Many business courses include a practical aspect, however students can add to this experience by seeking further real world business training. Some students work in volunteer positions or as interns to supplement their training courses. This enables them to apply the theoretical knowledge the school supplies to real life situations.

There are several avenues for students to acquire real world business experience. They include

• Volunteer work
• Internships
• Trainee positions
•  Current employment
• School opportunities.

1. Volunteer work

Non profit organisations are always searching for volunteers. Much of the work they do requires business experience. For example, marketing is a constant necessity for charities. They must continue to market their organisations to maintain funding. This environment is ideal for a business student. The student can gain real world experience in dealing with the difficulties and financial constraints of maintaining and promoting a business.

2. Internships

Many large companies will happily employ students studying business courses as interns. Internships are on the job training positions which are usually low or unpaid. These positions give students opportunities to experience the workings of large corporations. They often involve rotating through different roles so the intern gains experience of all the companies operations. This is a great advantage for students. It gives them the chance to use their skills in meaningful way.

There are also international internships which are available to Australian students. These also provide real world experience and also references for future employment.

3. Trainee positions

Trainee positions are similar to internships. However, in most cases, traineeships will lead to permanent employment with the organisation. Basically traineeships are lower paid work which involve on the job training with the aim of becoming a permanent employee.

A variation of traineeships is to work at a lower paid job that is related to business. Whilst working in the lower job, the student gains experience and access to promotion by being a known member of the company’s workforce.

4. Current employment

Often a student’s current employer will provide opportunities to develop business skills. Working a part time job in a restaurant or bar may lead to the chance to work on the business side of the company. A good manager may be grateful if one of their employees suggests a marketing idea or volunteers to do a managerial task. Opportunities in current situations should not be ignored as they can provide valuable work experiences.

5. School opportunities

Some schools are also businesses which need marketing and other commercial skills. Students can volunteer to help their own school with marketing or business needs. For example, investigating the purchase of school supplies and finding a cheaper supplier. Such simple tasks can lead to the student gaining experience in invoicing and ordering.

There are many opportunities for business students to gain real world experience. Schools, volunteer organisations and internships all provide excellent avenues of finding work. Real world opportunities enhance the learning experience and make business training more relevant and comprehensible.

Even if you pass the Bar with flying colors, sometimes it’s rather difficult to get hired by the specific firm that you want. While you may very well be tired of school ( after all you’ve endured 2-to-4 years of law school) there are in fact some classes that can help you become a well rounded lawyer and beef up your resume, which ultimately can demonstrate that you have way more to offer than other candidates. Whether you choose to take them online or take a couple of mid day or night classes, to learn some courses that can give you the upper hand and make you be a better you, continue reading below.

1. Communications/Public Speaking Courses. The most proficient and successful lawyers are excellent communicators—especially trial lawyers. They have to have strong communication skills in order to clearly make their statements and arguments to the judge and jury with confidence as well as effectively explain what’s going on to their clients. Communication with clients is most important—you need to know how to be direct and get to the meat and potatoes of the conversation. If you speak in “lawyer jargon” or give too many insignificant details, you risk straying from the original conversation or confusing your client(s) altogether. So take some communication courses like public speaking.

2. Writing/Reading Composition/Journalism Courses. While having strong oral communication skills is crucial, having strong writing skills is equally as important. You need to know how to broaden your vocabulary, obtain strong grammar and editing skills, as well as know how to write concisely and write under deadlines. A journalism course for example is a great choice when it comes to teaching students how to write under the pressure of strict deadlines—and as many working lawyers can vouch for, all too often legal papers must be written under strict deadlines; sometimes clients even want to see a draft before court deadlines are out in place, so they have to quickly come up with a draft within a day or two. These courses can help you make a quicker turn-around as well as help you mature your writing skills.

3. Foreign Language Courses. Typically your undergraduate curriculum will only mandate a semester or two of a foreign language—but it’s in your best interest to continue to work to become fluent in a language in order to increase your marketability. Not just any language, however. It’s imperative that you pursue to learn a language that is “useful.” For example, while French a beautiful language to know, unless you plan on practicing in France or French Canada, your new linguistic skill won’t serve much use to you. If you learn something like Spanish or Chinese however, you can most certainly be a vital asset to your firm and expand your clientele.

4. Psychology Courses. As a lawyer, it’s part of your job to be able to read people out and be able to gather a lot of information from simply their body language. A psychology class will be able to let you get a taste of the human psyche as well as give you some insight into why criminals do the things that they do for example. You may even learn a few questioning techniques.

5. Basic Computer Courses. Last but not least you need to be semi-proficient in computers. It may not seem like something that needs immediate attention but as the shift of paper goes to digital files you will need to possess some sort of skills on the computer, especially desktop publishing and programs like Word, Excel and slideshows—you’ll sometimes want to make slideshows of facts and evidence to make your case stronger.

Are there any courses you think we’ve missed?

Byline:

This is a guest post by Eliza Morgan who is a full time blogger.  She specializes in writing about business credit cards. You can reach her at: elizamorgan856 at gmail dot com.

This isn’t a post on a career topic per se but it is a post on saving money. I got this idea to write this post after speaking with a few friends one of whom was downsized and is looking to tighten the belt a bit and save some money and reduce his spending. He also happened to mention that he needs to spend some money on his vehicle and in particular has to buy winter tires for one of his cars so it’s a bit of a double whammy. He isn’t making money but he has to spend it. How many other people are in this dilemma? Quite a few I’m sure. I mentioned to him that he can at least save money on his tires because everywhere I look these days there are discount tire coupons available from local tire dealers and even from the tire manufacturers themselves. You might be surprised at what you can save money on these days and every bit helps. The Internet is a treasure trove of savings in fact. Several weeks ago I wanted to make an online purchase for a new theme for a website I was building so I did a quick search to see if I could find a savings coupon for the product and sure enough, a quick Google search later and I was able to locate a coupon that cut my price in half. So at least if you aren’t making money you can at least save a bit as you get yourself back on track and get back into the workforce earning money.

Considered working as a Writer? This interview will take you through the ups and downs you can expect in the position, what it takes to land the job, what you can expect to earn and more. This is a true career story as told to EngineeringJobs.org and is one of many interviews with professionals engineers which among others include Structural Engineer and Power Engineer.

Not only is this my story, it is also my amazing journey. Taking a leap of faith into a freelance writing career was daunting at best, as I could easily describe myself as predictable and timid, although quietly determined.

At 13, I made two decisions; I would live in California and be a writer. At 16, I met my husband and said goodbye to my dreams. As an Italian-American wife and mother, born and raised in the 60s, the worst thing you could do was to work outside the home. I settled on legal transcription as my occupation so I could work from home and raise my family. Two years ago, however, I took my leap into freelance writing in a most unusual way.

After transcribing for 20 years, my hands also decided they would no longer partake in this lifestyle; it was unacceptable to them. After two hand surgeries and severe arthritis, it was time to let go, literally. It was time to take a “hands-off” approach. Thoughts of finishing my earlier writings and daring to submit them flooded my mind. I went from legal work to the insanely frustrating yet fulfilling world of freelance writing.

While traveling with my son in his ice hockey endeavors, I began to study the art of creative writing. After working all day then taking care of my daughters, off we were to his practices. There I was freezing my fingers off in the parking lot, alternating turning the car on and off to stay warm and studying. Things such as theme, plot, and viewpoint became my passion. I obtained my certificate in creative writing with Honors.

Going to work that morning, I realized I could no longer lie to myself. I had not chosen writing as a career, but it had chosen me. My calling had found me. My writing passion overtook me. I gave my two weeks notice. I jumped into the pool of writing headfirst, diving in with no lifeguard on duty. This is how I got started in my freelance writing career. Looking back over my shoulder, I wouldn’t change a thing.

My foremost responsibility was to find assignments. This was the most time-consuming aspect of freelance writing. Meeting deadlines was the trickiest. Doing research was the most fascinating and editing is my favorite. With the internet as my new tool of trade, I began to search for assignments. Within three weeks of leaving my job, I had my first freelance experience. Now, I certainly was not at the point of sitting in my library wearing a smoking jacket, as most common myths about writers will dictate. However, I was beginning to build my resume.

The unique components of my situation were the struggles I was facing in the middle of my pursuit. I was a divorced mother of three, needing income and education with two sick parents I had to care for now. These very same struggles, however, made the successes even sweeter.

One of the things I learned the hard way was not to be so trusting. It is best to have in writing how you will receive payment, as someone’s word in the freelance industry is not sufficient. I searched the internet for a higher paying assignment and the old adage about being too good to be true applies. I submitted the work and never received payment. I did further research and found out it was a scam. This was by far the strangest thing that happened to me during my quest.

Although this was an unfortunate experience, it taught me that there are positive and negative forces in the working world. You just need to learn how to decipher them. The positives can make you glow. When a client likes your work and requests you to produce more, it is an amazing feeling. It fills you up.

Working as a freelancer has many highs and lows. You can set your own schedule and take a vacation whenever finances allow. Some of the downfalls are not having any sick time or health insurance (that is a big one). People sometimes think working from home is easy, but I opt out of doing so. There are too many distractions and the library is my best friend. If I had to recommend this line of work to a good friend, I would tell them not to do it for the money. Do it for passion. Taking grammar, copyediting courses and creative writing will definitely boost your confidence in this line of work.

Through all my adversities, I realized that if you wait to walk the tight rope until there is a safety net beneath you, you would never walk at all. My faith is what keeps me steady and keeps me forward moving. Without the struggles I had gone through, my writing would not be what it is today, strong and polished, just like me.

If I had to rate freelance writing on a scale of one through 10, it would be difficult as financially it is a struggle. If I could change that part of it, of course, I would, but then everybody would be doing it. However, personally, it is so fulfilling. After all, what price can you pay for your true calling?

Who knows, maybe five years from now I’ll be wearing that smoking jacket while I peruse which contract for what publisher to sign.

Image via Wikipedia

If the idea of capturing wildlife images makes you feel passionate, you can consider becoming a wildlife photographer. Though a wildlife photographer’s career seems to be quite attractive, it also brings you challenges that you need to face on a daily basis.

If you plan to become a wildlife photographer, given below are some useful tips that you can use.

Take Necessary Courses

Wildlife photography is not just about learning photography skills. It’s also about educating yourself on the behaviors of a wide range of wildlife animals. On the one hand, you need to take courses in photography. On the other, you need to study wildlife biology and survival techniques in different natural conditions.

Practice Makes You Perfect

In order to make yourself quite adept at photographing wild animals, you’ll need to practice more and more. Make the most of every opportunity that you get. Try to capture images which make your photography unique.

To practice wildlife photography, you don’t always need to be inside a wildlife park. In fact, you can take pictures of animals wherever you find them.

Learn about the Technical Aspect

While working with a camera, you should be able to clearly understand how it functions. Learn about the different settings of the camera. The more you know about the technicalities of the camera, the better you can use them at different times of the day. Practice taking photographs at different times of the day so that you can experiment with the lighting effects.

Connect with Professional Photographers

It is always a good idea to establish connections with expert photographers. You can learn the different photography techniques from professionals who are already working in the field of wildlife photography. Wildlife photography seminars are held from time to time. They provide you an excellent opportunity to meet with professional wildlife photographers.

Read Wildlife Literature

You can find a lot of literature on wildlife, both online and offline. If you really want to become successful as a wildlife photographer, you should read about wildlife as much as possible. Read published works by some of the most popular wildlife photographers.

If you are ready to devote the time and energy that the career requires, you can really expect to make it big as a wildlife photographer. Use the above mentioned tips to enjoy your career journey to the maximum. There is no dearth of opportunities for candidates who have adequate experience and skills. If you the required amount of passion, start preparing for you career right away!

James Tomerson writes regularly on career, education and latest job trends. To read more from him, you can visit Jobdiagnosis.com, which also offers jobseekers a free career test to choose a career which is in tune with their career, aptitude and skills.

It is becoming more and more common in the current job market for the person in charge of hiring to be considerably younger than many of the job applicants. Does this sound familiar to you? Then you could be one of the thousands of baby boomers out there looking for work in an extremely competitive environment. Don’t let your resume suggest that you are past your prime. Many of the old rules about resume writing have changed and keeping up to date can keep you in the game.

According to a study by Urban Institute, for those 60 and older, the chance of finding a job within 12 months is 18 percent, which means keeping your resume up to date and stylistically current is of vital importance. Use these tips to create the strongest resume presentation possible.

Be Careful with Resume Dates

Dates are all over a resume. There are dates of employment, dates of graduation, dates of certification. Some you can simply leave off, others you can hide to a lesser extent. The years associated with your schooling should be left off altogether. They do not add anything and only prove to focus the resume screener’s attention on the fact that you may have graduated before they were born.

As for the years that match up with your work history, ignore the age-old advice to place dates on the left hand side of the resume. While this may have been true in the past, it is no longer a hard-and-fast rule so you do not need to follow it. The eye naturally drifts to the left and you don’t want the dates to stand out, you want your seasoned experience to shine. Place all dates all the way over to the right hand margin.

Contact Info: Short and Sweet

As a resume writing professional I often review resumes for clients where they have a land line, a cell phone, a fax number and two email addresses all listed in the contact heading. While you may have multiple email addresses, a cell phone and a land line, you do not want to place them all at the top of your resume. Modern resumes tend to list only a cell number and a single email address. Simply put your name, address, email and one phone number at the top of the page.

A note on email addresses. There are two big no-no’s when it comes to email. First, do not use your current job’s address. Second, do not have a “cute” email name. Worldsbestmom@aol.com may have been the email account you got when you used one of those ubiquitous AOL free trial CDs back in 1999, but for an up-to-date resume, sign up for a professional sounding Gmail account.

Of course it goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway, that you need to stay on top of those accounts. Nothing says out of touch more than a person who only checks his or her email once a day. You want to be able to respond to any inquiries within a three hour period.

Keep Your Resume Current

You may very well have 30 years of unmatched experience, but what you have been doing over the past 10 is what will get you the interview. With few exceptions, your work history should be limited to the past 20 years. Much of what you may have done before 1990 has changed significantly with the information revolution and dwelling on those skills will only make you seem out of touch. Additionally, you have certainly moved up the ladder since then and your current skills are much more advanced. Keep the focus there.

While it is fine to simply omit your older jobs and experiences you should chose resume section titles that allow you to discuss older examples in an interview if the need arises. Instead of titling a section “Work History” use something a bit more vague such as “ Relevant Experience.”

Looking for work after the age of 50 can be intimidating, but crafting a quality resume doesn’t have to be. Just follow these suggestions and let your skills and experience do the talking, not your generational demographic.

Author Bio:

Steve Brady is a resume writing professional who owns and operates www.Quality-Resumes.com, a full service resume writing company. I been writing resumes for just about every job type imaginable for over 10 years now. With a background in both business and education, and degrees in English, Classics and Secondary Education, I am uniquely positioned to be of help.

Before we start discussing how to write a chronological resume, let us first discuss what a chronological resume is. Among the other types of resume, the chronological resume is the most common type. The resume suits best those jobseekers that have a solid work history without any considerable gap in their employment. On the other hand, if there are long gaps in the work history, jobseekers use a functional resume that focuses on skills and experience. So, the main purpose of a chronological resume is to attract the employer’s attention by showcasing the jobseeker’s solid employment history.

A chronological will first list all the recently held job positions. The listing of positions held recently is done in the reverse chronological order. Though the format of the resume may vary from one candidate to another, a chronological resume typically includes the following important sections.

The order of the information included in the resume is as follows:

Qualifications Statement
Work Experience
Education

Writing the Qualifications Statement
This is the very section in the chronological resume. The purpose of the qualifications statement section is to provide to the reader a brief overview of the candidate’s occupation, expertise, talents, skills and achievements.

Earlier referred to as the objective section, the qualifications statement has similarity with the objective. However, the qualifications statement is written in the resume in a way that makes the jobseeker marketable to the employer. Therefore, candidates need to review a couple of samples to write this section in the best manner.

Work Experience Section
As discussed above, it is the work history section that the chronological resume emphasizes. The section lists all the recently held job positions in the order that the most recent one comes at the top. Then the second most current position is listed and so on. With each job position listed on the resume, there are written the achievements that the candidate made at the respective company.

For highlighting the achievements for each recently held job, the resume uses a bulleted list format that can be easily readable for the employer. The typical format of the work history section in a chronological resume is as follows.

Job Title
Company
City/ State
Dates Employed
Achievements

The same format will be used for writing each different job position that you are going to list on the chronological resume.

Education
There are no specifications in terms of writing the education section in a chronological resume. In all the resume types, the education section is written in the same way.

Considering the different types of resume, it is essential for candidates to be aware of all the basic types. What is more important is that you know which resume suits which personal circumstances. Writing a resume can be a difficult task for jobseekers who are not well informed of the resume types and what information to include. Considering the tough competition of the job market, you need to create a resume that immediately attracts the employer’s attention and increases your chances of getting the job. Writing a chronological resume can be easy for you if you have solid employment history without long gaps in the work history.

James Tomerson writes regularly on career, education and latest job trends. To read more from him, you can visit Jobdiagnosis.com, which also offers jobseekers a free career test to choose a career which is in tune with their career, aptitude and skills.

Psst, here's something I shouldn't really tell you

I have to admit, oversharer is a new word for me. I just heard about it recently and did a bit of checking and found out that it’s already in the urban dictionary who define it as:

when too much information is given about any one (usually personal) subject matter.

We probably all know of oversharers who share waaaaay too much info online through their Twitter and Facebook accounts. These days, while you can quickly delete a tweet or photo you probably shouldn’t have posted online you might not have delete them quickly enough before someone notices and takes a screenshot.

We probably all know someone who just seems to say things at the most inopportune time or who just seems to say stupid things that no one else would even think of saying.

And what about people who overshare too much at work or in a job interview for example?

I remember a guy who I was helping with his job search and he wanted to resign before actually getting a job offer in his hand (he had a verbal job offer) because he felt loyalty to his employer and wanted to let them know the moment he heard he was getting a new job elsewhere.

Despite my strong suggestion he went ahead and told his manager he was leaving a getting a new job even though he didn’t actually get the new job offer until a few days later. Fortunately for him things worked out well but he was fortunate.

I also knew a lady who came to me looking for help with her job search because she had received a verbal job offer, resigned her job and then had her new employer rescind the offer after they changed their mind.

She ended up being out of a job for a few months until she was able to find a new employer.

In this case, oversharing cost her big time.

It didn’t make her look very good at her old employer either since word leaked back that she didn’t have a new job to go to and since they’d already hired someone new to replace her, didn’t have a spot for her anymore.

Sometimes at work people often feel they have more of a friendship with their manager(s) than a professional relationship and sometimes people just get a bit too comfortable around people who they should maintain more of a formal relationship with.

Whether it’s religion, politics, a personal illness, gossip or other topics, sometimes it’s better to say nothing especially if there is no real purpose for saying anything and if saying something might offend someone or put you in a bad light.

Before you share too much personal information with people at work, think about how it might be received and whether or not it’s something you should actually share in the first place.

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During your career you’re going to need help with something and the hardest thing to do might be to find the right place to get that help. These days it isn’t hard to find information online for example but the difficult part can be to find information that is actually correct and helpful.

You can get help but how helpful is it?

Last week I came across one of the more absurd websites I’ve seen in awhile along with an article that the person who ran this website had posted on a major article website that encouraged people to embellish on their resume and basically lie to get ahead. The person suggested that in their experience, they got nowhere in their career and job searches by being honest and found that they had more success by embellishing their accomplishments on their resume.

Notwithstanding the fact that many people do lie in their resumes – and let’s face it, many employers also lie about the jobs they’re hiring for and often conceal things that they don’t want you to know about the job or company that might scare you away – the fact is that that lying or even embellishing your accomplishments is something that can cause you trouble down the line even after you’ve been hired.

Certainly in some positions – if you’re a lawyer or doctor for example – lying and embellishing can end up costing you more than your job…it could result in legal prosecution.

But for people who feel that embellishing or lying in their resume for other types of positions is an acceptable way to approach things I guess the best suggestion I have is to ensure that you’re willing to face the music when the lies come to the forefront as they typically do. After all, if you need to lie to get a job, you’re probably not suited for it and if do end up getting the job, you’re probably going to get exposed at some point.

The point is that getting the wrong information from the wrong person or source can cost you even if you don’t realize it. To use the point above, hiring managers can develop a second sense – as they often have to – when it comes to how much they believe of what a job candidate writes on their resume and says during the interview. I’ve had hiring managers tell me that they didn’t get a good sense of a person they’d interview for a job and in generally had to do with not believing what the person had said in their resume or during the interview.

I’ve also interviewed people where I’ve had the same feeling… I just didn’t get the feeling that the person was being truthful. Just because you lie or embellish doesn’t mean the person reading or hearing the lie will believe it.

We often make assumptions about people we come into contact with and often those assumptions aren’t correct. Like when people assume that the Human Resources rep who interviews them is a useless person who has no real knowledge of the job only to find out that the HR rep used to do the job that the person was interviewing for and in fact knows the job right down to the technical points. I’ve seen that happen.

Or when you interview with someone and assume that they don’t wield much power and take the interview with this person lightly and when you don’t get the job, you never stop to think that perhaps it was this person’s opinion of you who cost you the opportunity.

Perhaps you don’t realize that the secretary or person answering the phones in an office is someone who wields some power in the office and tells your interviewer everything you said or did while you waited in the reception area for your interview and how you spoke loudly on your cellphone while waiting or how you treated the secretary poorly, thinking he or she was unimportant. I’ve seen this happen, too. Often, hiring managers ask other staff what they thought of the person they interviewed even if that staff member wasn’t actually part of the interview process.

It reminds me of a story that someone told me recently where she mentioned that while waiting for a flight in a foreign country’s airport, she heard two airline staff speaking in the local language that the flight she was on had been canceled even though they’d been telling passengers in English that the flight was still on. The staff didn’t realize my friend also spoke their language, heard and understood what they said, and then approached their manager and demanded (in English) that she get put onto another flight because her flight had been canceled. When the manager asked how she knew that her flight had been canceled she responded (in the local language) that the two staff members had said so, much to their embarrassment as they realized she’d overheard and understood their conversation.

When we listen to the wrong people or make the wrong assumptions, it can cost us during job searches and during our careers. The worst part is that in many cases, we never actually find out that the mistakes we make are hurting us and we continue to make them and lose out as a result.