Will there be jobs in Russia for Physical Therapy, Nursing and Business?

Should I change careers from marketing to nursing?

• Maybe this question is better suited to a quarter life crisis forum? Note: I'm not looking for higher pay or something lucrative and stable.  I'm looking for job satisfaction and fulfillment. I recently graduated from college (BA Psychology).  I'm 24 soon to be 25, and have had several jobs throughout my life.  Some of which are: A volunteer youth counselor Hurricane Katrina disaster relief Various jobs in a hospital (from food services to ER reception) Russian/English tutor English teacher (Korea) Although I never wanted to go into business and have had no previous experience in marketing, the job that I currently work for is great.  I'm paid well enough to live, my coworkers are great, and the workplace culture is fine. However, I lack a great sense of fulfillment when I leave my job everyday.  Reflecting on some of my former jobs, I've found that the jobs where I've gotten the greatest satisfaction have been when I've been helping other people.  When I taught English or tutored, or even served patients food at a hospital, I felt a great sense of fulfillment knowing that the things that I do can directly effect the well-being of others even if I was working at near minimum wage or for free (Hurricane Katrina volunteer).  I've looked at fast track BSN (Bachelor's of Science in Nursing) programs, and I could complete prerequesites and the program within about 1.5 years.  My questions are thus: What are some of the top questions I should ask myself before making a drastic career change like this? Do college students generally feel this way when they're fresh out of college in the career field? Nurses: Do you get a great sense of fulfillment from the job that you're in? I'm not afraid of long hours or hard work.  I've worked at some jobs over 100+ hrs / week. Is nursing still a career field in demand? Are there other considerations I should look at within the marketing industry before I jump out?

• Answer:

  Ok, I can only answer really two of these questions, but hopefully I can still be helpful. Right now I'm a nursing student about to graduate in May 2012 (read: about to apply for jobs in a few months). Yes, nursing is still a career very much in demand. The only problem is that it's mostly experienced nurses who are in demand. Truthfully, when you graduate nursing school you still have so much learning left to do that will usually only come with years of experience. Training new grads takes a tremendous amount of money, which most hospitals don't have. That means that many new grad nurses are left job searching for quite a while (I've talked to some for whom it took a whole year to get hired into a nurse residency program). Thinking about being hired into a decent residency program with the high level of competition out their is definitely a source of major stress for me and my peers. So one thing you might want to ask yourself before changing careers is how long your finances would be able to sustain you if you were forced to job search for an extended period of time. You do have some great experience that would likely be attractive to potential employers, but imho you can't be too careful. Maybe something else that you could consider is not doing the accelerated program and keep working part-time (I would say 9 times out of 10 working while in nursing school is doable although stressful- despite what they tell you). That would give you job security if you needed it after graduation. That being said, I do find nursing to be rewarding (at least in my limited experience). There is always the boring paperwork, charting, etc, but then you also get to see some crazy medical conditions (especially cool if you're into science like me) and hear some amazing, sometimes heartbreaking stories. It's definitely a high stress job and not for the faint-hearted, but for those of us who are called to that profession being able to support people from every walk of life during highly dramatic times of their lives gives you a great feeling.