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Career & Life Planning
Career and Life Planning
By: Dawn Moreno, Meditec Contributor
Great careers and great lives usually do not happen by accident. The average person spends 40 hours a week at their given career. That is over 2080 hours per year devoted to work. When one stops to consider how much time is invested it is easy to understand why career planning is imperative. There are six major steps to effective career planning which include the following:
• Self-assessment
• Research
• Decision making
• Networks and contacts
• Work offers and acceptance
• Life-work planning
Self-Assessment
Accurate self assessment is essential to assist a person to determine current skills, values, personal interests, learning needs, self-employment potential, and knowing what to look for in a career path. Asking yourself questions like what is most important to me in life? Some may answer this question that money is the most important, and others may answer that having a lot of free time to spend in travel is most important. There are no wrong answers. A person seeking much money would need to look for a career path that would pay well. A person who wants a lot of flexibility might be better suited for self-employment. Additionally understanding learning style, personality type, and one’s personal value system is important to making a well rounded self-assessment. Asking yourself the right questions is essential in effective career planning.
Research
Doing research to ascertain what types of work are available, what types of jobs interest you, and what are the current trends in that career field is an important next step in effective career planning. Researching work environments, income potential, and what type of advancement potential a career might have are also important research criteria to consider.
Decision-Making
Decision-making entails writing a life-career action plan. This is where you take time to really consider what you want to accomplish in your life and in your career both short-term and long-term. Things to consider would be health, exercise, community involvement, volunteerism, goals for education and/or career advancement.
Networks and Contacts
Networks and contacts are all about creating an award winning resume, interviewing skills, and locating potential employers. A well written resume goes a long way, but having a great interview is the key to getting the job you want. Understanding good interview skills, being able to ask the right questions, knowing what type of questions you will be asked and having ready answers is key to a good interview.
Work-Offers and Acceptance
This step is geared toward deciding which the best job offer is for you. Fitting into your new environment and making plans for the future.
Life-Work Planning
Life-work planning is learning to take time to assess your career and life and making adjustments if needed. It is also about making future goals, deciding on further education, and planning for the future.
Career planning is an important process to undertake in order to make sure that the over 2000 hours you spend at work each year are enjoyable and fit your personality, learning style, and meet your financial and life goals.
Meditec offers an in-depth and detailed book called Career Development Goal and Life Planner. It contains many self-assessments and is interactive, detailed, and fun. It is by far one of the best available career planners available. You can learn more about it by following this link: http://www.meditec.com/career-planner-ebook-orderform.html. Finding the Right Career for You
Twenty or thirty years ago, finding the right career was limited by lack of global internet tools, restricted by more old-fashioned (if you will) values and opinions, and less important than finding yourself. I recall when my therapist, the savior of all saviors as far as I’m concerned, laughed with me over how I had gone about finding the right career: I had taken all the courses I found interesting and many I hoped were somehow related, then tried to decide on a major/career.
She gently joked that many people decide first, then do the footwork of taking the required and necessary and relevant courses, doing internships, and getting in at some entry-level. Clearly, I didn’t have the tools we do today for finding the right career, or I didn’t know about their existence and usefulness, at least.
For example, a lot of students will use personality testing and employment/goal assessments for finding the right career right in high school and again in college. ERIK, Psychometric testing tools, and career skills assessment batteries will help to define aptitude and save you time futzing around with majors and minors that you THINK you MIGHT like when six years later decide you need to start all over finding the right career, as offshore drilling is not for you or interplanetary travel studies will take too long or anthropological studies of tribes now extinct are wiped off the college catalogs three quarters of the way into your educational plan.
A fantastic implement of guidance, information, and statistical projection for finding the right career is the Index to Careers Guide, created, updated/maintained, and provided both online and off (in college and high school career centers, for instance) by the U.S. Department of Labor/Bureau of Labor Statistics.
If finding the right career is a task you feel or think requires a knowledge of salaries, working conditions, descriptions of the nature of the work involved, training and other qualification requirements, the number of jobs/positions held in that field and the competition involved, and projected job openings, then go to www.bls.gov and type in any career title or browse the index of thousands of positions/job types.
Another brilliant tool is one that comes in workbook form and accompanies the What Color is Your Parachute and The Boxes of Life books by Richard Bolles. The workbooks (and books) have you take intensive (but interesting, fun) quizzes that lead you to slowly but surely deduce or do a process of elimination experiment that helps you in finding the right career FOR YOU not your Mom, your dead Grandfather, or the culture around you who has all kinds of opinions about who you are and who you should be but who does not pay your rent or feed your kids when push comes to shove. Nor are they the ones who need to live in your skin, sleep through the night, or answer to your higher needs and greater consciousness.
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About the Author
Chris Kennelly writes for Talkinmince article resources directory, to find more articles and resources go to http://www.talkinmince.com, and if you like you can register for your free publishers account, and let the world read your articles. Lucrative Paralegal Jobs
Overview
Although lawyers are mostly responsible for legal court work, very often they allot their responsibilities to paralegals. One of the most important tasks of paralegals is to help the lawyers to prepare for hearings, trials, corporate meetings and closings. Paralegals perform the background investigation into the facts of the case and make sure that all the important information has been considered. In addition to this preparatory work, they perform a number of other important functions. For instance, they help in drafting contracts, separation agreements, instruments of trust and mortgages.
Areas of Work
Many organizations require the expertise of paralegals. Law firms, legal departments of large corporate houses and government offices employ the services of paralegals. Within these organizations, they work in different aspects of applied law, such as corporate law, personal injury, real estate, family law, employee benefits and even criminal law. Since law has increased in complexity, paralegals now also specialize in their services. Paralegals in corporations and the public sector usually work a standard 40-hour week.
Training
There are a number of ways to become a paralegal. The most common is a paralegal program at a community college that matures into an associate’s degree. The other common method is through a program of certification in paralegal studies. Bachelor’s and master’s degrees in paralegal studies are also available at a number of schools. Some employers also train paralegals. They hire college graduates with no legal experience and train them hands-on.
Nearly 1000 colleges and universities, proprietary schools and law schools offer formal paralegal training. Familiarity with technical knowledge and the working of computers is also essential in paralegal work. The Internet and computer software are regularly used to research legal literature and save databases. Therefore, a course in computer operations can be extremely useful and is virtually essential.
Job Outlook
Employment for paralegals is expected to grow much faster in the future. Employers are trying to cut costs by hiring paralegals to take care of a number of tasks that were earlier performed by lawyers. Experienced and formally trained paralegals have the best employment opportunities. Insurance companies, banks, real estate agencies and title insurance firms are now hiring paralegals. The demand for paralegals will increase with the expanding population’s demand for legal services.
Earning Prospects
Earnings of paralegals and legal assistants vary. Salaries are based on experience, education, training, the type and size of the employing company and the geographic location. In general, paralegals working for large legal firms or in large cities and metropolitan areas usually earn more than those who work within smaller firms or in remote regions. In addition to the salary, many companies offer a system of bonus to paralegals. The average starting salary can be anything around $30,000. Even the lowest paid is close to $26,000, while the top make as much as $90,000 or more.
After five years of experience, the average salary increases. The average paralegal salary for the top bracket can increase to as much as $80,000 in five years.
If you have an analytical mind, and like law, then a career as a paralegal can prove to be immensely satisfying.
Notation Added: Meditec’s paralegal program meets the hours and training requirement for testing with NALA for the CLA credential. It’s a great time to get started with online, interactive, comprehensive paralegal training.
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About the Author:
Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution’s Six Sigma Online ( http://www.sixsigmaonline.org ) offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts. Medical Record Blunders
Source: www.geocities.com/medicaljokes
A man goes to the doctor and says to the doctor:
“It hurts when I press here” (pressing his side)
“And when I press here” (pressing the other side)
“And here” (his leg)
“And here, here and here” (his other leg, and both arms)
So the doctor examined him all over and finally discovered what was wrong… “You’ve got a broken finger!
This Month’s Recipe: By: Meditec Contributor Dawn Moreno
Crockpot Smothered Steak
-3 or 4 pounds cheap steak. Any cut. Can be cubed steak. Try to find steak not on the bone.
-1 package frozen fajita peppers mix (green, red, yellow, peppers)
-1 small bag frozen onion
-2 cans mushrooms
-1 jar KC Masterpiece Steak house marinade
-Instant white rice
Directions: Marinate steaks in the marinade 24 hours prior to cooking. Cut steaks up into pieces or strips before putting in Crockpot or this can be done after cooking. Toss in package of frozen fajita peppers, both cans of mushrooms, ½ bag of onions. Add a little of the extra marinade to the Crockpot. Cook on low in Crockpot about 7 or 8 hours. Serve over hot instant white rice. Just delicious and quick and easy! VARIATION: Toss in a can of green beans. Also, if during cooking, it seems that the steak and vegetables don’t have enough moisture and it starts to stick to the Crockpot, you can add a little water. Meditec – “Learn at home to work at home!” – Take advantage of our HOT Summer Specials!!!
Legal Assistant and Legal Transcription are smokin’ hot, so we’re offering deals on both our Legal Transcription and Paralegal/Legal Assistant individual course AND we’re increasing the discount on our Legal Transcription/Paralegal-Legal Assistant Combo Course. Purchase this LT/PL Combo Course during the month of June and we’ll take $725.00 off the retail list price AND we’ll give you a free copy of our Career Goal and Life Planner and HomeBiz Business eBooks!
For the month of June, we’re also holding over some of our May specials on our most popular medical career training courses including $300 Off Retail on Medical Transcription and Medical Coding..
If you’ve been thinking about medical career training, NOW is the time to act. Contact us toll free: 877-335-4072 or send an inquiry to: info@meditec.com. Click on the above Splash into Spring Specials link or the Monthly Specials link on our main home page for complete details. We are here to help you!
