The most popular STEM career paths according to Careers with STEM readers

Careers with STEM’s high school readers dream of internships at NASA and would love a job that combines work in an office with something outdoors

More than 3,000 Careers with STEM readers have completed our STEM + X quiz and we thought you might like to see the most popular answers!

The quiz is designed to help students see the many careers STEM education can lead to. The X could be a passion, an interest, another subject or a big opportunity. As we always say, STEM is a foundation, not a destination

The S in STEM is up top with Careers with STEM readers, with 10.1% of quiz responders saying science is their favourite school subject, followed by tech, engineering and maths at 8.7% and art, music and drama at 8.5%.

You can find more inspiration on careers in science, along with real people living their science career dreams here.

Our audience are also pretty creative, with 12.7% drawing, playing music or gaming in their spare time. If STEM + creativity is your thing then you’ll love these stories:

• Technically creative STEM careers
• Work of art: Creative tech careers
• 3 STEM + Art careers you need to know about

When we ask how they want their career to make an impact, more than a third (37.1%) say they want to create cutting-edge tech that makes the world a better place. And a big chunk (28.6%) want to help communities in need, while 18.3% want their career to help protect the environment. STEM + Health is also a calling for many people, with 16% saying they want to help save lives with medical expertise.

STEM + Health careers are growing rapidly, and you can read all about them in our latest Careers with STEM: Health edition.

More than one in 10 (11.5%) of Careers with STEM’s high school readers say their dream internship is at NASA, while 9% say it’s in a university research department.

And…drum roll..here are the top 10 STEM + X results:

1. Space (13.9%)
2. Social good (11.8%)
3. Animals (10%)
4. Health (8.6%)
5. Defence (6.6%)
6. Language and Culture (6%)
7. Quantum (5.8%)
8. Sports (5.4%)
9. Creativity (5%)
10. Environment (4.3%)

Take the quiz!