This is a collaborative post.
Having a meaningful career is about more than doing a job that pays well. You want to do something that encourages personal development. It’s nice to look back at the past and see how far you’ve come and the different ways you’ve developed as a person due to your profession.
Some careers allow this more than others. You’ve undeniably seen (or lived through) many jobs that offer zero personal development. You clock in day after day and then review your career to discover that you’ve not really gone anywhere. Jobs like that suck – but here are five of the best meaningful careers for fostering and encouraging personal development.
5 Meaningful Careers That Encourage Personal Development
1. Entrepreneur
Becoming an entrepreneur is tricky (and requires a lot of financial investment), yet it’s a wonderful career for developing as a person. The simple act of being an entrepreneur pushes you out of your comfort zone. You need the following skills from day one:
- Time management
- Multitasking
- Self-confidence
- Public speaking
- Problem solving
As your career continues, you start to develop more and more skills while refining your existing ones. There’s so much growth involved in life as an entrepreneur that it’s almost impossible not to see personal development. It’s one of those jobs that you look back on after a few years and go, “Wow, look how far I’ve come!”
You can achieve so much and feel like a totally new person with a different skillset and approach to life when you pursue a career as an entrepreneur. It’s just a shame that this is easily the hardest job to go after on this list.
2. Teacher
Teaching jobs divide opinions because some people don’t believe it takes much to become a teacher. From the outside, it looks like a job with loads of holidays every year and an early finish every day.
On the contrary, if you’re looking for ways to challenge yourself and encourage personal development, then teaching is one of the number one careers for this. Teachers are responsible for educating the next generation – and that comes with all sorts of challenges and complications.
You’re solving problems every day while creating lesson plans for a class, and also trying to focus on each student as an individual. It’s impossible not to grow as a person when you teach. You even have career growth opportunities, which is a key part of personal development.
Start off as a regular teacher and then grow into the head of a subject, the head of a year, a deputy headteacher, the headteacher themselves and so on. There’s a clear path of progression in a teaching career that makes it ideal to grow and develop beyond your wildest dreams.
3. Carer
Progression is clearly a big aspect of personal development; if you don’t feel like you’re progressing in life, then are you really developing as a person? You want to seek out jobs that almost force you to upskill and learn new things all the time.
This will, naturally, take you down the path of many healthcare careers. In all honesty you could list basically any career in this industry – but carers are perhaps the best example. Entry-level carers require minimal qualifications, and then you expand upon your learnings with a Certificate III Individual Support Disability or other certifications allowing you to become a more specialised carer.
It’s quite sad in a way, but there are loads of medical conditions that require special attention, which means there are tonnes of ways to up-skill and learn new things. All the while, you’re advancing in your career by being able to take on the more skilled carer jobs that pay better. It’s such a fulfilling job (albeit extremely challenging), and you can’t help but reflect on your life years down the line with a satisfied smile.
4. Gym Instructor
If you’re into fitness, then you may enjoy a career as a gym instructor. Already, there’s a sense of personal development in the manner of this role. Being a gym instructor means you’re eager to improve yourself from a physical health perspective. It may encourage you to exercise more often and develop positive habits that aid your overall well-being.
This job will also push you out of your comfort zone by forcing you to interact with people you probably don’t know. You need to develop more self-confidence to guide people around the gym or provide workout advice.
Then there’s the progression aspect of this career. Start as a gym instructor, then train to be a Level 3 Personal Trainer. Go on various CPD courses to add more strings to your bow and become a Level 4 Personal Trainer, or a nutritionist, massage therapist, and so much more.
You can begin your career working in a gym and fast-forward a few years to having your own personal training business. Maybe you even have a private gym or an online company with hundreds of clients from all over the world!
5. Copywriter
Believe it or not but being a copywriter is an incredibly fulfilling job with loads of personal development at stake. The nature of this work means you write about all sorts of things all the time. Not only that, but you’re writing different types of content, such as:
- Blog posts
- Press releases
- Product adverts
- Website information
- Reviews
- Social media posts
It’s a seemingly endless list of things – and you need to constantly learn and develop new writing styles to complete tasks. Then there’s the trick of twisting your tone of voice to match client demands; there’s so much to do, and it’s a continuous wave of adapting and growing as a person.
In summary, the best careers are those that encourage personal development. They’re the jobs that make you reflect on how far you’ve come and the many positive ways in which you’ve changed – both professionally and personally. If you’re looking for inspiration to find meaningful careers like this on your personal development journey, then these five careers are worth learning more about. Carry out some additional research online before pursuing something that makes you grow!
