Setting and Achieving Goals
"A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline." Wise words ... and to think they came out of a fortune cookie! It's nice to have dreams, but it's much more practical to have goals. We can, and probably should, have goals for most areas of our lives, but it is most important for career planning. This is an area that affects all others. Just think about it. Your choice of career, and your success in it, affects your emotional well being. If you aren't happy with your job, your days will be pretty bleak. After all, look at the number of hours you work everyday. Your career choice also affects how you live your life, from the type of home you live in to the kinds of vacations you can take. So, it's clearly worth spending time setting some goals.
A goal begins life as a dream. For example, you may dream of being a doctor, owning your own business or winning a Grammy. Unless these dreams meet certain criteria, they will remain dreams and you may achieve them, but your chances aren't good. However, if you convert your dreams into goals, you will increase the probability of them becoming a reality. How do you turn your dreams into goals? Is it as simple as the fortune suggested — just give them a plan and a deadline? That's just part of how to make sure you are able to meet your goals. Want to know more? Read Goal Setting and the Career Planning Process.
Additional Reading:
Setting and Achieving Goals originally appeared on About.com Career Planning on Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 14:38:45. Permalink | Comment | Email this
Weekly Career Profile: Travel Agent
Travel agents help make arrangements for people who are traveling for either business or pleasure. In order to assure the arrangements they make are the best ones possible, travel agents first assess their clients' needs. There aren't any particular educational requirements, other than a high diploma, needed to work in this field, but employers prefer to hire agents who have completed vocational training. Travel agents face a lot of competition from online travel services (Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition).
If you are thinking about becoming a travel agent, you should learn more about it. Read Travel Agent: Career Information to get some basic details about this occupation, including earnings, job outlook and advancement opportunities. Then find out what working travel agents think about their job by reading our Real Life of a Travel Agent submissions. Finally, if you are considering pursuing this career further, take the Should You Become a Travel Agent? quiz. It can help you determine if this career choice is for you.
Weekly Career Profile: Travel Agent originally appeared on About.com Career Planning on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 11:24:09. Permalink | Comment | Email this
Weekly Career Profile: Conservationist
Conservationists protect our natural resources including soil and water. They help governments and landowners find ways to utilize land without harming the environment. Conservationists, who are also called soil and water conservationists or conservation scientists, have, at the minimum, bachelor's degrees in ecology, natural resource management, agriculture, biology or environmental science.
If you are considering a career as a conservationist it is important to learn more about it. You can do that by first obtaining some basic details, including earnings, job outlook and advancement opportunities. Take a look at Conservationist: Career Information. For more in-depth information, conduct informational interviews with people who are currently working as conservationists. Finally, if you are considering pursuing this career further, take the Should You Become a Conservationist? quiz. It can help you determine whether you have the characteristics necessary to succeed in this career.
Weekly Career Profile: Conservationist originally appeared on About.com Career Planning on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 at 12:31:32. Permalink | Comment | Email this
Survey Shows Increased Poor Tech Etiquette in Workplace
Have you noticed that some people can be quite rude when they are using their cell phones or other electronic devices? I've had people stop cold while walking down the street so they can send a text. They don't seem phased by the people who have to quickly veer around them. Or how about people carrying on conversations on their phones while in the bathroom? I have one word for that: Yuck!
Robert Half Technology released the results of a survey that asked chief information officers the following question: "In your opinion, what effect has the increased use of mobile electronic gadgets — such as cell phones, smartphones, handheld devices and laptops — had on workplace etiquette in the past three years? Have the number of breaches in workplace etiquette increased, decreased or remained the same?" I wasn't surprised to hear that 51 percent of the 1,400 chief information officers responded that they have seen an increase in poor workplace etiquette (Tech-Etiquette Outlaws: Are You One of Them?). Maybe it's time to use your cell phones and electronic devices a little more politely. Stop emailing and texting during meetings and don't answer your phone when you are engaged in a conversation with a co-worker or your boss. If you think no one is noticing, this survey should tell you otherwise.
More About Office Etiquette:
Survey Shows Increased Poor Tech Etiquette in Workplace originally appeared on About.com Career Planning on Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 14:27:03. Permalink | Comment | Email this
Could You Get Away With Conan's Behavior?
Conan O'Brien's on-air evisceration of his now former employer NBC over the the last couple of weeks will most likely do nothing to hinder his career. Quite the contrary. It's more likely it will give his career a huge boost. At the least he's going to get tens of millions of dollars from NBC. Would you fare as well if you behaved in a similar fashion toward your employer? I don't think so.
Let's say your boss changed your hours to an undesirable shift, or did something else that made you unhappy. So, in retaliation you stand up on a chair in the middle of a very public area. You announce your dissatisfaction to anyone who will listen. Your boss would almost definitely show you the door pretty quickly. But that would be the least of your problems. Bigger issues would come along later on when you tried to find a new job. News of your actions would surely spread and you would be like poison to other employers. And then there are your co-workers whose opinions of you will almost certainly be influenced by your tirade. What will happen when you meet up with them sometime in the future, perhaps in another workplace?
Read: Five Things Not To Do When You Leave Your Job
Could You Get Away With Conan's Behavior? originally appeared on About.com Career Planning on Monday, January 25th, 2010 at 13:47:03. Permalink | Comment | Email this
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