Gaining proficiency in these seven areas may open doors to better paying jobs.
You have probably already amassed an outstanding collection of talents from your schooling and work experience, and every profession calls for a mix of technical and workplace abilities.
In 2022, McKinsey & Company published a research that defined high-income skills as knowledge and abilities that employers place a high value on and that might facilitate career and industry transitions [1]. Even though they aren’t common, these abilities are typically essential for a company’s success.
If you’re looking to move up the corporate ladder or change careers, showcasing your high-income abilities may help you get there. You may be able to use these abilities to get the job you want, which might increase your compensation.
Top 7 Skills for a High-Income Career
Here are seven high-paying abilities that will make your CV stand out to hiring managers. The World Economic Forum [2], Pearson [3], Future Learn [4], LinkedIn [5], Glassdoor [6], and Coursera [7] all released projections predicting the most in-demand talents through 2030, which we used to compile this list.
Many different types of jobs may benefit from the abilities described here. Take stock of your professional aspirations, relevant work history, and ideal position descriptions as you peruse this list. Pay attention to which abilities seem to fit the bill and see if any of them may help you get there.
1. Analyzing data
The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report [2] predicts that analytical thinking and creativity will be the top skills in demand. More and more, companies in all sorts of sectors are relying on data to influence their choices, which means they need workers who can gather, analyze, and communicate data effectively.
Excel, Google Sheets, SQL, Tableau, R, and Python are just a few of the technologies that data analysts may employ.
Here are a few data-driven occupations and their average base salaries in the US as of December 2022, courtesy of Glassdoor:
Title of the position. Standard salary
Business analyst—$76,147
Analyst of data—$67,179
Pay rate for data engineer: $94,327.
Information scientist—$102,994
2. Creating software
People with expertise in creating, sustaining, and enhancing technical systems are in high demand as more and more sectors rely on technology to boost their operational capabilities. Developers, operations, and software engineers create, oversee, and manage a company’s technological infrastructure.
Experts in software engineering and development operations may be fluent in languages such as Python, Java, or C++ and be familiar with technologies such as Jenkins, Kubernetes, Git, or Docker.
Using data from Glassdoor as of December 2022, we can see the following software development-related occupations and their average base salaries in the US:
Title of the position Standard salary
Pay rate for an applications engineer is $81,008.
Developer of systems—$90,943
Tech support specialist: $90,390 Software engineer: $104.148
3. The quality of the user’s experience
User experience (UX), which concerns the manner in which a customer engages with a product, goes hand in hand with technical advancement. The goal of user experience design is to provide products in the most appealing manner possible to end users. A product’s marketing, design, or research might fall within their purview.
Although user experience (UX) tasks do incorporate data, they are more rooted in design, often allow for more creativity, and need a high degree of social perceptiveness, all of which appear in reports of multiple talents [2, 3, 4].
Based on data provided by Glassdoor in December 2022, the following jobs in the US that need user experience skills are listed along with the average base salary:
Title of the position. Usability expert salary:
| UX writer | $98,553 |
| UX researcher | $100,490 |
| User interface (UI) designer | $102,987 |
| UX designer | $105,118 |
| Product designer |
Web development, fourthly
Web development is a synthesis of software engineering and user experience, bringing together the theoretical underpinnings of both fields. In order to create and code websites that cater to businesses’ demands, web developers will also have a good grasp of technical SEO.
Using data from Glassdoor as of December 2022, we can see the average base salary in the US for the following occupations that call on web development expertise:
Title of the position. Salary average
| Front-end developer | $104,394 |
| Full-stack developer | $110,497 |
| Webmaster | $110,686 |
| Back-end developer | $119,292 |
Fifthly, managing projects
Different departments, teams, or even individuals within a company may be assigned to work on a same product or project under many organizational structures. An expert in project management will be able to coordinate activities across all of these points of contact. These team members may have to keep everyone informed, keep track of money, and keep everyone on schedule. Stakeholders are those who have a vested interest in the project’s results.
Leadership, communication, planning, resilience, and organizational abilities are often listed as desirable by employers [2, 3, 4, 6]. “Project management” may be seen as an umbrella phrase for all of these.
Project management is an essential skill for many occupations, but it takes on added significance as you rise through the managerial ranks. Alternatively, you may become a project manager. As of December 2022, the following occupations fall under the umbrella of “project manager,” and the average base salary in the US was listed by Glassdoor:
Title of the position. Salary average
Coordinator of projects—$89,374.
Assistant program manager—$89,989
Pay for a project manager is $93,043.
Asset manager—$119,373
6. Management of accounts
While most project managers look inward, account managers use the same set of abilities to collaborate with clients and other outside parties. Possessing strong account management abilities can help you sell your business and its goods with conviction, which is a talent that is highly sought after in sales roles.
Possessing strong interpersonal skills for fruitful negotiation and relationship maintenance is an integral part of account management, as are the organizational abilities necessary to complete a commercial agreement. A customer relationship management (CRM) system, such as Salesforce, is often used by them.
Based on data collected by Glassdoor in December 2022, the following jobs in the US need sales and account management expertise, along with the typical base salary:
Title of the position. Salary average
Pay rate for account manager: $83,999
Associate in business development—$88,601.
Manager of business development—$98,861
One hundred thirty-one dollars for sales representative
7. Managing and creating content
Storytelling is an essential ability for many marketing jobs, and this includes both content development and management. Emotional intelligence, social awareness, creativity, and uniqueness are all components of this skill set. Adding data analysis to your toolset, particularly marketing analytics, may help you take these abilities to the next level and gauge how effectively your audience is engaging with your material.
The following jobs, as reported by Glassdoor in December 2022, pay an average starting salary in the US and need knowledge of both content generation and management:
Title of the position. Salary average
Salary for a social media manager: $96,325
Manager of digital marketing: $96,206
Paid position: content marketing manager
The salary for the position of brand marketing manager is $109,952.
