4 Signs You're Ready to Go Back to School and Get a Degree

Are you sitting at work right now, counting down the day's hours because you're bored, uninterested, or generally unhappy? Or maybe you've realized that you've reached the top of the potential at your job, and yet you want more.

According to Business Insider, the average professional spends around 90,000 hours of their time at work. And if you're not happy, being challenged, or enjoying what you do, that's a lot of hours wasted. Since most of today's adults have to work in order to meet their personal or family needs, it's time to start enjoying those 90,000 hours.

One way to change your situation is by going back to school. By earning a degree, you can learn about a new industry, allowing you to change what you do. A degree can also advance your knowledge of your current trade, which might land you a job that you love at a different company or in a different position.

Here are 4 signs that you're ready to go back to school and advance your career

Professionally, you're bored

Maybe you like a challenge. The job you have now excited you at first, and it pushed you to learn something new and excel at it. But time has passed, and you're now bored. Whether it's because you've been doing the same thing every day for years or you're just going through the motions of your job, it might be time to move on. If you love working in business but you want to learn something new within business, a master's degree in Business Administration (MBA) or a master's in Organizational Leadership (MOL) could provide you with new business principles. You'd learn about things like marketing, social media, accounting, and/or human resources.

There aren't growth opportunities at your work

Way to go - you've worked your way up to the top, and you're proud of that. But after a while, you've also realized that there's nowhere else to go. This doesn't mean you should just abandon ship right away, though. Talk to your supervisor about growth, and try to contribute new ideas and strategies. If that doesn't do anything for your position, you might need to be challenged even more. If you don't have a bachelor's degree already, earning one could help you land a job that does offer job growth. And if you have your bachelor's a master's degree could give you an upper hand in those management positions.

The idea of learning something new excites you

You're the type of person that enjoys reading. Or maybe you like to step out of your comfort zone and take cooking classes, photography classes, or new workout classes. Whatever it is, something excites you about learning something you know nothing about. If you don't have time to dive into a full-on degree program, consider the benefits of earning an online certificate. You can complete one in a shorter period of time, and you can learn about topics like entrepreneurship, leadership, and project management. And adding a certificate to your resume helps beef it up and reflects that you enjoy investing in yourself as a professional.

You are interested in changing careers altogether

If you're unhappy at work, take inventory of why. Is it the company you work for, the people you work with, or is it the work you're doing? If you're genuinely over your position and the work you do, it might be time to consider changing your career altogether. So, what does interest you? There are plenty of online interest and job tests, which can help you discover what kind of career you'd enjoy. You can also talk to an enrollment counselor at CCU about what kind of position and job you'd be interested in, and they can help you plan how to get there.

Colorado Christian University does not guarantee any job placement as a result of earning this or any other degrees offered by the university.