If you’re a college student, wondering what to do next with your life and trying to figure out your future career, there are a multitude of jobs in healthcare.

Think about it. Every day, people are in need of help for a variety of reasons. Maybe they aren’t able to do things for themselves as well as they used to. Maybe they need an important procedure to improve their quality of life. Or maybe they need care for their pets.

Whatever their reasons, people are always in need of help and as such, there are a plethora of healthcare jobs available. Depending on where you want to focus your studies, the sky truly is the limit.

If you’re uncertain of pursue a healthcare profession, you should know there are many good reasons to do so. It’s true that the word healthcare is very broad, but there are many benefits to pursuing healthcare studies.

Industry Growth

With the ebbs and flows of the economy, you never know where there might be jobs available. But most of the time, many of the fastest growing careers are in the health care industry. As healthcare continues to grow it’s no wonder more students are pursuing careers in healthcare. Likewise, folks who have had careers in other industries are going back to school and enrolling in medical classes.

Benefits and Pay

If you want to pursue studies in general dentistry, you should do so because you want to learn about oral health and you’re committed to helping people take care of their teeth. That being said, working in a lot of healthcare fields comes with a lot of perks. With so many healthcare jobs available, you may be able to pick up a well-paying job right out of college, which is a great perk for any recent college grad. If you pursue higher studies to perhaps become a surgeon, then your earning potential and benefits increase.

It Keeps You Interested In Your Work

With so many healthcare jobs available, that means there are a great many opportunities to find work that are fun, exciting and stimulating. After all, there’s nothing worse than going into work every day and being bored by what you do. Working in healthcare, it’s likely that no two days will be the same and you’ll be challenged by your work.

That’s true if you pursue studies to eventually become a veterinarian. People are always seeking care for their pets and whether you become a full vet or a veterinarian’s assistant, you’ll be working with dogs, cats, horses and a variety of other animals. In this way, you’ll feel fulfilled by your work because you’ll always encounter new and interesting challenges.

It’s often been said that if you truly love your job, you’ll never have to work a day in your life. You’re more than likely going to have some challenging days now and then, but working in healthcare will definitely keep you interested in what you do and happy that you do it.

Different Career Options

It really doesn’t matter where your healthcare journey begins—you may be a volunteer, an intern or an assistant—you have lots of freedom to pick your desired career path. With so many healthcare jobs available, you’ll be able to find one you really enjoy.

Even if you want to try different jobs as you try to settle on your perfect career, it’s easy to do in the medical field. You have your heart set on being a dentist and you might start out as an assist in a family orthodontist. But as you progress, you may find yourself interested in another, similar field and pursue a career there. The good news is that if you do that, you’ll have a leg up on getting a job if you can get a good recommendation. Employee referrals are the top source for hiring volume in the United States, so you shouldn’t have to search very long.

Chances to Travel

Another benefit of working in healthcare is that you get a chance to travel. There’s always a need for medical professionals around the United States and if you live in a rural area, odds are you’re going to be traveling a lot. Let’s say for example that a family with an elderly relative wants to hire a caregiver to help their loved one with everyday tasks. If you pursue a career as a care giver, you’ll have plenty of chances to travel and help everyday citizens at the same time.

Flexibility

Because there are so many healthcare jobs available, that means there’s plenty of jobs and plenty of flexibility. Since hospitals and other healthcare centers provide round-the-clock care, they need people who can work a variety of schedules. What does that mean for you? It means if you don’t want to work a traditional 9-to-5 work day, you don’t have to. You can craft your schedule around your personal life, which will hopefully allow to create a healthy work-life balance.

Working a flexible schedule can also be very beneficial should you ever decide you want to go back to school and get an advanced degree.

Helping People

It doesn’t matter what health care job you have, you’re getting into the health care field to help people. If you want to pursue a career in addiction counseling for example, you’re doing so because you want to help those who have been affected by drugs and alcohol.

You may not know it, but not many other lines of work give you the chance to help people as much as healthcare does. This is what should motivate you day in and day out. Even on the toughest of days when it might not seem like you’re making a difference, you definitely are and the people you’re helping are thankful for your aid.

As you can see, with so many healthcare jobs available, you can find something you truly love. But if you’re a student, there are many important questions you should ask yourself before you fully commit to a job in healthcare.

What Motivates You?

As previously mentioned, healthcare professionals are very motivated by their job. But if you’re looking to get established in the healthcare field, you need to ask yourself what your motivation is. Do you want to help others? Are you pursuing a health care job for the money?

It’s true that healthcare jobs can be very rewarding, but they’re not always as easy or cinematic as TV shows make it look. Healthcare jobs can be very lucrative, but they require a lot of commitment, hard work and endurance because many healthcare professionals experience high stress levels.

Ultimately, you need to make sure that the goals you have in pursuing a job in healthcare are in line with good motivation. Taking any job is a big decision and you want to make sure you’ve made the right choice at the end of the day.

What Will Your Education or Training Look Like?

Before you pursue any healthcare career, you should take a deep look into what kinds of training, degrees or diplomas are required for the career you want. While there are lots of healthcare jobs available, not all of them have the same degree requirements. Whether you’re interested in medical administration jobs or you want to become a patient care advocate in your hometown, you need to know what kind of education you need and how you can balance the required coursework with the time required to get your degree.

For example, you may start school with dreams of becoming a surgeon. But you may find in your research that you may not have the time or the money to see that course of education all the way through. Thankfully, you can pursue other opportunities such as becoming a nurse practitioner or a physician’s assistant, which will still require education in its own right.

What Strengths Do You Have?

It is true that different careers in healthcare require different personality traits and different skill sets. But as you pursue your studies, you’ll find that there are some common traits among healthcare professionals.

• Healthcare workers are great interpersonal and communication skills.
• Healthcare workers are good some kind of mathematical or technical capacity.
• Healthcare workers have a strong work ethic.
• Healthcare workers can handle responsibility and are very mature.
• Healthcare workers love learning new things.

With so many healthcare jobs available, working in healthcare, even in a field like orthodontic treatment, gives you a chance to learn about new technology, emerging treatments, advanced procedures and other changes in your field, which will help make you better at your job.

What Role Do You See Yourself In?

As you pursue your studies, a good question to ask yourself is: what are you passionate about? As you’ve read, there are dozens of different types of healthcare jobs available, but you may not have the skill or the interest for each and every one of them.

Let’s say for example that you love animals. If helping and caring for animals is your passion, then pursuing a career in pet healthcare makes a lot of sense. You can become a veterinarian, a vet’s assistant or a vet tech. Regardless of your level of education, you’ll likely have a chance to pursue a career in the field you’re most passionate about.

What Do You Want to Do?

Pursuing your passion is definitely something to keep in mind as you pursue a career, but you also want to consider where you might be the most comfortable. If, for example, you’re not too keen on spending time in hospitals or you have shaky hands, then you may not want to be a surgeon. If you deal with depression, then working in a hospice-related career may not be the best choice.

But that doesn’t mean your limited in career choices either. Being a nurse or working in an office that specializes in pediatrician care, still allows you to pursue your overall passion of helping people.

How Will Your Job Affect Your Life?

Getting a job in a growing healthcare field can offer you a lot: flexibility, money, a chance to pursue your passion and a chance to continually learn new things.

But if you’re looking for a job, especially one fresh out of college, you need to consider how it might impact you and your family. If it’s your dream to become a nurse or a doctor, then you need to prepare yourself for having to work nights and weekends and being on call, sometimes for 24 hours at a time.

You’ll also want to consider finances and possibly relocating. If you’re a nurse who gets a residency at a prestigious hospital in another state, then you may have to relocate. If that’s the case, you need to consider whether or not that’s feasible for you to actually do. If you’ve got a family, you also need to consider how relocating may impact them. Bottom line: you need to give any kind of opportunity some serious thought. When you invest time, energy and money into your career, you want to be confident that you’ve made the right choice.

Embrace Your Career

As you can see, there are plenty of different, exciting, and challenging healthcare jobs available. The key for you, is to find a job that suits your skills, your passion and the time and commitment you can make to it. Healthcare jobs can be very lucrative and very rewarding, but there’s no doubt they can be stressful, challenging, and can definitely test your limits sometimes.

By finding the right job, you can challenge yourself and really feel fulfilled in your job. Regardless of where your career path takes you, ultimately you’ll be in a career where you’re helping people—or animals if you work as a vet. Remember, that’s why you’re going into healthcare to begin with; you want to help people and by choosing the right career where you can showcase your skills, you’ll be happy and confident that the work you’re doing makes a difference.