When executives and professionals think of mid-life career change, they often consider a return to school. We’re often programed to associate career development with formal training, and that’s not always a bad thing.
Today you don’t even have to leave home to find a new career. You can go online for career change. In fact, there are so many opportunities for online education, it’s hard to sort them out.
You can take a MOOC (Massive Online Open Courses) program from a major university; you’ll usually (but not always) get top notch teaching from leaders in the field. The leaders in this area are EdX and Coursera. Personally, as a recreational learner, I like Coursera: you get longer videos rather than the more intense training of EdX. EdX often requires more outside reading and student involvement.
You can take specialized MOOCs to beef up your technical skills, such as Udacity, or the paid (low-cost) version at Udemy.
You can just go online and help yourself to recorded lectures from universities like Yale and UC Berkeley. You can sometimes find them on YouTube and you might find courses at websites like http://academicearth.org/ (which gets outdated sometimes).
Finally, you can get degrees online from universities of all levels. For instance, you can get a library science degree from U of Arizona or an MBA from Syracuse – online with just a few on-campus visits. You can attend a university that’s entirely online.
Of course, online education comes with pitfalls, especially if you choose degree programs. I put together an ebook to help you choose a program that will help your career (rather than just drain your bank account and possibly your credibility).
Learn more here.
And if you’re ready to get serious discuss your own career change, check out this program. Clients tell me we get more done in one call than they usually accomplish in a month or two with more conventional career consulting.
For an overview, watch this video: