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Finding your perfect career is a tricky business, and even when you think you've found the perfect fit, you can still find yourself stuck in a rut and wishing you were elsewhere.
Feeling trapped in a job you don't like is a horrible feeling, whether it's just something to pay the bills or your dream career since you were five.
Over the years, this feeling can manifest into chronic unhappiness and stagnation, with little room for personal growth or excitement for your career. If you're starting to feel this way, or have felt like this for a while, you're probably well aware it's time for a career change, but something stopping you.
For many people it's the fear of starting all over again, or going back into education after many years, or even just the worry that they won't be able to afford the time out of work. These are all understandable fears, since traditionally a career change has meant either starting from the beginning again at a workplace or entering back into full time education, and for some people that just isn't possible.
Rather than spending years getting another degree or working your way up the totem pole of a business, you can now switch careers in a new way - intensive education courses, or "bootcamps". There are thousands of different boot camps available in many different fields of work, with the most popular being in the IT industry.
Here i've compiled some of the most popular courses for people looking for a career change, from a wide range of fields, some of which you may never have considered before, but might just persuade you to take the plunge.
Shillington College - Graphic Design
First up is Shillington College of Graphic Design. As the name suggest, this educational institution provides intensive courses training students to become graphic designers.
Graphic design is a very broad field and can involve anything from advertisements to business cards to logo designs, in simple terms - graphic designers help individuals and businesses communicate their ideas or brand in a visually appealing way.
Shillington college offers two different learning options- full or part time. Full time courses run for three months while part time courses run for two evenings a week for nine months, with students reportedly leaving with a well developed portfolio of work and enough training to get a job in the graphic design industry or start their own business, which is what many have done.
Currently Shillington College only runs courses in London, Manchester, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and New York, with each location varying in price but averaging between $6000 - $13000 for the full time course.
According to the college itself: Shillington Education is one of the best schools for graphic design. That's not just by our own standards.
You'll graduate with a solid understanding of design theory, technical skills and an incredible design portfolio - essential for any creative career.
Divemaster Internship - PADI
Looking for something more active, and love the ocean? Training as a dive instructor could be the career change you need. Working as a divemaster gives you the opportunity to travel the world, explore the ocean and meet people from all walks of life, all while staying fit and active and by the end of it, having a qualification you can use to get a job in diving.
For many people, a divemaster internship and career is a way to fund travels during a gap year or time off work, although for some it turns into a lifelong obsession. With many jobs in places such as Indonesia, Thailand, The Mediterranean, Australia and The Caribbean, your options for sun sea and sand are kept well open.
Essentially a Divemaster Internship is an intensive course in which you, the divemaster, learn to dive and improve upon your scuba skills by assisting dive instructors and taking groups out on dives, helping to lead the way and keep everyone safe.
Most divemaster internships cost upwards of $1500 but some can be free depending on whether you are willing to work in a retail dive shop or complete other tasks. By the end of it you should be a fully qualified dive master and able to progress on to becoming an instructor. With training centres all over the world, there's probably one near you.
Web Design - Training Dragon
Learning to code is a lucrative skill, but for many people it can be quite daunting. All the different languages you need to learn, the software, the technical terms, for a beginner it's very difficult to know what's what.
If you have an eye for design and a knack for problem-solving and technical thinking however, a career as a web designer could be just for you.
Intensive web design bootcamps such as the Training Dragon web design intensive course teach you to design and code your own websites from scratch using HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
No previous coding skill or knowledge is required to get started. What's even better is that you can learn all this from your bedroom, with remote online classes. Choose from the part time evening and weekend sessions of the full time intensive weekday sessions. By the end of a course you should be able to design and build your own websites and kick-start a career in web design.
The Data Science Bootcamp - General Assembly
General Assembly is a well-known name in the bootcamp world, and their Data Science course is one of their most popular. Data science is an excellent option for anyone who loves statistics, analytical thinking, solving problems etc and is particularly well suited to anyone with a background in IT already.
According to General Assembly themselves: "When you learn data science you can make powerful predictions through analytics, machine learning, visualization, and more."
On average Data Scientists earn anything from $75,000 to over $100,000 per year, and with courses such as General Assembly's Data Science Course you can kick start a data science career in as little as 10 - 13 weeks full time, with trainings running all over the US and in London, Melbourne, Singapore and Sydney.
Floristry - The Cambridge Flower School
Looking for a creative, hands-on and gorgeous-smelling career alternative to your desk job? Florists get all of this and more. There are lots of options within this field as well, you could work in a florists shop, become a floral arrangement designer, specialise in weddings, go freelance or start your own flower shop.
Intensive floristry courses are aimed at giving you the best foundation to start a career in floristry, with most candidates looking to start their own business or become a freelancer.
The cambridge flower school in particular runs courses in both standard commercial floristry and wedding floristry, as well as other shorter courses to help you specialise in areas such as floral photography, funeral flowers, and eco-friendly floristry. Their floristry career change course costs just under $1300 and takes less than a week to complete.
Software Engineering - General Assembly
Another course from General Assembly and again one of their more popular options. With the average salary of a software engineer being $93000 per annum, it's easy to see why.
GA describes this course as the best option for those looking for a career transformation, with the majority of graduates getting hired after completing the course.
In this course you will learn to build bespoke software such as apps, computer games and much more. By applying mathematical principles and knowledge of computer science, software engineers can create a wide variety of incredible tools, which makes it not only a lucrative profession but also quite an exciting one for those who are more technically minded.
Full time courses run for just under a month, which makes the course desirable for anyone looking to seriously switch up their career options but who don't have a lot of time to invest.
Digital Marketing - Startup Institute
Digital marketing is playing a more and more important role in the future of businesses and how they sell themselves as other more traditional mediums of advertising become less popular.
As such, digital marketers, who specialise in targeting customers online, improving businesses SEO practices and getting a company noticed by potential customers in the sea of options the internet hold are becoming more important.
For a creative mind who loves to solve problems, think out of the box and see a business succeed with tangible results, a career in digital marketing could be just the right move.
The startup institute is one of many course providers offering intensive bootcamps in digital marketing, offering a part time course over a period of 12 weeks to help you carve out a new career without having to quit your job right away.
Life Coaching - Pure Coaching Academy
Maybe you already know what your passion is, and now you want to help others find theirs? The easiest way to do this is to become a certified life coach, someone who guides anyone feeling lost and confused in their life to help them find a sense of meaning, purpose and ultimately the right career and lifestyle for them.
With courses like the one offered by pure coaching academy you can become a certified life coach in as little as 8 weeks. Many go onto to start their own consultancy services while working from home.
TEFL
One of the most popular intensive courses available is the "Teaching English As A Foreign Language" course, commonly known as TEFL. With courses running in countries all over the world, TEFL trains wannabe english teachers in intensive month long programs to be able to live and teach english abroad.
For many people a TEFL course is a way to earn money on their gap year or take a few years off work, but for others it leads to a lifelong love of teaching abroad. By working as an english teacher abroad you not only get to discover a new country and gain a more in depth understanding of their culture, but you can make a real positive impact in a community.
With courses costing around $1700, a TEFL training is the perfect option for anyone looking to create a new and more meaningful life.
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