Erin Said:

What are some careers that have good salary and openings?

We Answered:

First, you should realize that with regards to a traditional job, there is no shortcut in education. Typically you will earn more with more education in any traditional job environment.

Statistically you will more than double your lifetime income between associate and bachelor degree jobs. You may also want to consider your future, as many jobs offer no advancement...may sound ok now, but you will feel differently after a couple of years on the job.

One good option is too pick a field were you can progress educationally and financially over the course of your career, allowing you to start with an associates degree now, then work up from there, best example of that which comes immediately to mind is nursing, you can start with an associates degree and become an LPN and in most states you can still quickly later bridge to an RN and then to BSN.

You will find that science fields pay much more comparably at the level you are talking about. The exception MAY be some specialized paralegal and executive assistant job tracks if such programs are offered at local schools-they aren't always. You will need to be willing to excel to get the higher paying jobs though. Some schools also do offer an associates in business that is transferable to a bachelors program...this is another way to fast track yourself into a job and then get more education later so you can progress in your career...you can even go part time while working and sometimes employers will even pay at bigger companies.

If you don't want to listen to any advice or only plan to work a few years and then be a home maker, then you may want to consider dental hygiene, as it is probably one of the highest paying professions, by far, you will get out of a 2 year education, paying almost double what most Associate degree earners make on average in the US market, but there really is no advancement and they tend to burn out fast due to repetitive nature of job. Their average wage at $25-40 hr depending on experience and market even exceeds that of the average wage of bachelor in business job holder.