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Career Planning

When choosing the right career, some people find themselves overwhelmed with the various educations that go along with their career of choice.  Do you find that you’re the type of person that panics because they’re unable to find what exactly is right for you? Picking the right career can be a tricky process, particularly if you’re at the start of your life. Luckily, there are career coaches that are instrumental in spearheading the path to your ideal future professional existence. Whether they’re computer science careers, accounting careers and/or finding the right computer programmer salary; there is career information for everyone. By discovering significant ‘key’ areas in self-assessment, decision making and creative implementation, there are certain careers that are suited to match a specific person’s skills, talents, and personality.

The Guide to Success

• Ask yourself the right questions in order to discover what you really want and need from a specific career opportunity.
• Let’s say that you have a particular interest in say, ‘Accounting Careers.’ Well, it would be wise to do your homework on that specific career and whether or not it is right for you.
• Some career choices are a little more complex, like computer science careers but your dream job is what it is and what you make of it.

 • In some cases, individuals will encounter obstacles starting down a career path and you have to find resources to overcome those. For example, if you’re trying to achieve the highest computer programmer salary around; you better do some research on the type of education needed and then get a lot of work experience so that you’re able to get the most with regards to compensation.
• Both professional and personal skills are necessary to get the job of your dreams. You must find education avenues to further your knowledge in a specific area so that you’re getting the most from any career opportunity. Especially if you’re looking at a computer programmer salary and computer science careers; these areas can be highly technical in nature and staying ahead of current technology trends will give you a huge leg up on the entire field of career candidates. Same thing goes for accounting careers or anything that is highly analytical in nature.

 With regards to career choices, don’t settle for anything you know is second best. Always be on the look-out for more information and opportunities for advancement based on you level of expertise. If your motto is, “knowledge is power”, and “hard work pays off” then you’re well on your way to success.

Well, you’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars on your student’s education, and now they’re ready to head out into the real world, but there’s one course they don’t seem to teach in college: ‘How to Land a Real Job in the Real World,’ so students often make a number of mistakes that slow their progress down and make it harder for them to find employment than it has to be.

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Well, you’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars on your student’s education, and now they’re ready to head out into the real world, but there’s one course they don’t seem to teach in college: ‘How to Land a Real Job in the Real World,’ so students often make a number of mistakes that slow their progress down and make it harder for them to find employment than it has to be.

With that in mind, I’ve prepared this list of the most common mistakes that students make so you can avoid them. Consider this your crash course on what NOT to do when you are looking for a job:

Don’t start without a plan. This means spending time actually researching fields and careers that you’re thinking about working in and making a list of places you’ll contact. Then, you need to methodically work your way through this list.

Don’t let your major limit you. Remember to look for things that interest you that might fall outside the narrow confines of your exact major. Much of what you do in a position can often be learned on the job, so don’t worry too much about it matching perfectly. Think of your degree as what gets you in the door, not what defines what you’ll be doing for the rest of your life.

Don’t ignore your school’s career center when looking for job leads. Some schools are more helpful than others, but you can always learn something there. And their job is to help place you, so don’t be shy about asking them for help.

Don’t look only for jobs that are listed on the major search engines. This is an easy, but lazy way to look for work. Be sure to look at your local classifieds and Craig’s List (www.CraigsList.org) for general leads, but also look up the trade associations of the fields you’re looking in for more specific job listings.

Don’t rely just on the internet or email to communicate. It is often too easy to delete or ignore, especially if you’re an employer that gets inundated with email. Be sure to hard copy resumes as well as emailing them. Also, it is too easy to be ‘casual’ with an email. Remember, anything you write is permanent communication, so always be professional.

Don’t be afraid to start with an entry-level position. You’re new to the job market, so you’re not entitled to anything. Like I said above, your degree often will just get you in the door, then it’s up to you to prove yourself and make yourself indispensible from there.

Don’t send a resume or an email from the account of a place that you are already working at. First off, this will not impress your new employer, and may make them question your integrity since it might appear that you’re taking advantage of your existing company. Plus, if you lose your job, that email account will vanish, and you will no longer be able to contact anyone from it.

Don’t wing it on job interviews. I’m always shocked at how little time in preparation most people spend once they’ve finally landed an actual interview. Once you have an interview set up, spend some time researching their website. Learn about what they do, and their company history, and who founded them and when.

If nothing else, it will show that you’re serious, and it is a step that most other applicants (read: almost all) won’t take. Also, review the common questions that employers ask and give thought to how you will answer them.

Don’t dress casually. Always be dressed for business with your clothes neat and pressed, and your shoes shined. Little things speak volumes about a person, and this can make a huge difference. Also, if there’s a doubt about how to dress, you’re better off being over-dressed than under-dressed.

Lastly, don’t treat your job search like a part time endeavor. You can overcome a lot of handicaps like not having job experience by simply being willing to outwork everybody else. Treat it like a 40 hour a week job, and actually hustle. Don’t sleep in. Get up early. And make each day count. Now, while these tips don’t cover everything, they’ll get you started and give you a leg up on everybody else, so you can land that job in no time.

A common complaint from students is they don’t feel they are gaining enough experience to prepare them for careers after college. Sometimes gaining this experience takes initiative and a drive to learn as much as you can before graduation rolls around.

One way to gain job experience is by taking on a college internship. A college internship can be a great way to learn what things will be like in a career setting and what type of work you can expect to be doing after college. No all internship college opportunities are the same however. Some internship opportunities provide students with amazing learning experiences and plenty of projects to keep them occupied during the length of their internship. Other internship experiences don’t live up to this level and leave students bored, without the chance to gain much needed job experience. When students are stuck in an internship college of this type, they are face with a tough choice, wondering whether to request more projects or suffer through the boredom until the internship is over.

Students that don’t speak up, however, could be doing themselves a disservice because they aren’t maximizing their college internship experience. The employer may fear overloading the intern with projects and therefore has accidentally not given enough work to keep the student occupied. Once the student speaks up, the employer will then realize that the intern has a high workload capacity and will likely come up with more projects. Speaking up can also benefit the student because the employer could then recognize the student’s work ethic, which could lead to a higher rating on the intern’s evaluation.

When requesting more work, it is important to address the college internship employer in a courteous manner. A good way to approach your employer is to ask if they have any more projects that need completed because you have finished your current workload quicker than you anticipated. You could even come up with project ideas on your own and then present them to your employer if you feel they are relevant and would be beneficial to the company if you were to complete them. This could also show the internship college employer that you take the job seriously and care enough to come up with ideas on your own. On the other side of this, if you are constantly bothering your employer and whining for more projects, they will likely become agitated, so you must keep a fine balance between politely asking for more projects and whining to your boss about not having enough to do.

In most situations, it can’t hurt to ask your employer for more work to do. Normally they will be pleasantly surprised by the request and will eagerly find more work for you to complete. This is especially true if the alternative for you is to sit at a desk all summer staring at your blank computer screen because you don’t have anything to do. A college internship is supposed to be a learning experience and sometimes it takes initiative on your part to get opportunities in gaining that experience.

There are many different careers in the field of accounting ranging from entry-level bookkeeping to the Chief Financial Officer of a company. To achieve positions with more responsibility and higher salaries, it’s necessary to have a degree in accounting as well as achieve various professional designations.

One of the primary milestones in any accountant’s career is to become a Certified Public Accountant or CPA. To become a CPA you have to go to college with a major in accounting. You also have to pass a national CPA exam. There’s also some employment experience required in a CPA firm. This is generally one to two years, although this varies from state to state. Once you satisfy all those requirements, you get a certificate that designates you as a CPA and you’re allowed to offer your services to the public.

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