Gen Z’s “fascinating” dream jobs revealed, according to Instagram

A survey of Gen Zers on Instagram has revealed the generation’s ideal jobs—and they’re not what you might first assume.

According to the study, performed by online course search engine Class Central, the most-wanted job for Gen Z is modeling.

Second in the ranking is artist, while photographer comes third, followed by make-up artist, blogger, marketing, singer and personal trainer in fourth through eighth.

This list was compiled using an analysis of the use of career-related hashtags on Instagram, such as #journalist or #paramedic. #model and related phrases like #modellife and #modelagency were used in 380 million Instagram posts, topping the ranking as a result.

After personal trainer, the rest of the top 20 most-wanted jobs are, in order: actor, influencer, style blogger, dancer, chef, writer, YouTuber, fashion designer, content creator, athlete, hairdresser and nail artist.

Interestingly, more traditional jobs such as doctor came in 24th with 18,300,000 hashtags, engineer came in 30th with 7,600,000 hashtags, lawyer was 32nd with 6,500,000 hashtags and astronaut 47th with 2,500,000 hashtags.

“This study demonstrates that Gen Z is drawn toward the more creative industries, especially ones that have become heavily intertwined with social media, such as blogging and influencing,” Dhawal Shah, CEO of Class Central, said in a statement.

“While Gen Zers have earned a reputation for wanting solely to be influencers and YouTubers, this study shows that the younger generation is still drawn toward jobs that require practical skills. For example, jobs such as “Streamer” and “Footballer” appear beneath careers such as architect and chef.”

The study is simply ranking which job-related hashtags are used across Instagram, however, with some of the uses not necessarily being related to wanting a job in that career. Additionally, not everyone who uses Instagram is a Gen Zer. Generation Z, born between 1997 and 2012 and therefore aged between 27 and 12 in 2024, make up a large proportion of Instagram’s user base, but over-25s comprise more than two-thirds of Instagram users, according to Statista.

A survey of about 4,000 13- to 16-year-olds in the U.K., performed late last year by BBC Bitesize Careers, found that doctor was the most popular job, with one in 10 of the teens choosing it as their preferred profession. Engineer came in second, with teacher third, lawyer fourth, nurse fifth, vet sixth, footballer (soccer) seventh, artist eighth, police officer ninth and building trade 10th.

This shows that regardless of the usage of #model and #actor on social media, young people are still interested in more traditional jobs, as well as careers in the brand-new media landscape that they have grown up into.

“Regardless of common conceptions, this study shows that Gen Z is still drawn toward more traditional job roles, with doctor, nurse, teacher and dentist all appearing within the top 25 ranking,” Shah said.

“It’s fascinating to see how social media has impacted career paths of younger generations and whether more traditional job roles will gravitate lower down the ranking in the future.”

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