Top 10 Best Paying Jobs for Four-Year College Grads

Photo of petroleum engineer courtesy of Shutterstock

Many college and university students and graduates are motivated by a desire to make the world a better place. Many are motivated by money. And many are motivated by a combination of the two along with other factors. But if money is important to you then this list of the highest paying occupations for college graduates should be of great interest. Continue Reading

Avoid credit card catastrophes – Smart ways a student can avoid incurring debt

Woman smiling and holding a credit card. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

Nowadays the students arrive in the colleges with shiny new credit cards and spiffy new backpacks, with a determination to enjoy their college life. They leave college with thousands of dollars piled on their high interest credit cards. Students are of the opinion that they should live on their own so that they can lead their own extravagant life and they also feel that once they leave college and grab a job, they can easily repay their debt amount. But are they really aware of the sluggish improvement of the job market? Did they ever anticipate what would have happened to them if they aren’t able to manage a job in this tough labor market? Well, if they had thought, they wouldn’t have taken all the wrong financial moves at the same time. As the students know that there are credit card consolidation firms that can assist them in getting out of debt, they adopt a lackadaisical attitude towards their personal finances. Continue Reading

Writing Job Postings for Adults

MOOCs are massive open online courses. They’re the next big thing in higher education. They link hundreds, sometimes thousands of students in free educational programs offered on the Internet. What’s that have to do with recruiting? They’ve learned how to deliver content that adults will read.

Peter Weddle of Weddle’s

Tragically, job postings are often ignored by the very candidates recruiter most want to reach. That’s not a criticism, just a fact. Passive, high caliber talent has the attention span of a gnat, so getting them to focus on an opening isn’t easy.

Sometimes, however, we make grabbing their attention harder than it already is. How? It begins with our vocabulary.

We use language in our job postings that only an employer could love. Talking about a job’s “requirements and responsibilities” may be the way we’ve always described vacant jobs, but, in this case at least, tradition is a trap. People’s behaviors and preferences have evolved and so too must the job posting. Continue Reading

5 Elements of a Mediocre Resume – Hello Again, Trash Can …

Jessica Holbrook Hernandez of Great Resumes Fast

Has a lackluster resume response rate left you wondering if your resume or the job market is to blame for your shortage of interviews? Take a quick look at my list of five basics of a mediocre resume to help determine if your resume is to blame for your interview famine. Continue Reading

January Job Cuts 24% Lower Than a Year Ago

John Challenger of Challenger, Gray & Christmas

The nation’s employers announced plans to cut payrolls by 40,430 jobs in January, up 24 percent from 32,556 in December, according to the latest report on planned job cuts released Thursday by global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

While January job cuts were up from the previous month, they were 24 percent lower than the 53,486 layoffs announced by employers the same month a year ago.  This was, in fact, the third lowest January total in Challenger records going back to 1993.  The only years to see fewer January job cuts were 1995 (38,962) and 2011 (38,519). Continue Reading

Online Education: Non-Profit vs. For-Profit Institutions

These days, non-profit institutions are giving their for-profit counterparts some competition when it comes to attracting online students.  Learn more in the following infographic. Continue Reading

Job Transition Tips And Advice

If you believe that the time has come to change your job, it is important to go forward with determination and a clear vision. It is natural to start to feeling stuck in a rut when having been employed in the same position for a prolonged amount of time. Although the economy may not appear so buoyant as it once was, there are still ample employment opportunities available for suitable candidates. Before you hand in your resignation notice, it would be in your interest to familiarize yourself with advice in relation to undertaking a job transition. Continue Reading

Small Businesses Responsible For All of January’s 193,000 Job Gains

January 2013 Change in Nonfarm Private Employment by Company Size

Private sector employment increased by 192,000 jobs from December to January, according to the January ADP National Employment Report®, which is produced by ADP®, a leading provider of human capital management services, in collaboration with Moody’s Analytics. The report, which is derived from ADP’s actual payroll data, measures the change in total nonfarm private employment each month on a seasonally-adjusted basis. The December 2012 report, which reported job gains of 215,000, was revised downward by 30,000 to 185,000 jobs.

Goods-producing employment rose by 15,000 jobs in January which was primarily driven by an increase in construction jobs of 15,000. Meanwhile, manufacturers shed 3,000 jobs.  Continue Reading

Social Media and Your Job Search

Joshua John, Social Media & Outreach Coordinator at 2U

Job hunting isn’t what it used to be. Just pulling out the weekly Classifieds section and going through job listings item by item isn’t going to cut it. Ditto with career services, which tend to be helpful with finding specialized employment, but even then job-seekers can do a lot of that work themselves in this age of free electronic information. The Internet really has provided job seekers with a tremendous amount of autonomy and opportunity when it comes to finding employment. But having access to information isn’t the same as knowing how to use it. With that in mind, here are a handful of tips job seekers can use to help find work through their social media networks: Continue Reading

Interview Q&A Why Should We Hire You

Carole Martin, The Interview Coach

Question:

I have been unemployed for over a year. I am highly skilled n qualified but cannot seem to get hired.
My question is how do I respond to the final question, “why should we hire you?”

I cover my extensive background and skills that apply to the position but to date, remain unemployed.

Thank you in advance for your time and reply. Continue Reading