The recession has hit deep and destabilized more than 5 million Americans from their stable 9 to 5 jobs. Many employees have only found dead ends in their current industry. But even in these tough times, the health care industry has managed to add more than 500,000 jobs since December 2007, according to the Wall Street Journal. In total, the health care industry is growing by an average of more than 17,000 jobs a month.
Many of those new hires are victims of layoffs, as they had no prior experience in the healthcare industry. These newcomers are applying the job skills they learned in banking, information technology, communications and finance to jobs in the health care industry.
“There are a lot of great opportunities for people who want to work in health care management or administration,” says Amy Metzger, who has been in public health for more than 10 years. Metzger is a health specialist for a large global nonprofit organization. “The industry needs good people in information technology, in finance, both domestically and abroad. If you have a proven track record of running similar things, it’s not that different.”
Metzger urges laid-off professionals to start a career in health care, especially public health. “If you have any related degrees and start with an online healthcare degree program, or even earn an online professional certificate, it can help you transition to a new career in the healthcare industry.”
The skills you used in your previous job are equally applicable to professions related to health care, such as:
- Finance – With estimates of up to $1.5 trillion for healthcare reform being supported by the Obama administration, anyone with finance skills and a healthcare-related degree or certificate is sure to have good prospects for a position in the industry of medical care.
- Information technology – An additional 212,000 IT jobs are expected to be created if the Obama administration’s health care reform program is approved. Industry analysts say there simply aren’t many people today who are qualified to be health tech experts.
- Communications – Health care is already a competitive industry and there is always a need for people with communication and marketing skills. But adding a degree in health care administration can help propel a candidate to the top of the list in a field filled with communicators.
- Projects management – The digitization of health care records, computer systems that monitor patient and physician scheduling, the addition of new medical technologies, all of these additions require a systematic change in the way a health care system operates. This is where a good project manager is needed.
So whether you’ve been laid off from your job as a banker, lawyer, or CEO, a position in the health care industry could be yours with the right educational addition to your resume. Consider earning your online degree in management or healthcare administration. It could change your luck!