All jobs require varying degrees of communication. An information technology position, for example, may involve little external communication throughout the day, but customer-oriented workers may talk with clients from the minute they arrive to the minute they leave. Not everyone is cut out to be -- or wants to be -- "on" all day.
Dianna Booher, author of "Communicate with Confidence" and "Creating Personal Presence: Look, Talk, Think, and Act Like a Leader," says that many top communicators have similar traits that help them succeed. "Some people pride themselves on 'telling it like it is,'" Booher says. "Actually, they don't know the difference in being direct and being tactless, in being neutral and being negative. Good communicators can be direct with tact." Other qualities that Booher says communicators have include: creativity, highly effective listening skills, the ability to bring lackluster concepts to life, a positive attitude and comfort in social situations.
Some communication-related jobs are obvious: writers, radio or TV broadcasters, public relations experts, sales representatives. Here are nine jobs* that may not immediately come to mind but that require well-honed communication skills:
1. Human resources specialists provide clerical and administrative support to one or more functional areas within human resources and assist in such duties as recruiting, screening, interviewing and placing workers.
Median annual earnings: $56,262
2. Social media marketing/public-relations specialists promote, market and sell an organization's products and services and generate customer leads. They also may coordinate and manage advertising, press releases, sales promotions, product literature, trade shows, seminars and special events, direct mail campaigns, Web-based communications, audio and video clips and/or other materials used to promote products.
Median annual earnings: $51,280
3. Teachers (postsecondary) instruct students in a wide variety of academic and vocational subjects beyond the high-school level.
Median annual earnings: $58,830
4. Registered nurses treat patients, educate patients and the public about various medical conditions, and provide advice and emotional support to patients' family members.
Median annual earnings: $62,450
5. Corporate trainers create, procure and conduct training and development programs for employees.
Median annual earnings: $54,160
6. Customer service agents or managers provide a valuable link between customers and the companies that produce the products they buy and the services they use. They respond to customer inquiries and ensure that problems are resolved.
Median hourly wages: $14.36
7. Administrative assistants perform and coordinate an office's administrative activities and store, retrieve and integrate information for staff and clients.
Median annual earnings: $29,050
8. Meeting planners for associations or corporations coordinate every detail of meetings and conventions, from the speakers and meeting location to arranging for printed materials and audio-visual equipment.
Median annual earnings: $44,260
9. Website developers create applications for the Web using software languages and tools. They identify a site's users and oversee its production and implementation. They determine the information that the site will contain and how it will be organized and may use Web-development software to integrate databases and other information systems.
Median annual earnings: $66,310