Consider an Online Degree For a Change of Career

By Katheryn Rivas

So perhaps you’ve been in the same line of work for several years, and you’re craving something different. While throughout most of the 20th century, it was considered perfectly normal to stay the course with a specific company or career path, now, job mobility and flexibility is standard.

Changing careers has become much more accepted, so the only thing holding you back is probably self-imposed thinking that dictates you can’t change tracks. But if you play your cards right, you can indeed make a complete jump into something different.

Online education has grown exponentially in the past few years precisely because it meets the needs of today’s mobile and flexible workforce. It’s generally less expensive and it teaches key skills that align with whatever field you wish to enter. And what’s the best part about it all? An online degree can be completed in the comfort of your own home.

Unlike attending a traditional, “brick-and-mortar” institution of higher education, you don’t have to give up family time or your current job in order to train for the next step in your life’s work.

Here’s a perfect example of a logical career transition aided by an online degree. Say you studied business or economics at a traditional university, and once you graduated, you followed through into a typical career path expected of your major like marketing. You’ve been at it for a few years, and then you decide that you could use your talents and enthusiasms elsewhere. The skills you picked up in a traditional marketing career with a company can easily be shifted to a medical or IT career path, since both industries require experts in marketing.

Of course, you’ll need to learn certain aspects about both fields that you can’t necessarily acquire by simply doing some research. This is where an online degree comes in.

While an online education is the best decision for any mid-career worker in the process of transition, there are many pitfalls in the world of e-learning of which everyone should be aware. For one, it is absolutely essential to make sure that the degree you are seeking is accredited.

Since the online education industry is itself in the throes of transition and development, online degrees are rife with many scams (and this is true, as anyone knows, of the Internet generally). Accreditation will assure a prospective employer that your degree is legitimate.

Another very important consideration when seeking an online degree is being honest with yourself. While the free-time temptations of an online degree are substantial, you must be aware that successful online degree completion means very strict time management. The flexibility of an online degree (and the flexibility of your career in general) depends entirely on a consistent, steady work ethic.

This guest post is contributed by Katheryn Rivas, who writes on the topics of Online Universities Accredited. She welcomes your comments at her email address.