Author Archive

Vector Graphics Software for Designers

Whether you’re a designer, graphics artist, animator, multi-media web creator, or visual arts student, you’ll find it to your advantage to make good friends with vector graphics software. Your professors and instructors should introduce you to vector concepts and the computer programs that bring them to life.

There are two major graphics display formats used in the industries: vector and raster. Raster objects are created in pixels, the tiny dots that assemble the image. The disadvantage…

Successful Test-taking Strategies

Is your test-taking strategy working? Do you keep up with lessons or put out fires only when test deadlines loom? Do you stay awake the night before the exam, cramming notes (and an inordinate amount of coffee and junk food) into your system? Some students modify their study skills and testing stratagems during their learning careers. What once worked when you could devote your life to your classes may not be so effective when you’re…

Four Key Web Benefits for Entrepreneurs

Here’s a startling statistic for entrepreneurs: nearly half of today’s small businesses don’t have a website. A survey by CNNMoney revealed that 46 percent of America’s 25 million small businesses have no online presence. The report suggested that business owners fear a large price tag for website development and hosting, despite the abundant, contrary evidence that inexpensive do-it-yourself website solutions are readily available.

The advantages of having even a simple, static website without eCommerce capabilities are legion.…

Career Designations for Social Workers

Social workers are concerned with the well-being of their communities, dedicated to compassionate service to families and individuals with pressing financial, emotional, housing, and health problems. They step up to assist clients with disabilities, to offer employment training, substance abuse treatment, or counseling for child welfare, gerontology, spousal abuse, or homelessness.

The Labor Department reports that completion of a bachelor’s degree in social work (BSW) is often the key educational requirement for entry into this challenging,…

Four Critical Pre-School Classroom Skills

If you’re enrolled in an early childhood education or K-9 program, America’s children need you to help provide a solid foundation in learning and communication skills. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, jobs for pre-school and kindergarten teachers will grow by 23 percent during the 2006-2016 decade, with schools adding 143,000 new positions.  Licensing and certification requirements vary by state, so check with the department at your college or university to determine whether you’re…

Three Common Mistakes That Kill Resumes

Hiring managers must have a private cache of resumes that make them chuckle. Imagine reading through a batch of applications from job candidates who spell their college name incorrectly, list a dead telephone number, or submit a document that itemizes five pages of former jobs, going back to the car wash where they labored during hot summers in high school. Ouch.

If you’re going to land a job upon graduation, you’re going to need a strong…

Four Key Tips in Negotiating a Salary

Congratulations. You’ve completed your degree work or training program and have had a successful interview for a job in your field. It may not be your first job in your chosen career, but for now it’s the most important one. While it’s true that most entry-level candidates serve at the discretion of the parent company, you do have leverage in negotiating your salary. Tact, wisdom, and strategy plays a large role.

Do Your Homework
Use one or…

A Clever Networking Tool for Business Students

Listen up, MBA degree or entrepreneurial majors: if you’re not already networking, you’re missing exceptional opportunities to build your career. Everyone you meet during the course of your day–online or at campus–represents a possible connection to earnings and career stability. Don’t wait until graduation or your first job to have a set of business cards printed for you to hand people at meetings, in the gym, at social gatherings, trade shows, conventions, family picnics, or…

Top Trends for Culinary Arts Students

If you’re considering taking culinary training or are already enrolled in an online degree program, you’ll have excellent job prospects when you graduate. The Department of Labor predicts that 351,000 new jobs will be added to the culinary field during the 2006-2016 decade. That’s an 11 percent raise in total opportunities across the country. If you’re just entering the professions and plan on working while you study, food preparation employees will find faster than average…

Travel Trends for Tourism Majors

If you’re a Travel and Tourism major, you’ll want to keep tabs on the industry. In your coursework, you’ll undoubtedly cover the types of packages most families look for year after year. At the same time, trends come and go. This year, with ever-increasing fuel and food prices, more and more consumers with children are seeking vacations that won’t bust the bankbook.

For 2008, vacation shoppers are looking at winter, summer, and four-season destinations to suit…

Start Career Networking ASAP

Even if you’ve just begun your degree work or career training program, it’s a good idea to begin networking immediately. That’s because many of the jobs in the country that truly fit your specific qualifications are never advertised. Good positions are snapped up immediately by friends and colleagues of current employees.

Networking means that everyone you meet–at school, at the gym, at church, or at family reunions–are immediate resources. Let them know what you’re doing and…

Four Common Blogging Blunders

If you’re into new media as a writer, graphic artist, or developer, Web 2.0 will course through your veins. You’ll probably want your own blog or, perhaps, will be called upon to design or moderate one for someone else. There are plenty of stand-alone platforms in the blogosphere, but it’s humans that populate them. Usability guru Jakob Nielsen has his own rant about design and operational mistakes common to the blog space.

Blogs should be considered…