Welcome to part 3 of our series on distance learning.  You can check out past posts on whether online classes are right for you and what the significance is of accreditation for distance learners. Today, I am focusing on financial aid for distance learning. Here’s the good news:  As long as you are attending a nationally accredited program (here’s a link to a list of accredited online schools), you are eligible for the same federal and state financial aid as a student attending a brick and mortar school. This also applies to most private scholarships, although some scholarship...

I’ll be back next week with the final segment in my series on Online Learning Programs.  This week, however, we’re taking a short break to look at the educational requirements of a career in the gas and oil industry.  The field offers a number of high paying opportunities, and even with the current economic crisis, these jobs are still in high demand.  That’s the good news. The less good news (well, only if you’re not the perpetual student type) is that most of these positions require an advanced degree — at least a Master’s Degree, and preferably a Ph...

As promised in last week’s post, Is An Online Degree Right For You?, I am back this Monday still talking about distance learning.  Specifically, we are going to take a look today at the accreditation of online programs — what is it and whether it’s important.  Let’s dive right in. What is accreditation? According to the U.S. Department of Education, the goal of accreditation is to ensure that education provided by institutions of higher education meets acceptable levels of quality. The DOE meets this goal by publishing an annual list of accredited schools in the Uni...

My local paper ran a story in the Sunday edition about job hunting during the holiday season. It got me thinking.  Their job expert said good job hunters know that there is no such thing as a holiday break when you are looking for a job.  She suggested that there are two reasons for the full throttle approach to job hunting during the holidays: * Companies that are planning to hire in January (and there are still some of them) have already allocated the funds for the new employee’s salary — which means, they are interviewing and making job offers NOW. * A lot of job hunters ta...

Not everyone graduates from high school at the age of 17, packs up all their worldly possessions in the back of a beater car, and drives across town — or across country — to enroll at a quaint little college on the hill. Whether it’s because you need to earn money NOW, or you just aren’t sure if college is the place for you, or any of a myriad of other reasons, the traditional four-year plan to a Bachelor’s Degree at a brick-and-mortar college is definitely not for everyone. The good news is that in the last decade, your options for education have grown exponentia...

My apologies for not getting these up on Wednesday, but after the Thanksgiving holiday, our system wasn’t quite updated with current listings.  Today, I am ready to bring you three great opportunities, all of which were uploaded to the JobMonkey free job database yesterday — so these gigs are fresh and ready for you to pick!  (Sorry for the fruit harvesting metaphors, don’t know what got into me Today I have not one, but two great student internships — the first with Nike (how cool!) and the second with AT&T.  If you are in college or a recent grad, take a l...

Every Monday at the JobMonkey blog, we focus on a different career path and the educational background you need to get started.  Whether you are still in high school and thinking about your future, or you are a professional in a different field looking to try something new, the information here should help you get started on your journey. If there is a career that you are particularly interested in learning more about, please let me a note in the comments section so I can feature it in the coming weeks. There are many different career paths for someone wishing to work in the veterinary fie...

On the eve of Thanksgiving, most of us will probably be taking a day or two off from whatever rat race we are in to enjoy some quality time and turkey with our families. Of course, for the job seeker, the race for your next job never really ends until that golden offer is in hand! Even still, take a few hours to enjoy your family’s feast (I know I will!)… but then be sure to get right back to business. Here’s a good starting point: I’ve got three stellar Hot Jobs for you from JobMonkey’s free database.  There is an opening with the Environmental Protection Ag...

Every Wednesday at the JobMonkey, I share a selection of three new job listings posted in our free database.  If you are in the market for a new job, JobMonkey’s free job database is a wonderful first stop.  It’s updated daily and contains a wide range of positions, professions and locations. This week, I have a mechanical engineering job in California, a slaes rep job in Florida, and an operations supervisor gig in Western Australia. If none of these jobs seem like a good fit for your experience, skills and education, then click on over to the free job database and see what you...

Every Tuesday, we discuss tips and hints for making the most of your job search. We welcome input from our readers and want to hear about your most challenging job hunting issues.  To get a crash course on Career Planning 101, check out JobMonkey’s section on Job Hunting Tools. Whether you are facing a career change or looking for your first job, one of the biggest challenges is writing a resume that truly markets your skills to a potential employer.  If you don’t have a lot of on-the-job experience, or if you want to pursue a career in a new field, then this task becomes even more d...