If you’re in the market for a new job, but a typical 9-5 office job isn’t for you, you’re not alone. There are quite literally hundreds of types of careers out there that don’t have the structure of a typical office job. Some are physical, like becoming a firefighter or an electrician. Some are more social, like event planning, and some allow you to be on your feet in a healthy, active environment all day long, like personal training. Whatever your interests, know that a desk job isn’t your only option.

The road to these non-traditional careers looks different depending on what you choose, but many of them don’t require a college degree. Some require you to pass an exam, like the NASM for personal trainers, but there are plenty of courses and ways to prepare without paying for a formal education, such as the nasm practice test. So if you’re looking for a career change or even your first job ever, here are a few options that will give you a much different schedule than an office job.

Personal Trainer

As we mentioned above, personal training is a great option for those who want to be on their feet and have an interest in health. To get certified, you must pass the official exam from the National Academy of Sports Medicine, or the NASM. But that doesn’t mean you need to shell out thousands for a college degree. Rather, you can study material online and take the NASM practice test to prepare yourself. The best part? You can find a NASM practice for free online

There are various structured online courses that include the NASM practice test and will give you full preparation to become a personal trainer, but you can also do the studying on your own if you feel up to it, then check your progress with the NASM practice test for free online as much as you want before the exam. If health and fitness is important to you, this could be the perfect future career. Plus, it comes with the added benefit of transforming other peoples’ lives. What’s not to love?

Flight Attendant

If you’re attentive, a great communicator, and out for a unique job that will get you places (literally), becoming a flight attendant could be your next career. The primary job of flight attendants is to keep all passengers safe and comfortable during a flight. So in addition to serving drinks and food, you’ll have to know flight regulations quite well to keep everybody in line. Depending on the airline, the education requirements for a flight attendant are typically a high school diploma or GED. Once you apply to an airline and are hired, you undergo formal training by that airline that lasts up to six weeks. It will inform you about your job duties as well as company policies and official flight regulations. Upon completion of the training, you’ll receive a certificate of proficiency, and you’re ready to fly! 

Massage Therapist

Interested in wellness, but not the personal training kind? Try massage therapy. You can handle all of the people who just came from personal training and give them some much needed massage therapy to help their muscles recover. Massage therapists typically have to complete around 1,000 hours of a massage therapy course followed by an official exam to get certified. Most states use a universal exam, the MBLEx, but some, like New York state, issue their own. Once you’ve passed the exam, you’re required to show proof of completing a course in CPR within the past three years prior to applying for licensure, so if you haven’t yet done so, you’ll have to find a CPR course before you can become certified. Once you’ve checked all the boxes above, you’re ready to do your part in helping your clients relax and recover whenever they need. 

Event Planner

If you’re social, organized, and appreciate a flawlessly-run event, you should consider becoming an event planner. This role typically requires a Bachelor’s Degree, usually in a field like business, communications, public relations, or hospitality management. Having a background in hospitality and business is helpful in understanding the economics and social standards of planning a great event. The role itself will certainly not be a desk job; it requires socializing and networking, potentially some travel, plenty of creativity, and impressive organization skills as people will be relying on you to handle the details and planning of important events. But at the end of the day, you get to see your work come to life when the event runs smoothly and everybody involved is elated. 

Librarian

For those with a passion for books, organization, and the zen environment of a library, work as a librarian might be your perfect niche. This job typically requires a master’s degree, so there’s definitely a barrier to entry that some other non-traditional jobs don’t require, but if it’s your passion, it’ll be well worth it. Fortunately, there aren’t specific bachelor’s degree programs that are precursors to getting your Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science, so if you’ve already graduated college with a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology, it’s not too late to change routes. Being a librarian involves doing research and making the information available in their library as accessible as possible. You should also have an interest in building community, as libraries are and always have been a crucial part of communities, big and small, worldwide. 

Teacher

Becoming a teacher is a little more complicated than most of the other roles on this list, but it’s one of the ones that draws the most passionate candidates. Teaching is extremely rewarding, as you’re quite literally changing your students’ lives as you give them new information and help them understand it. It allows for nearly endless creativity, but it requires patience and a knack for sharing knowledge in a way that makes others understand it. It also requires a Bachelor’s Degree in Teaching, various certification exams, mentored teaching, then a Master’s Degree in Education and more professional certifications. It can be a long road to becoming a teacher, but there’s a reason people do it, and we can assure you, you’ll never get bored in this career. 

Journalist 

As a journalist, you’ll mainly work in two work environments: a newsroom and the outside world. Sure, “the outside world” is pretty vague, but that’s because it’s simply the opposite of the office; it’s real life, and you’re thrown into the middle of it as a journalist. Your role consists of pitching story ideas, researching them, covering them, and also sometimes simply getting assigned to a story whether you like it or not. You have to find sources, check your facts, and ultimately create a story (broadcast or print) that tells the facts and gives the critical information in whatever form is appropriate. The closest you’ll come to an office is your home base, your newsroom, which is likely to be the loudest, most chaotic, most social office you’ll ever step foot in. If you like to be involved, you like to chat with people, and you like to learn, then being a journalist could be the career for you. It does, however, require a bachelor’s degree in addition to writing and communication skills and a knowledge of journalistic ethics and writing styles. 

Broadcast News Producer

If you’re producing the news, you’ll likely be in a newsroom half the time and a director’s booth the other half. On a typical day, reporters, like we mentioned above, will go out and create their stories, but then they essentially turn them into you, the producer. Your role is to take those stories and turn them into a show. You put them in order, create appropriate transitions, and keep everything on time to ensure you don’t get cut off by the hard out at the end. You also play a role in selecting which stories are worthy of your show and booking guests for the show. And at showtime, you move to the directors booth and watch the show with a headset on, communicating with the anchors and guests at all times to keep the show running smoothly. It’s a career worth bragging about, and we can assure you, you won’t get bored.