Valentine's Day is almost here and we are inundated with images of love and romance. You can hardly go anywhere without seeing glittering hearts and red roses. One might even say, "love is in the air" but that would be too much of a cliche. The one place love should not be, perhaps, is the office. When romance finds its way to work it can cause a host of problems, none of which will be beneficial to your career. While falling in love can be distracting all by itself, having the object of your affection nearby all day can make you forget all about your job. There are more reasons to avoid office romances. Read Why to Avoid an Office Romance to learn what they are.

In an ideal world you wouldn't choose to start an office romance, but this isn't an ideal world, is it? Sometimes your emotions get the better of you and you fall for someone at work. You may feel that this is meant to be and choose to ignore my advice to avoid getting into such a situation to begin with. Clearly, that's not up to me. If you do fall in love with a co-worker or your boss, there are some rules you can follow to help you and your career survive. Read Five Rules for Office Romance.

I always advise people who are negotiating their salaries to first find out how much others in their field are earning. One way to do this is to ask people you know ... if you can find someone willing to share that information. Many are not according to the results of a survey Harris Interactive® recently conducted on behalf of Glassdoor.com.

The survey asked 1,356 employed adults whom they are comfortable discussing their current compensation with. According to a press release from Glassdoor.com, younger workers (ages 18 to 34) are more comfortable sharing salary information than workers who are age 55 and over. Those who earn less money ($35,000 to $49,900) are not as willing to discuss their salary as respondents who have higher salaries ($50,000 to $75,000). You are twice as likely to get salary information out of your best friend if he or she is single. So, if you need to get salary information, ask someone who is under 34, single and well-paid. Or, avoid getting personal altogether and consult a salary survey. Read more about the survey: Employees Reveal Increasing Taboos Around Sharing Salary And Compensation Details.

Travel agents help make arrangements for people who are traveling for either business or pleasure. In order to assure the arrangements they make are the best ones possible, travel agents first assess their clients' needs. There aren't any particular educational requirements, other than a high diploma, needed to work in this field, but employers prefer to hire agents who have completed vocational training. Travel agents face a lot of competition from online travel services (Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition).

If you are thinking about becoming a travel agent, you should learn more about it. Read Travel Agent: Career Information to get some basic details about this occupation, including earnings, job outlook and advancement opportunities. Then find out what working travel agents think about their job by reading our Real Life of a Travel Agent submissions. Finally, if you are considering pursuing this career further, take the Should You Become a Travel Agent? quiz. It can help you determine if this career choice is for you.

"A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline." Wise words ... and to think they came out of a fortune cookie! It's nice to have dreams, but it's much more practical to have goals. We can, and probably should, have goals for most areas of our lives, but it is most important for career planning. This is an area that affects all others. Just think about it. Your choice of career, and your success in it, affects your emotional well being. If you aren't happy with your job, your days will be pretty bleak. After all, look at the number of hours you work everyday. Your career choice also affects how you live your life, from the type of home you live in to the kinds of vacations you can take. So, it's clearly worth spending time setting some goals.

A goal begins life as a dream. For example, you may dream of being a doctor, owning your own business or winning a Grammy. Unless these dreams meet certain criteria, they will remain dreams and you may achieve them, but your chances aren't good. However, if you convert your dreams into goals, you will increase the probability of them becoming a reality. How do you turn your dreams into goals? Is it as simple as the fortune suggested — just give them a plan and a deadline? That's just part of how to make sure you are able to meet your goals. Want to know more? Read Goal Setting and the Career Planning Process.

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