Do you get satisfaction from helping others? Are you great with kids? Are you one of those rare souls who has a knack for gently yet firmly getting your point across? Those strengths might make you an excellent elementary school teacher.

Teachers guide and nurture children through the learning process and often have a strong influence on a child’s future goals, dreams, and self-esteem. Becoming an elementary teacher requires a bachelor’s degree from a teaching program and a license to educate. Those who teach private school still need a degree, but may not be required to be licensed by their state.

In 2008, an elementary school teacher could expect to make a median salary of $49,330, according to the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Are You a Math Whiz?

Do you have the uncanny ability to add numbers in your head? Do you calculate sales tax with a glance? Are you capable of balancing your checkbook in only a few easy minutes? A career as a bookkeeper could keep you properly challenged.

Bookkeepers are responsible for maintaining the financial records of a business. They prepare reports, keep track of deposits and financial statements, and sometimes handle payroll or make purchases for the company. A high school diploma may open the door, and career training continues on the job, but many businesses require their bookkeepers to hold at least an associate’s degree in business or accounting.

As reported by the BLS, the median salary for bookkeepers in 2008 was $32,510.

Is Your Love for Video Games Beyond Compare?

Do you relish finding all the tricks and hidden codes in video games? Are you the go-to expert who can fix problems with video game systems? All that video-game savvy could pay off if you decide to become a computer software engineer.

Computer software engineers design, develop, and test software, including video games. They might work alone or as part of a team, depending upon the project requirements. Those with a bachelor’s degree in computer science are more likely to get the job, and relevant experience opens the door to advancement. In 2008, the BLS reported the median salary for computer software engineers at $85,430.

Does a Unique Dining Experience Thrill You?

Do you have a taste for the finer things in life? Are you the first to test out a new restaurant? Do you have well-thumbed stacks of food and wine magazines throughout your house? It might be time to throw on the white coat and become a chef.

Executive chefs are responsible for running the kitchen, developing menus, and, of course, preparing delicious meals for patrons. The executive chef might supervise a small team of cooks or be the head of a major restaurant chain. Many chefs opt for career training programs at culinary institutes, and some pursue associate’s or bachelor’s degrees in culinary arts.

According to the latest BLS statistics, executive chefs made an average of $38,770 in 2008.

Do You Love to Talk?

Do you enjoy the media and love to follow the top stories? Do you like to talk to anyone and everyone? A job in public relations will get you up close and personal with the movers and shakers.

Publicists are responsible for crafting and maintaining the public image of a celebrity, organization, or business. They draft press releases, talk to the media, and organize both public and private events. The publicist uses every form of media to get their message across, and does so in a timely manner.

Many publicists begin their careers with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, communications, public relations, or a related field such as advertising. Excellent communication skills are a requirement, and further career training comes through on-the-job experience. The average salary for a publicist in 2008 was $51,280, according to the BLS.

Personality and Career — a Winning Combination

By choosing a job that fits your personality, you’ve taken the first step toward career happiness. Your hard-earned degree can be your second step toward turning your strengths into a steady paycheck.

It doesn’t matter the size of your business or the industry. Profitability is something you should be monitoring on a regular monthly basis. No business is too small or too large to do job costing. Such an excuse is your way of not holding yourself accountable to managing your business wisely. Failing to plan is a plan for failure.

So what do I mean by job costing? You should know how much you make and spend on each job. Expenditures should be tracked for those direct labor and material costs to each job. In addition, you should also be tracking overhead costs and allocating them to your various jobs as applicable. There is always going to be some overhead that is considered general overhead. Though often times too many dollars are thrown into general overhead, when they could easily be tracked to specific jobs. If you don’t know your exact income and expenses for each job and your overall business, then how can you know you are making a profit?

QuickBooks® has easy-to-use features that allow you to do job costing for time and materials. So don’t worry about having to track it all manually. Rely on tools to help you run your business more efficiently and effectively.

Are you curious how you are doing with job costing measurements? Here are some quick and easy questions to gauge your job costing performance:

1. Do I track each customer’s revenue information through a detailed invoice?

2. Do I have a way of breaking down my direct job materials cost by customer?

3. Do I associate all time spent to each job accurately with actual dollar amounts?

4. Do I have access to reports to monitor profitability on each job in a timely manner?

5. Do I have a way to trend the fluctuations in job profitability from job to job, month to month, etc?

If you answered “NO” to any of these, then it’s time for you to take an objective look at your financial goals. It’s time for you to implement a job costing mechanism to help you answer “YES” to these questions. How can you track your profitability and long-term growth plans if you don’t have detail at a job level?

Here are some quick and easy ways to utilize QuickBooks® effectively to help you with your job costing process:

1. Set up the QuickBooks® Item list so that you’ll have both an expense and an income aspect to each of the items. This will allow you to track your costs and your income; therefore, providing you profit by item.

2. Record your sales through the invoicing or sales receipt process. This will record the income aspects of the items.

3. As you purchase the product or service items, make sure that you utilize the Items tab so that it will record to the cost to the appropriate item. In addition, make sure to assign your customer/job information to each line item so that you’ll have the costs associated to the appropriate customer/job for job costing.

After you lose a job, you start to forget how proficient you were. And this also erodes your self confidence. That’s why an important part of your job search is to recover that feeling of self confidence and hold on to it.

How to restore self respect after you lose a job

Write your resume. It’s the best way to remember all of the good things you’ve accomplished. Your resume is a self-marketing tool where you list your accomplishments. And thinking about those achievements is how to restore your self confidence.

A friend who lost his job as an account executive at a major advertising agency in New York City tells the story of how he was allowed to keep his office for a month while looking for work. “By noon I became terribly depressed,” he said, “so I would always reach into a drawer, pull out my resume, and realize how much I’d accomplished. This made me feel proud and depression would vanish.”

You, too will be pleasantly surprised to discover how much you’ve accomplished when you write a resume. Then you’ll be convinced how good you are. And you’ll have all the self-confidence you need to present your skills to the job market.

Lose Your Job and Make Money Online

A personality test is another type of career assessment tests. They help discover what your work personality is and find a career for you by performing a research on hundreds of careers. If you spend some time taking a career personality test or two, you’ll get several career options to help you consider how they may fit with your personality.

Career testing programs can assist young professionals, mid-career professionals, seasoned professionals and high school & college students to find the right career for each individual. When you take a career quiz you may be surprised at what your test reveals, especially if you have been in your current career for many years. Quizzes cannot provide magic answers but they help you to have a better understanding of your vocational identity and thus to seek and generate additional career options. They help you scan a wider range of possibilities than you might be able to imagine on your own.