Realistic Career Changes: From Barista to Brain Surgeon?
You been working as a barista at Starbucks for the past three years and figure it’s just not the career you’d dreamed of. Yeah, the fancy title and the pleasant looking apron are nice, but there must be employment with better perks. So what career choices should you consider? Architect, engineer, or maybe something in medical research?
Whatever your choice, be realistic. If you hate math and don’t want to spend years in college, then the previously mentioned careers are not for you. You need to find something that fits your interest, your lifestyle and your aptitude.
In a Gallup poll of teenagers’ top career choices in 2005, teens overwhelming reported interest in careers with expected high salaries. Doctor, lawyer, architect and engineer were high on the list. Only jobs like teacher and military were not in high paying categories. Too often career choices are based almost entirely on what pays the best.
And even then, we are often wrong about the typical wages for a job. For example, the average pay for an architect is just over $56,000 a year. While the average high school teacher’s wages are nearly $50,000 a year, often with summers off. So there is not a lot of difference between the average wages of an architect and a high school teacher. Of course, wages outside the U.S. will vary.
Being realistic means understanding that the high paying jobs almost always require more education, specialized skills and are often highly competitive. It usually means working long hours, having more responsibility and, therefore, more stress. When considering a career choice, all of these factors must be taken into account.
But probably the most important issues when considering a career change is how well it matches your aptitude. Do you have the temperament, the skills, and the interest to do the job well. Do the job requirements match who you are, what you enjoy, and what satisfies you? It seems that later in life, often during midlife career changes, we begin to look more at how well a job fits our lifestyle rather than how much money we can make.
Is your current career a good match? What factors do you find important in making a career change?
