The Danish online magazine Ugebrevet A4 has carried out an investigation of which jobs are most prestigous in Denmark, the first investigation of its kind since the 1950's. There is an article presenting and discussing the findings on their website, and the top-99 job list is linked from there. An easier scannable list is here.

To be a researcher in a private company (!) ranks no 5, to be an associate professor at an university ranks no 6. Being a pilot gives you the most job prestige, but if you're an actor or an IT consultant, your job will be considered as pretty prestigous too. Basically, jobs that earn you media attention, require degrees, are difficult to get, pay a good salary and/or gives you influence and power are the most popular. Probably not surprising, apart from the fact that media attention in itself means so much this century. I still prefer to believe that being a researcher is prestigous because we're considered to be smart ;), not because as so-called professional "experts" we are also quite often media darlings. But who knows?
# posted by Lisbeth at: 11:56