Accountant

Accounting isn't a career for bean counters - it's a lucrative, investigative and very finance-oriented field.

Actor

While for many, thoughts of acting evoke images of the big screen and schmoozing with Hollywood stars or Broadway performances in front of packed audiences. For working actors the professional role is often much less glamorous.

Actuary

Actuaries are vicarious risk-takers. They calculate risk by analyzing statistics and, based on their analysis, make decisions regarding pricing and investment strategies.

Administrative Assistant

Managers, executives, and virtually everyone in an office rely on administrative assistants to keep operations under control.

Anthropologist

Anthropologists make it their business to trace the history of language, customs, and how people interact with each other. The study of other cultures and how people have lived in the past has a great deal to do with how we behave today.

Architect

Architects are involved in the construction process from the beginning (site selection) to the end (payment of construction bills).

Art Dealer

Art dealers must have an eye for what's hot and keep their fingers on the pulse of trends in the art world; they must anticipate what will appeal to their current and prospective clients and which artists will make or break their galleries.

Attorney

Sue or be sued? Hardly. Lawyers are an essential force in virtually every aspect of modern society. Many lawyers work in large firms, where they engage in transactional work or litigation.

Biologist

It seems that there are almost as many types of biologist as there are fauna and flora. Biologists are classified by the type of organism or by the life processes they study.

Career Counsellor

Ever wondered what to do with your life? Your question may be your answer. Career counsellors make careers of helping others choose their job paths.

Chef

Love to cook? For the chef, cooking isn't a hobby - it's a creative and sometimes lucrative career.

Chemical Engineer

Chemical engineers apply the principles of chemistry to engineering, seeking to develop ways of producing and using chemicals for practical purposes.

Chemist

Chemists are in the business of researching the properties, composition, and principles of elements and compounds.

Child Care Professional

Children make tough bosses - but child care professionals wouldn't have it any other way.

Civil Engineer

Civil engineering is considered the oldest branch of engineering; civil engineers built the Great Pyramid at Giza and the aqueducts of Rome.

College Professor

The erudite dream of being a college professor - but this career isn't all ivory tower contemplation.

Court Reporter

Court reporters are as much a fixture in a trial as the judge and jury. Court reporters record on their stenotype machines all statements made in an official proceeding.

Dentist

Are your teeth pretty? Thank your dentist. These healthcare professionals are dedicated to making your smile scintillate.

Ecologist

Ecologists like trees. They are also serious scientists who spend most of their time collecting and interpreting data to assess the effects of environmental change.

Editor

If you love the written word and enjoy perfecting prose, the career of an editor may be for you.

Fire-fighter

Many jobs require 60-hour workweeks. Many companies require their employees to work on holidays. However, very few employers ask their employees to run headfirst into flaming buildings to rescue children and pets.

Flight Attendant

Flight attendants are in the sky to ensure your safety and comfort, not to dispense salted peanuts (though they do that sometimes too.) A major perk - seeing the world.

Freelance Writer

Live by the word, die by the word. If you like your independence and don't mind hunting for your next pay check, consider becoming a freelance writer.

Geologist

Geologists examine the composition, processes and history of the Earth to learn how rocks were formed and what has happened since formation.

Graphic Designer

Graphic artists may be among the few artists who aren't starving.

Hotel & Hospitality

If you're the perfect host, consider making it your career. Become a professional hospitality worker.

Human Resources Assistant

People...who love people... work in human resources.

Insurance Agent

Most people would rather not think about insurance at all. But when the time comes to buy into a plan, an insurance agent can be a big help.

Interior Designer

The work of the interior designer encompasses a wide range of specialized knowledge, including structural engineering and basic architectural principles.

Investment Banker

If you want to immerse yourself in the world of big finance and big deals, there is simply no better way than to choose a career as an investment banker. Helps if your personal idol is Gordon Gekko.

Librarian

The traditional librarian is being redefined as technology progresses from the card catalogue to the CD-ROM and beyond.

Loan Officer

Loan officers prepare, analyze and verify loan applications, make decisions regarding the extension of credit, and help borrowers fill out loan applications.

Management Consultant

Be a professional problem solver. See the world (or at least lots of airports). Use your brain and interface with dozens of clients. Become a consultant.

Marketing Manager

Marketing professionals manipulate the buying patterns of consumers for fun and profit.

Nurse

Registered nurses (R.N.s) not only care for their patients' physical condition, but they are often the sole source of comfort to people in times of trauma, such as after an accident or just before going under the knife.

Paralegal

Lawyers can't handle all their paperwork and legal work themselves. That's where the paralegal - a highly skilled assistant to lawyers - comes in.

Park Ranger

Forest rangers are the human face of America's national parks and wildlife. Their work demands that they spend long hours alone, but they must also be skilled communicators with superior interpersonal skills.

Pharmacist

These days it seems there is a prescription drug to cure anything and everything. That's why pharmacists are everyone's best friends: they advise and dispense drugs and give advice to consumers and physicians.

Photographer

We all take photographs, but some of us are paid to do it. Ready for a career close-up?

Physical Therapist

When athletes tear tendons, dancers sprain their knees, and anyone injured in an accident needs more than a cast and some painkillers, a physical therapist takes over where a physician leaves off.

Political Aide

Political aides are the politicians' public relations officers, trusted advisors, and personal secretaries. Great if you can't yet win an election.

Project Manager

Project managers are in charge of supervising writers, editors, developers, designers, and advertising teams and are called upon whenever a company wants to launch a new product, redesign its web site, add a new service, or upgrade old systems.

Psychologist

Psychologists are social scientists and behavioralists - they are students of human behaviour.

Public Relations

Are you creative and a good writer? The trick to succeeding in the PR biz is to marshal these skills into promoting a company or client.

Publicist

Publicists are the vanguard for high-profile clients and the cheerleaders for obscure companies.

Radio DJ

Talk about deadline pressure: radio DJs, announcers and newscasters have about five to 10 seconds to capture your attention before you switch the dial.

Real Estate Agent

It isn't easy to sell someone the biggest investment of their lives: their home. A real estate agent or broker has to be convincingly trustworthy and knowledgeable in order to put a prospective homeowner at ease.

Statistician

Statisticians break down mounds of data into digestible percentages and the "big picture."

Teacher

Teachers play an invaluable role in the lives of children and they are given inherent trust to produce intelligent, successful individuals. The rewards aren't expressed in cash but quality of life.

Travel Agent

Travel agents don't just book reservations. They give advice, weather forecasts and restaurant suggestions too.

Veterinarian

Veterinarians are a special breed of doctor. They do not command the huge salaries that doctors who treat humans do, but they boast a level of job satisfaction that surpasses that of more lucrative fields.

Writer

Writers now have more career options open to them than those who toiled with the pen in the time of Chaucer or Shakespeare - or even in the time of F. Scott Fitzgerland and Hemingway.