— better career
— more knowledge
— better opportunities
— increased fame and fortune
— personal fulfillment
— and more money.

According to recent surveys, graduate degrees can earn an average of 35% to 50% more than those with only a bachelor's degree:

Salary Wizard®   Find out what you're worth   Job title     ZIP Code

Master's Degree or Ph.D.?

It will depend on your field of specialty and job that you are seeking. Many fields in education, engineering, health care, and social work require a Masters Degree to move beyond entry-level positions.

You will also find that many state licensing requirements require a Masters Degree to begin your practice. Additionally, a doctorate degree is required for medical and legal professions.

Those pursuing academic careers will pursue a PhD. These candidates are interested in research, academic teaching, and scholastic achievements.

Articles on why go to grad school?
http://www.gradview.com

Find out what careers are going to be hot and what's not. This will help you decide which continuing ed program is best for you:

• From the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
  occupational outlook by category: provides insight on the training need, work environment, earnings, expected job prospects and more. It's a valuable resource to help decide what career you may like.
  www.bls.gov/oco/
  
  projections on what's hot and what's not. Includes employment statistics and the fastest growing careers:
  www.bls.gov/emp/
  
  

  provides information on careers from an occupational perspective
  www.bls.gov/oco/cg/
  
  
  

• Individual State Labor Statistics:
  occupational projections by state and region — helps determine where you may need to locate for the best growth
  www.projectionscentral.com
  
  Link to individual State job and occupation trends:
  
  State Job Sites: Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming
  
  
  

• From America's Career InfoNet:
  making smart career decisions - research the job market, wages and trends by region and occupation:
  www.acinet.org
  employability checkup form - find out home different careers stack up by city and wage:
  www.acinet.org

by taking some career and personal self-assessment tests to determine your aptitude and character for career opportunities. By understanding your personality type, it will help determine what career opportunity will bring you the most satisfaction.

• Start with defining your personality type:
  take this online quiz to get a non-test based review of your personality type and careers that may be of interest
  www.personalitytype.com
  
  another test-based online character assessment:
  www.advisorteam.com
  

About Self-Assessment Tests:
you can view more information about personal assessments and how they can measure your personality traits for jobs and other life-events

• Kinds of self assessment tests:
  summary of personality assessment test and which tests work for careers:
  www.humanmetrics.com
  
  about the Myers & Briggs self assessment test:
  www.myersbriggs.org/
  about the Keisey Temperament assessment:
  www.keirsey.com/
  
  other Self-Assessment resources:
  www.rileyguide.com/assess.html

By understanding who you are and what you like, you can now explore career opportunities that will be most satisfying to you:

• Evaluate Your Career Interests
  your first step in finding the right career is to evaluate what you would like to do and what career fits your overall aptitude
  start with careerkey.org
  
  
  
• Understand your interests and career relationship
  you can take this online career assessments for a small fee - not recommended at this stage of your planning
  view the Strong Interest Inventory®
  
  federal government web site that reviews your road trip to career success:
  view information at careervoyages.gov
  
  
  
• Other Helpful Career Assessments:
  use this skills assessment to understand job types that you may best be qualified for based on your temperament assessment:
  http://online.onetcenter.org
  
  what to do with your skills into shaping a collegiate major:
  www.udel.edu

Fortune 500 companies
Fortune Global 500
Fortune Best 100 companies to work for
Fortune fastest growing companies
Fortune small business 100
Fortune 50 best for minorities
www.fortune.com

From Forbes Magazine

• Forbes 400 Best big companies:
  www.forbes.com
  Forbes 200 Best small companies:
  www.forbes.com
  Forbes 500 Private Companies and other listings:
  www.forbes.com

From Inc. Magazine

• America's fastest-growing private companies —
  The Inc. 500:
  www.inc.com

Other Company Directories

• Top 500 franchises:
  www.entrepreneur.com/franzone/...
  
  Best 100 companies for working mothers:
  www.workingmother.com

Career Industry and Company Search

• Find a company by type/industry:
  www.business.com
  Another company search directory from ThomasSearch:
  www.thomasregister.com
  

Search Industry Directories

• High tech company registry:
  www.corptech.com
  Legal firm listing:
  www.lawoffice.com
  
  Engineering firm listing:
  www.enr.com
  Accounting firm/CPA listing:
  http://accounting.pro2net.com
  
  Human Resource listing:
  http://hr.pro2net.com
  Finance-related listing:
  http://finance.pro2net.com
  

Search Government Directories

• Federal government-related listing:
  www.gov.com
  State and local government directory:
  www.statelocalgov.net
  
  Foreign government resources:
  www.lib.umich.edu
  

Search Other

• Non-profit organization directory:
  www.guidestar.org

• International business directory:
  http://globaledge.msu.edu
  another listing:
  http://library.uncc.edu

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