The late summer sun is going down and the light is fading fast. You move slowly through the deep shadows, and you drop into a gully to watch and listen. Beer cans and trash. Mud. Meth waste.

Your deputy responded to reports. The smell of raw chemicals. Cars coming and going up the dead-end dirt road, cars with out of state plates.

You called for local backup, and the DEA. Now you need to stake and wait.

Moving through the high weeds you see empty steel drums and you smell it— a meth lab, a big one.

A spark would set this place off like a 500-pound bomb.

You are a county sheriff. People think your life is about politicking for office, running Gomer speed traps, and serving legal papers. That’s because they have no clue.

Your deputy is well-trained, patient, smart, you trained her yourself.

She has cover-positioned herself opposite you so you share the front and side view of the building. She’s a mother of two kids and the coach of their softball team.

You hear the faint sound of a door. Peering through weeds you see motion in front.

Someone steps outside and lights a cigarette. Its a bald guy, a silhouette in the bad light… he’s got a black rifle, AK 47 or Ar 15… no, now you see, it’s a Mini-14, magus taped tandem.

The suspect steps out and starts walking. Hell, he’s moving steadily toward your deputy’s position. He halts, smoking, looking around.

Be cool, you think, stay cool.

You wish you had another officer in back. You wish you knew what was back there.

Now you hear a child crying somewhere. its coming from inside there. From inside the meth lab itself!

Do you go, or not go?

You’re the sheriff, it’s your call. Wait for backup, wait for the DEA, or do something now?

What would you do?

Sheriffs and deputy sheriffs enforce the law on the county level. More than any other law officers, they personally know their people, their citizens, their terrain.

Sheriffs usually are elected to their posts and perform duties similar to those of a local or county police chief. Sheriffs’ departments tend to be relatively small, most having fewer than 50 sworn officers. Deputy sheriffs have law enforcement duties similar to those of officers in urban police departments. Police and sheriffs’ deputies who provide security in city and county courts are sometimes called bailiffs.

Sheriffs and their deputies have one of the highest rates of on-the-job injury and illness.

n addition to the obvious dangers of confrontations with criminals, police officers and detectives need to be constantly alert and ready to deal appropriately with a number of other threatening situations. Many law enforcement officers witness death and suffering resulting from accidents and criminal behavior.

A career in law enforcement may take a toll on their private lives. Sheriffs are not like police with 40-hour weeks, because protection must be provided around the clock— weekends, holidays, and nights. Deputies do shifts, but sheriffs are required to work whenever they are needed— and may work long hours during investigations.

A sheriff is best equipped with a bachelor’s or master’s degree in Criminal Science and a minor in management can help. Sociology is a critical knowledge, and people skills are paramount.

A specific educational background related to law enforcement, such as deputy experience, or city police work, is fundamental.

A good sheriff must have highly developed personal qualities and be able to communicate clearly and persuasively.

An analytical mind, the ability to analyze large amounts of information and data quickly, and the ability to evaluate the relationships among deputies and citizens, also are important qualities.

The qualities of leadership, self-confidence, motivation, decisiveness, flexibility, sound moral judgment, and determination, all all essentials.

Because when the bad thing starts happening… it’s all on you.

You’re staking out the meth lab and suddenly the child you heard inside begins screaming. Someone yells inside there. A rough adult voice. The child shrieks.

You see your deputy rise up with her shotgun; she’s a mother and the kid in there shrieks again and you see her crouch/aim at the armed guy smoking a cigarette.

And now the guy sees her too… he’s shifting around toward her with the Mini-14…

Now you have no choice, all hell is about to break loose and you move and you move with the shotgun and your whole world slows to tunnel vision…

You are the Sheriff.

As a member of the Writer’s Guild West, Erudio voted in the WGA awards for best screenplay.

Top of my list? UP IN THE AIR, PRECIOUS, HURT LOCKER.

Each of these intense, emotionally honest, films works urgently toward a primal confrontation with the world we live in today. And every year, I find myself comparing this year’s movies to the movies of the past. You have to. It’s the way the brain works.

And each year, I think of those amazing stories, how they were written, the dialogue, the drama, the conflicts.

Like, think way back to 1962… Lawrence of Arabia (the eventual AA winner), The Longest Day, The Music Man, Mutiny on the Bounty, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Manchurian Candidate, The Bird Man of Alcatraz, Days of Wine and Roses, The Miracle Worker and Long Day’s Journey into Night. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, Billy Budd, Divorce Italian Style, Last Year at Marienbad, Gypsy, Sweet Bird of Youth, Period of Adjustment, Jules and Jim, Lolita, Advise and Consent, Peeping Tom, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance… and many more, all in one year.

To you budding film students out there, how many of those 1962 movies have you seen? Classic films are a MUSEUM of film art.

And they all have one thing in common— they all started with a great SCREENPLAY. Amazing narrative, setting, dialogue, action.

In fact, the Writer’s Guild has compiled a list of screenwriters’ picks for the 101 best screenplays of all time.

To Kill a Mockingbird, Dr Strangelove, Full Metal Jacket, East of Eden, Citizen Kane, Shane, High Noon…

Each great movie was first born in the brain of a screenwriter, the man or woman who sat alone and saw the movie in their head, and then wrote it down for others to see and know, and to make into a film for all to see and to know.

Here’s the list… in order, as voted on by professional screenwriters, members of the Writer’s Guild—

1. CASABLANCA
   Screenplay by Julius J. & Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch. Based on the play “Everybody Comes to Rick’s” by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison
2. THE GODFATHER
   Screenplay by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola. Based on the novel by Mario Puzo
3. CHINATOWN
   Written by Robert Towne
4. CITIZEN KANE
   Written by Herman Mankiewicz and Orson Welles
5. ALL ABOUT EVE
   Screenplay by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Based on “The Wisdom of Eve,” a short story and radio play by Mary Orr
6. ANNIE HALL
   Written by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman
7. SUNSET BLVD.
   Written by Charles Brackett & Billy Wilder and D.M. Marshman, Jr.
8. NETWORK
   Written by Paddy Chayefsky
9. SOME LIKE IT HOT
   Screenplay by Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond. Based on “Fanfare of Love,” a German film written by Robert Thoeren and M. Logan
10. THE GODFATHER II
    Screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo. Based on Mario Puzo’s novel “The Godfather”
11. BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID
    Written by William Goldman
12. DR. STRANGELOVE
    Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick and Peter George and Terry Southern. Based on novel “Red Alert” by Peter George
13. THE GRADUATE
    Screenplay by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry. Based on the novel by Charles Webb
14. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
    Screenplay by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson. Based on the life and writings of Col. T.E. Lawrence
15. THE APARTMENT
    Written by Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond
16. PULP FICTION
    Written by Quentin Tarantino. Stories by Quentin Tarantino & Roger Avary
17. TOOTSIE
    Screenplay by Larry Gelbart and Murray Schisgal. Story by Don McGuire and Larry Gelbart
18. ON THE WATERFRONT
    Screen Story and Screenplay by Budd Schulberg. Based on “Crime on the Waterfront” articles by Malcolm Johnson
19. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
    Screenplay by Horton Foote. Based on the novel by Harper Lee
20. IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE Screenplay by Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett & Frank Capra. Based on short story “The Greatest Gift” by Philip Van Doren Stern. Contributions to screenplay Michael Wilson and Jo Swerling
21. NORTH BY NORTHWEST
    Written by Ernest Lehman
22. THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
    Screenplay by Frank Darabont. Based on the short story “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption” by Stephen King
23. GONE WITH THE WIND
    Screenplay by Sidney Howard. Based on the novel by Margaret Mitchell
24. ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND
    Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman. Story by Charlie Kaufman & Michel Gondry & Pierre Bismuth
25. THE WIZARD OF OZ
    Screenplay by Noel Langley and Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf Adaptation by Noel Langley. Based on the novel by L. Frank Baum
26. DOUBLE INDEMNITY
    Screenplay by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler. Based on the novel by James M. Cain
27. GROUNDHOG DAY
    Screenplay by Danny Rubin and Harold Ramis. Story by Danny Rubin
28. SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE
    Written by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard
29. SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS
    Written by Preston Sturges
30. UNFORGIVEN
    Written by David Webb Peoples
31. HIS GIRL FRIDAY
    Screenplay by Charles Lederer. Based on the play “The Front Page” by Ben Hecht & Charles MacArthur
32. FARGO
    Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
33. THE THIRD MAN
    Screenplay by Graham Greene. Story by Graham Greene. Based on the short story by Graham Greene
34. THE SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS
    Screenplay by Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman. From a novelette by Ernest Lehman
35. THE USUAL SUSPECTS
    Written by Christopher McQuarrie
36. MIDNIGHT COWBOY
    Screenplay by Waldo Salt. Based on the novel by James Leo Herlihy
37. THE PHILADELPHIA STORY
    Screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart. Based on the play by Philip Barry
38. AMERICAN BEAUTY
    Written by Alan Ball
39. THE STING
    Written by David S. Ward
40. WHEN HARRY MET SALLY
    Written by Nora Ephron
41. GOODFELLAS
    Screenplay by Nicholas Pileggi & Martin Scorsese. Based on book “Wise Guy” by Nicholas Pileggi
42. RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
    Screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan. Story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman
43. TAXI DRIVER
    Written by Paul Schrader
44. THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
    Screenplay by Robert E. Sherwood. Based on novel “Glory For Me” by MacKinley Kantor
45. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST
    Screenplay by Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman. Based on the novel by Ken Kesey
46. THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE
    Screenplay by John Huston. Based on the novel by B. Traven
47. THE MALTESE FALCON
    Screenplay by John Huston. Based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett
48. THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI
    Screenplay by Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson. Based on the novel by Pierre Boulle
49. SCHINDLER’S LIST
    Screenplay by Steven Zaillian. Based on the novel by Thomas Keneally
50. THE SIXTH SENSE
    Written by M. Night Shyamalan
51. BROADCAST NEWS
    Written by James L. Brooks
52. THE LADY EVE
    Screenplay by Preston Sturges. Story by Monckton Hoffe
53. ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN
    Screenplay by William Goldman. Based on the book by Carl Bernstein & Bob Woodward
54. MANHATTAN
    Written by Woody Allen & Marshall Brickman
55. APOCALYPSE NOW
    Written by John Milius and Francis Coppola. Narration by Michael Herr
56. BACK TO THE FUTURE
    Written by Robert Zemeckis & Bob Gale
57. CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS
    Written by Woody Allen
58. ORDINARY PEOPLE
    Screenplay by Alvin Sargent. Based on the novel by Judith Guest
59. IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT
    Screenplay by Robert Riskin. Based on the story “Night Bus” by Samuel Hopkins Adams
60. L.A. CONFIDENTIAL
    Screenplay by Brian Helgeland & Curtis Hanson. Based on the novel by James Ellroy
61. THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
    Screenplay by Ted Tally. Based on the novel by Thomas Harris
62. MOONSTRUCK
    Written by John Patrick Shanley
63. JAWS
    Screenplay by Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb. Based on the novel by Peter Benchley
64. TERMS OF ENDEARMENT
    Screenplay by James L. Brooks. Based on the novel by Larry McMurtry
65. SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN
    Screen Story and Screenplay by Betty Comden & Adolph Green. Based on the song by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown
66. JERRY MAGUIRE
    Written by Cameron Crowe
67. E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL
    Written by Melissa Mathison
68. STAR WARS
    Written by George Lucas
69. DOG DAY AFTERNOON
    Screenplay by Frank Pierson. Based on a magazine article by P.F. Kluge and Thomas Moore
70. THE AFRICAN QUEEN
    Screenplay by James Agee and John Huston. Based on the novel by C.S. Forester
71. THE LION IN WINTER
    Screenplay by James Goldman. Based on the play by James Goldman
72. THELMA & LOUISE
    Written by Callie Khouri
73. AMADEUS
    Screenplay by Peter Shaffer. Based on his play
74. BEING JOHN MALKOVICH
    Written by Charlie Kaufman
75. HIGH NOON
    Screenplay by Carl Foreman. Based on short story “The Tin Star” by John W. Cunningham
76. RAGING BULL
    Screenplay by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin. Based on the book by Jake La Motta with Joseph Carter and Peter Savage
77. ADAPTATION
    Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman. Based on the book “The Orchid Thief” by Susan Orlean
78. ROCKY
    Written by Sylvester Stallone
79. THE PRODUCERS
    Written by Mel Brooks
80. WITNESS
    Screenplay by Earl W. Wallace & William Kelley. Story by William Kelley and Pamela Wallace & Earl W. Wallace
81. BEING THERE
    Screenplay by Jerzy Kosinski. Inspired by the novel by Jerzy Kosinski
82. COOL HAND LUKE
    Screenplay by Donn Pearce and Frank Pierson. Based on the novel by Donn Pearce
83. REAR WINDOW
    Screenplay by John Michael Hayes. Based on the short story by Cornell Woolrich
84. THE PRINCESS BRIDE
    Screenplay by William Goldman. Based on his novel
85. LA GRANDE ILLUSION
    Written by Jean Renoir and Charles Spaak
86. HAROLD & MAUDE
    Written by Colin Higgins
87. 8 1/2
    Screenplay by Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, Brunello Rond. Story by Fellini, Flaiano
88. FIELD OF DREAMS
    Screenplay by Phil Alden Robinson. Based on the book by W.P. Kinsella
89. FORREST GUMP
    Screenplay by Eric Roth. Based on the novel by Winston Groom
90. SIDEWAYS
    Screenplay by Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor. Based on the novel by Rex Pickett
91. THE VERDICT
    Screenplay by David Mamet. Based on the novel by Barry Reed
92. PSYCHO
    Screenplay by Joseph Stefano. Based on the novel by Robert Bloch
93. DO THE RIGHT THING
    Written by Spike Lee
94. PATTON
    Screen Story and Screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North. Based on “A Soldier’s Story” by Omar H. Bradley and “Patton: Ordeal and Triumph” by Ladislas Farago
95. HANNAH AND HER SISTERS
    Written by Woody Allen
96. THE HUSTLER
    Screenplay by Sidney Carroll & Robert Rossen. Based on the novel by Walter Tevis
97. THE SEARCHERS
    Screenplay by Frank S. Nugent. Based on the novel by Alan Le May
98. THE GRAPES OF WRATH
    Screenplay by Nunnally Johnson. Based on the novel by John Steinbeck
99. THE WILD BUNCH
    Screenplay by Walon Green and Sam Peckinpah. Story by Walon Green and Roy Sickner
100. MEMENTO
     Screenplay by Christopher Nolan. Based on the short story “Memento Mori” by Jonathan Nolan
101. NOTORIOUS
     Written by Ben Hecht

So… all you aspiring screenwriters… how many of these films have you actually seen?

How many of these screenplays have you actually read?

How many of these writers have you heard of? Have you studied their writing?

As you watch the Academy Awards, compare the winners to the great films of the past.

Educate yourself. Educate your art, and when you write, write to a level worth your own talent.

Educate, educate, educate!

Then maybe you should dive into the political process, and fight for those changes yourself.

But, you say, how would I get there? You can do it. And I will show you exactly how.

Politicians work for the people, in theory at least. They oversee and direct Federal, State, and local governments. They make laws, and change laws.

The voters hire most politicians by electing them in campaigns that often cost many millions of dollars per candidate. Some are appointed. The media has an enormous impact on the out come of these battles for votes, and big corporations put their money where their profits are.

Every member of your government is a politician at some level, even those appointed by other politicians. They go all the way from the elected school board members and county council member, to the Prime Minister or President.

The current US president was raised by a single mom who at one time used food stamps to feed her child. Despite this, he always worked and studied hard.

After graduating high school from Punahou School in Hawaii, Barack Obama attended Occidental College for two years, then got his B.A. from Columbia University.

Barack Obama later got his law degree from Harvard Law School (where he became the Harvard Law Review’s first african american person president), graduating magna cum laude. Obama was also a lecturer of constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School.

Then, after some street-seasoning experience (learning from the street up, working in Chicago politics and programs for the poor), Barack Obama ran for president in 2008. After the election in November 4, 2008 he was elected President of the United States.

Chief executives like President Obama boss their cabinet and all relevant organizations. Similar to political bosses are Corporate board members, Corporate chief executives, and high ranking officers in the military. They are bosses who combed the ladder of politics in each of their respective fields.

Legislative politicians, like senators, congress members, parliament members, all pass laws. They also work on budgets and programs submitted by the chief executive.

A law degree is a good start, if you want to enter politics— your duties will involve law in many ways, no matter what office you might campaign for. Other very useful experience could be in the worlds of business or teaching, but you’ll always need legal knowledge in politics.

Talent as an effective speaker is important. You’ll need to inspire and motivate voters and their staff. High energy is required.

Never forget, no matter how high you might climb in politics, the voter will be your real boss.

If you can please the majority, and keep the media on your side, you may have a long career in politics, and you may be able to run for higher and higher office.

So… what are your beliefs. your values? Are you willing to spend your life in politics, where you can really fight for them?

Get a law degree. Study hard, arm yourself with every legal tool possible, get into the best school you can.

If you need to, start with your local community college, or an online institution. Many grants and loans are available, and you can find links to them here on GRAD2B.com.

Use the law to empower your personal vision of your city, your county, your state, your nation, your world.

Change the world from the power end, from the seat of political power.

Run for office!

How do you get there? Educate, Educate, Educate!

Its mines crushed them, its mills incinerated them, its machines shredded them. Men, women, children alike, were need in vast numbers to feed the new machine world with raw materials that machines turned into goods. A paid army of armed thugs beat or murdered anyone who brave or desperate enough to protest.

Because for the owners, it was far cheaper to replace a disposable worker than it was to safety-modify a precious machine.

For many workers this is still true today— in many places on our globe, machines are still more highly valued than the flesh-and-blood human beings, the workers who feed the machines and nurture them, so that profits can keep churning out of the factory doors.

Around the world, as the 20th-century dawned, writers and leaders began to fight the injustice and tyranny of the machine age.

Powerful 1900’s novels like OCTOPUS, and THE JUNGLE, and DEATH SHIP caused a sensation. If you haven’t read them, you should. They still pack the emotional horsepower they once did, maybe more.

From public outrage against so much worker death and injury, federal and state governments finally began to try to protect their citizen workers.

Some wealthy factory owners fought change, and waged media campaigns, with the same old charge of “Socialism”, wanting to maximize profits. But other wiser (and perhaps more humane) Kings of Industry actually wanted to improve worker conditions.

In the coal mines the situation was brutal— check out the relatively modern, totally relevant, films “MATEWAN” (IMHO, John Sayles best film) and “THE MOLLY MAGUIRES”, (definitely Sean Connery’s best film, even better than his other great one, THE HILL). See those films if just for their greatness alone— if you aren’t devastated, fascinated, moved, you were born without a heart.)

So, in the early 20th century, finally, there was a public outcry, for a new type of job— occupational health and safety specialists, to guard against employee deaths and injuries.

Today these professionals are known as safety and health professionals, or occupational health and safety inspectors. They help prevent harm to workers, property, the environment, and the general public. (For example, they design safe work spaces, inspect machines, or test air quality.)

That’s how government employee health and safety agencies (like OHSA in the USA) were born, in the industrial nations, worldwide.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors enforce Labor regulations and impose fines.

For example, within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health hires occupational health and safety specialists to offer companies help in evaluating safety without the risk of fines.

Most large government agencies also employ occupational health and safety specialists who work to protect agency employees.

In addition to making workers safer, specialists aim to increase worker productivity by reducing absenteeism and equipment downtime—and to save money by lowering insurance premiums and workers’ compensation payments, and preventing government fines.

Specialists working for governments conduct safety inspections and impose fines. Specialists often work with occupational health and safety technicians to ensure work place safety.

Occupational health and safety specialists analyze work environments and design programs to control, eliminate, and prevent disease or injury. They look for chemical, physical, radiological, and biological hazards.

They also work to make more equipment ergonomic—designed to promote proper body positioning, increase worker comfort, and decrease fatigue.

Specialists may conduct inspections and inform an organization’s management of areas not in compliance with State and Federal laws or employer policies. They also advise management on the cost and effectiveness of safety and health programs. Some provide training on new regulations and policies or on how to recognize hazards.

Some specialists develop methods to predict hazards from historical data and other information sources. They use these methods and their own knowledge and experience to evaluate current equipment, products, facilities, or processes and those planned for future use.

For example, they might uncover patterns in injury data that show that many injuries are caused by a specific type of system failure, human error, or weakness in procedures. They evaluate the probability and severity of accidents and identify where controls need to be implemented to reduce or eliminate risk. If a new program or practice is required, they propose it to management and monitor results if it is implemented. Specialists may also conduct safety training.

Training sessions might show how to recognize hazards, for example, or explain new regulations, production processes, and safe work methods. If an injury or illness occurs, occupational health and safety specialists help investigate, studying its causes and recommending remedial action. Some occupational health and safety specialists help workers to return to work after accidents and injuries.

Some specialists, often called loss prevention specialists, work for insurance companies, inspecting the facilities that they insure and suggesting and helping to implement improvements.

Occupational health and safety specialists frequently communicate with management about the status of health and safety programs. They also might consult with engineers or physicians.

Specialists monitor safety measurements in order to advise management of safety performance to correct existing safety hazards and to avoid future hazards; they write reports, including accident reports, and enter information on Occupational Safety and Health Administration record-keeping forms.

They also may prepare documents used in legal proceedings and give testimony in court. Those who develop expertise in specific areas may develop occupational health and safety systems, including policies, procedures, and manuals. Some specialists plan budgets needed to implement programs that help achieve safe work practices.

The responsibilities of occupational health and safety specialists vary by industry, workplace, and types of hazards affecting employees.

Environmental protection officers evaluate and coordinate the storage and handling of hazardous waste, the cleanup of contaminated soil or water, or other activities that affect the environment.

Ergonomists consider the design of industrial, office, and other equipment to maximize worker comfort, safety, and productivity.

Health physicists work in places that use radiation and radioactive material, helping to protect people and the environment from hazardous radiation exposure.

Industrial hygienists examine the workplace for health hazards, such as exposure to lead, asbestos, noise, pesticides, or communicable diseases.

Most jobs require a bachelor’s degree in occupational health, safety, or a related field; some require advanced degrees. All specialists are trained in the applicable laws or inspection procedures through some combination of classroom and on-the-job training.

For some positions, a master’s degree in industrial hygiene, health physics, or a related subject is required. High school students interested in enrolling in a college program should complete courses in English, mathematics, chemistry, biology, and physics.

College courses may include radiation science, hazardous material management and control, risk communications, principles of ergonomics, and respiratory protection. Course work will vary depending on the degree pursued.

For example, course requirements for students seeking a degree in industrial hygiene will differ from course requirements for health physics degree seekers.

In order to become credentialed, most accrediting bodies require that specialists have attended either a regional or nationally accredited educational institution. Work experience is important in this occupation; it is typically beneficial for prospective students to select an education program that offers opportunities to complete internships.

All occupational health and safety specialists are trained in the applicable laws or inspection procedures through some combination of classroom and on-the-job training.

Typically an advanced degree and substantial work experience are needed to compete for leadership or senior roles.

In the US, occupational health and safety specialists held about 55,800 jobs in 2008. While the majority of jobs were spread throughout the private sector; about 41 percent of specialists worked for Federal, State, and local government agencies.

Most private companies either employ their own occupational health and safety workers or contract with them. Most contract work is done through consulting companies, but some specialists are self-employed.

In addition to working for governments, occupational health and safety specialists were employed in manufacturing firms; hospitals; educational services; scientific and technical consulting services; mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction, and construction.

According to BLS, the employment of US occupational health and safety specialists is expected to increase 11 percent during 2008-2018.

This increase is because more specialists will be needed to cope with technological advances in safety equipment and threats, changing regulations, and increasing public expectations. In private industry, employment growth will reflect continuing self-enforcement of government and company regulations and policies.

Insurance and worker’s compensation costs have become a financial concern for many employers and insurance companies— so, job growth should be very good for those specializing in loss prevention (especially in construction safety, also in ergonomics).

Does the idea of spending your work day prowling a factory floor (and searching for ways to help safeguard the lives of others) appeal to you?

Most employers require occupational health and safety specialists to have a bachelor’s degree— in occupational health, safety, or a related field, such as engineering, biology, or chemistry.

Does a career as a guardian of health, of safety, of standing up for workers with little power to defend themselves, appeal to you?

Then educate yourself— get a degree empowering you to become a health and safety inspector.

And isn’t it always true? To earn the role of empowering others, first you must empower yourself.

Whatever career or profession you do choose, your future and the futures of others in in YOUR hands.

Educate, educate, educate!

• Information about jobs in Federal, State, and local governments and in private industry is available from State employment service offices. For information on a career as an industrial hygienist, contact:
  American Industrial Hygiene Association, 2700 Prosperity Ave., Suite 250, Fairfax, VA 22031. http://www.aiha.org
• For information on credentialing in industrial hygiene, contact:
  American Board of Industrial Hygiene, 6015 West St. Joseph Hwy., Suite 102, Lansing, MI 48917. http://www.abih.org
• For more information on professions in safety, a list of safety and related academic programs, and credentialing, contact:
  Board of Certified Safety Professionals, 208 Burwash Ave., Savoy, IL 61874. http://www.bcsp.org
• For information on a career as a health physicist, contact:
  Health Physics Society, 1313 Dolley Madison Blvd., Suite 402, McLean, VA 22101. http://www.hps.org
• For additional career information, contact:
  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, 395 E Street SW., Suite 9200, Patriots Plaza Building, Washington, DC 20201. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh

U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Office of Communication, 200 Constitution Ave. NW., Washington, DC 20210. http://www.osha.gov

Poet? One who makes rhymes? Can this be a way of life? Can anyone make a living writing poetry? Or is it solely for pure personal satisfaction?

Are poems still relevant? Our childhood begins with rhymes, the ancient plays were extended poems, and all songs are poems. Poems are mind songs in word form, flowing and revealing as they go. (Soon we’ll look at some of her poems and you can judge for yourself.)

Think of poetry as a gateway to all other writing. In their simplicity, they are profound. In their complexity, they are subliminal.

Sam Thomas is this young poet. She thinks of herself as a writer and world traveler. When you read her poems, you see that assimilating many cultures has depended her lyrical sensitivity, that is certain. When I spoke with her she was traveling…

“Am on the road now, been skipping across Ha’penny bridge and across Dublin. Now in Waterford then Cork but will take a quick jaunt to Aran Islands from tomorrow til Monday. Never seen that part of Ireland.”

Acclaimed for several of her poems, Sam was invited to Oxford University in creative writing, and is now writing her second screenplay as well. (Her given name is Samantha, but she prefers just “Sam”. )

I asked, “How did you begin writing?”

“As far as my writing,” she said, “I’ve always done it and I guess knew I was good at it from about 10. Dad always encouraged me with it, even from that age.”

Her father Mark, a brilliant engineer who had served in the Peace Corps, took their family to live many countries, worldwide, while she grew up. Tragically, he died very prematurely, of pancreatic cancer when Sam was hardly more than a girl. Sam’s poetry has remembered him, as her writing evolved to embrace her ongoing life.

I asked her, “When did you know you would spend your adult life writing full-time?”

“I got serious about it about 4 years ago, and moved to Ireland to do the Poet’s House program, ended up teaching at Uni there too. Now am at University Oxford. They invited me to do my Masters in Creative Writing. ”

I knew this invitation was based on her poems. And we will see some of those poems soon, right after the interview.

“What besides poems, any other writing?”

“I’ve written a few scripts, a couple stories, mostly poems— all really in the last couple years.”

“Scripts, like screenplays for movies?”

“They’re filming one now, yes.”

“What do you really hope to achieve through your writing?” I asked.

“What do I want from it? Well all those things sound fine. I do it because it makes me feel good and creates a sense of belonging for me which, you can imagine, was a nebulous thing in my upbringing. Also, I’m pretty bloody inarticulate but when I write I can actually fricken communicate. I’d just like to marry ‘it’ and live happily ever after, if that makes sense.”

Inarticulate? “It sounds almost as if your writing is a very dear friend of yours.”

“I don’t know yet, but maybe your writing becomes your family… and some of it is for making money. and some of it is for love… and some of it takes care of the garbage or entertains you or stabs you in the back, then sings you to sleep.”

Always surprising, her answers. With the sharp intuits of a poet. And she has a hunger to educate herself, to learn, to devour knowledge.

Sam first earned a dual major in a BA English and BA Fine Arts, Sculpture, from the University of Florida, Gainesville. Next, she earned her MA— Research in Creative Writing at Waterford Institute of Technology in Ireland. (Her focus was on the history of sugar, and the cruel trade based upon slavery and colonial exploitation.)

She was then invited to read for a post-graduate degree at the University of Oxford, where she is currently writing both new poems and now screenplays.

I asked her the cliché question, the one at the heart of all good writing: “What is the source of your inspiration?”

She answered, “I write from my circumstance of never having a particular ethnic identity and the dualities that such an experience incurs… namely a continual process of recognition, rejection and forgiveness… that, on this shrinking planet, is becoming more and more relevant to everyone.”

“Do you continue to study, while writing?” I asked.

“Of course.” Apparently, she never stops learning. “I’ve started translation with Farsi as part of the work I want to do for my final portfolio in poetry with Jamie McKendricks. Before I left Ox I started working with Dr Homa Katouzian and Dr Firouza Abdullaeva of the Oriental Studies dept. I used to speak Persian fluently as a kid, all gone now but would love to still work with it. One of my mentor’s for ages now has been Colman Barks, so I’ve ben very fortunate.”

“How did you learn to write screenplays for movies?”

“Oh, I was asked to adapt a famous poem to film, a poem I happened to love, so I did. Got a hold of Syd Field’s screenplay book and Robert McKee’s ‘Story’ from a friend in Dublin. When I write a screenplay time just stops. I look up and the day is gone and there is all this writing done… there in front of me.”

As promised, here are some of Sam Thomas’ poems— can you guess what part of the world inspired each of them?

Pike

I wasn’t going to kill anything
while wading through that swamp trash forest
but then you found me
and I rescued you
from some stench of a stream
and as you lay swooning
from the heavy bank
my only blind thought
to save us
was do it
do it again
do it
until you were just
dirty tinsel
on my hook and I
was in love.

Alien Pastoral, Montauk N.Y.

Last night, Kristina, the most incandescent
of the Lithuanian food runners decided to
elope with the security guard Ken Bailey.
All along the beach fires blazed orange turning
the sand near cobalt the moon and air were
so clear. Five dollars to Stella’s party and the
Sangria and Rolling Rock flowed. Kelly locked
herself in the Corsica again with the all the cocaine
and you lied to Lena and stayed with me.
We all watched as Eamon turned a vat of
Grey Goose into a livid monster blue martini
over at the Shark Shack and were just
starting to groove when Sorana called Lukas
a stupid spic for saying the Romanians were
a bunch of gypsies. You could hear them brawling
in the dirt lot behind the motel till dawn.
By then Liam had grated a raw ‘V’
into his forehead body-surfing and everyone blacked-out
each unquestionably in love with the other.

Verlaine

Come on let’s play a game I lose. I’m left lying here alone
And beauty does not play. The version of this I’m thinking
Of: You delete the mending needle and booze it up over
My sensible shoes. You gave it all over to some benediction,
Some pope of the after hours and now I’m the foolish virgin
Bride who waits to see her midnight robber beau come home and
Defile her. When you finally stop for nothing I’ll make you eggs Cro-Magnon.

Your escape is starry-eyed but I’ll never let you get too far beyond the
Bastards at the gate. And you’d never even know you made it if
You did. How many times did we say this would never happen.

Oh, where I want to live! And how I want to envelope each sigh to you.
I fold them in my sheets. My sheets are full with them already.
If you knew the scent I could arouse in you, you may have come in like a lotus.

Instead I lie beside myself. Beside herself. I’ll write to you from now
On. Because it’s the wailing I’m trying to stop from happening. If I
Bestow it to the sea your ships will enter each gale in fours with their
Torn elder masts and planks of beseech. I couldn’t watch. I prefer to feel you,
I feel you like a hundred empty shells in me. My belly fills with your
Tide and each one chokes contentedly. You leave and they bake in the heat
Of madness. I’ll care for them and believe them. My beach is as
Wide as your storm.

Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag

The always shirtless, bibbed in nicotine
“old goat,” my mother snorted.
Exported from Anglia, repatriated
from India then mystifyingly locked like a tick
onto the volcanic haunch of Soufriere’s coast.

His small dry beach house was our home
once he was gone. He would tell the story.
My father’s still hairless face jealously
relishing each hyperbole suspecting maybe
he would never become so long in the tooth.

… It was the influenza gave Him a taste for it…
bodies in the ravines after the war
… even snuk in windows in the night.
Killed one hundred and twenty-six…

The lizards slid right down into
the house then and sat up on the chairs
so dad stacked the rocks in tiers half way
up the dry mountain behind us and the
lizards stayed in the lime trees.

Then with the rest he stacked a jetty
straight out into the black green bay that he
and Ashille could launch from with their tanks
and spears each day, floating lucidly over
the urchins sniggering between the rocks below.

Before Soufriere he couldn’t even swim.
But with the almost witchy Midwestern fear
of sea reformed he began to hunt alone
usually returning with whatever we wanted
from its blue brave wilderness.

Once even finding a small breathing
space in a cave twenty feet below
with glowing yellow patches on the
black walls. That’s too far, mom said
when she heard, that’s just too far.

Sick with flu for a fortnight, I had days to watch
him from my top bunk slip into the water
and scout out from the broken jaw of beach
before submerging. If I saw him bob up again
I’d call out to my mother bowed at the bright sink,

stars streaming from her head
a patience preparing, she never looked
and I could never catch a glimpse of him emerging,
only hearing the soft tink of gear against
the rocks and sandy padding of feet
once he was already in the house.

Morne Grande

Before long she was finding her own way easily
no one need walk with her. And the wrath came
more quickly and thoroughly as she was alone.
Now, she was not the thin lost child everyone
had fussed over and what she had become,
so doll-like and painted so flagrantly healthy,

was something the men would stop aiming
their blows to watch walking by. And that day
through the cane fields swinging hot with blades
it was what they said that sliced her as she made
her way and they taunted, “Not such a long way
now, eh dou-dou?” The women’s eyes flickering

in a different, sharper way from the men’s own.
Like her they’d be in douillete by that evening
for harvest mass. She was going for madras to finish
her jupe and get the red ribbons for threading
through lace in the sleeves and neck of her chemise.
It would be the first grande robe she had sewn

for her own. Watching herself in the mirror
at the shop she couldn’t help but superimpose
the graise d’or on her neck or in her thick hair
the zepingues temblants with her aunt’s tete-en-l’air
pinning it up. And to top (she paid her bill) the splendid clothes
a saffron tinted mouchoir and zanneau chenille (a matador’s
guile), swinging heavy and sweet as dove’s eggs
from her skillful ears.

Husbandman

The eclipse was widening
over the valley and Apollo
aimed the stolen telescope
at it and cooed huskily.

Angelique snatched it from him
handing it to Jupiter
without bothering to peer
up at the thickening silver.

“When we go den?” she asked,
“Is long enough we waitin’
for Jacko and dem.
Let’s go now while it dead dark.”

“Listen woman, Jacko and dem
have more dan half de guns, we
only have five between us now.”
“So? We still have dese.”

She lifted the curved machete
blade between them, “Is cane
only you can cut?” The shadow
iris sat stiffly over the glow.

They heard the jalousies below
clatter shut and saw him
himself staring up at the sky
from the glacee his pale bald head

tilted up at the darkened saucer.
“Let’s go,” Angelique said,
“Is him I want.” The others
fell in line behind her. Jupiter’s
band went around left while Apollo’s
came down along the tinkling river.

After reading her poems, I was moved, and amazed. Much depth from one so young.

I asked, “Why do you want to write screenplays, when you’re beginning to be recognized for your poetry?”

“Well, poetry is my writing love, a few good poems are what’s got me all the way over Europe and kicking around Oxford. Not too shabby. Novels will be the big test: how real
can you be, how much stamina do you have and can you still keep it all relevant.”

“What’s happening with the screenplays, anything getting made?’

“I have a script out right now that they will start filming in a couple weeks, short film, artsy. I will go over to Cork to check out how it’s going in a few days. That ones for love, no
money in it — just a sweet kiss. The director/producer well connected and will enter it in berlin zebra contest next year.”

“Writing movies presents no conflicts with your poetry?” I asked.

“I like film, I used to love it but once I realized I wouldn’t be making them myself, too much other stuff to do, I wasn’t all mad about it. I have no problem pimping out
screenplays, if I should be so lucky, to keep the poetry virgin, if I should be so lucky. But of course there must be standards, Faulkner’s right, you must always be getting better.”

As a poet, Sam Thomas has climbed the academic ladder, empowering herself with degrees in the visual arts as well as in writing programs. And she keeps learning.

Now she is a working poet and a screenwriter as well! Her talent— and her evolving education— have opened the whole world to her!

They needed therapy, professional help that might have saved them. But they didn’t find it. So they self-medicated, they used drugs to try to fill the holes in their beings, to fill the unfillable voids that ever-widened, and finally consumed them without mercy.

And so they went to their deaths, slaves to the addiction, loyal to their addiction to the very end, while we watched helplessly.

Oh, yes, we tried to help, but anything we tried only seemed to make it worse. They moved ever away from us. We failed, we didn’t know how.

Every one of us has seen a wonderful friend or family member, or other loved one, doomed by an addiction. Due to the tolerance that builds up, their drug of choice takes over every aspect of their life— demanding ever higher and more lethal doses to get the past high.

Could anyone have helped? Anyone at all?

The answer is YES. An addiction specialist— a Registered Nurse trained in addiction medicine.

Many addictions nurses, like Sally (not her real name), dedicate themselves to helping addicts salvage their lives.

Why did they choose this path of life? Some were driven by the loss of a loved one in their own lives— like Sally’s beloved brother, lost to addiction.

Addictions nurses care for patients seeking help with alcohol, drug, tobacco, and other addictions. These nurses like Sally earn their degrees in order to battle the major addictions.

And it is useful now, to take a look at the horribly familiar roll-call of addictions–

• Nicotine: the toxic effects of this addiction has been known to ruin many lives. Nicotine addicts, mostly smokers, will defend their addiction as a stress-reliever. Addiction specialists know that the nicotine (like other addictive drugs) creates its own anxiety, which drives the user to continually intake nicotine (in whatever form).
• Heroin is a very dangerous drug that even high school kids snort, inject or smoke. Often the result is convulsions and death.
• “Speed” (amphetamine family)… cocaine became a common, almost household drug before we even crossed into the 20th century and was spoken about in the days of Freud as well as during World War I.. Now we have cheaper more deadly-potent street synthetics, Ice, Crystal, Crank, Crack, etc etc. many addicts state that they were addicted “with the first hit.”
• Alcohol: The legal drug that destroys so many lives. We all know about this one. It kills in so many ways.
• Food: Gluttony has overtaken us. For the first time in human history, more people are obese than starving. And the diseases of obesity hit harder in many cases than the results of any other drug addiction. Diabetes, heart disease, crippling diseases, seen n ow even in young obese children. And in the tragic obese “sugar babies” born to obese mothers.

Addictions nurses are trained to help addicts. Sound simple? NOT!

Addictions nurses treat patients, educate patients and the public about various medical conditions— and provide advice and emotional support to patients’ family members.

They teach patients and their families how to manage their addictions, and they work to promote clean lives. These dedicated nurses fight addictions by educating the public on warning signs and symptoms of addictions.

RNs also might run public seminars on various conditions associated with all the tragedies of addiction, including family intervention and support.

Such RNs (with advanced educational preparation and training) may perform diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, and may even have prescriptive authority.

There are three typical educational paths to registered nursing—a bachelor’s of science degree in nursing (BSN), an associate degree in nursing (ADN), and a diploma.

BSN programs, offered by colleges and universities, take about 4 years to complete.

ADN programs, offered by community and junior colleges, take about 2 to 3 years to complete.

Diploma programs, administered in hospitals, last about 3 years. Generally, licensed graduates of any of the three types of educational programs qualify for entry-level positions as a staff nurse.

There are hundreds of registered nursing programs that result in an ADN or BSN; however, there are relatively few diploma programs.

There are education programs available for people interested in switching to a career in nursing as well. Individuals who already hold a bachelor’s degree in another field may enroll in an accelerated BSN program.

Accelerated BSN programs last 12 to 18 months and provide the fastest route to a BSN for individuals who already hold a degree. MSN programs also are available for individuals who hold a bachelor’s or higher degree in another field; master’s degree programs usually last 2 years.

All four types of advanced practice nurses require at least a master’s degree. In addition, all States specifically define requirements for registered nurses in advanced practice roles. Advanced practice nurses may prescribe medicine, but the authority to prescribe varies by State. Contact your State’s board of nursing for specific regulations regarding advanced practice nurses.

Overall employment of all registered nurses is expected to grow by 22 percent from 2008 to 2018, much faster than the average for all occupations. Growth will be driven by technological advances in patient care, which permit a greater number of health problems to be treated, and by an increasing emphasis on preventive care. In addition, the number of older people, who are much more likely than younger people to need nursing care, is projected to grow rapidly.

Employers in some parts of the country and in certain employment settings report difficulty in attracting and retaining an adequate number of RNs, primarily because of an aging RN workforce and a lack of younger workers to fill positions. Qualified applicants to nursing schools are being turned away because of a shortage of nursing faculty.

The need for nursing faculty will only increase as many instructors near retirement. Despite the slower employment growth in hospitals, job opportunities should still be excellent because of the relatively high turnover of hospital nurses.

To attract and retain qualified nurses, hospitals may offer signing bonuses, family-friendly work schedules, or subsidized training.

Median annual wages of registered nurses were $62,450 in May 2008. The middle 50 percent earned between $51,640 and $76,570. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $43,410, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $92,240.

Has addiction impacted you and your loved ones? Do you feel driven to dedicate your life to salvaging the good in the victims of addiction?

With our society fraying at all levels, with so many jobless and addicted and mentally ill, becoming addicts, self-medicating, self-destroying.

Addiction is a rapidly enlarging social dilemma. Addiction nurses will be needed in exponential demand.

Earn your R.N. Study addictive medicine, and join the fight!

For information on a career as a registered nurse and nursing education, contact:

• National League for Nursing, 61 Broadway, 33rd Floor, New York, NY 10006. http://www.nln.org

For information on baccalaureate and graduate nursing education, nursing career options, and financial aid, contact:

• American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 1 Dupont Circle NW., Suite 530, Washington, DC 20036. http://www.aacn.nche.edu

For additional information on registered nurses, including credentialing, contact:

• American Nurses Association, 8515 Georgia Ave., Suite 400, Silver Spring, MD 20910. http://nursingworld.org

For information on the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX-RN) and a list of individual State boards of nursing, contact:

• National Council of State Boards of Nursing, 111 E. Wacker Dr., Suite 2900, Chicago, IL 60601. http://www.ncsbn.org

For a list of accredited clinical nurse specialist programs, contact:

• National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists, 2090 Linglestown Rd., Suite 107, Harrisburg, PA 17110. http://www.nacns.org

For information on nurse anesthetists, including a list of accredited programs, contact:

• American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, 222 S. Prospect Ave., Park Ridge, IL 60068. http://www.aana.com/

For information on nurse-midwives, including a list of accredited programs, contact:

• American College of Nurse-Midwives, 8403 Colesville Rd., Suite 1550, Silver Spring, MD 20910. http://www.midwife.org

For information on nurse practitioners, including a list of accredited programs, contact:

• American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, P.O. Box 12846, Austin, TX 78711. http://www.aanp.org

For additional information on registered nurses in all fields and specialties, contact:

• American Society of Registered Nurses, 1001 Bridgeway, Suite 233, Sausalito, CA 94965. http://www.asrn.org

You run the money. You know the money. You buy the money and you sell the money. It’s not even money to you, it’s numbers, global numbers.

But you make a truckload of the stuff when you score, and you’ve scored big enough to be stared at when you walk into another office.

Each day, you handle so much money. You and other brokers move hundreds of billions of dollars that change hands on the major securities exchanges. This money is used to invest in securities, such as stocks, bonds, or mutual funds— bought and sold by large institutional investors, mutual funds, pension plans, and the general public.

You are one of a small but powerful group of brokers, working directly on the floor of a stock or commodities exchange. When a firm or investor buys or sells a security or commodity, your computer zaps the order straight to the floor of the exchange.

Power? You negotiate the price with other floor brokers, make the sale, and forward the purchase price to the sales agents.

And you’re totally making bank, doing this. It’s like printing money, when you make it work.

How did you get your career rolling to begin with? When you began, you relied on Cold Calling to start your day, rolling a list of leads. You called it Collie Cold Calling— even a dog can sell, if he rolls enough telephone numbers.

(A hundred calls a day and maybe one-tenth hooked up and maybe 2 or 3 were a sell. The more you called the more you sold. Brutal numbers. But now you’re past that. Now you have built up your own big client accounts.)

You are a securities sales agent— a broker, or stock broker.

You advise your clients to invest, or not invest. You know their tendencies and their financial clout.

You electronically sends the order to the floor of the securities exchange, to complete the transaction. After the transaction is finalized, you charge your commission. Sweet!

You’ve had offers and you’ve toyed with becoming an Investment bankers— a sales agents who connect businesses (that need money to finance their operations or expansion plans) with investors interested in providing that funding, in exchange for debt (in the form of bonds) or equity (in the form of stock).

This broker process is called underwriting, and it is the main function of the investment bank. Investment bankers have to sell twice: first, they sell their advisory services to help companies issue new stock or bonds, and second, they sell the securities issued to investors. You’re still thinking it over.

Then there are the big fat IPO’s. Initial Public Offerings. Maybe the most important advisory service, provided by investment bankers, is to help companies new to the public investment arena issue stock for the first time.

Then there’s mergers and acquisitions. Investment bankers advise companies, find buyers and sellers, and broker enormous deals.

What do you need to know to broker all these big money deals?

At minimum, most broker positions require at least a bachelor’s degree in business, finance, accounting, or economics.

Try to get your foot in the door ASAP. Brokerage firms hire summer interns before their last year of college. Many successful interns are offered full-time jobs after graduation.

Brokers often go ahead and earn their Master’s degree in business administration (MBA), which is often a requirement for high-level positions in the securities industry.

Because the MBA is a professional degree designed to expose students to real-world business practices, it is considered to be a major asset for jobseekers. Employers often reward MBA holders with higher-level positions, better compensation, and even large signing bonuses.

Brokers and investment advisors must register as representatives of their firm, with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

Before beginners can qualify as registered representatives, they must be an employee of a registered firm for at least 4 months and pass the General Securities Registered Representative Examination—known as the Series 7 Exam—administered by FINRA. (The exam takes 6 hours and contains 250 multiple-choice questions; a passing score is above 70 percent.)

Securities, commodities, and financial services sales agents held about 317,200 jobs in 2008. About 49 percent of jobs were in the securities, commodity contracts, and other financial investments and related activities industry. About 15 percent of all workers were self-employed.

Employment of securities, commodities, and financial services sales agents is expected to grow 9 percent during the 2008-18 decade, about as fast as the average for all occupations. Consolidation of the financial industry, mainly stemming from recent global financial problems, will be the largest inhibitor of employment growth. Increased levels of industry consolidation often result in duplicated tasks among workers, a scenario that is expected to result in layoffs of many broker, sales, and investment banking positions.

The median annual wage-and-salary wages of securities, commodities, and financial services sales agents were $68,680 in May 2008. The middle half earned between $40,480 and $122,270.

Benefits in the securities industry are excellent. Healthcare, retirement, and life insurance, paid lunches with clients, paid dinners, extensive travel opportunities.

You will live in a big city somewhere in the world. That’s where the money markets thrive.

London, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Zurich… exciting, huh?

In the USA, the stock exchanges and large banking operations— and most of the major investment banks, are based in the New York metropolitan area. (Smaller investment banks can be found in many major American cities and some major investment banks have operations in other cities, although most of their business remains in New York.)

If the big-city fast-track life appeals to you, go for it.

And job security? It depends on your competitiveness. The financial world isn’t going away. The world revolves on money.

And the adrenal rush for many brokers is highly addictive. Global securities trades are arranged through brokers of securities, commodities, and financial services— whether the trades are between individuals with a few hundred dollars, or huge institutions with hundreds of millions of dollars!)

So how do you get there? The broker lifestyle demands that you work hard, that you build toward an advanced degree. Remember, an MBA (or professional certification) accelerates advancement.

It’s THE BIGS, a total money game. And you need to educate yourself— to compete on the world stage.

(And as Shelley said, its much easier to be generous, when you have earned a ton of money to play with!)

For information on securities industry employment, contact:

• American Academy of Financial Management, 245 Glendale Dr., Suite 1, Metairie, LA 70001. http://www.financialanalyst.org
• Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, 120 Broadway, 35th Floor, New York, NY 10271. http://www.sifma.org

For information on licensing, contact:

• Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), 1735 K St. NW., Washington, DC 20006. http://www.finra.org

For information on CFA certification, contact:

• CFA Institute, P.O. Box 3668, 560 Ray C. Hunt Dr., Charlottesville, VA 22903. http://www.cfainstitute.org

Look ahead, look far ahead to starting your career. Then look around at where we are now.

Yes, times are tough. You know you want to have work that is in demand.

There is one job segment where new grad hiring is up a whopping 11%!

This kind of grad is in great demand because companies increasingly search for grads who are quantitatively literate.

What could it be? Read on.

In the USA, there were 40% less jobs offered for new college grads, according to Michigan State University’s new survey (on recruiting trends). MSU’s statisticians conduct an annual survey on employment trends for grads.

Now, here we are in 2010. Worldwide, the job picture is brightening slightly, but still rough. The trends for 2010, the stats, tell us that jobs requiring bachelor’s degrees are still falling, but less precipitously.

Your future job security really depends upon your qualifications. There are jobs in demand. But can you compete for them?

“Things fell apart really fast last year, but it looks like the job market for graduates has hit a bottom,” said Phil Gardner, director of MSU’s Collegiate Employment Research Institute.

In the USA now, the national unemployment rate is around 10.2%, way up from 6.8% a year ago.

Okay, we all know it’s bad. Big companies with thousands of employees are still cutting back.

But is anybody hiring? Definitely!

It’s the smaller companies (with 500 or less staff ), whose hiring is rising.

Stats predict a 15% rise in hiring in these smaller companies, many at the graduate level, will hire 11 new graduates on average in 2010, and 8 of them will be at the bachelor’s level.

The highest demand is for grads in Statistics.

Statisticians. That’s right— the number-crunchers— their demand is up 11%!

Okay, stats are all about numbers. But what do statisticians really DO?

Statisticians use computers extensively. Good speaking and writing skills are important (Statisticians often must explain their data to stats-impaired employers).

Statisticians compute. They compute many things for many purposes, wherever number dictate planning and forecasting and projections of any kind.

Statisticians help to design surveys and experiments. They also collect, analyze, and interpret numerical data. Some work for businesses and some work in government.

One group of statisticians may collect data to learn how safe new products are.

Another group may analyze marketing prospects.

Another group may project an analysis of environmental hazards.

Statisticians often use samples to collect information. A sample provides information about a small group within a much larger group. Statisticians can then take what they learned about the small group and apply it to the larger group.

Statisticians decide where and how to gather the data. They choose the sample size. They decide on the type of survey. They tell workers who gather the data how to do their job. They process the collected data and reach conclusions about the data. They do this with the help of computer software.

With the rising worldwide demand of 2010, some stats grads with only a bachelor’s in statistics can find entry-level jobs as statisticians.

However, a master’s degree is needed for the best jobs in this field.

Research and teaching jobs usually require at least a master’s degree in statistics, and generally a Ph.D. is needed (a master’s degree, plus experience, are usually needed to get a job in industrial research.)

In the US, the middle half of all statisticians earned between $48,480 and $87,850 in 2006. The lowest-paid 10 percent earned less than $37,010. The highest-paid 10 percent earned more than $108,630.

The average US starting salary offer for graduates with a bachelor’s degree in statistics was $46,547 (in 2007).

Outsourcing in the global economy will provide many job opportunities for grads everywhere— especially with the growing demand for stats grads.

Another huge plus-factor— grads in statistics will be hired in many other fields— analyzing data in so many wildly varied areas of business and life.

Just look at this list of high-paid professions involving grads in statistics—

• Actuaries
• Civil engineers
• Computer programmers
• Computer scientists
• Computer software engineers
• Database administrators
• Economists
• Financial analysts
• Market and survey researchers
• Mathematicians
• Operations research analysts
• Personal financial advisors
• Systems analysts

In changing times, what work can you depend on?

Sustainable earnings, and dependable employment— these are what you need, to build the life you dream of having.

Over 200 universities in the US, and many more globally, offer fine degree programs in statistics.

A number of the better online institutions have excellent statistics programs as well.

2010? Fear not, future job seeker!

Empower yourself— educate, educate, educate!

Now you are grown. You have your BSN. The other nurses and many doctors all say that you are excellent at what you do. You are an RN, you earned your childhood dream. You are a good nurse, a mind person, a mother to the sufferers in your care. Your BSN prepared you to provide general health care services.

But, more and more, you want to step up to a more technical nursing expertise— anesthesia, for instance. You want the hands-on experience of helping save lives in the operating room, in the crucible of daily drama where life and death battles take place daily, hourly. You crave another, higher level of care, beyond your R.N.

Perhaps you realize that you could make a difference if you were able to rise to a director’s position. You realize that could better support the other nurses, and help them support their patients. There are so many changes you would make, if you had the position, and the power that would go along with it.

For your BSN, you trained in technology, you developed communication skills with patients, and when you graduated, you found yourself—- even in a bad economy— to be in high demand. You studied pharmacology, anatomy, fluids and electrolytes, dosage calculations, psychology, child growth and development, and microbiology. You had on-site experience at the county hospital in your city. And now you are well-established in your nursing profession.

And yet… and yet, still you feel the need for more. Every day at the hospital, you see so many specialized areas of nursing that would take you to the next level of care, and usefulness.

Getting your MSN is your direct pathway to that higher level of your childhood dream. Your RN to MSN degree opens the door to anesthesia, health care education, administration and management, advance practice nursing, and many other specialized fields of Master’s level nursing.

Also, your Master’s Degree becomes the threshold requirement for a nursing doctoral program, should you want the credentials to join the faculty at many teaching institutions.
Three years study is typical to complete a RN to MSN program, in line with CCNE and NLNAC standards. Advanced nursing courses may include very specific areas of pathophysiology, pharmacology, health care management, and health care policy.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), www.bls.gov, studies show that R.N.’s with advanced degrees are in continued high demand. Advanced practice nurses— such as clinical nurse specialists, CRNA nurse anesthetists, nurse-midwives, and nurse practitioners— are some of the super-stars of this job market.

CRNA’s may average 150K. Take a look at these other MSN incomes (as reported by www.salary.com)—

Nursing Home Rehabilitation Director: $76,502 – $87,028 per year
Nursing Director: $91,074 – $119,872 per year
Nursing Education Director: $83,847 – $113,486 per year

And, I know, it isn’t only the high salary and job security, that drives you.

Building your knowledge to nurse, higher and deeper, is building your ability to relief suffering. That in itself, as Mother Teresa herself so eloquently said, is a labor of love.

And I say, “Because you have no other choice, if you want to keep moving up, and be secure.”

You say, “But, I know someone who got a degree, but their company closed, now they’re out of work.”

“Expect it,” I say, “and be ready for it.”

Right. This happens frequently in the tech world, and the rest of the world that follows tech, closely behind. Their skill set is no longer the hot button it was, say, ten years ago.

I say, “All the more reason to dedicate yourself to improvement, education, because like a computer, you need constantly updating, and you always will.”

Once a college degree is obtained in one field, it can be built upon, over and over again. Continuing education, both on site, and in distance learning, has evolved tremendously in recent years. So, college itself is also a beginning.

For the truly successful person— and that is what you want to be— education has become a life-long process. A means of personal control.

For those who are committed to as much control as possible, over their own lives, education never really ends.

Take a quick look at the nursing profession, always increasing in salary, always in heavy demand.

Even with the growing demand, nursing salaries vary wildly, depending upon the type of nursing license one possesses.

A pediatric clinical nurse might earn only 15K, a critical care nurse 60-70K, an emergency room nurse much more at 90K. But the salary zooms skyward to the CRNA Anesthetist— at 175K!

The CRNA level of knowledge and training brings relatively higher skill sets. Education makes all the difference. Not a surprise that salary climbs just as rapidly.

Here’s why— at the low end, 15K, a degree isn’t required, only certain specialized training. In the middle, 90K, the R.N. has a bachelor’s degree. At the high end, 175K, the CRNA requires a Master’s of Science degree.

The price of that CRNA’s Master’s degree, with all the hard time put on for study, and all the expense involved, is high. Two or three full years of study, on top of a Bachelor’s degree already attained. But the payoff is also high— a lifetime of vastly higher earnings. (Not to mention the main reason for the deepest satisfaction of all— the wonderful ability to give mercy to patients suffering in agony.)

And why is the pay so high?

Because so few people are willing to put in that effort, up front!

How far can you go? All the way home, to a better life, and an evolving knowledge base to carry you on and on into the future. No matter how radically our world keeps changing all around you, here is no reason for you to ever be left behind.

If you want a good life badly enough, you’ll find the career you want, and you’ll learn everything needed to achieve that career.

We’ll help you find the way. But it’s you who has to keep looking ahead, always preparing, always learning.