These 12 careers are your best chance to get a job in 2023.
by CareerFitter
You have the best chance of getting hired if you are pursuing any one of these 12 careers in 2023. These are the jobs with the highest demand for hiring and the greatest increase in growth. Over half pay more than $100,000 a year, some require no college degree, some have online courses, and some allow you to work from home.
The world is back to work and so are you! So, you need to make your steps (or should I say interviews) count. Let’s look at the highest-paying careers that are growing the fastest and careers that will be hiring the most in 2023.
1. Home Health and Personal Care Aide
Over 1 Million New Hires
This career shot up to #1 during the pandemic and has stayed there. It has the highest projected hiring volume out of all careers, hiring 1,129,900 new Home Health and Personal Care Aides in the next 7 years.
For this purposeful job, you will travel to people’s homes, group homes, and other settings to provide daily care to patients. You will administer medication and check the patient's pulse rates, temperature, and blood pressure readings.
Starting pay is about $27,280 a year. Just think about how your work will be helping people, saving lives, and joining the ranks of medical heroes.
No student loan money is required. But, if you’re working for a certified home health or hospice agency, you might need to complete some training and sharpen your pencil for a standardized test.
If you dream of earning more per year, use this career as a stepping stone while you earn a degree and eventually make over $100,000 a year working as a nurse practitioner or a traveling nurse.
2. Chef
28,000 New Chefs Needed
If you already love to cook for people, it’s time to make that pay. The best part is - No College Degree Required!
Most Chefs learn their skills through work experience. However, you can get training from select community colleges, technical schools, culinary arts schools, or 4-year colleges.
Your job is to choose the dishes to serve, oversee the daily food preparation, and direct the kitchen staff to handle any food-related concerns.
You get to work around food all day and earn (on average) about $53,380 per year! Hold on to your big dreams of hitting it "big-time" because Chef Gordon Ramsay reportedly earned about $63 million dollars in 2019.
3. Software Developer Quality Assurance Analyst
409,500 New Jobs
This fast-growing career allows you to work from home on your laptop earning $110,000 per year.
Maybe as a user, you are always finding bugs in apps, and now you get paid to fix them. You will need a bachelor's degree, but you will be designing and running software tests to find problems and keep the world efficient.
You will be involved in the entire process of creating a software program. Software Developers start by asking the customer how they plan to use the software to identify the core functionality of the user's needs.
You will help determine security requirements. Then, you design the program and work closely with a programmer, who writes the computer code. However, some developers write code themselves. Also, you can take software development courses online and quickly learn some fun new words like Java and Python (that have nothing to do with coffee or snakes, btw).
4. Medical and Health Services Managers
Projected 32% Increase in Hiring | Salary $80,000 +
If you love the money and security of medical careers but would rather work a desk job around healthy people, you might consider a career as a Medical and Health Services Manager. Your day-to-day activities behind the desk will be to plan, direct, and coordinate the business activities of healthcare providers.
Start by taking a career assessment test to help you determine if you have the right work personality for this profession.
If you do, you will be helping medical professionals manage the business side of their practice and keep them organized. Sure, you will be busy pushing papers in the medical office and having meetings with doctors but not too busy to get to the bank and cash your hefty salary check totaling about $100,980 per year!
However, to be a Medical and Health Services Manager, you are going to need at least a bachelor’s degree. Master’s degrees are common and sometimes preferred by employers.
Take a look at this video about what it's like to work in this career:
5. Nurse Practitioner
Projected 52% Increase in Hiring | $111,680 Per Year
It’s no surprise this “hero career” has stayed in the top 5 for 2023. You can expect to bring home about $111,680 per year and be honored as a person saving lives.
Once you get your Master’s degree, get ready for the companies to start pursuing you. However, you will need to complete one more step – a state license and national APRN certification.
Here is a video showing you what it is like to be a Nurse Practioner:
6. Animal Caretaker
Projected 29.9% Job Growth | Self Employed
If you're a natural with furry creatures, refer to your pets as "fur-babies", and love being around animals all day, a career as an animal caretaker may be the perfect fit. Each of the animals you are loving on will have different requirements. But, on average, you can expect to make about $28,000 a year and most people are self-employed.
This could be a good transition career. Set your own hours, work part-time, and build your business. As an animal caretaker, you'll be doing everything from grooming and pet sitting to helping at an animal shelter or dog daycare.
Job responsibilities of animal caretakers may include the following:
Ensuring animals have adequate food and water
Providing the animal with exercise opportunities such as playtime, hikes, or walks
Ensuring that living areas and cages/crates are clean and healthy
Keeping a log of diet, medications, and behavior if needed
Bathing and grooming animals
The following video shows what a day at work is like for an animal caretaker:
7. Health Specialties Teachers | Postsecondary
Expected to Grow by 24.1% | Salary Average $100,000 +
If you enjoy instructing adults, this may be the career to consider. The average wage for a postsecondary education health specialty teacher is $102,720.
The majority of health specialty teachers work in colleges or universities. However, some work in medical hospitals, trade schools, or junior colleges. Depending on the field that you are teaching in, additional licensure and certifications will be required.
Love computers and problem-solving?
This job might hit the spot for you. As an Information Security Analyst, you will help companies secure critical data by coming up with solutions that prevent cyber attacks.
Using a brilliant combination of logic and creativity, you’ll assess security issues companies might face, develop defense plans, and create company awareness.
By blocking hackers from gaining access to sensitive online information, you’ll help keep companies maintain online security. You will also get to implement protections such as firewalls and data encryption programs.
Hackerbusting, firewalls, and data encryption to keep identities and financial information safe? Yes, the job is as cool as it sounds. Oh, and you’ll be making around $100,000 per year. Very, very cool.
While some employers prefer applicants with MBAs, a bachelor’s degree in computer science or a related field qualifies you for this job, so you don’t necessarily have to go back to school.
Check out this video to see what it’s like to be an Information Security Analyst:
9. Logistician
Expected Growth of 27.7% | Average Salary $77,030
With all the "supply chain" talk over the last couple of years, it's no surprise people are in demand for this career!
Logisticians work with companies and organizations typically in the manufacturing sector, but sometimes with the federal government to ensure that their supply chain runs smoothly. You basically help the companies get the supplies they need to make the products and then make sure those products get to the consumers.
You need to be a natural at organizing and coordinating and then pump that skill up and apply it on a much larger scale. If this describes you, a career as a logistician may be a good fit.
Your relationship with transportation companies is critical! You will be ensuring a company has the supplies needed to actually produce its product and that the finished product then actually makes its way to the correct destination.
Your responsibilities include all the logistics for timing and coordinating transportation as well as storage for the goods.
It is a fast-paced job that also requires maintaining relationships with various suppliers and brainstorming ways to streamline a process when possible. Depending on the organization you work for, an associate's degree or a bachelor's degree may be required.
10. Data Scientist
Growth of 35.8% | Average Salary $100,000 +
Do you have a natural ability to absorb information, mentally digest it, figure out what it means, and communicate what you learned in a way that other people can understand? If yes, you might be perfect as a data scientist.
Our technology-loving culture is exponentially producing more and more data and information, and companies are using that data to improve efficiency and profitability. But, it takes an analytical brain, computer skills, and passion for raw data to translate it into information that can be understood and acted on. Sure, some days you'll go home after work fuzzy-brained from thinking so much, but let your $100,910 a year (average salary) soothe your headache.
So, what does a data scientist do?
Gather data through various means such as surveys and organizational databases
Compile and organizes the data
Analyze the organized data and explain the results in a simplified way so others can understand by using visual aids with charts and graphs.
Then, you will be making recommendations based on the results of your findings
Expect to spend most of your time in an office setting. However, it is possible to find remote work in this field.
You will need a bachelor's degree for this job. Preferred degrees are in mathematics, statistics, computer science, business, or engineering. But, your school bills will be worth it because this career is in high demand, and there is no end in sight.
The video below gives us a glimpse into the work-life of this career:
11. Physician Assistant
Projected 31% Increase in Hiring
You’ll be called a doctor all day by accident, for sure. A Physician Assistant has its own school program. Most have a bachelor’s degree when they start the program and most programs are 2 to 4 years of undergrad work focusing on science.
However, when you get out of school, it’s easier to pay off those school loans when you’re pulling in $112,200 per year – starting pay!
Watch this video to learn more about the daily work-life career of a Physician Assistant:
12. Transportation Driver
Expected to Grow by 28.5%
I'm sure by now you have taken an Uber or Lift or even had a ride in a limousine, but did you know drivers for these jobs are in hot demand?
You won't need a college degree for this one, but you will need a love for meeting strangers and giving random people rides.
Some of these gigs are even part-time, with the flexibility to turn your app on and make money whenever you want. But being a driver for a larger company could be a full-time job that even offers benefits. Your employers could be anything from hotels needing to take people to the airport to a movie studio needing you to transport movie stars.
A college degree might be optional, but a valid driver's license is a must! Having a good driving record will also help. However, that really depends on the individual company and how it will affect their insurance.
The average salary for a driver is only about $29,310 per year, but think about the flexibility! Many drivers do this work part-time.
This could be your perfect temporary transition job while you are going to school, or to pick up some extra money working on the weekends and evenings.
This job may include:
Loading and unloading luggage
Coordinating schedules and pickup times
Telling passengers about local attractions and restaurants
Keeping your vehicle clean and properly maintained
Processing payments
Some companies like Uber and Lift let you own your own vehicle, so you would be working as a contractor. Some companies will provide the vehicle for you to drive and others will let you rent or lease them from an agency.
This video shows what it's like to be a transportation driver:
Bonus #13 Web Developer
Expected Growth of 30.3%
I promised you the top 12 but had to include web developer because it was very close, and I have a feeling the internet isn't going away anytime soon.
Whenever you see a website (including this one) and wonder how someone made it - well, you're looking at the work of a web developer. It's a hybrid job that requires you to be both creative and structured. Your layouts and designs are all held together with organized files and unforgiving code.
One of the things you'll love about working as a web developer is self-employment. You could maintain your own client lists and run your own businesses, and let's not forget the work-from-anywhere factor. Any internet connection has the potential to be your office. So, if you love working on your laptop with your toes in the sand and you can handle bringing in around $77,030 a year, this one is for you.
As a developer you will be expected to handle the following:
Discussing specific client needs for a website
Planning and designing a site that will meet those specific needs
Some organizations may require you to have a higher level of education, but typically it's not about your schooling... it's more about your experience and portfolio. So, be prepared to give some strong examples of the work you have done.
If you're just starting out, don't be afraid to make some websites for free so you can establish credibility and examples of your skills. There are plenty of online courses for web developers. However, the first website you should build is for you. Don't take this lightly; your clients will look at your website as an example of your best work. So, bring it.
This video shows what it's like to be a web developer:
How do you know which of these is the best career for you?
Don’t just choose one of these careers because it pays well or your parents think it’s a good fit for you. There is a way you can find out if your personality fits one of these careers. Take a career test for your work personality, learn about your personality strengths in a working environment, and see the list of careers that fit you best. This will help guide you to the best career for you.
This is your life and the career you will be investing in for many years. Making the right career choice will bring you joy, energy, and passion for what you do. After all, if you enjoy your work, you will never work a day in your life.