An economic recession is a good time for you to evaluate your current career and long-term career goals. When a country’s in an economic recession, the overall gross domestic product of the nation declines for two successive quarters. Unemployment rates rise and prices of commodities keep on increasing. During an economic recession, there’s a big chance that companies will downsize and lay off employees so that expenses will be decreased.
During an economic recession, many college graduates usually have a hard time trying to get jobs because the job market is unstable. Earning a steady income during this period is also more difficult, which makes it even harder for graduates to pay off student loans. Instead of just waiting for the economic recession to be over, you can take advantage of this period by enrolling yourself in a graduate program that will certainly help advance your career.
In fact, a study conducted by the University of Washington reveals that many people opt to pursue graduate studies during periods of economic recession. When economic recession occurred between 2001 and 2003, grad school applications increased in number. It was also during this time that the number of persons taking the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) increased by nine percent.
Pursuing graduate studies can help you when it comes to shifting careers.
Recessions are a great time for you to start thinking about and evaluating your career path. Ask yourself about your long-term goals. If you think you no longer belong in the industry you’re currently working in, you might want to consider a career shift. You can go into a different industry and pursue a path you like more or one that is less affected by the changing economy. Graduate studies will provide you with the right knowledge and give you the training you need for the industry you want to pursue. Once you complete your studies, you will then have a degree that can help you get a higher income.
If you want employers to invest more on you, invest in yourself first.
It usually takes only two to three years for an economy to rise again. When the economy recovers, companies will then start hiring employees again. If you already have your graduate degree or are close to getting it by that time, then you’ll surely have an advantage over other applicants for the position you want. When you pursue graduate studies, you not only learn more, you also make yourself more valuable to employers.
If you’ve already made up your mind about going to graduate school, then you have to start preparing various documents such as your transcripts and other requirements. Get letters of recommendation from your college professors and make the necessary preparations for the GRE and other tests. You should also be able to write an impressive graduate admission essay. Doing so with the help of a sample graduate school essay will increase your chances of getting accepted into the graduate program you wish to pursue.
Photo Credit : World Economic Forum
One’s existence can be superficial if you are leading a life with no concrete goal for yourself or for others. Sadly, I meet individuals who say they don’t know the cause of their miseries despite having achieved so much material things but have neglected opportunities to enrich the other parts of themselves by helping others. I hardly have the right to boast, but I feel that I am on a different boat as I have beliefs that have helped me achieve my goals in enriching myself while helping out others. Looking back, I can say that I have weathered different situations in my life with the kind of resilience and patience that helped me make the most out of each.
My father taught me that a victory is not worth celebrating if you don’t have others to share it with you. A great man who instilled in me the value of compassion for others, my father was my greatest believer and my true champion. I grew up with this belief that eventually guided me along a path towards a career and vocation in psychology. Currently, I am assisting a child psychologist who counsels children who are distraught in different ways. Having spent my college internship counseling at a juvenile delinquents home, I was even more compelled to reach out to youths who are going through rough patches in their young lives. I believe that with my experience in both jobs along with my innate desire to help others will set me on the right path towards a career in child and family psychology. But I can not just rely on compassion as I believe I still have to gain more academic knowledge to be able to practice.
I can say that I am more than willing to maintain and even improve my scholastic performance from my undergraduate years when I embark on a master’s degree in counseling. Now that I have a more specific direction, I am more than ready to exhaust all of my efforts to become the best youth counselor. Though the field I have chosen can be taxing on the emotions and the body, I believe that I am up to the responsibility of listening to others after all the different cases I have handled in my previous jobs. With the proper knowledge, training, and my innate sense of compassion, I believe that I can help make a difference in the young lives of my prospective patients.
I plan to enhance what knowledge I have while in graduate school, so that I may be able to work as a true professional in the field of psychology. Learning more about the methods and skills as well as the technicalities in this profession will greatly help me improve my awareness and ability. Since I also plan to achieve a Doctorate in Psychology, ______Institute will be assured of my continued drive for academic excellence as that is the goal that I have in mind, not only for myself, but for others as well.
Photo Credit : Helder da Rocha
My earliest memory of healing is that of an old lady administering a poultice of leaves to a little boy’s forehead on a cold, stormy night. We were then still in the Philippines, and I was watching my grandmother soothe my younger brother as he tossed on our bamboo floor with a fever. I watched as he quieted down and fell asleep and come daybreak, the rooster’s crow awoke us to a new day in our old barrio. While our parents worked in the city, my brother and I spent our childhood in a provincial town with our grandmother. Ours was an idyllic childhood as the barrio where we lived in was nothing short of untouched by change. Our parents eventually fetched us and we moved to the city where life was suddenly ever changing, that it took us a while to get used to the bustling sounds that carried on even at night. Then we found ourselves on a plane bound for the US to join our father who had taken up a job abroad. Although it has been years since I last saw my grandmother, I can still remember how she would prepare herbs for healing, and this has perhaps what has made me follow a calling in the science of pharmacology.
I have been a diligent student in my undergraduate years and have earned the grades that I am conscientiously maintaining up to now in my last year at graduate school . Though I have been working for a pharmacy since my senior undergraduate year, I have found that I have an ability to interact with clients and patients with compassion. I have discovered that I have a natural trait of patiently and effectively explaining to each customer what they want to know about the medicines that they need to purchase. Recently, my efforts paid off as I have been awarded a position in a department that handles customer relations. Though I am quite satisfied with my professional life, I feel that I still have the need for advanced studies to be able to serve more.
I aim to undertake further learning in the field of pharmacology through a doctorate program so that I could be able to perform well as a pharmacist. Although I may have the demeanor fit for handling customers and patients effectively in a corporate or commercial setting, I see myself sharing what knowledge I have and will expand through research projects and a doctorate program in _________ University by teaching at the local city college for kids who have been accepted into a pharmaceutical training course for underprivileged youths. Though I may not be a healer in my grandmother’s tradition, I feel like I have lived a life that is geared towards the same purpose and that being accepted into __________ University can help me become more so that I may be able to do more.
Photo Credit : rp_poly-cuh
