Choose Your Career

Freelancing can be a great way to work, giving you an extra income as an addition to your day job or the chance to strike out doing work you really enjoy. However, though it is great to earn money on your own terms, freelancing has pros and cons. Here are three tips to help you as you are starting out as a freelancer: 1. Be Organized Whether freelancing is your main job or a side gig, organization is vital. As a freelancer, you will have to set up your own structures and systems as well as doing the actual freelance work you are being paid for. When starting out, it might be tempting to wing it, but to make a success of your work it is best to get organized as soon as possible. It can be a nightmare trying to find all your expenses for your tax return at the end of the year or to not be clear on your pricing structure when talking to clients. You don’t have to go overboard; create systems appropriate to the size of your work that will help you manage your work and grow your … [Read more...] about 3 Tips For The Aspiring Freelancer

Congratulations! You’ve just graduated college. Nights of crumpled Red Bull cans, twitchy eyes and library sleepovers have finally paid off with the ultimate prize of a shiny new liberal arts degree. When the celebratory parties and confetti parades finally die down, it’s time to step into the next exciting part of your artistic career: the service industry. Now don’t despair – it’s possible this might only be temporary. Your dreams of using models as pool floaties in the Hollywood Hills are still intact, just... displaced for the moment. Hold your head up, move through the seven stages of post-university despair, toss off that mortarboard, and tie up your apron. Some might consider it “beneath their degree”, but the service industry is a fantastic way to make money fast while you search for that higher calling. Los Angeles and New York aren’t cheap, and like it or not, you’ll need something to pay for rent and food while you network. Additional benefits include increased … [Read more...] about So You Wanna Be a Bartender?

You’re on the job hunt, sending out applications, completing interviews and waiting to receive a job offer. While you’ll review many things when deciding whether a potential employer will be the right match for you, have you closely examined the company’s benefits package? The benefits that employers offer their workers vary widely from one company to the next. Some organizations only offer bare bones packages while others provide gym memberships, matches on 401K plans and more. There’s much to learn from reviewing benefits packages and the details you gather may just finalize the decision regarding whether or not you want to work for a potential employer. Review the Small Perks While benefits such as life insurance and health insurance are standard in most packages, look for smaller perks offered by potential employers. Some companies include benefits such as gym memberships or onsite daycare in their packages to enhance the working experiences of their … [Read more...] about What a Benefits Package Says About a Potential Employer

Have you ever considered the option of being your own employer? Done right, self employment can free you from the ups and downs of the employment market, and the impact of personal likes and dislikes of your boss. It can also allow greater flexibility in using your time, like rescheduling work to meet essential personal commitments. The above and other advantages of self-employment will materialize only if you do it right. Let us explore what doing it right means. Select the Right Business Starting self-employment can be seen as starting a business of your own. And selecting the right business is at the top of the right things to do. There are several issues to consider when you select the business on which you will be focusing (probably for the rest of your life): Would you like what you will be doing day after day in that business? If the answer is yes, that's a great plus point. Succeeding in a business typically involves working long and hard, and this becomes far easier if you … [Read more...] about The Career Option of Entrepreneurship

In high-school you are told to get good grades to get into a good college. In college, you are told to get good grades so that you can get a good job. As a student, you live semester to semester, report card by report card: a structured set of measurable grades which disappear the second you graduate. But, what if the career path you set for yourself during you student days was not at all what you expected? According to Harris Interactive, only 20% of employees are very passionate about their jobs. Most of us don’t know what we want, what our passion is, and will end up hopping from one job to another or stay with one company because of the steady paycheck. A look at 3 big achievers shows us how to stop this life-long game of musical chairs or endless complacency: follow your dreams. Mark Zuckerberg Zuckerberg’s original purpose was to create a site for Harvard students to connect with one another. As his site grew in popularity, his dreams got more ambitious. “The last hundred … [Read more...] about How to Not Waste Your Life

If you're wondering how to choose a major in college, then you're not alone. Many college students seem to have difficulty deciding on one major to pursue. I know it was that way for me. After changing my major 4 times, I finally decided on accounting. Many college students change their majors at least once! But, what if you knew how to choose a major easily and make sure it is one that's based upon your interests? Clearly some majors are more expensive than others! So, it's important that you choose the right major from the start! Use Mind Mapping To Get Ideas Mind maps are a great way to help you choose the right major! A mind map is a form of note taking that involves turning a paper horizontally and starting with a topic in the center of the page. Write the topic "Picking a Major" in the center of a page and then circle it. This is the main focus of your mind map. Then, you create subtopics to the main topic as branches out from the center topic. These lines can be drawn in any … [Read more...] about How To Choose a Major Using Mind Mapping

It is amazing how many people get stuck in a rut and think they have to stay in a career they are unhappy with. There are endless opportunities out there, why would you want to continue with one that makes you miserable day after day? Many stay with their current career because they assume switching is just too much of a pain. Really? Is the effort of switching careers more of a pain than the grief you are feeling every day? Should You Make a Change? The first thing you need to do is determine if you really need to make a change. Quite often, people start feeling unsatisfied, but really it is because they are suffering job burnout. Have you taken a vacation lately? Could you possibly just need to recharge your battery? It is important to determine this because the last thing you want to do is be unhappy with the change you make. Lifestyle Change – If you have been traveling with your career or manage a nightclub, and now you are married with a brand new baby, lifestyle changes may … [Read more...] about Switching Careers Is Not Rocket Science

Perhaps your ambitions do not include heading off to college after high school. After all, a bachelor's degree simply isn’t for everyone. Or perhaps you have thought about attending college, but it just isn’t in the cards for you for one reason or another. But now what do you do to earn a living? Simply put, you need to find a career that will train you on-the-job, but you don’t want to this career to entail working at the local hamburger stand. You want a reputable career that you can take pride in. And thankfully, not all good careers require years of further schooling. You may have wondered about your prospects in the world of healthcare. After all, medicine is becoming more and more advanced every day. Sure, careers in healthcare can be prestigious and offer long-term job security, but not many people have the time, finances, or educational background needed in order to enter medical school. But what you may not know is that there are many entry-level healthcare positions out … [Read more...] about Top 8 Healthcare Occupations Offering On-The-Job Training

The medical field is, and will continue to be the largest growing segment of our economy. One of the primary reasons for the continued growth is the aging of our population. As the mass of baby boomers continues to grow, so do the ailments and afflictions associated with getting older. People are becoming more health conscious every year and are making efforts to improve their health. More of us strive to maintain a healthy life style, so we can reap the benefits of our longer life spans. All of these reasons contribute to the growth of the medical profession and the need for more employees to keep the process in full gear. Here are a few reasons why you should choose a career in the medical field. Large and Varied Number of Opportunities Besides doctors and nurses, the medical field encompasses a virtually infinite number of job and career opportunities. These can range from radiology and laboratory technical assistants, medical billing specialists, drug and medical supply sales … [Read more...] about Why to Choose Careers in the Medical Field