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A career change may seem like too much trouble, especially today when the job market sustained a hit due to the coronavirus pandemic. It’s perfectly normal to stay within your comfort zone and coast, waiting for the perfect moment to find a new job.
The right time to grow your skillset is when you decide you want to put in the effort and money to improve your professional profile. This gives you enough flexibility to keep the old job until you finish the additional education. Fortunately, some great courses can change your career for the better and give you a fresh start.
Emergency Medical Technician Course

A healthcare provider includes a wide range of professions, one of them being an emergency medical technician or EMT. Unlike being a doctor or nurse practitioner, education for this job position is course-based and can last for six months. EMTs are always in demand, making them one of the most desirable jobs for the future.
The average EMT salary is around $40,000 per year, with senior-level technicians earning up to $50,000. Projections say that this number will increase 16% in 5 years and reach $47,000 by 2026.
Smart Home Designer Course
It’s evident that we all depend on various tech gadgets at work, but this practice has expanded to our private lives as well. This is where the smart home designer comes in with expertise to make your home tech-enabled and easier to control.
A 2020 research article explains this profession as necessary to customize smart home services to fit each resident’s needs. The salary can be as high as $114,000 per year, although most smart home designers earn around $55,000.
Furniture Designer and Builder Course

In the job market full of opportunities in the digital world, it’s nice to find something that will allow you to be creative in an old-fashioned way. Carpentry can be challenging, especially if you work with sharp tools, but you don’t have to start making your furniture from scratch.
It’s great to know the principles of processing wood, but to make things easier you can restore or repurpose old pieces bought at auctions or yard sales. A furniture designer can make $60,000 on average per year, but it all depends on your branding and marketing.
Animal Trainer Course
If you find joy in spending time with animals, maybe your next profession should be in that regard. As an animal trainer, you can make from $20,000 up to $60,000 per year, with an average of $30,000. It’s an opportunity to train animals to respond to commands, get used to human interactions, and provide support to people with disabilities. This skill set can also help you find work as a pet sitter or assistant at veterinary practice to handle more challenging cases.
Special Effects Make-Up Course

The entertainment industry is one of the most growing job opportunities that will always depend on make-up artists. A screen and media course can get you a specialist make-up diploma so you can work on films, TV shows, and theatre, as well as in the fashion and beauty industry.
This course will also teach you to apply special makeup, prosthetics, hairstyling, special effects, body painting, and other techniques required for print, video, and live shows. An average yearly salary for special effects make-up artists is around $50,000, but it can go as high as $350,000 per year.
Interactive Narrative Designer Course
With the gaming industry on the rise, you can put your storytelling talent to work on video games. An interactive narrative designer is a person that works on story development and how players interact with obstacles and events inside the game. You have to create outcomes for more than one decision a player can make, which will determine their fate during gameplay. On average, an interactive narrative designer can make $68,569 per year or $33 per hour, but the earnings can go over $150,000.
Fitness Instructor Course

If you like to exercise and be in good shape, maybe your new career choice should be in the fitness industry. As a fitness instructor, you can have individual clients or work with a group. Depending on the course you choose, you can learn a lot more than how to inspire others to be physically active.
Nutrition, wellness, physical therapy, physiology, and diet are some of the fields you can cover during your education. It will allow you to create comprehensive programs for your clients and earn more with every extra skill set you offer. Hourly pay for a fitness instructor is $20 on average, but it can be considerably higher depending on the place of work and the clientele.
The Bottom Line
These great courses create professional opportunities to change your career for something more fulfilling. The first step is always the hardest, but it’s worse to stay cozied up in circumstances that make you unhappy and worn down. It’s never too late for improvement, but it’s always too soon to quit trying to become the best version of yourself.
What are some other courses that can change your career? Let us know down in the comments.
This article originally published on GREY Journal.