The Most Glamorous Jobs

Some people have the job that we all envy. Their job is perceived as exciting or alluring, maybe even sexy. Their job is glamorous. Glamorous jobs come with a sort of personal fascination, one that has young children aspiring to fly high as an airline pilot, or make a career out of creating the perfect wedding as an event planner. Television and movies glamorize certain jobs, from Donald Trump’s gig as a commercial real estate developer, to Debra Messing’s role as an interior designer on “Will and Grace.” Other jobs seem glamorous because they come with the opportunity to be seen by millions, such as a reporter, or to make millions, such as an investment banker.
We posed the following question to more than 800 people: What jobs do you think are the most and least glamorous? Salary.com then calculated the median base pay of each job to find out what people cherish more in a job, the glamour, or the money. Fashion designer ended up ranking as the #1 most glamorous job, with percent of the vote.

However, the fact that one job is more glamorous than another doesn’t necessarily mean it pays more. The high demand for certain glamorous jobs may even mean that the company will pay less, due to a large pool of applicants. This creates a ‘glamour discount’ in the marketplace, the potential that you will be paid a little less in return for the opportunity to call yourself something glitzy like a fashion designer.
The jobs in the Salary.com glamour survey were given a glamour ranking based on the percentage of votes they received. Then their salaries were stacked up in the following chart. Click on the glamorous job title or salary to see exactly what these high profile workers are earning, on a national average.

On the other side of the spectrum, there are those jobs that are regarded as not so glamorous. The majority of American workers avoid the limelight everyday in their offices, cubicles, and other workspaces. They perform unglamorous tasks such as analyzing data, parking cars, or caring for people’s feet. Salary.com also took a look at the group of jobs that were ranked as low on the glamour scale. Unglamorous jobs were given an un-glamour ranking (#1 being the least glamorous). Their salaries were then compared. As it turns out, some of these unglamorous jobs pay high.
Click on the unglamorous job title or salary to see exactly what these low profile workers are earning, on a national average.

So if you’re in the market for a new job this year, think twice when you do it for the glamour. Do it for the money! Aspiring to be an actuary or a tax attorney may not make you famous, but you will earn a nice paycheck. And for those of us who have not yet found the glamour or money in our careers, we can still dream of landing a glitzy gig like reporter Carrie Bradshaw or architect Mike Brady
Which jobs do you think are most/least glamorous? Email us your vote poll@salary.com!
Salary.com Survey Methodology
All high and low glamour job salaries are as of Jan 1, 2006 and are based on a 40-hour workweek (2080 hours per year). Salary.com chose a sampling of jobs and asked over 800 Salary.com users in an online survey to pick which job they thought was the most glamorous, and then the least glamorous. Jobs were then assigned a glamour ranking and scoped by national average median base salary.
Article by Dan Malachowski, Salary.com and courtesy of Salary.com&reg