11 Flexible Jobs for Working Parents

11 Flexible Jobs for Working Parentsfinally ready to go back to work after your maternity or paternity leave? need a bit of extra income to make ends meet? or maybe you just need some time spent with actual grown-ups. googletag.cmd.push(function() googletag.display(div-gpt-ad-1467144145037-0) ) it can be really difficult to find work that matches your experience, pay needs, and schedule conflicts. here are 11 flexible jobs that shouldnt be too far away from ideal for the working parent.1. school bus driverthis job still requires you to spend the vast majority of your time with children, but youll get a break between the morning and the afternoon runs. all you need is a valid drivers license and your high school diploma. average annual pay about $31k.2. web writerthis job can be as flexible as you want it to be, and the field is very broad. find a kind of writing you like that youre good atmaybe an area whereyou have some experience. or start a blog you may need your bachelors degree , but you can easily use this job to channel your creative energy. average annual pay about $47k.3. marketing assistantyoull probably need a bachelors degree for this, as well as fantastic project and deadline management skills, but you can harness all that pta and volunteer experience youve built up helping your kids school and start getting paid for coordinating events average annual pay almost $38k.4. call center repits leid the most glamorous job in the world and some of your callers might be even needier than your kids, but you can sometimes work from home or platzdeckchen a flexible schedule that fits your familys needs. average annual pay over $28k.5. translator/interpreteryoull probably need a bachelors degree, plus superb communication skillsnot just in english, but in multiple languages. but if this is your skill set, you can make your own hours and konzeption a schedule that works best for you. average annual pay $43-44k.6. personal trainerif you havent taken a break from the gym the way you have from the workforce and you can pass the necessary licensing tests, then you can make a good amount of money helping other people to get fit. bonus youll get or stay fit yourself. average annual pay just under $53k.7. hairdresser/stylistyouve been cutting your kids hair, and you love chatting to people. add a high school diploma to this, and youve got yourself a pretty flexible gig. average annual pay $23.6k.8. teachers aideyou love education and teaching kids, and you feel youd work well in a classroom setting, but you dont want the full time responsibility of being a teacher. you can help out in the classroom, implementing curriculum, helping kids one-on-one, and still not be the one who bears the entire weight of the responsibility. and youll be working when your kids are already in school average annual pay $20k.9. web designerif you have a great eye for design, and lots of experience with computerspossibly also programming languages and a bachelors degr ee, then you can make great money, set your own hours and projects, and do web design as your career. average annual pay $62.8k.10. dietitianyou already put so much care into what your family eats (and youve done so much research), why not start making money spreading what youve learned? you might need a masters degree for this, but you can choose the setting (educational, clinical, private, etc.) that you prefer to work in and usually set your own schedule. average annual pay $53k.11. event plannerwith all the skills you have planning birthday parties and family cookouts, this is just the big league equivalent. youll probably need a bachelors degree, and good attention to both details and deadlines, but if that sort of high stakes (occasionally stressful) environment appeals to you, then you could work in event planning. average annual pay $55k.

Embracing the Exciting Unknown of Your First Post-Grad Year

Embracing the Exciting Unknown of Your First Post-Grad Year Embracing the Exciting Unknown of Your First Post-Grad YearThis is a guest post by Brittany Spearfor Student Stories.Ive been told time and time again that college is our greatest time for growth and change but I disagree. While college is a place with a wealth of opportunity for new experiences and ways to grow your character, it welches nothing in comparison to the experiences that awaited me in the post-graduation world of job searches, work, and discovery.A year ago, I welches sitting in my senior year college house, a month away from graduation and still jobless, having just been turned down from the two full-time jobs I had been applying to for the past two months. I had no plan, no direction, and no idea what I was doing. In a few words, I was half-paralyzed with fear over the undetermined future before me.A year later, Ive applied for hundreds of different jobs via internet searches, Craigslist, local listings, and list serves interviewed for approximately twenty of them accepted five of them worked four of them and moved from Ohio to Washington D.C. to Maine and then to Iowa, with the intention of moving to Virginia after a three-week stay in Costa Rica. And I wouldnt have had it any other way.My turn-filled journey placed me as an unpaid intern for an zugreifbar magazine as a mess mate aboard the Mary Day, a 90 foot schooner in the Penobscot Bay of Maine as a copy writer and quality assurance specialist for an advertising company in Iowa and as a server at a local brewery, with a job as a group leader at an alternative school in Virginia lined up. I have quit an internship, left a job due to the closing of the season, been laid off due to company restructuring, and have had to leave another job due to an impending move, all in less time than it takes to complete freshman year.Ive turned down an intriguing, well-paying, long-term office job in Washington D.C. in buchung to work for a month an d a half as an assistant cook on a boat, trading a cozy existence for the adventure of a lifetime because I was finally free to do so. Ive seen the beautiful expanse of the Milky Way while treading water in the Penobscot Bay at night as my steadily paddling hands trailed iridescent phosphorescent light. Ive experienced the rising of the sun along the bay as Ive woken up to start working at 600AM, not stopping until the dinner dishes were done at 845PM, learning how to push through long hours.Ive climbed to the top of the mast of a schooner and felt like I was on top of the world as I looked into the open horizon before me. Ive learned to cook while standing on a floor at a 40 degree angle while wind whips into the ships sails. Ive been seasick, dealt with long hours and tasking demands, been cut off from the Internet for days at a time, and been rewarded with amazing memories time and time again all because I decided to Google adventure jobs and see where one might take me.Ive moved halfway across the country just to see what it was like to live in Iowa, to work at an office job, and to live on my own, doing a complete 180 from the adventuring, service-oriented job I had grown to love. Ive put my creative writing degree to practice, writing copy for hundreds of websites and proofreading hundreds mora. Ive experienced the loneliness that comes with living on your own in a new city in a new state, with no one you know within a 150 mile radius, and learned how to cope with those feelings by finding new hobbies and activities. Ive learned how to make friends from random chances and in the most unlikely of places, learning that its not where you are living that makes the experience but who you meet and who you are with.Ive had doubts and worries about what Ive wanted to do with my life, comparing myself to the successes of my peers and feeling like I was falling short. Ive faced indecision time and time again over my choices like any other 20-something is bound to do. Ive learned that an office job just isnt for me. And Ive learned how to sit down, take a hard look in the mirror, and figure out what I really want.What I really want might change in a month or a year. Maybe itll take two years, or five. But the change Ive experienced in the past year has shown me that its okay to change your mind and to grow as a person, to crave new experiences and a new way of life, regardless of how long youve been inyour current place. So while Im extremely excited to be heading into a job as a group leader and along a path that I could viably see turning into a career, I feel safe in the notion that I can always change my mind down the road.A year ago, I was anxious and stressed out, confined to the belief that the best four years of my life, the four years that would be filled with the best experiences and the most tremendous growth, had just passed me by. But living in the world outside of the prescribed path for just a year has exposed me to more fantas tical things, more change, and more growth than I feel that some people experience in their entire lifetime. All it took was the courage to see past expectation and free fall into the exciting unknown.My year in flux allowed me to take a hard look at what I might want while exposing me to many different types of lifestyle, and I wouldnt trade that experience for anything. Sometimes wandering off of the beaten path is what helps you find where you are truly meant to wander.About the AuthorBrittany Spear is a recent college graduate on a continuous search for meaning, fun, and adventure in her jobs and her life. In her spare time, she enjoys writing fiction and planning her next travel adventure. You can follow Brittanys latest adventure on her blog.