Starting Your Career in the Healthcare Sector
The healthcare sector is an essential industry for society and many different career paths can be explored within it. A lot of people choose to pursue roles in healthcare because they want to feel as though they are contributing positively to their community and have a passion for helping others. As there are many different branches to healthcare, you can start a career in this sector even though you may currently be working in an entirely different role, such as business management. If you are interested in a career in the healthcare sector, here are some tips to help you start your professional journey:
Research
As mentioned above, there are numerous roles that you can do in healthcare. Even if you have your heart set on becoming a doctor, nurse, or therapist, consider what other options are available to you first. Do some research to make sure that there isn’t another role that you might prefer or be better suited to. For example, if you’re interested in an administrative role, ask what do healthcare administrators do? You could also look at pharmaceutical research jobs or occupational therapy. Once you have looked into what other opportunities are available you can then find out what the next steps will be to pursue a particular role.
Education
Not every role will require a college degree but a lot of employers will find this desirable and some will consider it to be a necessity. Once you have chosen which role you would like to pursue as a career, find out whether or not higher education is required and look into the best degree programs to help you achieve this. You may already have a degree, but if this isn’t relevant to that job you may have to return to education. If you can’t leave full-time employment to study, there are more flexible learning options available to suit your lifestyle such as online degree programs.
Work Experience
In any industry, employers like to see that candidates have some work experience, even for entry-level roles. While a top-class degree will look amazing on your resume, if you want to make yourself stand out from other applicants you should make sure you have some work experience listed on there, too. You could apply for part-time or full-time jobs as support staff in a clinic or a relevant setting for the career you’re interested in and work around your studies. Alternatively, you could volunteer or ask your lecturers if they could help you source other work experience opportunities, such as internships.
What Are Your Transferable Skills?
Transferable skills include communication skills, organization, leadership, teamwork and numeracy and literacy. They can be developed in any job or educational environment and are focused on personal growth. If you have no prior work experience that is relevant to the role you are pursuing, you should make sure that you’re highlighting what transferable skills you do have and demonstrate how you can utilize them in that job. You might even have additional skills that are still relevant for that job role, even if you haven’t worked in a similar environment previously. For example, if you have worked in human resources the skills you have gained from that job would translate well in any working environment.
Find a Mentor
Working within the healthcare sector is tough and there’s a lot to learn. A good way to make sure you’re staying on track is by finding a mentor. By having an established member of staff to help you find your footing when you start your healthcare career, you’ll become more confident in your performance and get a better understanding of where you need to develop.
Become a Valued Team Member
For any job, it’s important to be a team player. Your colleagues rely on you to do your fair share to help things run smoothly, and vice versa. Not only is it important to be a team player to help manage the workload, but it can also help you to stand out as a valued employee who deserves to be rewarded for your efforts.
Further Training
You might already be working within the healthcare sector but want to move forward in your career. Ask your manager whether or not there is any further training you can do to help you be a more desirable candidate for more challenging roles. For example, a short course in nutrition management or adolescent health might be beneficial to your career advancement. This demonstrates your initiative and will help you learn more specialist skills that can be utilized during your career.
If you’re interested in pursuing a career in the healthcare sector, consider the points above to help you determine which path to take and how to achieve your goals.
