Showing posts with label college. Show all posts

Monday, June 27, 2011

Posted: 27 Jun 2011 07:08 AM PDT

You’re thinking about going back to school. You know it would help make a difference for you. Before you take the plunge there are 5 things you should do.
#1: Ask yourself, “Why am I going to school?” People have different reasons for wanting more education. Is it for your own personal knowledge? Is it to help you advance in your company or perhaps to move to another job? Is it to prepare yourself to compete in the job market? Only you know the real reason.
#2: Now that you’ve thought through why you want to return to school, do a little research. Let’s say you plan to go to college because you worked in a warehouse for a number of years and your company closed. Now you’re looking for work and you’d really like to be a welder. What should you do? Check out the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics website at www.bls.gov. When you reach the website, click on “Publications” and then click on “Occupational Outlook Handbook”. Then, on the left side of the page in the “SEARCH” box, type “welder”. This will bring up a number of articles about welding. Click on the top one. You are now on a page that gives you extensive information about the field of welding, including what the work is like, what training and education you need, what the current and future job outlook is, and what the wages and earnings are. Information provided here is based on data gathered by the government to give you an accurate picture of what you can expect if you go into this field.
Here’s the education information you’ll find for welding:

Training, Other Qualifications, and Advancement

Training for welding, soldering, and brazing workers can range from a few weeks of school or on-the-job training for low-skilled positions to several years of combined school and on-the-job training for highly skilled jobs.
Education and training. Formal training is available in high schools and postsecondary institutions, such as vocational-technical institutes, community colleges, and private welding, soldering, and brazing schools. The U.S. Armed Forces operate welding and soldering schools as well. Some employers are willing to hire inexperienced entry-level workers and train them on the job, but many prefer to hire workers who have been through formal training programs. Courses in blueprint reading, shop mathematics, mechanical drawing, physics, chemistry, and metallurgy are helpful. An understanding of electricity also is very helpful, and knowledge of computers is gaining importance, especially for welding, soldering, and brazing machine operators, who are becoming more responsible for programming robots and other computer-controlled machines. Because understanding the welding process and inspecting welds is important for both welders and welding machine operators, companies hiring machine operators prefer workers with a background in welding.
Certification and other qualifications. Some welding positions require general certifications in welding or certifications in specific skills such as inspection or robotic welding. The American Welding Society certification courses are offered at many welding schools. Some employers have developed their own internal certification tests. Some employers are willing to pay training and testing costs for employees, while others require workers to pay for classes and certification themselves.
The Institute for Printed Circuits offers certifications and training in soldering. In industries such as aerospace and defense, where highly accurate and skilled work is required, many employers require these certifications. In addition, the increasing use of lead-free soldering techniques, which require more skill than traditional lead-based soldering techniques, has increased the importance of certification to employers.
Welding, soldering, and brazing workers need good eyesight, hand-eye coordination, and manual dexterity, along with good math, problem-solving, and communication skills. They should be able to concentrate on detailed work for long periods and be able to bend, stoop, and work in awkward positions. In addition, welders increasingly must be willing to receive training and perform tasks required in other production jobs.
Advancement. Welders can advance to more skilled welding jobs with additional training and experience. For example, they may become welding technicians, supervisors, inspectors, or instructors. Some experienced welders open their own repair shops. Other welders, especially those who obtain a bachelor’s degree or have many years of experience, may become welding engineers.
Welding may not be your field of choice, so use that SEARCH box for the field you want.
#3: Now you know why you want to return to school, you’ve chosen the field you want, and you know what education and training you need. Think you’re ready to get started back to school? Not quite yet! You need to do a little soul searching. Going to school requires both personal and financial commitment. It also requires work. Schools will help you identify financing options. Make sure you closely examine the costs so you understand your financial commitment and can evaluate it against what your projected earnings may be. And remember, getting the education may help, but it’s not a guarantee of employment. In addition, while some fields historically have high average earnings, others have historically low earnings. Make sure you look at the potential.
#4: Ok, so now you have thought about why you want to return to school, you’ve chosen the field you want, you know what education and training you need, and you’re ready to make the personal and financial commitment. NOW! You are ready to move forward. It’s time to select a school for your program of study. You can do your own research with the help of google or get some help at no cost from www.collegecomplete.com To use Google, simply search for the field you are interested in and you’ll get pages and pages of information. Happy reading! To get help from College Complete in finding schools that offer your program, just go to their website at www.collegecomplete.com/contact, submit a short request and you will be contacted by an Education Advocate who will do the research for you, at no cost. If you want faster service, just call them at 877-543-2655. Your call will probably take about 5 minutes. College Complete can help recommend schools that offer the program you want so you can make a good choice about where you go for your education. College Complete will also send you a list of common questions that you should ask each school before you make your decision.
#5: Time to get started! The biggest obstacle to going back to school is procrastination. If education is right for you, don’t let procrastination stop you from your future. See you in class!
For more Information: http://www.collegecomplete.com

Monday, May 9, 2011

Can You Find a Job Without a College Degree?

ResumeBear Blog

Can You Find a Job Without a College Degree?

Posted: 08 May 2011 07:11 AM PDT

For many people who worked their way up, the lack of degree was never an impediment — until they lost their jobs.
Bill Gates never graduated from college. Neither did Michael Dell nor Steve Jobs. Outside of the tech world, Richard Branson has done pretty well for himself without a college degree, as has Barry Diller.
But Sharon Willis is a more common example of the challenges to American workers who never graduated from college.
Since February, Willis has been the acting vice president for external affairs at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, a medical and health-sciences graduate school of 850 students. She will continue in that role until some time in the fall, when she will resume her position as deputy vice president. The VP role is one she wanted to apply for when it became vacant but couldn’t, even though she had the experience and knowledge. Why? She doesn’t have a bachelor's degree.
Willis started at the university 28 years ago as a clerk typist and worked her way up through the ranks. She describes herself as the “go-to” person for just about everybody with whom she works. Willis has done the job of vice president, and the college president knows she is up to the task on a permanent basis, yet her lack of a college diploma — a job requirement – means she does not qualify for the position.
Willis has hit a professional wall at the university, and she realizes that things would likely not be different elsewhere.
“When we have vacancies here, I see the qualifications of the applicants, many of whom have master’s degrees,” said Willis. “I realize that if I were to leave here, I would probably rank at the bottom of the applicant pool because of my lack of a degree, despite excellent experience, job stability, a very strong work ethic and great references. It’s disheartening.”
What Willis suspects to be true about the world outside the university is only too real for many of the millions of people the recession unleashed upon the job market. Many of these people started at a company in an entry-level position and worked their way up the ladder. Not having a college degree may not have mattered – until the time came to apply for a new position.
Bruce Hurwitz, president and CEO of Hurwitz Strategic Staffing, said he sees this issue come up regularly. “Every time I have tried to get a client to waive the college-degree requirement in light of the candidate's exemplary work experience, I have been refused,” he said. “They almost always say that it is their policy that all employees have at least a college degree.”
Such jobs now account for most of the economy. Nearly 60 percent of American jobs now require at least a bachelor's degree, according to “Help Wanted: Projections of Jobs and Education Requirements Through 2018,” a June 2010 report released by the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University. That number jumped from 28 percent in 1973 to 59 percent in 2008 and is expected to rise to 63 percent over the next decade, the report said.

Resume and Networking Solutions

So is your dream job, even most jobs, out of reach if you don’t have a college degree?
“I believe that employers want the right person for the job,” said Karla Porter, director of workforce development and HR for the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry and a private consultant on human capital and new media. “They’re not looking for a certificate, a degree, a piece of paper; they are looking for a solution provider. If there is a person who can do that for them and has a proven track record and can show what they’ve accomplished for other companies, I believe they will be considered.”
All of this must be conveyed in a carefully constructed resume. “To replace the college-degree situation on a resume, the person needs to stress the results they have been able to achieve due to their extensive experience,” said Dianne Durkin, president and founder of Loyalty Factor, a consulting and training firm.
“Make sure the resume is very, very well done,” Porter said. “If it’s not, it will go to the ‘C’ pile.”
Tony Deblauwe, senior HR partner at Citrix Systems and founder of HR4Change, agreed: “Your resume has to be rock-solid. It has to demonstrate your experience, your skills, your accomplishments. You’re promoting your best skills so that people focus on that and not get to the end and say, ‘Well, where’s your degree?’ ”
Cheryl Palmer, president of Call to Career, said she has worked with many people who have been to college but never got the degree. When writing a resume for a person in this situation, she mentions the college major and degree program but does not state that that he has a degree. “I’m being truthful, but not drawing undue attention to the fact that they don’t have a degree.”
This strategy will also help you get your resume past the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) software that most companies use to screen resumes.
“If [a job description] says ‘bachelor’s degree required’ and you don’t have a bachelor’s degree, your resume can say ‘bachelor’s degree not completed or not attained’ so the system will pick up the keywords ‘bachelor’s degree,’” Porter said. “You don’t want to say anything that is not true, but you want your resume to get in front of people. Make sure your resume contains the same keywords that the job description contains, and then rearrange them to how they fit for you.”
It’s commonly understood that networking is one of the most important things you can do when pursuing a new job, but it’s even more critical if you don’t have a degree, said Palmer. “If you don’t have a degree, the whole idea of networking is much, much more critical,” she said. “Employers prefer to hire someone that they know something about. They prefer people who have come referred. If you are trying to land a job in this very competitive job market and you don’t have a degree, you really have to take that networking to another level, to get around the fact that most employers are looking for a bachelor’s degree at an absolute minimum.”
Along those same lines, strong recommendations from clients, former employers, co-workers and associations can go a long way toward making up for the lack of a college degree.

It’s Never Too Late

So, what else can you do if you don’t have a college degree? Well, you can get one – or at least begin working toward one, no matter what your age.
Once enrolled in a program, you can write on a resume that a degree is “in progress,” experts suggested.
That’s just what the Uniformed Services University’s Willis is doing.
A busy single mother of three, Willis is taking classes in business management in the hopes that she can break through the barriers put up by the lack of a degree. Willis said her boss is very supportive and is giving her whatever time she needs. In addition, because she works for a federal institution, she gets tuition reimbursement. All of this, along with flexible options such as online classes, has allowed Willis to start on a path she hopes will lead to a higher-level position.
“I think in the long run, people are much better off just going ahead and pursuing the degree, no matter how hard it may be,” she said. “That’s what everyone will be looking for. You do get to a certain point where you just can’t go any further, and that’s where I am right now.”

Happy Mother’s Day to All the Great Mothers

Posted: 08 May 2011 06:45 AM PDT

The ResumeBear Team Wishes You a Fantastic Day

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Monday, June 27, 2011

The 5 Things You Should Do Before Going to College

ResumeBear Blog

Training, Other Qualifications, and Advancement

Monday, May 9, 2011

Can You Find a Job Without a College Degree?

ResumeBear Blog

Resume and Networking Solutions

It’s Never Too Late

Career Igniter