Posts Tagged ‘ Career ’

The New Year is just around the corner and it’s time to get a fresh start on several levels. Get serious about investing in yourself, your career and of course your future. Be prepared and hold yourself responsible for a fresh start. As a college student, start your new year with a resolution to achieve your academic goals over the course of the year. Set a plan to ensure that you’re going on the right path to success. Here are a few tips and advices that help you become a successful college student in 2012 and help turn your wishes, goals and ideas into a reality.

1. Get Organized

In order to achieve your academic goals, it is advised to stay organized. Managing your space, work, family and social life will surely keep your college student life clutter free.

2. Don’t Procrastinate

Time is the most precious possession we have. Being an online college student, it is essential to learn good time management skills as online learning requires a lot of self discipline, motivation and commitment. Promise not to procrastinate, manage your time and increase your student efficiency. It will help you complete all your online courses within the given time frame.

3. Balance Work and Family life

Another important way to become a successful online student in 2012 is to manage your time in such a way so that you will be able to create a balance between your professional and family life together. Devise your work schedule in a manner that is most convenient to you and will not affect your family and social life.

4. Develop Good Study Habits

Students pursuing online college degrees are always advised to develop good study habits to make their learning style more effective. Try to begin your semester on the right foot as well as try to meet your projects and assignments deadlines.

5. Set Your Academic and Career Goals

To become a successful college graduate you need to set your personal, academic and career goals and learn how to improve your goal setting. As, goal setting is indeed the key to career success. Try to keep your expectations high.

6. Prepare for a Successful Career

Pursuing an online degree program from top online colleges will help online students to prepare for a successful career. Studying top online degrees helps students build professional skills and core competencies that are required for pursuing a successful career. Find the right degree program and make your career in that particular stream.

7. Manage Your Stress

Don’t let your stress get the best of you this year. Keep your stress level under control. Managing your stress is one of the most important ways that help you succeed in college life. In order to better cope with stress, spend more time with family and friends this year.

8. Have Fun

It’s critically important to have fun in your life. Stay connected with friends, maintain balance and avoid burnout. Listen music, go to the dance parties, participate in sports and paint are a few ways to cheer yourself up.

Following these tips and trick will surely help you become a successful online student, help you achieve your goals as well as accomplish your New Year resolution for 2012.

The New Year is about to start and you are all set to rock the world with your talent and passion. However the recent economy seems bent on not letting you succeed. How to checkmate it? One strategy to employ is to go for the degrees that will equate career success in the following years. Since we can’t foretell the future, we will place our bet on online degrees that find work in a variety of fields and that allow you to adapt yourself to change and to be flexible. We feel the following degrees will lead you to career success in the 2012.

Business Degrees Online

A Bachelor’s in Business Administration has been one of the most in demand degrees for the last couple of years and this trend will continue for some time. A BBA degree offers many specializations like accounts, finance, human resource, marketing, supply chain, operations and logistics, and entrepreneurship. The average starting salary for graduates with a Bachelors degree in Business Administration is $35,000-40,000.

Education Degrees Online

While a Bachelor’s in Education may not lead you to the highest paying jobs out there, it almost always guarantees employment, and can lead to a very satisfying career. This degree teaches career knowledge and skills needed to succeed as a teacher. If you really have the aptitude for it and are ready to advance your education and specialize then the career prospects are very bright. You can find a niche, such as secondary education and special education or you can even work as an administrator or join text book companies. The starting annual salary for graduates with an Online Bachelor’s in Education is $33,000.

Communication Degrees Online

Communications is a general liberal arts degree that equips you with skills that can be employed in almost any industry from social media to journalism to advertising, management, public relations, politics and journalism. Although the salary varies widely in the field of Communications, graduates can expect a median starting salary from $35,000-55,000.

Computers Science Degrees Online

That this degree will lead to success in the future is a no brainer. Every business today depends upon technology to grow and prosper and this dependence is likely to continue. A Bachelor’s in Computer Science equips you to use this technology in the real world and to help others use it as well. Computer science grads learn to code languages and solve problems and get jobs as software engineers, software developers, programmer analysts and networking specialist. The BLS predicts that it will grow at 37% till 2016 and their median starting salary is $56,400.

In order to succeed in this constantly changing technological landscape you need to either “Adapt or die!” Choose one of the above online degrees and guarantee your seat for the future.

There’s nothing like a New Year’s party to boost up your optimism and catapult you into forming New Year’s resolutions. However once the booze starts to wear off, it’s difficult to hang on to the positivity unless you have objective, concrete steps towards your career.  Here are five steps you can take to ensure 2012 is your best year yet, career wise.

Have a tete to tete…with yourself

Sometimes we are so focused on just finding a job, starting work and making money that we bounce on the first job vacancy we find. Fast forward a couple of years and many of us find ourselves stuck in a career that doesn’t speak to us. As this year comes to an end, take the time out to reconnect with yourself and find out what exactly is it that makes you feel fulfilled and satisfied. Take the top down rather than the bottom up approach and understand how you can express your creativity and talents to the world. Once you are clear about that, move on to the following tips to convert your passion into a career.

Continue to learn

You either grow or you stagnate, there is no middle ground in this competitive age. Whether it’s an online certification (http://aboutonlinedegrees.org/onlinecertificate.php) or a diploma or an advanced degree like an online master’s, always keep updating your skills and knowledge. If there is one thing that can guarantee 2012 will be better than 2011, its constant and never ending improvement, Tony Robbins style.

Network

This one cannot be emphasized enough as your network can really help you out in the job hunt.  You need to mark out a certain amount of time each week for networking purposes. Use social media and networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn and leverage it to your advantage. Join clubs and associations that are related to your field.

Bounce on opportunity

You might be saying this goes directly against number one but it doesn’t. What I meant was that you shouldn’t pick up the first job that falls in your lap till you are clear about. Once you are, scream “Bring it on!” it’s time to pounce on every opportunity, or better yet create one. Get to know all about your field through college brochures, intern, do freelance work, and do contract work or whatever else it takes to get a head start.

Review last year objectively

Hindsight is always 20/20. You need to carve out time to carry out an objective SWOT analysis of last year. Chart your progress, see how many goals you managed to achieve last years, look at the misses, learn from the mistakes and above all thrive on the feedback that you get.

If 2012 is going to be the end of the world as we know it ;p , why not end it on a high note?

What is the biggest time waster these days? Facebook! However did you know that Facebook is also a treasure trove of various high-end applications that can help college students excel. These apps enhance productivity, organization and time management, and allow communication and networking with like-minded people. Here we present half a dozen Facebook apps that can help college students, especially online college students, enhance their productivity.

6 Facebook Apps to Ace Your College

Statistics indicate that Facebook is used by over 160 million people daily. Out of this large number, most users are college students. Initially, it was launched with the intention of being a student-based social networking website and hence it contains various apps specifically for students. Some of them are:

1. Weekly Schedule – This Facebook app caters to online students who need to keep a track of their weekly schedule. It enables students to find out when their friends or classmates are free and has a schedule comparison feature. College students claim that this app helps them manage their time more effectively.
2. Yearbook -Yearbook is a virtual classroom which can help students connect to their classmates and students from both college and university. It can help students to improve upon and develop an assignment which they can pass on to their friends for suggestions and advice.
3. Quiz Monster – This app can help college students prepare for various exams. Students can create their own exams and evaluate themselves. As online education involves self-study, this Facebook app can help you get the necessary practice.
4. CourseTopia – CourseTopia helps students keep a track of the schedule for classes within a specific course. This ensures that there are no gaps and that no classes are missed.
5. Docs – This is a collection of assignments, schoolwork and lecture notes. It includes over 50,000 documents and has over 70,000 monthly users. However, special care should be taken to use Docs only as reference material and not for plagiarism as online instructors also make use of this app.
6. Scholarium – This app specifically caters to the needs of online students especially those attending university. It enables them to share their timetable with friends, search for their classmates and rate their professors. This can be then referred by other students so that they can find out more details about a specific professor.

There are many other Facebook apps as well which can help students ace their studies. These help students save valuable time, allow them to schedule their online courses and lets them complete it at their own pace. The best Facebook apps are those that utilize the tremendous networking power of Facebook and allow students to use this to become more productive.

If you are already working full time and want to change your career, you can opt for various online degree programs. Distance learning offers you maximum flexibility so that you can plan your schedule and study at your own pace.

Preparing For a New Career without Discontinuing Your Job

Students choose online degree programs for various reasons; predominantly due to the convenience they offer. For those working full time, online degrees help them in developing a career or in revamping their existing one without discontinuing their existing jobs and allows them to avoid a break of two- or four-year from work which they would otherwise have had to take in order to pursue higher education.

Online colleges help you to opt for online degrees at any place and can help you complete the course from the comfort of your home. According to the statics, in the fall 2009 term, over 5.6 million college students opted for at least one online course.

Getting Ready For a New Career

People working fulltime who are pursuing an online degree in a specific field need to follow certain things to ensure that they are ready for a new career. Firstly, they should be careful to opt for the degree that can help them revamp their career.

Moreover, they should not get distracted and stay focused. Though they are working, they should spend adequate amount of time on their assignments which are related to their online degree program. They should be disciplined and should manage their time effectively. They should dedicate enough time for their online degree program and plan a schedule that allows them to give proper time to the everyday activities.

Apart from gaining knowledge, they should also develop the necessary skills required for a new career. If need be, they can even opt for internship or on-the-job training specific to the chosen career. Online certification programs are also beneficial in developing careers in niche areas.

Are you an online teacher looking for a few suggestions on what your New Year’s Resolutions should be? Take a look at my top New Year’s Resolutions as an online teacher for 2012.

Attainable New Year’s Resolutions for Online Teachers

Whether you are an online high school teacher, or a college professor, you must have some New Year’s resolutions that you want to accomplish in 2012. Pick a few suggestions from my list to start off with. Here they are:

1. Plan lessons in advance.
2. Be patient.
3. Give one-on–one attention to each student.
4. Make sure students understand the lesson.
5. Take control of the classroom.
6. Keep students motivated.
7. Make sure every student participates in classroom discussions.
8. Don’t compare yourself to other online teachers.
9. Incorporate different styles of teaching in your classroom.
10. Make learning fun.
11. Give students their test results more quickly.
12. Eat a healthy meal before class.
13. Get enough sleep so that you can focus in class.
14. Try new things in your classroom.
15. Search for new ways to present class material.
16. Stop worrying about whether you are liked or not.
17. Learn more about online teaching techniques and strategies.
18. Stay current with online learning.
19. Leave classroom stuff behind at the end of the day.
20. Get to know your students and fellow teachers better.

Realistic New Year’s Resolutions for Online Teachers

Are you good at keeping New Year’s resolutions? Most New Year’s resolutions are broken in the first few weeks because most of us set unrealistic goals. So the best thing to do is to set goals that you know you can accomplish and that are not too difficult for you to handle. Don’t set yourself up for failure by setting unrealistic goals. Treat yourself in 2012 by setting career goals that are attainable. That way you are much more likely to follow them through till the end. Isn’t it time you made a list of New Year’s resolutions that you can actually accomplish?

Do you have other suggestions for New Year’s Resolutions for online teachers that you would like to share with us? Go ahead and share them with us in the comments section.

Happy New Year!