2006 Best Careers: The Results Are In

What are the best careers? CareerJournal.com found out by asking people what makes them satisfied in their careers and then finding careers with those qualities. Here are the results (in alphabetical order): * Curriculum and instructional coordinators * High-school special-education teachers * Hospital and clinic managers * Management consultants and analysts * Medical researchers * Physical therapists * Sales, marketing and advertising managers * Social workers, counselors and related managers How did we get this list? CareerJournal teamed with polling company Harris Interactive, to survey U.S. adults and find what qualities are most common in the jobs of highly satisfied career-focused people. The four attributes cited most were: * Good intellectual stimulation * Strong job security * High level of control and freedom in what to do * Extensive direct contact with customers/clients These criteria in hand, we then looked to identify careers that best met them. We scoured occupational data and employment projections from the Department of Labor and interviewed experts. Our eight "Best Careers" fit the bill in each category.

These won't be the best careers for everyone. But relative to others, they are more likely to have the things that highly satisfied career-minded people say describe their jobs.

Read interviews with people who have jobs in the fields of special, education, management consulting, social work and health-care clinic management, and come back to CareerJournal in the weeks ahead for profiles of people who have jobs in curriculum development, physical therapy, high-school special education, and sales, marketing and advertising.

What's the best career for you? To answer this question, first think about how you would describe your dream career. Then review this list of 14 career qualities and see a sampling of careers most likely to deliver on what's most important to you.

To learn more about CareerJournal's Best Careers list, read our methodology.

What do you think is the best career? Join other CareerJournal readers in a discussion.

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