IMPORTANT TO NOTE: Careers in the ‘Trades’ or College?
A “trade career” refers to a career that requires specialized skills and training, often acquired through vocational school, apprenticeships, or on-the-job training. Often the skills needed for these careers pay YOU to learn them, rather than having to pay an institution. Some examples of Trade Careers:
Construction: Electricians, plumbers, carpenters, welders, HVAC technicians. Manufacturing: Industrial mechanics, machinists, tool and die makers. Transportation: Aircraft mechanics, auto mechanics, commercial drivers. Other: Boilermakers, elevator mechanics, solar installers
In these fields, Unions will pay you to learn the skills, or the companies will pay you while you learn. Surprisingly, these careers often pay MORE than many college careers.
A College Career will require YOU PAY someone to teach you the skills for your career. Sometimes these fields pay much less than a trade career.
25 of the Highest Paying Jobs in Madison, WI for 2025 Nurse Practitioner: Salary range: $108,800-$151,200 per year Salesforce Developer: Salary range: $111,800-$148,100 per year Senior Project Manager Salary range: $104,400-$147,200 per year Cyber Security Engineer Salary range: $102,800-$143,200 per year Computer Engineer Salary range: $112,400-$132,500 per year Registered Nurse Salary range: $66,000-$104,800 per year Outpatient Clinic Registered Nurse Salary range: $65,500-$101,300 per year Meteorologist Salary range: $99,300-$99,300 per year Technical Writer Salary range: $60,500-$98,800 per year Clinical Documentation Specialist Salary range: $70,000-$94,200 per year ……
List how much education is needed for each one Nurse Practitioner: $108,800/yr Salary Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN), gain clinical experience as a Registered Nurse (RN), and then a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) or a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
Salesforce Developer: $111,800/yr Salary An associates or bachelor’s degree in computer science or bootcamps
Senior Project Manager: $104,400/yr Salary Bachelor’s degree is generally required, often in business, management
Cyber Security Engineer: $102,800/yr Salary An associates or bachelor’s degree in computer science. Industry-recognized certifications, such as CISSP or Security+
Computer Engineer: $112,400/yr Salary An associates or bachelor’s degree in computer science, or bootcamps, or ABET Accreditation
Registered Nurse: $66,000/yr Salary Either an Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) or a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN)
Meteorologist: $99,300/yr Salary bachelor’s degree in meteorology, atmospheric science, or a related physical science.
Clinical Documentation Specialist: $70,000/yr Salary While a formal degree in a specific field like health information management or nursing is not always mandatory, it’s generally beneficial
Given how much each job pays per year, how long will it take for each job to pay off your education (we call this return on investment or ROI). Divide the amount of money it will cost you into the annual salary for the job.
To determine the education costs Google “how much does a A.S degree cost” and “how much does a B.S degree cost“. In 2025 this returned for an A.S (an associate degree) $11,600 per year (11600×2=$23,200) and for the B.S (a Bachelor’s degree) $28,700 per year (28700×4=$115,000) and finally for a Master’s degree (M.S) “how much does a masters degree cost” it shows about $65,000. Now apply these numbers to the requirements you just compiled.
A FEW IMPORTANT THINGS ABOUT COSTS OF COLLEGE DEGREES: 1. Your cost may vary. Rather than live at the dorms, you might find cheaper living arrangements. 2. Time to complete a degree can vary. An Associate Degree is two years of work. You might take 4 years to do it so that the cost per year is more affordable for you. Same thing with a Bachelor’s degree. The total cost remains about the same but it gets spread over more time so it is more affordable. 3. How you pay for it changes how much time it may take. A Student Loan allows you to work full-time at school so an A.S will take 2 years, and a B.S could take 4 years but If you work to pay for school, figure that it will take you more time than that.
Here we will apply the education/training that each career requires. You can find each of these by either Googling “what do I need to be a nurse practitioner” (substituting ‘nurse practitioner’ for the career name). You can also find this information at United States Department of Labor Statistics (BLS). The results will typically tell you the degree you need, and any boot-camps or other certifications that you might need.
Here is the results from the year 2025:
Nurse Practitioner: $108,800 Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN)=$115K, a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)=$65K Totaling $175k or 1.6years ROI
Salesforce Developer: $111,800 An associates=$23,200 and bootcamp = $3,200 Totaling $26,400 or 0.23 year ROI
Senior Project Manager: $104,400 Bachelor’s degree=$115k or 1.1 years ROI
Computer Engineer: $112,400 An associates=$23,200 and ABET Accreditation=$14,000 Totaling $37,200 or 0.33 years ROI
Registered Nurse: $66,000 An associates=$23,200 or 0.35 years ROI
Outpatient Clinic Registered Nurse: $65,500 An associates=$23,200 and NCLEX-RN= $2,800 Totaling = $26,000 or 0.39 years ROI
Meteorologist: $99,300 Bachelor’s degree=$115k or 1.15 years ROI
Technical Writer Salary: $60,500 Bachelor’s degree=$115k or 1.9 years ROI
Clinical Documentation Specialist Salary range: $70,000 While a formal degree in a specific field like health information management or nursing is not always mandatory, it’s generally beneficial. Bachelor’s degree=$115k or 1.6 years ROI
Determine how easy it will be to get a job in today’s market for each job. The United States Department of Labor Statistics (BLS) will help determine how the job market is for each of the jobs in your list. Here is an example assessing the 2025 market for the “Nurse Practitioner”. You can see it shows the growth rate is “Much Faster than Average” indicating that it is likely you will be able to find a job in this career area.
Thinning down the list….
Sort the list by ROI You want to make sure that you pick a career that will quickly pay off the cost of your education. The lowest ROI year number is the one you should prefer.
Salesforce Developer: $111,800/salary 0.23 year ROI
Computer Engineer: $112,400/salary 0.33 years ROI
Registered Nurse: $66,000/salary 0.35 years ROI
Outpatient Clinic Registered Nurse: $65,500/salary 0.39 years ROI
Senior Project Manager: $104,400/salary 1.1 years ROI
Meteorologist: $99,300/salary 1.15 years ROI
Nurse Practitioner: $108,800/salary 1.6years ROI
Clinical Documentation Specialist $70,000/salary 1.6 years ROI
Technical Writer Salary: $60,500/salary 1.9 years ROI
Remove the jobs where the projected job growth rate looks bad… Don’t go into a career that is going out of style. Imagine what it was like when cars came out and people tried to get buggy manufacturing jobs…. pretty bad huh? Use Google for this. Try googling ‘job growth rate for Meteorologist’ to see the growth rate of jobs for meteorologists. In 2025 it showed this:
“The job outlook for meteorologists is projected to grow, with an estimated 6% increase in employment between 2023 and 2033. This growth is anticipated to be faster than the average for all occupations“
drop the lowest growth careers from your pick list.
Finally Pick the career that offends you the leastand pays the most Regardless of what some people might say, it is stupid to pick a career doing what you ‘love’. It makes you end up hating the very thing you loved because it became ‘work’. Because of this pick something that you think you can live with or tolerate.
Look at the job descriptions for the careers at the top of your list. Imagine yourself having the skills and doing that job. Also imagine the lifestyle that goes with it. If you think you can handle it, pick that career and start getting the skills.
How to Start Your Education
Where is the education offered. When at all possible, get your education in this order of preference:
Employer Pays for your training
Join a Union if you can apprentice and learn the skills
Get training at a Technical School or Vocational School
Lastly, get your skills at a University
You won’t always have a choice. A career as a Technical writer ($60,500/year) will not feature an employer paying you to learn the skills, although an Electrician ( $61,965/year ) can join a union as an apprentice, and be paid to learn the skills.
How can you pay for it
Student Loans These are loans that the federal government guarantees that the bank will get paid. You have to pay it all back with interest, although this program has a slightly lower interest rate. If you go to the school administrative office, they will help you navigate the programs to get a student loan. After all, they WANT YOU to attend there. You can read more about student loans at Federal Student Loans . The downside of this is that you will have a sizable bill when you graduate and get a job. Remember the ROI? That is an idea of how many years you will have to work to pay it off!
Work and Go to School This method means you get out of school with no debt to pay off. It is a lot harder, but may people have done it this way and so can you! Keep in mind that a two year degree does not have to get done in two years. If it takes you four because you are working your way through school, you still will get the job…just a little later and WITH NO DEBT!
Start planning what companies you will be applying to…while you are building skills
Focus on the skills they need by watching their job postings For larger companies, watch for listings on Indeed.com, Monster.com and other recruiting web sites. They will describe the skills that they are looking for in the candidates they will hire. Focus your energies on learning and perfecting these skills in school.
For smaller companies, still watch those web sites, but also watch for “job fairs” in your area. Job fairs are where local companies will parade their companies in an attempt to lure quality candidates to join their firms. Fortunately the people at these events are very willing to speak with you, and tell you what skills that they are seeking. Again….Focus your energies on learning and perfecting these skills in school.
Finding Career Employment
Internships…how they typically work Many times in the course of your learning and towards the final development of your skills, your school will offer the chance at an internship.
An Internship is a job that allows you to use the skills that you have learned at a real employer, who often will pay you (at a rate lower than a normal employee) for a period of time that applies to the credits you need to graduate. Many times if you perform well at an internship company, they may offer you a job.
The secret to this happening is :
Do high quality work promptly.
Ask for more work when you finish the initial work.
Work well with the people who are there. Be polite and pleasant.
Graduation
Starting the Job Hunt Not so strangely, the Career Job Hunt works just like the Normal Job Hunt. The biggest difference is that now you have the skills your career employer needs!
Resumes You need to write one for each job you apply for prominently featuring the skills the job is looking for at the top of the first page. Accentuate your experience with those skills. When an employer looks at this resume, they need to see the skills they want IMMEDIATELY when they read it.
Don’t make them have to hunt for it.
Making and Managing a Career Many people simply don’t manage their careers. They go to work each day and once a year they meet with their manager and hope that they will get a “raise” in salary. If they are lucky, they have a good manager who will manage their career for them, but this is not often the case. It really is YOUR resposnsibility.
Managing what you get paid. Some people will be surprised that YOU are the one who manages what you get paid. Working together with your employer YOU get to help define what you get paid. Here are the basic principles of how this works….
Don’t get paid too much…..Don’t get paid to little. I was often surprised I have to remind a manager of this.
As an manager when you pay an employee too little, they are motivated to find a different employer to pay you more….and that’s bad.
As an employee, if a manager pays you too much money, the employee has “golden handcuffs” and stays even when they are unhappy. As a manager, this means I end up stuck with a poor performing employee.
Salary surveys to determine what you SHOULD get paid A salary survey is a research study that gathers and analyzes data on wages and salaries to help you understand what different jobs pay, and to identify trends in wage and salary levels. You will use this to determine what you should be paid in the area you work in. You need to be paid very near the AVERAGE. Not too high…not too low. Here is an example of a Data Analyst.
Communicating What you need For Next Years Salary This is probably the hardest part of managing your career. Now that you have identified what you should be paid for your job, in the locality you are working, you are ready to put together a communication to your manager.
Here are the things you need to remember.
It is helpful to show how you have been improving yourself in this job
Ask for one thing that is not important to you. Often a manager likes to feel they said “no” to something.
Point out that you wish to remain competitive in the job market.
This is a request. They might say “no” to it. Make sure you are ready to pursue another job if that happens.
I had this happen once in the last 35 years and was forced to respond with “I understand you need to work within a budget. I hope understand what I have to do. “ That manager did manage to find a way to meet the salary I needed. Not surprising, since if you did this right and are a quality employee, you are right on the AVERAGE for the market and he may not be happy about it, but at least the number is not unexpected.
Here is an example of a letter. Keep in mind this was back when the salary was a lot lower!
