Search for “best jobs” and you’ll find plenty of lists. While these lists provide a great resource for career planning, they aren’t specific enough for the individual reader. External factors including pay and demand do matter, but so do other factors that vary from person to person.

Where to Start

If you need ideas for possible jobs, browse the Occupational Outlook Handbook or take a few career tests. You may already have ideas in mind, but looking at other sources can provide even more options. Compile a list of about ten to twenty careers and narrow your list based on the factors listed above.

Money

Most career rankings focus heavily on salary, but pay can vary greatly within the same field. This doesn’t mean that money should be ignored, but one should look beyond average or median salary.  Visit Glassdoor or Payscale to see specific salaries for your region and experience level. How much pay is enough? You should be able to meet your basic needs, plus enough for savings and retirement. The specific amount will depend on your lifestyle and goals. Past a certain level, extra pay is unlikely to make you happier. A satisfying career, on the other hand, is priceless.

Growth and Security

Even if all other factors match your preferences, a career in decline probably won’t make the list. Growth projections can be found at the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook. Security is another factor to consider. Will you feel comfortable in a competitive industry or in a job that doesn’t offer steady income? Some individuals need more security than others, and more security may mean a trade-off in other areas.

Lifestyle

When making your best jobs list, consider the lifestyle you want to lead. Do you want flexible hours, the ability to travel, or independence? Your lifestyle may change drastically over the course of your career, so you may want a career path that offers plenty of options. A career should accommodate your life and interests, not the other way around.

Interests

A given career may be great for one person but terrible for another due to differing interests. No amount of pay or perks can make up for a complete lack of interest in your profession. A career doesn’t have to be your passion, but it should provide enough excitement to keep you motivated. Read about career interest areas and job possibilities for each.

Your “best jobs” list isn’t set in stone. Your career options might change as you learn more about yourself and the job market. The goal of your list is to provide a career planning starting point that’s a bit more personalized than the standard job lists.

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Even teens from loving, supportive, and healthy households are at risk for drug and alcohol addiction. It’s an unfortunate truth: teen addiction is on the rise. Especially during college, teens are high-risk for addiction - USA Today reports that “nearly half of America’s 5.4 million full-time college students abuse drugs or drink alcohol on binges at least once a month.”

Signs of Drug and Alcohol Addiction

There is no universal sign that a student has become addicted to drugs and/or alcohol. Unfortunately, different drugs have difficult symptoms of addiction. For example, an alcoholic may show up drunk and disorderly to a non-alcoholic function (like class), while a narcotics user may show up with a particular scent lingering on their clothing. If you think a student is using drugs or alcohol, your first order of business should be approaching them calmly and respectfully asking them if there is anything they’d like to talk about. Let them know you won’t judge them by their answer.

Some other signs of drug/alcohol abuse may include:

• Trouble sleeping
• Depression (sometimes brought on by academic stress)
• Increased anger and irritability
• Glossy eyes
• Forgetfulness
• Confusion
• Stealing
• Withdrawn or spending more time alone
• Verbally or physically abusive to self/others
• Lying

What Causes Teens to Use Drugs?

According to David Sack, M.D., “Addiction has no single cause, but rather often results from a number of biological, social and psychological risk factors.”

Sack offers these 10 risk factors for teen drug addiction. Oftentimes, recognizing when a teen is at-risk is the best way to judge if a teen is, in fact, abusing drugs or alcohol.

• Family History of Addiction
• Impulsive Personality
• Stress
• Having a Mental Health Condition
• Lack of Parental Supervision or Involvement
• Having Friends Who Use
• Childhood Trauma
• Perceptions about Drugs
• School Problems
• Lack of Community Support

Treatment

For both high school and college aged students, online and in-patient teen rehab is a great way to treat addiction. These programs are targeted for teen addicts, ensuring that treatment is presented in a way that’s accepted by their age group. Mixing these students in with older offenders may result in ineffective treatment. Teens need to be related to in a different way and also benefit from the support of their peers.

The first step in getting a teen to choose rehab is to approach them calmly and without judgment. A teen may feel threatened by a forceful approach, one that demands they enter treatment. Instead, this first interaction should be made tactfully and kindly. You should be honest with the teen and present them with information that is accurate about their addictions. If you can’t convince them on your own, you may need to bring in a specialist and stage an intervention. Interventions should only be conducted by trained professionals, if you’re hoping for the best possible outcome.

Finally, once a teen has finished a drug treatment program it’s important to keep the lines of communication open. Relapse is always a possibility. The possibility of addiction relapse is typically in the 50% – 90% range. It may take the teen a couple tries to truly find themselves at peace and drug free. It’s like they say in AA, “one day at a time” and the teen’s family, friends, and teachers will need to understand this.

A well-crafted email can land you the job of your dreams, a big client or an important sale. Unfortunately, the wrong tone or wording in an email can cost you customers, jobs, and a good reputation. A good email isn’t just about proper grammar and punctuation. The tone and wording matter just as much, because auditory and visual cues aren’t available in written communication.

Know Your Audience

Emails to customers, clients or superiors will generally require a more formal tone. Use correct salutations and a complementary closing, just as you would with any business letter. Formality may be decreased as familiarity increases, but let the recipient set the tone for further communications. All professional emails require proper grammar, punctuation and spelling. Don’t ever send an email at work that you wouldn’t want your boss to read.

Tone is Important

An email can easily be misinterpreted because the recipient can’t read facial expressions or hear your voice. Informal email communications allow for emoticons to help recipients understand humor and sarcasm, but professional emails require more thought to ensure correct tone is conveyed. Don’t include anything that could be misinterpreted.

Make Responding Easy

Your emails may go unanswered because the recipient isn’t clear what you want or feels overwhelmed with your requests. Be concise, don’t ask questions that could be answered with a little research, and make the point of your email clear. Use bullet points and paragraphs for easy reading. If you are emailing a client or potential employer, show gratitude for the recipient’s time and don’t be greedy with your requests.

Proofread

Always proofread your emails. Ensure correct grammar, structure, and spelling. You are a representative of your organization (or yourself), and one error can impact others’ perceptions.

Use CC and BCC Wisely

The CC feature offers an easy way to keep relevant people in the loop, but it shouldn’t be used for all communications. Coworkers may become annoyed and start to ignore your emails if you continue to copy them on unimportant communications. The BCC should be used when you don’t want recipients to see each other’s email addresses. This will generally be for emails outside of the organization.

Following Up

Assertiveness is important whether you want to sell yourself to a potential employer or a product to a potential customer. However, aggressiveness can turn people off quickly. One or two emails should suffice. Follow-ups should be spaced to allow enough time for the recipient to read the email and think about his or her options. If a recipient doesn’t respond, assume he or she isn’t interested at this time. If you remain professional, they may come back to you when the time is right. Never show frustration or anger at a lack of response. It doesn’t help your case at all and, in the age of social media, can have much greater ramifications than you might imagine.

Email provides a quick and convenient method of communication, but it can be a problem if not utilized correctly. Sometimes face-to-face interactions or phone calls work better. When email is used, the sender should always proofread and pay careful attention to tone. With practice, professional email communications will become easier.

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Breaking into the information systems tech field can be difficult because of changing technology, competitiveness, and economic conditions. However, there are many ways to position yourself for burgeoning careers in IT, both academically and on the job market.

One way is through temporary assignments. Clearly this is not always the end all be all for IT careers.  But as in any career, more opportunities come as you gain experience. A temp job will help you to establish a track record while you hone your skills and make connections.

Often in life you will find that it’s not what you know, but who you know. This being said, now that you have earned your certification, accreditation or degree you are going to need to start networking. Through taking temp work you will come across professionals who can lead you in promising directions. These individuals can later be used as job references or, who knows, could wind up hiring once they move into titular positions.

As you probably learned in school, IT jobs are not all the same. By taking temporary positions you will be able to test the waters a little bit before deciding on what route you really want to take. In my opinion, this is one of the biggest draws of taking temp work upon course completion.

There are different types of temp work and I am going to set you up with some knowledge you may not have at this stage in the game. In this particular field, professionals tend to avoid the term “temp” as it often comes with a stigma of administrative work. Many agencies actually prefer to use “contract” or “project” work.

It’s important to note that what the task includes is dependent on the term used. When referring to project work, you will be expected to complete an assignment without a specified amount of hours or days. You may receive an estimate, but that varies depending on the agency.

As for contract work, you may find these jobs harder to obtain. Generally, you will have to do several projects before being hired for this type of temporary position. Why you ask? For starters, contract work pays substantially more than project work does. This means companies will be looking for someone with a little bit of experience. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t go for the job. I am just helping you to be realistic about the possibilities. For this type of work you will know in advanced the length of time you will be on the job and you can expect to earn anywhere from $40-$150 an hour.

As you get started, you can expect to see the majority of your opportunities coming in the form of low-level web skills, technical support or programming. I feel it is safe to assume that you are already keenly aware of how to perform these tasks. However, nothing teaches you better than real world experience.

Often in life we think of a temporary position as settling for less than we deserve. This is absolutely untrue. Continue to look for IT careers that offer you benefits, paid vacation and sick days. Until that job falls in your lap, it’s a pretty solid idea to take the project or contract work, as it can only help you make progress toward the success you are ultimately aiming for.

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