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The Path To Wealth
by Randy on Oct.03, 2011, under All Posts, Business Related, Financial Education WorkShops & Seminars, Financial Knowledge, Helpful Student knowledge, Real Estate Strategies
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Degrees That Hiring Managers Want
by Randy on Sep.21, 2010, under All Posts, Helpful Student knowledge
Learn why the right college degree can help lead to the right job.
By Chris Kyle
Wondering which degrees can get you hired? Why not ask the people who do the hiring?
We polled a half-dozen HR managers and experts throughout the country to see what college degrees they want to see on the resumes hitting their desks.
The HR professionals work with employees in all industries, from private-sector firms and public agencies to non-profits, and the consensus was simple: now more than ever, your degree does matter.
[Click here to find a degree program]
“Get this message out to the guidance counselors of America,” said Coy Renick, a Virginia-based HR professional. “It’s not about getting a degree. It’s about getting the right degree.”
For info on what degrees are hottest – and why – keep reading. Our HR experts have answers.
#1 Degree – Health Care & Nursing
In a 2010 poll by the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), 84 percent of HR specialists in the health care industry said they were currently hiring, leading all other sectors of the economy. Echoing that optimism, the U.S. Department of Labor says that 10 of the 20 fastest growing occupations through 2018 are health-related.
Tip #1: “Anything related to the aging population is hot,” said Roberta Matuson of Massachusetts-based Human Resource Solutions. “Whether it’s a nutritionist, nurse, or nursing assistant, many hospitals can’t afford to staff as many doctors, so they are bringing in people who can do a lot of the same things but at a lower cost.”
Tip #2:“Like it or not, outsourcing is a long-term trend so you have to ask yourself: What jobs can be outsourced and what cannot? Many medical jobs cannot,” said Steve Kane, an HR expert and former VP at a Fortune 50 global medical services company.
Degrees in Demand:
Medical Assistant
Nursing Assistant
Registered Nurse
Health Care Administration
Careers & Salaries:
Home Health Aides: $21,440
Medical Assistants: $28,300
Registered Nurses: $62,450
Health Care Managers: $80,240
Search for Nursing and Health Care training programs today!
#2 Degree – Business
When 100 HR professionals were asked what degree is most likely to get you hired in 2010, a business administration degree finished second, just behind health care, according to a poll by corporate consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Finance and accounting were popular choices too.
Tip #1: “A business degree is always going to have real value,” said Matuson, an HR pro who helps staff nonprofits and small-to large-sized businesses. Her clients include Best Buy and New York Life.
Tip #2: Renick believes specificity is key: “If you have a general business degree, you’re just one of many. But if you specialize in finance, accounting, or HR, it’s easier to find a job.”
Degrees in Demand:
Accounting
Business Administration
Finance
Human Resources
MBA
Careers & Salaries:
Employment Specialists: $45,470
Accountants: $59,430
Financial Managers: $99,330
Search for Business programs right now.
#3 Degree – Information Technology (IT)
According to SHRM’s 2010 poll of HR professionals, 75 percent of high-tech companies are hiring. What makes an IT degree so valuable though is that it’s applicable in other industries too.
Tip #1: “The hottest industry for me is IT,” said Renick, who helps staff companies in western Virginia. “You can make 50 or 60 grand right out of school with a two-year degree and the right certification. If you have a bachelor’s or master’s, we’re talking six figures.”
Tip #2: “What’s almost always true and is still true today is that computer science majors are still in demand,” said Kane, a San Francisco-based HR pro. “It never seems to end.”
Degrees in Demand:
IT and Information Systems
Networking Administration
Computer Science
Database Technology
Careers & Salaries:
Network Administrators: $66,310
Database Administrators: $69,740
Computer Scientists: $97,970
Find online and local IT programs.
#4 Degree – Education & Teaching
While demand for educators isn’t skyrocketing, employment for teachers and administrators is rising at a steady clip now and into the foreseeable future, according to the Department of Labor, which cites mathematics, science and bilingual education as the most promising fields.
Tip #1: Vivian Leonard, director of HR for the city of Boston, oversees 17,000 employees, including the local school department. “I’ll consider your college degree, internships and any prior work experience,” Leonard said. “You must demonstrate knowledge and a true interest.”
Tip #2: When it comes to jobs, Kane stresses location, location, location: “In cushy suburban locations, there is little demand for teachers. In rural areas, there’s an even supply, while in rough, urban locations they are desperate for teachers. Why? Supply and demand.”
Degrees in Demand:
K-12 Education
Special Education
Teaching Certificate
Education Leadership
Careers & Salaries:
Childcare Administrators: $39,940
Elementary School Teachers: $52,240
Middle School Teachers: $52,570
High School Teachers: $54,390
High school Principals: $97,486
#5 Degree – Culinary & Hospitality
There is a “substantial” demand for new hires in the culinary and hospitality industries that isn’t expected to let up anytime soon, according to the Department of Labor. They cite a predominately young workforce with a high turnover rate as the main reason for optimism.
Tip #1: “There are some real opportunities in hospitality, especially if you have a bright smile and a positive attitude,” Kane said. “You’ll probably start low and your pay will be low, but you can get promoted and move up the chain of command rapidly since turnover is high.”
Tip #2: Job opportunities for meeting and convention planners will grow by 16 percent between 2008 and 2018, reports the Department of Labor.
Degrees in Demand:
Culinary Arts
Baking & Pastry
Marketing/Communications
Restaurant Management
Careers & Salaries:
Travel Agents: $30,570
Chefs & Head Cooks: $38,770
Meeting & Convention Planners: $44,260
Lodging Managers: $45,800
Food Service Managers: $46,320
What Folks With Great Credit Scores Do Right
by Randy on Sep.13, 2010, under Financial Knowledge, Helpful Student knowledge
provided by
Earlier this week I answered a reader’s question on steps to take to improve her credit score.
But what about folks who don’t want to just to improve their credit score, but want to get it to the highest possible range? Before you make a move, you first need to know the most important information used from your credit report in determining your score. Check out MyFico.com for more detail on what make up your credit score.
[Click here to check current credit card offers, including rates and terms.]
Here are the two things that account for two-thirds of your credit score:
Your Payment History: Having a long history of making payments on time on all types of credit accounts is one of the most important items lenders consider before approving you for a loan.
Owed versus Available Credit: This compares the amount you owe versus the total amount of credit available. Your credit score can be lower when you use more than 50 percent of your available credit for each account. That’s because when you are close to maxing out on all of your credit limits, lenders see you as a higher risk and more likely to make late payments in the near future.
There are three other factors that account for about a third of your credit score:
Length of Credit History: In general, a credit report containing a list of accounts opened for at least ten years or more will help your credit score. The score considers your oldest active account and the average age of all accounts.
New Credit: Opening several new credit accounts in a short period of time can lower your credit score. Also multiple credit report inquiries may be seen as risky credit behavior on the near horizon, and can therefore lower your credit score. But “soft credit inquiries”, which include requests made by you, an employer or by a lender who “pre-screens” or “pre-approves”, have little or no impact. Also, multiple inquiries by automobile and mortgage lenders over a 30-day period count as just one inquiry, so shopping the lenders to get the best rate should not hurt your score.
Type of Credit You Use: Your mix of credit cards, retail accounts, finance company loans and mortgage loans is considered.
Your credit score ignores your age, salary and occupation. It also does not take into account financial gifts, support you receive, or your financial assets. For this reason, credit scores are less important for borrowers who seek loans that take these factors into account.
If you want to take action to increase your credit score, then take a look at folks with the highest credit scores. About 13 percent of folks have credit scores of 800 or higher. If you look at their credit profile, they have:
• four to six credit card accounts,
• no late payments in the past seven years,
• at least one installment loan — a mortgage or a car loan — with excellent payment history,
• an average of 10 years credit history per account and a few accounts with 20 years of good history,
• a low number of credit inquiries (fewer than three in the past six months),
• no bankruptcies, foreclosures, charge-offs or collections, and
• debt levels at no more than 35 percent of their overall credit limits per account.
The Bottom Line: Having a long history of making all payments on time, using the right mix of credit, and not maxing out on available credit are the keys to a having a great credit score.
Worst-Paying College Degrees
by Randy on May.10, 2010, under All Posts, Helpful Student knowledge
We all know money doesn’t buy happiness–and that’s good news for these new grads.
There’s no denying the value of a college education: According to recent U.S. Census surveys, the median salary for college grads is more than $20,000 higher than that of people with only a high school diploma. And the unemployment rate for people with bachelor’s degrees is almost half the rate for people without.
But some degrees are worth more than others, as PayScale.com shows in its 2010 report on the earning power of bachelor’s degrees.
No surprise, engineering degrees continue to be top earners–and (also no big shocker) you have to go pretty far down the list before you see the liberal arts well represented.
But there’s more to choosing a major than comparing dollar amounts. We salute and congratulate the graduates whose interests (and hard work) have led them to the following degrees–the lowest-earning degrees on PayScale’s list.
10. Drama (starting annual salary: $35,600; mid-career annual salary: $56,600)
Some mega-millionaire movie stars with drama degrees (Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep, for instance) may be skewing these numbers upward–for every Denzel and Meryl, there are thousands of thespians struggling to make ends meet. But you don’t study drama because you want to get rich–you study drama because you love the theater. (And an ability to act comes in handy in many professions.)
9. Fine arts (starting annual salary: $35,800; mid-career annual salary: $56,300)
Well, it takes an artist to make a thrift-store wardrobe look like a million bucks.
8. Hospitality and tourism (starting annual salary: $37,000; mid-career annual salary: $54,300)
Jobs that include tips may be skewing these numbers downward–and this is an industry that looks to be on the rebound as the economy improves. Plus, the perks associated with jobs in hospitality and tourism may compensate for the comparatively low salaries–many jobs in the industry allow extensive travel (or provide considerable travel discounts).
7. Education (starting annual salary: $36,200; mid-career annual salary: $54,100)
and
2. Elementary education (starting annual salary: $33,000; mid-career annual salary: $42,400)
For the right people, teaching is an immensely rewarding career–and it’s truly a noble one. The good news is, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the employment opportunities for primary, secondary, and special education teachers are expected to grow by 14 percent in the coming decade. And there will be plenty of new opportunities in continuing education for adults, as professional skill requirements change ever more rapidly.
6. Horticulture (starting annual salary: $37,200; mid-career annual salary: $53,400)
It seems that a green thumb doesn’t necessarily bring in the greenbacks. But when you work among flowers and plants in a nursery or garden, who needs ‘em?
5. Spanish (starting annual salary: $35,600; mid-career annual salary: $52,600)
As an old proverb puts it, when you learn a new language, you “gain a new soul.” Who could put a price on that? And certainly, knowing Spanish–the language with the second-highest number of native speakers (after Mandarin)–in addition to English opens up a world of job opportunities beyond Spanish teacher or translator (as a plus, you can better enjoy a world of fantastic Spanish-language music, movies, and literature).
4. Music (starting annual salary: $34,000; mid-career annual salary: $52,000)
Hey, if being a musician were easy, everyone would do it. Some of us are guitar heroes; most of us just play the video game.
3. Theology (starting annual salary: $34,800; mid-career annual salary: $51,500)
This is the perfect example of a degree earned by someone who’s “not in it for the money”: people who choose to study theology often feel they’re pursuing a higher calling (and often feel a strong desire to do good in the world, no matter the cost).
1. Social work (starting annual salary: $33,400; mid-career annual salary: $41,600)
They say that crime doesn’t pay. As this list seems to point out, neither does helping people. So it’s a good thing that many college students seem to believe that helping others is its own reward–social workers are an indispensable safety net for people who’ve fallen on difficult times. And the BLS reports that the outlook for opportunities in this field are favorable–particularly for social workers who work in rural areas or with senior citizens.
10 Things Human Resources Won’t Say
by Randy on Apr.29, 2010, under All Posts, Helpful Student knowledge
Thursday, April 22, 2010provided by
1. “We’re Squeezed Too.”
There was a time when human resources departments handled every staffing need at a company, from hiring and firing to administering benefits and determining salaries. But HR’s role has begun to change significantly as departments have shrunk at companies across the board. According to a study by the Society for Human Resource Management, the profession’s largest association, the head count at the average HR department fell from 13 in 2007 to nine in 2008. “HR departments are under pressure like never before,” says Steve Miranda, the society’s global HR and integration officer.
As much of what was once HR’s domain increasingly gets outsourced, human resources is regrouping to help show top management how it can add to the bottom line, says Tony Rucci, former chief administrative officer at Cardinal Health and a professor at the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University. Though that may seem like an odd role for a department that doesn’t make or sell anything, strong HR departments are now focusing on boosting productivity by helping employees better understand what’s expected of them and by showing managers how to be
2. “We’re Not Always Your Advocate…”
Employees often turn to HR if they’re having problems with a manager, but they don’t always come away satisfied. In 2007, Ronica Tabor was interviewing for a better sales job at tool manufacturer Hilti North America when, she says, the interviewer told her that women had to work harder than men to learn to use and sell tools and that she should check with her husband about applying for the job. Tabor says she turned to HR with “high hopes” they’d keep the interviewer from doing this with others. But Tabor’s attorney says she was “made ineligible for promotion for another year” and left the company. She is suing Hilti in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma, alleging gender discrimination. A Hilti spokesperson says the company’s investigation found that Tabor wasn’t qualified for the opening and that Hilti doesn’t discriminate. “Our HR process did work,” says the spokesperson.
Still, employees should realize that HR answers to the company, says Lewis Maltby, director of the National Workrights Institute, an employee-rights organization. “HR is a spear carrier for the boss,” he says.
3. “…But We Can Help Your Career.”
Human resources managers do much more than handle employment agreements, medical forms and 401(k) paperwork. They can also have a hand in helping to retain and promote top talent — i.e., you. J.T. O’Donnell, a former HR manager and the founder of online career-development company Careerealism.com, says it’s a good idea to be in touch with someone in the department. Employees often want to avoid HR, O’Donnell says, “but you really should do the opposite.” Molly John credits HR with helping her get promoted to partner at Ernst & Young last year, after she participated in an HR-sponsored program assigning senior partners as mentors to promising junior employees. Without it, she says, “I would not have been promoted so soon.”
Seymour Adler, a senior VP with HR management firm Aon Consulting, says one way to be recognized for your work is to keep human resources in the loop — say, by sending your HR manager an occasional e-mail to let her know how you’ve been contributing to the company’s success. That kind of connection could help land you a promotion when positions open up or even keep you off the chopping block during the next round of layoffs.
4. “Want the job? Then You’ll Want to Get to Know Us.”
With unemployment hovering around 10 percent, HR managers are inundated with responses for every job posting. In fact, some companies are hiring outside firms to post jobs and sort through resumes, presenting only a dozen or so qualified candidates for consideration. How to make the cut? Be sure your resume and cover letter highlight the skills asked for in the job posting; HR tosses applications that don’t meet all the basic criteria. And ask yourself what in your background fits the company’s needs, says Mike Wright, senior vice president of outsourcing sales with Hewitt Associates.
Another angle: Approach an in-house recruiter or hiring manager before they post a position. Try using business-oriented social-media sites like LinkedIn.com to meet contacts, says O’Donnell. Judi Perkins, founder of FindThePerfectJob.com, says she found most of her clients jobs this way. When you score an interview with HR reps, take it seriously — you never know how much say they have in the process. And ask them what qualities they look for in employees. “You really need to sell them on your abilities,” says O’Donnell.
5. “Yes, Facebook Can Get You Fired.”
Employees like to think that what they do on their own time is their own business, but that’s not always the case. According to a 2009 survey by the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute, 27 percent of companies have policies about what employees can post on personal blogs. “You have to think about whether this will come back to haunt you,” says Nancy Flynn, executive director of the institute. That never occurred to Nate Fulmer, a warehouse manager for chemical supplier Environmental Express. Fulmer and his wife made fun of a local church sermon in a podcast they posted online in 2005. Fulmer says it got so much attention, his boss listened to it, thought it was offensive and fired him. “I was so blindsided,” he says. (A company spokesperson says the firm has new ownership and can’t comment on employee matters.)
According to Flynn’s survey, 2 percent of companies have dismissed employees over the content of personal social-networking pages. Flynn recommends employees check company policy before posting anything online and steer clear of potentially offensive content, even if it has nothing to do with work.
6. “In Some Companies, We’re Not Very Useful at All.”
it seems that every company has a different approach to human resources. For some, it’s nothing more than an administrative job, involved with hiring and firing, benefits and not much more. These firms may have a dysfunctional work environment with high turnover, Perkins says, where employees can often feel trapped. By contrast, companies with strong HR departments have been shown to do better financially, says Rucci. Empowered human resources reps can also help guide employees through their careers.
How to tell the difference? For one, see whom HR reports to. If it’s the CEO, that’s good, says Maltby. If HR managers are in the field, getting to know employees and how the company works, that can be another key, says LaRhonda Edwards, an employee-relations panel member with the Society of Human Resource Management. One way to suss out a human resources department’s effectiveness is to ask the manager interviewing you how HR operates and what it has done to help her achieve her goals. If she doesn’t have an answer, it’s “not a good sign,” Rucci says.
7. “You’re Not Paranoid — We are Watching You.”
Companies want to make sure you’re working most of the time, not sending joke e-mails to your buddies. Half of organizations in the ePolicy Institute survey banned the use of personal e-mail on the job, and more than one in four reported firing employees for misusing the Internet. In many companies, HR works with the information-technology department and the legal team to develop policies for electronic communication. These policies aren’t a secret. Edwards says she makes a big effort to walk new employees through computer-use and e-mail policies, and they must sign forms saying they’re aware of them.
Many companies employ software that sifts through e-mail looking for curse words or sexually explicit language. IT monitors Web usage and can see every site an employee visits. In fact, anything you do via the company’s server—most activity on an office computer, including personal e-mail — is subject to review by your boss. Firings over these issues are on the rise, says Flynn. In 2009, 26 percent of companies reported terminating employees for violations of e-mail policy, up from 14 percent in 2001. “Employees should act as if the boss was looking over their shoulder,” says California employment mediator Michelle Reinglass.
8. “Read the Fine Print.”
When you take a job, you may be agreeing to more than you know. In the fine print of employment agreements, employee handbooks and job applications, many companies include a mandatory arbitration clause — meaning that you agree to give up your right to take any dispute to court, even if the employer has broken the law. Instead, the case goes to an arbitrator, who decides it privately, and “the grounds for appeal are extremely limited,” says Donna Lenhoff, an attorney with the National Employment Lawyers Association. Lenhoff estimates that more than 30 million Americans are bound by arbitration clauses at work.
Employers — particularly those in financial services, health care and pharmaceuticals — often favor arbitration because it keeps costs down and cases out of the headlines, says Manesh Rath, a partner at the law firm Keller & Heckman. But, says Lenhoff, arbitration seldom works out well for employees. A recent study found that arbitrators decided in favor of employees just 30 percent of the time, and when the individual arbitrator had worked previously on a case with the employer, the employee won only 12 percent of the time. Reinglass says employees can often fare better in court. “Someone on a jury might relate to your experience in a way that an arbitrator may not,” she says.
9. “We Know More About You Than You think.”
these days companies do a lot more than look over a pile of resumes and call a few references before hiring a new employee. They bring in outside firms to dig into an applicant’s background and verify education and employment histories, and they will often even search criminal records and credit reports. According to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, 53 percent of companies have conducted credit checks on their employees. Companies are concerned that “if you have a lot of financial pressure, you might not act in the best interest of the company,” says Wright.
Another survey, conducted in 2007 by HR Focus magazine, found that 86 percent of firms performed criminal background checks during the hiring process, and it has been estimated that nearly two-thirds of companies test job applicants for drug use. But not everyone thinks such measures are extreme. If anything, employers don’t dig deeply enough, says Rath: “An employee with a problem with a previous employer or criminal record will try to hide it.”
10. “We Love Tests.”
Job seekers today have so much experience packaging themselves, with tailored resumes and rehearsed answers, that companies turn to tests to find out more about what makes them tick. A 2009 survey by research firm IOMA found that 26 percent of companies conducted personality, psychological or integrity tests on applicants. Job seekers may also be asked to take a test to quantify their creativity. What’s more, insurance companies are pushing businesses to screen for traits like risk-taking, a quality the underwriter would not appreciate in, say, an applicant for a forklift-driver position.
But testing does have its problems. Rucci says that the most important indicator of future success on the job is past performance. Counter to that, HR managers sometimes distance themselves from the hiring process by relying on tests rather than performance appraisals. “There was a time when someone would say, This is the best-qualified candidate, based on their record,” says Maltby. “Now it’s tests, and no one takes responsibility for the decision.”
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