Career Spotlight: School Counselors

The following article was created by the team at GradSchools.com, an educational directory and resource for adult learners interested in pursuing a graduate degree. This article series provides an overview of the job outlook, salary data, daily life, and educational requirements of selected careers in hopes that one of these spotlights will help you decide what you want to be when you grow up.

School counselors work with students at the elementary, middle school, high school and college level to provide academic and career guidance to the student population they serve, they might also provide mental health counseling or life coaching when needed.  The job roles of school counselors vary depending on the setting they work in and the clients they work with.  Generally speaking school counselors who are employed in elementary schools focus on helping students develop their interpersonal skills.  This can include intervening to help end bullying in the school, helping shy students meet others and develop friendships, and improving the clients overall communication skills.   School counselors that work in a middle school or high school focus more on preparing students for their adult lives.  They help their clients make decisions about their long term academic and career goals, this process requires them to help their students decide which classes to take or which activities to participate in.  This guidance helps the client build their set of skills and knowledge base to help them accomplish their longer term goals.  High school counselors may also help to identify any emotional or behavioral problems that their students are suffering from and provide them with counseling to help them overcome their challenges in order to be better equipped to reach their goals.  School counselors who work with college students perform similar duties to that of high school counselors, but they generally spend more time developing strategies to help their clients reach their goals and less time working with their clients to define them.

Most states require school counselors to earn a masters degree in school counseling in order to be qualified to work in the field.  Many programs will offer degree programs in either elementary, secondary, or post-secondary school counseling.  Selecting a specific concentration within the practice of school counseling helps to prepare future counselors to manage the unique challenges of working with clients at a specific level.  While each concentration will offer courses specific to working with a particular age group, students enrolled in a school counseling program can reasonably expect to encounter coursework in the following topics: assessment methods for counselors, social and diversity issues in counseling, research methods, consultation and coordination in guidance and counseling, and organization and administration of school counseling programs.  Students enrolled in a school counseling graduate program are also likely to be required to complete a supervised practicum where they work with a certified school counselor to gain real world experience working with clients.  

Pursuing a career as a school counselor may be a good option for women who want to have a similar schedule to their children.  Most school counselors work during the hours that their children will be in school, which may help to reduce the amount of money spent on before or after school care for their young children.  Some counselors also have off during the summer (the specific number of days off and schedules are defined in the counselor’s contract, and will vary across different school districts or work environments).  

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the 2012 median salary of school and career counselors was $53,610 and jobs in this field are predicted to grow by 12% between 2012 and 2022.  Click here to learn more about earning your graduate degree in school counseling or research educational options.

Career Spotlight: Physician Assistants

This is the third installment of monthly career spotlight blog series created by the team at GradSchools.com, an educational directory and resource for adult learners interested in pursuing a graduate degree. These articles are intended to provide an overview of the job outlook, salary data, daily life, and educational requirements of selected careers in hopes that one of these spotlights will help you decide what you want to be when you grow up.

This month’s featured career is Physician Assistants.  Physician Assistants perform many of the same duties as medical doctors, including; diagnosing injuries and illnesses and recommending courses of treatment.  In many states physician assistants are even able to prescribe medications.  Physician’s assistants can choose to specialize in a medical specialty, including; obstetrics, pediatrics, surgery, orthopedics, and psychiatrics.  

Physician Assistants are required to earn a master’s degree, completing coursework in subjects such as anatomy and physiology, biology, pharmacology, medical law, and ethics.  Students in a physician assistant graduate program are also required to successfully complete several clinical rotations where they work under the supervision of a practicing physician assistant to learn important job skills in a variety of clinical settings.  

Physician assistants are able to exercise a great degree of control over their careers because there are many career options available to them.  Physician assistants can find employment in hospitals, medical clinics, and the offices of other medical professionals; they might also find employment in urgent care centers of drug store chains that feature wellness centers.  The availability of jobs in a variety of different settings means that physician assistants might have the opportunity to choose the work environment and schedule that best fits their lifestyle.  This flexibility may make a career as a physician assistant ideal for the modern woman.  The ability to exercise a degree of control over ones schedule may make it easier to manage competing responsibilities like family obligations. 

 
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the 2012 median salary of physician assistants was $90,930 and jobs in this field are predicted to grow by 38% between 2012 and 2022.  To learn more about physician assistant graduate programs check out available physician assistant graduate programs

Career Spotlight: Social Work

This is the second installment of monthly career spotlight blog series created by the team at GradSchools.com, an educational directory and resource for adult learners interested in pursuing a graduate degree.  These articles are intended to provide an overview of the job outlook, salary data, daily life, and educational requirements of selected careers in hopes that one of these spotlights will help you decide what you want to be when you grow up.

Social Work Careers

Demand for qualified social work professionals is growing at a surprising rate.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts jobs in the field of social work will increase by 25% between 2010 and 2020.  Which means by 2020 there are expected to be 811,700 people employed in social work positions. 

This growth is expected across a broad range of specializations within the field.  Social Work professionals are employed in a variety of industries and work environments.  They might be employed by schools, hospitals, in-patient and out-patient mental health and rehabilitation facilities, non-profit organizations, home healthcare service providers, or local, state, or federal offices.  Social work professionals might pursue careers where they provide services directly to clients, as researchers, or as program directors or administrators. 

Clinical social workers, those who spend most of their time interacting with clients spend most of their time meeting with clients to assess their needs, provide counseling, and connecting their clients to available services.  Available services might include; food assistance, health care, housing, and employment or vocational training services.  Working as a clinical social worker is dynamic; no one work day will be identical to the next as each client will present the practitioner with new challenges and opportunities to provide care.  Clinical social workers must work to keep up to date on available services that may help their clients improve their lives. Social workers who wish to pursue careers as administrators or community organizers spend less time working directly with clients and more time creating programs  or managing programs that provide services to those in need, examples of these programs might include managing a food pantry, or working to establish community gardens in urban areas.  In essence, these social work professionals create and manage the programs and services that clinical social workers can utilize to connect the clients they are working with to the resources they need.  Social workers who focus on research might conduct studies to determine whether or not a specific program is able to create positive outcomes for the participants, or work to identify new intervention or counseling methods clinical social workers can use to better treat their clients.  Social workers in the field of research may spend some time working with the population seeking services, but they rarely provide direct care to these individuals.

If you are interested in pursuing a career in social work you may have several options.  If you have not already earned an undergraduate degree, you might consider majoring in social work as an undergraduate and then seek admission into a social work graduate program.  Individuals with an undergraduate degree in social work may qualify to enroll in an advanced standing program where they may be able to earn their MSW (Master’s in Social Work) in as little as 1 year.  Those without an undergraduate degree in social work are usually required to participate in a more traditional 2 year course of education.  Both programs are likely to require students to complete mandatory supervised training hours, working in professional settings under the guidance of a licensed social work practitioner.  Individuals with a bachelor’s degree in social work may be qualified to work in the field, but are not able to obtain licensure in most states.  Licensure may be particularly important for those interested in a career as a clinical social worker as licensure (LSW, LCSW) is often required for those interested in providing counseling.

Social workers salaries vary across industries and specializations the table below outlines some of the median salaries of social workers practicing in different job environments and specializations.  This data can be found in the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics.

Social Work Specialization/Work Environment	Median Salary
Federal Government	$71,160
Insurance Carriers	$67,200
Insurance and Employee Benefit Funds	$63,120
Medical and Surgical Hospitals	$61,490
Specialty Hospitals	$59,800
Local Government	$58,040
Individual Family Services	$40,720
Social Advocacy Organizations	$44,430
Community Food and Housing	$37,530

Visit GradSchools.com if you are interested in learning more about a career in social work or researching graduate programs in this discipline.

What To Bring To Your Job Interview

It’s January, and hopefully you will start getting responses to the applications and resumes you’ve been submitting. While you don’t want to bring a box of items to an interview and look like you’re moving in, it is important to have a few key items with you. Here is a list of those key items.

1. While you’re getting ready for an interview there are some simple things to remember. Simple – often forgotten – items include directions to the interview location, identification that may be needed to get into the building or suite, a fresh breath  spray, names of the people with whom you are meeting, notebook and pen and enough drive time to be about 15 minutes early to the interview.
2. Resume copies for the hiring manager and others who may be at your interview. It may be helpful for them to review the resume as they are asking you questions.
3. Reference list including contact information. Only present the list when requested by the recruiter or hiring manager. Be sure to tell your references when the list is given to a prospective employer so they are prepared to answer questions and provide feedback on your behalf. Additional tips about References for the Job Seeker.
4. Bring a copy of the job description to use as a reference when you answer interview questions. Don’t overkill the use of keywords; rather show that you have a working knowledge of what the position entails through your use of similar language in the interview.
5. Depending on the type of job you are interviewing for, you may need to bring a portfolio or samples of your work. Often this can be avoided by having samples available on your LinkedIn profile or other online venue. It is important to include links to these profiles on your paper resume.

Use a briefcase or folder for all printed materials that you bring to the interview. A simple portfolio with clear labels is a great option and will prevent you from looking disorganized when the hiring manager is requesting information from you. Here’s to you landing the career of your dreams!

Jessica Pierce the Executive Director of Career Connectors, a community outreach program dedicated to connecting Real People to Real Careers.

4 Work Mistakes You Don't Know Your Making

Check out this great article from Daily Muse!

by Katie Douthwaite reposted from www.dailymuse.com 

 

When you’re the newbie at work, you do everything in your power to stay on your best behavior. You show up to the office early, leave late, dress conservatively, and absolutely never, ever check your Facebook page from your work computer.

But, as the weeks go by, it’s easy to slide into a sense of comfort and let your guard down, following in the footsteps of your co-workers (who know just how far they can bend the rules). And soon, you’re missing deadlines, tweeting covertly, making excuses as to why you’re not as productive as before, and in general, setting yourself up for a not-so-great performance review.

So what happened? Well, it’s simple—you forgot the basics. If you’re looking for a way to get back into gear, revisit the advice you got when you were first starting out in the professional world, and follow these easy (but often ignored) bits of advice.

1. Stop Using Excuses

Just like your puppy dog eyes didn’t work to convince your 8^th grade teacher that your little sister threw away your math homework, excuses don’t go very far with your boss. And no matter how genuine your intentions are (“but I had so much on my plate—and then I came down with the flu!”), all your manager will hear is that you don’t use your time effectively.

So here’s a no-fail way to impress your boss: Do what she says. When you have an assignment, don’t make her remind you about it, and don’t ask for an extension. If you have questions, ask them well before the deadline, and if you need help from teams in other departments, engage them with time to spare. Do quality work, and turn it in on time.

By completing your work without excuses or constant reminders, you’ll gain your boss’ immediate trust and respect, and you’ll be well on your way to gaining more responsibility—or even a promotion.

2. Show up on Time

You may think it’s endearing to be labeled the “late one,” who never seems to make it to a meeting before the fifth PowerPoint slide. So you laugh and give a little shoulder shrug as you noisily bustle into the conference room, assuming that everyone just writes it off as, “Oh, that Suzie.”

Well, it's not cute. And no matter how much you feel it’s a part of who you are, lateness is not an inherent trait—so excuses along the line of, “I can’t help it!” won’t work. If you’re serious about your job and impressing your team and boss, make it a point to show up on time—or better yet, early. Whatever it takes (e.g., an extra alarm, a working coffee pot, a puppy who needs attention at 5 AM), make it happen. It’s worth it.

3. Return Emails

When our communication is so readily at our fingertips, there’s no excuse for leaving your email unanswered for more than a day or two. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve written an inter-department email to get no response. Not in one week, not in two—never.

So, it’s no surprise that you’ll earn instant respect from your entire team (and anyone else who contacts you) if you answer emails in a timely manner. Don’t know the answer? That’s no excuse to leave the email sitting in your inbox. Write a quick response anyway: “Hi Jan, I’m not 100% sure about this, so let me look into it, and I will get back to you by the end of the week.” Then, get back to her before the end of the week.

I know—we’re all busy. And I’m not saying you need to answer every email the moment it arrives in your inbox (that’s certainly not an efficient way to work). But when you ignore an email, what you’re conveying to the sender is: “You’re not important enough to warrant a response.”

4. Follow Through

As a new manager in an unfamiliar industry, I don’t always know the answers to my employees’ questions. But instead of just having them ask someone else, I let them know that I’ll find out and get back to them. And then, I follow through. Each time I’m able to deliver an answer, I’m conveying that I do what I say I’m going to do—and my employees grow to trust me more and more.

Of course, this doesn’t just apply to answering questions. If you tell a co-worker you’ll proofread her report, don’t push it off until she reminds you about it two weeks later. If you assure your team that you’ll take care of an important client’s account, don’t let it sit on the bottom of your to-do list until one of your co-workers has the customer on the phone, screaming because she hasn’t heard from anyone in over a week. If you make a commitment, follow through—you’ll convey that you can be trusted with anything.

Easy tips, right? Well, tell yourself that a few months into your new job, when you realize your boss usually forgets about the deadlines he gives you, and nothing bad ever happens when you forget to answer an email or two. But don’t fall into that trap! Go back to this basic advice, and you’ll never fail to impress your team, clients, and boss.

Career Spotlight: Speech Pathologist

Fresh Start Women’s Foundation Career Spotlight December 2013

Laura Morrison GradSchools.com

Welcome to the start of a monthly career spotlight blog series created by the team at GradSchools.com, an educational directory and resource for adult learners interested in pursuing a graduate degree.  Deciding to invest in your education is a huge decision, one that should be made only after careful planning and evaluation of all available options.  One way you may want to start thinking about your educational decisions is to consider what you want your life to look like after you graduate: How much money do you hope to earn? How much flexibility do you need in your career? Are you willing to relocate to pursue a career? What is the anticipated job growth in your field? In this series we will provide an overview of the job outlook, salary data, daily life, and educational requirements of selected careers in hopes that one of these spotlights will help you decide what you want to be when you grow up.

Okay, the first career spotlight is “Princess” just kidding (even though that does sound nice), in the interest of staying grounded in reality, let’s explore career options for Speech Pathologists.  If you have children or know people who have children you have probably heard about speech pathologists and you may have wondered what exactly they do and how exactly they got onto this career path.  Let’s take a closer look at what it is like to be a speech pathologist.

A speech pathologist is someone who works to diagnose and treat communication and swallowing disorders.  They are generally employed within the educational or healthcare system, but they might also work in private practice, at an agency, or at rehabilitation facilities.  Most states require speech pathologists to obtain licensure, licensure requirements vary by state, but in general SLP’s are required to have earned a master’s degree from an accredited speech pathology program and have completed several hundred hours of supervised clinical training.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics speech pathologists earn a median annual salary of $69,870, and employment of speech pathologists is expected to grow by 23% between 2010 and 2020, and  most speech pathologists are employed full time.    

Interested in this career, great, now let’s dispel some common myths about speech pathologists:

Myth: Speech pathologists only work with children.

Fact:  Speech Pathologists are trained to work with individuals suffering from a communication or swallowing disorders.  This can include people of all ages and walks of life.  Speech pathologists are employed by schools, nursing homes, rehabilitation facilities, and hospitals or health care centers. 

Myth: Speech pathologists are glorified teachers.

Fact: The educational requirements for speech pathologists more closely resemble those of a person in the healthcare field.  Speech pathologists are often required to take courses in anatomy, biology, neurology, and physiology, to name a few.  They are also usually required to complete several hundred hours of supervised clinical training in a variety of institutional settings.

Myth: Speech pathologists spend most of their time doing arts and crafts or playing games with their clients.

Fact:  While crafts and games are often used in speech therapy to encourage interaction, speech pathologists do much more than sit around cutting out squares and circles or playing guess who.  A good speech pathologist knows how to make therapy fun, but while their clients are playing SLP’s are working hard to ensure the activity is helping to improve their client’s ability to communicate.

In addition to a comfortable median salary, and potentially varied job opportunities, speech pathology was listed as number 19 in Forbes magazine’s list of the Top 20 Best Paying Jobs for Women in 2013.  If you are interested in learning more about careers in speech pathology visit GradSchools.com to search for programs or browse our resources section.

The Job Skills You Need (That Nobody Talks About)

This articles is by Lea McLeod and reposted from www.dailymuse.com 

Far too many clients come to me at an “I can’t take it anymore” stage of their career.

Take Tricia, for example, who came to me discouraged with her job and her inability to manage it. She was working long hours—most of them spent sitting in meetings and dealing with hundreds of emails—then rushing last-minute to finish marketing campaigns, which always seemed to turn into fire drills.

The “always on" mentality was getting to her. And she was ready to quit.

I immediately saw that Tricia was missing the most essential job skill I believe every employee must have: priority setting and management. That is, the ability to clearly identify the most important priorities and to focus the vast majority of your energy and time on those things.

Unfortunately, though we often talk about time management and productivity in the office, the art of prioritization is often lost. As a result, many people end up like Tricia: exhausted, frustrated, and burnt out.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by excessive hours and constantly shifting to-dos, here are a few telltale signs that you might need to manage your priorities better—and some easy ways to get back on track.

Sign #1: You Believe That Everything is Important

If you look at your to-do list and see everything as equally important, it’s easy to become overwhelmed with your volume of tasks, rather than the quality of your work. But consider this: The Pareto Principle suggests that 20% of your tasks produce 80% of your results—and that means that a small fraction of your daily work deserves the majority of your attention.

In Tricia’s case, she was accepting every meeting invitation she received. But that didn’t mean the meetings were worth her time or helped her accomplish any of her primary goals.

Solution: Get Clear on Your Goals and Objectives

Work with your manager to get a crystal clear idea of exactly how your performance will be assessed (e.g., will you be reviewed based on the dollar amount you brought in or the satisfaction level of your clients?). Once you have a better handle on your deliverables, you can break them down into weekly goals.

For example, if your ultimate goal is to generate new revenue, then your primary focus should be on following up with leads you got at a trade show and building relationships with potential customers—not spending hours each week helping plan the next trade show.

As you make decisions about work throughout each day, ask yourself, “How will this get me closer to my goals?” If it doesn’t, put it down and move on.

Sign #2: You’re Consumed by Activity Rather Than Accomplishments

Have you ever started with a list at the beginning of the day, felt busy all day, but left feeling like you didn't get anything done? Frustrating, right? Tricia was certainly busy, but she wasn’t accomplishing much.

In reality, you probably got many low priority things done—like clicking through unimportant emails, sitting through inefficient meeetings, or doing small tasks that don’t move your important work forward. Maybe you spent the day on projects helping your boss or co-workers, but not getting your own work done.

Solution: Make a Daily Plan and Stick to It  

Create a daily plan that starts with scheduling your most important work. Those priority activities get first crack at your calendar, before you even think of doing anything else.

You’re most likely to complete certain tasks when you carve out a specific date and time commitment to them. If email is a constant distraction, turn it off, and only check it at two or three specific times each day. (When you’re entrenched in worked and get distracted by reading an email, it takes a full 64 seconds for your focus to recover. Think about that: You’re losing more than a minute of valuable time for every email you read while in the midst of important work!)

Sign #3: When You Get to the Important Work, You Get Distracted

You hear the continuous “ding” of incoming emails, texts, and instant messages and feel compelled to peek. You constantly get distracted by the siren call of social media. Procrastination keeps you from starting and perfectionism keeps you from finishing. And you mistakenly think that by multi-tasking, you’re getting more done in the same amount of time. Sound familiar?

Multitasking to some extent is inevitable, but remember: Even if you’re able to narrow down your work to the most important tasks, you won’t be able to make any progress if you can’t focus for long enough to finish them.

Solution: Develop Your Ability to Focus

Once you’re clear on the priority work that needs to get done, learn how to get—and stay—focused on those tasks. Try these go-to strategies:

1. Chunk Your Work: Use the Pomodoro technique to schedule 25-minute time slots to work on priority tasks. Don’t look up until the time is over, then take a short break. Repeat four times, then take a longer break.

2. Batch Your Work: Group similar tasks together in blocks of time on your calendar, so you can focus on one thing and get it done. Activities like processing email, returning phone calls, or reviewing documents can be grouped together and done in batches.

3. Stop Multi-tasking: In the end, each task will take longer—and you’ll compromise the quality of your work to boot.

As you go through the day, do frequent reality checks: Stop each hour and quickly ask yourself:Did the last hour contribute to my most important goals? If not, vow to make the next 60 minutes better and start again. If you do a reality check each hour, you’ll never let an entire day get away from you.

Finally, track your success. End each day with a review of what you accomplished and how it moved you toward your most essential deliverables. This makes it easier to let the other—nonessential—things go.

When you’re ready to take back control of your work life, remember that it’s not about time management or productivity. The point isn’t to get it all done—it’s to get the most important work done. I like to keep Brian Tracy’s advice in mind: “It’s not the time you spend working overall, but the amount of time you spend working on high priority tasks.”