Written by Michael Feder
Reviewed by Kathryn Uhles, MIS, MSP, Dean, College of Business and IT
People today spend up to — or 90,000 hours — working. What’s more, a growing body of evidence points to a strong connection between helping others and life satisfaction.
Knowing that, it makes sense to look for ways to spend that time in a capacity that applies both your skills and knowledge to the greater good.
Many careers in healthcare, education, behavioral science, business and technology offer just that. Let’s explore some of the options.
Careers in healthcare can provide the opportunity to help patients who are coping with disease, infection, injury, or behavioral or mental health challenges. Caring for and assisting vulnerable patients is often enriching for that reason.
The first step toward a career in patient care is very often obtaining a healthcare degree. Depending on your career path, this will provide valuable instruction in skills and processes you’ll need each day in a healthcare profession.
Healthcare jobs include the following:
Becoming a nurse allows you to work directly with patients, family and the community if you so desire. Registered nurses (RNs) provide assessments, perform diagnostic tests and create treatment plans — all of which directly help patients. Nurses also may help manage nursing informatics, which includes the collection and analysis of patient data.
Salary ranges are not specific to students or graduates of °®ÎŰ´«Ă˝. Actual outcomes vary based on multiple factors, including prior work experience, geographic location and other factors specific to the individual. °®ÎŰ´«Ă˝ does not guarantee employment, salary level or career advancement. BLS data is not geographically based. Information for a specific state/city can be researched on the BLS website.
Health information specialists help manage an organization’s health information: collecting, analyzing and securing health information to identify trends in data that can contribute to improved patient outcomes.
A bachelor’s degree in health administration can help you learn skills to become a health information specialist. To further strengthen their candidacy in the field, aspiring health information specialists may obtain a master’s degree in health administration with a concentration in informatics.
Managers and administrators oversee many day-to-day operations in a healthcare environment, from scheduling personnel to patient care.
Educational careers provide the opportunity to teach students in a variety of fields. Behavioral science, meanwhile, offers opportunities for both research and hands-on careers.
Some potential career paths include:
Social workers help connect individuals, families and communities with a variety of assistive resources and services.
With a social work degree, professionals can contribute to implementing real change across a community. They might help keep children in school, for example, or assist parents in coping with mental health challenges.
Teachers provide direct academic assistance for students in pre-k–12 schools. They instruct students in foundational fields like science, math and language.
Jobs in business and finance might not be the first thing that comes to mind for careers that help people. However, the right finance or business career can enable you to help others in a variety of ways. You might encourage smart financial management, ethical business practices or other decisions that help people achieve success and fulfillment.
Some examples of such careers are:
Personal financial planners  regarding investments for long-term goals. They help people consider options like stocks, bonds, real estate and retirement funds.
Accountants assist with financial record preparation and review, note potential risks and opportunities and suggest advice and solutions for business and individuals.
Human resources managers play a pivotal role in human resource management. HR managers serve as advocates for an organization’s workforce. They help employees negotiate benefits, understand updates to medical plans and mitigate disputes with other employees. They might also organize social functions or informal gatherings where employees can socialize and network.
Cybersecurity analysts work to keep organizations and employees safe from cybercrime. They deploy strategies that help fortify organizational devices, networks, servers and databases from hackers.
Cybersecurity analysts monitor an organization’s IT infrastructure and are responsible for any response to an attempted cybersecurity attack. They also help to educate employees on the best ways to keep their devices and data secure.
A graduate of Johns Hopkins University and its Writing Seminars program and winner of the Stephen A. Dixon Literary Prize, Michael Feder brings an eye for detail and a passion for research to every article he writes. His academic and professional background includes experience in marketing, content development, script writing and SEO. Today, he works as a multimedia specialist at °®ÎŰ´«Ă˝ where he covers a variety of topics ranging from healthcare to IT.
Currently Dean of the College of Business and Information Technology, Kathryn Uhles has served °®ÎŰ´«Ă˝ in a variety of roles since 2006. Prior to joining °®ÎŰ´«Ă˝, Kathryn taught fifth grade to underprivileged youth in °®ÎŰ´«Ă˝.
This article has been vetted by °®ÎŰ´«Ă˝'s editorial advisory committee.Â
Read more about our editorial process.
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