Career Paths That Will Help You Generate More Money and Become Happier

There are as many career paths as there are people in the world. Long gone are the days when your options were: men do what your father did for the rest of your life, and women take care of a home and children. Today, people are having more complex and evolving careers than ever before. Most of us will have far more than one job our entire working life, and this wide variety of jobs is more likely to reach out across a few industries. Moreover, because the digital and technical world is developing at such a rapid pace, we need to be making career choices with the idea of pivoting in the back of our minds. 

The jobs that exist today might not exist tomorrow (if 2020 has taught us nothing else, it’s that sudden change is a part of the human experience). We need to be ready to flow with the future instead of trying to stubbornly hold onto the ideas we had about work as children (or the ideas about work that were forced upon us from parents, grandparents, and outdated schooling systems).

The following will explore some different career path ideas to help you get the creative juices flowing. When thinking about making choices for your working future, it’s always a good idea to keep yourself aware of the fact that it isn’t going to be a one-stop solution. 

Even if you manage to get a job and hold onto it for the next forty years, you’re still going to have to be ready to adapt to the way technology will influence that job. It’s likely that what the day-to-day routine of someone with that position is today will change drastically within the next five to ten years.

Solar and Wind Energy Technicians

Both of these fields are booming right now as more people (and governments with big budgets to spend) turn to greener energy solutions. These industries are expected to grow somewhere between 50 and 70%, meaning there’s going to be a massive influx of money and need and few people who can serve that need. There’s space to create businesses here if that’s your vibe, but also open positions in every stage of the process from design to installation. 

These jobs are also an excellent choice for those among us who don’t want to be doing only office work; many positions in this field contain at least some outdoor working time which many of the current booming industries don’t. As a bonus, this job is helping the world get access to clean, affordable energy, so it’s something you can feel good about doing even on those stressful days where everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.

Content Creators

No, it’s not just buzz. Everyone needs content today, and most people running a full-time business don’t have the extra time or skills to devote to video production, article writing, blogging, Instagramming, hashtagging, and search engine optimization. This is one of those career paths that has lots of room for pivoting, but it also takes a fair bit of time to build up to. Typically content creators need to produce a portfolio’s worth of work first and then start pitching clients. It’s also one of those fields where you’re going to be working on a contract basis (sometimes even as small as a single article), which means you’re also going to have to master how to keep those jobs coming in. 

This is also a job with much more sporadic time requirements. Yes, people make it look like they’re just popping online twice per day to answer comments and post, but they’re not showing you the hours of photo editing and caption crafting that went on behind the scenes. This is a great choice for people who know they’d get bored senseless doing the same thing every day.

The Clergy

Now, this might not be the right type of work for everyone, but for the devout among us, this job is just as important as it has ever been. It also turns out that this position has some of the highest job satisfaction reportings available (87% report being extremely satisfied). People whose work aligns with their faith are happier than nearly all of the rest of us. This work helps spread positivity in the world and support real people through tough times. 

What’s more, because of the advent of digital churches and ministries, tech-savvy folks are more than needed in this field. Beyond this, many congregations are seeing a rise in attendants as people turn back to their faith during the chaotic times these last two years have been.

Coaching

Given how complex modernity has become, many people are seeking guidance and support. Similar to the clergy point mentioned above, this profession can help spread positivity and support people through difficult times in their lives. Coaching has countless specializations (life coach, career coach, relationship coach, business coach… etc.), and many of these positions can be done remotely or virtually, allowing for greater freedom. If you find yourself asking: how much do life coaches make? You’ll be pleasantly surprised because coaches make a pretty penny. Similar to the content creation profession, this is one that will involve semi-regular seeking of new work. 

Some clients you might have for long periods of time, but others might be hiring you to help them deal with a temporary event like a new job or a divorce. You’ll probably always have one eye open for a new client in this trade.

Online Counseling and Therapy

Are you noticing a trend? People need help. People need support, and more often than ever before, they’re turning to the internet to find it. Given the explosion of mental health needs and struggles as humans scramble to keep up with this ever-changing world, more people are turning towards counselors and therapists. This is a profession that can help you help others (studies have shown that helping others is the fastest way to be happy with your life). There is tons of room for specialization in this field as well, so take your time to explore all the options before choosing your direction.

The above list of careers is just the tip of the iceberg. As the world changes, there will be more disruptions and more alterations. Since people expect to spend about one-third of their working life doing their jobs, the old-fashioned metrics no longer apply. Yes, we need to make ends meet, but we also need a sense of fulfillment from our work, a way to find happiness within it (especially now that we’re all living so long and therefore working for so much longer).