What do you love most about summer? For me, it’s the long hours of daylight, lazy days at the beach, and more time with my family. It might surprise you to learn that the very things you love about summer can help you discover a new career passion. If you’re a quintessential summer lover, don’t miss these opportunities to marry your love of the warmer months with your work.

Resort Activities Director
If you love a good vacation – and who doesn’t? – a career in leisure could be your ticket to success. Bring your passion for water sports, cookouts, and luaus to work, along with some planning prowess, and you can get paid to organize and enjoy your favorite summer activities. It’s like working in a land of permanent vacation.
Sign me up: In addition to strong leadership, organization, and communication skills, many of these wellness workers have a bachelor’s degree in parks and rec­reation or a similar field, and some hold a master’s degree.
Summer lover salary: $25,270

Toy Designer
Summer is a time for fun and games, laughter and leisure. And wouldn’t it be great to find work in your play? From card games to board games to Matchbox cars, toys rely on skilled artists to bring them to life. When you bring your big ideas and creative skills to the table as a toy designer, you can count on fun all year long.
Sign me up: A bachelor’s degree in toy design or industrial design is a great way to demonstrate your drawing, sculpting, and computer design skills.
Summer lover salary: $61,890

Chef
If you enjoy spending summer nights hosting dinner parties for all your friends (no worries about going out on a school night!), sink your teeth into a career in the culinary industry. Chefs are kings of creativity, using knowledge of food as well as artistic license to develop and prepare mouth-watering, crowd-pleasing concoctions. Become a year-round chef and savor the flavors of summer.
Sign me up: Culinary school is the place to go to become a well-seasoned chef; a bachelor’s degree and oodles of kitchen experience can help you make it to the top.
Summer lover salary: $44,780

Solar Photovoltaic Installer
Summer is all about the sun – and what better place to harness the power of the sun than the solar industry itself? Solar PV installers get to work with their hands in the great outdoors, enjoy the warm sunshine all day long, and know that the work they do is helping save the planet. Plus, they get to climb on roofs. What’s more summery than that?
Sign me up: A background in construction is valuable in this trade, as is roofing experience and knowledge of electricity. An associate degree in renewable energy technology can be especially helpful.
Summer lover salary: $33,980

Teacher
Teaching is the ultimate career for summer lovers – because teachers don’t have to work in the summer! Don’t think you’re getting a free pass, though. As any teacher will attest, you will work your butt off for 10 months to get those precious two months of freedom. It’s a hard-earned reward, but if you love the summer (and teaching), it can be worth it.
Sign me up: You need a bachelor’s degree in education and a state license to teach, though some states will let you work with a bachelor’s degree in another field.
Summer lover salary: $54,330

What’s your favorite summer career?

-Robyn Tellefsen

I don’t know many people who like to be told what to do. Whether it’s ingrained in those of us raised in individualistic cultures like the U.S. or it’s just plain old human nature, we want to be the ones calling the shots in our own lives. We want to be the boss.

When it comes to your career, there’s certainly nothing wrong with being the boss. Maybe you’ve had entrepreneurial aspirations for as long as you can remember. But are you really ready for the demands of business ownership?

Here’s a reality check: 9 out of 10 businesses fail within five years, says Carol Roth, business strategist and author of “The Entrepreneur Equation: Evaluating the Realities, Risks, and Rewards of Having Your Own Business” (BenBella Books, 2011). If you’re fresh out of college, saddled with student loans and lacking business experience, you’re especially vulnerable to failure. Her advice? Look before you leap.

Roth says you need to have the right “start-up mindset” – one not driven by a desire to get rich, be in charge, or escape the corporate grind. To become a successful entrepreneur, she says, you need to be focused on solving a customer problem, believe you can do it better than anyone else, and be ready to work a lot of long hours to make it happen. If the desire for autonomy is your sole motivation for striking out on your own, be prepared… to strike out.

To me, entrepreneurship sounds a lot like motherhood – it’s a romantic concept, but then reality hits. Yes, you will get to coo over a cute and cuddly baby, but in exchange, you will get peed, pooped, and spit on. Around the clock.

Let’s say you love to cook, so you decide you want to open your own restaurant. But realize that cooking and running a restaurant are two very different things. When you’re the one running the show, there are a zillion other responsibilities that crop up beyond the culinary – marketing, managing inventory, billing clients, bookkeeping… basically, lots of time spent on your computer and on the phone. Maybe you can hire someone to do the tedious tasks for you someday, but you’ll need to be making steady money first.

Money is just one of the reasons why Roth recommends you work for someone else before you dive headfirst into entrepreneurship. A regular job will give you a regular paycheck – something you can’t count on when you’re the one calling the shots. In addition, an established business will give you real-world experience and a behind-the-scenes look at your industry before you raise the stakes to the level of business ownership and management. Roth also suggests working for a start-up before starting your own. That way, you can get a better feel for what’s ahead, and you can satisfy your “start-up jones” without taking any risk.

Being your own boss has obvious rewards, but it’s not for everyone. Is it for you?

-Robyn Tellefsen

When weighing the decision to go back to college and finish your degree, adult workers often wonder if life experience will count.

Taking some of the classes in a subject area you’ve already spent years working in will meet the degree requirements, but will it shed any new light onto the subject and just prolong your college years?

Well, on-the-job experience and life knowledge you have gained actually could serve you well in college.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that two services are seeking to establish national norms to give credit for “experiential learning” – skills you have gained outside of the classroom – and possibly could help hundreds of thousands of individuals earn degrees. The programs also recognize that it’s a time-consuming and labor-intensive process when faculty members at individual colleges evaluate portfolios of students seeking to receive college credit for career experience.

More than 80 public colleges and universities, community colleges and technical schools, Christian colleges, and for-profit online schools are participating in the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning’s new program, Learning Counts.

On a smaller level for now, there is KNEXT, which is affiliated with for-profit Kaplan University and also has agreements with New England College of Business and Finance and Grantham University.

There is a cost for students to participate. The Chronicle reports that the portfolio-creating course from Learning Counts costs $500, plus an extra $250 for each portfolio that a student wants evaluated. KNEXT has an all-inclusive price for $999.

Students get credit from participating colleges for completing the course where they learn to create a portfolio about their workplace learning. The portfolios are reviewed a national panel of subject-matter experts, which determines whether the student should earn credit, the Chronicle reported.

So while considering heading back to school, think about your career experience could boost your college experience. Depending on the degree you’re pursuing, it may allow you to bypass some courses and even finally grasp that diploma a little faster.

Criminal justice careers aren’t as glamorous as they look on TV. In real life, crimes go unsolved, operations get botched, and there’s more paper getting pushed around than perps.

But sometimes the puzzle pieces fall perfectly into place and the outcome is even more exciting than an episode of “CSI” – like the recent bin Laden raid.

If watching the news these days makes you want to jump into the field of justice, you’re in luck. The successful operation in Pakistan and the years of hard work leading up to it reveal clues about what you need to succeed in a criminal justice career.

Patience. On TV, the cops get the bad guys and justice is served. Mission accomplished. In real life… not so much. Think about all the people involved in the hunt for bin Laden – the NSA, the CIA, the DOD, etc., etc. From intelligence officers to military strategists to ground combatants, this mission took more of a toll than anyone thought possible. Ten years is a long time to wait for justice to be served.

Critical thinking. Which brings us to an essential question, particularly if you’re considering a criminal justice career: What is justice? No, it’s not a trick question – and there’s no easy answer. A great deal of criminal justice work requires that you analyze a variety of scenarios and solutions, since dealing with naturally unpredictable human beings is not a black-and-white affair. While many Americans are celebrating the death of Osama bin Laden, for example, a friend of mine who works as a New York City police officer for counterterrorism doesn’t see the killing of bin Laden as a good thing, given the prospect of an al Qaeda retaliation. In real life, killing the bad guy doesn’t necessarily solve all the problems. How will you handle that reality?

Perseverance. In just about any career, you’ve got to start at the bottom, and criminal justice is no exception. So if you’ve got your heart set on becoming a detective or working undercover, plan on spending some time as a patrol officer first. You’ll need law enforcement experience as well as a degree in criminal justice or a related field if you want to advance to the coveted professions, particularly those at the federal level. I guarantee that those behind the final bin Laden operation were not rookies.

Technological know-how. As InformationWeek editor John Foley put it, “A bullet killed Osama bin Laden, but U.S. intelligence is what did him in.” You need to know your way around a computer in just about any criminal justice career, and the techie stakes are especially high when you’re working in intelligence or counterterrorism. New surveillance technologies and IT architectures facilitate information sharing, and you’ve got to be savvy enough to utilize the technology effectively. When you enroll in a criminal justice degree program, you can get hands-on training with relevant technology to help you stay competitive in the field.

If you’re just getting started in a criminal justice career, chances are you won’t be involved in such a high-profile operation as the Osama bin Laden mission. Still, you can be a pivotal player in safeguarding the freedom of your community and your country. Do you have what it takes to succeed in a criminal justice career?

-Robyn Tellefsen

College commencement speeches are in full force this month. Some will inspire, some will create controversy, and some will put people to sleep. Boring or otherwise, there are some men and women who should NEVER be invited to a college to speak to graduates — though we had fun imagining what they would say and where they might say it, anyway. Take a look at some of these graduation speeches that will only happen when pigs fly…

Antoine Dodson, Urban Hero and YouTube Star

Princeton University
“Don’t hide your intelligence. Don’t hide your determination. Don’t hide your resume. Otherwise, those employers will never find you. Run and tell that, homeboys and homegirls.”

Any of the “Mob Wives” on VH-1

John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY)
“I don’t really believe what my husband did was a ‘crime,’ you know, but whatever. Do what ya gotta do for your career.”

Sarah Palin, Former Alaskan Governor

Hampshire College, one of the most liberal campuses in the U.S.
“Graduates are like mavericks going out into the world. And it’s a maverick’s right to own a gun, whether for shooting a moose or scaring away the Democrats and the liberal media.”

Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, Star of “Jersey Shore”

West Point (U.S. Military Academy)
“Yeah, I got some tips for you when you find yourself in the ‘situation’ room.”

Joe Francis, Creator of Girls Gone Wild Series

Wellesley College, known for graduating strong, accomplished women
“You’ve graduated! Who wants to go blow off some steam?”

Paris Hilton, Hotel Heiress

Johnson & Wales University, noted for its hotel and hospitality program
“If you want to be successful in the hotel industry, it totally helps to have my last name.”

Lady Gaga, Pop Music Superstar and Champion of Gay Rights

New York Theological Seminary
“Jesus loves all of us, little monsters.”

Bernie Madoff, Disgraced Investment Banker

Wharton School of Business
“Learn from my mistakes. That way, you won’t get caught in your own Ponzi scheme.”

Any of the “Real Housewives” from Bravo

City University of New York (CUNY), home of the Feminist Press
“What’s wrong with being a housewife, anyway?”

Montana Fishburne, porn star wannabe and daughter of actor Lawrence Fishburne

Yale School of Drama
“Patience and hard work are good, but there are other options if you want to become famous more quickly…”

Hugh Hefner, Creator of the Playboy Enterprise

Brigham Young University, known for its “chaste and virtuous” student honor code
“It’s so refreshing to look out at all of you good, wholesome men and women.”

Kourtney Kardashian, Reality TV Star, Noted for the Easy On-camera Birth of Her Son

Harvard University, School of Medicine
“As you will learn, giving birth is sooooo easy—you literally just reach down and pull that baby out.”

Barry Bonds, Former Baseball Player, Disgraced by Steroid Scandal

Kingdom College of Natural Health
“I admire you. I could have taken the natural health route, but I got lazy.

Alexandra Wallace, YouTube star infamous for racist rant against Asians

University of Hawaii at Manoa (44% of the population is Asian)
“Thanks to YouTube, I now understand diversity is our strength.”

Charlie Sheen, “Vatican Assassin” and Former TV Star

University of California, Los Angeles
“So you’ve got a college degree. Duh, winning! It’s not tiger blood, but it’ll do.”

~Barbara Bellesi

(Photos by PR Photos)

Don’t you love when spring is in full bloom? The sun shines a little brighter, the grass grows a little greener, and our time enjoying the beautiful outdoors lasts a lot longer. This season, why not celebrate your love for our land by digging into a green career? Take a look at these up-and-coming eco-friendly careers, and get inspired.

Green career: Water Resource Specialist
Green job description: If you want to protect one of our most precious natural resources – H2O – this is the green job for you. This fast-growing career involves designing or implementing programs and strategies related to water resource issues such as supply, quality, and regulatory compliance.
Green degree requirements: There are quite a few master’s degree programs in water resources engineering coming down the pike, covering all aspects of fluid mechanics, hydrology, water quality management, and geomorphology. Why not jump into this environmental protection career with both feet?

Green career: Energy Engineer
Green job description: Energy engineering is all about designing, developing, and evaluating energy-related projects and programs to reduce energy costs and boost energy efficiency during the designing, building, and remodeling stages of construction. These green jobs run the gamut from HVAC and electrical systems to air quality and energy procurement.
Green degree requirements: Get into this green career with an engineering degree, which will give you a solid foundation in physics, chemistry, math, and electrical and mechanical engineering. Go a step further and specialize in renewable energy engineering, which includes courses such as photovoltaics, wind power, biofuels, green building, and more.

Green career: Forest and Conservation Technician
Green job description: If you want to get your hands dirty and crunch numbers at the same time, this green job could fit you like a glove. These green workers compile data on the size, content, and condition of natural lands, doing everything from measuring timber and tracking wildlife movement to assisting in road building operations and locating property lines and features.
Green degree requirements: Your best bet for becoming a forest tech is to get an associate degree or a certificate in applied science or science-related technology. In a good green program, you’ll learn how to gather data on water and soil quality, disease and insect damage to trees and other plants, and conditions that may pose a fire hazard.

Green career: Wind Turbine Service Technician
Green job description: The wind energy industry in the U.S. is relatively young, but sources are already reporting a shortage of trained wind techs. Wind techs inspect, maintain, and repair complex wind turbines, working on behalf of the original equipment manufacturer or an outside company that specializes in turbine maintenance.
Green degree requirements: Head to a community college or technical school to enroll in a certificate or associate degree program in wind turbine maintenance. You’ll learn basic turbine design, diagnostics, control and monitoring systems, and basic turbine repair. You can also get hands-on training with the school’s turbines and machinery.

Whether you’re working toward a career that directly benefits the environment and conserves natural resources or a career with just a touch of green, remember that all eco-minded efforts make a difference.

Enjoy the wonders of spring!

-Robyn Tellefsen

Sometimes when people ask me what I do, I have to stop and think about it for a minute. You see, my job title — managing editor — was derived from back in the day when we used to publish the print CollegeBound Teen magazine. That’s still the title on my business cards, but we no longer have a magazine. We publish blogs, and Tweet, and write press releases. We do “reputation management” online for the company, write SEO meta copy, and come up with ideas for email newsletters. In other words, I’m not really what you’d call a “managing editor” anymore. And I’m totally fine with that.

What I’m getting at is that when considering the perfect career for you, you need to look beyond job titles and actually try to get a sense of what the position will entail. And many times, if you have a good employer who encourages growth, you’ll have the chance to actually mold and shape what you do regardless of what your job title is.

That’s the premise of a new book by Laura Dodd called  “Dig this Gig” (Citadel Press, 2011). In the book, you’ll meet lots of 20-somethings and hear their stories of career exploration, how they grew into their current roles, and what it takes to be successful in their fields. And those fields are quite varied from Organic Farmer to Zookeeper to Genetic Counselor to Video Game Illustrator. As the prologue describes:

All of them demystify their titles and the glib “HR” descriptions to uncover behind-the-scenes details so that the rest of us – and some of them, too – can make informed decisions in the future.

The books other feature brings in a mentor perspective from veterans of each industry covered, so readers can hear about both ends of the spectrum. For anyone who’s struggling with the question of “what do I really want to do when I grow up?” it’s an honest and informative look at some of America’s most coveted job titles. It also makes for a good graduation gift (hint, hint!).

-Dawn Papandrea