Top 10 Mistakes in Choosing a Career

1.Our parents love us dearly and they mean well, however choosing a career because your parents have forced you into one is not the wisest thing to do. You really have to do what you love because you are not your parents and life changes in such a way that you will not live the life they have lived. They may have good advice, yet make sure the final decision on what you are going to do with your life is yours.

2.Many people go into a profession because they think the money is going to be great. In general, unless you are going to be a doctor or a lawyer…there is no guarantee of this. As well, even some doctors have to work in remote regions to make really good money. Some lawyers have to choose to go into corporate or criminal law instead of family law to make the kind of money that will help support their lifestyle. Choose a career because it is what you love to do…perhaps it is true that the money will come eventually. Actually, this does tend to be true.

3.Choosing a career without any concern of the lifestyle it may bring you is a major mistake that many young people make. You need to realize that some jobs practically expect you to work 100 hours a week. Are you ready for that kind of commitment? If you are looking for a career that will allow for a social life and give you the freedom to explore other interests and hobbies, carefully consider your career decisions.

4.For the same reason that some people will choose a career because they think it will bring them a lot of money – is the same reason you should also make sure you are choosing a career with monetary rewards that fit your needs. Strive to get what you are worth – having realistic goals can really help.

5.Many young people have this false impression that they can land a job that is going to pay them a million dollars right out of college or university. This is not often the case. You have to remember that the people who are older and in high positions have worked extremely hard to earn the kind of living they have. You too, if you work hard, can have what they have.

6.Another major mistake young people make in choosing a career is not getting the proper training needed for the profession they want. If you want to be a doctor, there are different standards and expectations to get into medical school depending on whether you live in Ontario or Quebec. Know the rules…know what is expected of you for your profession and get the credentials you need.

7.A major mistake many young people make in choosing a career is not doing enough research on the career before entering the field. You need to know what you are getting yourself into and educate yourself not only to work in the profession, but also about the profession.

8.When it comes to mistakes in choosing a career, remember that many people change careers at least five times in a lifetime. What research have you done in how your initial career will prepare for other careers you are interested in? Make sure you arm yourself with this knowledge and it will give you the competitive edge in your career search and development.

9.One of the major mistakes many young people make about choosing a career is picking one because you feel you are getting too old to just “bum” around. You think time is passing you by and you just choose one in a hurry and in a rush – just to get it over with. Everyone has their own time schedule, you do not have to make decisions at the same pace or time as your brother, sister, friends – anyone for that matter. Take your time…what your life’s purpose is will come to you.

10.Choosing a career that you are not in love with but is something that your school counsellour, school advisor or a recruiter has talked you into is not a good idea – this is a mistake. You have to love your job.

Personal Support Workers

General Information about Personal Support Workers

Making about $15.00/hr. minimum, personal support workers are not regulated health care providers. They do work under regulated health care professionals or in an independent living environment with clients. Their work week consists of 40 hours with other benefits.

Their duties are to help older people or anyone who cannot take care of themselves through the tasks of their daily lives and to provide home management solutions. Personal support workers are responsible to their supervisors and their clients.
Once you graduate from your personal support worker studies, you would be ready for an entry-level position in institutional, as well as community settings. The people you would work with have physical, cognitive, emotional and behavioural challenges.

How long does it take to become a Personal Support Worker?

If you are going the route of a non-college, your courses would be accelerated. They can take a mere eight months to complete.

With an accredited college throughout Canada, most courses would take a little longer. You could complete the course anywhere from four semesters, taking up about one year, or up to two years. This is the exception of accelerated colleges that can take up to a year and a half.

Your course load would be about 30 hours a week (including homework and studying time), making it possible to take on a part-time job to help pay for school. Most courses would be offered during the daytime hours of 9 to 5. This would make evening and weekend work possible.

There is the option to do night courses as well. The length of time to complete the course as a personal support work would increase to about three years. This would then make it possible to take on daytime work to help pay for school.
How to pay for going back to school as a Personal Support Worker?

If you need to take out a loan to pay for school and you live in Ontario, for the time you are in school studying personal support work – you will not have to pay back your loan.

After you graduate there is something known as the Interest Relief program. With this program, you receive six months interest relief from re-paying your loan while you look for profitable work in the field as a personal support worker. Even when you do find a job and if it does not work out, you can request through the lending institution to receive interest relief again to lower the payments you would need to make for your loan.

If you find that your debt is too much to handle, there is also something called student loan consolidation that will help you make payments you can afford and manage.

You can consult the links below for more information about how to pay for your schooling as a personal support worker:

Province of Ontario Student Loans - Interest Relief Program
AMSA Student Loan Consolidation Primer
Canada Student Debt FAQ
CanLearn - Official Gov Site Dealing with Student Loans, Student Debt Consolidation, etc
Canadian Federation of Students
School Student Loan Debt Consolidation Institutions
Citi Financial Canada Loan Application
National Credit Consolidation
Wells Fargo Canada
Shield Credit of Canada

Private Tutoring

Private tutoring can be a great way to improve your grades and for a professor or anyone who teaches to earn extra money.

Take a look at a website like Craigslist.org and you will see a number of teachers offering their services so you can improve your grades. If you are in high school and are looking to make your marks more competitive so you can enter with a scholarship, this is a great way to go.

There are even tutors that can help you with your application to get into university, or for graduate school or professional programs. There are even tutors that can help you with special exams such as the SAT, GRE, GMAT, LSAT and other specialized exams that you may need to enter university, graduate school or professional programs. This could turn out to be a terrific option for improving your chances of receiving that acceptance letter in the mail.

Organizations such as Kaplan also offer classes to help with different specialized exams. Many of them are expensive, however you will get out of it what you put in and the money could be well worth it in the end when you find yourself making $100,000 CDN a year starting salary as a corporate lawyer.

In major cities such as Toronto, Canada, there are so many companies that offer essay help and special tutoring. One of them is called Essay Experts. Make sure that you are going with a company that offers help with your essay…not to write them for you. This way you will make sure that you are truly preparing yourself for the rigor of education.

The United States also offers tutoring, sometimes even online. There is an organization called Smarthinking.com that is based in Washington where people with bachelors, master’s and PhDs can help you to find solutions for your homework problems.

There is a lot of help out there for people who are looking for it. Try Googling some places or following some of the tips given here – this could be the start of turning your B grades into A grades and A grades into A+ grades.

Getting a Job in Academia

For many of you working on a graduate degree, you can turn that into a lucrative career by teaching. There are some things to keep in mind if you are going after an academic job.

Depending on whether you are going for something full-time or part-time, there are many opportunities to teach at college and university. Lately, to get your foot in the door of a college, having a PhD does help, although people with master’s degrees do receive jobs. It truly depends on the program your coordinator is thinking of hiring you for.
Some people make the mistake of approaching the chair of a department to inquire about teaching. The chair many times is not responsible for hiring decisions – if they are, keep in mind their job is has a heavy load and if they take some time to get back to you, this is the normal process of how slow the academic job search can be.

The main person to deal with is the coordinator of the program. They are usually highly approachable and good at returning phone calls and e-mails – this is part of their work. In larger programs, it is the coordinator who is responsible for hiring and making a connection with this person can be your way of getting into academic teaching, either at the university or college level.

If you have prior teaching experience this really helps. Having patience helps a lot too because of the nature of the academic year; it may take quite a bit of time before everything works out in such a way before you are hired. Obtaining part-time work can be rather easy – it is getting the full-time work that is much harder. First securing part-time work can lead to full-time work down the road – this can definitely happen.

Good luck with your academic job search.

Understanding Part-time Professors

Some of the professors you may have in university and college may be part-time and there are special things you need to keep in mind about having professors as this. There are advantages and disadvantages.

Some of the advantages of having a professor that is part-time is that most likely they are active in the industry that you are seeking to work in and can serve as an excellent reference for you. They may even be able to help you to get a job.

Some of the disadvantages are that the professor may not be as available as a full-time professor would be because they are not on campus as often. It may be a little bit more difficult to reach a part-time professor, however the benefits may outweigh the disadvantages.

Make sure that if you do have a professor that is part-time, you get all their contact details and try to keep in touch with them when you need to. Also, try to understand the part-time professors are trying to make a living and if they do not get back to you right away, it may be because they are busy making a living elsewhere than just the college and university environment.

The above photo is cover art for The Education Generation which I have wrote. You can buy it at: http://stores.lulu.com/kakonged, along with many other books.

The Big Business of Education

Education is big business. Many new programs that schools come out with are designed to raise the profile and to raise the profits of the school. This is why it is important to get your money’s worth.

Making sure that at the start of your application process with the school you are dealing with good administrative staff is important. These are the people you would need to deal with from time to time, so you want to make sure they provide excellent customer service. If you are finding that the administrative or support staff is not helping you to get what you need, you may want to try another school with more supportive staff.

The professors at the school are also important. It is part of the faculty’s responsibility to make sure you feel like you are getting educated. Education is big business; however the price you are paying will help you to advance your career and is an investment that will pay off in the end. Make sure your professors are there to help you. Equally important is making sure the school has writing centres, a good library and other resources that will help you to get the most out of your money.

One major thing you need to keep in mind is to ask as many questions as you can think of. Do not be afraid to ask questions of the administration, support staff and your professors to get what you need and want. School is big business and it is a major investment. You should be made to feel that your needs are being met at all times.

As well what is important is to make the best of your experience. As hard as you work is how much you will get out of the experience. School, although it is a moneymaker for many people, is also a wonderful time for growth and most of time an extremely ethical business to invest in and something that will secure a future for you. Work hard and it will pay off.

Professors’ Perspective: Ending the Class Well

So you have made it through yet another semester with a fresh group of students, or either this is your first time teaching and you are amazed you made it through. How do you end the class on a high note?

If it is a yearlong course or even a course for either 14 or 15 weeks in a post-secondary school, sometimes everyone, that includes both the students and the professor, lose some of their initial enthusiasm for the course. This is when a professor really needs to start to think creatively about how to infuse more life into the class. Here are some tips:

· Field trips are not something that are just for students in grade school. Field trips can be a great way to infuse some life into a class that has gone on for many weeks and stir things up quite a bit
· Bringing in a guest speaker in the few final weeks of the course can be a great way to break up some of the monotony of the course material. Let’s face it too, sometimes students may get bored of seeing the same professor week after week, sometimes even as much as every day depending on the program – this can be a great way to introduce them to a new face and give the professor a well needed break to make sure the class finishes strong
· Keeping in touch with students through convenient devices such as e-mail can be a great way to make sure that student attendance does not suffer in those final weeks of the course. If a professor notices that a student has not been coming to class, they should contact the student to find out what is going on, as well as letting them know they care
· Organizing classroom activities such as debates and interesting games in language classes can be a great way to spice things up in the final weeks of a course
· Depending on the program a professor is teaching, the final weeks may serve as a perfect opportunity to have a more flexible schedule when it comes to the student needing to attend the class. One-on-one consultations can be planned with students where they have an opportunity to fully develop a project they are working on and have the professor’s full attention to ask questions. Many students would probably really appreciate this teaching method because they would be so bogged down with homework from their other courses

When that last day of class does arrive, keep in mind that is not appropriate for a professor to go out to any special place, such as a restaurant or café where alcohol is served. If you choose a campus cafeteria, this may be a great way to say a fond farewell and also to conclude the class in a more relaxed environment.

The final class can also be a great way for a professor to let their students know of any upcoming activities, courses, research or work-related projects they may be involved in. At the same time, it is good time to find out what the plans of the students are. Many professors should encourage their top students to ask for recommendation letters at the end of the class when the instructor would have a good sense of the student’s final grade – this way it avoids the need to write a reference letter for the student years after a professor may have forgotten about their performance in the class.

For more information about how to end a class well, please visit www.developfaculty.com.