What career paths would suit my interests, and abilities in the
Pittsburgh area with an income of $25,000 or more?
And how would I start on these paths?



Personal:	
Mother, wife, 54, good health

Interests:
People
Writing
Color, design, art (interior design, watercolorist)
Trees, flowers, shrubs (landscaping)
Current Events
Dogs
History, archeology, anthropology

Skills:	
Problem solving
Writing, layout, editing
Verbal communication
Organization
Researching
Pagemaker, windows, microsoft word, excel, Adobe photoshop
		
Experience:
Printing Business (co-owner) - customer service, layout, proofing 
Italian/American Magazine - customer service, office management, data
entry
Community Newsletter - editing, writing, layout
Community Management - customer service, problem solving, maintenance
Treasurer (community pool) - spread sheets, budget, accounting
Title Search Company - customer service, payoffs, lien releases

Education:	
BS in Community Related Studies with an emphasis in Interior Design

Hello lynn373-ga,

I’m a career counselor and it is a pleasure to assist you with your
exploring your career options.

You’ve made a good start by reviewing your skills, interests and work
history. Although you didn’t spell this out, it appears that you
obtained your college degree some time ago and that your main life
focus was on being a wife and mother. You’ve had a variety of jobs
that required verbal, reasoning and people skills. You have an
interest and experience in communication and design and are competent
in a variety of computer applications. It appears that your work did
not follow a coherent career path but instead was secondary to your
family roles. It isn’t clear how steadily you’ve been working and
whether you are now re-entering the workforce. You are 54 years old
and are looking for an entry-level job that will help you make use of
your interests and experience.

I hope that my summary of your situation is correct but what needs to
happen next can be addressed without knowing every detail of your
situation.

Career development has three main aspects: Self-Assessment, World of
Work / Occupational Exploration, and Targeted Job Search. Your summary
of your Interests, Skills and Experience are a good start on doing a
comprehensive self-assessment. I’ve collected a selection of resources
that will help you complete this task. It is important to do a
comprehensive job on self-assessment because whatever you define about
yourself will provide the template for what you’re looking for in the
world of work. Reminding yourself of your skills and accomplishments
is also necessary to put together your resume and develop your pitch
for your interviews.

Most people enjoy the self-assessment stage of the job search but feel
intimidated by the next step of finding out what’s out there in the
real world. The Web is a fantastic resource for this. I’ve collected a
variety of resources to help you with your vocational and occupational
explorations. It seems you would like to use your communication,
design and organizational skills. Investigating job families, job
titles and industries will help you develop a new vocabulary for
possible jobs that you might find interesting. Browsing job boards is
also excellent for getting familiar with the current buzz words in the
various jobs you might want to target.

You will be ready for your targeted job search after you’ve identified
some jobs that would be a good match for your qualifications. I’ve
included a variety of Pennsylvania and Pittsburg job resources to help
you when you’ve reached this stage of your career quest.

The Web has an enormous amount of career information and the links
I’ve provided will give you some starting points. You can also visit
any library or bookstore to choose from the dozens (if not hundreds)
of books available to job seekers on every aspect of the career
development process.

You mentioned that you are 54 years old. It is important to be
realistic about the special challenges involved in pursuing an over 50
job search. I’ve collected a selection of articles to help you prepare
job search and interviewing strategies.

Lynn373-ga, you’re launching on a new adventure. I hope that the
resources I’ve collected will help you make this project easy and fun.
Please be sure to ask for clarification if anything I’ve provided
isn’t clear.

Wishing you success for finding a great job.

~ czh ~


=============================================
CAREER DEVELOPMENT PROCESS -- SELF ASSESSMENT
=============================================

Career Development eManual
Career Services at the University of Waterloo
The Career Development eManual has been prepared to guide you through
the necessary steps, whether you are looking for your 1st or your 21st
job. In order to help you do this in an efficient and effective way,
the Manual has been organized into six (6) “steps”.

***** This is a wonderful website that will help you work through the
exploration process.

-------------------------------


http://www.virginia.edu/career/handouts/pdf%20files/Analyzing%20Your%20Preferences%20for%20Work.pdf
Analyzing Your Work Preferences Workbook

***** This is a 26 page workbook that will help you complete your
self-assessment.

-------------------------------


http://www.mncareers.org/start_exploring.asp?pageid=se01
Minnesota Careers 
***** This is an online workbook offered by the State of Minnesota.
The Start Exploring tab will give you the opportunity to complete a
variety of self-assessment activities and the Investigate Careers tab
will help you gather occupational information.

 
=============================================================
CAREER EXPLORATION RESOURCES -- WORLD OF WORK AND OCCUPATIONS
=============================================================

http://directory.google.com/Top/Business/Employment/Careers/
Business > Employment > Careers

***** You can browse through the sub-categories to explore your
options. Skill and Personality Assessment,  Changing Careers,
Counseling and Management. and Women  might be of special interest.
Several of the links listed on this page are also excellent resources
for clarifying your goals and options.

----------------------------


http://www.acinet.org/acinet/default.asp
http://www.acinet.org/acinet/library.asp
America's Career InfoNet!

***** This is a major portal from the US Department of Labor and
offers a wealth of resources. There are lots of links to help with
self-assessment, career exploration and occupational information in
preparation for conducting your job search. It also offers links for
resources in your own geographic community. This site a is great
starting point for all topics related to developing your career.


====================================================
PITTSBURG AND PENNSYLVANIA CAREER AND JOBS RESOURCES
====================================================

http://www.acinet.org/acinet/state1.asp?soccode=&from=&Level=&keyword=&stfips=42&x=24&y=8
Pennsylvania job search resources

-------------------------


http://www.studentaffairs.cmu.edu/career/CareerBriefs/pittsbgh.html
Pittsburgh Career Resources and Referrals

***** This is a collection of resources from the Carnegie Mellon
University Career Center.

---------------------------


http://www.job-hunt.org/jobs/pennsylvania.shtml
Pennsylvania Career and Job Search Resources

***** This is a major portal offering Pennsylvania specific resources.

---------------------------


http://www.khake.com/page26.html
Vocational Information Center
Explore Pennsylvania with links to career and trade schools, state
facts, government, education, labor, business, statistics and job
resources.

-----------------------------


http://www.pennsylvaniajobs.com/
PennsylvaniaJobs.Com

------------------------------


http://www.searchbeat.com/Regional/NorthAmerica/UnitedStates/Pennsylvania/BusinessandEconomy/Employment/
Pennsylvania job search resources


===================
JOB SEARCH AFTER 50
===================

http://www.thirdage.com/money/careers/
Third Age

http://grandparenting.about.com/cs/working/
Working and Careers -- Mature Workers

http://www.fiveoclockclub.com/articles/2001/7-01-After50.htm
Job Search After 50 Tapping a Valuable Resource

http://content.netscape.monster.com/careerchangers/articles/self_assessment/50/
The After-50 Career Change

http://www.careerjournal.com/columnists/movingon/20021212-movingon.html
Baby Boomers Resist The 'Has-Been' Label

http://www.careerjournal.com/myc/fifty/20020930-fmp.html
Why That Post-50 Job Is Getting Harder to Find

http://www.iaap-hq.org/ResearchTrends/Job%20Hunting%20After%2050.htm
Job Hunting After Age 50

http://messageboards.ivillage.com/iv-wdworkfifty
Working After 50  

http://www.jsonline.com/bym/career/jul03/154578.asp?showheadlines=all
Job-seekers over 50 have to work every angle

http://www.hr-assistant.com/recruiting3.asp
Creative Recruiting Strategies


===============
SEARCH STRATEGY
===============

career development process
carrer counseling
careers self-assessment
reentry careers women
job search after 50
career centers pittsburg Pennsylvania

Nursing is a good choice for anyone.

One of the most exciting things anyone can do is get out of their own
"comfort zone". If its a new career or business you want to start,
research it thoroughly, and I notice this is what you have experience
at. If its a hobby, try it out. Have you ever come across a problem
and thought of a solution that no one else has come up with. Result is
an "INVENTION'. For example, as a seaman, I had the problem of how to
flush the cooling system of an outboard motor with fresh water,
without removing the motor from the floating boat. Once the motor is
flushed, and left tilted, it does not come into contact with the salt
water again until the leg is again lowered into the water [ ocean or
lake] Can`t say yet what it consists of until I patent it, but it
could be worth a lot. Your expertise seems to be in office and
computer systems. Can you operate a sewing machine. But an industrial
model and make canvas boat covers etc. at prices us boaties can
afford. All the general marine businesses seem to think we are ALL
made of money. Hope I have been of some help.

Hey there! =)  May I recommend HTML webpage design?

From your interests and skills, it sounds as though you'd be happy
designing and creating websites for companies that're just starting to
get onto the Net.  HTML, and even (I'm told) Java scripting aren't too
grueling to learn or practice, even if you don't have any prior
experience in them, and if the various online "helpers" don't suit
you, odds are that a community college in your area is offering a
course or two in Web Design.

And if web design doesn't appeal, given your resume, I can't see
anyone NOT wanting to hire someone like you for a secretarial or
receptionist position for at least $25k.

One last thought - have you given any consideration to becoming a
librarian?  You'd need a Masters in Library Science (which deals
mainly with bookkeeping processes and protocols, and some of the new
cataloguing software) to pull down the serious money, but it's a
fabulous way to indulge one's taste for history, anthropology, current
events (I'm thinkin' periodicals here), etc.