CNA: A Job Making the World a BETTER Place

Blake Ellis over at CNN Money published a somewhat sad article called, “Jobs That Make the World a Worse Place“.  You can read it here. In the piece, Ellis discusses a survey put out by Payscale.com wherein workers in all industries were surveyed about the way they felt about their jobs and whether what they did had a positive, negative or any effect on the world around them.  Not surprisingly, folks working in fast food service, telemarketing, bartending and casino gaming dealers were among those most likely to report that their jobs made the world a worse place.  Now, its not news to anyone that helping people indulge in vices like drinking and gambling has a downside to society at large.  Neither can anyone feel much positivity for the annoying telemarketer (who always seems to call just as I sit down to supper).  I find it somewhat endearing that the fast food worker worries about his/her role in propagating unhealthy lifestyles and and obesity epidemic.  The certified nursing assistant on the other hand, is someone who can be proud of the impact their labor has on the world.  CNAs help doctors and nurses to heal the sick and tend to the infirm.  Certified nursing assistants provide succor and comfort to people when they need it most.  There is something very altruistic and inherently good about the work.  And the CNA can even offer some comfort to those in fast food service and bartenders.  After all, the work these people do often results in increased business for the medical industry and thus, greater job security for the certified nursing assistant.  So next time you’re at McDonald’s or your local pub, don’t forget to thank your server!

Whether its medical billing and coding, certified nursing assistant training, medical assistant studies or any of the career fields available for study at the Allen School, its never too late to begin.  Even if you’re decades past college age and have already worked for years in a completely unrelated field, if you’re ready for a new career in a burgeoning field, you’ll be right at home at the Allen School.  Medical billing and coding students come to us from all walks of life and at all ages to take positive steps in a new career direction.  If you’re someone who may be ashamed to have to be trying something entirely new in mid-life, you should be energized not ostracized.  Even folks that have achieved greatness in other career areas take time to go back to complete schooling for the sake of personal enrichment.  Consider rap superstar Drake, who dropped out of high school at age 15.  Even after making a name for himself as a performer, he decided to go back to school and complete his GED.  If you’ve been a realtor, a home construction contractor, an assembly line worker or worked in any industry that has been hit hard by the economic downturn, you could begin working today towards a new, secure career in the medical field by studying medical billing and coding, certified nursing assistant training or medical assistant studies at the Allen School.

Over at Lifehacker, they have a post up that provides some terrific words to live by.  Rather than seeking a career that lets you “do what you love” as the old axiom goes, Penelope Trunk from Brazen Careerist urges that we “do what we are” instead.  What does this mean for you?  While there are certainly those of you for whom being a certified nursing assistant or medical office assistant represents your true passion, there are surely many more for whom these fields simply represent a solid employment opportunity.  But, according to the Lifehacker’s Melanie Pinola , you needn’t seek a career in an area that drives your creative passion.  Instead, she recommends looking for gainful employment in areas that match your strengths and natural tendencies.  If you’re someone who is detail oriented, possessed of a nurturing demeanor, someone good with people, someone who wants their work to make a difference, then you’re probably a great candidate for medical office training, CNA training program or medical billing and coding training through the Allen School.  Click here to read the brilliant article in its entirety. 

Well, OK, these tips are definitely useful to those of you graduating from Allen School’s certified nursing assistant programs, medical billing and coding online programs and all other people poised to enter the job market shortly.  Getting a job today is a competitive process.  But once you’ve developed an effective resume, and once you’ve mastered the preliminary phone interview, you’ll be sitting across from the hiring manager for an in-person interview.  There are many ways to blow it at this critical stage of the process, and unfortunately, many do.  So here is a list of useful tips for the job interviewer, based on some of the most frequently asked questions that hiring managers hear from candidates (and that ruin their chances in the interview). The worrisome thing is, these questions may seem perfectly reasonable, which is why perhaps so many applicants ask them and hurt their chances at getting hired.  Here is a brief list of the questions you should avoid: 1) What does this company do? 2) What happened to the last person in this position? 3) How much will I be paid? 4) Did I get the job? Click here to read the full article from Investopedia.com which has explanations on why each of these questions is a deal breaker for your interviewer.

Studying by remote, much like working by remote, can be challenging from a productivity standpoint.  Of course, it is easier to get away with procrastinating, goofing off and being distracted when there isn’t a professor or boss there keeping you focused on the tasks at hand.  Like many fields of study, medical billing and coding can get rather in depth and as far as subject matter goes, it can be pretty dense at times.  So you’re not outside the norm if your thoughts start to wander from time to time.  Staying productive however, is key to success not only in studies, but in the work world as well.  “Well then” you’re probably asking, “how to maintain focus and keep productivity high during online studies?”  I am glad you asked!  Justin Jackson over at Lifehacker.com wrote a piece called, “Things I’ve Quit Doing at my Desk” in which he shares the behaviors that he recognizes as productivity drains.  His piece starts out with this, “We do all sorts of things at our desks that aren’t real work, or affect our ability to produce our best work. We need to start thinking of our desks as workstations.”  I recommend reading the rest of the insightful piece here and then think about some of the behaviors you partake of that may be cutting into your productivity as an online student of medical billing and coding.  How could you improve your output through a few small behavioral tweaks?