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2009年2月9日星期一

Career Watch: The best jobs

February 9, 2009 (Computerworld)

Tony Lee

The publisher of CareerCast.com and JobsRated.com discusses the sites' recent ranking of occupations, which put two IT jobs in the top 10.

What sorts of criteria were used? To quantify the many facets of the 200 jobs included in our report, we determined and reviewed various critical aspects of all of the jobs, categorizing them into five core criteria -- that is, the general categories that are inherent to every job: work environment, income, outlook, stress and physical demands. Many smaller criteria are included in these core areas, and all are weighted and reviewed by our team of researchers. One overarching theme is that the more control you have over your daily activities, the higher that job tends to rank. So if you have a boss looking over your shoulder or frequent tight deadlines that have to be met, your job will lose points in the rankings. [Note: The full methodology is explained atcareercast.com]

A lot of people in the technology field would be surprised to see "software engineer" at No. 5, given that such positions are increasingly being offshored. Did it score high for job security? Job security was its lowest score, but it scored so high in the other categories, it landed at No. 5. Software engineer scored highest for work environment. The majority of software engineers work in nice offices, with a cafeteria nearby, and [they] can do things like listen to music via headphones, which is far nicer than many other jobs. It also ranked high for income, with an average of $86,139.

It sounds like the more sedentary a job, the higher it ranked. But is physical activity really a drawback in a job? Not necessarily, as long as the physical activity doesn't frequently lead to injury. For instance, petroleum engineers and geologists both often work outside the office but still rank among the top 30 best jobs, since it's unlikely their outside work will lead to harm or is done in uncomfortable weather.

The economy has shifted quickly over the past few months. Do you have a sense of how those changes might affect the rankings if you were to take a new look today? We kept following the data right through the fall, so while there may be a few small changes since then, the data should be up to date. -- Jamie Eckle

The 10 Best Jobs

  1. Mathematician
  2.  Actuary
  3. Statistician
  4. Biologist
  5. Software engineer
  6. Computer systems analyst
  7. Historian
  8. Sociologist
  9. Industrial designer
  10. Accountant

Source: CareerCast.com ranking of occupations, September 2008

Rise of the 'Nanobots'

No, they aren't those hypothetical molecular-scale robots that could someday be introduced into our bloodstreams to fix what ails us. These so-called nanobots are office workers, including some IT professionals. Or, more precisely, they are workers who are hardly ever in the office. The somewhat fanciful acronym for this category of worker is derived from Nearly Autonomous, Not in the Office, doing Business in their Own Time Staff. The coiners of the term are two New Zealand researchers, David Pauleen and Brian Harmer, who wrote about nanobots in the Dec. 14 issue of the MIT Sloan Management Review. They say nanobots are highly dependent on mobile devices and remote access to the corporate network, but unlike run-of-the-mill mobile workers, they aren't required to stay in close contact with managers. Instead, nanobots are entrusted with unusual levels of personal freedom while they're on the job, in return for which they're almost always on the job. -- Jamie Eckle

Why Workers Leave

Executives were asked, "Which of the following is most likely to cause good employees to quit their jobs?" Here are their responses:

20092009
Unhappiness with management35%23%
Limited opportunities for advancement33%39%
Lack of recognition13%17%
Inadequate salary and benefits13%11%
Bored with their jobs1%6%
Other/don't know5%4%
Source: Robert Half Technology survey based on interviews with 150 senior executives at the 1,000 largest companies in the U.S.

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