Category — Career

Have you ever wanted to switch careers, but weren’t sure if you’d really like it? How would you like to try your “new career” for a weekend or a whole week to see if you’d really enjoy it? Vocation Vacations gives you that opportunity. Pay a modest fee and get meals and lodging for some, like a regular vacation, but hands-on in-depth training in the career of your choosing. They range from alpaca farming to vineyard owner to pro wrestler.

Every month they have a free teleclass, where mentors and past students share their experiences and what to expect with potential students. This month they are focusing on the working in the fashion industry. This month, the hosts include a fashion buyer, fashion stylist, fashion designer, wardrobe stylist & art director, a former student (who started his own men’s shoe company), and the founder of Vocation Vacations.

Mark your calendar for 8 p.m. Eastern / 5 p.m. Pacific on June 24th for “How To Find A Career Working With Animals”. Register here.

Have you ever wanted to switch careers, but weren’t sure if you’d really like it? How would you like to try your “new career” for a weekend or a whole week to see if you’d really enjoy it? Vocation Vacations gives you that opportunity. Pay a modest fee and get meals and lodging for some, like a regular vacation, but hands-on in-depth training in the career of your choosing. They range from alpaca farming to vineyard owner to pro wrestler.

Every month they have a free teleclass, where mentors and past students share their experiences and what to expect with potential students. This month they are focusing on the working in travel and hospitality. This month, the hosts include a Tour Director, Travel Writer, Bed & Breakfast Owner, a B&B vocation alum and the founder of Vocation Vacations.

Mark your calendar for 8 p.m. Eastern / 5 p.m. Pacific on May 28th for “How To Find A Career Working In Travel and Hospitality”. Register here.

VocationVacations is hosting a free one-hour teleclass called “Eight Steps To A Successful Career Transition” presented by:

Brian Kurth, career strategist, founder of VocationVacations® and author
Dorian Mintzer, Ph.D., founder of Coaching for Boomers and Beyond
Roberta Taylor, certified life coach
Will Wiebe, professional career and life coach

Whether you are looking for a new job, a totally new career or thinking of starting your own business, these experts will offer specific, practical strategies to help you:

• Explore, discover and pursue that “great job”
• Address your fears
• Create an action plan
• Find a mentor in your desired career(s)
• Test-drive a new job or career
• Create a professional brand
• Network
• Establish thresholds

Take the first step to a new career on Monday, May 4, at 8 p.m. Eastern / 5 p.m. Pacific

Click here to register.

Have you ever wanted to switch careers, but weren’t sure if you’d really like it? How would you like to try your “new career” for a weekend or a whole week to see if you’d really enjoy it? Vocation Vacations gives you that opportunity. Pay a modest fee and get meals and lodging for some, like a regular vacation, but hands-on in-depth training in the career of your choosing. They range from alpaca farming to vineyard owner to pro wrestler.

Every month they have a free teleclass, where mentors and past students share their experiences and what to expect with potential students. This month they are focusing on the working with animals. This month, the hosts include a horse boarding and stable owner, a veterinarian, a dog daycare owner, an alpaca rancher, a former student (who went from being a nurse to a horse breeder and boarder), and the founder of Vocation Vacations.

Mark your calendar for 8 p.m. Eastern / 5 p.m. Pacific on April 29th for “How To Find A Career Working With Animals”. Register here.

If you’ve ever wanted to work in the White House, don’t miss the March 22nd deadline to submit your application for a summer internship at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Sure it is unpaid, but put this on your resume and punch a ticket to the top of the pile.

Applicants must be:

• US Citizens
• Eighteen years of age on or before the first day of the internship
• Enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program at a college, community college, or university (2-4 year institution) or must have graduated in the past two years from undergraduate or graduate school.

OR

• A veteran of the United States Armed forces who possesses a high school diploma or its equivalent and has served on active duty at any time over the past two years is eligible.

Check out all the details here

MoneyMonk left a comment on my latest Monthly Net worth Statement post asking how I have debt with a six-figure salary. Coincidentally, MSN just posted a nice piece on a couple who just gets by with an annual salary of $400,000 (tip: don’t have kids). It’s the same with anyone who has debt in any income bracket. We have (or had in my case) more expenses than income and either voluntarily or not, we had to compensate with credit cards or loans.

I didn’t always have a six-figure income. It’s only been a couple of years. In the 10 years prior, my average income was $47,000 or so. This takes into account three periods of unemployment in those 10 years, so my net worth statement back then looked really sad. To survive and keep my modest house, I did have to rely heavily on credit cards and a home equity loan. I amassed the bulk of  my credit card debt during this period. While my income is much higher now, my expenses have not remained the same level.

I work on Wall Street which is two hours away from my house depending on traffic. With the amount of hours I work (60-83 hours a week), I need to stay near the city or risk driving off the road snoozing during my 2 hour commute home. So I rent a small 12′ x 10′ room in New Jersey during the week. So along with my mortgage payment every month, my living expenses (excluding utilities) are now more than 43% of my net monthly income. I did have someone renting out half my home, but he moved out last month after being unemployed for 3 months. There went 15% of my monthly net income out the door. I don’t feel like selling my house in the current environment and losing the equity (excluding my original down payment) I have left. All other expenses have been cut down to the bone. I even cancelled Comcast cable completely on Friday.

FreeMoneyFinance suggests that we (those only getting by with large incomes) move to a lower cost-of-living city. Uh, I live in a small farming town on the border of a suburban area of Philadelphia. Any lower and I’d live in Valley Forge National Park among the deer and foxes. He suggests finding a job in the lower cost-of-living area with a 50% reduction in pay. If I could find a job here, it would have a starting salary of about $45,000 (even with over 13 years experience). That amounts to a 64% reduction in pay, but I would save some money from not needing to rent a room during the week. From my earlier statement, the job market here is not stable and very limited, so unemployment would have to be factored into the $45,000, not to mention it would be mathematically impossible to contribute to a 401(k) plan given my expenses and aggressively paying off my debt.

Accepting the offer for my Wall Street job was a no-brainer. I’m sacrificing my happiness and probably my short-term health, but it is the best chance I have to attack my debt load in the timeline I set. Sure, if I had a six-figure income nearby my low cost-of-living area home, I’d be clicking my heels while whistling Dixie, but I’m afraid even if the economy recovers, this won’t be likely. So I hope I answered your question MoneyMonk.

My friend asked me to vote for her as a contestant at Startup Nation’s Leading Moms In Business 2009 Competition. I checked out the website and there’s quite a bit of info for the entrepreneur. There are plenty of articles, blogs, tools, audio/video, including a radio show where you can pitch your business ideas on air. In fact they are also running their 2009 Elevator Pitch Competition.

They say it’s a good time to start a business during a economic downturn. If you’ve been laid off, you have plenty of time to start planning and executing, the startup costs may be lower than in better times, and your niche can fill a void left by larger companies that are cutting back riskier ventures or spending their capital trying to enter new markets.

Since I’ve started four businesses and am in the process of starting 2 more, you can call me a serial entrepreneur. I have always found Entrepreneur magazine very informative and useful. You can find really cheap subscriptions on eBay or Google ”cheap magazine”. I see them ranging from $3.49 for 3 years or $11 for 1 year. Either way, I use it as a business expense and write it off my when I do my taxes. I also recently found the Young Entrepreneur blog has some great tips and offer a free monthly contest to review your website for SEO quality. There’s also SCORE, which is a nonprofit organization that offer volunteer mentors, whom are currently working or retired business owners, executives, and corporate leaders. They have local chapters in the US and are partnered with the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Here’s a CNN story about a couple who lived in Beverly Hills, but had to move to rural Oregon due to a layoff. They now spend their days shovelling manure, feeding animals, and landscaping. It’s a big change, but they are helping their parents out, living a frugal life, and they could grow to enjoy it. Sound interesting? You can try out being a farmer for a week at Vocation Vacations.

Here is a link to their blog.

Here’s a quick little interview from Time Out NY with a Dutch fashion model who just started investing in real estate after taking a few seminars at Trump University. I hope she keeps her day job.

Time Out New York

Have you ever wanted to switch careers, but weren’t sure if you’d really like it? How would you like to try your “new career” for a weekend or a whole week to see if you’d really enjoy it? Vocation Vacations gives you that opportunity. Pay a modest fee and get meals and lodging for some, like a regular vacation, but hands-on in-depth training in the career of your choosing. They range from alpaca farming to vineyard owner to pro wrestler.

Every month they have a free teleclass, where mentors and past students share their experiences and what to expect with potential students. This month they are focusing on the entertainment industry. This month, the hosts include an internationally-acclaimed comedian, a Tony Award-winning choreographer and Broadway director, an actress vocationer, a corporate humorist vocationer, and the founder of Vocation Vacations.

Mark your calendar for 8 p.m. Eastern / 5 p.m. Pacific on Wednesday, February 25 for “There’s No Business Like Show Business”. Register here.

I would definitely like to try the Private Investigator vacation. Which one would you like to try?