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What Makes a Hot Job?
Bob Weinstein is a journalist who covers technology, project management, the workplace and career development.
A job is “hot” because some authoritative source said so. “Authoritative” is the command word here. Therein lies the problem.
When the economy is good, the “hot” and “best” lists never stop coming. Under the umbrella “hot” and “best” categories, count on lists in every industry--best IT jobs, best restaurant jobs, best financial-services jobs.
Another popular category is the “best”-paying-jobs list. They are our favorites, which is why they get big play in print, TV and on websites. We get a vicarious thrill from reading about big earners. Look at the mind-boggling success of a show like Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, which has been on the air since 1984. Then there are the frequent sound-bite spotlights about what superstar actors earn when they make big-budget movies. When a low-earning star pulls down only $4 million or $6 million a film, numbers become meaningless.
IT managers’ top salaries pale in comparison with what Hollywood’s icons are banking, yet they’re nevertheless of great interest to people in the field. The fact that only a tiny percentage of the working masses earn annual salaries exceeding $100K, and that the lists serve little purpose other than to make for entertaining reading, doesn’t seem to bother anyone.
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