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Manila Bulletin devider Business devider The Economy devider Virtual assistant replaces doctor as Filipinos' top dream job—Remitly study

Virtual assistant replaces doctor as Filipinos' top dream job—Remitly study

Published Jun 30, 2026 08:48 am

Virtual assistant (VA) has overtaken doctor as the dream job of most Filipinos, reflecting the country’s growing preference for flexible digital work while traditional professions continue to rank among the most sought-after occupations, a new international study by digital financial services provider Remitly Global Inc. showed.

A report released on Tuesday, June 30, by Remitly found that VA is now the Philippines’ top dream job based on Google searches for “how to be a…” or “how to become a…” across 145 countries.

The latest findings marked a shift from Remitly’s previous study in 2024, when doctor emerged as the most searched career among Filipinos.

Doctor slipped to second place this year, followed by vlogger, lawyer, actor, astronaut, flight attendant, diplomat, content creator, and social media manager.

The Philippines’ top 10 dream jobs reflected a mix of traditional professions and digital careers.

While medicine and law remained among the country’s most desired professions, VA, vlogger, content creator, as well as social media manager underscored the growing appeal of internet-based careers among Filipinos.

Remitly said the findings were based on Google searches conducted from May 2025 to May 2026 using phrases such as “how to be a…” and “how to become a…” in each country’s respective language.

The study analyzed search data covering 424 occupations across 145 countries.

Globally, acting displaced pilot as the world’s top dream job for the first time since Remitly began tracking the data in 2022.

Searches for becoming an actor reached 222,080 annually worldwide, up 12 percent from the 2024 study, while interest in becoming a pilot declined 49 percent, pushing the profession to second place with 221,060 searches.

Firefighter ranked third globally, followed by lawyer, and YouTuber.

Although YouTuber ranked only fifth worldwide by search volume, it emerged as the top dream job in 28 countries—the highest among all occupations in the study, mostly across Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).

Rounding out the global top 20 were veterinarian, flight attendant, police officer, real estate agent, DJ, judge, physiotherapist or physical therapist, emergency medical technician (EMT), prosecutor, astronaut, doctor, nurse, diplomat, voice actor, and entrepreneur.

The latest edition of the report also highlighted the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI)-related occupations as career aspirations.

For the first time, prompt engineer, AI specialist, and machine learning engineer generated sufficient search volumes to appear in the global rankings, reflecting growing interest in AI-driven professions.

“While careers like actor and pilot continue to rank among the world’s most aspirational jobs, it’s notable to see traditionally stable professions such as lawyer and veterinarian climbing the rankings this year. One trend emerging from the data is that people may be placing greater value on financial security. At the same time, dream-driven careers like DJ and YouTuber are also gaining popularity, suggesting many are still prioritizing passions,” Remitly vice president of marketing for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) and Asia-Pacific (APAC) Ryan Riley said.

“Perhaps the most striking finding is the growing influence of AI on career aspirations. Just three years ago, virtually no one was searching for roles like ‘prompt engineer.’ Today, AI-related careers are beginning to appear in the data, reflecting how quickly new technologies are reshaping the way people think about work. As AI continues to evolve, we expect this area of the study to change dramatically from year to year,” Riley added.

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