Just in Time for Graduation, Finance Site Lists Ranks the Best Starting Professions

click to enlarge Look at all these poor saps getting ready to work their asses off to pay down their college debt. - Wikipedia Commons
Wikipedia Commons
Look at all these poor saps getting ready to work their asses off to pay down their college debt.
Graduation's weeks away — time to get a real job and start paying down all that money you borrowed to fund your university studies and binge drinking.

Naturally, it would be great to hurl your cap into the air knowing which starting jobs give you the biggest head start on tackling that debt (with enough left over to continue the binge drinking).

Enter personal finance website WalletHub, which has compiled a list showing how 109 entry-level positions stack up based on factors like demand, starting pay, chances for advancement and how likely you are to get killed doing them. (We're not shitting about that last one. "Fatal occupational injuries per 100,000 employees" is actually one the 13 factors WalletHub considered.)

The good news here is if you took Mom's advice and majored in engineering or some kinda computer shit instead of American studies or comparative religions, you're gold, baby! Here are the five top-ranked professions:

1. Systems engineer
2. Engineer
3. Electrical engineer
4. Hardware engineer
5. Web applications developer

If you went the trade school route, things might a little grittier, mainly on the advancement and non-getting-killed-on-the-job front. Most of the bottom five jobs offer decent starting salary but not as much room for advancement. Plus,  they include the prospect of working with equipment that can take off a finger or even a foot.

105. Tool-and-die maker
106. Carpenter
107. Boilermaker
108. Floor assembler
109. Welder

If your major doesn't line up with any of the top professions on the list, just remember, there's always grad school. (And more debt.)

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Sanford Nowlin

Sanford Nowlin is editor-in-chief of the San Antonio Current.

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