If you’re caught in an agonizing search for the perfect career path, our list of the 20 most respected professions in the world in 2020 is likely to ease your suffering a little.
Public perception is a metric some people consider when choosing a job. Certain professions come with laurels and others (professional assassin being one example) don’t. To some degree, less ethical professions are less respected (again, professional assassin being a valuable example). Then again, certain criminals like Al Capone are immortalized in popular culture and sometimes even revered. Fictional characters who may be criminals but have certain “redeeming traits” such as unparalleled intelligence are also considered exceptional, even as their criminality is acknowledged. But I’m going off track here!
The above is just one reason why I personally don’t resonate with the concept of going into a well-respected professional field. Respect not only varies by demographic and class, but also by one’s notion of what respect really is.
Does respect equal to cultural ideas of what professions are “better” than others? For those of you looking for the most respected professions in India, becoming a doctor is considered a worthy career direction. It’s a “safe” profession that saves lives. But this idea (prevalent in the world and not just in India) is a historical idea that doesn’t take into account how drastically professions have changed. For example, if taking into account the metric of saving lives, perhaps you’re more likely to end up doing that as a medical researcher, developing new potential cures for diseases, or as a technical engineer, working on making cheaper medical equipment and thereby improving access to healthcare.
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The monetary worth of professional labour is also something taken into account. Often people who earn more, despite how much or how little their contribution to society, are respected more. If you’re interested in learning about the top highest paying jobs in the world, this list should help.
In my opinion, class always factors into respect. The rich, the upper echelon of society, are nearly always looked up to. Prestige is pretty much synonymous with class distinction, or what the most well-off people in society value. Occupational prestige is actually a sociological term, so if you’re interested in the most prestigious jobs, this Wikipedia article might be right up your alley.
Personally, I feel that personal fulfillment comes first, followed by job security. The most rewarding careers generally include social work, firefighting, teaching, etc. In short, any job where you feel like you’re truly making a meaningful difference in a way that matters to you is likely a good one! That being said, the world is rapidly changing and that uncertainty can be frightening. For the most in demand jobs, take a look at the jobs that will always be in demand. For the best jobs for the future, see our creative take on what professions the future will create.
For the Americans in our reading audience, if you’re looking to see how our list has changed over the years, here‘s our article on the most respected jobs in America in 2017.
Back to our list of the most respected professions in the world in 2020! Of all the traits determining respect, fame is at the forefront. Whether that’s because of our existential fear of being forgotten or of the immediacy of the love and attention that celebrity status endows, fame is important to a lot of us, and to many it’s a way to measure their impact on the world. Using SocialBlade’s ranking of the top 500 Twitter profiles, we made a list of the professions of these world-famous individuals. We are certain our article uses a much better methodology than the articles that are published on other sites that claim that “nurses are more respected than everyone else”. You are going to agree with our #1 pick.
Now on to the most respected professions in the world in 2020!
