There are very few careers that have clear-cut paths. The old notion that you start at the bottom and work your way up to the top is an incorrect one. Even if you plan on working your way through the corporate world, it is no longer in your best interest to stay with the same company for years on end. Wages are not the same, opportunities are not the same, and the world is not the same as it was back when working your way to the top was the best solution for your career.
Today there are so many possibilities. There are so many unique ways you can progress, customize, and even take your career into your own hands. You can earn an online MBA, you can start your own business, you can set up many different eggs in many different baskets, and have many fingers in many pies, as the saying goes.
The only thing you need to do right now is to learn about your options, explore what you are personally interested in, and find the path forward that works for you and only you.
Having a role model or frame of reference is a great place to start, but even in careers with set rules like medicine or law, there are so many ways you can personally direct your career so that it is fulfilling and pays well.
The Education Track
You can change careers without a new degree. You can earn an executive position without an online MBA. You can do a lot without formal education, but there is no better tool than learning to teach you the knowledge and skills you need to learn at the end of the day. Learning on the job only fetches so much. In fact, it can only tell you how to do the job set in front of you well. If you want to really progress your career, you will have to come up with solutions and ideas that were not just fed to you through repetition.
New ideas, new direction. Going back to school can really give you an edge over the others, and not just by teaching you new ideas. A good degree helps you become a leader by giving you the tools and teaching you the strategies necessary to achieve great things.
To help you decide if going back to university is the right path for you, ask yourself these questions:
Is a Degree Right for You?
There are a few instances where a degree is going to be an excellent way forward. There are going to be other instances where it is not necessary.
Go for a degree if:
- You are legally required to have a certain degree in order to progress your career. This often happens with careers that require a government license, like law, medicine, or social work.
- You want to start a new career path in a field that you do not have experience in. By getting the foundation through a degree, you can combine your academic knowledge with your existing professional experience to kickstart your new field.
- You want to specialize further in the theoretical aspect of any field. This is usually the primary pathway for those in the STEM fields.
- You want to gain a new skill set to push yourself forward to the next level of career opportunities. For example, if you are at the top of your field but don’t have management or executive experience, you can go for an online MBA to fill in the gaps for you to combine your specialization with a leadership skillset.
Online or Traditional?
If earning a new degree is beneficial for your career ambitions, then the next question to ask yourself is how best to achieve that degree. For some, taking a year off from their career to earn a degree full-time will be the best option. For others, taking the degree on a part-time basis is better.
Overall the best option for professionals is an online degree. This way, you can earn while studying for an online MBA while still working full-time at your current position. You can earn, you can progress your career, and you can further your education and skillset.
In this instance, you get more than just a financial benefit. You can also put what you learn in that online MBA to practice from day one. You can showcase the value of your experience, can open new opportunities, and go back to your faculty with real-world problems and questions for a more contextual understanding of what you are learning and how it can help your career.
What to Look for from Your Degree
There are a few things that you will want to look for when finding degrees to apply for:
- Does it offer the concentration that helps you with your career?
- How well ranked and regarded is the degree specifically?
- Who is on the faculty?
- What resources are available to you?
- For online degrees, what is the learning platform and structure like?
You can get all these questions answered and more when you get in touch with the student advisor. You can also find recent graduates online, for example, through LinkedIn, to get an insider’s perspective on their experience.
How to Successfully Juggle Work and Study
Everyone will have their own tips and tricks, but everyone will benefit from being mentally and physically well. Take the fewest number of courses available to you at a time. With an online MBA and other similar degrees, this will often be one course at a time. You will complete your degree within 18 months, and in exchange, can learn and continue to work to provide for yourself or your family.
How to Use Your Degree to Progress Your Career Ambitions
With certain degrees, like an online MBA, it is so easy to progress your career. The entire degree is about setting you up for leadership positions. With multiple concentrations, you can even specialize what you learn to best suit your individual career goals. You will have taken that online MBA in order to make yourself available for higher-level positions.
It is ideal if you are in a low-level management position already in your career, or alternatively if you are at the top of your field but lack the skills to lead a team or department on your own. In this case, you will use your new online MBA in order to qualify for those higher-ranking positions, even if they are not always within the same company that you are currently working for.
For other degrees, it won’t be so clear-cut. There is a lot of value in education, but you need to know how to sell it. For those in very niche fields, those degrees aren’t going to just be something that is nice to have, they are going to be essential. For other careers, however, you are going to have to know how to sell your education.
Done right, you can use the new skills and knowledge you earned through your degree to help you get that dream job, but it is important to remember that the job board is just as important a tool in this endeavor as trying to earn a promotion.
The Promotion Track
You can go for the education track and then use the tips in the promotion track. An online MBA is a great tool to help secure yourself better and more executive-level positions in the future. That being said, it is not something that is guaranteed. You still need to know how to push your way forward that benefits you and your company.
Push for Opportunities
Asking is the best thing that you can do in your career. If you let those above you know that you want more opportunities and to prove yourself, then that is the first step. People won’t know what you want unless you tell them. Rather than start asking for a promotion right away, however, ask for chances. Once you have proven yourself and have the experience you would need to convince a new company to hire you, you are in a good position to be promoted.
When it comes to actual promotions putting yourself forward and telling people what you want is a good strategy, so long as you do it mindfully. It can either come across as driven and ambitious or entitled. Done right, you will immediately be a front runner, though it is not the end of the world if you get passed over, either.
Make Job Openings for Yourself
This doesn’t mean you should sabotage others in order to get their position. Rather, it means making the case to make new positions altogether. This way, you can make a role that uniquely reflects what you can do and can offer your company. It is one of the best ways to forge your way forward because it puts you in the driver’s seat.
It’s similar to getting hired into a brand-new position. As the company in question does not have a clear idea just yet what that position entails, it is up to you to really make it your own. You can then take advantage of your full skill set, experience, and interests.
Know When to Leave
There are pay increase caps in most businesses. What this means is that it isn’t smart to stay for years on years, even if you keep getting promotions. You simply won’t make as much as those who start later than you or who were hired into your level. This is the way of the world today, and thankfully it is very easy to get on track yourself. Every two to four years, start the job hunt again. Work up and try to earn a promotion each time you change jobs. This could take no time at all, or it might take longer.
The goal is to earn that promotion, to work in that position, and when you realize that your payment is being capped from reflecting your true worth, then job hunt. You can either look for roles with your existing title, or even try to earn a promotion by applying to higher-level positions on the job board.
The Side Hustle Track
Side hustles are a great way to increase your personal revenue and to engage with interests that don’t really align with your career track. If you work in finance, but you also love to create or paint, you can do both by selling your paintings online in a part-time manner.
Side hustles are small or low-effort businesses. You should be able to comfortably handle them and enjoy committing time towards them. This way, you aren’t just making extra money; you are improving your sense of fulfillment and even expanding your experience, resume, and your job opportunities.
The Personal Business Track
Finally, there is always the chance to start your own business. This is technically what you do when you start any side hustle. A side hustle is a business that you own, and therefore you are a business owner, albeit part-time. In this track, however, your goals are bigger and more concrete. Rather than start little businesses that touch base on various different points, you will be building a fully realized business all on your own.
There are different business models and types you can choose from. For example, you can operate as a freelancer or consultant and work for yourself. You could also open a business, hire employees, and operate that way. There are so many different types of businesses that you can start, but you need to have a good understanding of what you are doing and how you intend to make a living to succeed.
There is no reason to rush. Instead, while you are working, start researching. Learn how to run a business, what business model suits your idea, what your competition is like, what your customers are like, and so on. Collect this information and use it to create a solid business plan that can help put your career in your hands.
