Many people divide their lives into two large pieces: time spent in school and time spent pursuing a career. The unfortunate fact is that many only discover later and while on the job that their time in school didn’t give them all the tools they need to make the most out of the time they spend developing their careers. This can be frustrating and disappointing, and may lead to unsatisfying careers and uninspired employees.

This predicament can happen for a variety of reasons. Once out of school, many may find that their interests and talents point in a different direction than their education prepared them for. Sometimes new opportunities open up and there’s a need for additional training. Finally, industry best practices are always evolving and employees must keep their skills up to date.

Fortunately, it’s easy for workers and professionals to find a top quality training company in today’s educational marketplace. There is an abundance of options as well as a great variety of courses available for anyone looking to push their careers several steps further.

Frontline management

Global competitiveness is creating a great demand for professionals with frontline management skills and experience. Corporations are finding that they need to increase the number of services and products they offer, as well as establish their presence in emerging markets. These factors create a significant need for individuals who can take over first line management positions.

Employees who sense they have the aptitude and desire to join management find that they need the coursework, certification or diploma that qualifies them for these exciting positions. A wide variety of providers has sprung up in recent years to make acquiring additional training convenient for those already in the workplace. In some cases, universities such as the University of New England, fund spinoffs like UNE Partnerships to handle these kinds of special programs and function as training companies.

Administrative course

Along with frontline management skills, demand is also increasing for employees with higher level business administration knowledge and abilities. As organisations become more complex and governmental regulations increase, the need for additional administrative course study programs also grows.

Often corporations and government organisations themselves will pay the expenses for training programs like these to help keep their employees current and advance their job skills. So it’s important to stay abreast with the training opportunities offered by your employer to find the courses that complement and enhance your areas of interest and expertise. Check company newsletters and bulletins to look for opportunities, or suggest these trainings and courses to your supervisors as an effort to improve individual employee knowledge and skills which in turn will boost your company’s performance.

The times of dividing your life in the usual way are over. Now professionals have to proactively respond to career opportunities by any necessary means, such as combining careers with relevant education and training. Whether employees pay for additional training themselves or are funded by the companies they work for, pursuing professional and vocational training that increases and improves skills is an investment that delivers lifelong dividends.

Debra Wright blogs about a plethora of topics including frontline management and other fields. Wright considers UNE Partnerships as one of the leading training company in Australia.

Summer jobs can be platforms to help launch careers. But when you’re in highschool, the stakes are much lower. Choosing a good summer job is really not that hard. It will basically be anything you can get. At this point in your life you should not be worrying about your career just yet. It’s good to keep it in mind, but the years of college will be when you really get to explore your passions and have a chance to start building the career you want. That will be a time to choose your summer jobs and internships very carefully.

Planning on College?

Now, if you are not planning on going to college, then the summer job you choose becomes much more significant. Summer jobs then take on the importance that internships hold for college students. They are a chance to explore your career and make connections in your future industry. The job you work at will be an opportunity to acquire necessary skills and an understanding of all the positions you could hope to hold in the future. It can also provide you with good references that will aid in your job search, and sources of information about your industry and job openings.

Searching for that ideal Job.

Job searching has never been easier. There are a number of job sites that have listings such as Indeed.com and Craig’s List. Federal government initiatives to help Americans find jobs have also created a number of local agencies that have job placement resources. Industries also often have industry specific job posting boards such as Bookjobs.com which lists job postings that come up in the publishing industry.

Higher Level Positions.

Many entry level positions are looking for a candidate with a bachelor’s degree and some work experience, which makes them poor options for high school students. A better option might be a summer program that is relevant to a field of interest. Serving as camp counsellors and assistants at such programs can often reduce the price of attendance, perhaps even down to zero. There is also a chance of earning money, though that is more likely if you’ve attended the program in past summers as they are unlikely to hire an unknown.

Seasonal Jobs

There are also a number of jobs that are specific to the season. Jobs such as life guarding, pool cleaning, various yard work and outdoor labor and a number of construction projects that home owners usually put off until spring or summer. Finding those jobs are often about going to the job site and asking about them. Check out the local pool to discover what their hiring policy is, or enquirer with neighbors to find out if they have any yard work or home improvement projects planned.

Keep in Mind

Remember that the search for a summer job should be fun and productive. For most, a summer job in high school is only meant to provide a little extra spending money. Summer jobs can help prepare you for a career you want later in life, but there is also plenty of time to figure that out.

Kev is a recruitment consultant from Sussex, UK and runs a popular Cabin Crew jobs board in the UK

Job searching has changed just as much as technology has. Back in the old days if you were put back into the job market, you waited for the daily paper to come along to see what job openings were available. In today’s modern technology focused world, technology assists with finding a job by providing the most up to date job openings that change by the second.

This technological development has assisted in unemployment rates because waiting for the daily paper could leave you out of work for weeks before even finding the opportunity for an interview.

The latest development of online job sites makes finding a job quick and simple.

From Want Ads To Online Job Boards

The first development from paper to electronic consists of online job boards such as Indeed, Careerbuilder, and Monster. These online job boards posted job openings similar to the want ads, the only difference is they allow you to apply for the job on the spot without having to drive directly to the location.

For some people, they still prefer to use job boards. Job boards may still be the best job websites to use, especially if you have great resume writing skills.

Social Talent Communities

Social talent communities have made it simple to find jobs based on your skills rather than your experience. Some businesses would prefer someone who is skilled compared to how long they have worked I a specific industry. To some this may not make much sense, but if you evaluate the new courses offered to colleges that offer hands on experiences, skills may take precedent over experience in specific job markets.

Focusing On Your Career Path

Many job websites are going beyond local job listings and further assisting people in finding a career they will enjoy doing for the rest of their lives. Some of these job sites offer a variety of tools to assist you in getting yourself back into the workplace.

• · MyWebCareer is a website that allows you to understand how potential employers perceive you through what they see online. This includes an evaluation of social networking and other social media outlets.
• · Vizability is a website that allows you to create an accurate profile of yourself that will appear on Google. The wonderful thing about Google is it can give anyone information about anyone that they may want to find out about. When your employers search for you, you want them to only have the important information that makes you desirable to their company, Vizability will provide you with the tools to look desirable to these prospective employers.

Taking Advantage Of Job Market Tools

When you are thrown back into the job market, it can be a stressful period of financial hardship that makes you want to find a job as soon as possible. Taking advantage of the Internet job resources will increase your chance of finding a job and looking desirable to the companies that you are applying to, getting you back into the workplace as soon as possible.

Robert has been studying the business industry for the past 10 years. Some of his publications have focused on job markets and have been keeping the Enthuse audience up to date with the latest social media tools for finding and keeping jobs.

There was a time when a well-constructed “coming soon” trailer – i.e., establish genre, show the stars, have an explosion– would be all that was needed to guarantee the success of a film. Nowadays, you need teasers hitting screens six months beforehand, interactive websites to get a buzz going, a campaign with the potential to go viral, TV interviews, joint-promotion with fast-food outlets, social media messages and ideally a juicy scandal too. A decent film is also a bonus.

The personalised, experiential element of marketing is becoming more and more important in the making of memorable word-of-mouth. Therefore pop-up environments and installations are increasingly commonplace on the high street. To promote the DVD release of Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours (2010), a guy lived in a Perspex cubicle in a DVD shop window for (you guessed it) 127 hours. To make these gimmicks possible, promotional staff are needed to work on such events. However, the smarter amongst them may cast an eye on the movies they are promoting if they want to learn how to make their product work for them.

This is Spinal Tap (1984): Does for Rock ‘n’ Roll what “The Sound of Music” did for Hills

One of the most memorable – if not successful – appearances of promotional staff on film occurs in the cult comedy classic Spinal Tap. In New York to promote their new album (“Smell the Glove”), the hard rocking British trio are forced to attend a record company soiree; the event staff for the evening are all mimes. Much of the dialogue is improvised and even though Billy Crystal in an early break-through role is playing a silent mime he still manages to get in the classic line: “mime is money”. Off the back of this stand-out cameo, Crystal was made a cast regular on the iconic TV show Saturday Night Live and went on to star in hit movies with Spinal Tap’s director – such as, The Princess Bride (1987) and When Harry Met Sally (1989).

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986): It’s About Hannah…and Her Sisters

This mature multi-Oscar winning comedy-drama from Woody Allen tells a story of the intertwining love lives of three Manhattan sisters – Diane Wiest, Mia Farrow and Barbara Hershey. At one point, one of the sisters sets up a catering company with an actress friend – The Stanislavsky Catering Company. They try to focus on becoming promotional staff at show business events in order to network effectively for their acting careers. Unfortunately, the actresses become rivals when auditioning for the same parts and so dissolve the business. The idea was based on a real-lie enterprise by actresses Janet Margolin and Jennifer Salt.

Lara Croft – Tomb Raider (2001): Born into Wealth – Trained for Combat

Lara Croft is a popular character from the video game series Tomb Raider. Over the years no fewer than eight official promotional models have played Croft and in 2008 the Guinness Book of World recognised Croft as having had “the most real-life stand-ins”. Nell McAndrew, who only portrayed the character for one year, remains perhaps most widely recognised of the promotional models. So much so, that there was even a campaign for her to play the lead role in the original film version. Ultimately, it was decided that Angelina Jolie had more pulling power in terms of selling tickets. Nonetheless, McAndrew went on to establish a successful career as a model, trainer and all-purpose celebrity. Arguably her promotional work for the character had a longer-lasting legacy than the films themselves.

Movie Marketing Events and Promotional Campaigns

However, promotionaland marketing events are not just the domain of movie content. The movies themselves often need promoting and sometimes take extraordinary measures to make themselves stand out in a crowded marketplace.

For instance, in 1950 the host of the popular TV quiz show Truth or Consequences promised to visit whichever town in the USA that officially changed its name to “Truth or Consequences”. One town in New Mexico did so and the host continued to visit the town annually for the subsequent 50 years. Also in the ‘50s, local film exhibitors hired promotional staff to dress up as B-movie horror characters and enter cinemas to further shock the audience into believing the monsters had escaped from the celluloid. These tactics were called off when heroic spectators began beating up the imposters. In 1999, Blair Witch Project promoters claimed that it was all found-footage and was in fact real. This was the first movie promotional campaign to go “viral” – the dream goal of all modern marketers.

Indeed, the goal of any good publicity stunt is to grab attention and get people talking. In 2006, Sasha Baron Cohen managed to get the Secret Service talking into their radio microphones when he visited Washington DC as Borat to deliver an invitation for “George Walter Bush” to attend a screening of his movie. Bush declined, missing a great promotional opportunity for his unpopular White House.

Pipa Rose is a blogger who is astonished at the things that promotional staff do to promote movies. Interestingly, a lot can be learnt from these techniques and from the movies themselves to help you to promote your business.

College students have a unique position among the working populace. Some companies hire college students during the summer for specific internships that are unavailable to other workers, or they may have entirely unique jobs tailor-made to fit a college student’s schedule. Besides internships, there are other ways college students can earn money during the summer. The following five examples offer unique jobs suited to the college student’s summer vacation.

Top 5 Unique Summer Job Opportunities

#5: Virtual Freelance Writer

Technology has expanded to include writing among its many branches. Virtual freelancing from legitimate magazines, newspapers and other online publications offers a unique chance for college students, particularly those interested in writing, the chance to make a decent wage doing something totally creative. Sites like Cracked.com and journals like The Huffington Post use freelance work on a routine basis, and it could be a good way for a future journalist to get his or her foot in the door. The pay won’t be spectacular, but the exposure and future potential more than make up for this detail.

#4: Professional “Groupie”

Long gone are the days of hair bands and their fleet of fishnet-clad groupies, but the modern-day equivalent still offers an exciting work opportunity. For college students interested in tours, music management and the music industry in general, they may find a job doing just about anything with a tour company. These jobs, while often hard to find, offer college students the chance to go on tour and learn the business (and not-so-business) side of music.

#3: Graphic Design Intern

With the widespread use of Photoshop and other digital manipulation software, people everywhere are turning to graphic designers for help improving their company’s image. College students should jump on board the technology bandwagon and proffer their skills as a graphic design intern. Many internships won’t be paid, but some will, and the benefit of learning how to turn those Photoshop skills into a future career will be fun and invaluable.

#2: Political Activist

Campaigning doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t just happen during presidential election years. Anyone who holds a government position, be it local, state or national, depends on constant activism to maintain his or her seat in government. Besides the individual, political issues need campaigners, too. College students, with longer summer breaks and more availability than high schoolers, can get in on the political action by working directly with a campaign team. Political campaigning isn’t always volunteer work. Many political figures will pay for quality activism.

#1: Sole Proprietor

The pressures of completing a dozen papers in a semester can squash otherwise creative endeavors. Summer is a college student’s chance to break outside the mold and start his or her own business. Whether it’s a lawn care service or a cupcake kitchen, college students can use the four months off to develop their creative, entrepreneurial ideas.

College students should jump at the chance for creative and exciting job opportunities that may not exist during a regular academic season. These jobs offer students the chance to learn new skills, get involved in exciting projects and increase their hiring potential once they graduate.

Luann White is a career counselor at a major university in the mid-west.  She enjoys helping helping students in all academic disciplines find the perfect job and offers more of her expert advice at  College Scholarship Tips.