More Great Careers: Physician's Assistant to Professor

by Valorie Delp | More from this Blogger

20 Apr 2008 01:48 AM

This is the blog to watch if you're looking to change careers or are just starting to consider what your career options will be. The best careers are chosen based a variety of factors including prestige, pay, and job security.

Physician's Assistant

This is the career choice for you if you always wanted to be a doctor but the length of training turns you off. The road to becoming a physician's assistant is generally three years after a bachelor's degree. The downside is that getting into a training program is highly competitive and at this point, most people have a pre-med degree plus a few year's experience as a paramedic or something similar. Physician's assistants are qualified to do most of what a doctor does as well: give exams, diagnose problems and even assist in surgery. The median salary for this career is $83,800.

Politician

The climate of American politics is such that you'd think no one would want this job. Definitely a career politician isn't for everyone as you have to work year round and winning a campaign is pretty much a full time job. All the same, politicians generally feel that they make society a better place and so it ranks high on the job satisfaction scale. You must be likable and have a magnetic personality and a strong code of ethics. Most politicians start out either in law enforcement (as a judge or attorney) or as an assistant to an elected official. Salaries are all over the map depending on where you are elected and to what post. A town alderman does it out of benevolence whereas the president makes $400,000 per year.

Professor

My best friend is a professor and she loves her job. I think what makes it for her is that she gets to engage herself regularly in scholarly studies and yet she is still teaching students and sharing with them, something she is passionate about and interested in. Another great thing about being a professor is that if you get a tenure track and a four year university not only do you have job security, but you also can spend 15 or less hours teaching, and then you can spend the majority of the rest of your time pursuing your own academic interests, doing research and writing scholarly papers. If you love academia--this may well be the life for you. Of course you have to have at least a Master's and a tenure track position will require a Ph.D. That's 4 to 8 years after your bachelor's degree.

Valorie Delp shares recipes and kitchen tips in the food blog, solves breastfeeding problems, shares parenting tips, and current research in the baby blog, and insight, resources and ideas as a regular guest blogger in the homeschooling blog. To read more articles by Valorie Delp, click here.

Learn more about Valorie Delp

Hello everybody! My name is Valorie and I am one busy lady! When I'm not writing or editing for families, I am busy trying to get my brood of 5 in line.

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