Do first jobs matter? For young adults, including students entering the workforce straight out of high school, the data says yes.


Britebound partnered with the Burning Glass Institute to conduct independent research on the career pathways of millions of nondegree workers. Our final report, Launchpad Jobs: Achieving Career and Economic Success Without a Degree, identifies:




What is a Launchpad Job?


We define Launchpad Jobs as entry-level roles that set workers up for rapid career growth, respectable wages and benefits, and job security. These jobs have promotion rates that are 10 percent higher than jobs with the lowest potential. Most are positions where the demand for workers exceeds the supply (both now and in the forecasted future), so employers are more likely to offer above average starting salaries and health insurance to attract employees. These roles also have a low risk of being displaced by technology because the skills needed, requirements for hands-on work, or necessity of interacting with humans or the environment (e.g. nurses or firefighters) are not conducive to automation.



Launchpad Jobs aren’t as rare as you may think—there are more than 3.5 million nondegree, entry-level job openings each year that scored highly based on a combination of the above characteristics. What’s more, these types of fast-track jobs are available in every field.




How Can You Identify Launchpad Jobs?


While every field includes some jobs that offer career advancement for young adults without a degree or credential, it’s not surprising that industries that skew more towards technical work, including Maintenance, Manufacturing, and Utility, as well as Healthcare, have a high share of Launchpad Jobs.


White-collar jobs scored lower than average but a few industries, such as Architecture and Engineering, and roles where entry-level employees can develop functional and technical skills, like Sales, Finance, and Human Resources, had high Launchpad Job scores.


To identify these high-potential jobs, the research scored and ranked roles based on a combination of five job characteristics:


  1. Higher than average starting pay and continued wage premiums over 10 years: Roles in the top fifth of our scoring pay 61 percent more at entry than those in the bottom fifth, and that gap is still there a decade later.
  2. A higher likelihood of offering health insurance: 83 percent of workers in top-scoring roles have employer coverage at entry, compared with 57 percent in the lowest-scoring ones.
  3. High promotion rates: A promotion means a move up in pay or responsibility from that first job, and top-scoring roles deliver one 80 percent of the time against 73 percent at the bottom.
  4. Strong pathways to better opportunities: The clearest is the step into a supervisory role, which is the single strongest driver of wage growth for workers without a degree — but some roles also offer room to grow within the occupation itself.
  5. Some level of protection from technological disruption including AI: The roles scoring best here tend to be hands-on or in person, like line work, emergency response and patient care, which are harder to automate away.


By using this holistic approach, roles with low starting salaries but high promotion rates and opportunities for advancement, like military-related occupations, scored high enough to be considered Launchpad Jobs. And jobs with high initial salaries but few pathways to better opportunities, such as construction work, did not.


Launchpad Job Examples


Job titles alone can be misleading. A Payroll and Timekeeping Clerk is a Launchpad Job; a general Office Clerk is not, despite the similar title. The payroll, benefits and HR systems skills the first role builds open a path to higher pay, while general office skills do not.


Which high-paying jobs without a degree qualify?


The following Launchpad Jobs (identified in our report) combine strong entry-level wages with thousands of openings each year. For comparison, the national average entry-level wage across all occupations is $27,340.


  • Railroad conductors and yardmasters: $49,680 entry-level wage, 2,800 annual openings
  • Electrical power-line installers and repairers: $47,070 entry-level wage, 9,700 annual openings
  • Wind turbine service technicians: $45,150 entry-level wage, 1,800 annual openings
  • Aircraft mechanics and service technicians: $41,020 entry-level wage, 10,900 annual openings
  • Mobile heavy equipment mechanics: $38,950 entry-level wage, 15,100 annual openings
  • Millwrights: $38,940 entry-level wage, 3,500 annual openings
  • Telecommunications line installers and repairers: $38,020 entry-level wage, 11,000 annual openings
  • Plant and system operators: $37,100 entry-level wage, 1,400 annual openings
  • Transportation inspectors: $36,770 entry-level wage, 2,400 annual openings


Scoring highest overall, across pay, benefits, stability and promotion potential, are Firefighters, Electrical Power-Line Installers and Repairers, Commercial Divers, Aircraft Mechanics, Emergency Medical Technicians, Paramedics, and Surgical Technologists.


The challenge for young adults is knowing which entry-level opportunities are Launchpad Jobs. Consider a recent high school graduate who received two job offers, one as a Manicurist and the other as a Tour Guide. Both jobs pay around $23,000 per year to start. Which one should she choose? And would her decision be influenced if she knew that in twenty years, workers who took the manicurist job earned an average of $49,100 per year while those who chose the tour guide earned an average of $82,200 per year? For more than $30,000 per year, shouldn’t she be empowered with this information before she makes a choice?


Pathways to Career Success


There’s a common myth that the only pathway to success after high school is college. Yet almost one in five workers without college degrees earn more than the median college graduate annual wage of $70,000.


But while the data proves young people don’t need a college degree to achieve financial success and economic mobility, it is clear that more of them could benefit from having information on Launchpad Jobs. Empowering students with this knowledge before they accept their first job will enable them to choose their best pathway for career advancement, good pay and benefits, and job stability.


Britebound's free digital experiences help young people explore career paths, identify their strengths, and see what different roles actually involve before they make that choice.


Read the full report, Launchpad Jobs: Achieving Career and Economic Success Without a Degree.