some alternative career

December 10th, 2009

ALTERNATIVE CAREER OPTIONS | If life is a choice, then so does the career path. Everyone has their choice of careers they want to pursue. Why on earth would anybody object; after all, it is your passion. some unusual career where people do not know to pursue and choose to do so. This is an opportunity to become an alternative choice for you, Especially when the ‘unusual career’ of your choice has a potential to pay more than many common jobs, you are more inclined to pursue it. Here I will list a few unusual jobs that are respectable and pay reasonably well.

list of some alternative career :

Bartending: Well, this is not just about mixing drinks. As a bartender, you will have to put in long and unusual hours, going very late to bed and getting up when it most people are already at work. There is lot of money to be made in this profession in the form of tips, especially if you deal with wealthy customers. Of course, well-known bars and restaurants hire bartenders who have a broad range of skills. A short training course and experience will help you break into this profession. It doesn’t hurt to have some well-placed networking contacts, either.

Disk Jockey: Disk Jockeying can catapult you into stardom, if you are very good. You can have your own way of playing music; you can play with sound and virtually anything that sounds good. You can look at music with a new vision and feed it to your audience while you get paid for just enjoying your music. There are not much responsibilities and instant results from your ‘customers.’ Keep in mind though, that you will need to spend a good deal of time promoting yourself; it doesn’t hurt to have others do the same.

Jewelry Designing: Jewelry designing and gemology are very well paying jobs. As they say, the sky is the limit for a revolutionary jewelry designer. The demand for this profession can be understood by the near tripling of the gold price in the last decade. There will always be high demand for unusual and unique jewelry pieces.

Magazine Editor: The popularity of magazines has taken a beating from a flurry of ezines, TV shows, etc. for the last decade or so. Those which survived did so on the strength of the features covered and their design and layout. But is it really so well paying? Talk to a professional editor. It is not just important to have good features these days, you need to know how to present them well, and in a way that the readers will like. All it takes to being a path-breaking editor is an eye for detail and a quick grasp of what the audience likes.

Funeral Director: Yep, you heard right. This is really a very lucrative profession, although probably not suitable for everyone. There will never be a lack of demand for funeral directors, for obvious reasons. The scarcity of funeral professionals makes life hectic for the few available.

Greeting Card Writer: All those mind boggling, emotional yet simple poetry or short write-ups are not done by the card manufacturers. Just take a minute to think about the profit made if the card manufacturers have to pay a fraction of the profits to only a handful of card writers. Now that qualifies to be called lucrative.

Coffee Tasters: Tea and coffee manufacturers spend millions on researching and perfecting blends that would make their brands blockbusters. And how will they know which blend is the perfect match to the research predictions? Brewers make hundreds of samples and professional tasters taste each one of them and report back to management based on their impressions and notes.

tips of successful phone interviews

December 3rd, 2009

WAYS TO HANDLE PHONE INTERVIEW | One major difference between phone interviews and face to face interviews is that you can’t see each other. Secondly, phone etiquette differs from that of personal interview etiquette. Here are some tips to phone interviews that help ensure that you get a call for the actual interview.

  1. When you indicate your willingness for phone interview specify the time that suits you. This allows you to avoid cell phone conversations. Using a cell phone for an interview is a dicey proposition, because of the possibility of dropped calls, bad connections, etc.
  2. If you sense trouble with telephone interview, do a rehearsal or a mock phone interview with a friend.
  3. Ensure that you are available at the chosen time and that your voicemail or answering machine is turned off. If your answering machine comes on, you might annoy the interviewer.
  4. Be prepared at the specified time with your resume, a list of your achievements, and pen & pad for taking notes nearby.
  5. Make sure the kids go out; turn off TV or stereo.

Since you can’t see each other face to face, short pauses can become uncomfortable. The interviewer might be thinking of an additional question related to the previous one. Be patient unless you have to ask something about the question.

Additional Etiquette tips are listed below:

Phone Interview Etiquette

  1. Don’t do anything that could disrupt the interview. Eating, drinking, smoking or over enthusiastic talking all cause unnecessary interruptions.
  2. Never miss the call. If you are not home at the appointed time, a human voice (relative) would be better as an answering machine might annoy the caller. If you think that you will miss the call for some reason, ALWAYS call the interviewer before they call and realize that you are not available.
  3. Ask for the caller’s name and confirm it is for the interview. If you have genuine reasons to reschedule the interview, explain it at this stage and suggest a new time.
  4. Use the person’s title with his or her last name.
  5. It is fine to take a moment to think about your answers. Enunciate clearly, making your answers short and to the point.
  6. Avoid sneezing and coughing while on the phone and when you can’t avoid it, say ‘excuse me’.
  7. Your smile can be heard over the phone. Smile as you would do in an actual interview.
  8. Avoid answering in short yes or no answers. Always elaborate if you can.
  9. Discuss the salary issue only if brought up by the interviewer first.
  10. At no point in time should you get into an argument with the interviewer over any issue.

successful steps to changing career

November 28th, 2009

SUCCESSFUL CAREER CHANGE | Many reasons to hold a person for daring to take a decision in changing career while thought changing career crossed their minds at some point in time. “lack of confidence” is the major reason that can be attributed to this noticeable phenomenon.

It is not unusual to desire a change in career. However, proper & detailed planning and preparation is essential for a successful change in career. Many times, procrastinating over the matter not just develops the redundancy factor but also creates a sort of fear and hindrance.

Steps to a successful career change
Here are the ten steps to changing your career successfully:

  1. Preparing To Change: Gather information about your target organizations, job profile, etc. Get additional training and certifications as needed. Get your resume done professionally; highlighting areas to which you can contribute to and your past accomplishments.
  2. Expect The Unexpected: Interviewers throw out surprises, sometimes unintentionally, which can catch you off-guard. It pays to know the questions that they might ask. Anticipate even the craziest questions.
  3. Consult Those Who Are Already In Your Chosen Field: This gives you a wealth of information on the daily routine, responsibilities and challenges.
  4. Changing A Line Of Career Isn’t Unusual: The need for cross-discipline skills is no surprise these days. Get across the point that you don’t lack all the skills required by the new job even you haven’t worked in a similar one. Interpersonal skills, organizational, personal skills are commonly required wherever you go.
  5. Brush Up Old Skills And Add New Ones: Comparing your skill set with that required by the target job will tell you the areas you need to concentrate on.
  6. Use The Internet: Use Internet job boards to post your resume, which should be carefully crafted specially for this purpose. By crafting, I mean using keywords that are industry-specific jargon.
  7. Internet Helps Research A New Industry: Visit websites of organizations, forums or associations in that field which gives invaluable insight before short listing them. Researching job listings by company will definitely help you get an idea of what skills are most in demand.
  8. Family Support: Draw confidence and support from your family. When you are down, use them as a sounding board. They may be able to help you come up with new ideas, and they will definitely boost your confidence.
  9. Interview, Interview: Even if you are not perfectly suited for a particular position, you should still interview as much as you can. This way, you will know your strengths and weaknesses. It will also help if you do some informational interviewing. This is simply targeting people already working in your field and speaking with them about their jobs.
  10. Network. Networking has been the time-tested method for a successful career change. Network with ex-employees and current employees of your target industry. Over 60% of all interviews come as a result of networking.

the jobs of the future

November 21st, 2009

FUTURE CAREERS | Much of your future depends on how well you prepare yourself now .Included in determining the right career path with the best options. These are the jobs of the future. They are based on knowledge and skills and need to be onshore.

Tissue Engineering :  For students of physiology, studying tissues and cell behavior can be made easy by making 3D functional models in-vitro. Functional models are made using cells, and devices which help cell growth. This is gaining popularity and MIT is the pioneer in this course.

Data Miners : As the name suggests, it is virtually digging thru tons of data of and for business transactions. The purpose of mining data is to reach a meaningful format dependable enough to make predictions; tracing trends of customer behavior, for example. Don’t be misled; the future world is going to be data driven.

Gene Programmers : George Washington University predicts that lab technicians can customize medicines by scanning DNA and using gene therapy to block disease. This can and probably will be a reality in less than 10 years.

Neurotronic Engineers
: The World Future Society says that human brains will be artificially extended by wiring microchips to the brain by these engineers by 2030. When this is possible, this opens a Pandora’s Box of a host of careers.

Pharmers: No more pricks on your behind if ‘pharmers’ grow sufficient genetically engineered therapeutic crops. Watch out, you may have to eat a tomato for vaccination!

Lawyers: The loyal warhorse. Don’t want believe that lawyers will not have sufficient clients in the future.

Writers: Writers of all kinds, script writers, technical writers and content writers. All these professions are going to have an explosion.

Network Systems And Data Communications Analyst :  Wow! What does this mean, anyway? The systems analyst dealing with the specialist field which requires data communications knowledge. This job, in fact, is predicted to be on top.

Actors :  Reality and both virtual reality actors will be in great demand. Now, what is virtual reality actor? It is a virtual 3D model of an actor, which can be programmed to act just like him. We can hope to see Marlon Brando giving young actors a run for their money!

Police : Like their cousins (lawyers) law enforcement professionals will always be present in the very distant and conceivable future. They just may not have to run after gangsters then.

These are challenging, breathtaking future career options which made the top 10. Like it or not, some professions will never go out of style!