10 Careers With Staying Power

Findings confirm it's good to be nerdy

(NEWSER) - How desirable is your daily grind? A new study aims to answer that question with a list ranking the best and worst jobs according to five factors: “environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands, and stress,” the Wall Street Journal reports. In the end, the CareerCast list suggests, nerds rule. Best jobs:

1. Mathematician
2. Actuary
3. Statistician
4. Biologist
5. Software engineer

Being a cop, lawyer or chef might seem glamorous—but don't be fooled

(NEWSER) - Cops might look cool on TV, but they do a lot of paperwork off screen. Most chefs churn out the same dishes nightly in assembly-line fashion. Before hopping onto the latest career fad, see US News & World Report's list of most overrated lines of work:

1. A great commercial idea shouldn’t attract you to ad executive jobs, which are more about selling than creating.

Don't be exhaustive—but it's okay to write more than a page

(NEWSER) - Before you print 50 copies of your resume, check out this list of common mistakes—you’re probably making at least one, notes Alison Green in US News & World Report .

• Using an outdated guide. The one-page rule, for example, doesn’t fly anymore.
• Listing only job duties. Make sure to answer this question: “What did you accomplish in this job that someone else might not have?”

DC tops search engine's list

(NEWSER) - Washington, DC is the easiest city in the country to land a job, says job-search site Juju.com, which ranked cities by comparing the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ figures on unemployed workers to the number of job postings on Juju itself. The site finds 1.87 “unemployed individuals per advertised job” in the District. More»

Site can be used for targeted, effective networking

(NEWSER) - If you’re unemployed, the right attention on Twitter could land you your next position. Forbes offers pointers on using the micro-blogging site for networking:

• Make sure your account name contains something about your profession, so your feed shows up when people search associated topics.
• Search for industry leaders and other people and companies in your field you’d like to know—some firms even post job openings on their feeds. Sign up to follow their tweets.