Get Your Steps: 8 Active Jobs that Allow You to Step Up in Your Career
By Kristina Ericksen on 01/08/2018
Have you ever checked your fitness tracker after a long day at the office only to sigh in despair at the measly amount of steps you took throughout the day?
Maybe the idea of being stuck at a desk all day doesn’t appeal to you. Maybe you’re that person that always has “ants in their pants” and needs to move around. Maybe you’re conscientious of your health and want to make sure your career doesn’t leave you with a sedentary lifestyle.
Whatever your motivation, know that you definitely don’t have to spend the rest of your life sitting at a desk. There are so many options for people like you that want to be up and moving around throughout the workday.
But here’s the thing—you don’t just want any job. You want an active job that doesn’t chain you to a desk all day, but you also want something that will give you options, room to grow and something you can make a career out of.
We rounded up a handful of active jobs that not only let you “get your steps in,” but they also provide you with a meaningful, solid career to build out throughout your life. Keep reading to see if any of the following active careers sound like a fit to you.
8 Active jobs that let you get your steps in
1. Nurse
Get your steps: Nursing is an excellent career and one that really adds up the steps—nurses can walk as far as four miles in a shift. By making the rounds within their unit, checking on patients and providing medicine or treatments, nurses stay on the go and on their feet throughout their workdays.
Step up your career: Nurses are one of the most in-demand jobs and earn a solid salary too. Plus, with many entrance options, levels of nursing and specialties to pursue, you have choices when it comes to entering the field and lots of room to grow in your nursing career along the way.
2. Teacher
Get your steps: You might not think of teaching as an active job, but it certainly can be, depending on the type of teacher you wish to become. For instance, a physical education teacher can get plenty of steps and physical activity in throughout a day. An early childhood education teacher is another good choice for those looking for active careers. As an early childhood teacher, your days will be spent keeping tabs on active toddlers, leading engaging activities for energetic preschool children and staying active throughout the workday.
Step up your career: Teaching is a promising career choice not just because of the satisfaction of making a positive impact in your students, but it also leaves room for growth down the line in leadership positions or teaching specialties, such as working with children with special needs.
3. Surgical technologist
Get your steps: Free yourself from the confines of your desk with a surgical technologist career. These healthcare pros are the “right hand” to surgeons. They play an essential role to surgical teams, handling hundreds of surgical instruments and providing hands-on assistance. Surgical technologists spend their workdays busily preparing operating rooms and surgical supplies, assisting on the frontlines of surgery and maintaining sterile environments for operating.
Step up your career: A surgical technologist career is promising due to their comfortable earnings, high demand and the satisfaction of hands-on, meaningful work each day. Plus, you don’t need a four-year degree to become one—surgical technologists typically just need an Associate’s degree.
4. Police officer
Get your steps: Leave the office world behind with a career as a police officer. You’ll have a variety of duties that vary depending on your unit, but whether you’re working on the SWAT team, on horseback or on highway patrol, you can be sure you won’t be trapped at a desk five days a week. You’ll be out in the world, serving and protecting citizens and never knowing what a new day will bring.
Step up your career: A career in law enforcement offers a lifetime of personal satisfaction and purpose. They earn a solid salary and don’t have much need for worry about being replaced someday by AI or robots—police officers will always be needed in our communities. The law enforcement field also offers development potential, specialties to pursue and plenty of room for upward growth throughout the span of a career.
5. Medical assistant
Get your steps:The healthcare field is home to many active jobs; the role of a medical assistant is no different. These healthcare professionals stay active by walking patients back to the examination rooms, taking patient vitals, preparing patient samples and recording patient information. In the fast-paced world of healthcare, medical assistants play a vital and active role in the patient experience.
Step up your career: Medical assisting makes for an excellent career choice, and the reasons go far beyond its level of daily activity. These professionals are very high in demand, and because they work in many types of settings—physicians’ offices, clinics and hospitals—they enjoy an unparalleled flexibility in knowing they’ll be needed near and far, in both urban and rural areas all over the country.
6. Probation officer
Get your steps: A career as a probation officer allows for time outside of an office setting. Probation officers typically work with first-time or non-violent offenders, evaluating them and making recommendations on their condition. Probation officers do this by making home visits throughout their workdays, visiting offenders to ensure they are following the conditions of their probation.
Step up your career: A career as a probation officer offers an immense feeling of personal satisfaction. They earn a comfortable living and go home each night knowing they’re doing their part to cut down on crime and help people turn their lives around.
7. Radiologic technologist
Get your steps:A career as a radiologic technologist sets you up for great step potential. These healthcare professionals stay busy throughout the workweek by walking patients back to imaging areas, preparing them for examinations and performing diagnostic imagery tests, such as X-rays.
Step up your career: Radiologic technologists are needed across the country and the field is growing faster than average. They earn a solid salary, can enter the field after earning an Associate's degree and get the benefit of working face-to-face with patients each day.
8. Physical therapist assistant
Get your steps: If you’re not cut out for a career at a desk, consider becoming a physical therapist assistant. They work in clinics alongside physical therapists, helping patients regain movement after an injury. PTAs work directly with patients, helping them do exercises and use therapy equipment. Sometimes they even partake in exercises alongside their patients.
Step up your career: A physical therapist assistant career is a smart choice for your future simply because they are so greatly needed right now. The demand for these professionals is more than four times greater than the national average for all jobs. One can enter the field in a short amount of time with an Associate’s degree and earn a promising salary as well, not to mention the satisfaction of watching patients improve before your eyes.
Take a step in the right direction
Human bodies are meant to move—and you appreciate that more than anyone else. So why should you sacrifice your well-being for a desk job? Fortunately, you have plenty of options when it comes to active jobs that keep you moving. Now the only question is, which one should you pursue?
If you’re not sure where to go from here, step in the right direction and take our Career Aptitude Test. It’s a short, easy way to narrow down your options using your strengths to find the careers that would be best for you.
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