Applying for Jobs in Criminal Justice and Criminology

Applying for Jobs in Criminal Justice and CriminologyApplying for Jobs in Criminal Justice and CriminologySometimes, taking the first step can be the hardest part of any journey, if only because you dont know where or how to start. This is especially true if youre looking for jobs.If criminology is where you want to work, you need to know where to go and how to apply for jobs in criminology and criminal justice. Where to Look For Criminal Justice and Criminology Jobs Before you can worry about who to send an application or resume to, you need to know what agencies, departments, and organizations have job openings in the jobs youre looking for. In the case of criminal justice and criminology careers, the majority of your employers are going to be local, state or federal governments. The quickest and easiest way to learn about government vacancies is to visit their websites. More and more public employers are advertising their vacancies - and accepting applications - directly onli ne. Across the country, states, counties, and municipalities are hiring all sorts of public service workers. All you need to do is visit the websites of governments youd like to work for and start searching. FindingPrivate Sector Criminology Careers In the private sector, things arent always so clear-cut. Heres where applying the keys to job search success - networking, informational interviews, cold calling and a lot ofperseverance -will really be important. Rememberthough, difficult does not meanimpossible. All it takes is a little research and effort. First off, know whichprivate sector employers hire criminal justice and criminology professionals. Look forretailers, financial institutions, and even hotel chains. These organizations will likely have some form of loss prevention divisions, which may include investigations into financial and other so-called white collar crime. When to Submit Your Resume or Job Application and Who to Send It To Once youve got your potential employers narrowed down, you need to find out whether to send a resume or complete a job application. For most public sector jobs, your first step will probably be a voreingestellt job application. In some cases, you maybe required to submit a resume along with the application. For private sector jobs, chances are youll need to start with a well-written resume and cover letter. If youre going after a specific job opening, read the instructions in the job advertisement carefully. There will very probably be instructions on how to apply, what information to include in your resume and who to send it to. If youre cold calling, make sure your cover letter clearly paints a picture of who you are and what you want to do, and that your resume demonstrates what makesyouqualified to do it. Research your potential employers and find out who handles hiring in those organizations. Look for key terms like the hiring manager, recruiter, human resources, employee relations or similar titles. Thes e aregoingto be the people in charge of the hiring process and who will have a strong influence on who ultimatelygets hired. Applying for Jobs in Criminal Justice and Criminology To apply for jobs, youll need to look for specific job openings. The advertisements will have specific instructions on how to apply and where to submit the application. Its extremely important that you follow these instructions. When applying for the job, make sure you complete the job application, and any supplemental application, in its entirety. Make sure you dont skip sections. Answer all of the questions honestly, and do not leave out past employers if asked about them. Get Prepared in Advance to Have the Best Chances of Success Criminology and criminal justice careers are more than worth considering, but the job hunt can easily get frustrating if youre not well prepared. You can help your chances by taking steps to make yourself the candidate employers are looking to hire. To do this, researc h the careers you may be interested in and find out exactly what kind of experience and education youll need. This will help you tomake good decisions on whatyou can do to get ready. By doing this, you can go a long way toward landing a rewarding career when you finally take the leap to apply for the job.

Five principles from a golf coach to help you be the best leader you can be

Five principles from a golf coach to help you be the best leader you can beFive principles from a golf coach to help you be the best leader you can beAs an entrepreneur with a growing business, youre probably clamoring to maintain control as things change - I know I welches with my own young company. Unfortunately, in my quest for control, I wasactually doing my business and gruppe a distafelgeschirr. One of our core values at my company is to elevate everyone around you. Yet even as a co-founder I was stuck in the weeds and getting in the way of the talented people we hired to get the job done.As I struggled with this problem, I was given a few pointers from a golf coach on my backswing (I used to tense up, grip the club too tightly, andslice the ball off course). He instructed me to loosen my grip and not tense up in that critical moment - leading to a better and more consistent shot. Its counterintuitive, but this advice has given me both a better golf swing and a more effective way of working with my team.So here are the five rules Ive platzdeckchen for myself as I set out to really put this into practice in my business.Dont try to fix everything at onceAs a founder or executive of a growing company, youre likely overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of problems you see - I certainly was. Personally, I pointed out problems left and right, distracting my team from focusing on what really mattered. I was trying to fix everything at once, instead of fixing one issue at a time.Focus on the urgent and importantWhen I get overwhelmed, I use theEisenhower Boxto ask myself What is both urgent and important? I focus on that one thing and rally the team around it. This provides clarity and eliminates the cost of confusing priorities and context switching.Eisenhower categorized his work in degrees ofurgencyandimportance. As an entrepreneur, its easy to focus on whats directly in front of you. Theurgentdemands your attention right then. For me, completing the urgent tas k gives me a mental high and feeling of accomplishment. In contrast, theimportantitems might not always be in front of you, but those tasks contribute to longer-term goals and aspirations. If you always focus on the urgent, you wont have time to address theimportant. Eisenhower proposes that you first work on tasks that are both urgent and important, delegate the urgent but unimportant ones, and schedule time to work on the important but not urgent tasks.For example, we were working on student engagement challengesin the design of our online program. We wanted students to have the same sense of connectedness that benefits our on-campus students. This problem was challenging and requires concentration. Working on this isimportant because a successful online product drives our mission to teach as many people as possible how to code. However, was easy for me to get distracted by more urgent tasks like prospective student inquiries and customer service issues. I could easily fix the lat ter, so it made me feel confident to knock out what feels urgent even though it could easily be delegated to a team member. I had to consciously choose to categorize and work accordingly.Dont fix everything yourselfThis is the hardest rule for me. Take the time to explain why something must be fixed and empower someone else to fix it. You shouldnt do it yourself because youve hired talented people to solve these challenges specifically so you can focus on other things. Additionally, the team becomes better and more capable when youre not the only one solving problems. Most importantly, you can damage relationships with your team when you solve problems for them. It sends a message that you dont trust them to get the job done.Focus on results, not methodologyNow that youve empowered someone to get it done, dont micromanage how they do it. Focus on the results, not the methodology. People with different backgrounds and perspectives approach problems differently, and thats what makes w orking with others great. Clearly communicate what you want and get out of the way. Ateam member may solve the problem in a new way and you could learn something - their approach may even be more effective.For example, early on, my team learned that holding events helped us buildrelationships with prospective students. I personally felt obligated to coordinate these. But after staff planning with our marketing director, it became clear that having a dedicated events coordinator would free up people on the team to focus on what they do well. Focusing on the outcome of more events instead of how we were going to achieve them cleared the logjam, and it helped our makerting director feel more empowered around his own responsibilities within the organization.Now theres less on my own plate and I can focus on what I do best - I just have to show up to the events and share my enthusiasm.Be compassionate to yourself and your teamIm a software engineer by trade, and the mechanics and immed iate gratification of writing code issatisfying. You give the computer an instruction and it does what you want or throws an error. The immediate feedback allows you to change your approach. So it was an adjustment when I started to lead people. Feedback will not be immediate, and screwing up is a certainty.Be patient with yourself. Its a slow process, and things wont always be clear. As well, be compassionate with your team. I always try to share that Im learning and that Im also making mistakes. This helps open up adialog on how we can communicate better in the future and do better moving forward.Dan Pickett, co-founder ofLaunch Academy, has been building web applications and technology teams since 2004. He has a passion for mentoring and educating aspiring developers.This column first appeared at BusinessCollective.

CancerFighting Nanoparticles

CancerFighting Nanoparticles CancerFighting Nanoparticles More than 10 years since two Rice University professors developed a potential treatment for cancer using gold nanoshells that circumvents invasive surgery and toxic drugs, the therapy appears to be on track for Food Drug Administration approval as a medical device next year.Its been a long process, says John Stroh, CEO of Houston-based Nanospectra Biosciences, a company founded by professors Dr. Naomi Halas and Dr. Jennifer West to commercialize the therapy. Stroh says he expects Nanospectra to be the second company to get approval for tumor ablation using nanoparticles. In 2010, Berlin, Germany-based MagForce Nanotechnologies welches the first company worldwide to receive European regulatory approval for its procedure using nanoparticles, small bits of iron oxide suspended in a liquid. European approval for the Nanospectra therapy is expected later this year, he says.Progress of NanoshellsGold nanoshells were invented in the 1990s by Halas, head of Rices Laboratory for Nanophotonics and professor of biomedical engineering as well as other areas. The nanoshells are tiny layers of glass formed into a sphere encased in a thin layer of gold. Each is about 20 times smaller than a red blood cell.Professor Naomi Halas created the tiny gold-covered glass globes called nanoshells. leumund Rice UniversityCollaborating with West, the Isabel C. Cameron Professor of Bioengineering at Rice, Halas worked with the nanoshells so that they would absorb light. Then they injected nanoshells into mice with cancer and found that the nanoparticles accumulated around the tumor. When they next pointed a laser at the particles, and the light welches converted into energy and heated the cancer cells. Those cells died, eliminating the tumor and leaving no damage to surrounding cells.The technology was licensed to Nanospectra Biosciences, Inc., Houston, TX, in 2002, which has conducted animal and human testing required for regulat ory approval. The particle used by Nanospectra, which it has named Auroshell, is the silica core surrounded by a thin layer of gold. Since the Aurolase therapy is a physical process, it is classified by the FDA as a medical device (in contrast to a drug), which typically takes less approval time.A depiction of an indivdual Auroshell particle. Image Nanospectra BiosciencesThe nanoshells are placed in the bloodstream of a patient with a cancerous tumor, and because of the leaky characteristics of a tumors blood vessels, the nanoparticles accumulate in the tumor and frame it. Subsequent exposure to a near-infrared laser generates heat and bursts the cancer cells walls. The light is harmless, and because the heating is localized, it affects only cells immediately adjacent to the nanoshells, and destroys cancerous cells without harming healthy surrounding tissue. The nanoshells eventually are eliminated safely from the body.Clinical TrialsStroh says Nanospectra has completed or is in the process of doing clinical trials for head and neck cancer, lung cancer, and prostate cancer. Human testing began in 2008 and has been conducted in a number of hospitals including The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and Baylor College of Medicine, and collaborative research has been done with MD Anderson.Image of nanoshells magnified 15,000 times. Image Naomi HalasThe therapy is so much less traumatic than surgery there is less recovery time, less hospital time, and there are no drugs, explains Stroh. You are getting the entire tumor because the gold frames the margins.The medical community is optimistic about the prospect for other medical applications of nanoparticles as well. For instance, they could be used as a diagnostic tool for cancer. A patient would be injected with nanoshells and a near-infrared light passed over the body, which would indicate the location, size, and shape of early canc ers. They can also be viewed with various conventional body scans.Nanoshells could also be the delivery system for various drugs that would be targeted to a specific area, eliminating side effects that often result from systemic use. If chemotherapy is recommended for treating tumors, the drugs could be delivered directly to the tumors by the nanoshells and when activated either by a laser or some other means would release the drugs.There is a lot of promise, Stroh says. Im not going to say the procedure is going to cure all cancers, but certainly its expected to offer a lot of benefits of being non-toxic and less invasive than surgery. It has the potential of reducing lots of surgeries.Nancy S. Giges is an independent writer.The therapy is so much less traumatic than surgery there is less recovery time, less hospital time, and there are no drugs.John Stroh, CEO, Nanospectra Biosciences