The Best Online Careers For Graduates with Communication Degrees

Communications is an extremely popular choice for undergraduate major as well as choice for traditional masters programs and other grad classes through distance learning, should students be looking for an advanced degree. However, many graduates are wondering if the future filled with big dreams for your communication specialties, as well as anxiety over the marketability of their skills.

The worries may be misplaced as a Communications degree is often suitable for a wide variety of industries, which means you need to do some narrowing down yourself. One of the best career fields for communication graduates is online business development. If you like the idea of working over the Internet, consider these potential (and potentially lucrative) digital jobs.

Social Media Management: Social media management positions take all the social network tasks people do normally - Facebook updates, Tweets, LinkedIn profiles, Pinterest boards - and use them for business purposes. The key is successfully maintaining real conversations with customers and answers all their questions. Businesses do not always have people skilled in this type of communication, so they need to hire outsiders with the appropriate talent. If you have the ability to create short, compelling answers and treat responses as though they come from real people, this career may be ideal.

Brand Management: Brand management is very similar to social media management, with a couple of key differences. While social media positions focus primarily on social networks, brand management includes a wider degree of marketing techniques. Graphic design and website development may be prominent features. Other aspects of brand management are setting long-term strategies, understanding demographic trends, marketing and psychology. You may be hired in a specialized field, such as blog writing or forum monitoring, or launch the next Nike.

Web Design: Web design covers building advanced and interactive websites, from creating the look and feel of them, to selecting the required features. Fortunately, many communication degrees teach the basics of web design. If your degree included web-based courses, web design is a very strong field among firms looking to create an Internet presence. In web design you can work with programmers and graphic designers to create ideal web pages which communicate key messages to customers, answer their questions with minimal effort, and making the transaction process as painless as possible.

Web Production: Web production tends to be a broader field than web design, incorporating the creation of online objects for many marketing purposes. Online videos can be posted and embedded in many sites. Images announcing special offers, new information or discounts can be created and then moved into the appropriate online channels for maximum exposure. Multimedia tutorials and introductions can be programmed and made available at the correct times. All these tasks have room for a talented communications specialist with a knowledge of the Internet.

Internet Marketing: Internet marketing links traditional marketing strategies with the new world of online communication. This field is more suitable if you prefer working in strategy, transitioning a company’s old marketing format into an Internet-applicable model. Small businesses may be interested in communication specialists who can head their entire marketing processes and find ways to communicate effectively with only consumers. If you like building projects from the ground up, internet marketing is a booming industry.

Even if none of these hot jobs tickles your fancy, don’t give up on your online-communication dreams. New fields are being created all the time, and the list goes far beyond these few popular fields. As time passes, more and more fields incorporate online elements in their production cycles, so find an industry you enjoy and start pursuing it!

Best Online Graduate Programs For Aspiring Accountants

Individuals aspiring to become Certified Public Accountants, or CPAs seeking further career advancement, could greatly benefit from attending a school offering online graduate programs. These programs provide students with the knowledge they need to pass the CPA exam and earn recognition within their field. Good online graduate courses either deepen the accounting student's understanding of foundational principles or provide specialized knowledge of a specific sub-field. Many online graduate programs include a mix of both course types.

Kaplan University's Master's in Accounting program, listed among the U.S. News Directory's top online accounting programs, includes core classes like Ethical Issues in Business and Accounting, Business Communications, and Economics for Global Decision Makers. These courses provide information that can be applied to a broad spectrum of accounting topics. For instance, Ethical Issues in Business and Accounting "examines moral development and ethical choices within the framework of business and accounting," paying special attention to psychological and social theories about the way people make economic decisions.

Students of Kaplan's Master of Science in Accounting program can also choose between four specializations: auditing, finance, government, and tax. Auditing courses include Fraud Examination. Specialized finance courses cover topics like Enterprise Risk Analysis and Planning. The government specialization includes a course on Government and Not-For-Profit Accounting. Lastly, the tax specialization covers topics like Tax Research and the IRS, as well as Taxation of Estates and Trusts.

Southern New Hampshire University, also found on the U.S. News Directory's list, offers similar courses and specializations. One core course, Business Law, instructs students on the "theory and application of business regulations and the laws of contracts, agency, property and business organizations." Within the program's taxation concentration, the university offers specialized, in-depth information about various topics related to the more complicated side of U.S. tax code. Its Special Topics in Taxation course specifically looks at "Major, contemporary problem areas of taxation."

Students of SNHU's online accounting program can also choose courses from the graduate program's auditing or forensic accounting concentrations. Each course within these concentrations covers important issues that affect those sub-fields of accounting. The Advanced Auditing course, for example, relies on case studies, student presentations, and reviews of professional research to teach students about the ethics of auditing as well as how to handle audits that go poorly. On the other hand, many of the university's forensic courses cover topics related to fraud. Principles of Forensic Accounting and Fraud Examination, for instance, introduces students to the basics of fraud identification, investigation, prevention, and recovery.

Accountants and aspiring accountants looking for a convenient, affordable way to advance their careers would be wise to look into taking a few online graduate courses. Accredited online programs offering a Master's in Accounting cover a range of generalized and specialized content. Moreover, students can choose the online program and courses most suitable to their career needs and time constraints.