Obama Campaign Logo Designer Weighs in on Hillary Clinton's "H" Logo

In late 2008, I published a post entitled Politics Meets Brand Design: The Story of Obama’s Campaign Logo. In that post I interviewed Sol Sender, designer of the Obama campaign logo.

With all of the recent criticism (and some praise) surrounding Hillary Clinton’s newly revealed campaign logo, I decided it was time to have another chat with Mr. Sender in order to gain his perspective on Hillary’s new bold “H” logo. Additionally, I was eager to learn what role Mr. Sender believes design actually plays in a political campaign.

Sender explained that:

Crafting a brand strategy and identity is a key component to the success of any brand. It’s really no different for a political campaign.

What is different, however, are the extremely tight deadlines, often times little direction or non-descript creative brief and the pressure and criticism that comes with taking on a political project. When working with a consumer brand, you have about 8-12 weeks to work on iterations of a brand identity. When you’re working with a campaign team, you typically don’t have that leisure. With the Obama work, we were on a 1-2 week turn around with very sparse direction of what was expected.

Given certain constraints, Sender believes design can make or break a campaign.

A political campaign is a brand. It behaves like a brand, so the logo needs to function as such. If you look at the Obama “O,” it can stand alone. People didn’t have to write ‘Obama’ after the logo because the design told the story and campaign mission.

Icons are very powerful things and that [Obama] symbol got used independent of the candidate’s name. We didn’t even need to put ‘Barack Obama’ next to it. When you look at the world and semantic reality and how people experience visual communications, those are very powerful things. I think it can be a very galvanizing force.

I asked Mr. Sender if he thought the arrow symbol and the red and blue colors had been used incorrectly in the Clinton “H” logo.

Sender replied:

If you boil it down it’s really a symbol of forward motion. On the Obama work we were really conscious from the start about where he was vulnerable — we knew Obama critics said things like ‘he’s not American.’ So we thought going strong with a patriotic theme was quite important. Hence the red, white and blue colors in the Obama logo.

In terms of vulnerabilities, Hillary always seems to get dragged into the past by her critics. Therefore, you might argue that a symbol like this which is so aggressively pushing forward could help counter-balance any negative energy that is directed at her past.a

I was eager to gain varied perspectives and opinions regarding the role of design in political campaigns. Therefore, I contacted Michael Bierut of Pentagram, the man who designed Hillary Clinton’s new campaign logo. To his credit, Mr. Bierut responded very quickly but unfortunately had to refer me to the press department for Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

However, there is some other excellent analysis of the new Hillary “H” logo circulating across the web. Armin Vit is a graphic designer who runs Brand New. Vit spoke with NPR the other day about not only Hillary Clinton’s logo but also the new crop of Republican candidates’ logos.

Vit remarked that Clinton’s logo “definitely stands out as something we haven’t seen in presidential campaign logos.”

Milton Glaser is among the most well-respected graphic designers in the world. Among his most famous pieces of work is the I Love NY logo he designed in 1977. Glaser recently added his voice to the conversation via an op-ed on the AIGA web site entitled “Hey Internet, Shut Up About Hillary Clinton’s Campaign Logo: Milton Glaser is Here with the Final Word.”

In the op-ed, Glaser astutely comments:

As we all have witnessed, politics in America is divisive and mean-spirited. The mark itself seems strong, simple and memorable. Whether it embodies the spirit of Hillary’s objectives is another story.

The difficulty of such a mark is the requirement to be ambiguous in order to avoid alienating any part of your audience. In any case, as usual in communication, the relationship of the familiar to the novel is significant.

In this case, we have an ‘H’ for Hillary and an arrow for movement. Whether it also contains the twin towers or the suggestion that the arrow faces right seems irrelevant. The mark doesn’t seem to be a breakthrough in the history of trademark design, but it’s professional and competent compared to the previously revealed identities of Ted Cruz and Rand Paul.

I will admit that after a week Hillary Clinton’s “H” logo is already growing on me quite a bit. This makes me wonder if my brother may actually be correct when he told me last week that “Logos don’t win elections, speeches and money do.” Is he right? Does the logo actually matter? Just because a logo is criticized initially, does that mean it will not grow on voters over time?

Sol Sender remarks:

Sometimes logos come out and there is a lot of immediate reaction but you don’t always know how it will work in the long-term.

Logos in the corporate brand world certainly grow on consumers sometimes. When AirBnB launched it’s newly designed logo in mid-2014, it was panned and mocked as “looking naughty.“ I would argue that at this point most people don’t think twice when they see the AirBnB logo.

With that said, I personally believe that design does matter — both aesthetic design and in the case of technological products, user experience design. Along with flawless execution, design is one of the most critical ingredients determining the success of many consumer app tech startups. One can point to Instagram, Uber, Pinterest, Facebook and a ton of other companies. They all had massive competition but won in their respective categories largely because they are extremely well-designed.

Great design connects with people on an emotional level. Great design elicits visceral responses from people.

Most political campaigns play it safe and simply use a pure typographical mark that highlights the candidate’s name. This is what all of the 2016 Republican candidates have done. This type of logo is boring and elicits very little emotional response from people. Consequently, it does not spark much conversation.

Obama’s 2008 campaign logo was the first-ever political campaign logo to use a bold mark that could stand on its own — independently — without having to include the candidate’s name. Hillary Clinton has followed suit and, in the long run, I think she’ll be rewarded for taking the risk. The key for her campaign is to embrace the conversation sparked by her choice of logo and to have fun creatively playing with the flexibility and versatility it affords. This was a good start by the campaign:

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The Basic Graphic Design Process

Crowdsourcing Platforms: A Unique, Cost-Effective Strategy for Start-Up Success

When it comes to designing essential brand elements, such as a logo and website, start-ups and small businesses today can either create their own or hire someone to do it for them. Most choose to have it professionally done—either by an agency or a freelance designer. And while there is usually a drastic difference in price between the two, a shared similarity is that they are limited in terms of flexibility.

In most cases, you get a set number of designs to choose from and, if you don’t like any, you’re forced to simply pick the one you hate the least. Not exactly ideal—especially considering so much of a business’s success hinges on it.

Fortunately, there is a third option—the crowdsourcing marketplace. To learn more I interviewed Rahul Aggarwal, Co-founder of Designhill.

Recently featured on Forbes.com for their infographic on the factors that influence start-up success (see graphic at bottom), Designhill is an online design crowdsourcing platform that helps business owners source high-quality, custom designs at affordable prices.

Rahul says their objective is to “serve before we earn”—and it is this mentality that has allowed he and his brother Varun to grow what was once a 6 person company (2 designers and 4 developers) into one that now offers over 25,000 designers worldwide.

How would you explain crowdsourcing to someone who has never heard of it before?
Basically, it is the process of involving a crowd of people for particular work within a stipulated time frame. Crowdsourcing, especially in the graphic design industry, provides a lot of benefits to customers where they get a large number of options to choose from, more creativity, more value for their money, and quick solutions.

How do you think the industries of graphic design and branding/marketing have changed in the last decade or so?
In the present day and age, where everything is so digital, graphic design and branding are the cornerstones of any business. Customers can see a brand everywhere from social media platforms to mobile ads to TV commercials and, hence, quality graphic designs have become much, much more integral to any marketing strategy.

What are some of the biggest branding mistakes you’ve seen new businesses make?
When it comes to business branding, quite often customers go for the cheaper option and, though it might seem like a good choice at the time, almost always they have to spend much more in rebranding their businesses. And the cost for rebranding is much higher than the cost of getting a quality and professionally made design the first time.

How does your company help correct and prevent these mistakes?
We make it a point to help them understand the importance of a professional design. We provide dedicated 24/7 customer support to all our customers to help them get the best out of the marketplace and value for their money.

What made you want to start Designhill?
There were too many limitations and frustrations with working a single design agency. There was a lack of creativity beyond a certain point, saturation of ideas and options since you only work with one or two designers. We also wanted to create a marketplace website that offered better timely delivery and eliminated the risk of prepayment with no refund options.

Exactly how does it work? 
Our crowdsourcing platform connects businesses and designers from around the world on one common platform. Businesses that have specific design needs, for a logo, website, etc., can run a design contest and choose from dozens of designs submitted by designers from all over the world.

Many of our clients are new to crowdsourcing, so we make sure they are properly guided, informed and assisted throughout the process. It is an interactive platform, meaning the clients have the ability to rate, comment and provide feedback—as well as ask for unlimited revisions.

A client can hold a contest and get as many as 80-90 designs in less than a week. The client then gets the source files for the winning design, as well as all copyrights.

What unique benefits does your crowdsourcing platform offer clients? 
There are many benefits to crowdsourcing your design. They get more flexibility, control and options for a better price—and without sacrificing quality. On an average, our clients receive 3 times more designs for every dollar they spend with us. We are also more than 30% cheaper than any other competitor and our design received per dollar spent ratio is much higher. As a result, we have a much higher contest success ratio.

We are completely risk-free since we offer 100% Money Back Guarantee to all our customers (though, despite this, we still have had only two refunds to date!). We do take the money upfront from our customers, but it is only as a security to help prevent any fraud against designers. Designers only get paid once a customer chooses a design and receives the source files from the designer.

How does it benefit the designers?
It is a mutually-beneficial relationship. We strive to help freelance designers not only earn but also improve and learn, but we also offer them a platform to create their portfolios and showcase their creative work. It’s a way for them to grow their own skills and business, as well as learning from each other. We created a blog not only to provide start-up and new business owners with useful insight, tips and resources, but also to provide designers with free UI kits, resources and tutorials.

What role do you think crowdsourcing will play in the future of advertising and marketing for businesses?
It will play a much, much larger role in the coming years as the need for graphics is only increasing by the day. With so much emphasis being given to digital marketing, businesses will need a larger number of graphics regularly whether it is for banner ads, social media promotions, or branding needs.

What advice do you have for new start-ups and entrepreneurs?
Be Patient, persevere and never give up. It’s important to understand and learn about your own business before you can try to sell it to others. Also, it is important for any entrepreneur or new business owner to understand the value the business is offering to its customers; that should become the focal point of any marketing and sales strategy.

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Student Public Service Announcements for Safer Neighborhoods

Students participating in Publicolor’s Summer Design Studio were asked to design a Public Service Announcement to improve their neighborhood. Publicolor’s 7-week work/study program prevents learning loss by immersing under-achieving youth in math and literacy taught through product design. Using digital software, students learned to sketch ideas, do mind mapping, and create innovation solutions in designing their PSA.

Below are the program’s highlights.

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What's Type Have to Do With It?

What’s Your Type: Do Fonts Matter?

The typefaces you select suggest a lot about your personality; each has a tone and voice and character all its own. The alphabet of each typeface has a distinctive architecture, one that communicates far more than just the basic meaning of words; the right typeface can even resound on an emotional level. 

Characteristics of font families — such as serifs (little pointy feet), slab serif (rectangular feet), or san serif (no feet at all) — create very different images. From classical to trendy and minimalist, you can skew your communications for your particular brand of success. For example, Google just transformed its iconic logofrom serif to san serif, claiming it would help readability on mobile devices with smaller screens, such as smartphones. (The change has gotten a very mixed reaction.)

Just as we dress to demonstrate our individuality, we can use a typeface that enhances our expression, and allows us to connect more deeply with the reader. That ability, however, comes with a lot of choices, options and considerations. You should think carefully before choosing a typeface for a document, project, or email; it’s a key factor in what you say to the outside world. 

With the ease of sending emails or typing up documents on a computer, a lot of people have stopped giving typefaces the time and attention they deserve. The result is generic communication. When choosing your typeface, what do you want to convey? In order to settle on that typeface that’s right for you, consider these principles:


The Voice: Can You Hear Me?

The reality is that every typeface has its own visual sound; if you mix too many of them together in a single document, you have needlessly noisy pages. Is the typeface loud or soft? Is it a conversation, dialogue, or a lecture?

When working with Julia Child on the design of her book The Way to Cook, I utilized about 12 levels of heads and subheads to define the various hierarchies of information and steps involved in all the recipes. Because this took place before computers, and all type had to be spec’ed by hand for the typesetter. I would figure out how I wanted it to look by using photocopies from a “type book” of different weights and sizes of fonts. I would paste up a mosaic of textures with dummy type in order to analyze the look, the spacing and the balance of dark and light, and how various typefaces looked in all-caps, italic, thin, regular, semi-bold, bold, condensed and so on. A typeface can have a huge family of different weights.

After that, I would put together a manuscript so large that I couldn’t carry it all at one time, and send it to the typesetter to make samples. I would then tweak those samples, and, once I was happy with the results, I would mark up or spec the rest of the book for the typesetter to follow. Needless to say, things are a lot easier now.


The Size: Does Size Matter?

Some traditional typefaces have a small size, which can cause readability issues when used as a screen font. Whenever you rely on those fonts, you should go up in point size to make sure your document will remain legible.

Headlines is one thing; body copy is quite another. What will work large for display fonts doesn’t always translate into a readable texture for information. 

Headlines and subheads may feature a font that contrasts the body copy. Just make sure the combination of typefaces isn’t too “noisy” in a way that detracts from the content; while your typeface should be distinctive, it should also be read with ease. 


Availability: Are They Receiving Your Message?

Fonts that are PC or Mac-based sometimes don’t translate well between the two platforms. Email is also tricky: Not everybody has an entire library of typefaces installed on their computer or device of choice — be careful when selecting an email font that will work with a wide range of recipients. If you’ve ever received an email that had multiple fonts randomly throughout, as if the writer had copied and pasted from many documents, then you’ve experienced the perils of automatic font substitution to a different font. If you don’t want that to happen: before sending anything out, re-select all type and re-specify the font. For websites, consider purchasing a license for a special font instead of using the basic ones; that’s a good way to achieve more individuality.

Texture: How Does It Feel?

Typography is texture that you can read. 

Sometimes we can actually feel texture through our eyes — even on a screen. Take a look at your document. How do you react on a visceral level? Is it too crowded? Is it dull? It doesn’t have to be.

If you want your message to be read, you need to make it an experience that will engage them. You can achieve that with typography and how you organize the space: the combinations of dark and light letterforms, their weights and sizes, all affect your reader. As my teacher Bradbury Thompson said: “Type can be a tool, a toy and a teacher; it can provide a means of livelihood, a hobby for relaxation, an intellectual stimulant — and a spiritual satisfaction. I believe an avid interest in type necessarily includes a zest for everyday life.”

Janet Odgis is the President and Creative Director of Odgis + Co, an award-winning certified woman-owned design firm based in New York City. For 30 years she has worked with some of the world’s most prestigious corporations reinventing ways to define and express their brand. We Make Business Beautiful.

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Why I Refuse to Trade my Creativity for Safety

Above: Paris American Academy design school, Rue Saint Jacques, Paris

I think I always realised that creativity was my “thing” but I never acknowledged it or proclaimed it out aloud until recently.

A few years ago I had this constant questioning in my head. Why wasn’t I content? I was happy but not in every way. I had an amazing home, wonderful husband, supportive family and friends and... a safe job with a stable income. But something was missing and I felt it on every level. I had traded my passion for safety and I was hating it.

I was working in finance for god’s sake. How had I ended up here? Well, I knew why, I had never validated my creative skill. I had always thought it wasn’t worth anything. But spending a few years in a highly analytical, logical and exact world had made me crave the fun and freedom I felt when I was creating. I knew at this point I needed my creativity to survive.

At first I thought I could solve this by assigning the creative stuff to the “hobbies” box in my head. Those piano lessons, craft and decorating classes I took were quickly compartmentalised and given a label coz they weren’t “real”, they didn’t bring in any income and no one took them seriously. If I met someone new, I would talk about my job or what I had studied at university, now that was what society valued right?

Well that notion was turned upside down when I took a summer off to study interior design in Paris. I was reminded that my world had become too small. In a matter of days, I had found more like-minded people than I had in the last 10 years and that both pleased and bothered me! Paris is a city that values its creative types and I needed to immerse myself in that. I remember this one day, before school, I was standing in front of the mirror in our (very tiny) Parisian apartment and I saw myself again, like really truly saw myself, without the stress, obligations and time sucking duties that burdened me back home. I was free to do what I loved and I loved that.

That was two years ago and since then I have drastically changed my thought process, although I continue to struggle with the fear and challenges associated with living my creative life.

I quit my job a year and a half ago and have been doing freelance design work ever since. My training in numbers tells me that what I am doing is stupid as I struggle to get the cash flow I need but I realise it is early days and I am determined to persist with it. My heart however has been so much happier and I feel the heavy weight of the monotonous rat race has been lifted from my shoulders. I think time has slowed down as well. The same way it did when I was in Paris and that is so important to me.

Zoe Strawbridge is the founder of Gorjo Designs, a virtual design consultancy for real people with real lives. Zoe is passionately committed to making great design more accessible and less pretentious. Her job? To take your vision and make it visible. Whether you’re after interior or graphic design, a new logo or a new lounge room, Zoe has a gorgeous design solution. When Zoe’s not designing she can be found hunting and gathering design inspiration from city to country town.

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10 Best and Worst Jobs for Work-Life Balance

In our frenetic and demanding world, achieving work-life balance seems more difficult all the time. And if you’re wondering exactly what work-life balance is, consider this definition by The Business Dictionary: “a comfortable state of equilibrium achieved between an employee’s primary priorities of their employment position and their private lifestyle.”

Visit GOBankingRates for more tips on work-life balance >>>

Put another way, you want a job that doesn’t demand so much of your time and energy that you miss your son’s birthday party, never enjoy a Friday night or forget what a vacation feels like.

Of course, some jobs make reaching the perfect work-life balance tougher than others, which is why GOBankingRates found 10 jobs that get the scale just right and 10 that throw it way off. Click through to see where your career falls on the work-life balance scale.

10 Jobs With the Best Work-Life Balance

Here are 10 careers that promise great work-life balance. They are not ranked in order and are based on factors such as hours demanded for success, responsibility, stress factor, work environment and more. GOBankingRates also consulted career experts and various studies.

Related: Men Vs. Women: Who Has a Better Work-Life Balance?

1. Data Scientist

Okay, there will be some math. But if you have an advanced mathematical or computer science degree and can apply your nerdy and tech talents to analyzing data and predicting trends and opportunities for businesses, you’ll have a very enjoyable work-life balance.

At least, that’s what a 2015 study from career website Glassdoor found. Its analysis was based on data, including at least 60,000 company reviews from employees. Data scientist came in on top, with a work-life balance rating of 4.2 out of 5. Still hate math?

2. Graphic Designer

Does catching the latest art exhibit, spending hours following trends or drawing a lot sound good to you? Well, if you’re a graphic designer, they’re all good for your work, said Lyn O’Brien, a career advancement specialist, lecturer and author based in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Plus, you’ll be seen as cool and edgy. And, “it’s perfectly fine to wear headphones and listen to music at work,” she said. If you can make it as a freelance graphic designer, you also get to set your own hours. But remember, O’Brien said that freelancing could require meeting clients during evenings or weekends, so you’ll still need discipline to achieve that work-life balance.

3. Elementary School Teacher

Summers off and out at 3 p.m. — are you kidding? It’s like being a kid again. Only without the acne and peer pressure. Sure, you might not get rich, but you’ll have a great tan and the chance to inspire the next generation. Or at least surprise them with a pop quiz.

“Being a teacher can be really great,” said O’Brien. “There are lots of daylight hours after work; grading papers doesn’t need sun. Travel plans are easy with summers and holidays off, and bad weather days are an unexpected bonus.”

But of course, those papers don’t grade themselves. In fact, teachers do put in many hours outside of the classroom grading, preparing lessons and attending meetings. Those responsibilities still must be balanced.

4. Social Media Manager

If you’re an expert when it comes to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets, putting that to use for companies might result in a career that trends toward a great work-life balance.

There will likely be some pressure to be creative and pump out a lot of content, but the career came in at No. 4 on Glassdoor’s best jobs for work-life balance list, with a rating of 4 out of 5. That seems worth Tweeting about.

5. Software Developer

Making it into Glassdoor’s top 25 jobs for a healthy work-life balance with a rating of 3.7, the career of software developer might seem like an odd pick. After all, creating and engineering new apps sounds stressful.

But if you choose to believe the Glassdoor report, perhaps you’ll want to apply at Asana, the new company founded by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz. In August, Moskovitz told CNN that the tech industry was destroying its workers’ personal lives by demanding too much from them and said his new company seeks to do the opposite.

“We seek this [work-life] balance explicitly,” he said. “We’ve come to the conclusion that this is the best way to be successful.”

6. Hairstylist

While the risk involved in chopping off someone’s hair or dying it the wrong shade of red might be stressful, apparently the possibility of turning around their bad hair day more than makes up for it.

Hair stylist took the No. 1 spot in job-finding site CareerCast’s “Least Stressful Jobs of 2015“ report. One reason cited is that your day is spent helping others feel good about themselves. They did note, however, that there can be a fair amount of work gaining new clients and retaining a steady clientele.

7. Web Developer

Coming in at No. 10 on Glassdoor’s list, and recommended by O’Brien, is web developer. These are the people who design and create websites, and they often have a great work-life balance, said O’Brien.

O’Brien explained that web developers often work as freelancers, but even when they are in offices, they are seen as creative types. So, they can get away with a little less formality. Freelancers set their own hours, but even if you take your work home with you, it’s design-oriented.

8. Dietician

As long as you don’t tell your dates what to order, or how to lose those extra pounds, this career might result in a nice work-life balance. After all, it came in at No. 8 on CareerCast’s list of the least stressful jobs for 2015.

If you take your own advice, you’ll eat healthier and feel better. It’s also a career in which you’ll make a positive difference in people’s lives. That means smiles, and that’s never bad for balance.

9. Civil Engineer

Doctor, lawyer, engineer ... these titles are guaranteed to impress your date’s parents. Civil engineers deal with major projects like roads and bridges, so you’ll also have some interesting cocktail conversation fodder. And out of the three occupations sure to impress, engineer might be the best bet for work-life balance, according to the Glassdoor report, which put it in the top 12.

10. Human Resources Manager

Developing great people skills isn’t the worst benefit a job can have. And yes, you’ll likely have to deal with petty disputes as well as big work issues. But O’Brien said these are more than made up for in other areas.

“The hours are normal, so you’ll have plenty of time after work to use your refined people skills bettering your social life,” she said. Perhaps that’s why Glassdoor listed a rendition of this job — talent acquisition specialist — at No. 3 on its list of the best work-life balance jobs.

10 Worst Jobs for Work-Life Balance

These 10 careers tend to demand so much of your time that achieving an acceptable work-life balance could take maximum effort. The list is not a ranking, and to compile it, GOBankingRates asked career experts and consulted studies. Time demands, responsibility and stress factors were all considered as well.

1. Surgeon

You’d think a quarter of a million dollars a year would buy you a seriously nice life. And yes, it does. But as for the balance part, you might have to work a little to make that happen.

“Surgeons are not only on call when they are needed, but they also have a very specialized career in which they might be the only one available with their specific expertise,” said Tony Sorenson, president and CEO of the executive search and consulting firm Versique Search & Consulting.

So, in addition to extreme pressure, you’ll likely have to refrain from that second glass of wine quite often and be ready to be called in for emergencies. The good news? You’ll get there in a really sweet ride.

2. Lawyer

Don’t let Hollywood give you the wrong impression: Being a lawyer is not all legal victories and celebratory drinks at the bar. There’s a lot of hard work involved.

Yes, lawyers get paid a lot per hour. But that’s the point, said O’Brien. Working smarter won’t necessarily get you more pay; more hours logged gets you more pay. And if you do finally get some free time and make it to the party, there are all those lawyer jokes you have to contend with.

3. Massage Therapist

Apparently, relieving stress for people all day is not always conducive to relieving stress in your own life. Message therapists often don’t have the most normal of hours, and squeezing, pressing and pulling is highly physical work.

It can take a toll on your relationships, too. According to a study published by the Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology and reported by USA Today, massage therapists have one of the nation’s highest divorce rates at more than 38.2 percent. Guess a good massage doesn’t cure all ills after all.

4. Registered Nurse

Much like a surgeon — without the big house and Mercedes — being an angel of healing can take a lot out of you. According to the Department of Labor, “Because patients in hospitals and nursing care facilities need round-the-clock care, nurses in these settings usually work in shifts, covering all 24 hours. They may work nights, weekends and holidays. They also may be on call.”

“You won’t stay home because of blizzards or disasters, either,” added O’Brien. “In fact, you may be there for the duration.” No wonder they wear comfortable shoes.

5. General and Operations Manager

We know there are all kinds of general managers, from restaurants to toy companies. But whatever the industry, managing the entire staff and making sure business is booming can really bust your work-life balance.

For instance, according to a 2015 report by Ernst & Young, 58 percent of U.S. managers log more than 40 hours a week. That was second in the world — only Mexican managers were more likely to report 40-plus-hour weeks (61 percent).

6. Top Business Executive

You’d think moving up would be a great thing for your life, but moving up often means more stress, more responsibility and less time for yourself, said Sorenson. As an executive, you might do everything from formulating and implementing company policies and ensuring goals are met to managing other executives, overseeing marketing and sales, and more.

“Executives have a responsibility to their company and often deal with not only internal operations, but external relationships,” said Sorenson. “Often, social dinners also have a business purpose, making work-life balance more complicated.”

Read: Why 2016 Is the Year of the Entrepreneur

7. Firefighter

Just about every boy dreams of becoming a firefighter at some point. But in addition to saving people from burning buildings and getting cats out of trees, there’s also a lot of stress.

In fact, CareerCast named it as the No. 1 most stressful job of 2015. “Firefighters face dangerous situations in ever-changing conditions, and their work is not limited to battling blazes. Firefighters also assist with medical emergencies and natural disasters,” the CareerCast article said. In addition, you’ll be staying in the firehouse many nights of the week with a bunch of guys in funny hats.

8. Commercial Airline Pilot

When airline pilot Matthew Creans first began his career as a pilot, he used to stand in the airport, looking at the “Destinations” board and smile at the thought of being able to fly to anywhere in the world he wanted. That didn’t exactly happen.

He now flies the Hawaii to California route exclusively so he can maximize time home with his family. Others, who fly internationally, are away for up to four days and return home too tired for a social life, he said. Maybe that’s why airline pilot came in at No. 4 on CareerCast’s “Most Stressful Jobs of 2015” list.

9. Stock Broker

If you’ve seen the movie “Wall Street,” you know that pressure comes with this job. And though you have the opportunity to make Gordon Gekko money, you might have to give up a lot for it. Greed might be good, but not for the work-life balance.

Predicting the future all day can be exhausting, said O’Brien. In addition, she pointed out that often these professionals must use their personal time to track down new leads at social events or schmooze clients with golf or dinner dates.

10. Journalist

News waits for no man or woman. Working nights, weekends, changing your schedule to accommodate breaking news and constantly living under a deadline are just a few of the things the Department of Labor lists under the journalist section. All that and low pay, too.

Maybe that’s why the job of newspaper reporter ended up on CareerCast’s “10 Most Stressful Jobs of 2015” list along with firefighter, soldier, military general and police officer.  At least journalists don’t get shot at. Usually.

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