April 22--College students angling for their first jobs out of school may have the most luck if they have engineering backgrounds.
A trio of engineering positions -- engineer, systems engineer and software engineer -- took the top spots as professions with the most job openings in a WalletHub report released Wednesday on the best and worst entry-level jobs.
They weren't the highest-paying, though. For those who can afford law school, becoming a tax attorney will offer the highest starting salary. Drilling engineer comes second. The jobs with the lowest starting salaries include teaching assistant, teller and certified nursing assistant.
People with dreams of becoming certified occupational therapist assistants, information security analysts or market research analysts can look forward to the highest projected job growth by 2022. On the other end of the spectrum, computer operators, records clerks and electronics assemblers were listed as having the slowest job growth.
The WalletHub study analyzed 109 types of entry-level jobs based on 11 metrics to measure immediate opportunity for employment, growth prospects and potential hazards.
In the overall rankings, training specialist, a post that typically involves training employees on technology programs, held the No. 1 spot.
The 10 best and 10 worst jobs for entry-level applicants are as follows:
Best entry-level jobs
1. Training specialist
2. Web applications developer
3. Network engineer
4. Attorney
5. Environmental engineer
6. Software engineer
7. Designer I -- Web
8. Information security analyst
9. Financial analyst
10. Programmer
Worst entry-level jobs
100. Welder
101. Building inspector
102. Policy processing clerk
103. Electronics assembler
104. Boilermaker
105. Claims processing clerk
106. Consumer loan servicing clerk
107. Refinery operator
108. Sheet-metal mechanic
109. Floor assembler
aelejalderuiz@tribpub.com
