Use These Strategies to Get Accepted to Graduate School and Win Your First Job in Healthcare Administration - CareerAlley

Use These Strategies to Get Accepted to Graduate School and Win Your First Job in Healthcare Administration - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. While it can feel like a done deal to find a job in the exploding field of healthcare these days, the truth is that if you want to advance up the corporate ladder in your chosen profession, your first step needs to be tending to your education. By earning a masters in health administration online or offline, you will greatly improve your chances not only of earning the salary you desire in your chosen profession, but also being able to access an unlimited number of job opportunities within your chosen field. This will give you the flexibility to specialize in one aspect of healthcare administration or management but also to move between disciplines, start up your own business practice or consulting firm, or even become a professor yourself one day. Because you will first need to earn a bachelors degree before you apply to graduate school, this is a good time to begin surveying the variety of healthcare management jobs and healthcare administration jobs that are available, identifying the areas and career paths that are of greatest interest to you. This will also greatly help you in filling out your graduate school applications, completing your essays, and choosing the references who will speak most convincingly on your behalf that you are the best candidate for their available openings in the program. With these strategies and more, you should have no trouble at all getting into the graduate program of your choice and also of winning a great healthcare administration job after graduation. Where You Begin Your first order of business after narrowing down your career interests to administration, management, or a specific facet within either of these fields, is to choose your graduate degree program. To do this you will need to first decide whether an offline physical campus program or an online program works better for your schedule. You may need to spend some time evaluating both types of programs against your current schedule, seeing where your work or personal schedule may be a hindrance to completing your classwork and then doing your best to remove any obstacles before you apply. Some graduate students find that an online graduate program is ideal in creating a flexible schedule that allows them to keep working and attend classes, study and take exams at their leisure. Once you decide on the type of classroom format that works best for you, you will then need to pick two to three graduate programs to apply to. You will also want to start this process early as many programs only have openings once per year for applicants and there are often many phases to an application, including sending transcripts, gathering referrals, completing a financial assessment, writing an essay, attending an interview over the phone or in person, and other steps as well. If you start early, noting all deadlines, choosing the right references, writing a strong essay, and doing your best to build relationships with decision makers at your chosen campuses, you will have an excellent chance of getting admitted to your chosen program as long as you can meet all of their other requirements in terms of GPA, undergraduate major and any other specifics to your program . Where to Next You will want to apply the same exact strategies that helped you get into your chosen graduate program to winning your first job in healthcare administration following graduation. Because getting into graduate school is in many ways quite similar to interviewing for jobs, you can notice what worked well, what you need to improve on and where you felt confident or not so confident and work hard on your interviewing skills before it comes time to interview for a job. Taking public speaking courses or joining a group like Toastmasters can build your confidence in speaking in front of people and actively researching the industry by taking on voluntary research assignments or internships can enhance your resume so that it will stand out from the resumes of your competitors. You will also want to network as much as possible with your professors and professionals you know, doing information interviews to learn more about the companies and the jobs you are interested in applying for and developing your own ideas for how you can contribute as well in the role of healthcare administrator. If you follow these strategies, you will give yourself the best possible chance of winning your dream job after you graduate. Harley Farcusle owes a lot to healthcare professionals in his lifetime. As a student journalist, hes dedicated to trumpeting the amazing feats of this occupation. This is a Guest post. If you would like to submit a guest post to CareerAlley, please follow these guest post guidelines. Good luck in your search. Visit me on Facebook