Another summer has trickled by and we gear up for another busy September. Whether you have children who live by the school calendar or not, the fall always brings with it a sense of recommitment. Vacation’s over, time to pack away your open-toed sandals, back to business. Traffic picks up, the office is no longer desolate at 2 p.m. on Fridays, and for at least the first couple of weeks of school, you’ll see less kids playing outside in the afternoon since they’ve got homework to contend with.

So how do you feel about this? Are you sad to see summer go? Are you eager to put the lazy days behind you and get back to normal routines? Are you reminded that it’s not too late to make some changes that could impact your career before 2009 rolls around (hey, it’s right around the corner)?

If you’re feeling the latter, here are some ways to get the ball rolling:

- Consider taking a course or an educational program. If a full-fledged degree is too much of a commitment, consider these 12 Career Education Perks, one of which is a shorter completion time. No matter what you decide, any additional skills you can develop, the better off you’ll be.

- Revamp your resume. Especially if you’ve been at the same job for quite some time, you probably have a lot of updating to do. Make it a habit to retool your rez as summer draws to a close. You never know when you’ll need it on short notice, such as when an opportunity comes a knockin’.

- Stop dreaming about your dream career, and start really looking into it. Start with these 5 Career Factors to Consider.

Sure, a couple of more weekends vegging by the pool would be great, but I’ve come to terms with saying goodbye to summer. I may keep wearing the sandals for just a bit longer, though.

College has a few different stages. And going through these stages can definitely change you, especially when the stages require a different person for each. Freshman year is all about freedom and exploration – staying up late, sleeping in (and through class sometimes), and partying like it’s your J-O-B. Sophomore and junior years require decision-making, including majors and even a possible career path. But probably the hardest time is senior year and the promise of finishing college.

It’s not as carefree toward the end of your undergraduate days. You may feel rather lackadaisical and uninspired. This stage can be a very difficult one, as you need to think about the, dare I say it, FUTURE. And you may be tired – I don’t just mean because you can no longer stay up as late as you did back in the freshman year day. You’ve been going to school for at least 15 years by this point and it gets exhausting. And you may think, “Wait a sec, I can be in the real world making money right now. Why am I still here?” Well, let me tell you, you won’t be able to go too far without that degree to back you up.

One of my best friends is in her last semester of school now and can’t wait to be done. I was exactly there last semester. She told me she needed to go study for a midterm that’s coming up this week. When I heard “midterm” I cringed and felt so lucky that I didn’t have to deal with that anymore. However, when I took a step back and thought about why I didn’t have to deal with it, it wasn’t because I just stopped school – it was because I had completed my time as an undergraduate. And I’m so happy that I have something to show for it. Were there days (or even weeks) when I was so fed up with school I just wanted to leave? Of course. There are so many people out there who just stopped school because they got tired or they didn’t want to be there anymore and what do they have to show for it now? (By the way, you can go back!! There’s always time!)

Our friend “Career ED” told me recently of an individual who was unsure how to motivate himself to finish up his last couple of semesters of schooling. He had switched majors a couple of times already and was finding it hard to stay motivated. Here’s what “ED” had to say:

“Very few people go into college knowing what they want to do so most people do change their major at least 2 or 3 times – and just think of it like this, it’s not that you didn’t have direction and were all over the place. You got a little bit of knowledge about a lot of different topics. While I definitely know how hard the end can get, you’ll be so glad once you’re there. Trust me. You’ll have a great education that will make you marketable and a prestigious piece of paper that will mean something.”

So go for it! Push through those last couple of hurdles and accomplish what you set out to do freshman year. Your goals, views, and concentrations may have changed, but I’m certain that your ultimate goal is still the same. What might that be, you ask? Graduation!!

-Amanda Fornecker

How could one test possibly discover all your traits? Character flaws, what challenges you the most, and what you do best can all be discovered if you just take one tiny little color personality test. Make sense yet? Probably not. It didn’t make sense to me either.

As I was avoiding the plague of writer’s block, I thought I’d procrastinate a little more by taking a quiz that is contained within one of the many books I get each day at work. As I checked off certain personality traits and avoided others, I kept continuing to each section of the test. I finally ended up with two colors and a personality dimension. I’m a gold/green extrovert (which is actually amusing to me because those are my sorority colors. And I do tend to be rather outgoing in most situations. But that’s neither here nor there). Well, that’s just great. What in the world does that mean?

Career Match: Connecting Who You Are with What You’ll Love to Do (AMACOM, 2007) by Shoya Zichy with Ann Bidou was able to clear all my questions up for me. And let me just tell you, it was creepy how much those couple of pages told me about my own life. All the characteristics of that personality exist within me somewhere. They are my triumphs, my challenges, my strengths, my weaknesses. I’m also apparently happy at my job. Thanks, I didn’t need a book to tell me that one.

Though the book is categorized as a “career/self-help” book (because who wants to admit to using a self-help book?), it proves to really aid you in looking at who you are and to use all of your characteristics to your advantage. It really brings things about yourself to your own attention, including things all about your career. Not only that, you get to see how to interact with other personality types. It will tell you how to approach them and co-exist with opposite personalities in a positive light.

The front of the book says “Take the 10-Minute Quiz That Will Change Your Life!” I don’t necessarily think that it can change your life, but it does give you some interesting tidbits that you may not have noticed about yourself before. I found myself reading the chapter, thinking “Oh yeah! I DO do that!”

After you take the quiz, there are instructions on what to do next. They tell you to read your main color chapter and then to read your individual overall assessment. Then they break it down for what each color might do. The sentence, “Golds will prefer to follow the recommendations above,” made me laugh because I’ve always followed the rules – not because I’m a goody-goody but because I like to have order in my life! And that was just the first of many revelations I had about myself.

I’d say read the book because it can give you a bit of insight on who you are as a person and what you can do differently to better your life, especially career-wise (it may help you make that career switch you need). I wouldn’t say that it’s the gospel truth, but it’s definitely interesting!

-Amanda Fornecker

As I perused the Internet for information on careers, I came across an overlooked health care job: the physician assistant (PA). It particularly piqued my interest (through a USNews.com article) because one of my oldest and best friends is currently in a PA program. I thought I’d learn a bit more, while shedding some light on it for you, the aspiring college student.

From the outside looking in, a PA’s work seems extremely intense. My friend and I don’t get to speak that much, which I understand because she constantly has so much work (including multiple tests per week). And until this past weekend I hadn’t seen her since Christmas (which makes me so sad because, as I already mentioned, she’s one of my best friends). Her dedication to her work is so impressive and admirable. But it made me wonder, what’s the career all about?

When I learned she was going to do PA studies at her school, I wasn’t exactly sure what the career entailed. How was it different from a doctor or a nurse? I knew it had the word “assistant” in there but does that mean that it’s like any other career, with the potential to move up? As I’ve found out, it is most definitely a career of its own and is very interesting.

A physician assistant is certainly different from a medical assistant, who does more administrative and clerical work. PAs do a majority of what MDs do, and have to go through significantly less schooling for it. They, too, can prescribe medication and diagnose patients. They also assist in surgery, suture, and treat minor injuries. Many are under the supervision of a physician but in some situations they may be the primary healthcare provider.

Certification is a must for the profession so one must go to an accredited institution, such as a four-year school or community college to complete PA studies. And there are programs to be completed after your bachelor’s and a licensing test to be taken. The length of the program may vary, however, as some institutions have extended intense bachelor’s programs that will allow students to earn their certification in a shorter period of time. This is something that can be looked into when researching schools.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), this is among one of the fastest growing professions and will grow faster than the average by the year 2014. The median salary was $69,410 in May 2004 and will continue to rise.

I’d say check out the profession. My friend has the right idea and though she works so hard now she’s definitely going to have it all pay off in the end – a healthy paycheck at a job she has dedicated herself to and seems to already love.

-Amanda Fornecker