Jul 31 2008
Great Careers with Long Vacations
Teachers and School Administrators
The notion that teachers have the entire summer off is a myth. They work after the students leave to complete grading, additional training, and class preparation. However, many American teachers have ten paid holidays, spring and winter breaks, and at least a month off in the summer.
Career training begins by earning your bachelor’s degree, then completing either a teaching credential or master’s degree program. You can do it all through online colleges, too. Secondary school teachers earn on average $52,450 a year, but time off is invaluable.
Holistic Health Professional
Alternative medicine is rapidly becoming part of mainstream health care. Holistic health care professionals typically join an existing practice or manage their own business, which means that you may work hard, but you also work smart, setting your own hours. Prepare for a rewarding career by taking online courses in natural health, nutrition, or massage therapy. There are associate, bachelor’s, and graduate degrees available.
Love the tropics? Holistic health pros often organize retreats or workshops at spas, resorts, and on cruises. Team up with other body workers, nutritionists, or natural healers to cover your client appointments while you enjoy extended leave. The national average wage for health care practitioners in 2007 was $65,020.
Freelance Game Designer
As many a game designer will tell you, game development companies only produce a few titles a year. A production may take four months to complete, with work piling up at burn-out levels as the game advances deep into the production schedule. That’s why companies find it advantageous to hire designers on a freelance basis. Do the job and you’ll be asked back again when another idea hits the table.
That means plenty of time between gigs to relax at the beach. Train for this career through a computer science or graphic design program, earning an associate or bachelor’s degree. Multimedia artists earned on average $61,010 last year.
Business Consultant
Business management consultants belong to one of the fastest-growing, highest-paying career groups. It’s a great profession for entrepreneurs who want to work on a freelance basis, taking on strategic clients, conducting corporate research, or delivering workshops on topics such as process flow or change management.
Consider adding an MBA to your existing business or computer science credentials. Focus on human resource, financial, technical, and administrative management. Business management professionals averaged $96,150 a year in 2007. Combine business and pleasure by conducting training workshops at hotels and resorts. Play golf. It may be tax deductible.
Convention and Tourism Planner
If you can’t take time for a vacation, why not pursue a career where your job is actually an extended tour in paradise? Hotel managers and convention planners help corporate clients book long business meetings at luxurious accommodations in resorts and spas. Your work will seem like a juggling act, but you’ll be ideally situated to get the most of your off hours and long weekends. When the dust settles from a major booking, you can use compensation time for swimming and tanning.
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Huh?
I’ll let you in on a two dirty little secrets about school teachers and that luxurious “time off” people envy so much.
1. That “month off”. You’ll be spending it in a college classroom. In the State of Washington, to renew your teaching certificate - you have to accrue a minimum of 150 clock hours of continuing ed to renew your certificate. Pay is also tied to how many hours you’ve done too. So its in your best interest to accrue as many hours as possible.
2. That “month off” again. You are not paid for it along with the rest of the summer. So unless you’ve setup your pay to be pro-rated through the summer - you’ll be doing a second job during that time (along collecting your clock hours mentioned above).
Thank you, Amanda! Most of us work summer jobs anyway, even with the pro-rated pay. It’s amazing to me that this “long vacation” myth persists. We also go back to work long before the students arrive in the fall to be ready for them.