MANILA, Philippines — Filipinos find being a virtual assistant as their top dream job, more than any other career, according to a research conducted by digital services provider Remitly.
In previous research by Remitly in 2022 and 2024, Filipinos previously dreamed of becoming doctors.
“The dream job in the Philippines is virtual assistant, followed by doctor and vlogger,” Remitly said in its key findings for the country.
“The top 10 list of jobs Filipinos dream of shows a mix of traditional professions such as lawyer and doctor, and more modern careers within the digital space, such as vlogger, content creator and social media manager,” it added.
Ranked from one to 10, the top 10 dream jobs for Filipinos are as follows: Virtual assistant, doctor, vlogger, lawyer, actor, astronaut, flight attendant, diplomat, content creator, and social media manager.
The world’s top 10 dream jobs, ranked from one to 10, are as follows: Actor, pilot, firefighter, lawyer, YouTuber, veterinarian, flight attendant, police officer, estate agent, and disc jockey (DJ).
Acting took the top spot for the first time in the Remitly dream career rankings, taking over from pilot which went to second place.
“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,” Ryan Riley, Remitly vice president for European, Middle East and Africa and Asia Pacific, said in a statement.
“Perhaps the most striking finding is the growing influence of artificial intelligence 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,” he added.
Remitly said that the search volume was attributed to search data from Google from May of last year to May of this year.
“Google search data was used to establish the annual search volume (May 2025 to May 2026) in each country for ‘how to be a [job]’ search terms associated with dreaming of a new job or career for every country in the world, searched in each country's respective language,” Remitly said.
“The most searched-for job was then used as the top career for the specific country. Not all countries provided enough search data to be featured, meaning we have analyzed data for 145 out of 195 countries… Having conducted this research first in 2022, then again in 2024, we have expanded the 2026 list of job titles from previous iterations. We compared the results to our previous analysis from 2024 to examine how the rankings have changed since then. Job titles that were not included in the 2024 research have been flagged wherever relevant to ensure comparisons have not been made,” it added.
Remitly also said that data was correct as of June of this year.