Comparing Career Choices - Second Take

Now it's time to compare your health care career choices using the criteria below:

School that offers the degree or certificate for my health care career choice Type of degree or certificate Cost to obtain degree or certificate Number of months/years to complete degree/certificate Amount of time per week devoted to attending classes, studying, commuting
1.        
2.        
3.        
4.        

By completing this chart, you may decide that certain schools or health care careers fit your needs better than others.

Now is the time to do some more research on the schools and the careers.

Researching Schools
  • Visit the head of the department that offers the degree/certificate you need
  • Meet with an admissions representative
  • Ask the school for names of current students in the program or graduates of the program with whom you can talk
  • If there are particular employers that you would be interested in working for, call and ask if they hire graduates from the school
  • Ask where graduates get jobs - which hospitals, and at what pay rate
Researching Careers
  • Do informational interviewing at a health care facility that has the occupation you are interested in. This lets you find out first hand about a job from someone who is doing the job now.
  • Volunteer at a health care facility
  • Health Care Job Shadow - click here to learn more
  • To learn more about how to get hands-on experience in health care, click here.

You may also want to explore the sections on:
1) Comparing Career Choices - First Take,
2) Researching Education and Training Options
3) Determining your Work/Family/School Priorities, and
4) How to Get Hands on Experience in Health Care Occupations
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