Professionals, Experts, and College

Many college students believe that the best education is an education that comes from sitting passively at a desk in an overcrowded room and being taught by an expert. It is true; however, though some career paths require you to sit in an overcrowded classroom and benefit largely by being taught by experts-such as when you're learning about surgery- you must have the practical experience necessary to perform your tasks. This can only be taught by a professional.

A professional is a person who is or had been engaged in a profession, while an expert is a person with knowledge in a field: teaching such subjects as accounting, nursing, and managing, as well as others.

It is not to be said that there are not benefits to be taught by an expert; they know all of the information in the area in which they teach. But when learning from a professional, someone who encounters the work everyday and faces new problems that may not have been taught through the textbook, your education is bound to be far more extensive. If you happen to be instructed by an expert who is also a professional, consider yourself lucky.

When it comes to professionals versus experts consider this: the gothic cathedrals, the pyramids, and the Roman roads and aqueducts were designed and built by men who did not have college educations. Michaelangelo did not have a college degree, nor did Leonardo da Vinci.

Thomas Edison didn't, nor did Mark Twain though he was granted honorary degrees in later life. All of these people were professionals. None of them were experts.

An expert is someone with a degree. The degree doesn't mean he knows how to do what he's an expert at. He may have absolutely no practical experience; but, he has the degree, which confers on him the right to impress other people with his accomplishment and to get paid for his expert opinions. An expert gets paid by third parties. His work is never placed in the open market where it will either sink or swim on its own merit. Many college professors are experts.

A professional is someone who makes a living working in the field in question. A professional architect designs and builds houses for clients. A professional hairdresser cuts and styles hair for clients. All of these people get paid by the people who are direct consumers of their work, The open market will weed out the bad professionals, so the ones who have been around for a while and who are stil working are probably worth learning from.

In today's world you now have to have a degree to be an architect, a social worker, or an engineer. College can, without a doubt, be the building block towards opening many doors. But, during the time you spend receiving your college education, make sure to learn from professionals.

Opportunities are available through internships, business co-ops and full-time and part-time jobs. Be an expert and a professional.

11 Questions to Set Your Career Path

As a college student preparing for a future career through hard work in all your classes, doing homework, studying late into the night and typing paper after paper it would be dreadful to end up without any actual career and stuck in a dead-end job. While some may get lucky and just happen to wind up on the road to success others do not and part of that can be attributed to the lack of career planning beforehand. So before you graduate college whether a month or year from now take the time to plan out your future career path.

The Path to Accomplishment

Visualization is an excellent tool in helping to define where you want to go in your future career. Visualize where you want to be in the future. It can reflect where you want to be tomorrow, next week, next year or beyond. If you can see it you can achieve it. Pick an alternate career goal as well; it’s always a good idea to select more than one optimal career choice.

Are you ready to begin building a vision for your desired professional target, close your eyes, let your imagination run free and ask yourself these 11 questions:

If anything were possible, what would I want to be different in my career?
What type of job would I want?
What would I want to be responsible for?
What type of boss/co-workers/team would I want?
What kind of hours would I want to work?
What type of company would I want to work for?
What type of environment would I like to work in?
What sort of culture would I want the company to have?
What city would I want to live in?
What salary would I want to earn?
What would I want my approach to stress, my workload, and deadlines to be?

As you consider these questions in your mind there are no right or wrong answers. It’s only what’s right for you not what someone else wants. Listen to yourself and your heart.

After you have visualized what you want to do there are more tangible steps you can take to implement you career plans. After you have visualized your career path whatever it may be assess what educational requirements you must have in order to obtain your dream position. How long you will need to go to school for, how much it will cost and are you willing to put in the time and effort, if attending school would take longer than what you would like. Also consider if your career path can be achieved as soon as you would like, if you want to be a psychologist but don’t want to spend eight years in school then your second choice to be manager of a publishing company can be accomplished sooner with just a 4-year degree in Business Management. After you have assessed the educational requirements consider other requirements and additions that can help in your career path; from internships in the area of interest you want to work, or whether you will be required to receive other certifications other than just a college degree. By preparing ahead of time for your future career your efforts in school can be well compensated and you can increase your chances of future career success and happiness.

Top Ten job-searching websites

In each person's lifetime, whether college student or career veteran, assistance is needed when trying to find an important, reliable job that will comprise the first step in a successful career, while covering the expenses of daily life. To assist in this adventurous quest, listed below are ten top job-searching websites. These websites offer a ton of helpful career information, thousands of job postings, and some even include resume services. They can help start you on that important path to finding an awesome job that can lead to your wonderful career.

www.monster.com
By far the industry leader in the realm of job searching. Its huge database gives any visitor thousands of options in choosing a job for which to apply.

www.careerbuilder.com
A supersite similar to Monster, offering over 900,000 current job listings. It also offers a number of job search tools and career resources.

www.hotjobs.yahoo.com
Provides a variety of job listings. Also has career-oriented articles and helpful tools such as a salary calculator.

www.snagajob.com
This website provides thousands of part-time, full-time, and temporary job postings. It also shares success stories from others whom have found jobs through its website and tips to help others succeed.

www.truecareers.com
Created by Sallie Mae, a job site that offers thousands of job openings, career articles, and other career resources. True Career also provides users with a sweepstakes where you can win thousands in cash or student loan payments. The website also allows job seekers to search jobs by keyword and location. The website also provides job posting and resume submission services.

www.alljobsearch.com
Provides a unique job search enabling job seekers to search a large number of job sites at once. This search also allows job seekers to narrow there search using advanced search criteria. In addition to traditional job sites like Career Builder and All Job Search, this one also pulls in results from newspaper classifieds and Internet newsgroups.

www.usajobs.gov
USAJOBS is the official job site of the United States Federal Government. It's a one-stop source for Federal jobs and employment information.

www.directemployer.com
This mega site was created in combination with a large group of national employers. The Direct Employer job search engine allows you to search by keyword, filter by date, employer or staffing firm, location, and industry.

America's Job Bank
Offering millions of job listings, at all levels, listed from the unemployment agencies, private employers, and public corporations. The services offered on this site are free for both job seekers and employers.

Career Journal
Sponsored by the Wall Street Journal and contains a large selection of useful job search articles, job search engine, and job tools.

Planning A Recession Proof Career

In this present economy things are looking very bleak. People are losing homes left and right, companies who have been around for years are closing, people are losing their jobs or being laid off and the applications for state aid are increasing rapidly. This is a time in which college students are looking at the future without bright hopes. A few years ago you could go through college, graduate and know you would have a job after school. But in today’s world unfortunately those times are gone and graduation from college does not mean a job. There are several people who have Bachelor Degree’s, Master Degree’s and maybe even higher who can’t find jobs in their fields or in any others. So in this pessimistic era why should college students even look at college as a window to anything? They may just say I’m better off just getting out of high school and not going to college considering all the money, time and energy, college will cost me, only to give me no return on my investment.
While it is true some college graduates find getting a job difficult, a college education is a worthwhile investment. Think of it like stocks, a person would not sell their shares in a company just because the value dipped for several weeks, they would wait anticipating a renewal in value and that is also what college students must do. You have to look at your degree whether it is an Associate, Bachelor, Masters or Doctorate as a long-term investment that with time will pay off greatly. Just think over a life time according to the U.S. Census Bureau statistics on annual income, an individual will make $45,000 compared to$ 37,000 for those only with a high school diploma.
An individual with a Bachelor Degree will make $65,000 compared to $45,000 for an Associate Degree. An individual with a Master’s Degree will earn $77,000 a year compared to$ 65,000 for a Bachelor Degree and an individual with a Doctorate degree will make $100,000 a year over their life time compared to a Master’s Degree. So what does this mean, it means that a decision not to attend college and receive a degree could end up costing you a minimum $8,000 annually if you had obtained an Associate Degree and $63,000 minimum if you had obtained a Doctorate. So what can a college student do to better their chances of success now and in the future? You can prepare in college for a low-risk recession career. While there is no such thing as a 100% recession proof career there are those that carry very little risk to be laid off or fired from. Listed below are five of these types of jobs.
Computer and Information Scientist
As the need for technology grows so does the need for computer scientists. Working as researchers, computer scientists solve technological problems. Many computer scientists work on teams in industrial settings or at universities. According to The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics computer scientists made over $100,000 a year on average in 2007. A bachelor’s degree in computer science can help you prepare for this career.
Computer Systems Analyst
Computer systems analysts work for businesses identifying their technological needs. A computer system analyst chooses and configures hardware and software in order to meet the company’s goals. A bachelor’s degree in computer science or management information systems can help you in getting the training needed for this career. According to the BLS computer system analysts made an average $75,890 in 2007.
Employment Recruiter and Placement Specialist
An employment recruiter and placement specialist works with companies looking for new hires or for a local job placement agency. Duties consist of meeting with prospective employees, interviewing them, and extending job offers. With a degree in human resources, as an employment recruiter and placement specialist you may be able to make on average $50,000 a year.
Health Care Technician
A health care technician compiles patient’s charts and records and keeping their health information up to date. An associate’s degree in health care management or a related field can give you training for this job. The BLS estimates that health career technicians made an average yearly wage of $31,450 in 2007.
Registered Nurse
Approximately 587,000 new nursing jobs are projected within the next eight years, which makes nursing one of the largest job markets in the U.S.A. Registered nurses tend to patients and also provide families with needed education and support in doctor’s offices and hospitals. According to the BLS, nurses made an average annual salary of $62,480 in 2007. An associate or bachelor’s degree in nursing can prepare you for this career.
So while there are no guarantees or fully recession proof jobs there are ways to minimize the risk and to better your chances of finding a job after college. Patience, persistence and hard-work are the keys to any success don’t give up on the first try just look above you still have at least four more on the list.

How to Get an Internship

It's not actually a job but it counts as experience. It can be paid or unpaid and in a wide variety of areas from journalism to the nonprofit sector, to media. What is it? It's an internship, something that most college students thrive for during the course of their college career to enhance their post-graduation results, build their resume and tack on real-world experience to the knowledge and theory they learn in the classroom. But internships aren't just for students whose typical age range is 18-25 that hold the internships. College students older than 25 are also seeking internships, it may have to do with many reasons such as this is the first time they're in college so they would like to apply experience to the subject their studying. The student may be in graduate school and want to keep in tune with the necessary real world skills that relate to their degree or many other reasons. Another segment of internship seekers are high school students as a way to gain experience and build their resumes and college admissions applications. Whether you're a high school student, older or younger college student here are a few tips for finding paid and unpaid internships. Paid internships usually go fast but so do unpaid internships so you want to make sure begin a search for an internship in the subject you're interested in early. Preferably five months before the time in which, you want the internship. For example if you want an internship in the fall in August begin searching in March. The next step is to apply for the internship early and correctly. Don't wait until the last minute when you almost miss the deadline or are rushing to fill out the application and gather the necessary materials to send in and you leave something out. Don't wait to late also because you never know if the person in charge of the internship selection process receives more applications than he or she wants and closes the application submissions. Next step is to use references and referrals if you have them. When you go to an internship interview if someone referred you that the interviewer knows express it to the interviewer or if one of your references is someone the interviewer knows express it to them. Express a reference, referral or both but in a subtle way. Next after you apply if there's phone number to call or email address send an email or call once a week beginning a month and a half before the internship is suppose to start mention your name every time and just let them know you're calling because you're wondering if they've filled the position. Your persistence in calling or emailing will help them remember you and double your chances of getting the internship. Next when it comes to the interview for the internship be prepared practice with a friend or family member what you're going to say, bring two copies of your resume, references and letters of recommendations to the interview. If the interview is one that requires a portfolio make, sure you have it with you and that it displays only your best work. An internship is a rewarding learning experience and there are loads of them to go around but to make sure you get one and the one you want follow these simple steps for greater success.