From the editors of the Wall Street Journal's CareerJournal.com, this up-to-the-minute almanac rates the 250 best and worst jobs, ranked by such factors as current salary and future prospects, stress risks, safety and security, environmental conditions, physical demands, career outlooks, travel opportunities, and special perks.

Promotion by CareerJournal.com of The Wall Street Journal will include:

Outreach to an extensive media list touting the results of the best and worst jobs TV, radio and print interviews Prominent placement on the CareerJournal.com web site Broadcast email to more than 75,000 individuals and organizations nationwide

more fun than realistically informative
The format of this book is great- pick a job and see how it measures up by stress, pay, work environment, etc. But while the concept is great, many of the jobs covered (and not covered) are geared more toward a fun read than a real reference. How many Presidents of the United States, NFL football players, and Indy level race car drivers do you know? And would any of those people actually need to look at a reference book on careers to see if they really wanted to pursue that "career field"? How about a lumberjack- think he can figure out that he has bleak prospects and heavy physical demands without checking out a book on it? On the other hand, secretary is glossed over as one career field, not differentiating between the wide array of office managers and personal assistants that make up that field, and which are a large and real part of the working public. Most of the working people I know have job titles that you kind of have to guess to match up to the things presented here. Is a costume designer (not included) a dressmaker? Not really- maybe they should look at set designer (which is included)? My sister is a branch manager for a real estate company- is that the same as a real estate agent? Not really, but there aren't entries for small business owners, branch managers, or anything of that sort. A restaurant manager would be in the same boat- there's no entry for a regular job like that, while there are entries for rabbis, singers, and NCAA basketball coaches. How about a loss control coordinator, a business analyst, a cooking school coordinator, or a research and development manager? Good luck. Even if there is an entry for the flashier kinds of jobs, the information can be misleading. The physicians I know are all making pretty close to what he calls the top earning potential as starting salaries, while the experienced actors I know would be lucky to make what he calls their starting salary, and that's mostly not from their acting gigs. That said, the read is fun and will be a good starting place for many people, especially young people, to look at different fields. Just please don't imagine that you can prepare for a "career" as a fashion model and expect an $11,000/year starting paycheck.