No one ever said you could be only one thing when you grew up. And chances are, you know a lot more about yourself than you did when you were last in school or before you hit the job market. If you're looking for a career change, you have a lot of options. But if you're looking for a creative career where you can use your business savvy and provide a genuinely useful service to people, you should consider an interior design career. Why? Here are three great reasons.

1. Interior design school can be fun!

Depending on what other education you've had, you might not realize that school can be fun. Both interior design and decorating schools can be a load of fun, especially if you've been longing for a creative outlet. Depending on your previous college education and the type of interior design degree you're pursuing, you may be able to have some of your core credits waived (which makes it even more fun!). Here are just a few of the types of classes at interior design schools that can bring back your creative inspiration:

• Furniture design and construction: You can learn both design theory, how to draft furniture design plans, and get hands-on shop time to create your masterpieces.
• Digital design and presentations: If you shudder at the thought of one more poorly animated PowerPoint presentation, you'll be happy to know that a lot of interior design program teach students the latest digital design tools for making snazzy presentations.
• Design illustration: When is the last time you were graded for drawing and coloring? Even with technology, old-school design illustration techniques using graphite, pastels, colored pencils, watercolor, and more are still important to your success as a designer.

2. With interior design, you have lots of choices when it comes to specialization.

If you never quite found your niche in your other career, you'll have that opportunity as an interior designer. Besides the big choice of residential versus commercial design, you can also specialize in a certain clientele (e.g. or a certain design element, such as closet designs or lighting. Professional certifications are available in health care interior design, green building, green residential remodeling, residential kitchen and bath design, and residential remodeling.

Some states have interior designer license requirements, which include a national exam. The International Interior Design Association maintains a licensing guide so you can find out which states have interior design laws.

3. Interior design careers are on the up-swing.

As of 2008, the Bureau of Labor Statstics collected data on 71,700 salaried interior designers, with median annual wages of $44,950. Between now and 2018, interior design jobs are exepcted to grow 19 percent. Salary data from 2009, showed an increase in median wages to $46,180.

Even if your first career path didn't work out exactly as you planned, you still have lots of career and education options. With three great reasons to pursue an interior design career, it's easy enough to get started on number one by by learning more about the variety of interior design degree programs available.