The 10 Most Overpaid Jobs
To identify the most overpaid workers, U.S. News analyzed data
provided by compensation experts at PayScale to highlight occupations
characterized by relatively high pay for relatively easy work. This is
admittedly an inexact science with subjective criteria. "Overpaid" means
different things to different people, and many workers represented on
our list have perfectly legitimate jobs requiring skill, talent and
training.
What we tried to suss out are occupations that have been largely
exempt from the do-more-with-less ethos so many workers are familiar
with, and might even be considered enviable jobs. To help generate our
list, PayScale sorted data on thousands of occupations to isolate those
in which median pay is well above the norm. The final list includes jobs
held by people who report relatively low levels of stress (a proxy for
how demanding the work is) and who feel their job doesn't necessarily
make the world a better place. (See a methodology note at the bottom of
the story.) By those standards, here's our list of the 10 most overpaid
jobs:
1) Consulting software engineer (median mid-career
salary: $123,000). These high-end programmers design and maintain
sophisticated computer networks for big companies and other large
organizations. But the work can be dry and many such engineers question
the value of what they do. Other types of programmers and software
engineers rank high on the overpaid list as well.
2) Brand strategist ($90,700). These advertising or
marketing specialists work to improve the image and reputation of
companies and their offerings--whether deserved or not. Brand
strategists rate the importance of their own work poorly compared with
other professionals.
3) Interaction designer ($116,000). Many websites
rely on these technical experts to make the user's experience engaging
and fun--though often to lure users into a purchase or transaction
rather than provide personal benefits to them. Other types of website
architects and managers also made the overpaid list.
4) Marketing research director ($122,000). They're
highly paid, but market-research pros these days increasingly slice and
dice reams of data instead of interacting with focus groups or real
people. Job stress is particularly low compared with other occupations,
suggesting cushy work conditions, often in front of a computer.
5) Accounting consultant ($81,700). These specialized
auditors have lots of expertise, but even they seem to think they're
overpaid: Nearly three-quarters say their job has no positive impact on
the world or makes it a worse place.
6) Portfolio analyst ($81,800). It's certainly not a
job a monkey could do, but the value of portfolio analysts who
continually recalibrate pools of investments to optimize their value has
been questioned for a long time--even by analysts themselves. Some
overestimate their expertise or fail to acknowledge their limited
ability to predict what might go wrong.
7) Wholesaler, financial services ($109,000). Is one
insurance policy or mutual fund really that much better than another?
The sales pros who pitch financial products to businesses (which might
offer them to their own employees or customers, in turn) strive to make
their offerings seem best, but skepticism is an occupational hazard in
this job.
8) Patent attorney ($170,000). We tend to think of
patents as the breakthrough insights of revolutionary inventors, but
they're increasingly a form of warfare among corporations seeking to
prevent each other from gaining a technology edge. The lawyers who fight
those battles are among the highest-paid professionals PayScale
surveys.
9) Investment consultant ($111,000). Financial
advisers can help develop a long-term investing strategy, but they
sometimes hawk products on behalf of favored financial firms or advocate
active trading--which racks up fees--rather than more proven
buy-and-hold strategies. Consumers have become widely skeptical of
financial professionals.
10) Data scientist, IT ($133,000.) Big data is the
next big thing, and these quantitative experts--typically with
doctorates in math or similar fields--earn big bucks for developing the
models and algorithms that will help corporations gain a marketing or
competitive edge. What's in it for the ordinary people whose data is
being scrutinized is less clear.
Kepada adik aku yang tengah berusaha untuk menjadi programmer tue, berusahalah bersungguh-sungguh. Kerana nak seribu daya, taknak seribu dalih. Untuk semangat nih !!!
