The 10 Best Careers Right Now For Recent College Graduates

AP Photo/Marcio Jose SanchezOne of the biggest fears for many college graduates is finding a good job that pays well and has solid career prospects.

Some career paths are going to be more beneficial and open to a recent grad. To help new degree holders find the right field, the University of California, San Diego has compiled its fifth annual list of "Hot Careers for College Graduates."

For this report, UCSD looked at four criteria - "current employment in the field, projected growth in the occupation between 2010 and 2020, median annual salary in the occupation, and workplace environment characteristics."

The study also looked at "bridgeability factor," a yes or no decision "based on whether a college graduate could bridge into the career with one or two years of study or reskilling." Several careers - such as nurse, veterinarian, and pharmacist - scored well on UCSD's criteria, but would be unobtainable for an untrained college graduate.

Almost half of the careers in the top 10 dealt with computers and technology, including the top two on the list. Although two different types of software developers - applications and systems - tied for the first spot on UCSD's rankings, we decided to solely designate systems software developers as the number one career, based on its stronger long-term job prospects.