Career switching is sweeping through the American workforce.
Some 43 percent of workers want to change their career field this year, according to a March study from jobs site FlexJobs. Another 23 percent have already tried to make a career change in the past year. With much interest brewing, knowing which under-the-radar jobs pay the best is critical for safeguarding your financial future.
The Independent sought out an array of careers advisors to identify three roles that pay more than what the average person might think they do.
All rise
The sound of a court stenographer tapping away at their typewriter-like machine during a trial is music to the ears of Steven Lowell, a senior reverse recruiter at careers site Find My Profession.
The job comes with many responsibilities. Powell recalls a time when he served on jury duty and had a chance to talk with the court stenographer.
She told him that beyond typing out verbatim transcripts of court cases, she had to manage evidence, depositions, motions; translate her notes into legal documents; edit her work and read back testimony to judges and attorneys.
Court stenographers typically earn from $60,000 to $120,000, Lowell said. High performers can earn as much as $200,000 a year.
That pay range can go even higher in legal situations where technical language is used.
“If you are lucky enough to be working on legal and medical depositions with challenging language, you can make anywhere between $200,000 to $300,000,” Lowell said in an email to The Independent.
New York has the highest average court stenographer salaries, while Kentucky and Louisiana have the lowest average pay, he said.
The job’s long-term stability faces challenges from AI’s ability to recognize and transcribe human speech, according to legal AI firm Rev. However, there may be an ongoing need for stenographers to work with AI assistants and review AI transcripts.
Take a bite
Next time you head to the dentist, there’s a chance the person cleaning your teeth is making six figures.
Dental hygienist, a role that includes teeth cleaning, taking X-rays, and screening for oral diseases, is one of the most underestimated jobs on the market, said Lauren Mastroni, a career expert at Resume Genius, a site that creates professional resumes.
The role’s median salary is $94,260, but salaries can be as high as $100,000 in California and as low as $70,000 in rural areas, Mastroni told The Independent in an email.
The role has potential for growth, too - the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects the field to grow by 7 percent over the next 10 years.
“Beyond pay, it's a great career choice due to stable demand, predictable working hours, and relatively good work-life balance compared to many healthcare professions,” Mastroni said.
Another benefit of the job is that it usually requires a two-year degree instead of a four-year degree, Mastroni said. The delicate work needed with human hands also makes it largely AI proof.
Password protected
If the internet and cloud computing are the Wild West, then information security analysts are the sheriffs keeping everyone safe.
The role includes monitoring alerts, investigating security incidents, running vulnerability scans, writing rules for how threats are detected and strengthening overall system security, noted Sam Wright, head of career strategy at job search site Huntr.
All of those responsibilities translate into an average salary of $129,208, Wright told The Independent in an email. The best salaries in the field go to senior engineers, who typically make more than $150,000 a year.
That figure goes up by 20 to 30 percent in the Bay Area, New York City and Washington, D.C., Wright said.
One in five job posts will waive a degree if the applicant has a certain number of years of experience in the field, Wright said. Certifications such as Security+ and Offensive Security Certified Professional certifications “often matter more than a four-year degree,” he added.
“The field is wide open,” Wright said. “You can break in through bootcamps, self-study, and certs, then move up fast. The work is also hard to automate. AI helps security analysts, but it does not replace the judgment call.”
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