Posts tagged ‘college’

Planning Your Career

Here are a couple of valuable tips for planning your career:

The first tip is, “Do what you like and the money will follow.” If you work at something you like, you will be good at it, and the best people usually rise to the top. Don’t do something just for the money unless you do not have any better options.

Second, in the United States, it is becoming common for a person to have more than one career in a lifetime. Doctors and attorneys tend to stay in the same field of work, but engineers, computer scientists, and entrepreneurs may change the type of work they do as many as five times in a lifetime.

Third, “When in doubt aim high.” If you are torn between becoming a doctor or an engineer, aim for the highest paid career that also has the most demanding educational requirements. If you try the hardest first, and decide it’s too tough, or you just don’t like it, at least you will have tried it. It’s easy to move to a field with lower educational requirements. It’s almost impossible to move up once you’ve started.

Landing a New Position

Job Search is a catch-all phrase for career hunt. It is composed of career decision-making, research at both the decision-making and campaign phases, resume writing, interviewing, networking, responding to ads, going to headhunters and finally negotiating your salary. The purpose of this article is to make the process as easy to understand as possible, with suggestions and ideas on how to land the position of your choice.

Many people think that landing a new position consists of putting together a resume and looking in the paper under help-wanted. Yes, that is all that some people do, and some of them are successful. But many of them are frustrated. They don’t see the position they want advertised, and therefore figure it doesn’t exist. They wind up in a position – or career — that was available, without taking the time to find just the right thing.

How do you start?

First, what is it that you want to do? Maybe you’re a career changer. Maybe you’re a new college grad. Either way, before you worry about entry vs. mid- or upper-level positions, you need to be clear about what it is you want to do. Try to picture the ideal spot for you. Would you be working inside or out? In the city or the country? In an office or a store? Wearing tailored suits or jeans? Are you managing or producing? Part of a team or working independently? At a computer or on a telephone? Think about what you’re doing now, as well as what you’ve done in the past – what aspects of these positions did you like? What didn’t you like, and why?

Focused on Your Qualifications for The Job

Job interviewing can be an unnerving experience, but if you know how to handle some of the stickiest situations encountered in interviewing, you can be that much more confident. Here are 10 of the stickiest.

1. The Bad Interviewer. Not every professional who conducts job interviews with candidates knows how to conduct an interview effectively. In fact some are downright lousy at it. A bad interviewer might be unfocused, disinterested, unprepared. He or she might dominate the interview by doing all the talking or might ask inappropriate and illegal questions.

    The unfocused, unprepared interviewer probably hasn’t read your resume and maybe can’t even find a copy. This hapless soul doesn’t even know what to ask you. Be sure to offer this disorganized interviewer a copy of your resume while asking, “May I take you through some highlights of my career?”

    Interviews with an admissions

    For many students there is nothing more nerve-racking, stomach-churning, and downright intimidating than college interviews. The other components of college applications–application forms, essays, transcripts, and recommendation letters–are evaluated in the private offices of admissions officers. However, college interviews put you face to face with an actual person.

    Many colleges require interviews with an admissions officer or alumnus. They use interviews as a way to get to know you beyond the dry facts of your application and to let you ask questions about the school.

    The Most Commonly Asked Questions

    The secret to doing well on interviews is to practice. Do a mock interview with your parents or teachers. This may sound strange, but once you hear how much better you answer the same question the second time around you will understand.

    To give you an idea of what kind of questions you will be asked we have compiled a list of the most commonly asked interview questions. Try to develop answers to these questions for yourself and use them in your mock interviews.

    • Why do you want to attend X university?
    • What is your strongest/weakest point?
    • What have you done to prepare for college?
    • What has been your greatest experience in high school?
    • What do you want to do in the future?
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