There are so many different careers that you can start in order to get your foot in the door in the industry that you ultimately want to stay in. Sometimes, it’s hard to really figure out what you want to do and going through so many years of school only to find out you don’t like the industry or field is depressing; so much time and money wasted. So, the best thing to do is find a career that allows you to be around your ultimate goal without having to sit through the schooling of it. This will help you to know if it’s really something that you want to invest in. Below are some examples of ways that you could do that.
Certified Court Reporter
Being a certified court reporter will give you access to judges, lawyers and many other people in the legal field. You’ll have an opportunity to work closely with each of them as well as sit through trials, cases, depositions, interviews, meetings, mediation and more. It’ll give you a real glimpse of legal life while only having to go through a couple of years of schooling, at most. Certified court reporters are very trusted individuals in the legal world and you will be needed all over the place which will give you some great opportunities to see just about everything.
Teacher’s Assistant
Being a teacher or a professor sounds like it would be a great career. You would be responsible for the molding and shaping of the next generation. However, what about the whole ‘summer pay’ idea or the late nights grading papers or the disrespect from the students? Those are things that we don’t really consider when we are dreaming about our chosen career. Being a teacher’s assistant would give you a chance to see if those things are worth it before you start the process to becoming a teacher yourself.
Patient Care Technician
Similar to a court reporter, being a patient care technician gives you the opportunity to see a whole myriad of careers. You’ll be able to watch nurses, doctors, surgeons, specialty doctors like pediatricians or orthopedic surgeons, LPN’s, anesthesiologists, midwives and everything else that is included in making a hospital function. You never know, you may have started being interested in one career but working there made you fall in love with something else in the medical field.
Receptionist
Being a receptionist gives a unique perspective. While you may feel like you are just sitting a desk and greeting people, you don’t need a degree for it which means you could start it right away and get your foot in the door of your chosen industry. For example, if you wanted to own a hair salon, working as a receptionist at one would not only give you access to the owner but it would give you an ‘in’ on how the employees feel about an owner and the things they wish could change. It may also give you contacts in the industry which would come in useful later on. Being a desk clerk at a law firm is another great example of something like this.
If you can put yourself into a position to watch the people that have the career that you are considering, you’ll be able to see, on a day to day basis, what they do, how busy they are, how happy they are and even how much money they make. You may not see specific numbers but you’ll notice in the cars they drive and clothes they wear. You may find yourself completely drawn to the life style after watching it so closely or you may find yourself completely repulsed by it. Either way, you won’t have wasted any time and your experiment will have been successful. You’ll now know if you want to continue being a certified court reporter or a prestigious judge. Or perhaps you will find yourself completely enamored by something else entirely like legal videography. Either way, you will have figured out what you want to or at the very least, what you don’t want to do and that’s just as helpful.