US News recently released its list of the 100 best jobs in 2014. I was surprised, not by the results, but by the criteria they used to make their list. They base their ranking on:
- Four criteria related to employability (60% of the total score)
- Salary (30% of the total score)
- Stress levels of the job (5% of the total score – this is the amount of day-to-day stress someone might experience while working in an occupation)
- Work-life balance (5% of the total score – this is the balance between career, ambition, health, family and leisure activities)
Employability is surely, a very important factor when selecting a career or a job. I won’t argue with that. And so is salary. No argument there.
What I can’t understand is how stress and work-life balance only contribute to 10% of the worthiness of the job (according to US News). We spend at least 54% of our workweek on the job! And we’ll be at it for over 30 years! Just have a look at where our time goes:
What about happiness on the job? Will you enjoy what you’re doing (most of the time)? Will you be fulfilled? Will you go home proud that you contributed to something, helped someone? Shouldn’t this also be a factor of job selection?
What do you think? What criteria would you use to select the “best” job?
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