Gone are the days when a high school diploma was all you needed to get a good job. While some companies will reimburse their employees for the costs of higher education, new job aspirants are typically required to have a college degree. Consider the following points before you decide whether you should earn your degree.

Personal Achievement

The feeling of achievement and success attached to earning a college degree has not decreased. Parents are happy and proud when their children graduate from college. You will find that you are ready to set higher goals for yourself, and that many new opportunities and doors will be open to you.

Can I Afford to Go Back to School?

Many talented people miss the opportunity to gain higher education thinking that they do not have enough time or money. They don't know about the flexible programs that are available for working adults, including online degree programs.

Manageable Options

Enrollments in online courses is expanding rapidly. However, if you are considering an online college, make sure that it is accredited. Even if an online degree is not on par with Ivy League degrees, online degrees are highly accepted by employers. Typically, the course content, and teaching methods are the same for the online courses as those taught on campus.

Financial Considerations

Monetary concerns should not stand in the way of you and higher education. A federal student's loan makes it possible for you to gain the education you need. And, you can pay for it when you start working. There are other grants and scholarships for which you may qualify, so do your homework and research all the options. But, consider this – are you willing to obtain a loan for a car or other things that you want? If so, then why are you unwilling to invest in your future? Education is something that no one can ever take away from you, and it never diminishes in value.

Summing it All Up

College education is more accessible than ever before, and is required if you want to be competitive in today's job market.
 

What would you like to be when you grow up? Kids are asked that question during their developing years and the responses as a rule vary over a period of time. You may have fancied to become a policeman or veterinarian while you were in grade school, or maybe a doctor or rock star in middle school. In high school, the guidance counselor may have furnished you a listing of various careers and required you to inventory the five careers that attracted you most.

It is very different once you are caught in a occupation that you do not enjoy very much.  The bills are paid but you must ask yourself what you are doing with your life. Take a different look at that list of various careers or make a fresh one.

If you could do something in the world and be paid for it, what would you decide to do? That is the basic step to "finding your bliss" as Joseph Campbell would say. Dream big and design your path to your target in tiny steps.

With your listing of various careers in front of you, truthfully weigh your talent and ability. Adjustment some times necessitates risk of some type. Contemplate your choices completely and do not permit fright of losing what you have to prevent all the fabulous things you may get from adopting a different course.

The employment you desire may necessitate that you go back to school. You do not have to leave your current job to do that. For the most part of the choices on your list of assorted careers can be attained through distance education.

Are there a few items from your catalog of various careers that hit you as eminently meaningful? If you prepared to be a banker or computer programmer, would your workday be packed with new purpose and a sense of achievement? Be strong and use time with a listing of numerous professions. You will never regret taking the time to better your future.

Have you ever felt stuck in your career, or like you are in a dead-end career path?  Employee stress and burn out can account for a lot of dissatisfaction in your life.  After all, you are at work some 8 hours a day or more.  That’s 1/3 of your day if you don’t count sleep.  That’s a long time to be dissatisfied.

If you feel stuck, here are 6 great ways to find your ideal career:

    1.   Brainstorm on a sheet of paper – I’ve talked about this before and it’s a strategy I use all the time.  Take a pad of paper and write down at the top your objective in question form.  Then, simply list out 20 answers to your question.  For example, you could write “What should I be doing with my time and life?”  Then stay seated for a half hour to an hour coming up with answers to that question.  The key to this exercise is coming up with 20 answers – don’t quit until you have 20 answers.  You can repeat every day until you get the answer you seek. 

2.   Ask 3 close friends – Sometimes our friends know us better than ourselves.  While meeting with one of your friends, mention you are at a crossroads in your life and career.  Ask what they think you’d enjoy doing.  You might be surprised at how easily they can zero in to your strengths and abilities and report a perfect job area.

3.   Ask your boss and coworkers – much like your friends in the example above, your boss and coworkers most likely see you in a way you do not see yourself.  In fact, they are likely most familiar with your strengths and weaknesses in the work environment.  Compile all the answers you get from them and see if there are any common threads you can explore.

4.  Call a headhunter – If you are searching in your career, it’s likely you have a resume.  Sometimes you can catch a headhunter or recruiter during their slow times and meet with them to pick through what you might be good at.  I’ve done this at different times in my life and the people seem open to talking with people.  After all, if you don’t get paid, they don’t either.  The ideas I get are usually good.

5.  Take a career assessment test – There are several sites on the Internet you might be able to take one of these tests for a fee.  But using my ‘headhunter’ tip above, many headhunters have this software and don’t mind you taking the test in their office.   I’ve taken these tests two times in my life and they usually take an hour or two, but they are thorough.  They ask you to answer a series of questions about what you are good at, what you like to do, what you prefer doing over what you don’t.  If you take one, you will likely see some new exciting areas to explore in your life.

6.   Keep a journal – Do you keep a journal?  If so, read through, looking for common threads in your writing.  Keep your eyes peeled for trends and activities you like as well as don’t like.  In fact, finding examples of what you don’t like and what frustrates you is almost as important as finding what you do like.  For example, if you hate an overwhelming boss, you’d probably like a self-directed position.  If you hate nosy coworkers you’d probably prefer your own office. 

Discovering what you really want to do with your life is the most important decision you can make.  We spend 1/3 or more of our lives at work.  So figuring out the right career is important to keeping that 1/3 of our lives happy and productive.

If you are looking for good career opportunities that will offer you a life of professional work and income it is a necessity to earn some type of degree.  For many individuals the place to start your education is with online degree programs that are convenient and affordable.  There are many programs and offerings available with an online education.  Most of these college and universities are now fully accredited and widely accepted by employers.  Within a short time period you can earn your degree totally online without ever stepping onto a campus.  This is the perfect solution for those who lead busy lives and do not have the time to attend classes on a regular schedule.

by Jennifer

Ever wondered what it would be like to be taking college courses online? This entry will give you a flavor of how online classes are conducted and what you as the student have to do to be successful. The course I am taking is a human-computer interaction course for my Master's in Computer Education.

Monday

I login to WebCT, my schools online course software, to pick up my weekly email from the course's instructor. She details the assignments we need to complete this week, discussions to post, and includes a review for an upcoming test. While the list of assignments due this week is available in the syllabus on WebCT, I appreciate having this weekly reminder of what I need to complete this week.

I notice that new grades have been posted on some of the prior assignments I have already turned in. I am pleased with the result and note comments that she has made for future reference.

Tuesday

Today, I pulled open the book and read the assigned chapter. I used sticky notes to mark important sections that I might need for a test later. Some people prefer to mark in the book directly with highlighters, but I prefer stickies. There is also a Powerpoint presentation with 30 slides.

Wednesday

There is a video I need to watch. It is available online or I can pull it off the cd the professor provided at the beginning of the course. Since I have a high-bandwidth connection, I download and stream it directly from WebCT.

Thursday thru Saturday

These days I tend to work on my other course or not at all. As a consummate procrastinator, I tend to put the written assignments off until Sunday, or Saturday if they are extensive. I do read the assignments on Monday so that I can at least be thinking about them as I drive to and from work or have other down time.

Sunday

I prepare my written assignment(s). Then I go into WebCT into the appropriate assignment and upload the Word document with the professor's naming convention. After the upload, the assignment is marked submitted and I receive a confirmation email that I was successful.

My final duty is to prepare an answer to a "discussion question of the week" in the WebCT bulletin board for this course. I scan through the prior postings and reply to an interesting one. Finally, I post my answer to the question and submit it. I review the schedule for next week to prepare myself for the following week. Another week complete.

I have taken a number of course from UNT through WebCT and others through other systems that the University provides. The University is only 30 miles away so I take face-to-face classes as well, because I really like the interaction of a class. I like both methodologies. You may prefer one or the other, you won't know till you try.