The 10 Best Jobs In Utah For Recent College Grads

If you’re about to graduate from college, now’s about the time you’re probably wondering–what next?

For most of you, the answer will be simple: find a job. And for many of you, the answer will be: find any job. Because we’ve all heard the horror stories of graduating and the pickings being slim, we’ve decided to go ahead and save you some trouble.

After some research and number crunching, we’ve determined the 10 best jobs for 2017 college grads in Utah. Here they are:

1. Web Developers
2. Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technologists
3. Network and Computer Systems Administrators
4. Electronics Engineers, Except Computer
5. Management Analysts
6. Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific Products
7. Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers
8. Self-Enrichment Education Teachers
9. Tax Examiners and Collectors, and Revenue Agents
10. Computer Systems Analysts

We know what you’re thinking–web developers? Really?

You’ll want to keep reading to find out just how we came up with this list and why each job made the cut. Yes, even web developer.

How we determined the best entry level jobs in Utah

We’ve been talking to a lot of college graduates recently, so we have a pretty good sense of what they want in their first job. Their list normally goes in something like this order:

1. ANY JOB!! (Availability of jobs)
2. Location
3. Pay
4. Potential for growth
5. Work life balance

Lucky for everyone, there’s data available from various sources for each of the items on this list. The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides data on pay by location, each state’s Department of Labor compiles job growth statistics, and ONet Online, another government source, has data on job requirements.

We combined data from each of these sources to produce a master database that contains information for every profession. Specifically, we looked at the following criteria:

• Location quotient. A measure of how common a job is a given state.
• Only for jobs in Utah that require a college degree.
• Average annual entry level salary .
• Projected growth as an industry over the next 10 years.

By limiting the dataset to only those jobs that require a bachelors degree, we were left with 26 jobs to rank.

We then ranked each job on each criteria from 1 to 26 with 1 being the best.

Next, we took the average of each job’s rankings to create a “Job Score”.

Finally, we ranked every job’s “Job Score” from 1 to 26 with 1, again, being the best.

One Job Please

Just graduating from college can be a scary time–but don’t forget, it’s also exciting. You have so many options, so many jobs to pick (or not pick! Go travel!), and so many choices! The world is your oyster, and with this list, so is the job market.

Below is a more detailed look at the best jobs for 2017 college graduates in the Beehive State.

Detailed List Of The Best Entry Level Jobs In Utah For 2017 College Grads

Rank	Job	Growth %	Entry Wage	Jobs in 2024
1	Web Developers	55.19%	$29,390	3,290
2	Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technologists	37.34%	$33,820	3,200
3	Network and Computer Systems Administrators	35.62%	$45,080	5,140
4	Electronics Engineers, Except Computer	20.77%	$55,580	2,210
5	Management Analysts	43.24%	$36,090	9,640
6	Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific Products	33.18%	$33,550	5,980
7	Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers	1.61%	$42,890	1,260
8	Self-Enrichment Education Teachers	39.9%	$17,410	5,470
9	Tax Examiners and Collectors, and Revenue Agents	5.85%	$36,200	1,990
10	Computer Systems Analysts	49.48%	$40,830	5,710
11	Database Administrators	38.04%	$42,600	1,270
12	Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technicians	37.62%	$22,580	2,890
13	Industrial Engineers	32.61%	$51,340	2,440
14	Cost Estimators	31.6%	$32,890	3,040
15	Computer Network Support Specialists	35.8%	$32,480	2,200
16	Meeting, Convention, and Event Planners	40.0%	$21,220	1,190
17	Credit Analysts	26.26%	$27,690	1,250
18	Computer Programmers	21.08%	$33,260	4,480
19	Social and Human Service Assistants	30.0%	$18,340	7,410
20	Human Resources Specialists	29.37%	$31,430	6,740
21	Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselors	42.86%	$17,470	1,200
22	Insurance Sales Agents	32.98%	$18,670	5,040
23	Coaches and Scouts	25.81%	$16,550	3,120
24	Recreation Workers	31.23%	$16,320	4,790
25	Paralegals and Legal Assistants	19.84%	$26,170	3,080
26	Advertising Sales Agents	17.21%	$27,110	1,430