10 Career Options for People Who Want to Make a Difference

10 Career Options for People Who Want to Make a Difference Image via pexels.com Career options for bettering kids’ futures: 1.  Education Pursuing a career in education is sometimes overlooked when people think of ways to make a difference in the world. The truth is,  teaching is one of the most important paths to creating change. You will educate the young minds who are responsible for the future. Change will come from what you teach your studentsâ€"on top of basic school subjects, teach them to be leaders. You can motivate your students to want to make a difference themselves. It may not seem like you’re making a difference directly, but the changes will start with you. A career in education  doesn’t have to mean teaching in a classroom  if you don’t think it’s right for you. For example, you can assist students with learning disabilities. Living with a learning disability is likely not easy for themâ€"give the students a safe space. Help them learn in a way that works for them but be a friend to them as well. If you can empower even just one student, you will make a difference. 2. Social work As a social worker, you can  directly change the lives of children in need  as well as advocate for substance abusers, domestic violence survivors, mental health patients, and more. You will provide clients with the necessary resources to succeed and counsel them through trauma, unemployment, obstacles to education, addiction, and poverty. Many social workers are associated with governmental agencies, but there are also jobs in schools, nonprofit organizations, and hospitals. If you choose to specialize in working with children, you might be responsible for easing the transition between foster homes or protecting them from abusive households. In addition, you will work with the parents or guardians to improve the family’s life as a whole. Social work doesn’t always mean helping unstable households, though. According to Social Work Licensure, “they respond to crises in the classroom and assess and counsel school children who are experiencing stress, acting out, and/or being targeted by bullies.” In these cases, you might lead prevention groups or conduct training sessions about prevention. 3.  Child psychology If you’re drawn in by the counseling aspect of social work, then studying child psychology may lead to other career options for you. Psychologists can provide support for children with mental health issues, such as anxiety or depression, and give them a place to be open about their feelings. You may wish to become a school psychologist and guide children (and their parents) through education while coping with mental illness or trauma. As a psychologist, therapist, or counselor, you will help your patients find the source of trauma or stress and discover ways of reducing or eliminating the issue. You may even conduct your own research on new treatment methods. Learn the differences between psychologists, counselors, and therapists here, and see which career is right for you. Helping patients improve their minds can inspire them to create change, too. Image via pexels.com Career options for creating a better environment: 4.    Sustainability How can you help make businesses more environmentally-friendly? Create some green differences by pursuing sustainability-based career options. For instance,  as a chief sustainability officer or director, you can work within any company that wants to put effort into helping the environment. Your job will entail monitoring the company’s environmental impacts and determining where they can make eco-friendly changes. You will also assist with budgeting for these changesâ€"they can be priceyâ€"and ensure that the company reaches its environmental goals. You also  have the option to advise multiple companies  and government agencies on their environmental impacts as an environmental engineer. In this job, your goal will be to minimalize the harm that big projects do to the environment. You might help agencies start their own recycling programs, write up new policies, or create plans to reduce water and air pollution over time. The changes won’t be immediateâ€"you might not see mass environmental improvements in your lifetime. Sustainability, after all, means to  maintain something at a certain level, but the earth needs to get to that better level first before it can be maintained. However, you can improve the world for later generations, which means you’ll be making a huge difference. 5.  Environmental science We can’t help the environment if we don’t know anything about it. To study existing environmental trends and develop new green technology, consider a career in environmental science. Again, you may work for government agencies or individual companies if you choose to be an environmental scientist. These scientists split time between the field and the office and use their knowledge of the earth and its species to develop policies that protect everyone. There are plenty of similar science jobs, too. Study water as a hydrogeologist and help maintain a safe drinking water supply for everyone. Build new solar power platforms for homes and companies to receive an alternative energy source as a solar power project developer. Become a geoscientist to study the history of the earth’s composition and discover where to find natural resources. You can even specialize in maintaining parks and forests as a conservation specialist. If the science part isn’t so much for you, you can still fight for the rights of the earth as an environmental lawyer. Defend policies meant to protect the environment and keep clients informed of issues that arise in things like air quality and hazardous waste. Image via pexels.com Career options for keeping others safe: 6.  Crime investigation Solve cases and catch criminals by pursuing a career in crime investigation. Keep in mind that it won’t always be glamorous (television might give you the wrong idea… or the right idea. Have you watched  Criminal Minds? It’s not pretty). Even though your job will be done after the crime is committed, you can prevent more similar crimes and possibly save many lives by solving one case. Sometimes, with the right leads and a gut intuition, you may be able to prevent a crime from happening in the first place. Consider being a crime scene investigator, police officer, or a detective. You can find work with federal agencies, private investigating firms, or local law enforcement. Maybe a job in criminal justice/investigation interests you, but you’re wary of putting yourself in possible danger. That fear is okay to have, and there is good newsâ€"you can solve crime from behind the scenes, as well. Computer forensic investigators  find and analyze data from crimes  committed on the computer, such as hacking or internet stalking. Someone also needs to analyze evidence in a labâ€"this is where forensic scientists do their work. Perhaps one of these career options is right for you. Your role will be vitalâ€"you provide the necessary analytic details for solving a crime. 7.  Armed forces You may also choose to enter an active duty military branch. Pilots, soldiers, and nurses might be the first careers that come to mind when you think of the military, and you may wish to pursue these options, but the field is much more diverse than that.  There are plenty of unique career options  in the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, or Coast Guard fit for people of all backgrounds with many different interests. For example, if you have experience working in auto shops or have an interest in the inner workings of cars and machinery, you should look into automobile maintenance in the Army. In this position, you will ensure that all equipment is safe to use and up to military standards. You might supervise other technicians and order or repair equipment parts. A Coast Guard Boatswain Mate must be a jack-of-all-trades at sea. You might find yourself conducting search and rescue missions, supervising maintenance, or operating ship machinery, and that is only a few tasks. There are even positions for studying languages. Army Linguists are in high demandâ€"so much that there is a $40,000 enlistment incentive, according to  Learn How to Become. You can work as a Strategic Linguist, translating documents from all over the world in an office. Or, you can work in the field as a Tactical Linguist, speaking to citizens in person and gathering information in other languages. While these positions are all very different, they all play such a crucial role in completing military tasks. There are hundreds of career possibilitiesâ€"see a full list here. 8.  Emergency personnel Emergency response teams play a vital role in saving lives, homes, and businesses before emergencies get worse. You will create change with every rescue and those involved will be ever grateful. As a firefighter, you can prevent disaster from spreading and save families from huge losses. Emergency medical technicians (EMTs) play a vital role in providing care to injured patients on their way to a hospitalâ€"without this work, a life might be lost during the ambulance ride. When you take on a role as a policeman, you can keep situations from escalating or quickly take action in ones that already have escalated. Dispatchers are incredibly important components to emergency response teams. If you choose this route, it will be your job to send the right team to the right address as fast as possible and ensure that the person who called 9-1-1 is safe and calm enough to provide you with this information. These career options take a lot of training and you need to be quick on your feet, but they are some of the most rewarding ways to make a difference. Infographic created by Elise Nelson via Canva Career options for building the community: 9.  Economics All communities have their own economies built by businesses, culture, architecture, and people. The way in which a community uses their money plays a big part in how it will develop. If you choose to pursue a career in economics, you can help these communities grow through jobs like urban planning. Urban planners work with both public and private groups, such as property owners and corporations, to come up with the best uses for land that promote economic and environmentally-friendly growth. To directly help communities spend their money wisely, you can become an economist. You will assess where funds can help revitalize the community as a whole and benefit its people. A better economy is one of the most important steps in eliminating poverty. 10.  Community service   Community service is often done through volunteer work, but that doesn’t mean there are no career options embedded in it. You may be able to work your way up through the ranks within a nonprofit organization and become a leader. Someone needs to oversee the service projects, right? That person needs a good mind with the motivation to make a difference, and it could be you. In the meantime, there are several community revitalization groups to join forces with. Americorps, Peace Corps, and United We Serve are national service programs that work to fight poverty, increase academic achievement, prepare for and clean up after national disasters, and sustain national parks. Habitat For Humanity builds homes with affordable mortgages for communities in need. Similarly, Rebuilding Together repairs damaged homes with the help of volunteers to avoid expensive repair costs and revitalizes small communities. As a branch of AmeriCorps, Teach For America “is  a diverse network of leaders who confront educational inequity through teaching and work with unwavering commitment from every sector of society to create a nation free from this injustice.” They aim for each child to have an equal opportunity for growth. Mentor Foundation USA has a similar goal, offering children one-on-one support through daily challenges and guiding them to success. Family Support Services, The Family Support Center, and the Center for Family Services focus on assisting families who have fallen beneath the poverty line or experienced trauma. There are plenty more organizations where these came from. Choose one that interests you and start making a difference. For more career options, check out this blog post that ranks careers by their potential to make a difference in the world.