Careers advice. Earn a degree online

Careers advice. Find a new job or start a home business. Earn a degree online:

What are the advantages of online learning?

First of all, it is possible to fit this type of study around your existing commitments:

You don't have to leave your job, pay a fortune in childcare and trek to a campus miles away from home.

You can gain qualifications without having to interrupt career progression.

You can learn at your own pace - degrees are usually modular, allowing you to take breaks if you need to.

What are the disadvantages of online learning?

There are several potential disadvantages, but this depends on your personality and preferences.

You will miss out on the student experience - interaction with other students, sports, clubs, drinking and other traditional student pastimes.

You will also miss the buzz of learning in a classroom environment, being able to discuss, argue and ask questions as soon as they come up.

You may find it hard going to study after a full day's work and your social life is likely to suffer as weekends will be needed to catch up on assignments.

Other family members may feel neglected or interrupt you.

You may find it difficult to motivate yourself when you'd rather watch TV or go to the pub with friends.

The decision to follow an online course is not to be taken lightly and should be a result of considering all the options and choosing the one which will work best for you.

Please email me if you have any questions,
waller@coolercareers.com

For help with your CV or job application form:

www.ukjobapplicationforms.com

Careers advice. Find a new job or start a home business

Careers advice. Find a new job or start a home business

Distance Learning - Earn your degree online.

Let’s take a break from interviews and consider another important part of the quest for the ideal job – training and qualifications.  

More and more young people are heading off to university these days. In the UK the number has risen from 13% in the 80s to 41.5% now. And, as we all know, most of them leave university with enormous debts.

So, if you missed out on education the first time round and now have financial commitments, or if you are leaving school in the next year or two, want to earn a degree, but without the debt, what are the options?

One way forward is online or distance learning. Distance learning is not a new phenomenon – correspondence courses have been around for a very long time and the Open University started in 1969 – but the internet has opened up new possibilities.

In some cases, you can get a degree from a traditional university and in others, you sign up for a course at a virtual university.

Beware of fake degrees!  Many so-called virtual universities will offer you a degree based on your life experience. Other companies will offer degrees allegedly from real universities.  Sophisticated technology enables these organisations to produce paperwork which looks genuine and to back it up with more fake evidence. However, employers are catching on. So hold on to your money – or spend it getting a real qualification. You can study for a degree online for the price some of these organisations charge and then you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that you really did earn your degree, as well as the knowledge needed for your chosen profession.

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions:waller@coolercareers.com

For CV resources: www.woljam.com/marketing/index.html

For CV and Job Applications ebook: www.ukjobapplicationforms.com

For career change information: www.coolercareers.com

Presentations 3 AVAs

Audio Visual Aids (AVAs)

You should be told in advance which AVAs will be available. If not, ring up and ask.  Otherwise you could spend hours preparing transparencies only to find there is no overhead projector in the interview room.

If you are using transparencies (OHTs) you should always type and print rather than handwrite them. This looks much more professional. I once interviewed someone who had scribbled almost illegible notes on his and commented that his flatmate had borrowed the coloured pens. He didn’t get the job. OHTs are expensive and so if you are thinking of “borrowing” a few, make sure you get the right ones! The transparencies designed for laser printers aren’t suitable for inkjets and may be difficult to read if used on the latter.

Remember to use at least 24pt font size and don’t put too much information on each page. About six lines is recommended and about 6-8 words per line. It’s better to spread information over several OHTs than to cram it all into one.  You can use bullets, a little colour and some images, but don’t go overboard. Images on every OHT would be overkill, unless the subject matter is best explained by the use of graphics.

OHTs should be clear, to the point and help get the message across. They can also act as prompts to keep you on track.

If you want to provide the interviewers with more detailed information, you can put it in a handout. More on those later.

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions:

waller@coolercareers.comFor CV resources: www.woljam.com/marketing/index.html

For CV and Job Applications ebook: www.ukjobapplicationforms.com

For career change information: www.coolercareers.com

Presentations 1

This is a common experience which scares the life out of many interviewees! As part of your interview you are required to give a presentation on a subject related to the job. This usually lasts for 5 to 10 minutes. Often you are warned before the interview, but sometimes it’s sprung upon you when you get there.

If you know the subject of your presentation in advance, you must prepare extremely well, which means putting together a professional presentation and practising it until you can do it in your sleep! If you are more likely to be given the brief when you arrive for interview, you can still do plenty of preparation. Just choose the topics which could come up and prepare those. Even if you don’t get an exact match, you’ll be so used to presenting, that you’ll able to put together an alternative very quickly. Bit like an exam really!

Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll look at each aspect of the presentation in detail. So stay tuned.

Waller

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions: waller@coolercareers.com

For career change information and a free preview of 9 Steps to CV Success: www.coolercareers.com

For CV resources: www.woljam.com/marketing/index.html

For CV and Job Applications ebook, 9 Steps to CV Success: www.ukjobapplicationforms.com

Free Sample Chapters of New Ebook

If you would like to have a sneak preview of my new ebook, 9 Steps to CV Success, you can download it now at:

www.coolercareers.com/cvbook.html

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