When making such a big decision you first need to ask yourself what it is you enjoy? If you enjoy animals for example, then perhaps you should consider a veterinary carrier. But what if you don’t have the training?

If you want to do something after your Army life that requires schooling then waste no time and get going. Many who served in the Army qualified for the G.I. Bill, which gives you money for college. You should know if you have the G.I. Bill or not, but if you are unsure you can always go talk to a recruiter who can then put you in touch with the proper personnel. Also, because you served in the Army, there are many scholarships, grants, and loans that are specifically designed to aid you in your quest for greater knowledge. To find out what these are, seek the advice of the financial aid office in the college you are thinking of attending.

Perhaps though college isn’t right for you. In this case maybe you can take what you learned in the Army and apply it to civilian life. If you were in the Military Police for example, then perhaps a career in law enforcement would be rewarding for you. Maybe you worked in the motorcade. With the skills you learned there, you could easily translate that into a good paying auto technician job. The point is, whatever you did in the Army for Uncle Sam, there is almost always a counterpart in the private sector.

When you are seeking private employment be sure to mention that you served in the Army as many employers look for the discipline in an employee that the Army teaches. Being in the Army looks great on a resume and you never know which prospective employer may have served in the armed forces as well.
Before deciding what to do, ask yourself these questions first:

• What are your goals?
• What are your skills?
• What are your interests?
• Do you want to seek higher education?

Once you have secured your employment and are looking for housing, keep in mind that there are many loans that are tailored for those that served in the Army. If buying a house is your desire, then talk to your real estate agent about any special loans for former military.

Any move in life takes getting used to. A move out of Army life and into civilian life takes a lot of getting used to. Remember the decisions you make will affect the rest of your life so take your time and choose wisely. There are many advantages and special offers for those that did serve in the military, as there should be, and you should take full advantage of each and every one.

Teenage Alcoholism – A Social Dilemma

Relationships

The first thing you might want to consider is trying to develop a relationship with your lender right away, when you are taking out your loans. Get to know some of the representatives of the lending agency, and let them know what your plans and expectations are. If you run into trouble down the line, this may ease the process of working with your lender to arrive at a satisfactory resolution. Furthermore, if you anticipate a problem, contact your lender right away. Your lender is motivated to helping you pay your medical school loans. Putting a loan into collections is not good for anybody except the collection agency. The sooner you approach your lender with any problems, the easier it will be for them to structure a plan you can live with.

Paperwork

There are a number of financial need and extenuating circumstances deferments you can take to put off or reduce the payments on your loans. However you must make sure you have done all the paperwork properly so your lender is able to understand why you need these deferments and what your plan is once the deferments are over. Again the key is communication. If the lender knows you have a plan for repayment, they will be much more willing to accommodate you.

Resources

There are a number of in person, online or telephone resources you can and should take advantage of to manage your debt. Your school’s financial aid office will undoubtedly be able to offer some useful advice. There is debt management information on the Association of American Medical Colleges website. SallieMae, who you will very likely be dealing with on at least some of your student loans, also has tips and tools for financial planning and debt management on their website.

Medical school debt can be quite intimidating. As the loan bills mount, it may seem that they are impossible to manage. They are not. If you maintain composure when examining your financial situation, keep careful records, have a manageable plan for repayment of debt, and make sure you use all of the resources available to you, financial issues will be a short lived stumbling block on your way to a successful medical career.

It is called My Military Years and it is bringing an opportunity for military families and friends to talk to each other over the Internet with a secure server.

If you are in any of the armed forces including the Air Force, Marines, Navy, Army, National Guard or other branches, you will find that My Military Years can give you the vehicle for communication with your loved ones.

This website has everything you will need to communicate with family back home if you are in the military. All you have to do is register with the site and you can have full access to:

Create, send and receive audio, video and text messages Communicate with other service members through the MyMilitaryYears Forum Create and manage your list of contacts Communicate with your family and closest friends from around the world

With the uncertainties of war, it is difficult sometimes when you miss a loved one and not be able to contact them. This is especially so when there are special events in the family, such as the birth of a child etc. When you are in this type of situation it will be good to know that you have support through MyMilitaryYears, to share those events with your loved one relatively easily, in a secure environment.

A very good idea that My Military Years has instituted for contacting service members is to create a permanent record of your experiences. You or your loved ones can record your interactions on a DVD and keep it throughout your military career and beyond. This will help them keep a record of you and it will help you have a memento of your military service. You can even leave it for your posterity.

The registration process is very simple and user friendly. All you have to do is create a username and password and presto, you can use MyMilitaryYears!

The registration gives you full access to your own private page where only you and your loved ones have access. This is a better option for some people than MySpace or YouTube because it will not be available for the entire world to see.

When you have someone in service to the country, MyMilitaryYears provides you much needed peace of mind.

Many people shy away from the idea of a home business career because they feel it means door-to-door selling or managing home parties to sell products. With the advances in technology, you can have your own turnkey Internet business with just the click of your mouse. Getting started with this type of Internet home business does mean you have to do a little research to find out what it is that consumers want to buy.

Online shopping makes it possible for you to have an Internet home business career that you operate from home. With the convenience of the online retailers being open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, more and more consumers shop for just about everything they need through the Internet. An online pharmacy, for example, is a very profitable type of turnkey Internet business as is selling hard to find products, such as plus size clothing.

The wealth of information available on the Internet about various turnkey businesses and how you can get started right away is overwhelming. You do need to find a home business career in something that you really love, whether it is jewelry, address labels, or hot tubs. Anything and everything is sold on the Internet and setting up your own website is the first step involved in having your own home business career. You can write articles to lead in to each product and link to another company if you wish to become an affiliate and make money this way. Either way, a turnkey Internet business is profitable.

You do have to be patient because success with a turnkey Internet business does not happen overnight. You do have to build up the website in the search engine rankings so that people looking for the product you sell will find it. In addition to setting up your own home business career with an Internet site, you can have Google ads that pay you every time someone clicks through on one of them. Having a home business career is an excellent way to have more leisure time, but you do have to put in time getting it started.

So if you want a home business career an internet home business is a very viable alternative.

Go To School

The military is very supportive of those who want to take college classes or certification exams. Depending on your job will determine what path you should take. If you have a job that requires certifications in the civilian sector you will want to get a few of those certifications as soon as you can. Once you have a few certifications you can then decide whether you want to take some college courses as well. You can never go wrong with a college education and it is a great compliment to any certifications you have. You can choose to major in the same field of expertise that you have your certifications in or you can find a major that compliments your skill set but is in a different area of expertise. For example if you are a network technician and major in a field in electronics or computers your collage courses compliment your certifications even though they may be in a different field altogether. If you are not sure what kind of college courses you should take a business management degree is a very good choice. A degree in management can compliment any area of expertise and is a good degree by its self. Because you will be going to college part time while you are in the military you can take it nice and slowly. Start by taking one course for a semester and see if you could fit in a second one the following semester. It may take you four years in the military to get an associate’s degree but you are not in a hurry because you can continue your education once you are out of the military. If you decide to stay in the military continue to take courses throughout your career at the same time you update your certifications when required.

Treat your time off as you would in college and spend a lot of time studying. When you are unable to take courses because of mission requirements get a text book of the next class you are going to take or study up for a certification you can take when you get back. Even though you may be in an area you cannot take classes you will more than likely have a lot of down time you can spend studying. When you are at work take the time to learn everything that you possibly can about your job. When they need someone to take classes make sure you always volunteer so you can become as proficient as you can at your job. By getting better at your job and accumulating certifications and college credits you are not just making yourself more marketable in the civilian sector you are increasing your chances of getting promoted in the military. While you are doing this keep an eye out for others doing the same thing you are. These are people you will want to build a network with. A network is very important and by starting your network while you are in the military you will have a decent sized one when you are ready to look for a job later on down the road.

Building A Network

If there are civilian contractors in your area try to strike up a conversation and if they work on equipment in your area ask some questions. Most civilian contractors who work on government contracts were prior military and would be more than happy to teach you a few things about your equipment that you may not have learned yet. Remember that military personnel rotate quite a bit and the civilian contractor is there to add stability to the work station. The civilian contractor may have been working on that equipment longer than you have been in the military so they will know more than most other people there. Ask about their day and how things are going and try to find a common interest so if you get their card you have something to write about when you email them once and awhile. Build up a contact list with people you meet in your industry and try to keep in contact with them once every six months or so. That is why it is important to find a common interest so when you send them an email once and awhile they remember who you are. Even if it is an email about a game or event you know they would be interested in or a question about a place they went on vacation as long as you make it something they have an answer for so you get an email back. This way you can make sure your email contact list is up to date. When it comes time to look for a job in the civilian sector you can send them an email and ask for career advice. Do not ask them if they know of any jobs because you would be putting them in a situation where they feel like a jerk if they do not have one for you. Just ask for advice like good job sites or advice on how to make a good resume and if they remember you and liked the kind of work you did they may very well ask you for your resume to show to their boss or may decide to hire you themselves if they are in a management position then.

Do not forget to keep the contact information of the friends and colleagues you meet while you are in the military. Most of the people you will meet in the military will be those who work in the same industry as you do. This way you can contact each other down the road if any of you need to be pointed in the direction of companies that are hiring. Still never ask if a friend has a job opening where they are working because if they say no they could feel like they disappointed you. Just find a way to let them know you are out of work. If they know of any job openings for you they will let you know without you having to ask. Colleagues you have contact information for should be treated the same way you treated the contractor. Ask for advice and if they remember that you were very smart and pleasant to work with they will let you know if they know of any job openings without you having to ask. You will find one thing rings true no matter what industry you work in. People will choose someone they know they can get along with who is qualified for the job over someone they only know by a resume. People do not want to take a chance of working with someone who will make the work place miserable. If you treat everyone with respect throughout your career and are someone who gets the job done you will get much better results from your network.

Put Your Resume To Work

You should constantly update your resume throughout your military career. This is because it is good to get things down on paper before you forget about them. If you worked on a specific kind of equipment in the begging of our career you may not work on it later on in your military career. When it’s time to start looking for a job you may have forgotten some of the things you have worked with. You should make a master resume that is as long as it needs to be to fit everything on it. Even if it is thirty pages long keep adding things. This way when you are applying for jobs you can tailor make resumes for each job positions by cutting and pasting things from your master resume to the resume you are going to submit. This allows you to build a resume tailored to its job description by only placing experience that the job calls for. If you still have room add a few things that compliment the skills you have already added. By doing this you have created a resume that is very similar to the job description but different enough that they know that you did not just copy it. The first people to see your resume are recruiters and they may not know too much about the kind of work you do. When they see your resume closely matches the job description they will push it up the later and better your chances of getting a phone call.

It is good to start applying for jobs about six months before you get out of the military. When you apply make sure you annotate your availability date so they know you are not ready to start right away. Go to the websites that you have your resumes posted on and about once every two weeks edit it. If there is nothing for you to update do it anyway. If you resume sits on a site for more than a month with no updates companies figure you have already found a job. Just like you look for job postings that have been posted recently companies look for resumes that have been posted recently. By clicking on edit and saving it companies see that the resume was updated recently and they are more likely to look it over. Do this on every site you have your resume on even the resumes you have posted on company websites. To ensure you remember every place you have your resume posted keep a list of the websites either in a job folder under your favorites or in a note book. It can take up to three months for a company to contact you after you submit your resume so you want to start applying for positions about six months before you will be available.

What You Need To Be Ready For

Because you may be out of the military before you get a new job you will want to make sure you have a savings with a good chunk of change in it. If you do not take leave your last year in the military they will buy it back from you when you process out. Along with that if you saved just $50 a month for four years you will have saved about $2400 and that can help out a lot when you are just getting on your feet. Saving $50 a month is a bare minimum though and you should save as much as you can each month so when you are ready to transition into a civilian career you have as much money as possible to take care of expenses that will come your way. Things you will have to plan for are housing, vehicle, utility, and moving expenses along with the cost of insurance for yourself and your car. If you are retiring from the military there is no reason why you should have less than $20,000 in savings and a master’s degree in your chosen profession. You will have an added buffer of a pension but you will still need to be smart with your money. It does not matter if you spent four years in the military or twenty years in the military as long as you stick to a good career plan you will not have much trouble transitioning into the civilian workforce.

Trucking is one of the jobs or occupations that has the least, or practically no amount of stress at all. Even most experts have proved, that if you are stressed out, you need to go for a drive. The whole atmosphere of the scene and breeze works well for you. Driving is a great way of de-stressing. The scenery and the folks you keep encountering on the way, all add color to your life and make it more interesting.

And when you talk about trucks, they are not too difficult at all to drive. In fact, they are simple and easy to drive. Trucks have power steering, fully equipped with all kinds of satellite communication, phones, and DVD system, which make the journey all the more comfortable and exciting. They have different kind of set up from what they normally used to be. What they need is a stretch of open road.

Even though, it is a fact that military men make good drivers is because of their special training and education that they had received, while in the services of the military. The kind of heavy vehicles that they drove is a kind of expertise that they have developed over a period of time. This is the main criterion, why most trucking companies are more than willing to hire ex-servicemen. They really don’t need to spend much time and money on training them, to do trucking well. They are most glad to recruit them, who are thorough professionals.

After retirement, it is difficult to find an occupation that pays well. But, in the trucking business you get life insurance, free medical check ups, overtime, and many other added benefits. Some military guys, who have been into repairing and servicing of trucks, find this quite a lucrative business to pursue after retirement. Since they have been working in the maintenance department for so many years, it becomes very easy for them to continue to do the same.

Even most trucking companies would happily hire a hardcore mechanic anytime. Someone who they know, is well versed with his stuff, would be selected immediately. So actually, whether you are driving or repairing a truck, it is still an enjoyable occupation to get into post retirement. But honestly, there is nothing like trucking business. You are free to make money according to how many trips you want to make or choose to be at home with your family. There is no pressure and you can actually get the time to ‘smell the rain’, something you longed for in the earlier part of your life. Hence trucking is a good occupation after you retire from the forces.

This information meant a lot to me because I grew up in a small city where there were only two large employers, the Santa Fe Railway and the U.S. Air Force. Neither organization provided opportunities to learn about executive success in a large corporation.

When I began graduate business studies, I was pretty smug, thinking that I knew just what needed to be done: Get a prestigious degree and wait for highly attractive employers to bid for my services.

Talking with the other business students made me realize that I had a lot to learn about career success. I didn’t even understand what executives did in different industries.

My complacent eyes were opened wide one day when a management consultant from the famous McKinsey firm made a presentation. At the end of the discussion, I asked one of the other students who got to do what this presenter did for a living. My classmate quickly responded, “Strategy consultants.” I asked, “What’s a strategy consultant?” He responded that these were people who worked for McKinsey or The Boston Consulting Group. I remembered those answers and later applied to both firms, not quite knowing what to expect.

Even with all of this knowledge, I was totally unclear about how you went from being a management consultant to having a successful business career working for a large corporation. I guessed that someday a client might hire you. And that’s what did happen to me after I became a strategy consultant.

The key lesson from my experience is that you can have a wonderful education at a university and still lack important knowledge about the most fundamental elements of developing your business career.

Students typically prefer to get information about potential careers from fellow students and professors, but research shows that students and professors provide incomplete information. It’s better to also speak with people who have been developing a career for a decade or so to find out what lessons they learned in the school of hard knocks.

I was recently reminded of this source of information to make more effective business career plans when I corresponded with Dr. Robert Hartinger, a banking executive in Germany who is a Ph.D. graduate of Rushmore University. Dr. Hartinger kindly agreed to share his career experiences and lessons with me so that I could pass them along to you.

Dr. Hartinger started off presuming that the quality of your education was very important to career success. After graduating from his business program at a German university, he soon learned that you have few occasions to apply any of the theoretical knowledge that most schools provide. As a result, new graduates are stuffed full of knowledge and theory that has little relevance to what their employers need.

Instead, degrees qualify people to be considered for certain jobs. Many employers pride themselves on hiring from certain schools and restricting top jobs to those with the most advanced graduate degrees.

Traditional schooling provides few insights into what various industries and types of jobs are like. If students aren’t careful, they’ll seek a type of work that they won’t like. There are two alternatives available:

1. Examine industries and jobs carefully to set the right objectives.

2. Study at a school where you get practical experience in applying theoretical knowledge which gives you a sense of what a career doing that work might be like.

Dr. Hartinger doesn’t rule out the first alternative, but he’s confident that the second one is essential. If possible do both, but at least do the second. From what you learn, he also recommends that you focus on just a few opportunities. Otherwise, your attention and energies will be too widely scattered.

A lot of business success depends on your personality. That’s something that graduate schools often ignore. Outgoing people with pleasing, helpful personalities will do a lot better than grumpy, self-absorbed geniuses who rarely talk to anyone.

Many studies show that the ability to connect to other people in the organization greatly helps both job effectiveness and advancement. Why? It’s simple: You can’t know all of the answers, but with help from others you can do a great job.

But it’s not enough to simply be a connection point within the organization. You also need to add skills that improve your effectiveness.

Here’s where online learning can make a difference. People don’t care where you learn a skill; they are just pleased when you add one that’s relevant to your situation.

Today, many companies offer financial assistance for those who wish to learn new skills. When that assistance is provided over the Internet, costs are reduced and you can take more courses than those who enroll in classroom-based courses. In addition, learning while you work allows you the chance to apply what you are learning. In that way, you can sift through lots of theoretical knowledge to get just what you need. Dr. Hartinger also notes that if an online school offers flexibility in designing courses, your skill improvement can be even greater.

The average insurance agents’ income in our industry is around $34,000 per year. Most insurance agents will never build up enough renewal income to retire on. 80%-90% who start an insurance career in insurance sales will not make it in the insurance business beyond five years. Mastering prospecting and marketing, not necessarily selling (although selling skills are very important) is the key to succeeding long term in insurance sales. Most Career or Captive contracts take years to become 100% vested on your own sales. Many agents sign up under contracts that never offer vesting rights. Independent Insurance Agent contracts can provide immediate 100% vesting rights and usually pay higher commissions. Having the ability to pick and choose the companies you would like to sell products for allows you to be more flexible and offer more solutions to your prospective clients.

Had I searched out the advice and wisdom of someone who had been down the road I was heading first, it would have had a significant impact with the time it took to become successful in insurance sales. If I only knew then in 1981 when I started my career in insurance sales what I know now after many years of trial and error, learning things the hard way, testing many different sales, prospecting and marketing techniques, some that worked and many that didn’t, I would have been able to eliminate ten plus years of frustration and slower growth.

Let me emphasize that insurance sales can be one of the most rewarding, exciting, challenging and fulfilling careers for anyone who is self motivated, goal oriented, has good work habits, loves challenges and wants to be in control of their own destiny. The most important lesson I’ve learned over and over is that there is no new formula to becoming successful. Although there have been some great advancements in technology and the internet has created some exciting new ways to find prospects and market your products. Success in the insurance industry still requires the development of certain traits and habits that continually propel you forward towards your goals. Some of the tools we use to get there have changed but the personal ingredients needed have remained the same.

Many insurance agents excel well beyond our industries average income mentioned above. However, the chances of becoming one of the industries failing statistics are much higher, especially if you are not starting from a position of knowledge and available resources. Seek out the knowledge of someone who has traveled the road before you. Understand the differences between what an Independent Insurance Agent contract offers and a Career or Captive contract offers. Get a feel for the type of support and resources you will need to have the best chance for success as you move forward. There are many good quality Agency support systems you can plug into. You will want to find an agency system that provides a good size product portfolio, product training, lead and prospecting support as well as growth opportunities that allow you to reach General Agent commission levels.

If you’re someone who has a willingness to learn and the desire to succeed, if you enjoy working with and helping others, I truly believe an insurance sales career can be all you dream it could be. My reality has grown much larger than what my dreams were when I started my insurance sales career. So I encourage you to dream big dreams, step out and move forward to make them a reality too.

If you are interested in a agent support system that provides all the tools, support, and resources you will need to either become successful in insurance sales and/or build your own agency, visit the links or call 1-800-359-0980 (ask for Dan or Scott) to help you decide what’s best for you!

Thank you and make it a great career,

Daniel B. Hagy
President

The GED is a hard test to take. It is unknown why it’s so hard, but there are classes you can take. While the actual test can’t be taken online, they normally offer ways to take the GED in your area, but you can do all the prep work online. Some of this prep work can even be done and for free too.

There are many different things that you can do to prepare yourself for the GED. This can be done online. There are resources that will give you sample questions like that which they might ask you to answer on the actual GED test. This can help you greatly.

They do have practice tests too that you can take. Here they will give you the actual test and give you the amount of time that you would be allotted to do this test. Then they will show you the answers that you got right as well as the answers that you got wrong.

Now there are many sites out there for you to locate a site that can help you take this sample test. The way yo u might want to start is just by doing a general search using any search engine. There are some that might charge you as well as those that might not. All you have to do is look.

Once you have taken the practice test and feel ready to take the actual test, then you can check out local testing areas in your city. There might be a few of them or there might not be that many. Just look around. Some of them charge you and normally they charge you seventy five dollars.

Now, that you know how to prepare yourself for the GED using an online source, we encourage you to do so. Good luck as you will have so many more opportunities when you do this. This will help you get into college and earn a degree that will better your future.