A Better Job

About the Author

Virginia Bola operated a rehabilitation company for 20 years, developing innovative job search techniques for disabled workers, while serving as a respected Vocational Expert in Administrative, Civil and Workers' Compensation Courts. Author of an interactive and emotionally supportive workbook, The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, and a monthly ezine, The Worker's Edge, she can be reached at http://www.unemploymentblues.com

With all the excitement regarding high protein diets, one area that is often not talked about is a diet rich in protein can be a major contributor to bad breath. Actually, there are several causes of bad breath, many of which most people have given little, if any, thought to.

Have you ever thought of the impact a person’s breath can have on their career Often, the only place the smell of your breath is mentioned is in the dentist’s office. Yet, it is definitely something to think of.

Think of the last time you encountered someone with bad breath. Did you tell them Probably not. It’s not as easy to say, “By the way, your breath is offensive,” as it is to say, “You have something on your shirt.”

Have you ever wondered if your breath is offensive Maybe you’re someone who is constantly popping breath mints, chewing gum or spraying your mouth before you talk with others. Consider what repeatedly chewing gum or sucking on a sugar mint might be doing to your teeth.

The purpose of this article is to give you a simple understanding of where bad breath comes from and what you can do about it. As previously mentioned, high protein diets can cause bad breath. Bad breath is caused from bacteria in your mouth or throat. Decay of your teeth can also contribute to bad breath. In addition, illness, smoking, alcohol, diabetes, mucous from the throat and certain foods you eat contribute to an unpleasant odor. In extreme cases the smell is so offensive it indicates serous medical problems.

Contrary to popular belief, rarely is bad breath caused by stomach problems. Nor do mouthwashes cure bad breath. If anything, they act as a temporary solution and add to the problem over the long haul. However, mouthwash in conjunction with flossing, tooth brushing and tongue cleaning can help.

There are simple solutions for better breath and there are more drastic measures some may need to take. On the simple side, cleaning your tongue can help a great deal. You can use your toothbrush to do this. Try to go back as far as you can in order to gain the best result. Some people may initially experience a gag reflex. The more you put this into your oral hygiene practice, the easier it becomes.

Regular professional teeth cleanings are another simple solution. The best part of having a regular cleaning with your dental hygienist is you will be able to catch any contributing problems as soon as possible.

If you have any teeth that need repair such as lose fillings, apparent decay, or chips see you dental professional as soon as possible. Not only will you be able to lessen the problems you may have with bad breath, you will reduce the long-term negative effects such things can have on your mouth and overall health.

Regardless of your profession bad breath is something that impacts you in unspoken ways. With the simple steps outlined in this article you eliminate the possibility that you may be offending someone without even knowing it.

If you are in sales or any profession where you deal with the public, this is especially important for you. Can you risk the chance of offending a customer with something you have the capability of correcting I think not.

About The Author

Dr. Scott Kiser has been practicing general dentistry in Salt Lake City, Utah for over 20 years. Dr. Kiser has used only mercury-free substances in his treatments since the mid 90’s and concentrates his practice in the areas of sedation dentistry and complete smile makeovers. Consumer Research Council of America selected him as Utah’s Top Cosmetic Dentist of 2003 – 04. Dr. Kiser is a member of AACD – American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. Visit www.greatsmilesutah.com to sign up for a FREE monthly online newsletter or for more information on Dr. Kiser and all of his services. Skiserdds@aol.com

1. Differentiate yourself using a Personal Value Proposition. A PVP a description of how your unique mixture of five key elements creates and/or adds value for an organization and the people in it. A personal examination of these elements reminds you of all the strong, positive things you bring to the table and it points out the gaps you need to close before you can position yourself more effectively. Examine each element separately, combine all the data and created a succinct summary of what you have to offer.

The five elements are: The knowledge you have about the events and trends in areas critical to or of most interest to your company and clients; The kinds of internal and external networks that you can tap into to meet corporate/client needs; Your ability to generate and implement superior solutions to organizational issues and concerns; The academic, technical, or interpersonal tools you can bring to bear in key situations and; finally, The personal attributes and strengths you have that sets you apart from others in the organization.

2. Describe yourself in terms of the outcomes you create, not the activities you engage in. Fashion a one-line proclamation, a marketing slogan if you like, that reflects the outcomes you create for your company and its customers.

3. Make it your personal mission to always make others, including your boss, look good. Someone once said, “you can have anything you want; all you have to do is give others what they want.” While there is the odd exception to be sure, most people are fair and honest—willing to share credit where it’s due. Making others look good sweeps you up in their success and almost guarantees that they will help you enjoy successes of your own.

4. Be a can-do person; take to heart the words of the old song, “the difficult I can do right now; the impossible will take a little while.” Instead of saying “I’ve never done that,” say, “I’ll learn how to do it.” Don’t be afraid of steep learning curves. Remember the organization hired you because you were smart. Look for the opportunity in difficulties rather than the difficulties in the opportunities.

5. Develop success from failures. Don’t be afraid to fail or make mistakes. But if you do either take responsibility—don’t project or rationalize. Admitting a mistake or failure and moving forward is proactive not reactive. Above all, identify and remember the learning opportunities in the situation. Forget about everything else and move on.

6. Ask for help. IQ expands exponentially. Together, two people bring four times the intelligence. Super-hero individualism is often counter-productive.

7. Remember the Pareto principle, or the 80/20 rule as it’s more commonly known. Eighty percent of your effectiveness comes from twenty percent of your activities. Manage your priorities and don’t waste time spinning your wheels by engaging unimportant activity.

8. Get yourself in front of an audience. Learn to make effective presentations and make as many as you can. Good presentations are the mark of a true professional. You, your ideas and skills receive broader corporate exposure that, in my experience, can result in challenging new assignments, larger budgets, greater general recognition and even raises and promotions.

9. Develop and use internal and external networks, both formal and informal. People who network well often receive and move information faster, cut through organizational politics more quickly and, create solutions better suited to the needs of their companies. Research in different types of organizations shows that those who develop and use networks usually get to serve on more successful teams, receive early promotions more often, get higher compensation, and get better performance reviews.

About The Author

© Dr. Tom Olson 2004, all rights reserved Permission to reprint article granted as long as this signature remains intact.

Dr. Tom Olson is the author of Don’t Die With Your helmet On. Visit www.Dontdiewithyourhelmeton.com for more information about Dr. Tom, the book and his work info@dontdiewithyourhelmeton.com

"Know your Ruling Star. One man is better received by one nation than another, or is one welcome by one city than another. He finds more luck in one office or position than in another, and all though his qualifications are equal or even identical. Let each man know his luck as well as his talents. Follow your guiding star and help it without mistaking any other for it. Know how to transplant yourself. There are nations with whom one must cross their borders to make ones value felt.” — Balthasar Gracian, Spain, 1600s

Have you ever felt, “Here I am, best job I ever had, good money, an excellent career move — but, what in the world am I doing here where I feel so alone and out-of-place with my surroundings How did this happen to me”

I’ve been there, because someone offered me a job and I accepted, knowing ahead-of-time, intuitively I wouldn’t feel at home in the town and surroundings.

Or — maybe you love your location but, sadly, are unable to find any openings in your field. I’ve been there also. Looking back on my years in Austin, Texas, I can’t believe the number of short-term, soul-emptying jobs I tried very hard and unsuccessfully do to. My job-duration ranged from only two hours which was long enough when you hate what you are doing! to several months each day seeming like an eternity before my opportunities in broadcasting finally came.

It’s a rare person these days who is able to say, “I love this community, love my home, love the work I do, get along great with my business colleagues and supervisors. How do you beat perfection”

There is a wonderful quote I repeated to myself many, many times during my ups and downs in Texas.

“Hence the first principle in changing one’s character is to seek another environment, to let new forces play upon our unused chords, and draw from us a better music.” — Will Durant

That’s what I wanted! I wanted another location — another place — where new forces could play upon my unused chords and draw from me a better music.

“There are nations with whom one must cross their borders to make ones value felt." — Gracian

Yes! Yes! Yes! That’s what I wanted. To cross borders and feel my native talents valued again.

"Know your Ruling Star,” the Spanish priest Gracian wrote in The Art of Worldly Wisdom. “One man is better received by one nation than another, or is one welcome by one city than another. He finds more luck in one office or position than in another, and all though his qualifications are equal or even identical.”

We are better received in certain locations or areas than in others, welcomed when we show up, and we most certainly do find more luck in one place than another.

“But where, where, where is THAT PLACE” I wondered.

In Texas, for every 100% plus I gave in my career, the returns feeling valued, appreciated, and being monetarily rewarded, always fell short.

I hosted a noon talk show for awhile at an Austin TV station. Our ratings were great. The guests I booked were top names in the literary, entertainment, self-improvement, and political arenas.

After our ratings came in one spring, I couldn’t believe how well the show was doing.

Several days later, however, the General Manager wanted to see me.

After all the years of my show’s success, he said, “James, I can’t complain about your ratings. That’s good for ad revenue, but I finally got a chance to see your show yesterday. As you know I only have a tenth grade education, never finished high school, started in sales, worked my way up to where I am today.” He beamed proudly, “I didn’t understand it.”

I knew when he said, “I didn’t understand it,” my show was doomed.

The GM was the standard by which all business decisions at our stations were made.

I wanted to call him, “Idiot,” but restrained myself.

My favorite line in Texas TV came from a female news director who told me, “You have a master’s degree. We don’t need people that smart to do the news.” I never worked at that station.

“Let each man know his luck as well as his talents. Follow your guiding star and help it without mistaking any other for it. Know how to transplant yourself,” Gracian reminds us.

Know how to transplant yourself!

Finally, I did transplant myself, once again. It was time to move from the newsroom and go into teaching; use, finally, that masters degree referred to earlier that wasn’t needed to report the news.

“There is a simple answer to the question ‘What is the purpose of our individual lives” A.J. Ayer wrote. “They have whatever purpose we succeed in putting into them.”

Yet, if you believe you are being guided by and toward a higher destiny, as I do, use what others know their gifts and resources to inform and enlighten yourself.

I’ve also successfully used relocation astrology as an essential tool to follow my guiding star. Through my sessions with Cait Benten, I’m finding, as wed all like to do, a balance of the “right place” and the “right work” combined.

“This time, like all other times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.” --Ralph Waldo Emerson

http://www.astro-earth-relocation.com/james%20by%20phone.htm

http://www.astro-earth-relocation.com

About The Author

Now, after a career as an award-winning media communicator and as a university professor, James has shared meaning-filled conversations with film stars, recording artists, US Presidents and first ladies, state governors, world-famous authors, scientists, and people from most every walk of life.

You’ll get wet but the reward just might be a more fulfilling ride!

In Survival is Not Enough, author Seth Godin says change is the "new normal.” Rather than thinking of work as a series of stable times interrupted by moments of change, Godin says we “must now recognize work as constant change, with only occasional moments of stability."

For many of us this very thought stirs both a nervous anxiety and an enjoyable excitement. Even if we are fearful, we crave change: the opportunity to try something new, to build on what we know, to stretch our professional muscles.

So how do we deal with the fear, change that career horse in mid-stream and move down the career exploration path on a new stallion

First we have to acknowledge our fears. They may not be rational even to us but we are not seeking our rational thoughts. We are in search of those underlying fears that operate whether or not we are fully aware of them.

Try this…take out a piece of paper and write down all the reasons you can’t or won’t make a career change or job move. Don’t hold back. What are your fears, concerns, reservations etc Are they related to a loss of income or the expectations of others Fear of failure Success Don’t get caught up in how you should feel or that you know a concern is not entirely valid. Just write them down. Think of yourself as a researcher looking for information in a non-judgmental way. We are simply observing ourselves, reserving our conclusions for later.

As you study your list you can easily see that underlying most of our fears is your reluctance to trust your ability to be capable, creative, and resourceful. But a close examination of your track record will reveal that this lack of trust is unfounded. After all, haven’t you accomplished many professional and personal goals Haven’t your setbacks lead to a renewed determination To an enriched experience To a more well rounded professional outlook

Now take a look at that list again. Read each fear or concern slowly and ask yourself, where am I in all or nothing, always or never, black or white thinking Are your thoughts fraught with extreme terms like… If I change jobs I’ll be broke. If I take less money my family will hate me. If I change careers my parents will go berserk. If I pursue a new career my education and experience will be for nothing. If I make the wrong choice I’ll never recover.

Are these statements really true Can you know for a fact that if you make a professional move something terrible will happen While your worst fears could happen, how likely are they to occur if you trust your record of resourcefulness and creatively You may have heard that FEAR is an acronym for False Expectations Appearing Real. Our fears are generally rooted in the perspective that the worst will definitely happen. After all if we really understand the true odds we would move forward with far less anxiety.

In short, coach yourself to be honest about your irrational thoughts. Name your fears. Review them and look for the misconceptions in them. Where are you in an all or nothing perspective Don’t judge yourself for having irrational thoughts. Acknowledge them when they happen and remind your self that such thoughts only trip us up when we pretend we don’t have them!

Once we become aware of our fears we become more agile and willing to cross the proverbial stream with a new horse. The following seven steps will keep you astride that lively and spirited career steed even when things are bumpy and unpredictable.

1. Money isn’t everything. Don’t expect to take a pay cut, especially if you have transferable skills. But, if you do accept a lower salary, make sure it’s a fair exchange for a more rewarding career. Be careful here. Sometimes we get caught up in how it will look to others if we take a pay cut and what does that say about us Remember only you can assess whether a pay cut is worth it.

2. Know your passion. When youre true to your mission, you experience peace and stability. When you ignore the truth, you experience disharmony, indecision and doubt. Work at achieving goals that are compatible with your passion. Trust that your resourcefulness and creativity will make things happen.

3. It’s your life. Close friends and family members may have trouble envisioning you in a different career. Expand your network; make an effort to meet new people. Attend professional events, join an industry association or meet other job seekers online. Remember, what do you want If you know that answer, your personal power will help you achieve your goals.

4. Jump often. Risk taking gets easier with practice. Start with small risks in daily activities. Think of a risk you would like to take. What would you gain from taking it Whats frightening about it Whats the worst thing that could happen if it turned out badly If the worst happened, what would you do What could you do to minimize this What information would make this less risky If you broke the risk into small steps, what would the first step be When could you take it

5. Get creative. Become involved in activities, relationships, hobbies, and spiritual/community activities. With this new focus you may even discover you’re enjoying that unsatisfying job now that you have a more balanced perspective.

6. Don’t give up. The career path is not linear – it’s more like a spiral. On average, it takes four years to change careers, according to Herminia Ibarra, the author of Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career. It’s a process of trial and error – you will likely face a few disappointments and failures.

7. Be a cheerleader. As you go through a career transition, enthusiasm can help you meet the challenges and overcome the obstacles. When youre networking or job hunting, your enthusiasm can often overcome the reservations potential employers may have about your career change.

About The Author

Merci Miglino is well qualified to help you take the next step to accomplish what you want in your professional and personal life. Merci was educated as a teacher and worked as a journalist, paralegal, communications director and campaign manager. She has also been on the front lines of the retail, hospitality and advertising industries. Armed with this background Merci is a noted speaker, trainer and career coach. She is also a facilitator of the Personal CatalystTM , a unique, web-based life and career design tool that inspires extraordinary achievement. As if that were not enough, she has written a book, From Doormat to Diva© Taking Center Stage in your life. This woman knows success, personally and professionally, and she knows how to help you find it too. merci@matpounders.com

There has been a lot of talk recently about American jobs moving overseas…offshoring is the buzzword for it. During difficult economic times it is often easy to find a scapegoat to blame for a downturn in jobs. While government reports and politicians try to downplay the impact, offshoring is something to take seriously. This article will discuss the permanent effect offshoring will have on U.S. jobs and what you can do to make sure it doesn’t happen to you.

Economic crises of the last thirty years have tended to blames overseas competitors for America’s financial woes. During the seventies it was foreign steel to blame and during the eighties it was foreign agriculture. The current trend of moving American jobs overseas, particularly to India, The Phillipines and other developing nations has been troubling to many. While some people think this is a temporary situation, shifts in the American economy and world politics indicate otherwise.

One of the effects of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War has been the increased globalization of trade. On this continent, economic borders have opened up due to the North America Free Trade Act NAFTA. In Europe, the collapse of the Iron Curtain has opened the borders of the eastern countries. And the European Union has made a significant impact on the economy; standardizing currency in 13 countries in 2000 and adding 10 new member nations last month…mostly former Eastern Bloc nations. Even China has joined the global free market, contributing $620 billion in trade to the world’s markets in 2002. China has taken control of Taiwan and regained Asia’s economic powerhouse – Hong Kong – after 100 years of British rule.

These global economic changes are big and they will not go away. American companies have taken advantage of the global market, establishing icons of American culture like fast food, retail stores and computer software everywhere. With all these events and situations, it only makes sense that American companies would turn to foreign labor.

Besides, the economic impact of the world’s political shift, the American economy has transformed itself. The rise of the computer has shifted the United States economy from an industrial nation to a nation of information and service. This means there will be less jobs in making things and more jobs in marketing and servicing things. Unfortunately the American education system has been ill prepared for this inevitable change. In the mid to late nineties, thousands of well paying computer jobs went to foreign nationals on temporary work visas. Additionally, domestic workers on a whole will move from being permanently hired employees to contract or temporary employees. As a worker, it will be more important to market yourself, keep a good network of contacts and maintain your technical skills.

Although this news sounds grim, it’s really not. Most of the jobs going overseas are in the lower salary ranges like customer service and technical support positions. Meanwhile, the new “hot jobs” pay very competitively, even for workers who lack employment experience.

If you’re afraid your job may be going overseas, or you want a better paying career with more advancement opportunities, take a look at these hot jobs: IT Security IT Project Management IT Outsource Management IT Database Administrators Health Care - Medical Assistant Health Care – Nursing Health Care – Home Health Health Care – Dental Hygienists Health Care - Medical Coding Health Care – Medical Office Administration

Find out how you can begin the education for one of these great careers at www.top-colleges.com.

About The Author

Max Stein, Salt Lake City, UT, USA http://www.degreesource.com/articles Max Stein is a freelance writer who writes about business, education and marketing. For daily updates, read our blog at http://degreesource.blogspot.com

My experience working with thousands of leaders world wide for the past two decades teaches me that most leaders are screwing up their careers.

On a daily basis, these leaders are getting the wrong results or the right results in the wrong ways.

Interestingly, they themselves are choosing to fail. They’re actively sabotaging their own careers.

Leaders commit this sabotage for a simple reason: They make the fatal mistake of choosing to communicate with presentations and speeches -- not leadership talks.

In terms of boosting one’s career, the difference between the two methods of leadership communication is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.

Speeches/presentations primarily communicate information. Leadership talks, on the other hand, not only communicate information, they do more: They establish a deep, human emotional connection with the audience.

Why is the later connection necessary in leadership

Look at it this way: Leaders do nothing more important than get results. There are generally two ways that leaders get results: They can order people to go from point A to point B; or they can have people WANT TO go from A to B.

Clearly, leaders who can instill “want to” in people, who motivate those people, are much more effective than leaders who can’t or won’t.

And the best way to instill “want to” is not simply to relate to people as if they are information receptacles but to relate to them on a deep, human, emotional way.

And you do it with leadership talks.

Here are a few examples of leadership talks. When Churchill said, “We will fight on the beaches ... “ That was a leadership talk. When Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you ... “ that was a leadership talk. When Reagan said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” That was a leadership talk. You can come up with a lot of examples too. Go back to those moments when the words of a leader inspired people to take ardent action, and you’ve probably put your finger on an authentic leadership talk. Mind you, I’m not just talking about great leaders of history. I’m also talking about the leaders in your organizations. After all, leaders speak 15 to 20 times a day: everything from formal speeches to informal chats. When those interactions are leadership talks, not just speeches or presentations, the effectiveness of those leaders is dramatically increased. How do we put together leadership talks It’s not easy. Mastering leadership talks takes a rigorous application of many specific processes. As Clement Atlee said of that great master of leadership talks, Winston Churchill, “Winston spent the best years of his life preparing his impromptu talks.” Churchill, Kennedy, Reagan and others who were masters at giving leadership talks didn’t actually call their communications “leadership talks”, but they must have been conscious to some degree of the processes one must employ in putting a leadership talk together.

Here’s how to start. If you plan to give a leadership talk, there are three questions you should ask. If you answer “no” to any one of those questions, you can’t give one. You may be able to give a speech or presentation, but certainly not a leadership talk.

1 DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE AUDIENCE NEEDS

Winston Churchill said, “We must face the facts or they’ll stab us in the back.”

When you are trying to motivate people, the real facts are THEIR facts, their reality.

Their reality is composed of their needs. In many cases, their needs have nothing to do with your needs.

Most leaders don’t get this. They think that their own needs, their organization’s needs, are reality. That’s okay if you’re into ordering. As an order leader, you only need work with your reality. You simply have to tell people to get the job done. You don’t have to know where they’re coming from. But if you want to motivate them, you must work within their reality, not yours.

I call it “playing the game in the people’s home park”. There is no other way to motivate them consistently. If you insist on playing the game in your park, you’ll be disappointed in the motivational outcome.

2 CAN YOU BRING DEEP BELIEF TO WHAT YOU’RE SAYING

Nobody wants to follow a leader who doesn’t believe the job can get done. If you can’t feel it, they won’t do it.

But though you yourself must “want to” when it comes to the challenge you face, your motivation isn’t the point. It’s simply a given. If you’re not motivated, you shouldn’t be leading.

Here’s the point: Can you TRANSFER your motivation to the people so they become as motivated as you are

I call it THE MOTIVATIONAL TRANSFER, and it is one of the least understood and most important leadership determinants of all.

There are three ways you can make the transfer happen. CONVEY INFORMATION. Often, this is enough to get people motivated. For instance, many people have quit smoking because of information on the harmful effects of the habit. MAKE SENSE. To be motivated, people must understand the rationality behind your challenge. Re: smoking: People have been motivated to quit because the information makes sense. TRANSMIT EXPERIENCE. This entails having the leader’s experience become the people’s experience. This can be the most effective method of all, for when the speaker’s experience becomes the audience’s experience, a deep sharing of emotions and ideas, a communing, can take place.

There are plenty of presentation and speech courses devoted to the first two methods, so I won’t talk about those.

Here’s a few thoughts on the third method. Generally speaking, humans learn in two ways: by acquiring intellectual understanding and through experience. In our schooling, the former predominates, but it is the latter which is most powerful in terms of inducing a deep sharing of emotions and ideas; for our experiences, which can be life’s teachings, often lead us to profound awareness and purposeful action.

Look back at your schooling. Was it your book learning or your experiences, your interactions with teachers and students, that you remember most In most cases, your experiences made the most telling impressions upon you.

To transfer your motivation to others, use what I call my “defining moment” technique, which I describe fully in my book, DEFINING MOMENT: MOTIVATING PEOPLE TO TAKE ACTION.

In brief, the technique is this: Put into sharp focus a particular experience of yours then communicate that focused experience to the people by describing the physical facts that gave you the emotion.

Now, here’s the secret to the defining moment. That experience of yours must provide a lesson and that lesson is a solution to the needs of the people. Otherwise, they’ll think you’re just talking about yourself.

For the defining moment to work i.e., for it to transfer your motivation to them, the experience must be about them. The experience happened to you, of course. But that experience becomes their experience when the lesson it communicates is a solution to their needs.

3 CAN YOU HAVE THE AUDIENCE TAKE RIGHT ACTION

Results don’t happen unless people take action. After all, it’s not what you say that’s important in your leadership communications, it’s what the people do after you have had your say.

Yet the vast majority of leaders don’t have a clue as to what action truly is.

They get people taking the wrong action at the wrong time in the wrong way for the wrong results.

A key reason for this failure is they don’t know how to deliver the all-important “leadership talk Call-to-action”.

“Call” comes from an Old English word meaning to shout. A Call-to-Action is a shout for action. Implicit in the concept is urgency and forcefulness. But most leaders don’t deliver the most effective Calls-to-action because they make three errors regarding it.

First, they err by mistaking the Call-to-Action as an order. Within the context of The Leadership Talk, a Call-to-action is not an order. Leave the order for the order leader.

Second, leaders err by mistaking the Call as theirs to give. The best Call-to-action is not the leaders to give. Its the people’s to give. Its the people’s to give to themselves. A true Call-to-action prompts people to motivate themselves to take action.

The most effective Call-to-action then is not from the leader to the people but from the people to the people themselves!

Third, they error by not priming their Call. There are two parts to the Call-to-Action, the primer and the Call itself. Most leaders omit the all-important primer.

The primer sets up the Call, which is to prompt people to motivate themselves to take action. You yourself control the primer. The people control the Call.

The primer/Call is critical because every leadership communication situation is in essence a problem situation. There is the problem the leader has. And there is the problem the people have. In many cases, they are two different problems. But leaders get into trouble regarding the Call-to-action when they think it’s only one problem, mainly theirs.

For instance, a leader might be talking about the organization needing to be more productive. So, the leader talks PRODUCTIVITY.

On the other hand, the people, hearing PRODUCTIVITY, think, YOU’RE GOING TO GIVE ME MORE WORK!

If the leader thinks that productivity is the people’s problem and ignores the “more work” aspect, h/she’s Call-to-action will probably be a bust, resulting in the people avoiding committed action.

Let’s apply the primer/Call dynamic to the productivity case. The leader talks PRODUCTIVITY: but this time uses a PRIMER. The primer’s purpose is to establish a “critical confluence” – the union of your problem with the problem of the people.

In this case, the leader creates a critical confluence by couching productivity within the framework of MORE MEANINGFUL WORK.

The primer may be: LET’S GET TOGETHER AND SEE IF YOU CAN COME UP WITH AN ACTION PLAN THAT WILL ENSURE THAT THE PRODUCTIVITY GAINS YOU IDENTIFY AND EXECUTE WILL ENABLE YOU TO WORK AT WHAT’S REALLY MEANINGFUL TO YOU.

Note what we’ve done: The primer is LET’S GET TOGETHER AND SEE IF YOU CAN COME UP WITH AN ACTION PLAN.

The actual Call is from the people to themselves: LET’S INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY BY WORKING AT WHAT’S MEANINGFUL.

With that Call, the leader moves from just getting average results YOU MUST BE MORE PRODUCTIVE: i.e., you’re going to solve MY problem to getting great results YOU COME UP WITH WAYS TO TIE PRODUCTIVITY INTO MEANINGFUL WORK: i.e., you’re also going to solve your problem.

So, here’s what the leadership talk Call-to-action is truly about: It’s not an order; it’s best manifested when the people give themselves the Call; and it is always primed by your creating the “critical confluence” -- they’ll be solving their problem as well as yours.

The vast majority of leaders I’ve worked with are hampering their careers for one simple reason: They’re giving presentations and speeches -- not leadership talks.

You have a great opportunity to turbo charge your career by recognizing the power of leadership talks. Before you give a leadership talk, ask three basic questions. Do you know what the people need Can you bring deep belief to what you’re saying Can you have the people take the right take action

If you say “no” to any one of those questions you cannot give a leadership talk. But the questions aren’t meant to be stumbling blocks to your leadership but stepping stones. If you answer “no”, work on the questions until you can say, “yes”. In that way, you’ll start getting the right results in the right way on a consistent basis.

2004 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

About The Author

The author of 23 books, Brent Filson’s recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. – and has worked with thousands of leaders worldwide during the past 20 years helping them achieve sizable increases in hard, measured results. Sign up for his free leadership ezine and get a free guide, “49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results,” at http://www.actionleadership.com.

As it does with every main life aspect, feng shui also provides tips and guidelines to help you improving your career. If your career is not moving on in the way you wish, that is due to a lack of balance and harmony within your environment and the elements that affect it. Feng shui career tips intend to help you reach that harmony, but besides of following these specific tips, you should try to follow feng shui guidelines for all your life areas, since your life should be balanced as a whole as well.

One first and very important feng shui career tip talks about your desk position. The desk or table you use for working should be placed in a position that allows you to see the main door. Your desk should never be with your back at the door, since that would be very harmful for your career. And if possible, you should also try to place it in such an angle where you can also see the window.

You should be careful of not having your back towards a sharp edge or a poison arrow. If you cant avoid this, you could minimize the harmful effects by placing a plant or a crystal covering it. In case you have a door or a window at your back, you can also place a plant or a crystal to neutralize bad consequences.

It is also important that you design your office or working space according to the bagua map indications. If possible, you should try to create your working space at the south of the environment where it will be. According to the bagua, south symbolizes the life area corresponding to career, and therefore it is the ideal place for such purpose.

Another important thing to take into account is tidiness. Your working space, and especially your desk, should be tidy. You should get rid of clutter from your working space and maintain it as clean and tidy as possible. Besides, it is particularly important that you keep the south area of your desk free of objects since this area is the one which corresponds to career according to the bagua map.

About The Author

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.fengshuicrazy.com Please visit his website and learn all the feng shui tips youll ever need!

Photography is a vast world. There are many different types of photography and many different kinds of people that enjoy it. It’s a hobby that be relatively inexpensive or one that you can invest a lot of money on. Photos are so special because they give us memories of times and places and events in our lives. We can hold onto these memories forever with a photograph.

As much as people love photos, many people love taking them even more. Whether it’s a mother who takes photos at every of her children’s moments in life first smile, first step, first spaghetti meal or maybe it’s the father who never forgets his camera for a football or basketball game, or maybe it’s the young girl who loves nature hikes with her camera; these people are not exceptions. They all have an eye for those special moments and they all appreciate the camera’s ability to capture that moment and freeze it in time forever.

What is Freelance Photography

What if you love photography so much you wish you could do it for a living I mean, you actually get paid for your photographs! But you work solely for yourself, selling each photo or series of photos individually. You don’t have a boss. You work sometimes on assignment and you may sell to magazines. That is freelance photography.

Freelance photography may be your entire career or it may start out as something you do in your spare time but begin making money from it. It’s just like freelance writing in this sense that many people turn it into a career and enjoy the freedom of working essentially for themselves on their own time and making money doing something they love doing anyway.

How to Build a Portfolio

To start getting jobs as a freelance photographer, you need a portfolio. A portfolio will show samples of your work. Even if you have never had photographs published or publicly displayed, you can start a portfolio of your best work and then add onto it if you win photography contests or start receiving paid work.

How to Get Jobs

As we mentioned, building a portfolio is the first step in submitting your work for pay but when it comes right down to it, it’s the quality of the photo that will determine if you get paid for it. Some people have more of a natural talent for taking great pictures than others but it is a skill that anyone can learn. There are schools dedicated to the art of photography and you can even get a degree in it. If you are just getting started, you can look into classes provided by your local community center or community college. Some cities have photography groups that meet to share photos and tips. There are also many groups online dedicated to photography and freelance photography.

You need to view as many famous photographs as possible. Take a look at what is getting published and compare it to your own photos. This allows you to compare and learn from other’s work. It takes more than just point and shoot to get a great photo. You need to learn about focus, lighting, colors and backgrounds and much more.

Once you start learning about photography and creating a portfolio, you can start submitting your photos to contests and magazines. Get a list of photography markets and start submitting to ones that accept your type of photos. Don’t expect to make it to the big times right away. Few people actually achieve this but you can start small and eventually make your way into a nice living from freelance photography.

About The Author

Looking for information about Photography Go to: http://www.asaphotography.com ASA Photography is published by Colin Hartness - An excellent resource for Photography! Check out more Photography articles at: http://www.asaphotography.com/archive

Why Career Advice Is So Important

Choosing a career presents a nerve-racking decision, as it can have a life-long impact on you. Do not fret, as you can gain a clearer outlook into your future by thorough career planning.

Having a clear vision of the future can guide you by helping you set career goals and helping you on your way towards attaining them. Whether you are starting out on a new career or looking to change your current career, you will benefit enormously from taking sound advice.

Dont Spend Most of Your Life Doing ...

Chances are that you will be spending a great deal of time at your job, about 40 hours a week. Career advice and career profiling can guide you to a job that is enjoyable for you and matches your interests.

There are many reasons people change their careers and career advice can help them along the way. Some frequently cited reasons are: Stuck in a dead end job. Lost interest in current line of work. Gained a new interest in a different career option.

A Job For Life ... Not Anymore

In today’s world, there is increased job rotation ... also with the down turns in the economy, many people can be laid-off. Good career advice for unemployed persons would be to consider a career change.

Some of the fastest growing occupations are Medical Assistant, Network Systems Analyst, Physician Assistant, etc. Occupations that are struggling to gain workers can be a suitable option for currently unemployed individuals.

People often back off from changing careers if they are unsure of the effort it might take to start a new career and learn a new trade. If you are one of these people, career advice from professionals can help you make a knowledgeable decision.

How To Identify Your Career Choices

When choosing a new career field, career advice and career planning can help you figure out your career choices. When embarking on a new career, you need to take into account your previous education and work experience. You should start thinking about the skills you currently possess and how they can be beneficial in each of the new career options available to you.

Have You Considered a Career Test

Valuable career advice can come from aptitude test as they can help in identifying suitable job options. Career tests include tests such as personality profiling, leadership skills, motivation, management style, etc. The results of such tests can give you the career advice that can direct you to a suitable career, by matching your interests with career options.

Many career tests are offered online. They may be free or available for a small fee. Many experts provide the career advice to employment seekers to take some time to plan their career and set their goals.

Knowing your career goals can provide you with valuable guidance.

Remember that career planning and goal setting is an on-going process, changing as you continue on your career.

The web can be a great source to find valuable career advice. It can provide you with many resources to research new career choices and find out information on a particular career field such as average salary, work environment, job responsibilities, etc.

Use Resumes That Give You an Advantage

Whether you are starting a career, changing careers or looking for a different job in your present career, the best career advice is to have a great, eye-catching resume.

You may be thinking about using your old resume, maybe the one you made after graduating from college. However, you will have to make changes to that resume to make it relevant to your present situation.

Upgrade your resume with the additional skills and experiences you have acquired.

People going through a career change, need to present the skills they have acquired through the years in a way that makes it relevant to the new career jobs for which they are applying.

You may not have all the standard education for that career, so you need to convince potential employers that your previous education and work experience have given you the skills that make you a suitable candidate to transition into that job.

Career planning involves gaining information that can ease your transition to a new career. This information can help get you out of your current dreary jobs and into a dynamic and interesting career.

Act Now... and Take Control of Your Career

Its never too late to think of making a career change... seek professional career advice and give yourself the best chance of achieving your career goals.

About The Author

Roger Clark BSc has over 25 years experience in career development & recruitment at a senior level through top management positions he has held with major international companies.

You can visit his "Top Career Resumes" website for a wealth of top quality information relating to the employment market.

http://www.top-career-resumes.com

http://www.top-career-resumes.com/resume-cover-letters

info@top-career-resumes.com

Do you have what it takes to become an FBI special agent Do you have a sincere desire to enforce federal laws and investigate crimes

This job requires hard work and can often times be dangerous and stressful. Youll undoubtedly be in close contact with crimminals and victims of crime. But a special agents job is rewarding if you enjoy serving the public. Long before applying for a job as an FBI special agent, youll need to plan carefully what you need to do to qualify.

The FBI Special Agent

Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI special agents are the Governments primary investigators, who investigate criminal violations of over 260 statutes not assigned to another federal agency. Agents may conduct surveillance, monitor wiretaps, examine financial records, or participate in undercover assignments, just to name a few.

The FBI investigates organized crime, white collar crime, such as health care fraud, counterterrorism, copyright infringement, civil rights violations, bank robbery, extortion, kidnapping, terrorism, espionage, violent crimes, drug trafficking, and other violations of Federal statutes.

The following was adapted from The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Facts and Figures 2003, FBI Priorities http://www.fbi.gov/priorities/priorities.htm

The FBIs priorities are to: Protect the United States from terrorist attack. Protect the United States against foreign intelligence operations and espionage. Protect the United States against cyber-based attacks and high-technology crimes. Combat public corruption at all levels. Protect civil rights. Combat transnational and national criminal organizations and enterprises. Combat major white-collar crime. Combat significant violent crime. Support federal, state, county, municipal, and international partners. Upgrade technology to successfully perform the FBI’s mission.

Entry Requirements Be a U.S. citizen, or a citizen of the Northern Mariana Islands Be at least 23 of age but under 37 Be available to work when and where needed Pass hearing and vision tests, including a color vision test Possess a valid drivers license. Be in excellent physical condition Possess a national or regionally accredited 4-year degree in a foreign language, law, accounting, or another field plus three years of full time employment.

The FBI looks for job applicants who have skills in interrogation, report writing, surveillance, and giving testimony. The selection process also includes cognitive tests, an interview, background check, polygraph test, and drug test.

The FBI also looks for individuals with character traits, such as honesty and sound judgement.

Physical Training Requirements

An example of a requirement would be the PRT, a 1.5 mile run test, passed with scores of 14 minutes 10 seconds or under for females and 12 minutes 40 seconds or under for males.

Forensic Science

The candidate for a scientist position must first qualify under an existing entry program and have a degree in physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, nursing, bio-chemistry, Forensics, Medical specialties, or related field. The candidate for a Forensic Scientist position should major in biochemistry, biology or biotechnology. The Forensic scientist analyzes evidence such as hairs, firearms, DNA, photographs, fingerprints, and handwriting examples and testifies verbally and in writing.

Advice from a former FBI profiler

John Douglas, a former FBI profiler, offers the follow advice for aspiring FBI special agents: Seek leadership opportunities. Develop skills the FBI desires. Do community service. Maintain a clean record--no jail term or felony and good credit. Maintain good grade point average. Consider ROTC. Complete an internship.

Dont major in a course you dislike, such as accounting, because you think it will help you to become a special agent. "Make sure your primary focus is finding a career you enjoy," says Douglas.

For more information on employment as a FBI Special Agent, check your phone directory for your state FBI office. Or visit the FBI online.

Sources

the Occupational Outlook Handbook 2002-2003, US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics

Federal Bureau of Investigation www.fbi.gov

John Douglass Guide to Careers in the FBI,1998, Kaplan Books, Simon and Schuster, New York.

About The Author

Diana Clarke has taught job search skills to students in Silicon Valley. Her career and business articles have appeared in publications including the San Jose Mercury News, Cupertino Courier and the Saratoga News. www.yourskinandsun.com dianaclarke2001@yahoo.com

Tough words….but I truly believe that folks who make career changes should be applauded for their courage. The courage to live closer to their authentic selves. The courage to put aside all the negativity we hear about the economy. The courage to face their own fears.

Most people will change careers 5-10 times in their lifetimes. Not just jobs – but whole new careers. At the same time, we’re not taught how to go about this in the best way –how to evaluate what careers fit us best – how to choose work that makes our heart sing!

If you are considering a career change, here are some tips to get you started:

1. Know thyself. Give yourself time to really get in touch with yourself. What do you value most in your work What skills do you really love doing What natural talents and gifts do you have that you must use to serve others

2. Go on an exploration. Be curious. Ask lots of folks about their work. Make a list of everything you’ve ever considered doing –even if it seems outlandish. Then make a list of questions you’d like to get answered about those careers. This website can give you some good information about skills needed, education requirements and salary ranges for many careers: http://online.onetcenter.org/. As you get your questions answered, start making commitments about what you WILL have in your next career. Narrow down your choices until you’ve settled on one to target.

3. Go after it! Put together a job search campaign. Make a list of at least 5 different strategies you’ll use to go after your best work. These can include networking, making a list of contacts to call, online job seeking on specialized job boards, online seeking of specific companies’ job postings, sending targeted letters to organizations you’d like to work for even if they don’t have jobs posted.

Set weekly and daily goals and get a support partner to help keep you accountable to reaching your goals.

Changing careers takes good strategies, courage and support. And it can be the most rewarding thing you’ve ever done. Congratulations on taking this first step!

About The Author

Ann Ronan, Ph.D., Certified Career Coach and author, works with professionals in career transition. If you’d like more tips, strategies and support check out the 90 Day Career Change Is Not For Wimps eCourse delivered to you by daily emails with weekly telephone support calls – www.authenticlifeinstitute.com/CareerChange.htm

©Ann Ronan, Ph.D. 2004 ann@authenticlifeinstitute.com

So you want to work in the Information Technology field In this article ill provide some advice to those seeking employment in this field. Keep in mind these are my opinions, others may agree or disagree.

Mechanic or Engineer

The first question to answer is which direction do you want to go Typically there are two types of IT Staff. Those who administer and and those who create. What do I mean by this Ask yourself if youd rather sit in a cube and write software, create and maintain databases and develop applications, or would you rather install software, manage an e-mail system or create a network or remote access solution.

The two areas are usually comprised of employees with very different mind sets.

The administrators tend to follow a career path that goes something like this. IT Intern or PC Technician performing break/fix tasks on PCs. As they advance they may manage the larger rollout of operating systems or software applications. Keep in mind the focus is on more mechanical or problem solving tasks. Later in their career they may move on to network or server administration. The larger the impact of a mistake the further up the ladder in their career. Eventually they may manage a team of other administrators or perform some consulting services.

The engineers typically come from computer science backgrounds. They may have learned programming of various languages in college. The particular language is not important only the fact that they are creating or maintaining applications for systems and databases rather than focusing on the workings of the system its self. Many of these employees are introverts. They would prefer to work within their group and make a cube or office their home. The administrator would be perfectly happy being "visable" within the company.

Education

First let me say that a four year Bachelors degree is valuable to anyone seeking employment in the IT industry. Not sure what direction you want to go Get a basic Business BA because it will teach you how a business operates and get you the open door to most job interviews. More accurately it will prevent you from being excluded simply because you do not have a degree. If you are the administrator type id also recommend a basic BA unless you find a program that has the current skills you are seeking. Mainly a variety of desktop and server operating system and networking skill path focusing on TCP/IP , DNS, WINS, DHCP and routing.

If you are on the applications path than a Computer Science major is going to get you headed in the right direction. Often companies hire right out of college because they have been teaching login and application development for decades.

Those looking into administration can count on resuming their education either by self-study using technical books, certification paths, home built networks and lastly for those with the money private non-accredited coursework at various ATECs

Once your in your in. Until your in your way out....

When I got into this field ten years ago I took a pay cut to move from my sales position to my PC Technician position. This is because it is VERY difficult to get hired if youve never been hired. There are so many great applicants that there is no reason to take a chance on someone who only can tell you what they know. Multiply this statement X 10 with the economic downturn after the dot com boom. So get whatever resume worthy experience and references you can as fast as you can. To land even the most entry level job youll need it.

How to get experience

Internships are a great way to get in the door anywhere. These are positions that everyone understands and they are the mark of a hungry student. If you can get an internship preferably paid at a company so much the better. If you cant start volunteering for any organization that will take your skills. Churches and schools or charitys are a good start. The key is to get something on your resume that says youve been in the business.

Self Employment

The IT world is great for the self employed. For those who want to accept side work there are many ways to find it and you can do as much or little as you want. When your first starting out why not perform PC Technician or entry level web or application development and get paid Individuals are more likely to hire you for a few hour of work and youll gain business skills and have yet another thing to add to that resume. Remember the key is to walk into your first interview as if youve been in the biz.

Conclusion

In closing keep in mind, know your direction, get an education, and its never too early to start building that resume. Good Luck

John Gall Gall Consulting - Elk River Minnesota http://www.gallconsulting.com

About The Author

John Gall works as a full time IT Manager in Minnesota and is self employeed as a Consulant for Gall Consulting http://www.gallconsulting.com jgall@gallconsulting.com

Press Release

January 20, 2004

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Printed Promotion Products For Direct Sales Reps and Online Teamwork

Work at home mom of three, Michele Barber of www.ChelesTreasures.com, has been making printed promotional products for direct sales representatives since April of 2002. Chele’s Treasures offers affordable alternatives to corporate printing prices and graphical restrictions. All Michele’s designs are original and created on her computer, so direct sales consultants don’t have to worry about copyright infringements or any other disruptions to their marketing efforts.

Labels, business cards, postcards and stationery from Chele’s Treasures offer a polished business presentation for consultants for any business whether home grown or direct sales oriented. When asked which direct sales companies Michele did most of her work for, she answered, “I will print for any direct sales company. The company categories listed on my web site are those that Ive done the most repeat business for. I originally started with the beauty companies because I had personal experience with them. Word of mouth referrals from beauty consultants were responsible for my success with direct sales consultants from other companies.”

Word of mouth is certainly living proof that Michele Barber’s work brings repeat business again and again. Given the large distance that much of Michele’s printing work travels once it arrives home with an advertiser, and the virtual local effects of having an internet based business, word of mouth has allowed her client base to grow nationally from coast to coast.

Chele has seen her highest printing demands fluctuate seasonally and is sometimes surprised by the products her customers most desire to see specialty printed. Candy wrappers, treat bags, recipe cards, and business cards roll in and out of favor. But the item she sells the most to both business and non-commercial customers is personalized note pads. “Everyone loves to add their own personality to their notes and personalized note pads allow them to do just that.”

While much of Michele’s client base is work at home moms, Michele herself is a work at home mom raising three children. The decision to work from home was ultimately made when as a newly single parent, Michele’s third child arrived with severe acid reflux and eczema. Many sleepless nights, trips to doctor’s offices, specialist hospitals and the demands required by two other children made it clear in Michele’s mind that corporate America wouldn’t have a place for her and her special time constraints. Working at home allows her to make a living without giving up parenting as her number one priority. Michele concedes that this isn’t always easy. “The most challenging part is being in charge of EVERYTHING! I am essentially the employer, employee and daycare provider lumped into one little person.” But she has risen to, and mastered, the challenge.

Michele admits that she and ChelesTreasures.com couldn’t have completely undergone the task alone. “Ive been blessed with the right people in my life at the right time and supportive family members. My mother and grandmother have also been extremely instrumental in helping with the children to meet deadlines, special projects and in giving me the much needed "me" time that becomes so rare as a WAHM.”

Michele does not feel the need to march to the beat of the same drummer as her corporate America counterparts. She measures success in a manner that really matters. Says Michele, “The important thing to remember is that I have been blessed with these lovely gifts to juggle and as long as all needs are being met for each, then Im succeeding. The old saying stands true, ‘You can do everything right with the wrong attitude and fail to succeed, but you can do everything wrong with the right attitude and succeed.’"

Not only has Michele’s business blossomed, but her personal life has as well. On March 17th, she received a marriage proposal from Donald Neisler of www.Donalds-Hobby.com whom she’d met online in a local internet forum.

Donald also owns a local retail store and serves as the secretary and treasurer of the Paris R/C Association. His online customers find him via internet search engines, local advertising, sponsored pilots, and word of mouth from popular radio control forums and sites.

With their common interests in the internet and their goals, Michele and Donald began helping one another with their respective businesses. The relationship developed into something much more as did each of their businesses as a result of their working together. Donald’s certifications as a Microsoft Systems Engineer and Cisco Network Professional has aided in the growth of Michele’s business, including customizing and simplifying her ordering process. Michele has streamlined many aspects of Donald’s Hobby Center including newsletters, advertising, shipping, and customer follow up services. The teamwork has proven beneficial for both businesses.

Donald and Michele each bring a work at home parent aura to their businesses and to the internet community as a whole. Together, Donald and Michele will continue to serve their respective internet clients and serve future internet populations with their joint venture, Neisler Hosting. The internet has truly become a place to work and play for this high-tech couple!

Busy and well rounded, Michele totally exemplifies the self-employed home executive. Many people think that a work at home mom washes clothes, cooks and cleans all day, then squeezes in a little work time on the side. Michele is just the opposite, as are most WAHMs. We balance the demands of our homes and our families with the demands of our work. Perhaps we work a few unconventional hours or conduct business on a cell phone from mom’s taxi service, but we make up a growing part of the American business population. Chele’s Treasures has provided the marketing and community support to make it possible for many others.

About The Author

Shannan Hearne is the owner of SuccessPromotions.com and the co-founder of ShoppingInTheSouth.com shannan@successpromotions.com

The universal acceptance of computers into our daily lives, both at work and at home, has decreased the image of computer users as being “geeks.” The word geek itself has evolved a bit - going from meaning a socially inept person who gets along better with computers than people, to someone who is an expert with computers, a guru even. In fact, many computer service companies utilize the name geek in their nomenclature because of this new meaning.

Not everyone who is proficient in using a computer is a geek, but there are people out there who are so interested in computers and so well versed in them, they wear the title geek with pride. Many of these people may not have had formal training. They’ve been playing with computer hardware, or software since they were ten years old. So what should you do if you have this kind of computer knowledge A few years ago, it was very easy to get a well paying computer job, without any post secondary education. Advances in technology, the dot-com implosion and wider acceptance of technology doesn’t make it so easy any more. The good news is, you don’t need a four year degree to secure a well paying job in the computer field. Even if you’re not a self professed computer geek, if you have an interest in a computer career, here are some good fields to study.

Computer Networking

Computer networking jobs entail designing, repairing and maintaining PC networks, usually in a business setting. There is no industry standard for software, but Microsoft dominates, with Novell taking a distant second place. Cisco dominates the category in hardware routers. Courses of study available include A+ basic computer hardware, MCSE Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, MCSA Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator, Novell Netware and Cisco Certification.

Career positions in this category include network design, network administration and network security. Depending on the employer, a computer networking professional may do all, or some of these duties.

Computer Security

Computer security is another growing field. Many businesses have created networks, websites and become reliant on computer technology, without employing safeguards to protect their data. There are many malevolent computer geeks out there who attack systems, or software for fun, curiosity or profit. Data extortion is now a common organized crime method for the Russian mafia!

Security violations have created new careers in network security and software development. Courses of study are mainly in Microsoft products and software development languages like Visual Basic, C++, .net, compiler and assembly languages.

Career positions in this category include network security, software programming, web design, web development and website administration server side.

Databases

The acceptance of computers into business has created a great demand for databases. Almost every industry has a need for databases for marketing, client retention and daily operations. Industries such as banking, insurance, hospitals and utilities absolutely rely on them. Terrorism threats have created new laws, like the Patriot Act, that require a database of all foreign nationals who enter the country.

Creation of these databases relies on software, mainly developed by Oracle for large scale databases, Microsoft SQL for web based applications and Microsoft Access for smaller scale and custom applications.

Jobs in the database category include data architects, database administrators and information systems managers.

The information age has created a wealth of career opportunities for computer geeks, elevating their status as knowledgeable professionals and compensating them well financially. If you’re a computer geek, or would like to become one, a career in any of these professions can be obtained in less than two years of study.

www.top-colleges.com.

About The Author

Max Stein, Salt Lake City, UT, USA http://www.degreesource.com/articles Max Stein is a freelance writer who writes about business, education and marketing. For daily updates, read our blog at http://degreesource.blogspot.com

For thousands of years now, education has played a critical role in the progress and evolution of mankind. It has allowed us to live longer, live better, develop and use new technologies, increase productivity and so on. For many of us today, we find ourselves in the vast IT employment workforce, struggling and competing for that better position and higher salary. Our present level of education is usually a direct reflection of our current position, salary and quality of life. Therefore, the higher your level of education, the better job placement you will receive and the better salary you can expect as well.

In this struggle to consistently enhance and improve your career, one must be very cautious as to the education and training decisions made. Better education and training decisions will bring about better results in your career. Pass-Guaranteed.com offers the Best IT Certification and Training Career Enhancement opportunities available today! This IT Certification Training system is most accurate and has helped thousands successfully pass their IT Certification Training Exams efficiently, saving them much needed valuable time and money.

Have you ever wanted to make a change in your career This is a very difficult thing to actually go through and many of us are turned off by the fact that it would take a very long time and lots of money to do this. Using the latest Pass-Guaranteed.com IT Certification Training Solution, you will be able to achieve quick and immediate results regarding enhancing your IT Career. Pass-Guaranteed.com offers the Best IT Career Enhancement opportunities because they provide the most efficient IT training system available. You can prepare yourself for your next IT Certification Exam in the least amount of time possible. Stop wasting your valuable time and money on expensive training classes and start making better education and training decisions today.

Pass-Guaranteed.com offers the Best IT Career Enhancement Opportunities because it has been proven over and over that the more certifications you have, the more you will get paid, and the better position you will be offered. Many of our customers have successfully passed their IT Certification Exams using our Training Solutions and then within 2 months, gained an increase in their salary and/or were offered a promotion. If you want that promotion or an increase in salary, then you need to start increasing and expanding on your education. Your employer will find your integrity to continue learning and gaining certifications as a positive element that they want to keep within the company long-term. So if you are looking to increase your salary, get that promotion or just enhance your career, then check out http://www.pass-guaranteed.com as they offer the Best IT Career Enhancement opportunities available today.

Whether you’re a newcomer or a certification exam expert, you will know that IT Certification Training is often very time consuming, expensive and usually a waste of time. Not only do you invest much of your time and effort into these expensive training classes, but in the end, if you fail your exam, you are not offered and recourse for your failure or more accurately the training classes’ failure to prepare you properly for your exam. Pass-Guaranteed.com offers the Best IT Certification Training Career Enhancement solutions in that if you fail your exam, you will be refunded the full price of your study guide solution, no questions asked!

Yes, that’s right, 100% Money Back Guarantee for all Pass-Guaranteed.com IT Training Solutions if you fail your exam. View the full details here at: http://www.pass-guaranteed.com/guarantee.htm

We can offer this because all of our training solutions focus on the exact areas of study for what you will need to know to pass the exam on your first try. For any questions, please email me at support@pass-guaranteed.com.

Therefore, if you find yourself in a struggle to increase your salary, get that promotion or enhance your career, don’t forget to start making better education and training decisions now. Visit http://www.pass-guaranteed.com and get certified today.

About The Author

After realizing the great demand for effective certification training exam resources, Shengtao developed a leading edge IT certification and training system that is affordable and produces results. With the help of expert senior certified staff, Shengtao now offers his leading edge certification training system to everyone at http://www.pass-guaranteed.com

newedge@mail2world.com

Hollywood helps those who help themselves! In you want to get your movie career fast tracked then here are three common sense tips to help you on your way.

1. Borrow the Boy Scouts Motto: Be Prepared.

Once you start the ball rolling you never know when youre going to get a casting call. When that call comes there isnt going to be any time to get all of the basics covered so get them out of the way right now.

Get your portfolio in order. Have plenty of copies of your PROFESSIONALLY done publicity photos on hand.

Have all of your stage and screen credits listed even if its only summer stock and school performances.

List any special skills you have, such as dancing, juggling, yodelling, foreign languages, anything which might catch a casting directors eye.

List any union memberships such as SAG, AEA or AFTRA.

Build a web site that contains everything thats included in your portfolio and make sure that there is contact information available. If you have an agent then list the agents contact information instead of yours. If you stink at building web sites then pay a pro to do it for you. Hire a copywriter as well if you have no writing talent. Register your name, if possible, and make that your domain name.

2. Stay Connected

Join local theater groups, read the trades looking for casting calls, hang out where other actors hang out so you can stay on top of the local gossip and happenings. Sometimes you can pick up a valuable tip or hear about a film crew thats coming to do some local shooting. I know a girl who landed an extra role in Robert Dineros Meet the Parents by "accidentally" showing up at the train station in Oyster Bay, NY where a scene was being shot. She picked up that juicy tip at an actors workshop she attended.

3. Make your own luck

The harder and smarter that you work the luckier you get. Remember my friend from Meet the Parents Whats the chances that shed have that screen credit if she didnt go out of her way to "get lucky".

If you live in Podunk, and no one ever films in Podunk, then move somewhere where they do film.

If your state or city has an agency that works with movie companies to help scout locations and strip away red tape, call them and see if they have a mailing list or any other way of finding out IN ADVANCE when a film crew will be shooting. SHOW UP on shooting days. Dont make a pest of yourself but be "noticeable". Hey, you might just get noticed. If you have enough advanced notice then find out who the casting director is and fire off a copy of your portfolio. Sure, its likely to get "filed" but you never know when yours will show up and be the right thing at the right time.

If you look like someone famous then make that work for you. Now, I dont mean that you kind of resemble Julia Roberts if only you lost 60 pounds, got a cut and dye, and had your teeth capped. But if people come up to you in restaurants and ask for your autograph then you could have an instant ticket to the movies!

Get a recent publicity photo of Ms. Roberts and take it to the hair salon. Have your stylist cut, style and color your hair to exactly match the style and color in the photo. Then make your way to the local boutique and buy something to wear which matches as closely as possible what Ms. Roberts is wearing in the photo and then get a professional photographer to shoot you in the exact same pose.

Now, take the real photo of Julia and your own and fire it off to her agent, your agent, any agent you can find. Send it to casting directors, heck, send it to the local and national newspapers. Write a letter asking: Can you tell which one is the real Julia Roberts Might not work for you; but Ill tell you this -- It doesnt have any chance of working at all if you dont at least try it.

The road to Hollywood can be long an never ending, or it could be the next exit on your journey through this world. The fun thing is: You never know!

For more info: http://www.TalentInternet.com

About The Author

Bas de Baar is editor of www.TalentInternet.com, a site with everything about movie and modeling auditions.

For more info: http://www.TalentInternet.com.

One of the fastest growing sectors of the medical industry is that of home health. There are many reasons for this growth, but most important are:

The number of aging and infirm citizens in the country.

The lower cost of care in relation to hospitals and long term care facilities.

The fact health providers consider home care to be the most humane and compassionate form of care.

Because of the rapid growth in this category of healthcare, a variety of employment opportunities have become available. Many hospitals are turning to home health as a method to recapture revenue that would be otherwise lost. Despite the efforts of hospitals to enter the home care market, private companies dominate home health. Since these are primarily businesses that have not been in existence for long, they need to hire not only for in home providers, but also for support and administrative positions.

The future demand for home care will be staggering. In 1997, over 22.4 million households provided home care to a loved one over 50. Over time, this drain on physical and emotional resources will result in a desire for outside help in the home. Additionally, Medicare funding of short term home health care is projected to more than double by 2010. Meanwhile, workers employed in the home health field actually dropped by 29,000 in 2000. The projected employment outlook for just home health aides leads all medical job categories at a whopping 66.8%!

One may think the vast majority of home health related jobs are lower paying aide jobs. Fortunately, this is not the case. As previously mentioned, private home health companies will need to increase their administrative and support positions like medical coders, accounting and billing, medical secretaries, nurse managers, shift schedulers, information technology and marketing. Working for a home health company doesn’t necessarily dictate providing direct patient care.

Even among the patient care positions, there is a lot of variety. Though patient care is primarily provided by lower paid home health aides; as demand increases, wages are expected to rise. There are also a lot of opportunities for CNAs, LPNs and registered nurses RNs. Some patients only require short term care – a few hours a day, or for a fixed period of time. Others require long term care – 24/7 for the rest of their lives.

The bottom line is, there are a lot of employment opportunities in the field of home healthcare. The best paying jobs will be those that require some post secondary training. There is also a lot of variety of work needed, not all employment will provide patient care. If you want a solid future, in one of the most stable industries in the country, studying to be part of the home healthcare market is a wise choice.

Home Healthcare Job Fields

Certified Nurses Aid - CNA

LPN

Registered Nurse

Physician’s Assistant

Nurse Manager

Medical Coder

Medical Secretary

Medical Administration

Information Technology

Sales and Marketing

Operations Manager

Find a school in your area - www.top-colleges.com

About The Author

Max Stein, Salt Lake City, UT, USA http://www.degreesource.com/articles Max Stein is a freelance writer who writes about business, education and marketing. For daily updates, read our blog at http://degreesource.blogspot.com

Licensed Practical Nurse LPN Careers

Licensed Practical Nurses provide the most amount of direct patient care within the nursing category of healthcare. If you’re interested in a healthcare career dealing directly with patients, becoming an LPN is a rewarding opportunity.

LPN Job Description

LPNs provide a large portion of direct patient care. LPNs may be assisted by nurses’ aides CNAs and other assistants in some of their duties. LPNs are directed by doctors and nurses RNs & nurse managers. Typically, a LPN’s work duties include:

Taking vital signs Preparing and administering injections and enemas Applying dressings and bandages Watching catheters Treating bedsores Providing alcohol massages or rubs Monitoring patients and reporting changes Collecting samples for testing Provide patient hygiene Feeding patients Monitoring food and liquid input/output

LPNs work in a variety of settings like hospitals, outpatient facilities, long term care facilities, clinics and home care. Tenured LPNs may supervise nursing aides and assistants.

Salary Ranges

While nursing jobs in general are in high demand nationwide, LPN positions in hospitals are declining. However, since this has been caused by an increase in outpatient services, LPN positions in long term care facilities and home health is in as much demand as other nursing categories.

The U.S. Department of Labor has published the median income for LPNs as $31,440 in 2002. The range was $22,860 to $44,040 based on geographic location and work experience. Contract LPNs made the most money, while doctor’s office nurses made the least on average at $28,710.

A nursing career offers other benefits including a flexible schedule, a short work week three 12 hour shifts with four days off, tuition reimbursement and signing bonuses.

Education / Getting Started

Because of the high level of patient responsibility, nursing is highly regulated, requiring both education and a license. Graduates must complete a state approved practical nursing program and pass a licensing examination. An LPN certificate can be completed in less than a year. Some RN students become LPNs after completing their first year of study. Course work in the LPN program includes anatomy, physiology, nutrition, biology, chemistry, obstetrics, pediatrics, first aid as well as nursing classes.

Becoming an LPN is the fastest path to a nursing career. Advancement can take many forms, but additional education is usually required.

If you possess the traits necessary to become a successful nurse and want to secure a well paying, important profession caring for others, getting an LPN degree in nursing is a great way to secure your professional future.

About The Author

Max Stein is a freelance writer who writes about business, education and marketing. www.degreesource.com/article maxstein_9@hotmail.com

Let’s face it…not everybody likes going to school and high school can be a terrible experience for many students. Whether you’re the hands on type who preferred Shop class to English class, or an athlete who liked working as a team more than studying alone, or even someone who liked schoolwork more than schoolmates; the idea of four more years of school is unbearable. If you identify with any of these types, but still want to secure a good future, there are some great options out there for you.

For you hands on types there are a lot of great careers out there that allow you to work with your hands and they pay well. There will be some coursework in things like shop math, reading schematics or architectural drawings, but most of this will be reinforced in your daily work. The schoolwork won’t seem useless because you will be using it everyday. Best of all, most of the schooling will be finished in two years or less. Most hands on jobs have an apprentice, or on the job training aspect as well, so you can get to work right away.

Some of the careers in this category include:

Electrician – Installation or troubleshooting of electrical wires and connections. Work may take place in new or existing constructions. Licensing is required. The lowest starting wage for an electrician is $11.81 per hour, while the median is $19.90 per hour.

Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Tech HVAC Tech – Installation or troubleshooting of heating and air conditioning systems in homes or businesses. Licensing is required to work with refrigerants. The lowest starting wage for HVAC Tech is $10.34 per hour, while the median is $16.78 per hour.

Home Appliance Repair – Repair of in home appliances like refrigerators, ovens and washers and dryers. The lowest starting wage for Home Appliance repair is $18,200 per year, while the median is $30,390 per year. The skills learned for this job can advance you to other higher paying careers.

For students who paid more attention to extracurricular activities than schoolwork, there are plenty of careers where you can capitalize on your social skills. The healthcare field is one such career. Nurses, physicians assistants and medical assistants all work directly with people – both patients and their families. If healthcare doesn’t appeal to you and you have an appetite for technology, being a help desk technician allows you deal directly with people and computer technology. You might also take business classes and work your way up to become an office manager in any number of industries.

If you’re someone who loves to learn and prefers talking to people on a limited basis there are plenty of jobs you can train for as well. Computer based jobs like software development, web design or database administration immediately come to mind. If you’re creative and visually talented, the fields of graphic design and multimedia design might suit you. A great job for someone who likes to perform research is that of a paralegal. That job offers many of the tasks a lawyer performs, without having to go to court. And it pays well. You can even find jobs in the healthcare field where there is limited or no contact with patients like medical coding or office administration.

The bottom line is, even if you didn’t like high school, that’s not a reason to bypass education and your shot at a good future. Career colleges get right down to business and offer specific training for well paying careers in a short period of time.

Careers for graduating seniors who hate school: HVAC Tech Home Appliance Repair Electrician Help Desk Analyst Nurse Medical Assistant Office Management Paralegal Database Administration Medical coding

www.top-colleges.com

About The Author

Max Stein, Salt Lake City, UT, USA http://www.degreesource.com/articles Max Stein is a freelance writer who writes about business, education and marketing. For daily updates, read our blog at http://degreesource.blogspot.com

If YOU Answered YES, Then Start An Online Newsletter…It’s Easy, Here’s How!

I’ve always praised the benefits of using a newsletter to promote your music, but this article give a bit more detail into how to go about it.

First, there are tons of different providers out there that can send out your email newsletter. Some are expensive while other like cafepress.com allow you to make one free if you sell products through them. Although this isn’t EVERYTHING you could do it is a good starting place.

Define the letter – is it going to be strictly about your band or other acts in your genre You might be able to pick up other readers/listeners who weren’t aware of your music, but know other acts if you go broader.

Develop a schedule. Are you going to do it daily, weekly, monthly Whatever you choose does not matter. The most important part is to stick to it, once people get to reading and enjoying your newsletter, they’ll expect to receive it on time, all the time.

How much content will it contain

Are you going to have one page or six pages Try to make the content the same size each issue.

K.I.S.S – Yet again, keep it simple stupid. That means staying on topic and writing in a tone that is both understandable and friendly.

Ask for reader feedback. Perhaps someone might have an idea for a new feature or they may have a hot news tip. Always answer your reader’s requests and emails regardless of if you use their idea or not.

Keep copy short and in the active voice. Avoid passive words if you can and give your articles some kick. You’re writing for people, not Harvard educators so keep your tone to one that people will enjoy looking at each week.

Extra set of eyes. Always have an extra set of eyes look over everything you send out. Even with our newsletter and sites, www.MusicIndustrySuccess.com, www.Order-Yours-Now.com and www.TheIndustryYellowPages.com we always have someone look the pages over for typos, spelling, grammar, etc. You want to inform people, but you also want to come off as intelligent when you do it.

A newsletter is not a difficult feat, in fact you can easily get started in an afternoon. If you lack the time and skills then hire someone to do the task or see that your manager and/or promoter informs your followers of all the news they need to know.

About The Author

This article was written by Ty Cohen, the music industrys most recognizable voice!

Ty is the C.E.O of Platinum Millennium Publishing, Platinum Millennium Records as well as owner of www.MusicContracts101.com and www.MusicIndustrySuccess.com.

Some of his work includes: books, directories, mini-courses and software programs including the titles: "How to Make a Fortune in the Music Industry by Doing it Yourself" and "How to Make $500,000.00 "or More" A Year in the Music Industry by Doing it Yourself".

Ty@PlatinumMillennium.com

Multilevel Marketing, commonly called MLM, Network Marketing or direct sales is one of the highest potential income sources anywhere, but particularly on the Internet. It has been claimed that in the last 10 years more people have become millionaires through MLMs than in any other business or profession.

I dont know how true that is, but I do know a lot of people have made a lot of money through MLMs.

Multilevel Marketing is also known as Pyramid Schemes and a number of other less-than-complimentary names. This is unfortunate because MLMs do have a lot of potential.

There are some points you should consider first before you join an MLM though:

You need to be selling something. It can be selling a product or a service, but it must be selling. If all the MLM does is recruit new members, then it is what is called a "Ponzi Scheme" and its illegal.

They have to have a good product. You can send all the traffic in the world to an MLM website, but if the product they are offering has no appeal, it wont sell no matter what you do. If it doesnt sell, you wont make any money. Simple as that.

They have to have "staying power.” That is, they have to be good enough to last for a long time. Many MLMs are gone in a year or two and no matter how well they were paying you, once theyve folded, you wont get any more money.

Plan on working at it for a long time to realize any significant income. MLMs dont usually build quickly, so you have to be very persistent. Once they do start to build though the growth is exponential and the income unlimited.

You have probably heard of some MLM companies, and maybe youve even been a member of one or more of them. Odds are, if you were a member, you dropped out after a while because it was just too hard to promote these systems successfully.

One of the worst parts of promoting MLMs is the rejection you will face. Try to think of this differently. I like to think of myself as the miner prospecting for gold during the gold rush. I sift through tonnes of dirt to find my one or two pieces of gold. All I am doing is prospecting, the more dirt I can sift through the closer I am to finding my gold.

If you have done the research on your MLM company then you will have chosen one with a product that has an attraction to a mass market so you are not limited to one demographic of the community. Look at the economic environment, what are the trends or boom industries

Research has shown that health, weight management and anti-ageing are some of the fastest growing industries worldwide. - A huge market is starting to unfold as the baby boomer generation ages and increasingly becomes more concerned with staying healthy and youthful.

If nothing else, being involved with an MLM company can teach you business and personal skills that can be used in any walk of life. Most MLM companies are very proactive in the area of personal development and from my experience it is this that is the key to a persons success with an MLM business - and maybe in life generally. Taking a close look at ourselves is one of the hardest things to do. We can blame multilevel marketing, the company, the products or even the weather for our demise but lack of personal development would definitely be one of the main causes.

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You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.

About The Author

Paul Marsland is an independent distributor for a network marketing company with 25 years of experience and trading in 59 countries worldwide. Along with his wife Annette they run a successful MLM business, full time from home, around their young family. For more information please go to: http://livin-the-good-life.biz/refid=artcit-567883264 ezybucks4u@hotmail.com

The challenges of raising a child by yourself, whether you’re a mother or father, can be very difficult. Add the burden of having to be out of the home for 40+ hours per week to work and raising a child at the same time can be nearly impossible. This article describes ten careers you can train for that will give you the money to support your child and the time to be there for them.

These careers all take less than two years to complete training for, some take only six months. They all offer flexible work schedules with above average pay. Best of all, with a certificate or associates degree, it will be easy to find a job.

Healthcare careers

Jobs in healthcare are in great demand right now. The largest generation in the American population is aging and retiring from the workforce. Increased life spans are placing a huge burden on the healthcare industry. While hospitals and their 24 hour operation offer the most employment flexibility, there are health care positions that don’t take place in a hospital. Home care positions also offer scheduling flexibility.

Nursing – 1, 2 & 4 year programs. Approximate starting wage: $33,970 annually.

Dental Hygiene – 1 & 2 year programs. Approximate starting wage: $17.37 hourly.

X-ray technician - 1, 2 & 4 year programs. Approximate starting wage: $27,190 annually.

Medical Assistant –1 & 2 year programs. Approximate starting wage: $17,640 annually.

Medical Coding - 2 year program. Approximate starting wage: $16,460 annually.

Creative careers

These creative careers are also in great demand. Employers typically offer standard hours, but many people employed in these fields are able to work from home. Others open their own businesses and can work later at night or otherwise exercise more control on when they work.

Graphic Designer - 2 & 4 year programs. Approximate starting wage: $21,860 annually.

Desktop Publisher - 1, 2 & 4 year programs. Approximate starting wage: $18,670 annually.

Web Designer - 1, 2 & 4 year programs. Approximate starting wage: $33,970 annually.

Help Desk Analyst - 1, 2 & 4 year programs. Approximate starting wage: $23,060 annually.

Bonus Career

If you like working with technology and don’t want to sit behind a desk all day, you’ll be surprised how lucrative this career can be.

Machinist – 10 -14 month programs. Approximate starting wage: $9.57 hourly. This wage is deceptively low. New machinists are making much more due to a sudden upturn in demand.

Learn how you can train for one of these careers here. www.top-colleges.com.

About The Author

Max Stein, Salt Lake City, UT, USA http://www.degreesource.com/articles Max Stein is a freelance writer who writes about business, education and marketing. For daily updates, read our blog at http://degreesource.blogspot.com

Ask yourself this question: “Do I like what I do for a living” If you answered “no”, what are you doing about it Maybe you have a “good” job, but it’s not very rewarding to you personally. Maybe you have job with good pay, but bad hours or worse – a job with good hours, but bad pay. Perhaps you’ve just done your job for too many years, or are excited to work in some of the new careers that just weren’t available when you finished school.

Whatever the reason is for you wanting to switch careers, there are some practical considerations to take into account.

How long will it take

How will I find the time to do it

How much will it cost

This article will answer these questions and point you towards a more fulfilling career.

How long will it take to train for a new career

The answer to this depends on what you want to train for. But, the majority of well paying careers that are currently seeking workers, take two years or less to train for. For example, becoming a machinist takes about 10 months. Training to become an X-ray technician can be done in a year. There are other training options that can get you a new job in only six months!

Your experience can also count. For example, if you work with computers on your job now, you won’t have to take word processing and spreadsheet classes if you want to be a medical coder. If you tinker with computers in your spare time while you’re working a retail management position, you’ll be ahead of the class when you train to become a help desk technician. Also, if you like working on projects around your house more than your job in an office, you’ll be more likely to obtain employment as an HVAC tech or electrician.

How will I find the time to go to school

If you decide you want to train for a new career, there are many educational options. Traditional universities and colleges are one option, but tend not to offer a lot of flexibility in their class times. Community colleges are a better option since they have flexible classes, but due to limited resources, some of the most in demand training programs like nursing and dental hygiene have several year waiting lists in many markets across the U.S.

The educational option many working adults choose is a career college. Career colleges offer flexible scheduling and have the proper resources to greatly reduce waiting lists, if they have any at all. The biggest drawback is they cost more to attend. Consider a career college to be like a private community college. However, the flexible scheduling and the shorter time to graduation compensate for the higher initial cost of a career college.

How much will career training cost

This is probably the most difficult question. If you’re like most working adults, you don’t have an eight month emergency reserve fund stashed away but, you do have credit card bills, a car payment, possibly children and that nagging monthly rent/mortgage payment. Chances are you’re not in a position to quit your existing job. Due to flexible class schedules you’ll still be able to work and keep that income. Student loans or grants are a possibility to pay for tuition. Also, check if your company has a tuition reimbursement plan. Even though you’re thinking about leaving your job, your company may have a need for the career you’re interested in training in.

The bottom line is if you don’t feel satisfied with your current job, you don’t have to stay with it for the rest of your working years. There are a number of great careers available that pay well and require less than two years of training time.

Check out your career options here. WWW.top-colleges.com/s/site-map.html

About The Author

Max Stein is a freelance writer who writes about a number of business, education and marketing subjects.

Reprint/republish rights to this article are granted, as long as it is not modified and the resources plus signature remain unchanged.

Copyright 2004 DegreeSource.com

One of the great myths associated with the “American Dream” is that you need to have a four-year college degree to be successful. As the economy has shifted to the information age, with a greater reliance on technology and services, this belief applies less and less.

The new economy relies on technology more than any time in the past. In fact 70% of existing jobs require specific technical knowledge and this technology is being applied in newly created industries like biometrics, homeland security, nanotechnology and reusable energy.

Eighty percent of existing jobs don’t require a four-year degree, while only 25% of students who begin college actually graduate. Of those who do graduate, 30% don’t get a job that actually requires a degree!

The solution to these issues for many graduating high school seniors and workers unsatisfied with their current careers rests in a specialty technical school. These schools provide specific technical training in a variety of career fields. Career training courses take less than four years to complete, most take less than two. These schools offer online and night courses, so you can have a job or a family and the best part is graduates earn 50% more than high school graduates.

Here is a list of ten great careers that offer high employment prospects and competitive pay. Nursing Medical Assistant Dental Hygienist Help Desk Analyst Graphic Design Multimedia Design Medical Coding/Billing Medical Office Administration Paralegal HVAC Technician

Education at www.top-colleges.com.

About The Author

Max Stein, Salt Lake City, UT, USA http://www.degreesource.com/articles Max Stein is a freelance writer who writes about business, education and marketing. For daily updates, read our blog at http://degreesource.blogspot.com

Were you once a successful, professional woman who had a significant status level and received adequate remuneration for your work

Have you re-located to a new country where the educational degree you worked so hard to achieve is neither recognized nor considered valid

As a result, have you now settled for a job for which you are overqualified and living paycheck to paycheck

If you once had a successful professional career and answered yes to the above, you probaby understand how frustrating it is, to be unable to practice your profession in a new country.

The decision to immigrate to another country is a courageous act which involves leaving everything that you know and everything that makes up who you are. It usually means starting over, making changes and finding a new job or career.

As a skilled professional woman, you already have a unique combination of marketable skills and experiences, optimism about your future prospects in the new country, education, commitment and motivation to work in your field of expertise, language ability and a desire to learn new things expertise...so, it’s really puzzling and shocking when you suddenly find yourself unemployed or unable to find a job in your field.

It is therefore important that you wake up from your slumber and do something about making your life a success.

To start making something of your life in a new country, you need to:

1. Stop being in denial.

Accept change and be ready to change! Your past successful life is always going to be a part of you and no one can take that away from you. However, the rules of the game in the new country may mean that you may no longer be the successful, lawyer, doctor, CEO or professional you once were.

As painful as it may be to accept…dont spend your days talking about who you were in the past and dwelling in the glory of your past success. Dont live in denial any longer than you must. Accept the fact that your circumstances have changed and start looking for constructive ways to make the best of your life in the new country.

2. Take a stand for your life.

When people move to a new country, they usually want to live in a place where they have some contacts, relatives or friends. However, some of these people you know, may have resigned themselves to living unfulfilled lives and may try to prevent you by their comments or actions from expecting more for yourself.

If you want to make a success of your life, you must take a risk, go against the negative majority, choose to be different and take a stand for a positive future. The decision to get out from among people, who will hold you back from doing something with your life, is worth it!

3. Don’t lose your sense of self-worth.

Your professional occupation is a large part of your identity and an integral part of your life. However if you have settled for less and are now overqualified for your job, you may feel that the work you are doing is not a valuable contribution to society. As a result, you may start questioning yourself and feeling worthless.

You are not worthless! Find meaning and purpose in what you want to do and begin to pursue it with vigor. After counting the cost, make the decision to do what you have to do to make your life a success. Stop settling for less than you deserve, start standing up for yourself and for your dignity.

4. Stop being invisible.

If you were used to being recognized by members of your community who were aware of your professional merits, you may be feeling very “anonymous” in the new country.

If you were previously a highly active, social and professional woman, don’t chose jobs that will relegate you to the back office and hide you behind a pile of meaningless paperwork. Look for a job that projects your social qualities and allows you to interact more visibly.

Find a career that allows you to fully utilize your skills. This could mean starting your own business, finding a new career, going back to school or finding means and ways to become actively involved with people in your profession in the new country or abroad.

5. Be informed about the work culture of the new country.

This may seem pretty basic but it should not be taken for granted. If you want to get ahead you must stop running around like a headless chicken and begin to familiarize yourself with the lifestyle, culture and work ethics of the new country. For instance, do you understand the work place terminology What kind of transferable/employable skills do you need Do employers require curriculum vitae or resumes What is the academic equivalent of the professional qualification you hold

Sometimes the hardship you are facing is not brought about by you as a person but by your lack of research on the basics. Make the adjustment easier for yourself by tailoring your life to fit into the new place and not vice versa.

6. Increase your social networks.

There is always a close connection between ones occupation and social status. When you are unable to transfer the occupation that you once held to the new country you now live in, you also lose social status. It is therefore important to have a network of people that you can trust and depend on.

You can have personal networks like friendship groups and social organizations and also join and actively participate in professional associations, community networks and support groups that are involved with issues that interest you. These networks also play a useful role in combating the feeling of being alone in a new place and can also be good idea or lead generators for a new job.

7. Don’t be complacent…do something!

Don’t wallow in self-pity. Hold on to your dreams and your goals. Work steadily and take risks to achieve them. Persevere and be resilient. Do what you have to do, to ensure that you make a success of your new life.

Be strong! Although there are many barriers to be overcome in a new country, let not your spirit be tarnished. Look within yourself for the strength to move forward with your life. With a positive attitude, you will find that there are a lot of things that can bring you ultimate success.

About The Author

Caroline Jalango is a life coach for unstoppable women who are willing to step up to the plate and take a shot at living exceptional lives wherever they are. www.motivationzone.com Caroline@motivationzone.com

Your career, like any journey, has a beginning, an end and a direction. For many people, the present direction of the career is probably not a result of entirely their own choices. If, for some reason, you are not happy with the direction of your career, there is a way out: Take charge of your career and change its direction.

1. Know yourself

Has it happened with you that after desperately looking for something e.g., keys all over the place, you eventually found it right in your pocket or drawer

Thats exactly the case with finding a new career direction. Usually, we try to search for a new career direction by looking all around, for example, at hot jobs, emerging fields, prestigious companies, friends career, whats safe and so on. Ironically, we fail to look for the answer where it actually lies: inside us.

The secret of finding the right career direction is not to look outside but to look inside. Know yourself and you will automatically know the right direction for your career.

2. Dig deeper

Most people define themselves is terms of what they write in their resumes. Thats just the tip of the iceberg. To really know yourself, dig deeper and uncover your:

a Strengths b Personality c Values d Interests

a Strengths

Your strength is what you do well and enjoy doing it. We never fail to admire strengths in top athletes, painters, writers, leaders but fail to ask "What is my strength"

Strengths have a solid connection with a persons career. According to Peter Drucker, a person can only perform from his strength. In other words, mediocrity is guaranteed if we fail to use our strengths. So know your strengths and get into a career that allows you to leverage your strengths to the maximum.

Discover your strengths by asking: What am I good at and also enjoy doing What makes me feel energized What comes naturally and easily to me

b Personality

Personality is the sum total of a persons behavioral, temperamental and emotional traits. For example, some people are by nature extrovert and enjoy meeting other people. But some people are born introvert and feel more comfortable when left alone.

Studies show a direct link between a persons personality and his career. Indeed, if you are an extrovert person, you would do well in roles such as sales, marketing, public relations. But an introvert person would be better off in roles that do not require public dealing.

To know your personality in detail and its implications on your career, appear at personality tests such as Myers Briggs Test Instrument MBTI.

c Values

Values are what you consider important and valuable. Values differ from person to person and can range from things like money, prestige and power to more subtle things like respect, harmony and independence.

Your values hint towards the kind of work that will suit you. For example, if you value "achievement, "you would do well in roles that regularly throw challenges at you. Someone else, however, may value "helping others" and, therefore, would do well in occupations that provide an opportunity to serve others.

To know your values, ask yourself what is important to you, make a list and prioritize the items. You can also use value inventories on the Internet to identify your values.

d Interests

Should the work be interesting Yes, for an important reason: If your work arouses your interest, you are going to do well. History shows that great achievers always pursued what fascinated them. Akio Morita shunned the option of joining the family business of sake brewing to pursue what he was interested in: an electronics start-up. And he created Sony.

Doing the work that interests you can have a lasting impact on your career. To uncover your interests, find out what fascinates you and draws your attention.

Knowing your strengths, personality, values and interests is like having a compass with its needle pointing towards the right direction for your career.

About The Author

Atul Mathur © 2004. All Rights Reserved.

Atul Mathur is a career coach and author of the ebook "The Secret Of Finding The Right Career Direction."

Web site: http://atulmathur.com

atul@atulmathur.com

I want to start with what I think good career coaches do for people who are looking for new jobs, facing downsizing, ready to retire, but want to work longer, etc. Any category of job seeker is who we want to work with. Ill start with my own definition..

1. Coaches can become friends with you. Friends of a kind that you can tell your secrets to and not fear recrimination or judgement about you and your decisions.

2. Coaches have resources for you. All kinds of resources to give you or ask you to find for yourself. They are: videos, books, websites, people, you name it. These resources are meant to awaken your desire to find the information that only you need to make a career decision.

4. Coaches guide you towards the decisions you want to make. Most job seekers know what they want, but need confirmation of what they really want to do, regardless of how zany the choices may be. The career coach helps the job hunter make firm decisions.

5. The career coach is also a cheerleader. A cheerleader who wants the job seeker to win, and win at the job or career decision

What a Career Coach Cannot Do: The coach is not a therapist and cannot solve deep personal problems. However, the coaching experience may be therapeutic with the job seeker becoming more authentic in the coaching process, simply by having a person who is interested in their welfare.

A career coach is not someone who can solve your financial problems either. Talking about what you need to do as a joint venture about how money affects you is a possibility in the coaching process, but not how to spend or budget money. Thats the kind of advice a financial advisor is better suited to handle.

Lastly, a good career coach is a person who can celebrate with you when you have successes. The coach will be there when you need more information, resources, or just a pat on the back. Go find one when you need career help.

About The Author

c, 2004 Permission is granted to reprint, not for commercial use Marilyn J. Tellez, M.A. Certified Job & Career Transition Coach Email: doitnow@nwinfo.net Web: www.doitnowcareers.info

Ever dreamt of giving up the daily grind Want to strike out on your own and work from home, but don’t know what you could possibly do to make a living Full time Nasdaq trader Harvey Walsh wondered just that, and now he asks “Is day trading the ultimate work from home job”

We’ve probably all had the same thought at some time or another, as we trudge off towards another day at work – the same work we’ve been doing day in day out for years – “surely there has to be a better way” Slaving away to make somebody else rich just doesn’t seem right somehow, but what alternative Setting up a new business, or buying an established one, are both expensive and risky prospects. So how can the disenchanted employee ever hope to make the switch from wage-slave to total independence

Those are thoughts I had almost every day, before I quit the safety of full time employment and decided to strike out on my own. I asked myself the same question day in and day out; surely there has to be a better way. What about the internet, I wondered, isn’t that supposed to be bringing new and exciting opportunities to all I researched a lot of so-called work-from-home opportunities that promised untold riches, apparently mine for the taking just by sitting in front of my PC. Needless to say, in reality those schemes turned out to be about as fulfilling as, well, filling envelopes for a living. No, I knew there had to be another way – something real – something where I could be in control of my own destiny.

And then one morning on the train to work, I read about a couple of Wall Street boys who had struck it rich thanks to some huge bonuses, and were now going it alone setting up their own day trading shop. That was when I discovered day trading, and I realised that this was exactly the opportunity I had been searching for. I decided there and then that I was going to make a full time living from the stock markets, whatever it took to succeed.

The advantages of day trading as a job are numerous to say the least; there is no boss to answer to, no customers to satisfy, no suppliers to let you down, no waiting for invoices to be paid, I could go on. In fact, I will: trading is a location-independent activity – I can work from anywhere with an internet connection, which effectively means anywhere in the world with a telephone line. I regularly trade from my laptop whilst travelling. I can trade when I feel like it, and take time off when I like, which means I can spend quality time with my family.

Now let’s get this straight, trading can be a risky activity, there is no doubt about that. So is driving a car to work, but the risks of getting from A to B on four wheels are well understood and are managed accordingly, to the point where we don’t think twice about getting behind the wheel. And in the same way, provided a trader is disciplined in their approach to the job at hand, and understands the associated risks of the work, so those risks can be managed.

On the subject of risk, day trading is almost unique in that it can be learnt and practised with absolutely no financial risk at all, by means of paper-trading – that is - trading using freely available simulation software. Thus in the same way a trainee airline pilot won’t be let loose into the skies without having learnt and rehearsed their skills in a simulator, so a new trader can employ the same technique before they start trading real money. I “sim-traded” before I gave up the day-job; it made it easy to leave the safety-net of a monthly pay check knowing from my simulated trading sessions that I could already make money in the markets.

And that brings me to the most satisfying aspect of trading for a living; money. On an average day trading the Nasdaq, it is not unusual to make more money in a couple of hours than I used to make in a whole month working full time as a wage-slave. There are bad days of course, days where things just don’t work out, but they pale into insignificance over the course of a week or a month. It certainly took some intensive studying and a lot of practise before becoming a consistently profitable trader. But the end result of that hard work is an immensely valuable life skill that nobody can take away, and which allows for incredible freedom.

Since I first started trading, the learning curve has become even easier for the aspiring day trader, with a multitude of new websites, training courses, and books all covering the subject. I envy anyone starting out in this business today – they certainly have many more learning aids available to them than I had at the same point in my own career.

So is day trading the ultimate work-from-home job No. I firmly believe it’s the ultimate work-from ANYWHERE job!

About The Author

Harvey Walsh is a full time Nasdaq day trader, and part time trading tutor. He trades from his home, or indeed wherever he happens to be when travelling. He can be contacted via his website: http://www.day-trading-freedom.com

Though the name itself may seem a bit mysterious, the concept of mystery shopping is actually straightforward. Also referred to as secret shopping, performance evaluations, service checks and frontline evaluations to name a few, mystery shopping allows companies to obtain a “snapshot in time” by trained researchers who know in advance what they are to evaluate. It provides management a method to quickly yet efficiently evaluate their business practices, deliverables, and employees from the perspective of a non-biased consumer. Mystery shoppers visit or call businesses posing as ordinary customers and provide detailed evaluations of their experience using written reports or questionnaires.

Mystery shopping is used in a wide variety of industries such as retail, restaurants, financial institutions, convenience stores and gas stations, service providers, manufacturers, department stores, travel and entertainment, etc.

Though there is a certain level of responsibility and professionalism required to be an effective mystery shopper, you should never have to pay to get a job. There are dozens of companies claiming that by paying them a registration fee they will send you job opportunities and teach you the steps to becoming a shopper. This may be true, but is also completely unnecessary.

The legitimate mystery shopping companies in the industry NEVER charge fees to the shopper. Training, tips for improvement, and shopping opportunities are provided free to registered shoppers. Mystery shoppers are either paid a pre-arranged fee for a particular shop, a reimbursement for a purchase or a combination of both. Though it is possible to make a living solely from mystery shopping, it is not very common. Most shoppers view this as a second income source or as a way to obtain fully reimbursed meals, products, and services.

The registration process with leading mystery shopping companies has improved over the years. Most provide a simple online form that takes only a few minutes to complete. Once you have registered with a company or two, they will start informing you of shopping opportunities. Most of these are “first-come, first-serve”, so be sure to provide the company with an email address that you check regularly, and a phone number where you can be easily reached.

Be willing to accept last minute assignments and treat bottom-of-the-barrel assignments just like top-of-the-line assignments. At first, take whatever you can get. This will allow you to build a reputation with each company. The old adage, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression,” is exceptionally true in this industry. Make sure you completely understand the instructions for the particular shop, be impartial, and focus on accuracy. You may be required to document employee names and descriptions, prices, inventory evaluations, etc.

Go hi-tech. More and more mystery shopping companies are requiring shoppers to have access to the Internet, email and a fax machine. Some shops even require the use of a digital camera to capture product placement, signage, cleanliness or other focus points.

Complete all assignments on time. If you absolutely cannot complete an assignment, contact the mystery shopping company immediately so they can reschedule the assignment. Dependable shoppers get the best assignments!

Assignments can be as basic as sitting in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant for 20 minutes to document drive-thru service times to taking an all-expense-paid trip to a resort for 2 weeks to document your daily service experiences.

Now that you understand the mystery shopping industry a little more clearly, the next step is to locate a few top mystery shopping providers and register, remembering that even if a firm doesn*t have a client in your area today, they may next month. Once registered with a company, it would not hurt to call or send an email to express your willingness to shop and to confirm your professionalism and attention to detail. Just make sure that you do not send an email full of typos and grammatical errors – definitely not the type of first impression that you want to leave.

Another method for finding potential shopping opportunities and to gather further industry knowledge is by monitoring online mystery shopping message boards and forums. To locate a few, type words like “mystery shopping message board” or “mystery shopping forum” into your favorite browser.

Mystery shopping may not become your next career, but it will provide you with some extra income, free goods, and maybe even a few adventures along the way!

About The Author

Steve Pearce is the Dir. of Business Development for National Shopping Service. NSS has been a pioneer in the mystery shopping industry since 1972, offering customizable solutions to businesses that provide the information they need to understand and affect their businesses at points of customer interaction. http://www.nationalshoppingservice.com - 800-800-2704

Looking for work is an energy-devouring ordeal, often leading to running in circles and not getting anywhere. A systematic approach can help you focus on your goal, avoid wasting the energy you need to conserve for interviews and employer contacts, and lower your stress level.

Some resources you might find helpful include:

1. Newspaper classified. Pro: you know that an opening does exist or a company wouldnt spend money to advertise. Con: there may be thousands of applicants for one position. Value depends upon the kind of work you are looking for and the uniqueness of your skills and experience. Certainly worth a weekend check but cannot be exclusively relied upon unless you have your heart set on a telemarketing position.

2. Registering with agencies. Pro: they only make money when you obtain work so they are motivated to get you employment. Con: they need you to take a job, any job, so they can earn their fees and they work to keep their real clients, employers, happy so often screen you out of the really good jobs if they have any doubt about how well you will fit.

3. Internet resources. There are some good resources -Monster.com and Careerbuilder and the job finder section of most major home pages. Beware of wasting time on groups. While some a very few are well-managed and inappropriate postings screened out, others many are choked with pornographic messages.

4. Job hotlines. These are useful for a weekly check-in but they are primarily available with large employers and jobs are more likely to be found with small and medium-sized employers. The same caveat holds true for job fairs.

5. Cold-calling. If your skills lie within a particular industry where employers typically cluster together -industrial parks, medical centers, retail - walking into offices cold, with a smile, a resume, and a confident air, can sometimes identify an open position long before any search for applicants begins.

6. Personal contacts. Listed last but of prime importance. By networking -- contacting everyone you know to obtain help, and following up on their contacts -- you may be able to marshal several hundred job hunting aides which increases your chances enormously.

7. Prioritize your activities. Assess each method for what looks most promising, try them for a short period, and determine where you, personally, feel comfortable. Spend the major part of your job search time there to avoid squandering your energy on fruitless pursuits.

About The Author

Dr. Bola developed innovative job search techniques for disabled workers for 20 years. A licensed psychologist, she appeared as a Vocational Expert in a variety of administrative and civil courts. Author and e-zine publisher, she can be found at: http://www.virginiabola.com

These days, interviews dont come easily. When you get The Call, make the most of your time -- and go for it!

1. Investigate the companys culture, markets, and finances. But resist the temptation to show off what youve researched: "I just read that youre about to embark on a new product line" unless you have a question directly related to your career.

2. Look like you belong. Learn the companys dress code and err on the side of conservatism. When youre seeking a senior position based on industry experience, youll be expected to know the rules without being told.

3. Take charge of the interview! The most successful interviews feel like friendly conversations. When your interviewer has an agenda such as the infamous "stress interview" stay relaxed. Think of playing a game.

4. Assume everyone you meet will provide feedback to the decision-maker. Some companies hand out comment forms to receptionists, security guards and potential peers who take you to lunch.

5. Communicate interest and enthusiasm, even if youre not sure youre ready to commit. Youll rarely have all the facts until youre looking at an offer.

6. Bring extra copies of your correspondence from this company as well as your resume, references, writing samples, portfolio and current business cards. Interviewers lose documents and conversations move in unexpected directions.

7. Create a relaxed, positive attitude by devising a realistic game plan. When your career isnt riding on a single interview, youll have fun and make a confident, relaxed impression.

8. Write a thank you letter within forty-eight hours. Create a low-key sales letter, emphasizing how your qualifications match the companys needs. Present yourself as a resource, not a supplicant.

9. After you write the letter, forget about the interview. Email or phone only if youve received a competing offer with a deadline.

Occasionally you may make points with follow-up mailings. A sports team public relations applicant sent puzzles, games and press releases -- and she got the job. Use your intuition.

10. Keep notes of what you learned from the process. What worked What would you do differently

As soon as you begin your new job, develop a career plan and a safety net before you need one.

About The Author

Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D., is an author, speaker and career/business consultant, helping midlife professionals take their First Steps to a Second Career. http://www.cathygoodwin.com "Ten secrets of mastering a major life change" mailto:subscribe@cathygoodwin.com Contact: mailto:cathy@cathygoodwin.com 505-534-4294

Presidential candidate John Kerry is fond of stating that “... not since Herbert Hoover has any president lost more jobs than George W. Bush.” And there is a kernel of truth to the statement; thanks to technology, jobs require less human intervention to complete. However, a larger factor in this seeming loss of employment is due to the evolution of the American workforce from a lot indentured to the confines of one company or one job title toward the Jeffersonian ideal of every person being a free agent, or indie.

The explosion in the number of people going indie has a number of causes. Downsizing created the realization that “job security” isn’t something other people provide, but something you have to create. Two-income families discovered that with their increased tax burden and overhead expenses for daycare, cleaning, housekeeping services, home maintenance and lawn care, a second income from paid full-time employment can actually be a liability. Individuals interested in becoming self-employed can segue more easily from employee to entrepreneur via the indie route. Finally, career changers can obtain valuable experience and networking opportunities in their field of choice with contract work.

Indies may lose company-provided benefits, but that doesn’t mean they are without means. As an independent contractor, they are eligible to create Medical Savings Accounts, or they may be eligible to participate in a group health plan through organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce. They can create their own retirement programs via SEP, SIMPLE, or IRA investments, or the direct purchase of government-backed I-bonds. If they work out of their homes, they have access to extensive tax deductions not available to wage earners. In short, indies can have the best of all possible worlds – steady income, health and retirement benefits, more real income, and a life.

What kind of jobs are available to independent contractors Well, here are some of the indie jobs I’ve done: Telephone psychic $20.00 per hour, work from home Mystery shopper $15.00 per hour + expenses Virtual assistant $15.00 - $30.00 per hour, depending on the task Editor $35.00 per hour Ghostwriter $50.00 per hour

Many creative and professional jobs, such as technical writers, webmasters, graphic designers, programmers, teachers and tutors, etc. are done by independent contractors on a project-by-project basis. However, the FedEx Home Delivery and Schwann’s Ice Cream drivers are also independent contractors, so not having professional credentials is not necessarily a barrier to indie work.

Not everyone is suited to life as an indie. If you absolutely need the structure imposed by a job, a manager and a time clock in order to function, then don’t consider going indie. If, however, you like having some freedom, are self-disciplined enough to complete jobs on time without being told, and can organize your day and yourself to maximize your productivity and meet your clients’ needs, you have the necessary personality traits to become a successful independent contractor.

Ignore the gloom and doom scenario painted by politicians eager to have a job with perks you pay for. Join the indie revolution, and gain an income – and a life – without a traditional job. It’s a choice you won’t want the government to “help” you out of.

About The Author

Jean Fritz indies in the areas of copywriting, editing and graphic design. She can be reached via e-mail or through her website, JMT Publications http://jmtpubs.tripod.com. jeantype@excite.com

About four years ago a friend told me one night that she had an interview the next week and was looking for some comfort as she was extremely nervous, as most people are about interviews. I thought back on my my carreer and realized that in the nine year of my career I had been to thirteen interviews and, more importantly, that I had received a job offer from every one of those interviews. I did not accept all the offers, but the point is that I had not once been to an interview without getting a job offer from it. In the past four years, I have been to another 6 interviews, of which I did not get job offers for 2 of them. The one was an interview at Volkswagen which a friend had setup because he "wanted" me to work there and by the time we started the interview, I realized that the position was not in my field at all. The second one was a telephonic interview, which I hate, and I simply did not see eye to eye with the person who interviewed me. I did go for an interview with another manager at the same company a couple of weeks later and started working there 2 days later.

Job offers from 17 out of 19 interviews is not a bad track record and no, I am not some kind of a technical genius that every company would want to employ simply by looking at my resume. I am a computer programmer and there are many programmers out there with better technical skills than me.

The secret, I believe is confidence. Not necessarily confidence in yourself, but creating confidence in your interviewers mind. I once had a 4 1/2 hour interview in Sydney, Australia. Before that I could not imagine such a long interview was possible, it was for a very senior position. If, like most people, you dont like interviews in general, imagine sitting there for 4 1/2 hours. Anyway, about halfway through the interview, the interviewer told me that he had another 2 or 3 people that hes considering for the position, but that hes got a "warm and fuzzy feeling" about me. Not something I really want to hear from another male, but when he said that, I realized that the job was mine.

Your objective, then, is to create that "warm and fuzzy" feeling in your interviewers mind.

Before an interview, I always think of what I would like to see in the other person if I was on the other side of the table, in other words, if I was interviewing somebody else for this position. Computer programming is considered as a technical field, even on a managerial level, but the technical aspect has very seldom been the deciding factor, unless the interviewer has poor people skills or a lack of experience. Generally anybody with a bit of experience will be more interested in your personality than your technical abilities. I am assuming, of course, that you are applying for positions which you are in some way qualified to fill. So how do you focus on your personality and what personality traits should you try to demonstrate Let me give you some examples of what I consider as important in an interview.

There are two dreaded questions that used to come up in every interview a couple of years ago, though I havent heard them for a while now. What are 5 of your strengths and what are 5 of your weaknesses Whenever I got the first of these two questions, I would start my answer with "Yes, I knew this was coming so I thought about it last night and..." or something along those lines.

It sounds wrong, because the intention of those questions is to see whether you know yourself. If you have to think about it the previous night, it doesnt say much about your self-knowledge. Nonetheless, I do this for two reasons. Firstly, Im being honest with them. Everybody prepares for an interview, or at least you should! Im just showing them that Im a real person and that I dont claim to have all the answers. Secondly, its a tension breaker. Quite often, if it is an experienced interviewer, they will make some comment about you having to prepare your answers in advance and this gives you an opportunity to sidetrack from their "prepared" questions. The more you can get to speak freely with the interviewer and not as a response to a question, the more opportunity you have of showing them your real character. It also passes the time so that they dont have to think up irrelevant technical questions to make the interview "long enough".

Also keep in mind that nobody is expected to have all the right answers. As I said before, I am not the know-it-all genius of computer programming, so in most interviews there is at least one question for which I do not have the answer or topic that I do not know about. When this happens, I do not pretend to have the answer or try to sound intelligent about the topic. I simply tell them that I do not know. Whats important, though, is the way you say you dont know. Even if the words coming out of your mouth are as simple as "I dont know", the perception that your attitude should portray is that he or she does not know, but its okay that they dont know. In other words, say it with confidence and self respect. "I dont know because Ive never needed to use that in the past" or "I normally use such and such instead" and, if possible, tell them why you prefer your alternative. Also try to tell them how you would learn this topic if it is required in your new position. This, again, achieves two objects. It shows them your problem solving abilities and it gives you another opportunity to speak freely. Finally, if you have no clue what theyre talking about, ask them to explain the topic or to give you an example. Again, speaking freely and showing them that you are interested in learning and also that you are comfortable in their company.

I also think one of the key factors for anybody in an interview is to see that you can think for yourself and that you have your own opinions. DO NOT use yes/no answers!! Every question that an interviewer asks should be seen as an opportunity for you to speak and not a hurdle that you have to cross as quickly as possible. Of course you must stay on topic or they will think you are trying to evade the question. However, try to elaborate and give them examples to show your experience and understanding of the topic. Even if this is your first interview and you have no working experience, it should not be a problem - remember you are trying to steer the conversion towards your personality and not your technical skills. Even after 13 years in the industry, I still use a lot of examples and stories short stories, stay on topic from my personal life to answer interview questions.

I have now mentioned this "speaking freely" a number of times and I guess thats the basis of it all. Remember that the person on the other side of the desk is nothing but that, just another person. I always try to be early for an interview so that I have some time to relax after the traffic. During those last couple of minutes, I stand outside having a cigarette and I play out a little scene in my mind, which I would rather not repeat here. Anyway, it boils down to me having a casual conversation with the interviewer and explaining to them that were all in the same boat. Were all here on this planet for a short time and all just trying to make the best of things. Yes, it sounds stupid, I know. But for me it re-affirms in my mind that the person I am about to talk to is just another person and that I should treat them as that.

So let me summarize. Focus on your personality, not your technical abilities. Unless youre the best in your industry, in which case Im talking to the other 99.999% in your industry. Remember that the interviewer is just another person and treat them as one by speaking to them as you would somebody that you have known for a while. This is the only way you can have some control of steering the conversation in the direction you want. While being comfortable and speaking your mind, do show respect at the same time and remember, its still their interview, so let them have the final control. Finally, BE HONEST.

About The Author

Dirk Wessels is a computer programmer and runs unique-jobs.co.za in his spare time. You may reproduce this article as long as you include this About the Author section and a reference to unique-jobs.co.za.

Many years ago, when I was a young job-searching greenhorn, I ventured to New York City to take a bite out of the big apple of opportunity.

When it came to finding a job in a crowded city of millions, I quickly learned that it’s much easier on one’s sanity to sign up with one of the many employment agencies which helps job seekers looking for work.

I scoured the newspaper and found a large ad for one such well-known employment agency. True to their word, they promptly sent me off on several interviews – none of which I felt particularly comfortable at. Needless to say, I didn’t get any job offers.

While nursing a cold, I decided I needed a change. So, I contacted a much smaller agency and decided to see if my luck would be different.

These people rocked! They were down-to-earth friendly and genuinely concerned about helping me find a job. Before they sent me out on any interviews, they put me through a mock interview session and evaluated my performance something the larger fancy-pants agency didn’t do. Afterwards, an advisor sat me down and we chatted about the results of my mock interview.

I am forever grateful for the feedback I got that day, because the interview preparation tips they gave me have served me well over countless interviews these many years. I’ve condensed their pointers into five simple rules that anyone can follow for better success at a job interview.

Eye Contact – Look directly at your interviewer. Don’t cast your eyes down.

Sit up Straight – Don’t slouch in your chair – it makes you look lazy and uninterested. Good posture makes you look like a confident person.

Don’t Fidget – Keep your hands in your lap when you’re not making a point in the conversation. Fidgeting looks unprofessional.

Speak Up – Don’t mumble your words. Speak directly at your interviewer with a clear, strong voice.

Smile and Show Some Personality – It’s ok to be a little nervous, but remember to stay loose and be yourself. Personality counts for a lot.

Of course, there’s a lot more to think about when preparing for an interview. But even if you only remember these five simple interviewing rules, you’ll be able to make a good impression on the one person standing between you and a job – your interviewer.

About The Author

Copyright 2004

Donna Monday writes employment related articles for http://www.get-a-job-interview-quick-tips.com.

There is a wide world of photography. It touches each of us in our lives on a daily basis in some form or another. Photography is so much a part of our culture now that we hardly even notice all the places that it exists. When you watch television, look at a magazine or even view a billboard on the highway, this is all because of photography. There are so many ways that photography crosses our lives each day. There are a lot of opportunities for someone looking for photography jobs.

What Photography Jobs are Available

If you enjoy photography and are thinking of it as a career, there are actually many different directions you can choose from. Obviously, there is professional photography but even in that choice there are many other smaller options that you have as well.

You can become a photographer in a special field such as wedding or family photographer. You can choose to make money taking pictures of things you love such as animals, nature or ships. If you enjoy scuba diving, you can become an underwater photographer. Pretty much anything you can think of, there is room to take and sell pictures of it.

If you love taking pictures and the idea of a career in photography sounds good to you, just how do you begin finding photography jobs

How Do You Find Photography Jobs

There are different ways of finding photography jobs, depending on the type of job you are looking for and your experience. You can begin by creating a resume and portfolio of your work. Then you can search on the internet at freelance photography job boards or photography websites and message boards. Get specific into types of photographing you have done and look on the internet for those.

You can go locally and look for internships or local firms or companies that may need photographers. You can get the word out by doing small events such as birthday parties and such. Get your name out as someone who will work these functions. Show friends and family samples of your work and ask them to spread the word. You may even want to participate in a charitable or non-profit event to boost your portfolio.

You can also begin submitting your work to contests and magazines to get yourself known and build your portfolio. Placing or winning in contests and getting published in magazines can help you build clips that you can use for getting bigger and better jobs.

Lastly, you can actually apply to jobs directly. It is best to do this only if you have the proper qualifications for the job. You don’t want to set your goals so high that you get let down but there is nothing wrong with going for what you want. Most importantly, get as involved with what you love as possible. Learn as much as you can about photography and what makes good photography. Subscribe to magazines, read books, look at winners of photography contests

About The Author

Looking for information about Photography Go to: http://www.asaphotography.com ASA Photography is published by Colin Hartness - An excellent resource for Photography! Check out more cruise articles at: http://www.asaphotography.com/archive

Some interview questions are asked so frequently that theyve become classics. Practically every interview you go on youll be answering one or more of these seven interview questions.

Why are these the most frequently asked interview questions Probably because they give the employer a good idea of who you are and if youre the best fit for their company.

** Tell Me About Yourself

This is an obvious open-ended questions where the interviewer is inviting you to give some background on yourself. But wait. Should you start revealing personal information about yourself No. This isnt a beauty contest or game show.

How to Answer: This is not a question you should try to wing off the top of your head. You need to write down a careful answer to this question and practice saying it out loud again and again.

** Prepare a Script

List five strengths that are directly related to this job and incorporate them into a "Tell Me About Yourself" mini script. You want to keep the focus on your past job experience and what you personally bring to your positions:

Example:

"I have been in the ________ industry/business for the past ______ years."

"My most recent experience has been ______."

"One reason I enjoy this business is _____."

"In my last job I ________."

"My real strength is my ________."

"What Im looking for now is _______."

About The Author

Copyright 2004

Donna Monday Get Hired Now! Use These Online Interview Tips http://www.get-a-job-interview-quick-tips.com

1.Searching for a job online

Pierre Omidyar’s pronounced Omidvar first job out of university was that of a software developer, now he’s the founder of ebay. Brad Pitt dressed up like a chicken before his breakthrough as an actor. Denise Donlon was a coffee house singer and until just recently held the post as President of Sony Music Canada. What we have in common with these individuals is that at one point, they had to apply for a job, just like you and I.

Where will you begin your search Is there only one way to find a job There are several ways to do so, but today we will cover the online option. Many of you already know that the internet now provides instant access to jobs 24/7. Former print Classifieds now appear online locally and nationallyi.e. workopolis. Companies go to career fairs, use recruiters and work with associations to reach their audience. As companies move ahead so does their recruitment methods. Not only do most companies use their websites to showcase their product or business, they now host a virtual human resources center containing career pages, online applications and job alerts.

Search engine tools like Google, Yahoo and Alta Vista, etc. using keywords such as careers, jobs, work, automotive, engineering jobs, are a good start. Be as specific as you can so that you will pull up the most accurate results. There is no hidden secret to finding a job online. It takes time, research and diligence.

2.Tools available with online job boards

Pick a job board that is suitable for you. What types of jobs are posted Are the companies posting in your industry Are there new listings every day Ask yourself questions like this and what you are looking for from a job board. Make it work for you.

There are a variety of features on many job boards that help you to find what you need. Generally, job boards have a category search that comes up by date, specific industries, job titles, provinces, cities or keywords. These helpful tools pinpoint what you’re looking for quickly.

Besides listings, there are many excellent employment related articles and career advice columns that can put you on the right track. Subscribe to newsletters that contain valuable tips about job hunting and current trends. Some of the information you may come across on any online job board are perhaps tips on how to put together a good resume or write a cover letter. There may be products advertised that may assist you in your quest, recommending books, resume writers and the like. If you don’t have time to look for jobs everyday, once registered, Job agents can be set up on most accounts to let you know when job searches using the criteria you’ve entered show up on the job database. An automated email is then sent to your inbox with your selections and a hyperlink to the job making this easier and less time consuming.

3.Posting resumes online

To post a resume it goes without saying that you need to have one in the first place. As a new grad, you may or may not have jobs on your current resume that are relevant to the position that you’re applying to. If you’ve done a co-op, put that on your resume, volunteer experience, etc. The most common resume is the basic chronological format which lists the most current job history, along with your educational background. Another type is the functional resume that lists your skill sets and potential which is suitable for those entering the work force. When this is done, download it until you need it. Once your resume is created, most job boards allow you to cut and paste your resume into your account so you don’t have to perform the same function every time you apply to a position. With most sites, there are options to have more than one resume on your account. One is active, the others when you need them. Some job boards like Canjobs for example, allow your resume to be posted in five categories for ie: automotive, engineering, etc.. Some allow privacy settings, which means not just anyone can view your resume or your personal information. The possible employers only see your information when you apply to them.

4.Targeting the Automotive industry

The employment potential in the automotive industry according to the Labour Market Information site run by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada is listed as good. Salary wages can vary between $13 an hour to $32.19 depending on location and experience. Employment prospects are closely associated with the outlook for the manufacturing sector. More than half of mechanical engineering technicians and technologists work in manufacturing. The most common industries are automotive, electronic/electrical products, automotive robotics and transport equipment technologies.

The modernization of equipment and processes will continue to affect the manufacturing sector. It should create demand for mechanical engineering technologists and technicians. At the same time, advanced technologies such as computer aided design, drafting and computer simulation will automate some of the work done by technicians. The rapid rate of technological change means those working in this field should plan for periods of retraining and skills upgrading. Opportunities for mechanical engineering technicians and technologists include areas such as production, mould making, quality control, machine and tool design, industrial automation and maintenance, consulting engineering and technical sales.

Industry association websites that are on the pulse of the industry such as AIAAutomotive Industries of Canada, APMAAutomotive Parts Manufacturers Association of Canada, CTMACanadian Tooling & Machining Association or OACETTThe Technology Professionals in Ontario contain useful information on outlooks, forecasts and jobs from companies directly involved with your specific industry.

5.Pros/Cons of online job boards

Online job boards were built to produce fast easy access for jobseekers and employers to meet. They can be efficient and resourceful. You need to consider these points in mind when using the job board right for you. Don’t mass post your resume on every single site you see. This may not look good to potential employers or recruiters who search resumes or post on several sites. Initially, you may not like initial lack of human contact and automated responses and because of the exposure the job listing may receive, your application may get lost in the thousands of applications. Differentiate yourself with an tailored cover letter and decide what your job objective is.

With this in mind choose your online job boards wisely. They can assist you in your search when effectively used and help you to find your new career.

About The Author

Tamara Jong is the Marketing Professional for www.canjobs.com, a leading Canadian owned and operated on-line recruitment site.

tamara@canjobs.com

Jobs are heating up. Were all feeling the pinch of hiring freezes and information overload. Workplace stress is increasing right along with the workload.

Headaches are turning into migraines; back pains are driving us to the chiropractor, and minor irritations are causing tempers to flair.

In addition to our personal reaction to stress, it is taking its toll on the bottom line. Stress is driving up the cost of health care, and we can see a huge impact in things like tardiness, absenteeism, personnel turnover, and accidents. The annual price tag of stress in corporate America is more than $150 billion.

While forecasters tell us we can expect more of the same, we need our jobs, and we need to find ways to control the stressors that are taking a affecting our health and productivity.

Here are 11 ways you can keep your cool and minimize the impact of stress on your life.

Do your own job - When poor the work habits of others create stress, remember why youre there. Pay attention to your own job. You will not be rated on the performance of others, but the boss will note the quality of your work. Stay focused on the job you were hired for, and let management deal with improving the department or the company. Dont get stressed about things that are not your responsibility.

Organization - Regardless of company expectations, you can alleviate a lot of your stress by organizing your work space and getting a firm grasp on the work that must be done. Even if you have to pay for it yourself, get the tools needed to organize your effort, e.g. files, furniture, PDAs, software, and training. Work with your boss to prioritize projects and routine tasks. Only get concerned about unfinished work if the boss gives it a priority. Youll never get everything done, so pick the most important and file everything else in an easy to reach file drawer.

Communication - Its important to maintain your supervisors comfort level, so meet with them as often as necessary to keep them informed of projects and progress. Give them updates the way they want them email, memos, briefings, etc., and persist in getting the feedback that is so important in reducing stress. Use this same strategy with those who give you information or products to do your job and those who depend on what you give them. Good communication is essential for good stress control.

Interruptions - Avoid stressful interruptions by controlling your schedule and your communications. Establish times for meeting with those who want information from you and hold them to it. The more persistent you are, the more organized they will be. Handle phone calls and respond to email during specific times. Develop a list of people and events that disrupt your job and work with each until it is under control.

Family Time - Family situations are among the greatest stressors at work. Theres an old axiom that says, "If momma aint happy, aint nobody happy." Its true. Avoid future problems by prioritizing family time on your schedule and stick to it. Get professional help if youre unable to resolve sticky situations.

Exercise - More than 80% of all doctors visits are stress related. Those who find time to exercise reduce stress, strengthen their immune system, and improve their well being. Do a little research and talk with the experts to find out what fits your needs. Make the exercise part of your work schedule if possible; dont let it cut into family time. Regular exercise can add years to your own life and make you more productive for your employer.

Nutrition - Proper nutrition is a key to stress control. The US Army recognizes proper nutrition as a critical element in controlling stress among combat soldiers, and you must admit, your job is sometimes as stressful as combat. Use the Internet or get information from Human Resources to improve nutrition. Youll have to make some deliberate changes because our eating habits are affected by our culture, the expectations of others, inadequate knowledge about what makes a proper diet. Learn what is needed and make a plan.

Rest - Take charge of your sleep habits in the same way you work on your eating habits. Sleep deprivation is a major stressor by itself, and it adds to the problem with other stressful events. Cut out the late night television. Quit taking work home from the office. Change the pattern of your weekend parties. Get some new friends. Do whatever is necessary to get back on track with seven or eight hours sleep every night. Studies show that twenty minute power naps make us more productive, so use part of your lunch break for nutrition and part for a short nap to control stress. Youll get more done.

Discussion - Tell people whats on your mind. If you cant ignore someones special talent for bugging you, talk it over with them. Theres a good chance they are unaware of the offense, so you dont need to get up tight about it. In a friendly tone of voice, let them know what gets under your skin and be ready to make some concessions yourself. As you now know, their irritating habit is probably magnified by other stressors, so make sure youve done what you can to control stress before challenging anyone.

Education - The more educated you are about your job, the less stressful it becomes. Even if youve been on the job for years, theres always more to learn about the upstream and downstream impact of what you do. Stay up to date with trade journals, books, and other research. Become the expert at what you do and coach others. While some companies do not pay for this type education, your own investment will make you more valuable to your company. What you know is portable - and it looks good on a resume.

Volunteer - Helping others has an immediate impact on stress levels. Build in some family time by volunteering as a family once a month. Build rapport with supervisors and co-workers by organizing a once-a-week lunchtime volunteer program. Lead a food or clothing collection for needy employees or families outside your company. Create a support-the-troops letter writing campaign so everyone in the company communicates regularly with GIs away from home. In short, doing something for someone else takes your mind off the stressors that bother you most.

Each of these stress relievers works independently of the others. Find one thats practical for you and put it to work. Friends, family, and co-workers will all notice the changes in you and thank you for making the effort.

For a free article about the top ten workplace stressors and how to tame them, send email to TopTenStressors@CourageBuilders.com

---Sidebar---

11 Ways to Keep Your Cool

Do your own job

Get Organized

Communicate with the boss and others

Control interruptions

Schedule Family Time

Exercise

Eat right

Get 8 hours sleep a night

Let others know what bugs you

Learn new things about your job

Volunteer to help others

Copyright 2005 - Dale Collie

About The Author

Copyright 2005

Dale Collie

You may publish this article electronically or in print f`r`e`e of charge. Feel free to edit for space and audience. Just include my full byline and add a hyperlink for web postings. When you publish, please send a courtesy link or email to collie@couragebuilders.com.

Conducting a job search using the Internet has definitely transformed how jobseekers contact hiring companies. The availability of copying and pasting a text version resume into a form at a companys website has laid the foundation for an easier and more convenient process. No longer does a jobseeker need to spend hours with the traditional method of printing and mailing his resume to countless recipients.

With the Internets convenience, a breeding ground for scam artists continues to grow each year as well. Identity thefts have increased to an overwhelming 10 million cases per year, and many of them are the result of phishing - not surprisingly, the employment industry is under attack as well.

Phishing is an attempt to extract personal information through what appears to be authentic emails. If you are job searching, an email from a seemingly interested recruiter, for example, may not raise a red flag with you. You may think that the contact person and company listed are legitimate, yet looks can be deceiving. Knowing what to look for and how to spot fraud or potential areas for abuse can be the best deterrent to ensuring you have a safe experience while conducting your job search.

BE LEERY OF SUBMISSION INVITATIONS.

Scammers and spammers follow the same patterns. Mass emails are sent to an enormous list of recipients. Not everyone on the “hit list” is searching for a new job; however, only a small number of people need to be convinced, or tricked into believing, the email is authentic in order for the scam to be deemed successful. Receiving an email from a recruiter who states, “We saw your resume on the Internet, and we find your skill set to be perfect for one of our clients. Please complete our online application through the below link.” Ask yourself a series of questions: Did you send your resume to this recruiter Visit the companys website type the web address into your browser, avoid clicking the link in the email; upon further examination are they reputable How did they hear about you Call the company if necessary. Always proceed with caution when you receive a cold-contact email from someone.

AVOID RESPONDING TO REQUESTS FOR PERSONAL INFORMATION, SUCH AS SOCIAL SECURITY OR CREDIT CARD NUMBER.

Lets say you receive an email from what appears to be a well-known job bank. The email states that your account needs your contact and payment information to be updated in order for service renewal. You click on the link and youre taken to a page that looks, feels, and “smells” right. You proceed by submitting the requested information.

The link appeared safe, but you were taken to a site designed to defraud you. Reputable companies will rarely ask for personal information via email so examine every incoming email for validity.

WHEN PURCHASING FROM A RESUME WRITING OR RESUME SUBMISSION SERVICE, FOR EXAMPLE, ENSURE INFORMATION IS ENCRYPTED UPON HITTING SUBMIT.

Encryption, in short, ensures the private information you submit online is kept safe. When at your browser, you can recognize an encrypted form when the root URL starts with “https:” instead of “http:” or seeing the padlock present in the bottom right corner of your screen. Purchasing from companies having added security measures in place can ensure your private information avoids the hands of ill-willed people. Learn more about encryption by reading Jeff Tysons article titled, “How Encryption Works,” at howstuffworks.com.

READ AND UNDERSTAND THE PRIVACY POLICY OF SITES YOU PATRON.

The Better Business Bureau possesses a strict policy for members who do business online. A privacy statement must be displayed on the companys website, no exceptions. High business practices are a necessity for maintaining the trust of online buyers; and the BBB understands the critical importance of trust among consumers.

A privacy statement outlines what type of customer information is collected and how its used. Alliances and partnerships, for example, arrange for Company A to sell or pass on client information to Company B. The information transferred or sold could be basic, like name and email address, or far more in-depth like name, address, social security number, and phone number. No matter how basic or detailed the information, the company must have the logistics spelled out in their privacy policy.

TELL!

Reports show an estimated 80% of online fraud goes unreported. If the proper authorities arent aware of the magnitude of fraud that actually exists on the Internet, then getting the much-needed funds to battle the problem will take more time. The Internet Fraud Complaint Center ifccfbi.gov has an online complaint feature for individuals to report phishing attacks. The IFCC report process requires basic information, including information on the perpetrator and type of fraud.

In addition to filing a complaint, forward the fraudulent email to the legitimate company. Phishing is smearing the good names of countless companies, and notifying the company about the scam can also help the fight. Companies being brought onboard will ensure well-rounded efforts to this epidemic.

Avoid giving your information out freely. Whether youre at the end of a phishing attack or the job application requires more information than youre willing to provide, proceed with caution. Much like youll analyze job opportunities; intensely examine each person who receives your personal information. With safe online practices, youll get the best return from your job-search efforts - instead of spending hours filing a police report and calling credit bureaus and credit card companies.

About The Author

Written by Teena Rose of Resume to Referral

Teena Rose is a certified and published resume writer and author of "20-Minute Cover Letter Fixer" and "Cracking the Code to Pharmaceutical Sales" available at CareerEpublications.com.

resumetoreferral.com

For your job search to be successful, you need to start with the right frame of mind and attitude. If this is not handled right away, everything you do will show lack of confidence, fear and desperation - & poor results.

Mental preparation is probably your most important task as you proceed in your job search. This not only needs to be worked on right from the start, but also on an ongoing basis.

A healthy mindset is your best asset for the daunting task ahead. Here are some points to help you prepare mentally:

1. Maintain positive self-esteem. You must believe in yourself and your abilities. You have special skills and talents that are valuable. Talk and think positively about yourself. Projecting this is the only way prospective employers will believe in you. If you are not convinced yourself, you will not be able to convince anyone else. Your confidence and self-belief are two important personality traits that any employer looks for, and they cannot be faked, only instilled. Master them, and you’ll be way ahead of the game.

2. Develop and maintain a positive attitude. Being negative about your current job situation makes a dramatic impact on how you project yourself to the outside world - and you are seldom unaware how terribly negative you really are. This is expressed in your body language, your tone of voice, your physical attributes, and your verbal communications - i.e. everything that you project. Prospective employers are especially attuned to pick up on this. Project a genuine, positive, well-balanced attitude to everyone you come across during your job search. Treat everyone with warmth and courtesy. Surround yourself with positive people and keep away from those who bring you down.

3. Dont act desperate. You may be currently unemployed or you may simply hate your current job immensely and want out or you may be seeking your first job. All these conditions have a propensity to project you as being desperate! Watch out for this. You have to ensure that you dont let anyone see you sweat. Maintain a confident calmness and make sure you dont swing too far and appear indifferent.

4. Dont be a victim. Its easy to blame yourself and others for your situation - DONT! Dont speak badly of your current employer or job. Let go of regrets about the past. Remove any bitterness you may have because this will leak into all of your communication - and you wont even aware of it. Eliminate this bad practice and youll be rewarded with positive outcomes - not only in your job search - but also in every other aspect of living.

5. Dont take rejection personally. Its inevitable that you will not get job offers for positions that youve applied for or where youve had your 5th interview and it seemed a done deal. The position may have already been filled - or a person with a better matched skill set was selected. Consider a no as one step closer to your ideal job. Transform a rejection to motivate you. If you wear your rejection on your sleeves - it will manifest itself in your character and behavior and will certainly hinder your job search progress.

6. Make Time For Yourself & De-Stress. Recharge your batteries and clear your mind. Read a good book or getaway for the weekend. Get some exercise to give you more energy - and improve your health and mind. Take classes or seminars on a topic you are interested in. Recharging your batteries will result in benefits not only during your job search - but also for the longer term on a personal level.

7. Stay Motivated & Optimistic. Job searching is challenging and its easy to slack off and get de-motivated when things are tough. Staying motivated requires determination and conscious effort. Start each day on a upbeat tempo by doing something that puts in a good mood. Listen to your favorite music, enjoy a good cup of coffee, or go for a morning walk or jog. Then have a schedule that you stick to. A schedule will help you from being bored or feeling lost. However, remember not to make busy work. A schedule will also help you focus and be more productive.

8. Be persistent, take action. Dont wait for things to happen - make them happen! Take charge and accept responsibility for your job search. You are the key driver in your job search. Do not rely or family, friends, colleagues to find you a job. This is a passive waiting game. Your job search will end sooner if you are proactive.

9. Enjoy & learn from the process. This is a time for exploring new opportunities and further self-development. Reassess yourself, your goals, your core desires... Enrich yourself with new contacts and new friendships. Investigate different areas of interests which may lead you along paths you never imagined.

About The Author

Sarah Breinig is an Independent Recruiter and Job Search Coach. She is the webmistress of http://www.best-online-job-search-tools.com where youll find information, resources, tools & strategies to EMPOWER your job search.

The Super Bowl is a game but, like sports in general, it offers useful life lessons that we can take with us . . . if we only look below the surface. As I watched the game, I saw a number of things. How many did you see

1. Winning is a team effort. The teams that make it to the game don’t get there by accident. There are teams of planners and leaders who are constantly evaluating player performance and performing competitive analysis of the team and its capabilities with others. Scouts are looking to improve it. A GM looks at the draft and player cost to see where he can improve. Trainers and doctors are reviewing medicals. And then the coaches start getting involved.

You need to look at your own career in the same way in advance of when you need to make a job change. What is the market like for what you do Do you excel, are you ordinary or below average What can I do to upgrade my skills before management starts looking for lower cost alternatives What is my real value and understand that is a changing figure both up AND down

2. It is important to network to develop close and effective relationships with other professionals in your field. When management starts looking to hire new players, they are working with player agents who they often know from other negotiations. Doesn’t that make the process smoother for everyone

3. Attack your search like your life depends on it. Teams often come out attacking their opponent on both offense and defense. You need to attack your search with ferocity and not casually.

4. If your plan isn’t working, make adjustments. Both teams enter the locker room with concrete feedback about their plan and how it’s working or not working. If your plan isn’t working as well as you like, change it using the feedback you’re getting, just like the pros do. Analyze what is working and what isn’t and adapt.

5. Keep a level head about you. It’s one thing to play with a lot of emotion on the field, but it’s hard to sustain for 60 minutes. Both the Eagles and Patriots came out with aggressive blitzes early in the game and attacking offenses before settling into a rhythm. In job searching, you may start off the search with a lot of fervor, but you need to remember that a search can take a long while. You need to manage your emotions for a 60 minute game and not just the first quarter.

6. Try not to be predictable. A football team that runs the same plays in the same sequence or under the same circumstances becomes predictable and other teams learn what they will do and will out perform them

7. Big mistakes can be critical. It’s one thing to be defeated on a play or a series. It’s another to make a bad call and be left exposed to a big play at a critical time like the Patriots did letting the Eagles back in the game with a 30 yard touchdown late in the game. When you get to the end of the search, it is best to have an agent negotiate for you, rather than leave you exposed to your own emotional whipsawing; if you arent being represented by one, try to get input from trusted advisors with real knowledge not your uncle who knows nothing about your industry but has good intentions.

8. Planning starts as soon as the game is over. As soon as the teams walked off the field, I can assure you that both will be planning for change for the next season and will take steps to rectify perceived weaknesses. What that means for you is that you continue your career development, training and networking even when you’ve just started a job. After all, the time when you have the most leverage in a negotiation is when you don’t need a new job.

If you have other suggestions, email them to me at nymtj@optonline.net and we’ll forward them to him.

Jeff Altman Concepts in Staffing jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2005 all rights reserved.

For other articles by Jeff Altman, go to www.newyorkmetrotechnologyjobs.com; for help with hiring staff, email Jeff and let him know how to best reach you.

About The Author

Jeff Altman has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is also co-founder of Your Next Job, a networking group focused on assisting technology professionals with their job search, a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist. For additional job hunting or hiring tips, go to http://www.newyorkmetrotechnologyjobs.com

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume.

nymtj@optonline.net

If youre currently in the job market, heres the little known secret to tapping into the most lucrative, yet hidden jobs available.

Even in this economy, there are still millions of great jobs out there. Its just that many of the best ones never make their way to the classifieds. Instead, theyre taken by people who know about them before theyre ever advertised. Imagine how great it would be if you had thousands of friends whod always tell you about unadvertised jobs that youre perfect for.

As they say, its not what you know its who you know. The secret to getting the unadvertised jobs is to make friends out of really good recruiters. And not just a few, but LOTS of them. Heres why, and how you do it:

Recruiters, otherwise known as headhunters or search consultants, are hired by companies to find candidates to fill open positions. These jobs are often never advertised. But the secret of how to best use recruiters is to first realize that contrary to popular belief they dont work for you. This is an important fact that most job seekers dont understand. The key to maximizing recruiters is to understand the following: Recruiters dont find jobs for people -- they find people for jobs. Its an important distinction to understand if you want to get a job through a recruiter.

In todays job market most companies are seeking employees who are currently working. These are termed passive candidates because they are not actively seeking employment. So the paradox comes in, how do seem to look passive but make sure the recruiters who are searching for people to fill a job contact you

So to get the hidden jobs, you have to realize its a numbers game and you must play it well by getting your resume to as many recruiters as you can, that specialize in people with your skills, in your field and in your geographic area.

You can search the internet and find various lists of executive recruiters. However, theyre not well organized, complete or easy to find. But most importantly they may not service the industry you are seeking a job in. Remember recruiters are seeking to fill a specific job in a specific industry.

The power of the internet can now be put to working and quickly get your passive resume into the hands of thousands of industry specific recruiters. www.SkillCaster.com can distribute those resumes quickly for you and save you all the time consuming research of find industry specific recruiters.

The SkillCaster recruiter network is filled with pre-screened and talented recruiters that have connections to tons of unadvertised jobs. Your resume is instantly emailed to 1000s of recruiters in your selected areas, specializing in your selected skill sets and your resume. This is a very effective yet little known way to quickly gain access to the unadvertised jobs. To check out SkillCaster, go to this link.

While some recruiters may not have something for you today, if their clients regularly look for people with your skills, they will add you to their database. Thats a good thing. The first place a recruiter looks when a client comes to them with a job to fill, is their own personal candidate database. Its never too late or too early to start networking with recruiters who specialize in people like you.

About The Author

Stephen Spain

MEPatWORK dba HVAC Solutions 6200 Aurora Drive, Suite 405E Des Moines, IA 50322 Phone: 888-482-2562 Fax: 515-278-6025 mepatwork.com sspain@mepatwork.com

Deciding to leave a job isn’t easy. In fact, quitting a job requires courage, especially in today’s soft economy when the unemployment rate has reached 6.4%. However, in a tight job market, some people consider leaving their jobs without having another “lined up”.

When after a careful evaluation of emotional and financial considerations you determine that leaving your job is your best option, you may find that you will have a hard time getting support from your family, friends and colleagues. The moment you tell others that you are considering leaving your job, their immediate reaction will be, “Don’t leave your job if you don’t have another to go to.”

Yes. The ideal situation is to leave a job when you have a perfect career opportunity. But life doesn’t always hand you a magic bullet. Sometimes you have to take a risk, and that’s when conventional wisdom must be put aside to improve the prospects for your career.

Your decision to leave should be based on the expectation that better opportunities await you. You may be ready to move on when:

The organization’s culture has shifted, and no longer matches your work values.

You have outgrown your position, and the only way you will get promoted is if someone leaves.

The price of staying e.g., increased anxiety and loss of self-esteem is greater than the price of leaving.

You no longer care about the company, and it is reflected in the way you perform your job.

Your career goals have evolved, and you are ready to pursue new opportunities.

Once you have made the decision to resign, plan for the following:

Write a letter of resignation. Keep the letter short and to the point. The letter should mention two key points 1 the date of your last day of work and 2 a thank you to your immediate superior for having provided you with the opportunity to work for the organization.

Prepare for an exit interview. This is not an opportunity for you to provide a laundry list of pet peeves. Instead, use this time to offer objective and constructive feedback.

Possible exit interview questions include: What were the factors that contributed to your accepting a job with our Company Were your expectations realized Has that changed What constructive comments do you have for management with regard to making this a better place to work Why are you leaving What would have kept you here What do you expect to find somewhere else

Go the extra step. Ask your manager what you can do to make the transition easier and, if possible, offer to train your successor.

Extended yourself. Be available for a certain time after your last day to answer any questions your employer may have.

Most important of all, do not burn your bridges. Keep your resignation professional and brief.

About The Author

Recognized as a career expert, Linda Matias brings a wealth of experience to the career services field. She has been sought out for her knowledge of the employment market, outplacement, job search strategies, interview preparation, and resume writing, quoted a number of times in The Wall Street Journal, New York Newsday, Newsweek, and HR-esource.com. She is President of CareerStrides and the National Resume Writers’ Association. Visit her website at www.careerstrides.com or email her at careerstrides@bigfoot.com.

At the end of the third job interview, Helene was told by the hiring manager, “Congratulations, I am going to recommend you for the position. Expect a call from HR.” Helene breathed a sigh of relief because her job search of six months was finally over.

Helene went straight home and waited by the phone all day. The phone never rang.

As the week drew to a close, Helene began to get nervous. She hadn’t heard from HR. She wondered what had happened. She convinced herself that everything was fine, that the HR department must have been swamped. She wasn’t exactly sure what would be more important than calling and welcoming her onboard, but she knew the HR department had a good reason. After all, Helene was the most qualified candidate; the hiring manager told her so.

Days went by and still Helene heard nothing. Confused by the situation, she anxiously glanced through the Sunday morning classifieds wondering what had gone wrong.

Unfortunately, this happens to many jobseekers. They are offered the position by the interviewer and they never hear from HR or it takes months before a firm offer is made.

But there are steps that you can take as a jobseeker to minimize your risk of being strung along by an employer.

An easy and often neglected step is to find out what comes next after each interview. Establishing the next step gives you some control over the hiring process, and helps avoid the guessing game. Make it a point to leave each interview with a clear understanding of what you are supposed to do and what the hiring manager is supposed to do.

E-mail, fax, or snail mail a follow-up letter thanking the interviewer for the job offer and that you are looking forward to hearing from the HR department. Sending a note stresses to the interviewer what you heard and if there was any confusion on your part, compels the interviewer to contact you and address the misunderstanding.

If you havent heard from the employer in a timely fashion, call to reiterate your interest in the position. Here’s an example of an effective follow-up call: "Thank you for your time and for a very informative interview last week. Based on our last discussion, you are seeking an Executive Assistant who can effectively serve as a corporate liaison, manage administrative affairs, and support organizational goals. After a series of interviews, you were enthusiastically going to recommend me for the position but I have yet to hear from the Human Resources department. The Widget Corporation is my #1 choice and I am very interested in joining your team. Unfortunately, I will be forced to consider other options if I don’t receive an offer in writing by Friday at noon."

By providing a timeline you create a sense of urgency and put the employer on notice that you are in demand. This may encourage them to move the process along. But only use this tactic if you really do have other options because setting a deadline that an employer is unable to meet could get you dropped from consideration.

Although I recommend that you follow-up with a phone call, don’t become a nuisance and call everyday. If you reach out to an employer several times without receiving a courtesy response, stop calling and move on.

As frustrating as it may be, you must always remain professional. Keep in mind that, until you are officially hired, every conversation you have with the employer is part of the interview process.

In conclusion, realize that a definite maybe does not qualify as a firm job offer. Therefore continue job searching until you receive an official offer. If an employer is interested in you, they will respect your time, return your phone calls, and make a concerted effort to keep you updated.

Don’t waste your time waiting by the phone. You deserve more than that.

About The Author

Recognized as a career expert, Linda Matias brings a wealth of experience to the career services field. She has been sought out for her knowledge of the employment market, outplacement, job search strategies, interview preparation, and resume writing, quoted a number of times in The Wall Street Journal, New York Newsday, Newsweek, and HR-esource.com. She is President of CareerStrides and the National Resume Writers’ Association. Visit her website at www.careerstrides.com or email her at careerstrides@bigfoot.com.

One of the responsibilities of a human resources professional is to let employees know that their job has been eliminated. It is seldom easy to do and often painful for the person who is hearing the news.

Just recently, I was involved in communicating a large layoff to employees at a Fortune 500 company. I sat with one woman after she had heard the news to tell her about the career transition services she could take advantage of. The woman was in shock and not ready to hear about transition services for her self. She said out loud several times, “How am I going to tell my kids this”

When I asked her why she would not want to tell her kids, she said that her teenage son had been having a hard year in school and she did not want to upset him. She asked my advice.

Recently, my mother-in-law died. Losing a loved one and losing a job have similarities. Both involve losing something you love. Both involve change. I thought back to how my husband and I told our children that their grandmother had died. I remembered that we told them the truth, answered their questions and assured them that we would stay a strong family.

If you lose your job, here are some pointers for how to tell your children.

First, take care of you. Take stock of the talents you have to offer another employer. Take stock of the good things you have in your life.

If you have a “significant other” in your life, tell your partner before you tell your children.

Together, tell the kids. Use simple language and short sentences. Tell the truth. “I want to tell you some news. Today, my job was eliminated. The company eliminated many jobs, including mine, because they needed to save money.”

Anticipate your children’s concerns. Assure your children that they will be okay. “I am going to look for another job. Our family will be okay.”

If you are worried about how you will survive financially, figure out how you can cut costs until you find another job.

Include your children in cutting costs but let them know it will be temporary. If your child asks you to buy him or her something and you need to wait until your finances are in better shape, say, “We can buy this for you once I find another job, okay”

Let your children how you are feeling but also assure them that you will be okay. “I am upset that this happened but it has happened to many other people who have gone on and found other jobs. I will be fine.”

Answer their questions honestly and simply.

Allow your children to talk to their friends about this. Allow them to confide in others.

Hug them.

Finally, realize that your children will be closely watching how you handle this challenge in your life. When they see you bounce back from a setback, it will give them confidence to do the same in their lives.

I told the woman I was counseling to tell her son the truth. To tell him how she was feeling. To tell him that she would be okay. To tell him that he would be okay. And to tell him that she loves him.

About The Author

Judith Lindenberger has more than 15 years experience in human resources consulting and is recognized for her innovation and excellence. The Lindenberger Group, LLC supports in-house HR operations by helping you hire, assess, develop and retain the most talented employees quickly, successfully and cost-effectively. We also work with individuals to help you navigate your career. Visit our website at www.lindenbergergroup.com to learn why more individuals and employers are choosing us. Call us at 609.730.1049 or email us at info@lindenbergergroup.com. info@lindenbergergroup.com

1. Begin focusing on what you want instead of how much you want to escape. When you find yourself sharing the latest horror story, stop in mid-sentence and say, "What I want to have is..."

2. Create an image that describes you in your job. Are you on a riverbank with no way to get to the other side Lost in a jungle Poking through a thorny hedge When you get comfortable with the image, begin visualizing a change in the obstacle. Imagine building a bridge across the river or finding a path in the forest. Dont force the image or the change. When youre ready it will come.

3. Think of developing skills, not serving time. Take every course thats offered and focus on skills that can lay a foundation for your own business or next job. Can you learn HTML or PowerPoint Can you use some evenings, weekends and lunch hours to solicit some free lance gigs

4. Focus on satisfactory, not superior performance. Use the time difference to build your new life. People often say, "I cant do anything -- I work ten hours a day!" If you are firing yourself or expecting to be fired, your job is finding a new job. Be ethical: you owe your company the minimum you need to earn your salary." But dont be surprised if you start to accomplish more than ever and find yourself getting promoted.

5. What conflict are you escaping Dishonesty Corporate greed Hypocrisy Allow yourself to wonder if these qualities are mirrored in your own life -- or even in your mind. If everyone around you seems dishonest, are you being dishonest with yourself With others After you resolve your own conflict, you may find the workplace has changed or you have been catapulted into a new, more satisfying life.

6. Put on your shield and armor when you enter your workplace. Everyone should learn how to create a psychic shield. Imagine that you are surrounded by an outer shell that is made of a solid material -- so strong that nothing can get through to hurt you. Some people prefer to imagine a protective golden light, but I think the solid shield is stronger. Take two or three minutes to put on your shield, every day, before you enter the workplace.

7. Give yourself a gift every day -- a splurge of time or sensual taste buds. Read a book, talk to a friend, eat your favorite food. Dont deaden your senses with alcohol although if youre a wine connoisseur, your special wine can be a gift or spend big bucks at the mall. Think simple.

8. Find at least one thing in your life to appreciate: the softness of your cats fur, the winter sky, the spontaneous hug from a friend. Appreciate as much as possible about your job: the money, the view from the window, the new computer, friendly conversations with the guy down the hall. Savor the experience. Appreciation is the engine that attracts good things into your life.

9. Tune in to your intuition before deciding what to do next. Meditate and listen to the world around you. The saying "frying pan into the fire" is real. If your goals and desires do not come from a secure place within yourself, you will find yourself paying undue attention to wet blankets "If you quit youll never get another job" and false friends "Just quit! Move to Tahiti! You wont starve!". Sometimes the same "advisor" proposes both ideas in the same week. A good coach or counselor will give you confidence in your own intuition, not impose their views of what you should do now.

10. Write this down somewhere: After youve left -- and you will -- all that time will seem to have gone in the blink of an eye. You will have trouble remembering what bothered you so much. The rest of your life will still be ahead of you.

About The Author

Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D., coaches results-oriented midcareer professionals who want to develop uncommon business and career strategies as they move to their next goal. See http://www.cathygoodwin.com. cathy@cathygoodwin.com

Believe it: three obstacles will hold you back from your ideal job -- your résumé, you, and your job-search methods. There’s no hidden formula; there’s no bribery needed; there’s no one standing in front of employment — other than YOU!

You’ve probably heard all the excuses, or used them yourself. The job market is bad; technical jobs are going overseas; those thousands of manufacturing employees had to go somewhere … of course, these excuses are only the tip of the iceberg.

Look at the job market as challenging. Who doesn’t love a good challenge The current state of the market means that you must job search smarter. Do you have something against learning We are always overcoming obstacles in our personal and professional lives, so why should today be any different.

You’re also probably thinking, “Well there are no jobs, so why bother.” Rubbish! The service industry specifically small business is driving the employment industry with record job increases for the last several months. Maybe you meant to think, “There are no jobs in my field.” Honestly, rethink that excuse as well. There are jobs; you haven’t found them but your competitors probably have. Jobs aren’t spewing out of cracker-jack boxes or being announced by executives holding signs on a street corner. The jobs that are worth having require effort.

What’s wrong with my résumé

There may be nothing wrong with your résumé, but how do you know Who’s been your résumé expert: you, family members, or friends Everyone has a specific expertise so don’t be afraid to solicit the help of a professional. The career industry is now represented by career coaches, interview trainers, and résumé writers. Just as you’re an expert in your field, you should recognize that there is someone to assist with whatever career obstacle you face — whether it’s your résumé, cover letter, or some other dated job-search technique you’re utilizing.

What’s wrong with my job-search techniques

There may be nothing wrong with your job-search techniques, but how do you know Are you experiencing a bit of déjavu If your résumé and job-search techniques are tanking, you need to regroup and try new strategies. Job searching is not a science, hence the reason there are countless books and articles written on the topic. The strategies used by one software engineer may not work, or may work faster, for another. You should understand that there are variables to each job seeker, such as target location, length of experience, lack of or too much education, and so on. You must devise job-search techniques that work for you.

What’s wrong with my cover letter

There are so many unprofessional, unfocused, and canned cover letters floating around the job-seeking population that it’s no surprise that they’re barely read. Who wants to spend valuable time reading a cover letter that sounds like it was written for the company next door How many times have you inserted the person’s name within your content somewhere or written company-specific sentences that focused on the problems the company was facing that you intend to resolve, a new contract that was landed, or maybe a recent merger Write your cover letters using a conversational language that sounds like it has been written for one recipient.

What about my interviewing skills

Have you ever heard, “if I can only get to the interview” Really! Think of your job search as a chain of events. The cover letter represents the résumé. The résumé represents you. The interview is a follow up to the résumé doing its job. To obtain an interview, the résumé and cover letter must first serve the purpose each was designed to do. Good or bad, a résumé will eventually draw attention, but what if you are caught with mediocre interviewing skills that throw your résumé and cover letter efforts out the window The entire process is a chain that cannot be broken. Any break can cause less than favorable results. I challenge you to sit down right now and make a list of 10 interviewing questions. To make things interesting, devise thorough and results-focused answers to each of these questions within the next 20-30 minutes. Can’t do it If you can’t on your own time, then you’re not going to be able when under pressure and under examination.

Excuses are a dime a dozen — and if you look for them during failure, you’re going to continuously be put in a position to fail. They’re equivalent to that little voice that puts doubt and “what ifs” in your head. They’re not productive, they’re not valuable, and they’re certainly not positive. The next time you’re asked, “What’s holding you back” You can answer, “ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!” Go get ‘em!

About The Author

Written by Teena Rose of Résumé to Referral http://www.resumebycprw.com/ Teena Rose is a certified and published resume writer with Resume to Referral and author to "Résumé Designs & Job-search Strategies for College Grads" published by CareerEpublications.com.

HR Lady stared at me across the desk. She was trying to size me up, to understand what makes me tick. I had explained that I wanted to work for MegaCorp, and that I was the perfect person to fill a position that had not even been advertised.

"Tell me again why you want to be the official MegaCorp scapegoat," she demanded.

I thought I had explained it well enough. Every company needs a scapegoat, someone that others can bring forward when the heat gets hot.

When the Board of Directors grumbles because all the graphs look upside down, the President can call ScapeGoat into the room. Gentlemen, I have identified our problem. It is all ScapeGoats fault. He reversed the gravitational equilibrium, and the graphs are no longer able to forge their customary ant-gravitational upward paths.

The Board of Directors gets a lot less grouchy and they are able to enjoy their six course luncheon. That solves the problem of the upside down graphs. At least for another month.

When angry shareholders notice that their graphs are also upside down, the President can call ScapeGoat into the room once more. It is all ScapeGoats fault. It is all ScapeGoats fault. He reversed the gravitational equilibrium again, and nobodys graph can forge its customary ant-gravitational upward path.

That solves the problem of the upside down graphs for everyone except ScapeGoats disability insurance provider.

When employees want to know why there is no bonus in their envelopes, the President can launch a full investigation. "We will find where ScapeGoat hid your bonus checks, if its the last thing we ever do!" And the investigation will last long enough that it WILL be the last thing he ever does.

When creditors come calling... Its ScapeGoats fault.

When the media wants to know why there are no women on the Board ... Its ScapeGoats fault.

When the fish in the creek all float like the graphs upside down... Its ScapeGoats fault.

When the wind blows too strong on company property and knocks over a soda can, spilling an employees drink and making him very thirsty... Its ScapeGoats fault.

MegaCorp needs a scapegoat.

HR Lady asked another question. "What have you been doing these past thirty years."

The fact is that I had been freelancing. There are lots of people who need scapegoats. Drivers, for instance:

"What! My brand new car!"

"ScapeGoat crashed it."

"But...but, theres hardly anything left of it!"

"ScapeGoat is very thorough."

Parents need scapegoats, too.

"Wheres little Cindy Didnt you pick her up from the babysitter again"

"Oops. Uh, I forgot. ScapeGoat distracted me."

"I hope you dont plan to get distracted tomorrow. If this keeps up, Ill forget what she looks like."

HR Lady seemed amused. "If you were doing so well as a freelancer, why are you applying for a job here"

I had to admit that freelancing was getting tough. Too many people were losing faith.

"ScapeGoat distracted you again! That makes, uh...let me see, 6,342 days in a row. Little Cindy isnt that little anymore. Just who is this ScapeGoat person anyway, the Tooth Fairy"

HR Lady laid her hands on her desk. "MegaCorp has always done quite well without a professional scapegoat. When we need somebody to blame, we can always find someone to play the role."

She was not cluing in. I was offering MegaCorp the chance to use a professional scapegoat, instead of constantly relying on amateurs, some of whom were not even willing players.

I looked HR Lady straight in the eye. "What will you tell your boss when he finds out that HumongaCorp has a professional scapegoat, and you passed up the chance to hire one, too Who will you point the finger at then, an amateur"

About The Author

David Leonhardt writes the Happy Guy humor column: http://www.thehappyguy.com/positive-thinking-free-ezine.html Read past columns at: http://www.thehappyguy.com/humor-articles.html . He also wrote Inspiration & Motivation To Go http://www.thehappyguy.com/l/daily-motivation-inspiration.php and Climb Your Stairway to Heaven: the 9 habits of maximum happiness: http://www.thehappyguy.com/happiness-self-help-book.html Info@thehappyguy.com

Many people, under financial or other pressures to find work quickly, feel they can’t afford to take the time to get organized. On the other hand, conducting your job search in an organized manner will reduce the amount of time you spend looking for information, following inappropriate leads, or waiting for your dream job to fall into your lap. It generally takes at least a month to find an entry-level job, and as much as nine months for one requiring a high level of skill and experience. Getting organized before you begin your job search can ultimately save you a lot of time and frustration.

You should take several preliminary steps before you even begin your active job search. You should start by identifying your skills, interests, target market, and any child care, transportation, or other issues that you will need to keep in mind. A career or employment counselor can be very helpful in this area, as well as with the preparation of your resume, cover letters, and any other job search materials you will need.

Once you’re ready to face the job market, there are three areas where you’ll find it beneficial to be well organized: your schedule, your workspace, and your contacts.

Your Schedule

First, you must decide how much time you can realistically commit to your job search on a weekly basis, and then create a weekly schedule of activities. Keep in mind that looking for a full-time job is in itself a full-time job! Some of your time will be devoted to reading and applying for advertised positions, but be sure to allow plenty of time for other job search activities such as making telephone calls, generating and researching new leads, reviewing old leads for follow up, writing thank you notes or other correspondence, and visiting placement offices, employment agencies, or other service providers. The percentage of time you dedicate to each activity depends on what is most effective for your field of work or geographical area, so it may be worthwhile for you to ask others what has worked for them.

Most people perform different activities more effectively at different times of day. Take your natural energy flow, as well as the availability of quiet time for conducting research and telephone calls, into consideration when planning your schedule. If quiet time is not available at home during the daytime or evening, an employment resource center can be an invaluable resource.

Keep your personal preferences in mind when planning your activities. For example, if you dislike talking on the telephone, it may be less stressful for you to get your calls out of the way before beginning your other activities, or to intersperse your phone calls between other activities so you don’t become overwhelmed. If you’re planning to drop off unsolicited resumes, map out a route of targeted businesses that are in a particular area, and plan to cover the entire area in one day. This will cut down on your travel time and expenses as well as the number of times you need to dress up.

Keeping a log of the actual time you spend on each activity will allow you to see whether you are on track and to identify any problem areas. It’s not uncommon to become frustrated and depressed when you’re out of work, so be sure to schedule regular time for self-care and other personal activities like going to the gym or the hairstylist.

Your Workspace

At a minimum, you need a chair and a desk or table with plenty of space for you to work with your information, make and receive telephone calls, and plan your job search. All necessary supplies should be stored close by, including paper, pens, index cards, paperclips, staples, and your telephone directory. During your job search, you’ll likely accumulate various versions of your resume and cover letter, job postings, company profiles, advertisements, and business cards, but they will be of no value to you if you can’t find what you need. A binder or filing system, sorting the information into topics, will allow you to refer quickly to both the job posting and that specific application when you receive a telephone call from a prospective employer. It will also allow you to find easily any other information you may have gathered about the organization before your interview.

You may find it beneficial to have an alternate “job search office” such as your local library or employment centre, where you can research, read, and write without the distractions you may encounter at home. Many are equipped with computers that you can use for Internet job search as well as resume and cover letter preparation, which can be a great benefit if you don’t have a home computer or must share it with other family members. If you plan to use this type of service on a regular basis, you’ll need some type of portfolio or briefcase to hold your job search material, including your resume in printed form and on a diskette, your calendar, and a notebook for jotting down leads and ideas. Most facilities do not allow you to receive telephone calls, so be sure that potential employers can reach you by voice mail, pager or cell phone.

Of course, you’ll need a calendar for marking down job interviews and other important meetings. You’ll also need a system for keeping track of your job applications. This information may be needed to confirm your eligibility for unemployment insurance or social assistance, and will help you to follow up on your applications.

Your Contacts

During your job search, you will probably communicate with hundreds, if not thousands, of people, but in order to make effective use of the network you develop, you’ll need a way to keep track of all your contacts.

The simplest method is a card file system, with a card for each contact. Each card should include the contact’s name, title, organization, address, telephone number, fax, and email address, the source of the lead, and dates and details of any conversations, correspondence, or interviews. You may find it helpful to set up a “recipe box” with a set of dividers labeled with the days of the week and a set numbered 1-31 for the days of the month. You can file each card under the date you wish to contact that person. For example, you may speak with someone on the 10th who suggests that you call him or her in two weeks. After noting the information on the index card, file it in the section for the 25th where it will serve as a reminder for you to follow up.

There are wonderful software programs available that can help you with organizing your job search contacts. WinWay Resume, for example, has a section for storing contact information that you can merge with your cover letter. ACT! allows you to schedule tasks and reminders as well as perform mail merges. If you don’t wish to buy or learn a new software package, email address books in Outlook, Outlook Express or in free Web-based email packages are also an excellent way to keep track of your contacts. However, unless you have unrestricted access to a computer, or a portable system such as a Palm Pilot, you won’t be always able to access the information. The key features of any organizational system are ease of recording and ease of retrieval. If using an electronic system will make your job search more complicated and time-consuming, don’t use it.

Job searching can be overwhelming, but when you organize your schedule, workspace, and contacts effectively, you’ll be able to stay on track and find your new job more quickly.

About The Author

Janet Barclay, Organized Assistant, is a Professional Organizer and Virtual Assistant with a background in employment services. For more information visit www.organizedassistant.com. info@organizedassistant.com

The question confronting most people who want to find a job is "whats a good paying job with growth potential"

At one time, the Conestoga wagon building trade boomed as people joined the wagon trains heading west.

Today, the boom is long gone and those wanting to find a job with a future will most likely wish to stay away from such a field.

So how can you find a job that will reasonably be expected to thrive in the future either in your home state or the state in which you choose to reside

One key is through using Labor Market Information to research potential jobs as you create a long term plan to find the job you feel is ideal for your skills and interests.

Your first step to find a job with potential is to use the free service available at "Americas Career InfoNet" a website sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor.

To find a job with growth potential in your state, visit this state by state database. This opens in a new window so you will not lose the instructions on how to find a job with potential on this page when you click the link!

After youve searched for a particular state - well use Alabama as an example - heres what youll find...

1 Basic demographic information under these headings:

Again, these are for Alabama. Demographic Information:

2001 Population 4,468,900

2002 Labor Force 2,102,800

2002 Unemployment Rate 5.9%

2002 Median Household Income $37,600

2001 Per Capita Income $24,500

Youll be able to see how the state ranks nationally and youll be able to check unemployment rates by county just to know what youre up against in your job search for a particular county!

2 The next step to find a job in a growing occupation is to choose the kind of growth occupation you have in mind.

Your options will be...

Fastest growing occupations

Occupations with the most openings

Occupations with the largest employment

Occupations with declining employment

Highest paying occupations

At this point in your career search youll also be asked to choose the level of education youre willing to achieve to enhance your income. The options listed are... Overall

Requiring only work experience or on-the-job training

Requiring post-secondary training or an associates degree

Requiring a bachelors degree or higher

Click the appropriate button to make your selections and then you can hit "search" to find a job with growth potential.

In this case well select "Fastest growth" and "overall" educational requirements.

When you search to find a job with these criteria, youll receive results based on the fastest growth in sheer number of jobs and youll receive listings that may require no education beyond high school up to jobs requiring a two year community college or vocational school training program or 4 year bachelors degree.

What do you see when you do the job information search

You see the first 25 of for Alabama 513 fastest growing jobs as determined by the number of jobs that will be available between 2000 and 2010.

As might be expected the job with the highest growth prospects for Alabama is computer software engineering and applications.

By clicking on the job itself you find the "Occupation Report" for that state.

Youll learn a wealth of information about this particular job and be able to watch an online job video showing you just what a particular job involves.

Since you want to find a job with good income potential, youll see - on average - the kind of money people in this job make in the particular state and nationwide based on government labor market information.

Now lets try to find a job thats in the "Highest Paying" category but only requiring a 2 year training program at the most.

What jobs come up Hint: Theyll be listed by the highest pay expressed when possible as an HOURLY wage and then an ANNUAL WAGE for the job you find in Hourly/Annual format.

For Alabama the answer may vary for your state the Top 10 are:

1 Commercial Pilots N/A /$59,100

2 Computer Specialists, All Other $24.52/$51,000

3 Electrical and Electronics Repairers, Powerhouse, Substation, and Relay $23.59/$49,100

4 Radiation Therapists $22.67/$47,200

5 Electrical and Electronics Drafters $22.02/$45,800

6 Aerospace Engineering and Operations Technicians $21.98/$45,700

7 Electrical and Electronic Engineering Technicians $21.71/$45,200

8 Appraisers and Assessors of Real Estate $21.16/$44,000

9 Ship Engineers $21.13/$44,000

10 Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installers $20.79/$43,200

Again, you can click on the job titles you find and go directly to an occupational report.

By using Labor Market Information, you can find a job with high growth potential, high wages, and usually a training requirement that involves only 2 years of training or less beyond high school.

Remember, you do not necessarily need a traditional 4 year degree to find a job with high growth potential. You DO need specific skills however not more "underwater basket weaving courses" at college that are unrelated to a specific field.

4 year degrees are nice and even graduate degrees are important to find a job in some fields. But increasingly, 2 year specialized programs are dominating the field as far as improving wages.

About The Author

Chuck Huckaby is the webmaster for http://1stHowToWorkAtHome.com and http://LayOffNews.com to help people take control of their career and not be victimized by the dramatic changes occuring in the U.S. Economy!

In 1996 I was employed as maintenance supervisor at an olive cannery in the heart of California’s fertile San Joaquin valley. We were restarting the cannery after an extended shutdown while the cannery changed owners. This was my first opportunity to work in the food industry and a cannery. There were issues for me to learn and learn fast. The new harvest season’s olives were due to start arriving just four weeks after I was hired.

Only four of the previous maintenance personnel were available to be rehired, so things were looking a little bleak at times. None of the new mechanics or electricians had food industry experience, either. In addition, there were almost no blueprints or wiring diagrams for the entire cannery or processing plant.

However, on the scheduled startup day, everything ran. Our two main lines used Angelus 60L Seamers with a maximum output capability of 600 cans per minute. That figures out to ten cans per second. That’s faster than I can count. The Seamers seal the end cap onto the cans. Due to space limitations, new, spiral elevators had been designed and added by the previous owners. The elevators and controls had been wired up but they never ran prior to shutdown.

We started up slow, but problems immediately surfaced. The discharge line from the spiral elevator to the cooker was a plastic cable line. Cans could tip over and jam. When the can jam-up backed cans into the discharge from the spiral elevator and then round and round the elevator. It took a considerable effort and time to remove the jammed cans from the elevator.

A photoelectric sensor with a reflective lens was installed on the discharge cable line about six inches from the can entry to the discharge cable line. This sensor was designed and connected to stop the seamer and elevator when a jam-up occurred. The sensor had to see an opening between the cans, operate on/off, or it would shut down the elevator.

It turned out that the photoelectric sensor could only be adjusted to stay on all the time or off all the time when the cans were going by at any higher rate than Jog speed on the Seamer. We adjusted and adjusted the sensors. The sensors were replaced with new sensors. It did no good. The lines were stopped while we traced all the control and power wiring so we could try to determine if there was a problem in the wiring.

When I looked around, the Plant Manager, accompanied by the company President, Vice President and the Financial Controller were standing to the side watching me. All four of them had their arms crossed and unreadable expressions on their faces. I knew I was in trouble and had to get on top of this problem in a hurry.

Finally, I determined that the previous engineer had ordered an incorrect application for the original photoelectric sensors. I looked up the specifications for the installed sensors and found that their response time was not fast enough to “see” the cans as they went by. I looked in an Allen-Bradley sensor book for a photoelectric sensor with a fast response time, able to withstand the harsh environment of a cannery steam and water, and would continue operation even when subjected to lots of vibration.

The photoelectric sensor I decided on was the Allen-Bradley Series 4000B Bulletin 42RL. This sensor has a response time of 5 milliseconds. That time was faster than our requirements. The case of the sensor is designed for harsh environments and kept the steam and wash-down water from entering the delicate, control circuitry area of the sensor. The vibrations from the elevator and the cable line had no effect on the solid state wiring of the sensor.

After installation, the sensor was connected and pre-adjusted for the can stream. The sensor kept the cable line and elevator running and was “seeing” the individual cans. We physically simulated a jam-up of cans on the cable line. When the cans backed up to the sensor, the sensor operated and shut down the spiral elevator and opened the clutch on the seamer, stopping line production.

There remained only some fine tuning of the sensor as we ramped up to top speed of between 550 and 570 cans per minute. Again, we had a “command” audience of the top company officers for our startup. When the lines started and continued running or stopped on a can backup with no corresponding elevator jam, there were smiles all around. My job was safe.

Most of the can jams on the cable line were reduced to acceptable levels by the work of the Cookroom Manager and his Seamer Operators/Mechanics. They reworked the can drops and built-in several can cutouts. The can cutouts are places where a can lying on its side will be ejected from the cable line, thereby eliminating an almost certain jam in a can drop or at the Cooker entrance. By reworking the can drops, can jams in the drops were almost totally eliminated.

Besides the fact that I kept my job, I learned that anyone can make a mistake and, when in doubt, check the factory specifications of the equipment you are working with.

Larry Bush Larryb642003@yahoo.com www.maintenancepolicy.com

About The Author

Larry Bush has worked in various maintenance fields and industries for 47 years, including merchant marine, Navy, construction, manufacturing, food, and oil. larryb642003@yahoo.com

The Internet is a very useful tool for job seekers as it is a great source of information. Also, taking into account of a more wired world, getting online has never been easier. People can cost-effectively get Internet access in public libraries at broadband speeds. But with the fear of information overload, many job seekers do not fully utilize the many advantages of the Internet. This is never a good development.

Here are some tips for job seekers:

Viewing Corporate Websites

Before going for an interview, it is recommended to view the company’s corporate mission statement and goals. This information is readily provided in the company’s corporate website and should also be free of charge.

Industry Information

If you are interested in understanding the employment viability of a particular industry, you can use the search engine to get online information. You will be instantly directed to online newsletters normally at no charge and be able to see if you have the necessary skills to achieve career advancement.

E-learning

Many job seekers are not fully harnessing the power of e-learning to boost their skills. They give the reason that e-learning may not be fully recognized by Singapore employers as a job requirement. This view is erroneous. The attractive proposition of e-learning is that your study content is easily updated to match the relevance of your job industry. The onus is on you to choose the most relevant e-learning programme for your job-search needs. Furthermore, during your interview, you should articulate to the interviewer about how you are able to apply your knowledge from the e-learning programme to the benefit of the organization.

Online Forum

By being a member of a specific industry’s online forum, you are able to learn more about the nature and requirements of the industry. You are also able to post questions about the industry and should get a quick reply from the rest of the online members. Furthermore, if you get employed, you have a “ready-made” source of contacts and professional networks. This is vital for your career advancement.

Create Your Personal Website

The benefits of having your own personal website is obvious. It is like having an online resume that never gets out of date. You are also able to load much more information and provide relevant links for your viewers. You can also provide an online video about yourself and even feature your job referees! All this translates into job interviewers getting a better picture of how your strengths can be put to the best use in their company.

Read HR Articles

The Internet can also host HR articles that will help you in your job-search. You are able to read about job-search tips by workplace experts. There are also some HR websites that provide analyzing tips for difficult interview questions. All this means that your job search will be much easier

About The Author

This article is contributed by Colin Ong TS, Managing Director of MR=MC Consulting http://www.mrmc.com.sg colin@mrmc.com.sg

Ah, the technical interview. Nothing like it. Not only does it cause anxiety, but it causes anxiety for several different reasons.

How many people will be asking questions From experience I can tell you there’s nothing like walking into a room and seeing nine people on the other side of the table.

Second, what will you be asked You’ll sometimes hear people say the questions they were asked in a technical interview were “easy”, which translated means “they asked me stuff I happened to know”. Sometimes you’ll hear people say the questions were “hard”, which translated means “they asked me stuff I didn’t know”, or “they asked me about stuff I’ve never even heard of”.

Having been on both sides of the technical interview table, I’d like to share some tips for those being interviewed. In doing so, I’ll share some of the more memorable interviews I’ve been involved in.

No good interviewer expects you to know everything. The problem is, you’re not always going to be interviewed by someone who’s good at it.

Sometimes, the person who’s giving you a technical interview was asked to do it about ten minutes before you showed up. Maybe they’ve never interviewed anyone before, or maybe they’re just in a bad mood. I’ve heard of technical interviewers where the interviewer derided an answer, and that’s totally unprofessional. I’ve had many a job candidate give a bad answer to a question, and my only response was silence followed by moving on to the next question. If your interviewer mocks any of your answers, you didn’t want to work there anyway.

None of us know everything. If you’re asked a question you just don’t know the answer to, don’t try to BS your way past it. This is a good opportunity to tell the interviewer how you would research that particular question. It’s not about knowing everything, it’s about being able to find out anything.

If your interviewer acts like he/she already dislikes you, that’s because they do. I once worked with a technician who felt threatened by anyone who applied for a job there, but especially if the applicant had a professional certification and then had the nerve to know what they were doing.

This technician participated in a group technical interview where the applicant was an incredibly bright guy, and had a particular skill that the department really needed. Problem was, the technician considered himself “the man” when it came to that skill. Recipe for disaster, right

The applicant fielded four questions from the rest of us flawlessly, then faced this particular tech for a question. The threatened tech had a list of questions for the interview, but decided to ad lib. Big mistake. He asked a convoluted question that Rube Goldberg would have been proud of. When he was done, the applicant answered:

“You can’t do what you just described.”

The tech started defending his question, and it became obvious that he hadn’t been able to follow his own question! The interview went into a bit of a meltdown from there.

Realize right now that there are some unprofessional people out there giving technical interviews. Be prepared for it, but remain professional yourself.

Be prepared for a practical technical interview. The best technical interviewers find a way to get you in front of the technology you’ll be working with. A great way to quickly find out whether you know what you’re talking about is to ask you to actually perform common and perhaps some not-so-common tasks. We can talk about technology and take all the computer-based exams we want, but it all comes down to performance. Be prepared to prove you belong on your interview day.

Be professional. This covers a lot of ground, so let me make a quick list for you.

Show up 15 minutes early. Nothing makes a technical interviewer more surly than waiting for the applicant.

Dress for success. The way you look when you walk into a room leads to your interviewer’s first impression of you.

Don’t chew gum during the interview.

Don’t be arrogant. Look, there’s nothing wrong with having an ego and acting confident. I do, and you should. But don’t come into the interview room acting like you’re too good to be there.

Finally, relax. Easy to say, hard to do Not really. Realize that the majority of interviewers you’ll ever meet are going to be professional about the entire thing. The world’s not going to end if you miss a question. If you were not qualified on paper for the job, you wouldn’t be in there.

Do not look upon the interview as something negative. Rather, look at it as an opportunity to prove you know what you’re talking about. With the proper mental attitude, your technical interview will be a springboard to the next step in your career!

Chris Bryant CCIE ™ #12933

About The Author

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage. The Bryant Advantages website offers FREE ebooks and tutorials for the CCNA and CCNP exams, FREE subscriptions to "Cisco Certification Central", and sells the best CCNA and CCNP prep courses and books on the market today. Visit his site at www.thebryantadvantage.com today!

chris@thebryantadvantage.com

There are many issues on the minds of US voters these days, but according to national polls, the environment ranks ...um... somewhere above hemp policy and just below humane treatment for Teletubbies.

People are, of course, justly concerned about top issues such as health care, terrorism, and jobs. But the environment actually has a role to play in all of those areas. Below are some examples of how this is so.

ENVIRONMENTAL VOTING CAN MEAN BETTER HEALTH

"If you have your health, you have everything"--so goes the old cliche. We usually dont think too much about our health until we have a problem. Diseases usually creep in on us slowly. Theyre very patient, waiting until our defenses are down far enough for us to be susceptible.

The health of the environment--the quality of the air we breathe, the purity of the water we drink, the condition of the land we grow our food on--are prime factors in the health of our bodies. We protect the health of our families by reducing pollution, by encouraging better farming practices that result in more nutritious agricultural products, and by getting the toxic chemicals out of the products we use every day.

Politicians are busy jousting about who has the better plan for improving health care, but theyre mostly silent on the most basic health issue--keeping disease-causing pollutants out of the environment and out of us.

ENVIRONMENTAL VOTING CAN MEAN BETTER SAFETY

What are the terrorist targets that have the most potential for causing problems Here are three. Ports -- Were still inspecting only a fraction of the more 6 million containers arriving in US coastal cities each year. Many security experts think its just a matter of time before terrorists sneak a nuclear, chemical or biological device into one of them. By supporting the concept of "buying local," our leaders could begin reducing the traffic in our ports and thus make the problem more manageable. This would also reduce the huge level of pollution associated with product transport. Instead, our leaders pursue ever-grander "free trade" schemes that will INCREASE port security problems. Chemical Plants and Other Facilities That Use Chemicals -- A terrorist strike at a facility that manufactures or uses toxic substances could release clouds of poisonous chemicals. And were not only talking about heavy-duty chemical and industrial plants; many water-treatment facilities, for instance, still use toxic forms of chlorine for disinfection, even though safer alternatives are available. Those who currently control our federal government have been far too passive in addressing problems with high-chemical-use industries. Nuclear Power Plants -- Although most nuclear facilities are hardened against airplane strikes, many are vulnerable to direct terrorist takeover. Because there are only 103 nuclear power plants in the US and because they do get a fair degree of attention when it comes to security, this is probably the least likely of the three disaster scenarios presented here. But its still a possibility, and instead of trying to reduce the level of the vulnerability by diverting investment resources to development of wind, solar, wave, and other clean, safe forms of electricity generation, some politicians are pushing plans to build MORE nuclear power plants. Egad.

ENVIRONMENTAL VOTING CAN MEAN MORE JOBS

Mature industries do not typically create large numbers of new jobs. Industries based on oil, gas, and coal--the "business-as-usual industries" in the energy sector--are certainly not going to bolster our sagging job numbers, given that theyre caught between the twin hammers of dwindling fossil-fuel supplies and anti-pollution pressures.

But there is a good solution. According to analyses by The Apollo Alliance, embarking on an ambitious program to develop renewable energy will allow us to create three million new, high quality jobs, free ourselves from imported oil, and clean up the environment. That certainly sounds a lot better than no new jobs and lots more black smoke in the sky.

TOOLS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL VOTING

So, are you convinced that voting green also supports many of our other primary goals at the ballot box If so, the best way to decide which candidate is the most supportive of our environment is NOT to listen to what they say, but instead to look at their voting records. A good way to do that for national candidates is to review the information at Project Vote Smart http://www.vote-smart.org/, which is an independent, non-partisan organization dedicated to providing facts on the voting records of candidates for the US congress and other federal offices. They cover all issues, not just the environment.

While Project Vote Smart is an incredible resource, if your main goal is to zero in on candidates environmental records, you can do this more easily by letting the League of Conservation Voters LCV be your guide. LCVs National Environmental Scorecard http://www.lcv.org/scorecard/scorecardmain.cfm analyzes and rates candidates environmental voting records. If you want to keep it reeeaaaally simple, the Scorecard has a single percentage number for each candidate to summarize how often the candidate supported the "environmental position." The higher the number, the greener the candidate. And by the way, LCV is a non-partisan organization--they endorse donkeys, elephants, and political animals of other stripes too.

Even though the environment may not come up much in debates and TV ads, it is our air, our water, and our land. Keeping it clean is an important issue in its own right, but it plays a part in almost all other issues too. Vote green!

See Article at http://www.grinningplanet.com/vote/

© 2003 by http://www.GrinningPlanet.com

You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. Must be published complete with no changes. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.

About The Author

© 2003 by http://www.GrinningPlanet.com

Mark is a writer, financial analyst, web developer, environmentalist, and, as necessary, chef and janitor. Grinning Planet is an expression of Marks enthusiasm for all things humorous and green, as well as a psychotic desire to work himself half-to-death. Hobbies include health foods, music, getting frustrated over politics, and occasionally lecturing the TV set on how uncreative it is.

bluebuck@grinningplanet.com

I just got through reading some troubling news in the New York Times this morning.

62% of employees now say that work-related stress leaves them overwhelmed and overtired.

And for many of us, who bring work home from the office, the problem is even worse.

So what’s going on

Why are most of us so stressed

I’ll tell you what a major part of the problem is… lack of job security.

I remember as I was growing up, my father only had two jobs. He was a high school teacher for the earlier part of his life, and later on he went into the real estate profession.

Two jobs, and they spanned his entire lifetime!

And the one career change he made was something he wanted to do. He didn’t make the change because he was losing his job as a teacher. In fact, the school district wanted him to stay.

But that’s a far cry from the way things are today. In fact, the days of job stability, and working for a single employer for your entire working career are long gone.

You’ll probably change jobs at least 11 times before you retire.

Downsizing, rapid business expansion and outsourcing are terms that we’re all too familiar with.

Before I got involved in the health industry and started my own indoor air quality business back in 1996, I’d already held 5 jobs in 5 completely different industries.

I worked as a telecommunications technician in the Army, as a framer, on the green chain at 2 separate lumber mills, as a farm hand and finally as an Alaska fisherman for seven years which was the hardest and most stressful job I ever had.

Now, you may be thinking to yourself, “You must’ve been a problem employee”.

But the fact is, nothing could be further from the truth.

I was in fact a model employee for every company I worked for, and never left a single employer on bad terms.

For example…

I began working as an Alaska fisherman in 1988. My main motivation for doing this was the money. Quite honestly, that’s the only reason I took the job.

And if you’ve ever seen that movie “The Perfect Storm” or watched those shows on the discovery channel, you have an idea of what it’s like to fish in Alaska.

My own story isn’t much different and it taught me why being an Alaska Fisherman is know as “The Most Dangerous Job In The World”.

The winter of 1995 had been an especially bad winter in Alaska. Fishing boats and fishermens lives were being claimed by the Bering Sea almost weekly.

I was working on the outside deck after dark and we were in an unbelievable storm. It was the worst Id seen in my 7 years of fishing. The kind of thing you only see in the movies.

I was scared to death!

But I had my own way of dealing with my fears. Id never look out at the horizon when we were in a storm like this because I didnt want to see the big picture. I didnt want to know how high the waves really were. So Id just concentrate on my job, which was to get all the fish onto the boat. As long as I did my job, and didnt look up, I could almost convince myself that the storm wasnt that bad.

While this certainly wasn’t the best way to deal with stress, at the time, it was the only way I knew how.

As always, the captain was in the wheelhouse driving the boat. His job was to keep an eye on me and watch for the dangerous rogue waves that would come out of nowhere and slam into us broadside. Hed tell me if I was in any real danger.

And then it happened!

I heard the captains thundering voice over the intercom system.

Kevin! Hit the deck!

Before I could react, I was buried under a wall of water that hurled me all the way across the deck of the boat, face first into the railing on the other side.

When the water settled, and I realized what had happened, my immediate thought was, "Thank God Im still on the boat" The impact had knocked out my front teeth and caused serious facial damage, but at least I was still alive, and on the boat.

If that wave would have lifted me just a few inches higher, I would have been thrown right over the top of the railing into the freezing waters of the Bering Sea. And theres one thing I knew for sure. In a storm like that, theres no way in hell the captain would have got that boat turned around in time to save me. I would have died right then and there.

It was at that moment I decided my life as an Alaska Fisherman was over.

While it was a great experience, I’ve never regretted my decision to leave the fishing industry. I just didn’t want to deal with that much stress in my life.

Decades of research has linked stress to everything from heart attacks and stroke to diabetes and a weakened immune systems, and none of us want to deal with that.

I’ve since found much better ways to deal with stress, and you can too by going to www.healtharticles.org

About The Author

Kevin Thompson is a national authority on indoor air quality and health issues. His free Health Articles & News Update service gives you instant access to the worlds most respected and sought after health experts in 70 categories, including Men’s Health, Women’s Health and Children’s Health just to name a few. Find out how this free service is changing peoples lives and how you too can live a longer, healthier and more prosperous lifestyle... beginning today. Go to www.healtharticles.org. kevin@healtharticles.org

A certain educator was once asked at what point should a parent begin to prepare for child raising.

"How old are you" the educator inquired.

"Twenty-three."

"You should begin twenty-three years ago."

What is the message The single most important thing a parent can do to educate a child is to provide the child with a good role model. A parent has to work a whole lifetime becoming the type of person that he wants his child to become.

The most important people in the world in the childs eyes are his parents. They are his first and most important teachers. The behavior of a childs parents leaves a permanent impression in the childs subconscious mind. Why is this so The reason is that the most reliable source of priorities and values in a childs eyes is his parents. Children have an innate trust in their parents. They feel that everything their parents say and do is the true and proper way to behave.

We all wish our children would do what we say and not what we do. However, this is not how the mind of a child works. The intellect of a child is undeveloped. As a result, children function an emotional level, absorbing more from what they see and hear around them than from what they are taught.

What is the take home message The main thing for you to realize is that you have far more influence on your child than you probably realize. Your child is going to pattern himself after you. That is how nature set it up. Your job as a parent is to be the best role model that you can be. True, it is hard, but that is the way it is.

The following is a story I heard recently that brings out the extent to which your child learns from your actions.

A certain kindergarten teacher once warned a group of parents to be careful how they behave in front of their children.

"By the way your children play in school," she said. "I know which of you treat each other respectfully. I know which of you use foul language at home. I know everything about how you behave in your home by the way your child plays, talks, and behaves."

Remember, you might think that everything that goes on in your home behind closed doors is hidden from the world, but it is not. Your child sees everything. Your child is going to take your behavior and broadcast it to the world. Make sure that what he is transmitting is something that you want the world to see.

Anthony Kane, MD ADD ADHD Advances http://addadhdadvances.com

About The Author

Anthony Kane, MD is a physician, an international lecturer, and director of special education. He is the author of a book, numerous articles, and a number of online programs dealing with ADHD addadhdadvances.com/childyoulove.html treatment, ODD, parenting issues addadhdadvances.com/betterbehavior.html, and education. You may visit his website at http://addadhdadvances.com. To sign up for the free ADD ADHD Advances online journal send a blank email to: subscribe@addadhdadvances.comsubject=subscribeartcity akane@addadhdadvances.com

From finishing school and going on to college or university to getting married and having children, our lives are nothing but life changing moments.

Sometimes the one change that is the hardest to deal with is the change in our employment status, and one of the biggest career changes is the decision to go from being an “employee” to being your own “boss”, becoming a self-employed entrepreneur.

For those that have that overwhelming desire to be a small business owner, the entire journey to success is something that creates a sense of energy and fulfilment. The roads that are followed bring an abundance of information, continually adding to the entrepreneurial process and spirit.

Visits to local small business centers can provide a wealth of support and encouragement. There is always flyers, newsletters and experienced staff to assist you with any questions or concerns.

Another avenue that can be taken to contribute to your business’ success is becoming involved in networking groups. Most groups conduct weekly or monthly meetings, some more formal than others, which allow small business owners to share with each other their stories and experiences. It can create alliances that will benefit each business owner.

For myself, a small business owner in Southern Ontario, Canada, the road to being an entrepreneur included the participation in the SEA (Self Employment Assistance) Program sponsored by Human Resources Development Canada.

The SEA program offered, and is still offering, myself and my company a wealth of information and support. This program is available all across Canada. In Southern Ontario it is available in Brampton, Orangeville, and Toronto, as well as numerous other communities. The program consists of 10 weeks of in-class instruction which is performed by successful small business owners. The support then continues for one year with monthly networking meetings with the rest of the participants and one-on-one appointments with an instructor.

Although this program is only offered in Canada, there are similar programs offered in most other areas, whether you are in the United States or anywhere else in the world. Check your local phone book or small business magazines for more information. For myself, the decision to become self-employed was something that just felt right at the time. I had spent a number of years running my father’s lawn care company from my home. During that time, I had helped friends, family and acquaintances with everything from typing projects for them to designing their marketing material. So when the time came for my dad to retire, it just seemed natural to do what I had been doing for many years....providing word processing and desktop publishing services Then, with the increase in the use of the Internet, I learned to design websites.

So, if you are thinking of starting your own business, it is recommended that you do plenty of research. You have to see if the type of business you want to start is viable in your area. Is there a need for your product or service by the people or businesses in your community? Whether you will be looking for funding or not, you need to do a business plan. In the process of putting it together, you will have a better understanding of what you are doing and where you are going.

If you need help with certain aspects when building your business, such as promotion or putting together influential marketing material, there are many companies that specialize in taking some of the pressure off of your shoulders. Not all will be listed in the phone books yet, so you need to keep your eyes and ears open for mention of these companies.

Remember that not all small businesses are overnight successes. It takes plenty of work. Long hours with very little reward in the beginning. But, each time a new client or customer comes on board, you will feel butterflies in your stomach and a smile on your face. Use that feeling of exhilaration as your energy source and combine it with other relevant information that you acquire. Knowledge isn’t power...Action is!

About The Author

Janice Byer is a certified Master Virtual Assistant and owner of Docu-Type Administrative & Web Design Services (http://www.docutype.net). See this and other articles on her website.

jbyer@docutype.net

About the Author

David Miles is the editor of a number of business and finance related websites, including: The Employee Contracts Website and UK Mortgages & Remortgages.

This is closely linked to the other concepts, those of "structural", "frictional" and "conjectural or cyclical" unemployment types.

Some unemployment, the theory, goes is frictional. It is the inevitable result of a few processes:

Labour Mobility – People move from one job to another, either because they are fired or because they seek to improve their lot. In the intervening period between leaving an old workplace and finding another, they are unemployed.

Labour Force Expansion – Every year there are new entrants to the labour market. Generations mature and are ripe to be part of the labour force. Until they find their first job – these new participants are unemployed.

Seasonal and Part Time Employment – Some professions are seasonal by their nature (a hotel in a resort hotel, for instance). These workers join the ranks of the unemployed at certain times and desert them seasonally. Other workers prefer to work part time or in the "Grey" or "Black" economy. They go unreported or report themselves as unemployed, thus distorting the true picture of unemployment.

The frictional type of unemployment is a sign of economic health. It indicates a dynamic economy in fast development. It is a sign of labour mobility, of labour flexibility (part time solutions and flexitime) and of labour adaptability. This cannot be said about the second, more insidious, type, the structural unemployment. It is this kind of unemployment which really bothers governments and worries social planners. It has long term psychological and social effects and limits both economic growth and social cohesion. It is also the most difficult to battle.

Usually, it is the result of ingrained, long term and structural processes and changes in the economy and cannot be fought with artificial one-time measure (employment initiated by the state or fiscal stimulus intended to encourage employment). Among the factors which create it:

Technological change – new professions are created, old ones lose their lustre and, ultimately, their place in the economy. New professions, connected to new technologies, emerge. Some workers can be retrained but even this takes time (in which they might, technically, be defined as unemployed). Others cannot be retrained and they join the ranks of the long term unemployed, swelling structural unemployment.

Changes in Consumer Preferences – Fashions change, mass consumption patterns alter, emphases on certain goods and services shift. Today's hot item is tomorrow's dead one. Whole industries can and are effected by these tectonic shifts.

Globalization and Cross Border Labour Mobility – Labour mobility is intentionally encouraged, the world over. Economic unions and trade pacts include social or labour chapters. The most notable example is NAFTA which created hundreds of thousands of new jobs in Mexico and in the USA. As companies go multinational, as production processes become global, as services and goods are exported and imported within a rising tide of international trade, as international brands develop – the biggest restructuring of labour markets is taking place across the globe in rich and poor countries alike. Consider the clear erosion of the power of the trade unions or the cheap labour available in Central and Eastern Europe and in parts of Southeast Asia. These cause jobs (even skilled ones) to be reallocated across political borders.

Skill Acquisition Failure – People who failed to acquire the minimum education necessary to participate in today's workforce (secondary high school) are doomed to be permanently unemployed or part time employed. School dropouts form a large part of the structural unemployment in many countries. In countries which are in the process of shifting from one economic system to another, even those with the right formal education are made redundant and useless by the new paradigm. Think about a professor of economy who studied and taught Marxist economy from the wrong textbooks – he is quite useless in a capitalist market economy and might find himself unemployed despite his high education.

The last, benign, type of unemployment is the cyclical one. It is the result of the natural business cycle (at least natural to capitalism) and of the ebb and tide of aggregate demand for workers which is a result of these cycles. This is considered to be an unavoidable side effect of market economy. The pain of the laid off workers can be ameliorated (through the introduction of unemployment benefits) but the solution comes from sorting out the cycle itself and not by attacking the unemployment issue in an isolated artificial manner.

The "Natural Rate of Employment" takes into account that frictional and structural employment must exist. What is left is really the full employment rate. This is highly misleading. First, economists are forced to rely on government data which, normally, tend to underestimate and understate the problem. For example: the statistics ignore "discouraged workers" (those who despaired and stopped looking for work). A second, more philosophical issue, is that, as opposed to frictional unemployment, which is a welcome sign, structural unemployment is not and must be fiercely fought by the state. But Economy give Politics a legitimacy to ignore structural unemployment as a part of life.

But the third problem is the most pressing: what is the "natural" rate of unemployment and how should it be determined? This is where NAIRU came in: the natural rate of unemployment could be construed as that rate of unemployment which prevented bad economic effects, such as inflation. In the USA this was estimated to be 5-6%. But this estimate was based on a long history of labour and inflation statistics. History proved the wrong guide in this case: the world has changed. Globalization, technological innovation, growing free international trade, growth in productivity, electronic money, the massive move to the "Third Wave" (Information and knowledge) industries – all this meant that inflationary pressures could be exported or absorbed and the employment could go much higher without fostering them. This became part of a new paradigm in economy which proclaimed the death of the business cycle and of the inflationary boom-bust phases. Though exaggerated and probably untrue, the "New Paradigm" did predict that productivity will grow, inflation will remain subdued, unemployment will decrease drastically and the prices of financial assets will explode – all simultaneously (which was considered hitherto impossible). The unemployment rate in the USA has stayed well below 5% and there are still no sign of inflation. This is remarkable (though probably short lived. Inflation will pick up there and the world over starting in 1998).

And what about Macedonia? It is one of a group of countries in transition that suffered an unprecedented series of external shocks separation from a Federation, the loss of virtually all export markets, economic siege, monetary instability, a collapse of the financial system, and, lately, interethnic tensions. Small wonder that it endured an outlandish (official) rate of unemployment (more than one third of the active workforce). Granted, the real unemployment rate is probably lower (many workers in the black economy go unreported) – still, these are daunting figures.

Is this a structural or frictional or cyclical unemployment? It is tempting to say that it is structural. It seems to be the result of trying to adapt to a brave new world: new technologies, new determinants of survival, new market mechanisms, the need for a set of completely new skills and new consumer preferences. But a closer analysis will yield a different picture: most of the unemployment in Macedonia (and in countries in transition in general) is cyclical and frictional. It is the result of massive layoffs which, in themselves, are the results of efficiency and productivity drives. It is not that the workforce is ill adapted to cope with the new, post-transition situation. The composition of skills is well balanced, the education, in some respects, better than in the West, labour mobility is enforced by the cruelty of the new labour markets, the pay is low and is likely to remain so (wage pressures don't go well with high unemployment). The workforce has adapted wondrously.

The failures belong to the management levels and, above all, to the political echelons. Unwilling to adapt, eager to make a quick (personal) buck, entrenched in cosy offices and old ways of thinking, more interested in their perks that in anything else, not educated in the new ways of the markets – they led themselves and their workers (=their voters) to the unemployment swamp. This unfortunate condition was avoidable.

There is no reason to assume that structural unemployment in Macedonia should be much higher than in Germany. The relative sizes and richness of the two economies is not relevant to this discussion. What is relevant is that labour in Macedonia is by far more mobile than in Germany, that it is paid much less, that it is, therefore, relatively more productive, that it is better educated, that both countries suffered external shocks (Germany the unification, Macedonia the transition), that both countries are macro-economically stable, that Macedonia has real natural and human endowments. By certain measures and theoretic formulas, the structural unemployment in Macedonia should be circa 9%, the frictional unemployment (the business cycle is turning up strongly so cyclical unemployment is bound to go down) contributing another 5%. The natural unemployment rate is, therefore, circa 15%.

Moreover, Macedonia is in the rare and enviable position of not having to worry about inflation or wage pressures. Even much higher employment will not create wage pressures. Only the most skilled workers will possess the ability to dictate their own wages and, even then, we are talking about ridiculous wages in Western terms. There is so much competition for every vacancy ("an employers' market") that the likelihood of demanding (and getting) higher wages (and, thus, generating inflationary pressures is all but non-existent). So NAIRU in Macedonian terms is an abstract notion with no applicability. Every additional percent of permanent employment in the West entails 2-3 as much in economic (GDP) growth. Macedonia has to grow by 10% and more annually to reduce the level of unemployment to 15% in 5 years (taking additions to the workforce into account). This is doable: Macedonia starts from such a low base that it would take little effort to achieve this kind of growth (to add 300 million USD to the GDP annually=3 months exports at today's rate).

But this rate of unemployment can be achieved only with the right policy decisions on the state level – and the right management cadre to take advantage of these decisions and of the thrilling new vistas of the global market scene. It is here that Macedonia is lacking – it is here that it should concentrate its efforts.

About The Author

Sam Vaknin is the author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited" and "After the Rain - How the West Lost the East". He is a columnist in "Central Europe Review", United Press International (UPI) and ebookweb.org and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory, Suite101 and searcheurope.com. Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government of Macedonia.

His web site: http://samvak.tripod.com

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Copyright 2001 by Mason Duchatschek

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Virginia Bola operated a rehabilitation company for 20 years, developing innovative job search techniques for disabled workers, while serving as a respected Vocational Expert in Administrative, Civil and Workers' Compensation Courts. Author of an interactive and emotionally supportive workbook, The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, and a monthly ezine, The Worker's Edge, she can be reached at http://www.unemploymentblues.com