Best Jobs in America

1. Software Architect
Top 100 rank: 1
Sector: Information Technology
What they do: Like architects who design buildings, they create the blueprints for software engineers to follow — and pitch in with programming too. Plus, architects are often called on to work with customers and product managers, and they serve as a link between a company's tech and business staffs.
What's to like: The job is creatively challenging, and engineers with good people skills are liberated from their screens. Salaries are generally higher than for programmers, and a typical day has more variety. Even though programming jobs are moving overseas, the face-to-face aspect of this position helps cement local demand.
What's not to like: You are often outside the management chain of command, making it hard to get things done.
Requirements: Bachelor's degree, and either a master's or considerable work experience to demonstrate your ability to design software and work collaboratively.

2. Physician Assistant
op 100 rank: 2
Sector: Health Care
What they do: Act as Robin to a doctor's Batman, performing routine care such as physicals and tests, counseling patients, and even prescribing medication, all under a doctor's supervision. Today's doctor shortage will only worsen as boomers age and health care reform brings more patients into the system, creating a huge need for PAs.
What's to like: No med school, no grueling internship, more freedom to move from one specialty to another — yet all the satisfaction of delivering care. "No day is exactly the same, and I love that variety," says Wayne VonSeggen, 61, of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C.? "It's also very challenging intellectually to work with doctors to try to help solve problems."
What's not to like: High stress and considerably lower pay than what doctors make. In such a supportive role, you can't be an entrepreneur.
Requirements: Complete an accredited PA program (average length: 26 months). The typical applicant has a bachelor's degree and four years of health care experience.

3. Management Consultant
Top 100 rank: 3
Sector: Consulting
What they do: Advise companies on how to grow the business or battle a problem. Economic upheaval is forcing many firms to rethink strategies, creating a need for advisers on everything from pricing and operations to cost-cutting and sales growth. Information technology consulting is one of the fastest-growing areas, as is helping companies explore international markets.
What's to like: Teamwork, project variety, and the satisfaction that comes from solving tough problems. "I love the challenge of a company saying, 'We want to grow revenues by 20%. How can we do that?' " says Sukanya Soderland, 32, of Oliver Wyman in Boston. Michael Sherman, 37, of The Boston Consulting Group in Dallas likes that "you get training in a couple years that would take a decade in a corporate setting." Big consulting firms such as McKinsey & Co. may offer higher salaries, boutique firms tend to be more specialized.
What's not to like: Grueling travel schedules, late hours, and punishing deadlines.
Requirements: Just about anybody can claim the title (nearly a third are self-employed), but an MBA coupled with experience inside firms in your field gives you an edge. Nowadays many laid-off managers are finding that their industry knowledge and access to insiders translates well to consulting.

4. Physical Therapist
Top 100 rank: 4
Sector: Health Care
What they do: Assess and treat people with physical conditions that limit their movements or ability to perform daily activities. Help with pain management and surgical rehab. Longer life spans and a wave of aging boomers have already created a PT shortage.
What's to like: Few jobs are so rewarding: A stroke patient begins to walk and talk. A tennis player with a sprained wrist gets back on the court. "I love helping patients enjoy life again," says Alison Lichy, 34, who specializes in neurological conditions such as spinal cord injuries at her practice in Alexandria, Va. Entrepreneurial types like Lichy can set their own hours.
What's not to like: The job can be emotionally and physically draining. Practitioners fear that health care reform's emphasis on cost cutting may jeopardize insurance reimbursements.
Requirements: Three-year graduate degree and a state license.

5. Environmental Engineer
Top 100 rank: 5
Sector: Consulting
What they do: Use engineering skills to protect the environment and human health. Environmental engineers work on air-pollution control, water treatment, waste management, alternative energy, and conservation, in both the private sector and government agencies.
What's to like: Businesses are realizing that environmental stewardship not only burnishes the brand, but it can also boost the bottom line. "Even waste is a resource, and I enjoy the challenge of figuring out how to reuse it," says John Bradburn, 53, an environmental engineer in Warren, Mich., who heads up a General Motors program that repurposes scrap cardboard to make sound-absorption material for its cars.
What's not to like: Coming up with solutions is easier than getting them approved by corporate bureaucracies resistant to any change that may not pay dividends immediately.
Requirements: An undergraduate degree in any engineering specialty can be enough, and a state license is not always required. But you'll fare better with a graduate degree in environmental engineering.