Know Your Worth / Career paths
Compare skills, employee pay, and freelance economics. Explore industries from optical and food to science, music, games, writing, and coaching.
49–96 of 1,000 careers
Employee references are annual US median wages for the cited BLS occupation, which may cover several career paths. Freelance examples add $15,000 for benefits and $20,000 for business costs, then divide by 1,200 billable hours a year. Annual figures are rounded to the nearest $1,000 and hourly figures to the nearest dollar. Figures are before personal taxes, with no percentage fees. Open a guide to see the source or adjust the assumptions in the calculator.
BLS · May 2025 · Writers and authors
Locate and document historical images, recordings, or documents while tracking provenance, usage questions, and their relevance to a production's narrative.
View career → Archival media researcherBLS · May 2025 · Marketing managers
Coordinate an artist's promotional material and channel calendar around a specific release, audience, and available production capacity.
View career → Artist campaign coordinatorBLS · May 2025 · Instructional Coordinators
Create questions and performance tasks that gather useful evidence about learning while making scoring rules, intended difficulty, and interpretation limits explicit.
View career → Assessment writerBLS · May 2025 · Coaches and Scouts
Supports nonclinical performance habits such as focus, goal reflection, and competition preparation, with clear referral boundaries for mental health assessment or treatment.
View career → Athlete mental skills coachBLS · May 2025 · Operations Research Analysts
Organizes training and competition information so coaching teams can evaluate patterns, uncertainty, and workload questions without mistaking noisy measurements for reliable performance conclusions.
View career → Athlete performance data analystBLS · May 2025 · Physicists
Study physical processes in the atmosphere using observations and models. Explain spatial coverage, measurement uncertainty, and competing mechanisms while avoiding stronger predictions than the evidence supports.
View career → Atmospheric PhysicistBLS · May 2025 · Sound engineering technicians
Organize and edit long narration so pacing, pronunciation corrections, chapter boundaries, and audio consistency support sustained listening.
View career → Audiobook editorBLS · May 2025 · Sound engineering technicians
Develop repeatable sound elements that help a brand communicate consistently across intros, notifications, and other touchpoints.
View career → Audio branding producerBLS · May 2025 · Sound engineering technicians
Coordinate descriptive narration that explains essential visual information without obscuring dialogue or important production sounds.
View career → Audio description producerBLS · May 2025 · Sound engineering technicians
An audio engineer records, edits, and mixes sound so a production is clear and suitable for its setting. Technical preparation and attentive listening help voices, music, and effects work together reliably.
View career → Audio engineerBLS · May 2025 · Sound engineering technicians
Improve damaged recordings while preserving natural sound and explaining limits imposed by noise or missing information.
View career → Audio restoration specialistBLS · May 2025 · Sound engineering technicians
Translate a venue or production brief into documented audio routing, equipment requirements, and practical operating procedures.
View career → Audio systems designerBLS · May 2025 · Software Developers
Build the services and rules behind an application. Backend work protects data integrity, enforces permissions, and makes business operations dependable when requests arrive together or connected services fail.
View career → Backend DeveloperBLS · May 2025 · Database Architects
Builds controlled financial-data pipelines with traceable transformations, access boundaries, and reconciliation checks so downstream teams can understand where their records originate.
View career → Banking data engineerBLS · May 2025 · Coaches and Scouts
Helps players improve basketball skills and team decision making through purposeful drills, game analysis, and feedback suited to their development stage.
View career → Basketball coachBLS · May 2025 · Industrial Engineers
Connect battery product requirements with inspection, traceability, and quality evidence in approved settings. Review deviations and process records without assuming a limited data review establishes complete product safety.
View career → Battery Quality EngineerBLS · May 2025 · Materials Scientists
Investigate battery materials and performance evidence in approved research settings. Examine measurement conditions, degradation patterns, and uncertainty before connecting a laboratory result to practical storage or product claims.
View career → Battery Research ScientistBLS · May 2025 · Health Education Specialists
Supports clients in choosing, testing, and reviewing small behavior changes, using evidence from their experience rather than imposing universal routines or outcome guarantees.
View career → Behavior change coachBLS · May 2025 · Camera operators, television, video, and film
Capture the process behind a project without disrupting production or revealing material outside the agreed documentation and publication boundaries.
View career → Behind-the-scenes producerBLS · May 2025 · Food Scientists and Technologists
Develop beverage concepts by studying ingredient interactions, flavor balance, stability, and process suitability. Document the testing required before a formulation can support production or marketing claims.
View career → Beverage Formulation ScientistBLS · May 2025 · Management analysts
Coordinate beverage production capacity, packaging availability, and order requirements. Make schedule tradeoffs visible while accounting for changeovers, product constraints, and the quality approvals needed before shipments can proceed.
View career → Beverage Production PlannerBLS · May 2025 · Writers and authors
Review proposal responses for requirement coverage, evidence consistency, and evaluability while separating editorial improvements from commercial or delivery commitments.
View career → Bid response editorBLS · May 2025 · Operations Research Analysts
Organizes species and habitat information to support conservation questions, accounting for sampling effort, identification uncertainty, and limits on comparisons across places or periods.
View career → Biodiversity data analystBLS · May 2025 · Writers and authors
Organize a person's history into an accurate, readable narrative that distinguishes remembered experience, documented fact, and interpretation.
View career → Biography writerBLS · May 2025 · Biological Scientists, All Other
Develop computational analyses for biological questions using documented datasets and methods. Preserve provenance, validation evidence, and uncertainty so results can be interpreted by collaborators with different scientific backgrounds.
View career → Bioinformatics ScientistBLS · May 2025 · Biochemists and Biophysicists
Evaluate analytical evidence used to characterize biological products in approved laboratories. Connect method suitability and sample context with clear reporting while respecting regulated quality and release responsibilities.
View career → Biologics Analytical ScientistBLS · May 2025 · Medical Scientists, Except Epidemiologists
Review scientific evidence supporting quality decisions in biological manufacturing. Link deviations, method records, and process observations while keeping approval authority and documentation expectations explicit across collaborating teams.
View career → Biomanufacturing Quality ScientistBLS · May 2025 · Chemical Engineers
Develop and evaluate processes used to manufacture biological products in approved settings. Connect process measurements, scale assumptions, and quality evidence while coordinating engineering, regulatory, and operational responsibilities.
View career → Bioprocess Development EngineerBLS · May 2025 · Biological Technicians
Maintain the documentation that connects research samples with authorized uses and study records. Track identifiers, consent metadata, and exceptions while avoiding assumptions that administrative completeness validates specimen quality.
View career → Biospecimen Data CoordinatorBLS · May 2025 · Medical Scientists, Except Epidemiologists
Design studies that assess whether a biological measurement method suits a research purpose. Examine controls, sensitivity, repeatability, and interpretation limits before a method supports product or clinical decisions.
View career → Biotechnology Assay Development ScientistBLS · May 2025 · Project management specialists
Coordinate approved clinical development activities across research, operational, and external teams. Keep dependencies and decisions visible while respecting protocol ownership, participant protections, and the uncertainty of development outcomes.
View career → Biotechnology Clinical Project ManagerBLS · May 2025 · Management analysts
Support biotechnology strategy through structured review of public technical and patent information. Compare documented concepts and evidence while distinguishing research analysis from legal opinions about patentability, validity, or freedom to operate.
View career → Biotechnology Intellectual Property Research AnalystBLS · May 2025 · Management analysts
Support evaluation of biotechnology licensing opportunities through public evidence and authorized documents. Compare scientific maturity, development needs, and commercial assumptions while reserving legal and investment judgments for qualified decision-makers.
View career → Biotechnology Licensing AnalystBLS · May 2025 · Medical Scientists, Except Epidemiologists
Organize regulatory evidence and submission requirements for biotechnology development in a defined jurisdiction. Coordinate technical documents and review questions while reserving binding interpretations and approvals for qualified specialists.
View career → Biotechnology Regulatory Affairs AnalystBLS · May 2025 · Technical writers
Explain biotechnology methods, systems, or findings for specific technical audiences. Preserve source traceability, approved terminology, and scientific limits while coordinating reviewers responsible for safety, quality, and regulated claims.
View career → Biotechnology Technical WriterBLS · May 2025 · Industrial Engineers
Develop verification and validation evidence for biotechnology equipment or information workflows. Trace intended use to test cases, deviations, and review records so approval decisions have a documented basis.
View career → Biotechnology Validation EngineerBLS · May 2025 · Software Developers
Builds and tests blockchain software components, focusing on protocol behavior, authorization, observability, and failure cases rather than promising token value or investment returns.
View career → Blockchain protocol developerBLS · May 2025 · Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants
Organize board calendars, meeting materials, decision records, and follow-up tracking while leaving governance judgments and legal interpretation with the authorized board and advisers.
View career → Board governance coordinatorBLS · May 2025 · Training and development specialists
Helps boards structure discussion, clarify decision processes, and review governance practices within agreed facilitation boundaries, referring legal interpretations to appropriately qualified advisers.
View career → Board governance facilitatorBLS · May 2025 · Graphic designers
Translate a book's genre, audience, and premise into a cover system that remains legible across print and small digital displays.
View career → Book cover designerBLS · May 2025 · Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks
A bookkeeper keeps a business's transaction records organized and reconciled. Reliable records help owners understand cash movement, prepare for accountant review, and find missing or incorrectly classified items before they accumulate.
View career → BookkeeperBLS · May 2025 · Coaches and Scouts
Teaches boxing movement, conditioning, and discipline through appropriately supervised practice, matching instruction and contact expectations to participants' training and safeguards.
View career → Boxing coachBLS · May 2025 · Graphic designers
A brand designer translates positioning into a recognizable visual identity. The work creates consistent choices for logos, typography, color, and applications so an organization presents a coherent message.
View career → Brand designerBLS · May 2025 · Camera operators, television, video, and film
Develop audience-oriented stories that integrate an agreed brand purpose without obscuring the editorial premise or production responsibilities.
View career → Branded entertainment producerBLS · May 2025 · Writers and authors
Turn a brand's intended character into practical language guidance and examples that writers can apply consistently across different customer situations.
View career → Brand voice writerBLS · May 2025 · Food Scientists and Technologists
Evaluate beverage production consistency through analytical and sensory evidence. Track batch variation, instrument checks, and investigation records while respecting approved laboratory methods and product safety responsibilities.
View career → Brewery Quality ScientistBLS · May 2025 · Sound engineering technicians
Balance voices, recorded elements, and live feeds while maintaining clear transitions and stable broadcast sound.
View career → Broadcast audio mixerBLS · May 2025 · Camera operators, television, video, and film
Coordinate a factual or entertainment program's segments, contributors, cues, and production resources so the planned running order can adapt to changes.
View career → Broadcast program producer