17 Careers for Helping People
Pursue The Passion
What's one good career option for helping people?
To help you identify the best careers for helping people, we asked career coaches and recruiters this question for their best recommendations. From Social Worker to Nursing to Mental Health or Addiction Therapist, there are several careers that are recommended as the most suitable options for people who like to help others.
Here are 17 careers for helping people:
- Social Worker
- Community Outreach Worker
- Attorney Or Judge
- Adoption Agent
- Patient Advocate
- Working in Beauty Care
- Caregiver for Seniors
- SEO Specialist for Non-Profits
- Therapist
- Personal Trainer
- Recruiter
- Occupational Therapist
- Paramedic
- Personal or Career Coach
- Nursing
- Chiropractor
- Mental Health or Addiction Therapist
Social Worker
The best career option for helping people is a social service worker. This job is in high demand and can be done in any city or your hometown. The work environment ranges from hospitals to schools, government, non-profit organizations, youth centers, and crime prevention programs.
The purpose of this job is to help individuals or families who are struggling in their lives. For example, If a single mother is having trouble paying her rent, a social service worker may help her find a job to get back on her feet.
A social service worker may help the child's family by providing therapy and counseling if a child is neglected or abused. The job can be stressful and takes a lot of effort and patience. However, most social service workers genuinely love helping people because they are passionate about making a difference in people’s lives.
Saneem Ahearn, Colorescience
Community Outreach Worker
A community outreach worker regularly performs tasks with one goal in mind: helping people in the community. A person who pursues a job in this field would need a strong knowledge of the community resources within the jurisdiction or school district, as well as a good knowledge of the local community itself (population, demographics, natural habitat, etc.). You would work closely with local social agencies and you would build coalitions with those agencies and local charities. It would feel like meaningful, difference-making work.
Chris Riley, USA Rx
Attorney Or Judge
The legal system, whether it is the courts and the administrative departments associated with the government or independent law firms, constantly requires dedicated, honest, and hardworking talent. And what better way to help people than to plan a career in the legal industry in the form of paralegals, attorneys, and judges to help those who seek justice. In most countries, the legal system is overworked and burdened. A conscious move by the youth of the nation to help their people through a career in the legal industry is sure to be of great benefit to everyone.
Riley Beam, Douglas R. Beam, P.A.
Adoption Agent
Children are often the most vulnerable members of society. Becoming an adoption agent is one way to become an advocate for children in need. Adoption agents are tasked with being the liaison between children in need of adoption and the prospective families looking to adopt. This is a complex job with as much nuance as there is procedure. It may not be for everyone, but it's important for thousands of children in need of permanent and loving homes. A job as an adoption agent can be a difficult but satisfying job for someone looking to be an advocate in child welfare.
Boye Fajinmi, TheFutureParty
Patient Advocate
The role of a patient advocate is to help patients communicate with their healthcare providers so that they can understand complicated procedures and get the best information to make smarter choices about the type of care they need. Patient advocates often work with elderly patients, as well as the underprivileged. They are there to help patients set up appointments for doctor visits, x-rays, blood work and more. It’s a perfect career for those who are adept at listening and advising.
Alan Ahdoot, Adamson Ahdoot Law
Working in Beauty Care
Working in beauty is a great way to help people feel more confident in their own skin. Whether it's hair, makeup, nails, or skincare, this form of art allows you to explore your own creativity while helping others look and feel their best. There are also skin concerns that products can assist with, and aestheticians are a great resource. It's a great way to connect and collaborate with others to get to a solution and the answer is a beautiful result.
Natália Sadowski, Nourishing Biologicals
Caregiver for Seniors
As younger generations take on their own struggles in life, the seniors in our society are often left neglected. So a great way to serve people and help them live dignified lives is to provide care to seniors. As a caregiver who works firsthand with the elderly or even as someone who offers support services that facilitate senior care, you can truly make a difference in the lives of these individuals who still have a lot of life left in them. On the streets, in homes, or in senior care facilities, there is indeed so much you can do to help.
Mary Jurgensen, Gary and Mary West PACE
SEO Specialist for Non-Profits
There are a lot of great nonprofits out there doing amazing work. But they have a hard time building their organic outreach, so people don't find them very easily. A perfect example, there is a Food Pantry in my area that provides food for close to 300 families a week! Their website and information about them online is incredibly difficult to find, though. Providing SEO work for these great nonprofits helps them find more donors, find more people to help, and connect them with the resources they need. If you have technical skills and are willing to earn a little less per hour, then helping these nonprofits with good SEO practices is a great way to help people using your gifts, talents, and passion.
Dylan Miller, DSM Story Forge
Therapist
One good career option for helping people is being a therapist. Therapists help people by listening to them and providing advice on how they can improve their lives. They may also offer different solutions to help solve the problem that the person is facing.
Chad Rubin, Profasee
Personal Trainer
Being a personal trainer has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life. I grew up with a bad relationship with food and fitness. That was until a picked up basketball and I discovered the power of feeling like you have mastered your mind and your body. That feeling is the one I strive to teach people about. When you are a personal trainer you help people to live their best lives and find the best version of themselves. It is truly life-changing
Soji James, 1AND1 Life
Recruiter
Recruiting is a great career path for those that want to help others. You get a lot of satisfaction from the big wins that you help others bring home. Getting the single parent who was laid off a raise in their new role, helping someone find a company that will appreciate them, helping transitioning military veterans cross over to civilian work, and of course, helping the recent graduate crowd get their foot in the door.
Matthew Jones, VIP tech consultants
Occupational Therapist
If helping people is your true calling, a career that may seem ideal for you is working as an occupational therapist. If you take on this profession, you’ll be dealing with patients (children, teenagers, or adults) and helping them overcome the difficulties of daily life associated with their illness, injury, or disability.
The specific tasks include physical and psychological assessments, developing rehabilitation programs and their implementation, advising on adaptive equipment, and evaluating progress.
As an occupational therapist, you can work in hospitals, rehabilitation centers, schools, or private clinics. You might as well combine work in several places at the same time or simply open your own center. To do the job, you must have at least a bachelor's degree. A Master's degree, as well as all additional courses, work in your favor. Is it worth it? Occupational therapists make a median salary of $85,000. Plus, you will be doing what you love - helping people.
Nina Paczka, Resume Now
Paramedic
Become a paramedic. It seems one of the best career options for helping people as it goes even further – you save lives and make a difference to the world, which is the greatest advantage of the job. A perfect candidate for the job should be caring and empathetic, have strong communication skills, as well as a good level of physical fitness. What’s also important, stress resilience and the ability to make swift decisions under pressure may turn out to be – literally – a matter of life and death. You need to stay calm even in the most disturbing situations.
Entry requirements include successful completion of an approved degree in paramedic science or with an apprenticeship degree, while the salary range falls between $41,899 and $52,268, depending on a number of factors, including education, work experience, certifications, and more. Being a paramedic is a fast-paced, vital, and rewarding role. Now, because of COVID-19, people are more aware of that fact than ever before.
Agata Szczepanek, Resume Now
Personal or Career Coach
Being a coach is a great career option for helping people. They act as a mentor by identifying roadblocks to people’s goals and chart a roadmap to get there. Coaches can work to help people improve their career prospects, relationships, finances, health, or anything in-between. One can base their coaching services on certifications available or entirely on their personal experiences.
Radhika Gupta, USCarJunker
Nursing
I have been a Registered Nurse for the past two decades and if helping people is what's in your heart and a true passion, then I can tell you with certainty that nursing is an incredible and versatile career option. Nurses are naturally compassionate by nature and devote their professional lives to helping others when they are at their most vulnerable.
There are endless options to pursue within the nursing profession, which allows you to try different fields and specialties to suit you both professionally and personally.
Since caring for patients is a twenty-four-hour-a-day and 365-day-a-year necessity, nurses can choose from a diverse array of shifts and be in control of their own schedules. Becoming a nurse takes hard work, dedication, and a deep desire to be an expert caregiver. However, if you decide to become a nurse, it promises to not only help others but to give you an incredible sense of accomplishment, joy, and fulfillment throughout your career.
Chiropractor
I absolutely love being a Doctor of Chiropractic. It is amazing to get to go to work, see so many happy and loving people, and get to help them experience the best lives they can live. You can see when their body tells them this is what they have been needing. I recently had a patient tell me that "this was the only clinic I can walk into in a world of pain and walk out completely pain-free." Patients are hungry for what chiropractors provide. I own my own practice, and it's still young, but I look at it and see all the faces I've been able to help over the years. It is a true honor that I'm trusted with the health of others. It is a testament that they come back to us and refer to their friends and family. I think it is impossible to be a chiropractor and not love and appreciate helping your patients.
Grant Radermacher, Ascent Chiropractic
Mental Health or Addiction Therapist
Jobs that have rewarding benefits of helping people tend to be more hands on or up and personal. Social workers have a duty to help and protect the demographic they are assigned to, whether that be children services, women's services, or domestic services. The mental health field provides a lot of options for different roles, therapists, psychologists, group facilitators, dual diagnosis treatment centers, which can all work with social workers. You can volunteer in shelters, you can build organizations that feed the homeless, you can be a BHT at a treatment center and just protect clients. Focusing on social work (my field of study), there is room for guidance. When you take on a case, you aren't just doing a job, you are given the power to save a life. You get to guide them into the right directions, and give them the proper resources and tools to create a new life outside of the one that brought them to you. Note - there is a shortage of social workers and they are very much needed.
Ashley Garabed, Argon agency