How To Find the Best College Town For You: 5 Great College Towns

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Choosing college is like choosing a house: location is key. While other factors must be considered–degree programs and cost, for instance–if you’re not happy in your space, other things will lose their magic. While no college town is a perfect fit for everyone, the following is a sample of great college towns that represent a diversity of sizes and vibes.

Best College Towns: Major Metro
Seattle, WA
Population: 616,627 (city); 3.5 million (metro area)
Seattle offers big-city living in a place that won’t swallow you whole. Although not the biggest, Seattle is filled with culture, entertainment, and great food. It’s a friendly city, too, making it a truly great college town. Seattle offers:
• 37 performing arts centers, 17 museums,and 30 public libraries
• A mild climate that rarely gets too hot or too cold
• Dozens of festivals a year

Best College Towns: Large City
Austin, TX
Population 786,386 (city); 1.7 million (metro area)
While many cities offer lots to do, not all can pull off a small-town feel. But Austin’s cultural and entertainment scenes are far from small-town. Did you know the following about Austin?
• Known as the Live Music Capital of the World, is home to over 1,900 bands and performing artists
• Austin City Limits is the longest-running popular music series in American television history
• Designated a Bicycle Friendly Community by The League of American Bicyclists

Best College Town: Medium City
Madison, WI
Population: 235,419
Cool medium-sized cities like Madison offer a high concentration of art, culture, and food. A regular on “Best College Towns” and “Best Places to Live” lists, Madison is a place that embraces:
• The arts: Municipally-funded Madison Arts Commission provides cultural funding and support.
• Public transportation: In addition to great city-wide public transportation, Wisconsin is building high-speed passenger rail service from Madison to Milwaukee.
• Parks and recreation: There are beaches, conservation parks, bike and walking paths, five area lakes, and hundreds of hiking miles.

Best College Town: Small City
Missoula, MT
Population: 68,876
A CNN Money “Best Places,” Missoula is a college town that perfectly blends hippies, artists, cowboys, and athletes. It’s also a place that embraces its landscape: hiking, biking, kayaking, fly-fishing, and skiing are popular here. What else makes it a top college town?
• Regular free outdoor festivals.
• Tailgating parties supporting the top-in-division University of Montana football team, The Griz.
• Rampant arts, including symphony concerts, an annual Jazz festival, and monthly First Friday art walks.

Best College Town: Small Town
Williamstown, MA
Population: 4,700
Another CNN Money “Best Places,” Williamstown is as idyllic New England as you’ll find. Williams College is regularly named the #1 liberal arts college in the country by U.S. News & World Report. This may not be a place for those who want big lights and non-stop action, but small as it is Williamstown packs in a lot, including:
• The award-winning Williamstown Theatre Festival
• The exquisite Clark Art Museum, featuring exhibits, films, and opera.
• Endless outdoor recreation, including hiking, skiing, biking, and fishing.

Whether you’re looking for a small town or a big metropolis, finding the right college town for you can make your college experience truly great.

OSHA Safety Training Guideline

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The Occupation Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is an arm of the United States federal government whose responsibility is to give guidelines and standards of safety in the workplace. As part of their mandate, the organization provides safety training guidelines to ensure that every employee is sufficiently informed of the hazardous risks that they are exposed to and they are trained on how to avoid risk and how to respond to a safety breach. Towards this end, the OSHA has provided a voluntary comprehensive guidelines to assist trainers to come up with a safety tutoring toolkit and a tutoring syllabus for employees. The OSHA tutoring guideline model consist of the following training steps.

  • Determine if there is a need for training – The first step provided in the OSHA guideline if determination of whether safety tutoring will solve safety gap. By reviewing the risks and exposure of employees, the training coordinators should review whether safety can be established through training only or there are other safety activities such as better controls, improved equipment and procedure changes that need to go hand in hand with the training. The training coordinators also need to identify who needs the safety training toolkit and how often the training needs to be conducted. The training needs to be in compliance with the standards provided by the same organization.
  • Identify the tutoring gap – Once tutoring need has been established, the training planners need to determine the training needs of the employees. This will determine the extent of the safety training toolkit. This is done by making a job safety analysis. The aim of the analysis is to define the hazards exposed to the employee, the risks of their workplace and the safety needs of the employees.
  • Define training goals and objectives – Once the trainers have defined the safety training gap, they will then come up with goals and objectives of their safety training toolkit. The goals of the safety training help the trainers to keep focused and avoid unnecessary content. The goal should define what the employee should demonstrate or know after the training session. At the start of the training, the goals and objectives need to be clearly articulated so as to let the employees know the reasons for the training.
  • Develop learning activities – The tutoring coarse should be modeled to simulate as closely as possible the employees workplace to enable the employees to appreciate and identify with the coarse work. The safety training toolkit needs to be interactive and this can be achieved by using multimedia platforms such as PowerPoint presentations, videos, image illustrations, charts, use of real statistics and events and practical demonstrations.
  • Conduct training – Once you have fully prepared for the safety presentation, the tutor may proceed and conduct the presentation. The training needs to be as interactive as possible to allow employees to give in their input on their safety and to allow for all safety questions to be well addressed.
  • Evaluate training effectiveness – Once the safety presentation is completed, the tutor need to evaluate the effectiveness of the presentation. This can be done through an optional end of presentation questionnaire, observation by the tutor, how the presentation has lead to workplace safety improvement or assessment trough a quiz.
  • Review and improve the training – Based on the evaluation of the safety session, a review of the material used and coursework needs to be done with an intention of improving the safety presentation further to meet the safety needs of the employees. The tutoring improvements should include any significant questions asked by employees that was not covered by the training, any areas that were not well understood by the employees and removal of any information that was redundant or irrelevant.

Careers After 50: The Value of a Temp Job!

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Careers after 50: developing appropriate experience to qualify for a planned career.

You’ve researched and studied a variety of proposed new careers. After speaking to others working in the field you’ve narrowed your list down to one or two possible new careers. However, you’ve found both require specific experience that you need to acquire.

Other qualifications for a new career after 50, for example, can be learned through self-study, distance learning, formal education and working with mentors. However, now you have the dilemma of getting the necessary experience to qualify for new career.

Let’s suggest a way to put you in a position to successfully compete for job in the new changed career. You might want to consider working for a temp agency, to get some desired experience or to discover if the suggested career is right for you.

Ask around for referrals to the right temp agency. Some temp agencies are specialists only working with specific careers and industries.

Re-draft your resume to put your best foot forward depending on the career and job. For each career you might want to restrict only signing up with two or three temp agencies. As you progress and learn more about specific temp agencies you can adjust your focus so you are only working with the best agency relative to the planned career.

Make it a point to see the temp agency recruiter, have a face-to-face interview and learn all you can about their services. Don’t forget this is a job interview and you want to show the recruiter how you would present yourself to a prospective employer.

Find out in advance if you are required to show specific technical skills at the temp interview and spend some time brushing up on the required skills prior to the interview.

Do some research regarding prospective wages you might expect. You’ll probably be asked what wage range you would accept. Also, you should learn what possible benefits might be available.

Many times temp assignments can last six months or longer. Be sure to tell the temp agency the length of assignment you would accept.

If the temp job is in a career you wish to qualify for, you may leverage yourself into being offered a full- time position. Or you gain enough relevant experience to qualify for a full-time career with another employer.

Don’t expect that you’ll be immediately moved into a desired temp position. Continue to contact the temp agency, at least once a week, to let them know you’re available for placement.

So the value to you using a temp agency in qualifying for a new career after 50 is: (1) Gaining required work experience, (2) Possibly being offered a job in the desired new career, (3) Bringing in some income while you prepare to change careers, or (4) Finding out the new career is not for you so you can research additional opportunities.

Writing Services – Tips For Choosing A Freelance Content Writing Service

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The Internet is a wonderful invention and it is being used to the fullest by Internet Marketers the world over. What started as a research project for the US military has taken the works of information technology by storm, and all in a matter of a decade, if not less.

Internet marketers are flooding the Net with new improved user-friendly content on their blogs, websites and marketing articles and mailers in a bid to stay ahead of the competition, which is where hiring professional help for quality writing comes in! They are selling everything, from physical products, services to mere concepts – and making money too! Not just making a few bucks, but raking it in by the millions, which is why article writing and marketing is big business too!

Most online success is achieved by writing and posting a large volume of high quality articles on popular online directories that are designed for just that – article publishing! Most of these articles, not surprisingly, are written by people who are paid to write. They are primarily freelance writers and are signed up as professional writers associated with registered writing services. Some writing services have full time writers but most hire the freelance writing services of people who wish to work part-time from the comforts of their home over the internet.

Millions of content writing services have sprouted like mushrooms all over cyber-space. However, no one can really sort out the wheat from the chaff unless they have quality parameters in place to check for the best service for their marketing dollar. Thus, It is important to choose one’s content writing services with a great deal of care. For, while getting 400 or 500 word articles to promote an online business is not so difficult, getting a timely, affordable and original volume order on quality articles really is.

By quality articles, I refer to articles that are free of any kind of plagiarism, that are Search Engine Optimized (SEO), and written specifically around the heading (also called Keyword), which, should also be catchy and relevant to the topic it is portraying.

Many writing services have jumped onto the band wagon and are selling anything, but SEO articles. The placement of keywords or key phrases is not given much attention, nor the density either. What to say of the more unscrupulous writing services that are a dime-a-dozen these days too? They just blatantly Google the topic and copy and paste entire blocks of content, sewing them together to resemble an article and replace words here and there with synonyms, a tool very popular with most unregistered freelance writing services.

So, before selecting any of the writing services for promoting a site, prudence calls for an interview with the writer or writers to establish contact and get to know the quality of service one may expect. Though this is not a guarantee that the interviewee will be the one doing the writing, it is important to have some quality parameters in place for judging the kind of content you are likely to get by discussing the writer’s approach to research, structure and knowledge of the core subject. It will all come down to a writing contract stating clearly the terms and conditions governing the quality of the service to be delivered. In the absence of such a contract, or in spite of it, some amount of the payment should be withheld until the content is used satisfactorily without any plagiarism issues. This is the practice many content writing services that are confident of their quality will offer.

Nevertheless, a constant vigil over the quality of writing should always be maintained if publishers want to get their money’s worth from any third party freelance writing service.

7 Best Practices in Corporate E-Learning

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Call it corporate e-learning; the solution that allows the training group to finish as scheduled, then implement the skills learned in integrative fashion, lessening the much dreaded downtime. Given its growing popularity e-learning is being considered the ‘next big thing’ in the training industry.

It would be common for an organization to fall victim of circumstance by blindly adopting this e-learning platform without good results. The secret is in how you approach the same. As a breakthrough, here are the seven best practices in e-learning for organizations that if well observed, would create the desired outcomes.

1) Develop a corporate e-learning strategy

All corporate practitioners who have tasted the market deals should be well aware of the meaning and essence of a strategy. It is the central nervous system every business success. Get into any business with no strategy and you could be certain of imminent failure, especially in a perfect competition setting. Similarly, the first step to a successful e-learning implementation is a clear cut strategy. You should define the purpose of the e-learning platform, methods to be used and its intended objectives.

It is against these guidelines that the success of the e-study program will be assessed. It might turn out wasteful to approach such a new venture in an emerging and constantly dynamic market without an overall plan with careful considerations regarding alternatives.

2) Customize the e-learning platform

It would be inaccurate to say this platform works the same for all organizations. Applying a generic e-learning approach might be uneconomical for particular companies that invest in nonessential skills. Knowing the basics such as be polite to the customer, the power of greetings, showing a willingness to assist the client among other similar skills is not enough. They often leave a lack of understanding of how and when to apply the skills.

The solution lies in making all this knowledge specific and tailored to meet the type of services or commodities the company deals in, by developing a company-specific model. Start by defining to the employees what it is that makes the customers tip. Then help this picture home into the learners by linking the same to your company portfolio.

3) Have a Working LMS

The success of a virtual platform may often depend on the use of an appropriate corporate learning management system. Use a company-specific platform for tracking, administering, documenting and reporting of your organization’s e-learning programs.

Corporate-lms

You can assure your organization of greater results by employing a simple and intuitive user interface (UI) that will ensure efficient user experience (UX) to your staff in the course of their learning.

4) Reduce wastage of business time by using mobile devices

In most of the corporate settings, profitability or sales usually correlates to the amount of time the workers spends interacting with and serving customers, whether online or physically. This means that every minute they spend away from this actual engagement costs the business. That would be the scenario in the event that the employees are put to undertake their courses using some stationary desktop computers.

Basing the training on mobile devices like tablets or iPads would be a smart move to keep the sales practitioners on the floor while they still undertake their online courses.

5) Take an integrated approach

A blended approach is highly recommended for this kind of learning. The e-learning program needs to encompass more than just the content on the web. You need to involve and develop richer models with people at the core of the learning process above just the content. Touch on both the educational and the business aspects and create an interactive and engaging instruction experience.

6) Establish clear brand awareness

Your training events should demonstrate the brand to the staff and emphasize its key features that ought to be communicated to the customers as well. It is from getting a clear perspective of the company’s brand that the sales associates will act as actual brand ambassadors for the company. Bottom line is; they cannot correctly represent what they half understand.

7) Incorporate self evaluation

Evaluation is a core feature of all forms of online instruction. The same must not be left out for this case. Evaluating the performance of one’s corporate e-learning program will help point out areas that require adjustments and those that ought to be introduced.

Regardless of the size of the company, the above practices are considerably best for companies involved in various forms of businesses, including online and offline ones.

5 Reasons You Should Teach Abroad at an International School Instead of a TEFL Language School

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Teachers who are looking to move their teaching career overseas have two options, teach at an international school or teach at a private language school. I’ve done both and I think that teaching at an international school is the best option. I’d like to share 5 reasons why I think this is true.

Reason #1 – disposable income

When I taught at private language schools, it was a luxury to buy paperbacks, and to have my legs waxed. I had to think about where I was spending my salary because I simply didn’t have enough money to spend on non-essential items. Not if I wanted to go on any vacations or have any time off over the summer.

Now that I teach at an international school, I am able to spend my teaching salary as I choose, and still have money left at the end of the month to save. I’m not talking about saving for the summer holidays, or for a rainy day. I can save money just to have it in the bank. I’m now able to save towards a deposit on a house, and contribute to a pension scheme.

Reason #2 – regular paid vacations

When you are an EFL teacher, you will usually sign a contract for an academic year (9 months) or a calendar year. Generally your contract will include a few weeks holiday, but you will be expected to work a larger proportion of your contract’s length than if you were teaching at an international school.

At an international school, your teaching contract will be signed for a period of 12 months. Of which you will be expected to teach around 200 days. The rest of the year the school will be closed and you will be able to go on vacations.

I spent 4 years working in the TEFL sector of the teaching profession, and I worked each summer teaching residential summer school courses. Since I’ve been teaching at international schools, I have been able to take each summer off and travel. I also travel during the school year as there is only two months in the year when I do not get at least a three day weekend.

Reason #3 – normal teaching contact hours

Private language schools that specialise in TEFL are ‘cram schools’. The students mostly attend their English lessons around their other school or job commitments. This means that your working hours will be crazy. At my first language school my working day was any hours I was given between 10am and 10pm. I was lucky because the manager of the branch at which I taught was very considerate of her teachers. Not all the EFL teachers working for the same company were so well treated.

At another school I taught at, each week I had days when I worked a split shift. I would be teaching my first lesson at half past seven in the morning, have a few hours off in the middle of the day, then I would have to be back at work and teaching for another 4-5 hours in the evening and finish the day at 9:30pm.

International schools operate regular school hours. If you are teaching at a school that starts early in the morning, then you will be done with your working day in the early afternoon.

Reason #4 – planning time is ‘included’

TEFL teachers are employed for contact hours. This is the time you spend in front of students. However, lessons don’t just appear out of thin air, teachers need to prepare their lessons and organise resources. When you first start out teaching EFL you may spend as much time preparing for a lesson as you actually do teaching it. I remember when I began, this was the case on a good day, sometimes I’d spend a lot more time agonising over what I was going to do in the lesson than I actually spent in the classroom with my students. Of course, this is not true now, when I am teaching in a well resourced language school, I am able to plan a lesson much more quickly than when I started out.

One thing that TEFL teachers need to know is that while your contract says you must teach 20-35 hours a week, in reality this will mean they are working (between lesson preparation, teaching and marking) 50+ hours a week. And the pay for all your extra time spent planning the lessons is ‘included’ in your hourly teaching rate. I can tell you, teachers become very efficient in planning their lessons quickly!

Teachers working overseas in international schools are employed as full-time teachers who teach a required number of contact hours. But overseas teachers are employed for the whole teaching day, and so their planning time is included in their salaries. I’ve taught in regular high schools in addition to international schools, and I have considerably more non-contact time in which to prepare my lessons when I teach abroad at international schools than when I’ve taught locally at state schools.

Reason #5 – professional development opportunities

I have a number of qualifications in EFL teaching. I have two Cambridge certificates and a Diploma in Second Language Teaching as well. I paid for all of the courses out of my teaching salary, when I didn’t have a lot to spare. I sought professional development opportunities to make me a better teacher, and the schools I’ve worked for have directly benefited from my efforts. But not one of the private language schools I’ve taught for in the past have ever helped me pay for my professional development.

Most international schools have a pool of money set aside for the professional development of their teaching staff. At my current school, there is a budget set per teacher annually. I went to a summit in Singapore this year, funded by the school. I’ve used a number of the techniques I learnt at the summit in my classes since I’ve been back.

In conclusion

I’ve taught overseas at both international schools and private language schools since I began my international teaching career, and I am happier and feel more valued now that I am teaching in an international school.

I found that many private language schools were run by people solely interested in their profit margin, and the quality of language education offered was hardly a consideration to them.

I now teach at a school where I’m treated like a teaching professional, the students’ education is the top priority of teachers and management alike, and I get regular vacations to satisfy my hunger for travel and new experiences.

Plastering Courses – 4 Things You Can Expect to Learn

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As with any skilled trade, training courses are important not only to learn the exact skill but also to increase credibility with future employers and clients. Having a plastering course on your CV shows both a high level of commitment whilst evidencing your skill level on a national standard. From 2014, NVQs will be a required must-have qualification by law.

But what exactly do you learn on a plastering course?

1. Preparation

Part of plastering involves preparing your environment for the job. This includes removing previous plaster, mixing materials such as render and plaster, cleaning the area, etc. A plastering course will teach you how to do all these things in order to fully prepare for the task in hand. It’s no good knowing how to plaster if you don’t know how to remove old wall furnishings.

2. The Tools of the Trade

There is more to the process of plastering than many people realise; perhaps it could be considered an art or science due to the intricate nature of calculating how best to plaster certain areas of the house. With this in mind, plastering courses will teach you to use more complex tools such as bell cast beads for creating protection from the elements when plastering around windows.

3. Plaster and Render

The actual act of plastering is obviously the main focus of a plastering course. However, many people don’t realise that walls need to be rendered prior to the plastering process. Plastering courses teach you how to carry out this whole process practically, coupled with a theoretical education on the basic mechanics of plastering.

You will not only learn how to plaster a brand new wall, but will be given an education on repair work to damaged walls; a different skill set entirely.

4. Finishing

Plastering can be messy business and customers don’t want to pay for a rough job. Skimming is the art of applying a thin layer of plaster to give a smooth finish to a wall. This skill can perhaps be considered one of the most tricky yet important parts of the plastering process. Plastering courses will spend considerable time intricately teaching the secrets to this process.

Plastering courses can last round six weeks and are soon to become integral to building a career around the trade. Aside from the requirements set to come into force in 2014, plastering courses are a great idea for those looking to validate their skills with a recognised standard qualification.

Access Training offer high quality plastering training courses to budding plasterers across the UK. To train in the best facilities, with the best equipment and leading teachers from within the industry, find out more about the courses available at Access today. Your first step towards your new career.

Coach Tote Bags – So Many Styles – So Easy To Find – So Easy To Own

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Coach Tote Bags are literally taking over the designer handbag industry. You can find over 10,000 Coach Totes alone on eBay. You will find it so easy to find a Coach Tote Bag and own it for less than $200.

Coach Tote bags are now being sold in hundreds of online stores that cater to the needs of the Coach brand fanatic. You can get any and every Coach Tote bag made by Coach by just pointing and clicking on your trusty little laptop or personal computer.

The only problem that you may come across when looking for Coach Tote Bags online is knowing which tote you want to buy. With there being so many to choose from, it could be a challenge to pick the perfect tote for you. A person could go into over-load trying to figure out which Coach Tote is the best for them.

Here is a small list of Coach Totes available to you:

Coach Signature Multi Stripe Multi-Function Tote

Coach Hamptons Weekend Patchwork Tote

Coach Ergo Signature Tote

Coach GiGi Signature Tote

Throughout my research of the best places to get discounted Coach handbags online, I found that eBay carries over 15,000 totes in a period of a month, some being sold at wholesale Coach handbag prices, with the numbers increasing monthly. I also discovered that eBay sold over 10,000 of the more than 11,000 Coach Totes listed and made more than $1,000,000 in sales June 27th through July 28th of this year. That’s a lot of Coach Totes being sold. The average price for a tote is a little over $151.00. That is extremely low and affordable for authentic bags.

Imagine being able to go to one place on the Internet to shop for those fabulous Coach Signature totes or Coach Patchwork totes and not have to move from your favorite spot on the sofa. It is so easy to find the Coach Signature Stripe Tote or the Coach Chelsea Optic Signature Tote that you want and save lots of money at the same time.

If only there was a way for you the consumer to know which totes are available without having to spend hours searching through the thousands of listings in eBay. Coach makes a Tote for 60% of the handbags that they design. There are at least 10 different design groups of bags and for each group of bags there are at least 6 different styles of tote bags.

Now, let’s figure out how you can get to those Coach Totes bags on eBay without having to spend a lot of time searching through all of the thousands of bags that are available for much lower prices than any place else. That is if you are looking for authentic Coach handbags. If you are wanting a fake Coach Tote or a replica Coach Tote, then you may find them elsewhere for less. Although, you may be surprised to find a cheap Coach handbag that isn’t authentic on eBay for much less than you would expect. The replica handbags sell just as well as the authentic ones do, if not more.

So search eBay for that Coach Tote bag that you’ve always wanted. You will save lots of money and become a lifetime customer because of the impeccable service that eBay Power Sellers are known for.

If you want to save even more time, choose to not search eBay and go to the one site that has all of the best listings at the lowest prices on one page at one click of your mouse. It is so easy to find Coach Tote bags for discounted prices. All you have to do is know the best place and now you do.

How to Successfully Navigate a Career Transition

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I am often asked by my career coaching clients how to best navigate a successful career transition. In other words, how can you pursue your dream job while remaining practical and fulfilling your everyday needs and responsibilities? My job as a certified career counselor is to assure you that, like many others I’ve already assisted, I can put your fears aside as you journey down the path to greater career satisfaction.

Realize it’s a process.

When it’s time to make a change, people understandably get antsy and sometimes anxious. Change is scary for us. The fear of the unknown can leave us stuck in fear or anxiety. Know that this is okay, and that the discomfort you’re experiencing is actually a good sign, because it means you are making a change and starting to step outside your comfort zone towards a more fulfilling career path.

Amidst the anxiety, there is typically also a sense of excitement. You’re ready to make the change so let’s get to it! Embrace that motivation, tap into it to keep you moving forward, AND realize that this is a process that can take some time. Be willing to be patient with it, and with yourself. The more patient you are, the more opportunities and ideas can flow to you and the more open you will be to them. So when that impatience about wanting to move forward more quickly rears its ugly head… use it as a motivator, not a force that will push you into a decision more quickly than you are comfortable with just because you want it to be over.

Develop a transition plan.

Of course you’d create a transition plan to help you move through other changes in your life… right? Makes practical sense. Yet sometimes we get so excited and caught up in the moment that we tell ourselves we’re going to outline a step-by-step process and then quickly forget about it as we’re so busy reacting to whatever is happening around us.

Before you can move past the point of vague possibilities and enter the throes of a serious career change, you MUST develop a plan so you are covered in the financial, mental, and emotional aspects of your life and your future. The basics of your career transition plan should look something like this:

1. Financial. Taking care of your bills, yourself and your family, and any other obligations. Making cutbacks where necessary; starting a savings plan that’s devoted entirely to your new professional endeavor. These are just a few of the many ways to keep your finances in order while you restructure your life.

2. Mental. Coming up with ways you can keep those negative voices at bay. Developing a plan for learning the skills you may need in your new career. Rewarding yourself for milestones achieved along the way. This is a time for encouragement, confidence, and a can-do attitude, and it helps to “feed your hungry mind” what it needs to help you grow, spiritually, intellectually, and professionally.

3. Emotional. Identify ways to overcome the fears you may have. You’ll need a cheerleader to help you continue on and move past the potential obstacles in your way. Find or ask for emotional support from friends, family, or a career coach who can help steady your course as you make the transition in your career and life.

Set goals.

When the time comes to set goals… make sure they are specific, tangible, measurable and include a time frame. Your goals should be realistic, and also a stretch so you’re pushing yourself beyond what you’d normally do in order to move forward.

Take care of yourself.

Again, transition can be stressful, no matter what kind it is. Make sure you take care of yourself, especially during this time. Physical exercise, eating right, getting enough sleep and maintaining balance in your life are all things to consider and pay attention to when you’re navigating an adjustment in your life. Make sure you also schedule time to have fun. Often we leave out that part of the equation… and enjoying ourselves along the journey is the best part of all.

Remain or become financially stable.

Before I work with someone on changing career paths, I talk to them about their financial situation. It’s hard to dream and plan for the future when you’re heavily focused on or worried about paying the bills. While it’s important to dream about your career possibilities, you need to be practical as well. What are your options for becoming financially stable? Perhaps you can stay in your current position and work on the next career step after hours, or find a part-time job that pays the bills and allows you greater freedom to pursue your passion. Another option is to begin to set aside savings that will allow you to cover six to twelve months of living expenses. Remember, this process can take time. It took me about three years from leaving my full-time position to creating a full-time coaching practice. I encourage you to start now!

Dream first.

While financial stability is the foundation of your future, you also need to do some dreaming here. Therefore, once you have a plan to meet your basic financial needs, it’s time to take off your Practical Hat, put on your Dreaming Glasses – and dream big.

When I work with career clients, I ask them to dream first and worry about the specific logistics of how they’re going to make the change later on. What I find is that people tend to focus so much on the practical side of “how will I make this work” that they squash any creative idea or thought that may have merit – or may lead them to something they’d love to do. While practicality is important, it can also be limiting so notice when you’re getting too caught up in the practical side and not doing enough brainstorming or dreaming. Ideas are expansive and can be “trimmed and shaped” later to fit into your personal scheme as needed. So… before you set a new career plan in motion, you’ve got to start with the dream and then brainstorm ways to make it a reality. So what is your dream?

Share your dream or plans with those who’ll be supportive.

If there are people in your life who tend to be negative, point out why you shouldn’t do something or can’t, or something along these lines-wait a little while to tell them your dream. Sometimes holding back until you’re really solid in your dream is the best way to go. Share it with people who are going to be positive and supportive… who’ll inspire and encourage you.

All the best for a rewarding and fulfilling career doing what you love!

Copyright 2006 Hallie Crawford. All rights reserved.

Writing Services – Tips For Choosing A Freelance Content Writing Service

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The Internet is a wonderful invention and it is being used to the fullest by Internet Marketers the world over. What started as a research project for the US military has taken the works of information technology by storm, and all in a matter of a decade, if not less.

Internet marketers are flooding the Net with new improved user-friendly content on their blogs, websites and marketing articles and mailers in a bid to stay ahead of the competition, which is where hiring professional help for quality writing comes in! They are selling everything, from physical products, services to mere concepts – and making money too! Not just making a few bucks, but raking it in by the millions, which is why article writing and marketing is big business too!

Most online success is achieved by writing and posting a large volume of high quality articles on popular online directories that are designed for just that – article publishing! Most of these articles, not surprisingly, are written by people who are paid to write. They are primarily freelance writers and are signed up as professional writers associated with registered writing services. Some writing services have full time writers but most hire the freelance writing services of people who wish to work part-time from the comforts of their home over the internet.

Millions of content writing services have sprouted like mushrooms all over cyber-space. However, no one can really sort out the wheat from the chaff unless they have quality parameters in place to check for the best service for their marketing dollar. Thus, It is important to choose one’s content writing services with a great deal of care. For, while getting 400 or 500 word articles to promote an online business is not so difficult, getting a timely, affordable and original volume order on quality articles really is.

By quality articles, I refer to articles that are free of any kind of plagiarism, that are Search Engine Optimized (SEO), and written specifically around the heading (also called Keyword), which, should also be catchy and relevant to the topic it is portraying.

Many writing services have jumped onto the band wagon and are selling anything, but SEO articles. The placement of keywords or key phrases is not given much attention, nor the density either. What to say of the more unscrupulous writing services that are a dime-a-dozen these days too? They just blatantly Google the topic and copy and paste entire blocks of content, sewing them together to resemble an article and replace words here and there with synonyms, a tool very popular with most unregistered freelance writing services.

So, before selecting any of the writing services for promoting a site, prudence calls for an interview with the writer or writers to establish contact and get to know the quality of service one may expect. Though this is not a guarantee that the interviewee will be the one doing the writing, it is important to have some quality parameters in place for judging the kind of content you are likely to get by discussing the writer’s approach to research, structure and knowledge of the core subject. It will all come down to a writing contract stating clearly the terms and conditions governing the quality of the service to be delivered. In the absence of such a contract, or in spite of it, some amount of the payment should be withheld until the content is used satisfactorily without any plagiarism issues. This is the practice many content writing services that are confident of their quality will offer.

Nevertheless, a constant vigil over the quality of writing should always be maintained if publishers want to get their money’s worth from any third party freelance writing service.