# What job attainable by average people pays the most? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 30, 2011, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-attainable-by-average-people-pays-the-most/569494 "2011-01-30T06:51:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2011, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-attainable-by-average-people-pays-the-most/569494/1 "2011-01-30T06:51:28Z")
I’m sure this question will depend a lot how you interpret the following, but stay with me… Take the average person, of average skills and intelligence (no prodigies or geniuses), with only the ability to go to college and earn a degree. What career field should they go into if they want to _most assuredly_ earn the most amount of money possible? So things that depend on great skills or genetics or luck that would result in jobs like movie stars and pro athletes are out of the question, as one can’t be “average” and just “learn” the skills required for these professions. Perhaps the question here is just “what job, attainable with nothing more than a college degree perhaps, pays the most?” ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2011, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-attainable-by-average-people-pays-the-most/569494/2 "2011-01-30T07:25:16Z")
Highest average salary? Highest median salary? Highest 90th percentile? Highest maximum salary? ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2011, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-attainable-by-average-people-pays-the-most/569494/3 "2011-01-30T07:42:59Z")
In a general sense, “businessman.” But there are _so_ many other factors that lead to someone becoming a success beyond just his education and his chosen field. Being an entrepreneur can be extremely lucrative or can be a total dead end depending on the abilities of the individual and other things like being in the right place at the right time. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2011, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-attainable-by-average-people-pays-the-most/569494/4 "2011-01-30T08:14:14Z")
Sales jobs for things like medical equipment or communications equipment can sometimes pay really well without requiring an advanced degree. But to be good at this kind of work requires a definite skill set that not everyone has. ---
**Author:** ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2011, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-attainable-by-average-people-pays-the-most/569494/5 "2011-01-30T12:49:13Z")
Entrepreneur. The thing that made America great. As a matter of fact, business folks don’t typically even excel at school, which is not very good at teaching how to be an entrepreneur. If you are average scholastically, but ambitious, you don’t follow a “career.” You go learn the garage door business by slaving in it and then you start your own company. etc etc There isn’t a “most assuredly” here, and a lot of crappily-run small business fail. But it’s still the most assured way to get rich with average skills and non-dependence on luck. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2011, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-attainable-by-average-people-pays-the-most/569494/6 "2011-01-30T13:43:19Z")
Senior manager with a big US corporation checking in. Sales requires great natural soft skills. Ergo, that is out. Can some succeed with no natural skill, and can we be inundated with anecdotes about stupid sales people and managers? Sure, but as a rule, these are not easy fields. A college-educated plumber or electrician would be my answer. . ---
**Author:** ![medicated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@medicated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/medicated)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2011, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-attainable-by-average-people-pays-the-most/569494/7 "2011-01-30T13:46:12Z")
Third world dictator seems a lucrative profession. It doesn’t seem to require much in the way of special skills, either. In many cases, all that’s needed is good timing and a commission as a relatively junior officer, plus a certain ruthlessness. If that’s not your cup of tea, I’d have to go with what Chief Pedant said. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2011, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-attainable-by-average-people-pays-the-most/569494/8 "2011-01-30T13:53:20Z")
I’d hypothesize that an attorney has a better chance of success than an entrepreneur. Some attorneys work alone in private practice, and if that is not lucrative for the attorney at the moment, they can go work for a larger firm. For an entrepreneur to go work a “9-5” management job at IBM - probably a much bigger hurdle. As has been mentioned above, going into business for yourself has a significant chance for wild success, but also a significant chance of going under, and it isn’t just a matter of skill and education, there’s a LARGE element of chance with all the complex interplays between the market, other companies, etc. For a classic example, the Commodore Amiga computer was excellent. It offered late-90’s functionality in the 1980’s, but flopped in the market. Where is Commodore today? Whose “fault” was that? ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2011, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-attainable-by-average-people-pays-the-most/569494/9 "2011-01-30T14:23:02Z")
There are two ways to get large rewards- make a large investment, or take a large risk. Either you can do something that requires a lot of specialized training (lawyer, etc.) or you can do something that may or may not turn out well (entrepreneur.) ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2011, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-attainable-by-average-people-pays-the-most/569494/10 "2011-01-30T15:09:43Z")
No love for roughneck or union longshoreman? ---
**Author:** ![fruitbat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@fruitbat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fruitbat)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2011, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-attainable-by-average-people-pays-the-most/569494/11 "2011-01-30T15:48:55Z")
Sales would have to be the answer. Many people hate to sell, but it is a skill that I think most people can master. For most organizations the highest pay goes to the people who bring in the dollars. Even in organizations you wouldn’t normally think about, like colleges and private schools, the people who can bring in dollars and write grants have the best compensation packages. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2011, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-attainable-by-average-people-pays-the-most/569494/12 "2011-01-30T15:56:45Z")
If you have some degree of luck I would say commercial fishing. But like other physically demanding jobs be prepared that a “career” may be to about age 45 or so. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2011, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-attainable-by-average-people-pays-the-most/569494/13 "2011-01-30T16:11:33Z")
It would have to be entrepreneur. I’ve seen guys make a lot of money in business who weren’t what you would define as “classically intelligent” or special in any real way, they just really worked their asses off in a business and then saved money up over time, got some people to back them and started their own business that then thrived. Any sort of professional field like medicine or legal practice I don’t know if I can say for sure that an “average” American is capable of doing it. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2011, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-attainable-by-average-people-pays-the-most/569494/14 "2011-01-30T16:43:48Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > … > Any sort of professional field like medicine or legal practice I don’t know if I can say for sure that an “average” American is capable of doing it. I would suggest that a person capable of getting through college in the first place can actually do it, given that they are determined enough to get through law or med school. It doesn’t take smarts as much as willingness to work very hard to obtain the professional certification. Certified professions would be my answer for a “by the numbers” path to a high salary, too. You are trading off risk inherent in some other fields against a very grueling program to get to that point. For medical practice, you are also likely to wind up starting out incredibly deep in a financial hole, having borrowed huge amounts of money to get through med school. Plus, possibly, costs involved with setting up a practice, or buying into an existing practice. Dentists make a fortune, but the cost of setting up or buying into a dental practice is huge. I’ve heard that one of the least cost setups for private medical practice is ophthalmology. Another extremely well paid certified professional is an actuary. If you aren’t scared off by the math involved, that could also be considered. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2011, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-attainable-by-average-people-pays-the-most/569494/15 "2011-01-30T17:33:28Z")
Don’t you have to pay for significantly more than a college degree in order to work as an actuary or an attorney? Some forms of nursing and specialist secretarial work (legal secretary, etc - not just typing up notes) would be a pretty good option - the pay wouldn’t be as high as some sales jobs in the short term, but they would offer regular decent wages and benefits for a very long time. Going on the variety of people I know in well-paid specialist secretarial jobs, I’d say almost anyone can do them - not that they’re easy, but that they don’t require specialist skills or personality types, just reasonable intelligence, literacy, numeracy, the willingness to do the work and be reliable and organised, and the training, of course. A lot of them have taken professional exams later on, but only after a few years working in the field, when they wanted a promotions. OTOH, the only people I know who’ve done well in sales are those where you could guess their job from the very first handshake. ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2011, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-attainable-by-average-people-pays-the-most/569494/16 "2011-01-30T17:34:10Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > I would suggest that a person capable of getting through college in the first place can actually do it, given that they are determined enough to get through law or med school. It doesn’t take smarts as much as willingness to work very hard to obtain the professional certification. Certified professions would be my answer for a “by the numbers” path to a high salary, too. You are trading off risk inherent in some other fields against a very grueling program to get to that point. For medical practice, you are also likely to wind up starting out incredibly deep in a financial hole, having borrowed huge amounts of money to get through med school. Plus, possibly, costs involved with setting up a practice, or buying into an existing practice. Dentists make a fortune, but the cost of setting up or buying into a dental practice is huge. I’ve heard that one of the least cost setups for private medical practice is ophthalmology. > > Another extremely well paid certified professional is an actuary. If you aren’t scared off by the math involved, that could also be considered. I think the demographics of the SDMB skew SDMBers’ perception of what “average” is. The average IQ in America is something like 100. These professional schools used fairly heavily g-loaded standardized tests (MCAT, LSAT, DAT) as admissions criteria. The problem is compounded by the dilution of the college degree, such that almost anyone can get one nowadays. Merely being able to complete a bachelor’s degree means almost nothing. I submit that your truly “average” college student does not have the ability to become a physician, lawyer, or dentist no matter how hard he works. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2011, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-attainable-by-average-people-pays-the-most/569494/17 "2011-01-30T17:43:37Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > I think the demographics of the SDMB skew SDMBers’ perception of what “average” is. The average IQ in America is something like 100. These professional schools used fairly heavily g-loaded standardized tests (MCAT, LSAT, DAT) as admissions criteria. The problem is compounded by the dilution of the college degree, such that almost anyone can get one nowadays. Merely being able to complete a bachelor’s degree means almost nothing. I submit that your truly “average” college student does not have the ability to become a physician, lawyer, or dentist no matter how hard he works. Yup. An average or even some what average student wouldn’t get accepted onto those courses in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2011, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-attainable-by-average-people-pays-the-most/569494/18 "2011-01-30T22:37:16Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > I would suggest that a person capable of getting through college in the first place can actually do it, given that they are determined enough to get through law or med school. It doesn’t take smarts as much as willingness to work very hard to obtain the professional certification. Certified professions would be my answer for a “by the numbers” path to a high salary, too. You are trading off risk inherent in some other fields against a very grueling program to get to that point. For medical practice, you are also likely to wind up starting out incredibly deep in a financial hole, having borrowed huge amounts of money to get through med school. Plus, possibly, costs involved with setting up a practice, or buying into an existing practice. Dentists make a fortune, but the cost of setting up or buying into a dental practice is huge. I’ve heard that one of the least cost setups for private medical practice is ophthalmology. > > Another extremely well paid certified professional is an actuary. If you aren’t scared off by the math involved, that could also be considered. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want an “average” doctor, lawyer, dentist or any of the other “certified professions.” I’d say that an average person can be successful in just about any career, if the chips fall the right way, and they’re careful not to exceed their limits, whatever they may be. As for a job that average people might have excellent success and respect in, I’d consider the military or possibly some of the trades. I’d think a person with a 100 IQ would be better off as a mid-level NCO or something like a journeyman electrician than as a piss-poor lawyer or doctor. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2011, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-attainable-by-average-people-pays-the-most/569494/19 "2011-01-30T23:21:21Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > Don’t you have to pay for significantly more than a college degree in order to work as an actuary or an attorney? Several UK universities do accredited Actuarial undergraduate degrees. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2011, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-attainable-by-average-people-pays-the-most/569494/20 "2011-01-30T23:38:31Z")
> [@Martin Hyde](#): > > Any sort of professional field like medicine or legal practice I don’t know if I can say for sure that an “average” American is capable of doing it. They’re certainly not capable of doing it with nothing more than an undergraduate degree, which AFAICT is the upper bound that the OP’s question placed on the formal qualifications of this hypothetical average American. And I can’t agree that “entrepreneur” would be the highest-paying career choice for the **average** American with at most an undergraduate degree. As others have noted, being a successful entrepreneur generally requires above-average levels of initiative and dedication. ISTM that what the OP’s looking to identify is the field open to average individuals with at most average qualifications that is **reliably** highest-paying, even for those practitioners who aren’t especially good at it. IOW, if your ambitions, talents and achievements basically fit you for nothing much higher than being a cog in the workplace machine, which professional/institutional/commercial machine would it be most remunerative for you to be a cog in? I would guess one of the skilled trades or some kind of financial or engineering field, and if I had to be more specific I would guess “accountant”. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-attainable-by-average-people-pays-the-most/569494.md?page=2)