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Curriculum and instructional coordinators
High-school special-education teachers
Hospital and clinic managers
Management consultants and analysts
Medical researchers
Physical therapists
Sales, marketing and advertising managers
Social workers, counselors and related managers
CareerJournal's
Best Careers

The Methodology:
How We Got Our List

What's Important to You?
Career Snapshots

Best Careers Profiles
• Health-Clinic Executive
• Social-Work Manager
• Management Consultant
• Special-Ed Teacher

Discuss: Which do you think is the best career?

How did we get this list? CareerJournal teamed with polling company Harris Interactive, to survey U.S. adults and find what qualities are most common in the jobs of highly satisfied career-focused people. The four attributes cited most were:

• Good intellectual stimulation
• Strong job security
• High level of control and freedom in what to do
• Extensive direct contact with customers/clients

These criteria in hand, we then looked to identify careers that best met them. We scoured occupational data and employment projections from the Department of Labor and interviewed experts. Our eight "Best Careers" fit the bill in each category.

These won't be the best careers for everyone. But relative to others, they are more likely to have the things that highly satisfied career-minded people say describe their jobs.

Read interviews with people who have jobs in the fields of special education, management consulting, social work and health-care clinic management, and come back to CareerJournal in the weeks ahead for profiles of people who have jobs in curriculum development, physical therapy, medical research, and sales, marketing and advertising.

What's the best career for you? To answer this question, first think about how you would describe your dream career. Then review this list of 14 career qualities and see a sampling of careers most likely to deliver on what's most important to you.

To learn more about CareerJournal's Best Careers list, read our methodology.

What do you think is the best career? Join other CareerJournal readers in a discussion.

Email your comments to cjeditor@dowjones.com.

-- July 11, 2006

best careers article