Chill out man!

Men with stressful jobs may already be at risk of early artery disease by their early 30s, a new study suggests.

Researchers in Finland found that among the more than 1,000 young adults they studied, men who reported high levels of job strain were more likely than their peers to show signs of early artery narrowing. The same was not true of young women, however.

A number of studies have found a link between job strain and heart disease, but it’s not clear that work demands are the cause of the higher risk.

The new findings, published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, point to a possible connection between job strain and the beginnings of atherosclerosis, the build-up of plaque in the arteries that eventually impairs blood flow and can lead to a heart attack or stroke.

The study included 1,020 men and women taking part in an ongoing project looking at cardiovascular risk factors in young adults. Participants, who were 32 years old, on average, answered questionnaires about their work conditions and underwent ultrasound scans of the carotid arteries in the neck.

The researchers defined high job strain as work that puts high demands on employees but offers them little independence or leeway in how to accomplish their tasks. Past studies have suggested that such jobs can be particularly stressful.

READ: Job strain may be hard on young men’s arteries

Communicating Through Instant Messaging

Interesting post at Recruiting.com regarding how differently today’s youth communicates versus how their parents communicate. See Recruiting.com: College Students Today, Employees Tomorrow: Are You Ready?.
One of the key points of the discussion is that today’s college students are far more likely to participate in a discussion if it is held using instant messaging or other such technology. I’ve been seeing this trend for years so pushed to facilitate such communications between our customer service people and our users. Until about a year ago, candidates could contact us by phone, email, fax, snail mail, etc. All the normal methods. But all of those methods are deemed by college students to be too slow, even email. They’re used to carrying on discussions with a dozen friends via IM simultaneously, so why would they want to wait even hours for our people to get back to them? Once we implemented the change, they were able to get answers immediately.

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Winning the Game of Retirement

Choose a Road, Choose a Path

It’s fine to say you want to go into The Arts or the law or, as someone recently said, Accounting. That’s the big picture. Having some concept of what the big picture is constitutes a major step in embarking on the most amazing journey of your life.

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Never too old to learn something new

Lloyd Huck, a retired chairman of the board of Merck & Co., could afford to retire anywhere in the world, but two years ago he chose to live near his beloved alma mater: Pennsylvania State University.

Huck, 83, is now living out his golden years as vigorously as he did on campus 60 years ago: He’s taking an astronomy class, attends football games, enjoys theater and opera, and chats with students as he strolls the elm-shaded campus.

”We didn’t want to go to Florida, and our friends were dying off in Morristown, N.J., so we decided we needed younger friends,” Huck said.

Like Huck and his wife, Dottie, nearly 70 percent of the 200 residents at The Village at Penn State, an 80-acre retirement community that overlooks Beaver Stadium, are either alumni or retired faculty. They are also part of a growing trend of seniors paying tens of thousands of dollars to live their twilight years near a university campus.

Spurred by growing research suggesting that mental activity fights off dementia, college-affiliated retirement communities have sprung up in 50 college towns across the country, linking the retired set with schools such as Notre Dame, the University of Florida at Gainesville, the University of Michigan, and Lasell College in Newton, according to Leon A. Pastalan, professor emeritus of architecture at the University of Michigan.

”If you look at traditional retirement communities, they do not provide much for personal growth,” said Pastalan, who studies housing issues for older adults. ”They provide you with a nice place to live, but there is really nothing for the soul or for self-enrichment. I view this as an extremely important movement that is really just beginning.”

For seniors, returning to their college campus brings back old memories of a seemingly care-free time when they met classmates and were just beginning to think seriously about their careers.

READ: Seniors opting to retire with a touch of class

Career Resources for Ex-Convicts

Question from Career Counselor:
I am talking with someone with a lot of academic and career potential about what career path he would like to take, but he does not want to pursue additional education if all of his opportunities are blocked by his criminal record. Are there books or other resources I could look into in order to properly advise him?
Thanks!
Brian J. Pillsbury, Ph.D.
Career Services
Northern Illinois University

Employment Advice Via Podcasts

CollegeRecruiter.com just announced that we will take a leadership role in the delivery of employment-related content via audio recordings. See CollegeRecruiter.com Uses Podcasting to Deliver Employment Advice to Students and Recent Graduates (October 18, 2005 Press Release).
We anticipate that the vast majority of those who listen to the recordings will download them to their iPods and listen to them when they have a few minutes but don’t have access to a computer, such as in between classes or while commuting. Our goal is to deliver to our visitors the content that they want, how they want it, and when they want it. While some podcasting services charge a fee, we do not.

CollegeRecruiter.com Uses Podcasting to Deliver Employment Advice to Students and Recent Graduates (October 18, 2005 Press Release)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Minneapolis, Minnesota — October 18, 2005 — Walk around just about any college campus these days and you’ll immediately be struck by how many students are walking around with white cords dangling from their ears. Virtually all of these cords are plugged into iPods, the portable digital audio players designed and marketed by Apple Computer. While many students are listening to music, some are listening to audio recordings. Today, career site CollegeRecruiter.com announced that it has taken a leadership role in the delivery of employment-related content to these plugged in students.

“College students today have greater access to information than any generation that has come before,” said Steven Rothberg, President and Founder of CollegeRecruiter.com. “They’ve grown up with cell phones so do not see them as being technology. They’ve been instant messaging for years so are entirely comfortable maintaining multiple, simultaneous conversations through these on-line chat sessions. And they appreciate the grace and power of the iPod by using it to relax, kill time between classes, and even learning. As the highest traffic career site used by students and recent graduates and the employers who want to hire them, we know that we are well positioned to connect with these students if we provide to them the content that they want, when they want it, and how they want it. Increasingly, that means delivering our content to their iPods via podcasting.”

Although Minneapolis-based CollegeRecruiter.com has only just started delivering employment-related content via podcasts, it already has dozens of recordings available for download through its podcasting download page at http://www.collegerecruiter.com/podcast/. And just like its already existing library of 3,500 employment-related articles and Ask the Experts questions and answers, CollegeRecruiter.com charges no fee for full access to its fast growing collection podcasts.

About CollegeRecruiter.com

CollegeRecruiter.com is the highest traffic career site used by job hunting students and recent graduates and the employers who want to hire them. The CollegeRecruiter.com network of career sites is used by 5,000,000 visitors per month to find part-time positions, summer jobs, internships and career opportunities. CollegeRecruiter.com features tens of thousands of job openings and over 1,300 pages of employment-related articles and Ask the Experts questions and answers. Further information about CollegeRecruiter.com is available at http://www.CollegeRecruiter.com/pages/press-room.php.

CONTACT INFO:
CollegeRecruiter.com
Steven Rothberg
3109 W 50 St Ste 121
Minneapolis, MN 55410-2102
USA
Phone: 800-835-4989
Fax: 702-537-2227
Steven@CollegeRecruiter.com
http://www.CollegeRecruiter.com

How to Change Career Paths

Question from Candidate:
I have been working in restaurants for a while as a general manager. At the same time I was enrolled in an MBA/Accounting program. I graduated a few months ago but have been unable to find an accounting job. No one is willing to take a chance on my education. How do I get a job in accounting?

Focus

“We all hope that our judgment is keen enough that when it comes to hiring, we actually have hired the best person for the job. When it comes to hiring one of the company leaders, it’s especially important to know that the best possible (or even the best) is part of the organization.
“It’s when an emergency or a disaster occurs and that person is propelled into taking sharp, quick, definitive action that the proof the pudding occurs. There’s no time in that situation to shift about looking for the alternatives and waiting for feelings to subside. Nor is there time to be timid. There’s time enough for feelings and such afterward. It is imperative that the situation be assessed quickly and accurately and that the best available options are executed on time.”

From “When All Are Losing Their Heads,” September 11, 2001

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