Many of you are considering a career switch and that’s a great thing.

But before you do too much research into a new profession, I would do one thing ASAP — take someone in that field out for a cup of coffee.

Why? No matter how many books or articles you read about a career, no matter how long you spend on the Internet researching a profession, you’ll never know what it’s really like unless you talk to someone in the trenches. And I mean talk, not email folks.

This point was driven home for me during the weekend when I was attending a Halloween party at my neighbor’s house. My neighbor is a nurse and I’ve known her for many years now. But I’ve never really picked her brain about the job she does.

Well, all the attendees at the party got a graphic picture of what she does during a conversation about deodorant. (I know, sounds weird, but it was a party and the beer was flowing.)

The conversation centered around whether it was a healthy thing or not to wear deodorant given reports that aluminum in such products could be a health hazard. At some point my nurse friend chimed in: “People have to wear deodorant.”

She said it with such conviction we all stopped talking and focused on her. “In my job, when people don’t wear deodorant it’s just horrible.” She was referring to the patients she has to turn, and bath, and take care of every day. Deodorant to her was a godsend.

That one statement left the people around her with mouths gaping. There was a pilot, a college professor, an office manager, and a journalist, me, all standing there with the realization that her job was more than a person in scrubs roaming the halls to a clean hospital. Suddenly we were privy to the intimacy with strangers she encounters everyday.

I retell this story because many of my readers have sent me email in the last year about how they are considering a health care job because it’s an area of the economy that growing.

This from Yolanda:

I have been unemployed for about 5 months now and there are no jobs in my field which is in hospitality so i have to go into a field where there is work such as nursing. Shat advice would you give me to make the change from another field?

Indeed, applications and enrollment at the nation’s nursing school is rising, and that’s a great thing because there is a nursing shortage in the country. But becoming a nurse, a doctor, a phlebotomist isn’t right for everyone.

That’s why I’m suggesting you connect with someone in the field you’d like to pursue. I’m constantly asked by people who are pondering a career in journalism what my industry is like. I often have lengthy discussions on the phone and over lunch with aspiring writers.

People love to talk about themselves and they really love to talk about their work, especially if they love their work.

Try to find someone that knows someone who’s a butcher, baker or candlestick maker, or any other job you’re pondering and ask to pick their brain. And don’t forget, wear deodorant.