When you’re 18 years old and choosing a career path, financial security is often the first thing on your mind. What jobs will pay the best?
What jobs will have the highest level of demand? It’s through this thinking that people select careers that make them financially and physically comfortable but emotionally distraught.
Modern employees change jobs more often than any other previous generation, often selecting new careers based not exclusively on salary but on responsibility. People want jobs that make a difference in the world. Often, they’re willing to work harder and make less money to get them. Why is that? And is it wise?
In this article, we take a look at why fulfilling careers are often better options than lucrative ones.
Overview
First of all, it’s important to clarify that there is certainly nothing wrong with valuing financial comfort. You need food, you need shelter, you need water.
And while you don’t always need medicine, you at least want the means to acquire it when it is needed. However, there is a flipside to this.
If you’re paying your mortgage, you’re buying groceries without worrying about having your card declined, and you’re socking away money for retirement, you might find that you really don’t need very much more than that.
Many people will find, often in their thirties, that the corporate job that made sense to them when they were selecting a college major no longer fulfills them. As a result, they look for pivots that will make them feel more satisfied with the way they spend their time.
The average person works for about 42 hours a week, approximately half of their waking hours. You can’t live 50% of your life feeling miserable.
Emotionally fulfilling work ensures that you feel good about how you spend your time on the job.
What Career Paths Are People Picking?
This will, of course, depend on the individual and the stage they are at in life. That said, there are several typical pivot options. Health care, education, and social work are three of the most popular choices. There are two reasons for this.
The first, naturally enough, is that all three are high-impact career paths. They allow you to make a very direct and clear difference in the world, which can be a refreshing change of pace for someone who has had a career in advertising, marketing, or business management.
The other thing is that all three career paths have very direct routes to transition. There is a practical component to changing your career that can’t be ignored.
You can’t just walk into a school one day and say, “Hello, I’ve been a marketing exec for the last 15 years, I think I’d really like to teach art here.” You need to get the qualification.
The older you are, the less likely you’ll want to resume college life as a freshman. With these jobs, you won’t have to.
Finding Your Dream Second Career Through Certification
Social work, education, and many healthcare careers are often fairly accessible for people who already have college degrees. As long as you have a bachelor’s, you should be able to enter any of these jobs through an accelerated course of study.
These certification-only programs can take between 12 to 24 months and will typically allow you to focus only on career-specific coursework. In other words, in most cases, you won’t need to worry about freshman English or mathematical requirements.
The path to certification will depend on both the field and the requirements specific to your state. In all cases, it is important to independently verify your regional certification requirements.
You might, for example, Google accelerated nursing programs and find several dozen options. However, when you look a little closer, it’s possible you’ll learn that none of them are approved in your area.
The nice thing about these certification programs is that they are typically available in very flexible formats. Universities understand that they are there primarily for people like you who already have a job or possibly family obligations.
For that reason, many classes are held at night or even online in flexible, prerecorded formats to make it easier to work when it is convenient for you.
How Is the Money in the World of Fulfilling Work?
That’s a good question, one that doesn’t have a concrete answer. The financial reality of choosing fulfilling jobs over corporate careers depends on your individual needs and the career itself.
It’s fairly difficult to support a family on a teacher’s salary, unless you have a partner who is also making an income. The same could be said of most social work careers.
Nurses make better money, but they typically start on the lower end of the salary spectrum and experience modest scheduled raises year after year. The actual salary expectations will vary based on your location and the specific type of work you are interested in doing.
It’s a good idea to research salary expectations in your area and figure out how you can make your new career work based on your unique financial goals. One thing to keep in mind is not just the salary itself but also the retirement benefits.
Education and social work careers may not have the best salaries, but they will sometimes have better-than-average pension or retirement plans that offset some of the financial discomfort. This will, of course, depend on your location.
Conclusion
If you are hoping to make a major career pivot, it’s important to give the process time and do adequate research. You’ll likely find that there are many opportunities you had never previously even considered.
For example, if you are dead set on doing work that fulfills you, but you are more concerned with the financial realities, you might look for opportunities that provide higher compensation while still producing fulfilling work. In that case, you might choose the career path of a health care administrator or even an education administrator.
These jobs will typically require more education, often a graduate degree, but they will allow you to do meaningful work and earn a 6 figure salary in the process. There are lots of ways to make a difference in the world.
They don’t all pay badly. Find the career path that makes the most sense to you.
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