Employment prospects for senior health and management majors

Currently, this major is in a bonus window where supply and demand are severely inverted. The corresponding employment gap exceeds 10 million, but the quality of employment is very clearly stratified - graduates with practical skills and cross-field skills are eager to get them. The starting salary is more than 20% higher than other major health majors at the same level. Those with mixed diplomas will most likely only be able to get basic nursing job offers, or even switch to professional employment. The probability of "succumbing to success" and "falling into the trap" is not low.

A while ago, I accompanied a friend who invests in the elderly care industry to go to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security to obtain survey data. In 2035, my country's elderly population will exceed 400 million, and the corresponding gap in elderly health service personnel is already 13 million. Moreover, policies are now being implemented that each street elderly care service center must be equipped with at least 2 full-time elderly health managers. The number of relevant positions in high-end elderly care communities and integrated medical and nursing institutions is expanding. Believe it or not, the high-end senior care community in Pudong, Shanghai, which specializes in care for people with disabilities and dementia, was recruiting for health management positions with a basic salary of 8k plus room and board. It took three months to recruit two people who met the requirements. You can imagine how big the gap is.

But why do so many people complain that this major is a "sinkhole" after searching online? I met a kid who graduated from a junior college last year. He complained that after studying for three years, he could only go to a nursing home to feed the elderly. He earned a monthly salary of 3,500 and had to stay up late at night. After working for two months, he changed his career to deliver food. After chatting with each other, I found out that when he was in school, he failed all the practical classes. He could get the blood pressure of an elderly person wrong three times, and he couldn't even answer the common dietary taboos for diabetes. Which organization do you think would dare to entrust him with the task of customizing health plans and connecting with family members? You can't just do basic nursing jobs.

What’s interesting is that many people’s understanding of employment in this major is still “going to work in a nursing home”, and they have no idea how wide the options are now. I know a girl who majored in Chinese medicine at a certain university. She did not go to a nursing home after graduation, but went to an MCN that does science popularization on elderly health. She specializes in professional review of short video content. She occasionally appears as a science blogger. Her monthly salary is more than 10,000, which is higher than that of classmates who work in hospitals as administrators in the same class. There is also a senior who graduated and went to the retirement community business department of an insurance company, specializing in retirement and health planning for high-net-worth customers who buy large insurance policies. He can earn more than 200,000 yuan a year with a basic salary plus commission. He usually deals with high-net-worth people, and he is not at all like "serving the elderly" in everyone's impression. Of course, there are good places for those looking for stability. Many students have taken the career test and work in community health service centers to work in elderly public health. They work from 9 to 5 without overtime, but the salary is not high, so it is suitable for people who don't want to work too hard.

There are actually two completely different judgments in the industry about the prospects of this profession. One group believes that aging is a bright sign, and now that the country is promoting "active health", the elderly will only be willing to spend more and more money on health management in the future. The value of professional talents will definitely rise. In the future, there will even be exclusive elderly health managers like private doctors, with service fees that can reach tens of thousands a month. The other group feels that the industry is not yet fully regulated, and the job rights and responsibilities of many small organizations are not clear. You were originally recruited for a health management position, but in the end you were asked to work as a caregiver and a salesperson selling health products. There is a lot of chaos. Children who have just graduated and have no experience can easily fall into the trap. There is actually nothing wrong with both of these statements. Now the industry is indeed in a stage where the reckless period and the standardized period are superimposed, and there are many opportunities and pitfalls.

I have been involved in this industry for five or six years. To be honest, if you really want to enter the industry, don’t just focus on your graduation certificate. When you are in school, take the health management certificate and the special skills certificate for caring for the elderly with dementia. When you have time, go to high-end nursing institutions and community elderly care service centers for internships. Don’t find it troublesome to deal with the elderly. If you can deal with an old man with high blood pressure who is angry and refuses to take medicine, and can clearly explain the care plan to his family members, this is the core competitiveness, no matter how many first places you take. If you also have cross-border skills such as new media operations and aging-friendly product design, everyone will really be scrambling for them.

Anyway, to put it bluntly, all professional prospects are for those who are prepared. The current trend of this major is clearly here. Whether you can catch it depends on whether you have the hard skills. If you come with the idea that "you can get a high salary just by getting a diploma", then I advise you not to choose. You will most likely be disappointed.