The new year is always a good time to evaluate your career prospects — which might include looking for a new job. But the standard nine-to-five, Monday-through-Friday desk job isn't for everyone, so what's to be done? That's where FlexJobs' ranking of the top 25 flexible jobs with a high potential for growth comes in. These jobs are not only adaptable based on your unique situation — need to work remotely? Require a slightly atypical schedule? — but are also centered around growing industries with a lot of opportunity to move upward. Or outward, if that's how you'd prefer. That's the beauty of a flexible gig, right?
To create the ranking, FlexJobs compared data from two of their previous pieces of analysis, "The 21 Best Jobs Of The Future" and "10 Jobs With The Most Potential in 2015 and 2016," with their internal database of flexible jobs. "These jobs were chosen as 'high-potential' for several reasons, including their growth projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and their current and expected median annual salaries," FlexJobs wrote in their report.
They concluded that overall, jobs in the fields of finance, medical and health, IT, and software development had both the most flexibility and the highest potential for growth. Let's take a look at the top 10 below; to see the complete ranking of all 25 top flexible jobs, head on over to FlexJobs.
10. Lawyer
Apparently lawyers have a lot of job flexibility. FlexJobs found that there were a lot of "growing opportunities" for lawyers in almost every field in the United States; furthermore, many of them experienced a range of flexibility options, including telecommuting and part-time schedules.
9. Home Health Aids
Since the elderly population is growing at such a fast rate, the demand of home health aids and other caregivers is on the rise. As many of these workers are hired on a temporary or part-time basis, this position combines flexibility with growth potential.
8. Financial Manager
Financial managers come in many forms; it's aalso job that also has many freelance opportunities. However, you're going to need at least a BA in finance or accounting to hold this position, so it's not an easy field to transition into if you're not already working in the financial sector.
7. Environmental Engineer
If you're an environmentalist, this just may be the flexible job for you! According to FlexJobs, "Environmental engineers are responsible for developing new solutions to assist companies, organizations, and government entities in bettering their environmental footprints and cleaning up previous environmental issues." Sounds like a pretty good gig to me, especially considering the many opportunities to work remotely and freelance.
6. Elementary School Teacher
I suppose that between having summers off and a school day that ends earlier than most traditional jobs, there's a lot of room for flexibility in this position. Not that you're not still hard at work during non-school hours — someone's got to come up with a lesson plan, and those projects aren't going to grade themselves — but hey, at least you can accomplish it all (mostly) on your own schedule.
5. Computer Systems Analyst
If you're a techie, this might be the perfect flex job for you, as a computer systems analyst can often work freelance and has a median salary of over $81,000. Time for a career change, anyone?
4. Computer And Information Systems Manager
Similar to a computer systems analyst, those who work in this position help to coordinate computer systems, making it another flexible job option with high growth potential.
3. Auditor
We may all fear getting audited during tax season, but those who actually conduct audits have a pretty good set-up: They have options to work seasonally, part-time, freelance, and remotely.
2. Athletic Trainer
Your trainer might not be bringing in big bucks, as the median salary for this industry is only $39,000, but you can expect that they have a lot of flexibility and potential for growth in their practice — especially as everyone starts to hop on the fitness bandwagon.
1. Accountant
Drum roll, please... The job that came in first place on FlexJobs list of the top high-potential flexible jobs is... accountant! Accountants are always needed, since everyone has to file taxes and manage their finances, and they also have a lot of control over their schedules. You have full permission to be jealous of their work situation!
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