posted on 6/1/26 at 11:14 am to Chastains
Not undersaturated but steady are Mechanical/Electrical Drafting and Machinist.
Posted on 6/1/26 at 11:20 am to Indefatigable
quote:
No, it’s really not There is absolutely no money in most sales, at least compared to typical unskilled white collar jobs.
Problem with good sales roles is that people hold on to them until well past retirement age because it gets so easy for them to do the job on limited hours.
Heard a ridiculous number that lumber sales reps were doing.
Construction equipment is the other one. Your rep at a name brand like Caterpillar is making an extremely comfortable living and can do it as long as he wants. Those jobs just don’t come around
Posted on 6/1/26 at 11:33 am to Chastains
TL;DR: Go into nursing.
I guess it depends on what you consider, "high paying"?
It would also depend on what the ceiling is for those jobs. Some jobs the floor is pretty low. People quote trade-skill jobs a lot, but it can take quite a while to get into the "high paying" bracket. And frequently those brackets are more or less, independent contractor/business. Which carries a whole slew of issues as well.
That said, if someone is willing to deal with all of that, then sure, electrician can make good money. The problem is that a lot of people don't think of the conditions they'll be working in or that the first few years are pretty menial.
The reason I led off with, "Go into nursing" is that it's not difficult to get into. As long as a person is of slightly above average intelligence, he/she can become a nurse. If that person gets their BSN they will make $30+/hr starting out. With the opportunity to scale up depending on willingness to move or work in more acute environments. Like an ICU nurse with a couple years of experience can easily make $50/hr. Not bad money. Yes, it is frequently "dirty" work, but it's also in a pretty safe environment. And the larger hospital systems have good benefits to go along with it.
I guess it depends on what you consider, "high paying"?
It would also depend on what the ceiling is for those jobs. Some jobs the floor is pretty low. People quote trade-skill jobs a lot, but it can take quite a while to get into the "high paying" bracket. And frequently those brackets are more or less, independent contractor/business. Which carries a whole slew of issues as well.
That said, if someone is willing to deal with all of that, then sure, electrician can make good money. The problem is that a lot of people don't think of the conditions they'll be working in or that the first few years are pretty menial.
The reason I led off with, "Go into nursing" is that it's not difficult to get into. As long as a person is of slightly above average intelligence, he/she can become a nurse. If that person gets their BSN they will make $30+/hr starting out. With the opportunity to scale up depending on willingness to move or work in more acute environments. Like an ICU nurse with a couple years of experience can easily make $50/hr. Not bad money. Yes, it is frequently "dirty" work, but it's also in a pretty safe environment. And the larger hospital systems have good benefits to go along with it.
Posted on 6/1/26 at 12:43 pm to lsu777
quote:
agreed. what i meant by specializing is having a good working knowledge of most things but being an SME on 1 particular thing. I will say guys that understand repairs and brown field work compared to green field ......becoming a thing of the past. like you said....unicorns.
Perhaps even more of unicorn. We try hard to make our details field friendly, but you really don't know what you don't know until someone tries to build it. The idea is to not forget what caused problems despite your best intentions.
Posted on 6/1/26 at 9:43 pm to Chastains
quote:
Software engineer
Try hiring one who's worth a damn for under $150,000 / year.
Posted on 6/1/26 at 9:48 pm to Dragula
quote:
Many people, including here, underestimate the difficult working conditions for those jobs.
Yep!
Crawling in some bushes or an attic is one thing. But no way I’m getting in a crawl space under a house.
And good luck owning your own company and hiring people who aren’t drugged out and will show up every day.
This post was edited on 6/1/26 at 9:49 pm
Posted on 6/1/26 at 10:50 pm to Chastains
Cops are pretty understaffed.
EMS as well.
EMS as well.
Posted on 6/1/26 at 11:03 pm to SuperSaint
I have a couple of brother in laws who are engineers on ships. One works on a tug boat in Cameron and the other in the Great Lakes. The schedule sucks but both get paid well.
Posted on 6/1/26 at 11:45 pm to Ricardo
I’m an RN in a specialized field. Make 389k in 2025
Posted on 6/1/26 at 11:49 pm to Donkus
quote:
over $100K
OP said high paying
Posted on 6/2/26 at 4:27 am to JasonDBlaha
quote:
Majority of tradesmen will never crack six-figures
And the majority of those that do are working 84 hour weeks most of the year.
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