Home Degrees

Advances in technology have changed the way workers in certain positions carry out their job functions. An architect, for instance, may not necessarily use a pencil and paper to draw up blueprints the way that person did 30 years ago. These days, most architects are required to know CAAD programs in addition to the traditional knowledge base an architect already has of buildings, dimensions, and so on. Technology has completely changed the way most of us perform our jobs.

In addition to changing the way we do things on a day-to-day basis, technology has also changed the work environment. With so many options available, college students not only have to ask themselves what they want to do for a career, but also how and where they want to do it.

According to U.S. Census data, the percentage of workers who telecommuted at least one day per week increased from 7 percent in 1997 to almost 10 percent in 2010. Also, a surprising eight out of 10 workers (79 percent) say they would prefer to work from home at least part of the time, according to Global Workforce Analytics.

The typical telecommuter is college-educated, earning close to , 000 per year. So which education path will lead you to a successful career working from home?

Because your degree doesn’t necessarily dictate which career you’re going to end up in, anyone with any college degree could end up with a successful work-from-home position. However, if we examine data on the industries in which telecommuting is most common and on the requirements of high-paying telecommuting positions, we can get an idea of which degrees are more likely to lead a student toward a telecommuting position.

1. Writer
2. Consultant
3. Customer service representative
4. Sales representative
5. Engineer
6. Account executive/manager
7. Software developer
8. Case manager
9. Medical coder
10. Adjunct faculty
11. Systems analyst
12. Program/project manager
13. UI/UX designer
14. Travel counselor
15. Insurance adjuster
16. Graphic designer
17. Bilingual interpreter
18. SEO/marketing assistant
19. Director of business development
20. Marketing manager

The job search engine also broke down the most common work-from-home jobs into these five categories:

1. Healthcare
2. Education
3. Sales
4. Information technology
5. Administrative

Using this information, coupled with U.S. Census data on the most common industries for telecommuters, we created this list of college degrees that may just help you obtain a high-paying, work-from-home career.

1. Business, management, or leadership

Many of the higher-paying work-from-home positions are director or manager positions. These positions often require education or experience in management.

2. Education

The International Association for K-12 Online Learning reports that as of 2013, the majority of states have full-time, online schools. Over the past decade, more and more students have taken advantage of online learning options, and it has made its way from colleges to the K-12 environment, as well. “There were an estimated 1, 816, 400 enrollments in distance-education courses in K-12 school districts in 2009-2010, almost all of which were online courses. 74% of these enrollments were in high schools, ” reports the learning association.