Ready to start your dream job in healthcare? Here are five ways to find and land your ideal career path in the health space.
The average growth rate for all occupations in the United States is 7 percent. Pretty sluggish, right? Well, that shouldn’t worry you. In the health space, occupations are forecast to grow by a whopping 18 percent from now through much of the next decade. As the baby boomer generation approaches its sunset years and as Americans become more health-conscious, the demand for health workers will keep increasing.
So if you’re looking to pursue a healthcare occupation, the stars are shining bring above you. Now your task is to take the necessary steps required to obtain the job you want. Keep reading to learn what it takes to land the healthcare job of your dreams.
Know the Occupations in the Health Space
What comes to mind when you think of a healthcare worker? If you’re anything like most people, those words evoke mental images of a person in a hospital or other healthcare facility, wearing a white hospital coat and attending to patients are carrying medical supplies! Well, who can blame you? The vast majority of healthcare jobs are indeed patient-facing, but there are several other jobs in other settings. Some healthcare professionals work in private research labs, others in schools, drug stores, spas, fitness studios, and counseling centers.
Other healthcare workers don’t even deal with humans. Veterinarians, for instance, care for the health of animals, but they are still professionals in the health space. As such, the first step to finding your dream health career is to have a good understanding of the various jobs in the industry, and what their specific roles and responsibilities are.
Identify Your Passions
Any career expert will tell you that the key to having a successful career is pursuing a job you’re passionate about. This is why identifying your passions is important. If you don’t know your passions yet, start by listing your hobbies or what you like doing. Think of those things that really set your soul on fire. If you’re passionate about caring for other people, or if you’re the kind of person friends turn to when they need help, that’s a sign you’re a good fit for a healthcare career. But that isn’t enough to narrow down to a specific profession.
To be a physician, for instance, you ought to be a person who’s curious about medicines and human diseases from a young age. Perhaps you’re always watching medical documentaries or reading medical research reports. Either way, when you have a good idea of what you’re passion is, it’s far easier to find a health career you’ll enjoy.
Do You Have the Right Academic Ability?
Let’s face it: not everyone can be a medical doctor. This is because pursuing a career in medicine and surgery requires advanced professional training. Four years in undergraduate school, four years in medical school, and a further two in a residency program is no light joke. If you aren’t one of the sharpest chaps in your class, you probably lack the academic grit required to become a doctor.
Therefore, it’s vital to ensure you have the academic ability and educational motivation to pursue the healthcare career of your dreams, especially if it’s one of those prestigious ones. If you do, perfect! If you don’t, there’s absolutely no shame in that. There are still lots of entry-level healthcare professions that don’t require lots of education and training. A good example is the job of a medical administration assistant, which only requires a two-year associate degree.
What About Your Skills?
It takes a combination of professional knowledge and the right occupation skills to succeed in the health space. This means you might have the brains to become, say, a surgeon, but lack the skills to be a really competent surgeon. For instance, surgeons need to be compassionate, patient people with excellent communication skills. If you lack these, then chances are high you might not be able to establish positive surgeon-patient relationships, a keystone in successful treatment administration.
The gist of this is you need to evaluate your skills before choosing a healthcare career. If you aren’t a strong communicator, then don’t go for jobs that involve lots of communication with other people. You could become a lab technician, for example. Your job will be mostly behind the scenes, setting up lab equipment and conducting experiments.
Consider Employment and Career Advancement Prospects
Sure, we said the job outlook in the health space looks strong. However, this is an industry average, which means there are jobs with even higher demand and there are others with poor demand. Before settling on a specific career, do further research and establish its outlook. If its growth prospects also lower than the national average, you might want to rethink your stance. Slow growth means finding a job right after college could be a challenge.
Another thing to consider is your advancement prospects in that career. After getting the job, what next? How do you move to the next level or you’ll be stuck in the same position for years? An ideal dream career should allow room for advancement. There should be a straight ladder to the top, which you’ll climb as you gain more experience and obtain more advanced qualifications.
Many kids dream of becoming nurses and doctors when they grow up. This doesn’t have to be your dream, but there are lots of professions you can pursue in the health space. With this guide, you should be able to evaluate all the relevant factors and find your dream healthcare job. All the best and keep reading our blog to learn more about all health-related matters.