Many individuals aspire to secure a rewarding and enduring medical career that aligns with their passion and provides long-term satisfaction. It is crucial to pursue work that not only presents immediate challenges but also fosters opportunities for professional growth, leading to a fulfilling and financially secure future for ourselves and our loved ones.
Achieving this desired career longevity and assurance lies in checking multiple boxes, including obtaining medical career certifications that are crucial in augmenting our knowledge, skills, and professional credibility. Nevertheless, there are even more aspects to take into consideration when wishing to achieve sustainability.
However, if the previous 24 months have taught us anything, it is that the only certainty is uncertainty, and it is within a context such as this that the idea of a sustainable career has become ever rarer. This article will provide some tips and insights as to how you can craft a sustainable career and why this is important for your future.
What is a Sustainable Career?
The idea of sustainability has become somewhat of a buzzword. However, in relation to career development and the world of work, the term is becoming a living concept.
More people now look for work or careers that will provide security throughout the entire cycle of work. The sustainability of the jobs we do is now a factor of employment that many people now consider as a key requirement for the profession they chose to do. However, for many, it is still a foreign concept and only understandable in relation to green jobs.
A sustainable career is thus worth explaining and has essentially become the job that you can rely on because it will be there for the long term. Yes, there will be changes, but a sustainable job is one that will intrinsically last the duration of your work life and provide an opportunity for growth and development while being the stability on which your career is built.
While many people may not have considered being in one profession for their adult lives, for many others, the ability to start at one point in a profession and build a career that allows them to be at the top of their field. This also allows those that build a sustainable career to build the future of the field by developing new entrants and pass on their well-earned knowledge.
How to Build a Long-lasting Career
Understand the Current Job or Labor Market.
There will be no chance of a sustainable career if you don’t select the sector or field correctly. This requires some initial reading and research in that there is no way to guess what the next best career choice will be.
Reading current trends in the industries that you are interested in and articles such as this one will begin to provide you with a clear picture as to where the opportunities or next jobs rush will be and what it is you can do to access these.
So, at the moment, it would make no sense whatsoever trying to become a coal miner, as we as a society look to do away with the trade altogether. Instead, fields like data mining are booming and growing all the time and are clear avenues for sustainable career options.
Create a clear understanding of what’s hot and what’s not, and then examine these sectors and the jobs therein with your own skills in mind.
Currently, the nursing sector is the fastest growing area of work in the USA, and this growth is expected to continue. However, the growth may not be uniform across all sectors within nursing or across the board on a geographic basis.
It would be foolhardy to simply do a course or some training and expect to walk into a job for life when you have completed it. There will be specific areas of growth in your particular State and thus worth doing a wide range of reading and research, most of which will be possible online, to determine exactly where your chances are.
Upgrade Practical Skills
Most jobs or careers are based on actual practical skills. These skills, and the related activities, are changing all the time. It is thus incumbent upon you to keep as up-to-date as possible in relation to your practical skills. For example, in the nursing sector, such an upgrade would be the professional MSN to FNP certificate to upgrade skills that are certified and accredited.
Furthermore, you would need to ensure that you attend all the clinical placements and practicals wherein you will be able to practice and perfect these new skills. In a profession such as this, there will be no point in having theoretical knowledge without practical skills.
Thus, to build a sustainable career in regard to any of the practical skill-based professions, you need to keep these skills honed to perfection and based as close as possible on the most up-to-date practice in your field or sector.
These skills upgrades must be accredited and secured from recognized training organizations and colleges. With the proliferation of online courses, it is easy to choose the wrong one. It is also a tricky proposition to ensure that you are getting the practical skills related to the job or task if it has been trained online.
The idea of upgrading practical skills may thus seem quite simple, but there must be a clarity of purpose and a clear understanding of which specific skills need upgrading and the best medium for such an upgrade. It is important to do some research, ask around, and read about different options so that you find the right offering that is going to give you the skills and accreditation you need to pursue a new career.
Add Technology
Regardless of what you currently do as a profession or where you are on the rungs of success, the motto of those building sustainable careers is ‘to just add tech’.
By adding technology to a field or job that you have an intricate knowledge of, will allow you to progress the actual job itself. So, again, in relation to a nursing career, this would be adding the new smart and remote medical monitoring technology to your range of skills. Being able to use the latest technology for proactive healthcare will add a number of strings to your bow and allow you to open up a wider range of opportunities.
This can be done in both the actual measuring and provision of healthcare and in the administration of such care. Just as the healthcare sector grows, so too do the opportunities to support the sector through technology, data management, security, and data analysis.
Update your CV
If you’re looking to build a career, you need to build and write your medical resume; it is, after all, the only way people will know what you’ve done and are ready to move to the next level in your given career. As part of your yearly workplace appraisal process, you should submit a new and updated CV or staff profile.
This will show your superiors and employer that you have developed and are ready for a move upwards and onwards. It could also be an opportunity to motivate for skills development in a specific area of your work.
Having an updated CV is also a way to stay ready. Should an opportunity arise, you need to be ready to apply and seize it with both hands. Many think that a sustainable career means staying in the same job for your entire career, but actually, the idea is to be happy and fulfilled in your job for as long as possible and have the opportunity to continue in the role should you wish to.
Being able to move upwards or change jobs based on improved skills is a way to ensure you reach a level of both happiness and longevity in a role. A great, up-to-date CV that shows your skills and experience and speaks to the needs out there is one way to do this.
Use a Sector-Specific Recruiter
There will be specific recruiters that you can use depending on the sector that you work in. This is a targeted means to access the right jobs, and it will be worth your time in the long run to have a recruitment agency working on your behalf.
Meet with them and let them know exactly what you’re looking for and where. If your job hunter doesn’t understand your sector and what it is that you are looking for and why, then even if you attend all the interviews they set up, you may have set off in the wrong direction.
Lastly, a bonus for you: The nursing sector is booming day by day with its job demand and best career courses as well. Check out some of the best nursing careers you can have online.
Concluding Comments
Building a sustainable career is a multifaceted process, and if you are serious about turning your job into a long-lasting career that will provide you and your family with security, then following the process mentioned above is a great way to start. A good way to start is to think about your passions, look at where the biggest growth is across different sectors and consider what skills and qualities you can use for the long term.
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