Rarely have younger workers faced a better time to look for a first real job or career-starting internship. A tight labor market has left companies hungry for new workers. It's an ideal situation where people entering the job market hold a lot more leverage than they normally do.
Of course, not all fields pay equally, nor do they have equal demand. Technology roles top Glassdoor's highest paying entry-level jobs list, and tech companies dominate when it comes to the businesses offering the highest-paying internships.
"For those deciding on the direction they want their careers to take, the highest-paying entry-level jobs list, in particular, gives insight into which roles offer high salaries from the very start," wrote Glassdoor economic research analyst Amanda Stansell. "This list can serve as a menu of aspirational jobs to potentially work toward, especially as the majority of these entry-level jobs are in the STEM field and require strong technical skills."
It's important to have the right skills to land a top entry-level job or internship. Image source: Getty Images.
The highest-paying entry-level jobs and internships
To make the entry-level job list, Glassdoor used data from U.S.-based workers ages 25 and under. That means that some of the data in the survey may not be from someone's actual first job, but it does reflect workers with minimal experience.
25 highest-paying entry-level jobs in the U.S. for 2019
|
Rank |
Job Title |
Median Base Salary |
|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Data Scientist |
$95,000 |
|
2 |
Software Engineer |
$90,000 |
|
3 |
Product Manager |
$89,000 |
|
4 |
Investment Banking Analyst |
$85,000 |
|
5 |
Product Designer |
$85,000 |
|
6 |
UX Designer |
$73,000 |
|
7 |
Implementation Consultant |
$72,000 |
|
8 |
Java Developer |
$72,000 |
|
9 |
Systems Engineer |
$70,000 |
|
10 |
Software Developer |
$68,600 |
|
11 |
Process Engineer |
$68,258 |
|
12 |
Front End Developer |
$67,500 |
|
13 |
Product Engineer |
$66,750 |
|
14 |
Actuarial Analyst |
$66,250 |
|
15 |
Electrical Engineer |
$66,000 |
|
16 |
Mechanical Engineer |
$65,000 |
|
17 |
Design Engineer |
$65,000 |
|
18 |
Applications Developer |
$65,000 |
|
19 |
Test Engineer |
$65,000 |
|
20 |
Programmer Analyst |
$65,000 |
|
21 |
Quality Engineer |
$64,750 |
|
22 |
Physical Therapist |
$63,918 |
|
23 |
Field Engineer |
$63,750 |
|
24 |
Project Engineer |
$63,000 |
|
25 |
Business Analyst |
$63,000 |
Data source: Glassdoor
The top 25 highest-paying internships list shows that being an intern -- at least in the technology space -- no longer means getting paid very little (or no) money to fetch coffee. At some businesses, it's a much higher-level program that funnels future workers into some of the country's top companies.
25 highest-paying internships in the U.S. for 2019
|
Rank |
Employer |
Median Monthly Pay |
|---|---|---|
|
1 |
|
$8,000 |
|
2 |
Amazon |
$7,725 |
|
3 |
Salesforce |
$7,667 |
|
4 |
|
$7,500 |
|
5 |
Microsoft |
$7,250 |
|
6 |
Uber |
$7,167 |
|
7 |
Bloomberg LP |
$7,000 |
|
8 |
Capital One |
$7,000 |
|
9 |
Apple |
$6,667 |
|
10 |
Bank of America |
$5,833 |
|
11 |
J.P. Morgan |
$5,667 |
|
12 |
Goldman Sachs |
$5,367 |
|
13 |
Viasat |
$5,333 |
|
14 |
Visa Inc. |
$5,167 |
|
15 |
Intel Corp. |
$5,000 |
|
16 |
SAP |
$4,833 |
|
17 |
EY |
$4,825 |
|
18 |
Tesla |
$4,667 |
|
19 |
Deloitte |
$4,667 |
|
20 |
Cisco Systems |
$4,667 |
|
21 |
PwC |
$4,500 |
|
22 |
KPMG |
$4,500 |
|
23 |
Genentech |
$4,500 |
|
24 |
Dell |
$4,333 |
|
25 |
Boeing |
$4,167 |
Data source: Glassdoor
How can you land one of these jobs?
In order to be hired at one of these companies, you need to have the skills they're looking for. In most cases, that means college degrees in related fields. In some cases, tech companies will be willing to take on skilled workers who learned things like programming and coding in boot camps and alternative education programs.
These are high-demand jobs and internships that generally require being not only highly skilled but personable and able to make it through the interview process. These entry-level jobs and internships are the keys to a highly profitable career. Landing one can put you on the path to long-term success, so it's important to figure out what these companies are looking for and to go and get those skills.
