Does your current job leave you feeling unfulfilled? Sitting in an office all day earning money for a large corporation will never feel like your life’s work. Where job satisfaction really comes in is when you help others. Being able to make a difference to people’s lives, whether it’s helping them out of a bad situation, caring for them when they’re sick or educating them about how to live better is what makes getting out of bed each day and going to work worthwhile.
Care and Medical
Working within the medical field gives you a chance to make a genuine difference to the lives of others. You can help to heal them or care for them throughout the rehabilitation process. Whether you want to work your way to the top and become a surgeon or other specialist, become a nurse or work more on the care side of things, they’re the type of jobs that you can go home each day knowing you have made people’s lives better.
Working your way to the top of the career path in medicine is something that’s incredibly lengthy, you have to do four years of pre-med preparation, four years of med school and then up to seven years of residency (and it doesn’t stop there). Therefore it may not be an option if you’re looking to get into this later in life. However, there are plenty of other roles within medicine and healthcare.
There are some nursing degrees you can get in as little as 15 months if you already have a degree in another field, though you can then move up in the nursing profession by pursuing higher degrees like an MSN degree. Some health jobs you can go in with no experience and be taught on the job. So don’t rule this industry out just because you don’t have the time or inclination to work up to being a doctor.
Mental Health Services
Instead of caring for people physically, how about going into more of a psychological career? To become a psychologist or psychiatrist it takes around eight years after gaining your degree. You will need to study for a doctorate which takes four years, and then four years of residency. But again there are other careers within the mental health industry which take less time to achieve.
You could become a mental health nurse, undertaking a degree lasting three years. If you wanted to work within a school setting, you could do an online school counselling masters. This is useful if you don’t have the opportunity to jump straight into a postgraduate course after your degree. It would give you the flexibility to study around a job or other commitments while still working towards your goal.
Social and Community Care Work
Social work and work in the community such as a housing officer allows you to make life better for individuals and families. Whether it’s preventing homelessness or ensuring children at risk are being properly cared for, it allows you to make a positive impact on the lives of others and can prevent people suffering unnecessarily.
To become a social worker you will need to take a degree in social work which will take three to four years. To become a housing officer, you will usually need a degree- most employers will prefer this to be in a related subject. This could be anything from community development, social policy or building surveying.