If you are wondering why so many people are joining the healthcare industry, the reasons are aplenty. Pursuing a career in healthcare can turn out to be one of the most professionally sound and profitable moves of your life. Here’s why:Ample job opportunities: Even at the peak of recession, healthcare was among the few bright spots that continued to shine through the darkness. Recession has receded since then, but healthcare is still one of the fastest growing industries in the country promising numerous job opportunities. And it’s not something that’s likely to change very soon as an increasingly aging population; technological advances in the field of medicine; and growing focus on preventive care continue to spur the demand for healthcare professionals of all kinds.Variety of jobs: It’s not just the number of jobs, but also the variety of jobs it offers that makes healthcare such an attractive career proposition for so many individuals. Your options are not just limited to hospital-based professions involving direct patient care such as nursing, physical therapy or respiratory. There are professions like medical transcription or medical coding that are usually performed at a back office and may not even require you to step your foot inside a hospital.Jobs to fit all educational levels: Another reason why pursuing a career in healthcare industry makes sense is that you can pick a job that ties in with your academic plans. It’s not necessary to spend 5-10 years on postsecondary education for a career in healthcare. You can just as easily find options that require less than a year of training. For example, pharmacy tech training from a career school can be completed in a few months’ time.Job security: No more spending sleepless nights wondering if you’ll still have your job the next morning – that’s the advantage of joining an industry that’s adding workers at a time when others are cutting jobs and handing out pay cuts to employees. A stable and secure career, at the end of the day, translates in to peace of mind.Attractive compensation: Just because healthcare careers offer stability doesn’t mean the money to be had is any less. Most healthcare occupations offer decent paychecks. Many employers, in fact, offer very attractive salary and benefits packages to their employees to fill the gaps in demand and supply of trained and qualified healthcare professionals. Rest assured you can make a healthy living out of a career in healthcare!Flexibility: Since a lot of healthcare occupations tend to be round the clock in nature, flexi timings are possible in these jobs. You can negotiate with your employers how many days a week, how many hours in a day and the shifts you want to work. Some allied health careers like medical transcription and medical coding, in fact, can also be practiced from home. This arrangement works extremely well for moms who want to stay home with their children; retirees looking to generate an income; and individuals who cannot commute to work due to physical disabilities or have conditions like extreme sociophobia that make working in an office environment difficult for them.Job satisfaction: Whether you’re a nurse taking care of the sick and injured; a pharmacy tech filling prescriptions; a medical assistant greeting patients in to a healthcare facility with a smile or a medical transcriptionists diligently transcribing doctor dictations – it’s important to know that the work you do impacts real people with real problems. From this knowledge comes gratification and contentment that you are doing your bit to make this world a better, safer, and healthier place to live!