If you’re a young person, you might wonder about what career direction you should take. You also may be a little older, but you feel like now is the time to seek out a new career path. Either way, you might feel at a loss when determining what career choice seems best for you.
You’ll want to get a job and career path that will still be there in a few years. Some positions are on the brink of extinction because of automation or other factors.
Let’s talk about career paths that should still be there in the years to come. If you go in one of these directions, you shouldn’t have to worry about finding a new career anytime soon.
Truck Driver
Commercial trucks encompass approximately 1% of America’s registered vehicles. There are about 3 million of them out on the highways, taking goods of all kinds from place to place. Some operate within single states, while other drivers go all the way across the country.
Some truck drivers are nervous about automation these days. They feel like self-driving trucks will take over, and because of that, you would be foolish to get into this profession right now.
That is not really the most accurate way of looking at the situation, though. While it’s true that several companies are testing self-driving trucks, none of them are remotely close to switching the entire fleet over to them. There are still plenty of kinks to work out, and it will take many years before trucking jobs are obsolete.
In the meantime, trucking jobs are great because they pay pretty well, and you don’t need a college degree to get one. You can go to trucking school right out of high school. Once you get that commercial driver’s license, you can grab a steady job that pays much better than minimum wage.
Online Content Creator
If you’re a decent writer, you can also get a job creating online content. This is a competitive field but a thriving one. You can put your creative writing skills to use writing blogs for businesses, or you might create product pages for various companies.
These companies sometimes hire staff writers, but many of them don’t want to do so. That’s because if they hire a full-time writer, they will need to give that person health insurance and benefits. Many companies would prefer not to do that if they can hire a freelancer instead.
You can use Upwork or ProBlogger to find writing gigs online. If you feel like this appeals to you, you’ll need to have the self-discipline to meet deadlines and the writing skills to crank out content that meets your employer’s needs.
Lawyer
Maybe you feel like the law is an attractive concept. You will need to pass the bar if you want to become a lawyer.
That’s not easy, and you will have to study the law for years to get ready. You can go to law school, but that’s not cheap, and it’s a significant time commitment.
Still, if you can pass the bar and get your law license, there are hundreds of ways to use it. You can become a lawyer for a large company and make tons of money that way. You can also get into law and use your license strictly for humanitarian purposes.
You can use the law to become famous. Think about a lawyer like Johnnie Cochran, who became a celebrity representing OJ Simpson. You can make lots of money, and your face will be all over the front page every day.
Doctor
You can also get into the medical profession. You can go to med school to become a doctor, or you might also become a home health aide, nurse, or something along those lines.
If you become a nurse or home health aide, you don’t need a medical license. You can get one of those jobs much easier and faster than if you’re set on becoming a doctor.
However, there's a major difference between the amount of money you’ll make as a doctor versus how much you'll make as a nurse, home health aide, or some other medical job. If you are in it just for the money, you will need that medical license. Once again, that takes a substantial financial and time commitment.
Once you get that medical license, you have as much freedom as if you have a law license. You can become a doctor because you are a humanitarian or because you want money, a big house, cars, and all the other trappings of wealth and fame. Some of the most well-known doctors are like rock stars, and people demand them just as highly.
Realtor
People will always need homes, and realtor is one profession that is not going anywhere anytime soon, either. Like law or the medical profession, you will need to study and get your license if you want to open up an office or join an existing one.
Realtors can make very good money, and it is a respectable profession. You can also help people this way, as you can take their financial needs into account and point them in the direction of homes that fit their lifestyle and families.
If you become a realtor, you can easily stay in the city where you grew up. If you know the neighborhoods very well already, that will undoubtedly give you a leg up over your competitors.
If you move to a city you don’t know and try to sell homes there, you will need to learn about that new locale very quickly. You’ll have to move around in different neighborhoods and learn about them so you can show your potential clients homes in their price range that meet their needs.
Any of these fields and jobs should be around for many years, so each of them would be a solid pick if you’re about to enter the job market soon.
