How Long Before You Need To Make A Change?
Tons of people are working unhappily, even in a bad economy, and they really want to make a change but they don't know how.
We're going to work from the assumption that most people simply can't afford to just drop everything and go running back to college and spend years and years there doing whatever they feel like doing so they can "find themselves" so with that in mind let's look at some jobs that allow for fairly simple transitions...even in a bad economy.
Radiologic Technologists can complete a 9-12 month training program that you can take at a vocational school or even at a hospital (which means it's flexible) and you can get to work with CT Scans, MRI's, or even Mammograms. This kind of training program is something you can do in your off-hours from your day job and you can usually finish it pretty quickly. The good thing about being a Radiologic Technologist is that you can ascend in the profession from just working the machine to managing the people who work the machine to managing the whole department. From there you could get into Hospital Management on a much higher level. Now that sounds like a career.
Ultrasound Technicians (Sonographers) fall into this same category. You can get your training done in the off-hours from your day job and you can usually do it in 9-12 months. So, while you're working you can prepare for this new career. Once you're trained you can go to work in a hospital or OB's office. (This is especially nice is you enjoy kids since a lot of Sonograms are done for pregnant mothers.) You can move from working the Sonograph to managing the others who work the Sonograph, to managing all the imaging technology in a hospital or Doctor's office. You could even get into healthcare management and really make a career of it.
You could also get into Medical Records or Medical Transcription. The training programs for these jobs are pretty short and you can do many of them online (and the work online too!) Working in Medical Transcription or Medical Records offer you a "business" route into medicine. If you were working in medical records, coding, or transcription in a hospital you could parlay that into work as a business manager, office manager or internal auditor for the hospital or office. You could take sort of job even farther and into a role like Corporate Secretary or CFO of the hospital or practice. It gets lost on folks sometimes how easily you can work up from the bottom, and jobs like these really give you that chance.
So, don't be dismayed if you can't run back to school like it was the good old days...step into a short training program and avoid having to punt your day job until you have a new one on tap. You can find yourself a new career in places you never thought possible...
