I’m in my mid 20’s… sigh. I’ve felt this way since high school. The feeling of wanting to pursue but feeling completely lost. I am currently a General Studies major, because I wanted to get rid of all the basic courses first. This Spring, I finally accomplished that. I am half way done with my associates but… now I really have to focus on a major. I have worked eight years in this property management company as an office assistant, that I do like because I get to work a lot of hours at home, but there’s no growth here at all.
Since this was my first job, I have no idea what I am good at or haven’t gained additional skills other than great typist and data entry. I just wish I was passionate about something so I can give it my all and earn a degree. And I suppose, I do have my passions but they’re all mainly in the arts field and I would like a rewarding career that possibly requires a degree- even an associates! I never thought about health care industry but it seems like it will always be in demand so I am now considering it. I like the idea of studying people,human mind, therapy, and don’t get easily disgusted but I also want a work/life balance.
What I would like in a career:
Daytime hours
Creativity (If possible)
Job security
Decent pay
I heard one new popular career in medical/therapy is speech pathology if you’re interested in that. I’ve heard DH is very saturated with new grads and it’s can be difficult to find jobs (I also looked into majoring in DH). Have you thought about teaching at all? Though you can have hours after school from grading, the school day is from maybe around 7-3:30 (depending on the school). You also have a sense of creativity in your classroom (while still following the school’s rules). The pay can be low but it depends on where you live and where you teach, level of education also helps with pay I’ve heard. Just a few ideas. Hope this somewhat helps! Cheers
You’ll need to do careful research with any of the allied health careers, especially the ones that require an associates degree instead of a bachelors. You can make good money, but it might be hard to find full-time employment (I see a lot of ads for part-time and prn positions). From what I can tell, they’re great part-time jobs, but not so much if you need full-time and benefits.
OT could be a good field for you if you would enjoy using creative activities therapeutically with your clients. There’s a whole sub-field of OT working with people who have mental health issues, and use of creative activities can be particularly important in those settings. It might be a good way to combine your interests. Is there a COTA program at your school? The thing to be sure of is that you are comfortable remaining at the Assistant level, because there’s no efficient path for Assistants to upgrade their degree/license for upward mobility. If you think you want to end up as an OT, you should aim for that from the beginning. There are lots of great job opportunities for Assistants; it can just be frustrating at times because your level of autonomy can fluctuate depending on who’s supervising you and how much they’re willing to delegate.
If you are already halfway done with an associate’s degree, OT assistant, ultrasound tech and respiratory tech may actually require you to study longer than just one more year to complete your degree. Those are usually associate’s-level jobs, but you have to do specific training programs with a required sequence of prerequisites followed by the degree itself. It’ll extend your time to degree. That’s not necessarily bad if that’s what you really want, but just be warned.
Dental hygienist is in a weird middle ground because I think formerly an associate’s alone was fine to do that, but there are more and more BS programs in dental hygiene popping up. I’m not sure what the competition is and whether just getting an associate’s in that would suffice. Even if it would, it then has the same problem as the OTA or respiratory tech/ultrasound tech jobs.
There are thousands of jobs that that would provide you with daytime hours, job security, and decent pay. What do you like to do? What are your interests, other than the arts?
Studying “people, the human mind, therapy” sounds like psychology.
If you’re interested in the arts – it sounds like you’re giving them up because you’ve heard that you can’t earn a living in the arts. I’m hoping to remind you that in the arts, some people (metaphorically) play the piano and other people move the piano. There are also people who light the piano, tune the piano, get funding so that the piano can be played, advertise so that people hear the piano being played, make databases of donors and ticket sales, etc.
In the arts there are many many positions that need filling. One person plays the piano. An entire industry revolves around that piano. If you are good at data and administration, arts administration is a viable and worthy field. You can also do development work – fundraising. Or do grant writing. It’s a specialized area and always in demand. The arts make billions of dollars a year. You just need one of those jobs. It’s possible for you to work in the arts, in my opinion.
