A Master's Degree Is the Path to Career Advancement

An education in a specific area of the field you are working in can help catapult you to higher positions, whether that position is in the company you are currently working for, or a brand new company. You can choose to take courses online, if you need to maintain your current position, or you can take classes at a traditional college. Many colleges will offer night courses to get through a masters degree, but it may take slightly longer doing it this way. A Master's degree is, however, one of the best ways to improve your quality of life and learning. Choose a path of career advancement that will suit your own schedule and budget.

Having a masters degree opens up many doors that were not open to you before earning such a prestigious degree. You will notice that once you have the knowledge you need and the qualifications to do the job, potential employers are more likely to notice and appreciate your skills. Being able to put the successful completion of a Masters degree program on a resume boosts the chances of getting the job you desire.

When employers see that a candidate has completed advanced schooling, it creates a solid and responsible impression in their mind of you and your qualifications, especially if you were able to excel and get very good grades. It shows that you have the fortitude to finish what you start and the drive to follow your dreams, and well as the intelligence required to get it done. When employers see this kind of dedication on a resume, and see evidence of said qualifications during an interview, they are more likely to hire. These employers are also more likely to distribute promotions and raises to deserving employees who have been working in their company for a while.

Advancing a career comes down to gaining extra knowledge in a specific area through higher education, additional training or both. Companies will sometimes pay for their employees to go back to college or to take additional training in their field so that they will be kept up to date on all the latest information, procedures and techniques. These companies want their employees productive so that they are better able to benefit the company with their skills. If they have been working in an established career for a long time, the company executives, managers and supervisors will know the employee well enough to understand their flaws and their qualities. They will know what the employee needs to work on in order for them to become an indispensable asset to the company's success.

Aveta Solutions - Six Sigma Online ( http://www.sixsigmaonline.org/ ) offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.

http://EzineArticles.com/6514547

Business Leadership and Motivation Training Helps You Advance in Your Career

It can take just as much work to advance your career as it took to start it, but the results can be well worth the effort. Career advancement involves solid business leadership and motivation training and a desire to advance in your chosen career or explore new career options.

These four basic career advancement concepts will help you gain career success.

1. Speak from a financial perspective.

The more you advance in your career, the more financial responsibilities you will be given. When presenting your financial accomplishments, you want to be as specific as possible. Don't just say you can do this, this and this. Explain your value to the company in clear terms with real examples. Show how you can secure additional funding, gain new resources, stay on or under budget, and find the right people to help accomplish this.

2. There is No "I" in Team

As tempting as it is to take full credit for every achievement, it is important to show that you can work well with others. Every decision you make should be for the benefit of the company and your co-workers. It shouldn't be all about your advancement. By building positive relationships, you will emphasize your leadership skills and ability to focus efforts to accomplish a task.

3. Do Your Best Now

It is important to do the best you can do right now. Taking on added responsibilities without being asked and doing more than what is expected of you will likely make you stand out from the crowd. You will soon become an asset to the company. This often leads to more challenging projects and tasks.

4. Think Outside of the Box

It is easy to go along with what everybody else is doing. However, being creative and unconventional in your approach to business tasks is the difference between a leader and a follower and can actually make you more valuable to a company. Approach each situation from a different perspective. Leaders set trends; they don't follow them.

A big part of my program is to encourage clients to write down ways that these business leadership and motivation training techniques can be immediately used in their current careers. Using the this last concept as an example, a client might write:

• Go back and look at an unfinished project from a new perspective.

• Document ways to save money on a future project.

• Clearly show how a new approach to an existing problem can work during the next project meeting.

It doesn't take long to master these techniques. However, it is important to get started now. My business leadership and motivation training, along with a desire to set yourself apart from the crowd, will give you all that is needed to advance your career.

Joel Garfinkle is a convention, conference, and special event speaker who has worked closely with thousands of executives from large companies such as Proctor & Gamble, Cisco, and Morgan Stanley. Find out how you can get him to speak at your next business convention by visiting his website at http://www.joelinspirationalspeaker.com/.

http://EzineArticles.com/6492781

What Beliefs Drive Your Career Search?

This isn't a question about career strategy -- how you'll take your career from where it is to where you want it to be. It's a question about the underlying beliefs that guide you as you try to create career fulfillment.

Here's what it comes down to: Are you a jigsaw puzzler, or an equestrian?

The Jigsaw Puzzler
Intentionally or not, you may believe that to find the right place to land in the world of work you must fit what you can do or have done into the appropriately contoured space in the jigsaw puzzle of available jobs.

Ten or fifteen years ago this approach stood a good chance of succeeding. Chances are, it's the model you inherited from parents and teachers. You would expect to conduct a career search by scanning job postings looking for one that fits your skill set. You'd analyze your resume for transferrable skills and look for industries or careers that would utilize them. You'd probably be selective based on what looked interesting or attractive to you, but you'd be guided primarily by what fits with your experience and skills.

Today, in a vastly different employment environment, this approach still has a place. Window shopping on job boards will give you ideas you wouldn't have thought of, inform you about how an industry of interest structures its personnel needs, and -- perhaps most important -- it can jumpstart your optimism about finding more fulfilling work.

But it has a significant drawback, a subtle assumption I'm strenuously challenging when I hear it in my clients' thinking: namely, that your success will depend on how well you can match an employer's requirements. This places you in a reactive rather than proactive position, requiring you to massage the mix of what you have done or can do into a compelling resume and hoping it matches what the hiring manager has in mind.

The Equestrian
Better suited to the 21st C. global workplace is the equestrian. In this belief system, you know yourself to be sitting atop a dynamic, powerful energy -- your commitment to express and grow your talents. Your responsibility is to take the reins, sensitively but firmly, encouraging the best use of that energy and taking charge, moment to moment, of direction, pace and destination.

If this approach sounds more strenuous, even more risky, you're right! A decision to take control of your career destiny cuts both ways: more at risk, more to gain. But understanding the implications of the changed work environment in effect make the decision a no-brainer.

Employers can no longer afford to offer long-term security in exchange for company loyalty. They must attract employees with versatility, creative problem-solving, and unique combinations of skills and strengths in order to keep pace with the rate and scope of change. Career search strategy must be positioned to demonstrate how a candidate stands out, rather than how s/he fits in.

If you've kept an eye on these changes in the workplace, you know that the most highly sought-after candidates are those who can demonstrate creativity, individuality and unique combinations of strengths and talents are highly sought after by employers. This means that the full complexity of You, all that makes you who you are and unlike anyone else, can -- and must -- be carefully identified and articulated. It places you firmly in the saddle of your career, fully appreciative of the power and energy beneath you, knowing how to assure its health and vigor, and able to navigate changes in terrain in fine attunement with that power.

What are the concrete actions the equestrian takes to keep his/her career fully vital and heading in the right direction? Peter Weddle, in his Career Fitness program, outlines five activities to exercise on a regular basis.

1. Continue to learn
Don't overestimate the value of your years of work experience. It will get outbid every time by state-of-the-art knowledge and skills. Acquire them and deliver them now, in your current work.

2. NetWork
Focus less on meeting large numbers of people and more on increasing your visibility as a knowledgeable and widely respected professional.

3. Cross-train
Be prepared to adapt to a complex and rapidly shifting work environment. Develop multidimensionality. Combine a specific specialty with diversity in how it's performed (e.g. a variety of communication skills) or apply a primary skill (e.g. sales) to more than one product or industry.

4. Keep your bags packed
Expect change rather than hoping for stability. Keep one eye on the path ahead to increase your ability to direct the next transition so that it serves your long-term career plan.

5. Tend your soul
Your soul is uniquely yours and is also your link to the rest of humanity. Recognize that its brilliance is sustained by a larger vision of career success than personal gain, one that includes a share of responsibility for social/global/environmental betterment. Commit to specific "for the health of my soul" goals and integrate them into your career plan.

While none of these steps is easy to integrate into an already demanding schedule, they will serve you in the long run. If you substitute one activity within each heading for activities you've been doing to try to shore up job security or to sidestep the winds of change, you will not only be better prepared but you will feel better - more confident, more in charge. If you're unsure how to implement these recommendations in your own situation, seek the assistance of a career professional.

Would you like some suggestions for soul-nurturing activities? Go to http://www.successfromtheinsideout.com/resources.html and scroll down to "Soul Nourishing Sites".

Nina Ham, internationally certified career coach and licensed psychotherapist, is Principal of Success from the Inside Out. Her company guides midlife professional women to create careers that keep pace with their personal expansion and reflect their new priorities. Subscribe to the free monthly Career Search Tips and her free quarterly ezine.

http://EzineArticles.com/6498605