Think Outside the Cubicle: Top Careers for Individualists
Tuesday, July 15, 2008

2008 marks the forty-year anniversary of the cubicle. Not everyone is celebrating--least of all the free spirits chained to a desk job. Beyond the office lies adventure, creative control, and the chance to be your own boss. Nearly every sector of the economy has a place for mavericks and nonconformists. Why not think outside the box?

Escape the office, and you might find yourself in a better job with better pay. These top careers for individualists offer bright career prospects along with professional autonomy and quality of life. Two of them--environmental scientist and special education teacher--rank among the Bureau of Labor Statistics' fastest-growing occupations.

Business: Entrepreneur

The ultimate career for the maverick: entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs develop a business vision and do what it takes to execute it. Whether it's opening a bakery or establishing a software startup, entrepreneurs take on great risk for the promise of even greater rewards. The pluses are likely to appeal to individualists: you call the shots and set your own schedule. Your work furthers your dream, not someone else's. On the flip side, entrepreneurs initially put in an average 70-hour work week, and success is not guaranteed; three-fifths of new businesses fail within a year and a half.

If you're a hard-working individualist, however, you could be among the two out of five who strike gold. Successful entrepreneurs have more than luck and ambition on their side. They also know business through and through. Many a business plan has been born in business school, where aspiring entrepreneurs go to earn an MBA degree, learn the ropes, and network, network, network.

Salary: $0 to $140 million (Cendant founder Henry Silverman's 2006 earnings counting stock gains)

Degree: MBA in Entrepreneurship

Hospitality: Cruise Director

No need to wait for your fourteen days of freedom from the office. In hospitality, vacation is your job. Cruise directors enjoy freedom and variety on the high seas, arranging adventure and on-board entertainment for cruise passengers. In addition to planning and coordinating daily activities, cruise directors manage cruise staff, including recreation leaders, tour guides, stage acts, youth activity leaders, water sports instructors, and more. There may be a dress code, but it probably involves shorts.

Cruise directors may be born with the number one qualification for the job--a sunny, extroverted personality--but they must acquire management skills to do their jobs well. Hospitality management degrees focus on business and personnel management, customer service, and more.

Salary: $45,600 to $90,000, depending on the cruise line

Degree: BS in Hospitality Management

Science: Environmental Scientist

If zip-off pants and hiking boots are your idea of office attire, you might want to consider a career as an environmental scientist. Your mission will be to save your work environment--in this case, the great outdoors. Environmental scientists conduct field research to identify, prevent, and abate environmental hazards. They may monitor water quality, predict environmental impact of new construction, or develop plans for soil or groundwater remediation. Field scientists enjoy a good degree of freedom: in addition to spending the workday outdoors, they often devise their own studies and make independent recommendations based on their research.

But before you pack up the Subaru, you'll need a college education in the life sciences. bachelor's degree in environmental science is the norm, but degrees in geochemistry, ecology, hydrology, soil science, or biology are also common. The four years will pay off when you're in the field saving precious natural resources and getting paid handsomely for it.

Salary: $56,100

Degree: BS in Environmental Science

Education: Special Education Teacher

A survey of 500 disgruntled office workers found that 41 percent wanted to trade the cubicle for the classroom. Respondents cited creativity, independence, and a sense of purpose among their reasons for choosing a teaching career. Principals may oversee teaching staff and set educational goals, but in the classroom, the teacher rules. Special education teachers enjoy the most latitude in developing classroom activities, since they tailor the instruction to students' special needs. They create an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) for each student, detailing personal goals and specific steps to reach them.

Special education teacher training starts in the college classroom; the job requires both a bachelor's degree and completion of a teacher training program. The special education training program involves an extra year of coursework, and culminates in a master's degree in special education.

Salary: $48,330

Degree: BS or M.Ed. in Special Education

Today's economy abounds with opportunities for the mavericks, change-makers, and square pegs of the workforce. The right degree can open doors to a creative career where you call the shots. There's no need to play the supporting role in someone else's enterprise; as one career advisor puts it, "It's time to become the hero of your own life story."

Posted byDoc Junhel at 3:41 PM  

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