Bookkeeping is a term that is thrown about carelessly in business circles, though the primary responsibility of a bookkeeper is balance the company ledger. In the modern business world, doing so can require a lot more than simply deciding between single entry and double entry accounting methods. For example, tax liabilities for even the smallest of retail and wholesale companies can be substantially reduced or offset to provide maximum cash flow depending on how inventory is recorded and managed.

Some educational institutions have, in recent years, recognized the need for more finite and niche oriented accounting programs at the bachelor level. Where once accounting majors had to enroll in a postgraduate degree program in order to specialize, many are now able to do so in the first for years of postsecondary education. The positives of this shift lie in the ability to prepare for industry specific accounting jobs, while the consequent negatives are in reduced employment opportunities across the broad spectrum of business. Still, it is the graduates from these types of degree programs that are highly sought by businesses in many different industries, and for good reason. (more…)

A lot of students considering a civil service career think that a criminal justice degree is only good for being a law enforcement officer or, in combination with a legal degree, a criminal lawyer. Here are a whole range of criminal justice career choices that many degree-holders overlook, but are well worth consideration:Social Work/ Personal Cases These may include child support and child protective services, missing persons, domestic violence and spousal or elderly abuse. Domestic legal social work is often identified as having extreme pros and cons to it. On the one hand, you’re working to make everyone’s home life better.

On the other, the work can be stressful when confronting a perpetrator or heart-wrenching when confronting a victim. Social workers will work with law enforcement officers to assess a domestic situation, monitor a case to ensure that the desires of the court are carried out, and make further recommendations to the court for the disposal of cases.

Criminal Investigators and Special Agents
Also known as “the Feds”. Working in federal investigations is a whole new ball game compared to municipal police work. As for special agents, these are not limited to the FBI; nearly every federal agency has some type of special agent. These include the Department of Homeland Security, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division, the United States Marshals Service, the U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the National Park Service. Special agent work is a way to combine a criminal justice career with many other fields of government work and specialty interests. (more…)

Part detective, scientist, engineer, and law enforcer, the fire investigator represents the collusion of multiple careers rolled into one. It is the fire investigator who must explore, determine, and document the origin and cause of the fire, establish what human actions were responsible for it, then bring authoritative testimony to the courtroom to win a conviction in cases of arson.

“This isn’t a job for a lazy man,” says Paul Horgan, accelerant detection canine handler and state trooper assigned to the Office of the Massachusetts State Fire Marshal. “You have to be conscientious and have a mind that likes to figure things out. You really can’t take shortcuts. You must take your own photographs, collect the evidence, do follow up investigations. In instances of incendiary fires, you must find the criminal.” (more…)

Getting a bachelor’s or master’s degree may seem an insurmountable obstacle when you’re working a 40-hour week. But many Americans who have work, family and financial obligations that keep them from quitting their jobs to attend a traditional college or university full time have succeeded in finding a new way to meet their education goals and advance their careers.

Called distance learning, it’s an approach that’s taking the country — and especially the Internet — by storm. Dozens of accredited colleges and universities now offer online bachelor degree programs that require students to spend little or no time on campus. In most cases, you can learn to earn from the comfort of your own home. (more…)