Marty Nemko's Blog, page 440

The Job Search Made Simple

My post today on AOL: the job-search simplified. I reduce it to the chart above. (Click on it to enlarge it.)



The post describes the four ways to land a job and offers advice on how to pick the ones that will most likely work for you.

Choosing a College: 7 questions to ask before picking

It's the moment of truth: You
or your child has been admitted to more than one college and now needs to pick
one.





You'll make a wiser choice if
you ask each finalist college's admissions representative these seven questions.
If you're worried that asking seven may be too probing, just ask the few you
most care about.



May I see the results of the most recent student
or alumni satisfaction survey? Most
colleges conduct student or alumni satisfaction surveys. Seeing the results
will show you how a large sample of a college's students or graduates rate
their experience in and outside the classroom, including employability. If an
institution doesn't post it on its website, refuses to email it to you, or says
it hasn't conducted a student or alumni satisfaction survey, that's instructive
in itself.



What are the statistics on campus crime? The
Clery Act requires all institutions to collect crime prevalence
data on and surrounding campus. 



May I see the accreditation visiting team
report and Association Action? Nearly
all colleges periodically undergo an accreditation process. That culminates in
a visiting team's report on the institution's strengths and weaknesses and an Association Action. The latter states
the number of years before the institution must undergo its next review. It
it's much sooner than ten years, it may be cause for concern. The visiting team
report will explain the reasons for a short term of accreditation.



Given my academic record and my family's
income and assets, how much cash and how much loan will I be likely have to pay
in the first four years, and if it takes me longer to graduate, in years 5 or
6?  On many if not most colleges' websites, it's
difficult to find even the one-year cost-of attendance, even unadjusted
for student record, and family income and assets. Your cost of attendance depends heavily on those. Complicating
matters more, at some colleges, your bill may rise significantly after the
first year, with an especially big increase if you don't graduate in four
years. And lest you be too sure you'll graduate in four years, know that
nationwide, less
than 37 percent of freshmen at so-called four-year colleges graduate in four
years. Only 58
percent graduate in six years!



How
much do students with high school grades and SAT score like mine grow in
critical thinking, writing, etc? That's
important even if you or your child is attending college mainly to get a better
job. Why? Because the better you write and think, the more likely you are to
succeed in nearly any career.



Many if not most colleges test at least a
sample of its incoming and graduating students on such skills as writing and critical
thinking but few colleges make the results public. That's understandable
because, as reported in a major national study, Academically Adrift, a shocking 36  percent of students nationwide "did not
demonstrate any significant improvement in learning" between freshman and
senior year.



Colleges vary in effectiveness, so you want
to find out how your candidate colleges measure up. If a college doesn't post this
information on its website, refuses to tell you, or says it doesn't measure
student growth, that's instructive in itself. 



What is your four- and six-year graduation
rate for students with grades and test scores like mine? The graduation rate varies greatly across
institutions and on the student's high school record. Comparing your finalist
colleges' graduation rates will be instructive but don't give that undue weight
in choosing a college. That's because an institution can jigger a high
graduation rate by lowering standards. For example, at one institution, administrators
meet with faculty members who give a failing grade to an above-average
percentage of students. Rather than praising those professors for their high
standards, the message subtly is "lower your standards."



What percent of graduates are
professionally employed within one year of graduation, broken down by major?
What percent are in graduate school?
The institution's alumni survey usually contains such information. 



Asking even some of these questions will
increase your chances of picking an institution at which you'll be happy, successful,
and feel was worth your money and years.

Choosing a College Seven questions to ask before picking

It's the moment of truth: You
or your child has been admitted to more than one college and now needs to pick
one.





You'll make a wiser choice if
you ask each finalist college's admissions representative these seven questions.
If you're worried that asking seven may be too probing, just ask the few you
most care about.



May I see the results of the most recent student
or alumni satisfaction survey? Most
colleges conduct student or alumni satisfaction surveys. Seeing the results
will show you how a large sample of a college's students or graduates rate
their experience in and outside the classroom, including employability. If an
institution doesn't post it on its website, refuses to email it to you, or says
it hasn't conducted a student or alumni satisfaction survey, that's instructive
in itself.



What are the statistics on campus crime? The
Clery Act requires all institutions to collect crime prevalence
data on and surrounding campus. 



May I see the accreditation visiting team
report and Association Action? Nearly
all colleges periodically undergo an accreditation process. That culminates in
a visiting team's report on the institution's strengths and weaknesses and an Association Action. The latter states
the number of years before the institution must undergo its next review. It
it's much sooner than ten years, it may be cause for concern. The visiting team
report will explain the reasons for a short term.



Given my academic record and my family's
income and assets, how much cash and how much loan will I be likely have to pay
in the first four years, and if it takes me longer to graduate, in years 5 or
6?  On many if not most colleges' websites, it's
difficult to find even the one-year cost-of attendance, even unadjusted
for student record, and family income and assets. Your cost of attendance depends heavily on those. Complicating
matters more, at some colleges, your bill may rise significantly after the
first year, with an especially big increase if you don't graduate in four
years. And lest you be too sure you'll graduate in four years, know that
nationwide, less
than 37 percent of freshmen at so-called four-year colleges graduate in four
years. Only 58
percent graduate in six years!



How
much do students with high school grades and SAT score like mine grow in
critical thinking, writing, etc? That's
important even if you or your child is attending college mainly to get a better
job. Why? Because the better you write and think, the more likely you are to
succeed in nearly any career.



Many if not most colleges test at least a
sample of its incoming and graduating students on such skills as writing and critical
thinking, but few colleges make the results public. That's understandable
because, as reported in a major national study, Academically Adrift, a shocking 36  percent of students nationwide "did not
demonstrate any significant improvement in learning" between freshman and
senior year.

Colleges vary in effectiveness, so you want
to find out how your candidate colleges measure up. If a college doesn't post this
information on its website, refuses to tell you, or says it doesn't measure
student growth, that's instructive in itself. 



What is your four and six-year graduation
rate for students with grades and test scores like mine? The graduation rate varies greatly across
institutions and on the student's high school record. Comparing your finalist
colleges' graduation rates will be instructive but don't give that undue weight
in choosing a college. That's because an institution can jigger a high
graduation rate by lowering standards. For example, at one institution, administrators
meet with faculty members who give a failing grade to an above-average
percentage of students. Rather than praising those professors for their high
standards, the message subtly is "lower your standards."



What percent of graduates are
professionally employed within one year of graduation, broken down by major?
What percent are in graduate school?
The institution's alumni survey usually contains such information. 



Asking even some of these questions will
increase your chances of picking an institution at which you'll be happy, successful,
and feel was worth your money and years.

Job Interview Hail Marys

Let's say there's good news and bad news. The good news is that you've landed a job interview. The bad news is that you suspect you're a longshot candidate.



My USNews.com post today is Interview Hail Marys : high-risk/high-payoff interview strategies.

Job Search Shortcuts

The process of looking for a job can be daunting. Sometimes there are shortcuts. My AOL post today offers shortcuts.

The College Report Card--picked as one of "100 Great Ideas for Higher Education"

I am honored that the National Association of Scholars chose to include, in its 100 Great Ideas for Higher Education, my proposal that all colleges be required to, on its homepage, post a substantive report card on itself, what I call the College Report Card.



It is far more more helpful than, for example, the College Scorecard President Obama announced in his State of the Union address.



I describe the College Report Card in the  Washington Post, and in The Atlantic, the latter which was republished on Stanford's blog on higher education reform.



Not only would a College Report Card enable prospective students to more wisely and easily select a college, that transparency would exert real pressure on colleges to finally treat students as the treasure they are rather than a mere "cost center."



Today, 'four-year" colleges behave as irresponsibly as the researchers who ran the The Tuskegee Experiments. Every year, colleges recruit hundreds of thousands of weak students without disclosing to them that 3/4 such students don''t graduate even if given 8 years, meanwhile having accrued a fortune in debt, little learning, a non-stop assault to their self-esteem, no more employability than they could have had straight out of high school and, critically, the opportunity cost: They could have likely learned far more and become far more employable had they pursued an apprenticeship, the millitary, working at the elbow of an entrepreneur, or taken a short career-prep program at a community college.



It is time to stop giving higher education a free pass. We require every tire, every packaged food, every drug, to provide substantive consumer information. We should require no less of colleges.

Jobseeker Hail Marys: Longshot resume tactics

If you're a longshot candidate for a job, it may be worth trying risky strategies.



Today, I start a series for U.S. News called Jobseeker Hail Marys. The first, which also has been published on Yahoo! is Resume Hail Marys.

Six Habits of Remarkably Successful People

My AOL article today: Six Habits of Remarkably Successful People.



I really think this short article contains the keys to success.

Effective Mentoring in Just a Few Minutes

Managers are increasingly expected to mentor their supervisees but are given little training and time to do it.



My U.S. News post today is a crash course on how to effectively mentor even if you only have a few minutes to work with the person.

A Forward-Looking, Busy Person's, God-free, Haggadah-Free Seder

Apologies to the traditionalists among you but here's my agenda for a Passover Seder I'd eagerly attend. Would you?



1. State the rationale for a looking-forward rather than history-retelling-Seder.  Passover's message is "never forget." But the costs of
remembering and benefits of forgetting may outweigh. My father, a Holocaust survivor, said the key to living productivity, healthily, without wasted anger is to never look back, always take the next step forward. Indeed, nearly all my successful clients also never look back to past injustices to them. 



I feel that the Passover Haggadah, which focuses on looking back to the Israelites' bondage in Egypt, yes, helps us to remember the evils of constraint. But that's obvious to nearly everyone who would attend a Seder. I believe the side effect of engendering undue suspicion of others outweighs. Besides, I find the Haggadah's retelling of that story boring, especially having heard it a zillion times.







2. Discussion (15-30 minutes:) 



a) Passover's core theme is to celebrate freedom over
restriction. Is unbridled freedom always good? 




b) Who deserves to be more
free?




c) How about the Jews? What, if anything, shackles them: political correctness, anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism? For example, is the double-standard applied to Israel fair? Few countries question Arab countries being 100% Muslim, yet many advocacy groups, even countries, refuse to accept Israel as a Jewish state, even though Muslims are welcome in Israel and Israel is a tiny sliver, created as a safe harbor against millennia of oppression: from ancient Rome to the Russian pogroms to the Holocaust to the Palestinian government's charter and even mainstream Muslim-American groups, which called for the destruction of Israel.)




3. Each Seder attendee would be invited to make a commitment: "Is there one thing you want to commit to doing or changing as a
result of our discussion?"




4. We sing two freedom-related songs but NOT the traditional Passover tunes, for example, not Dayenu, which urges us to praise God no matter how little he does for us. In fact, I am unalterably convinced there is no God, let alone one we should have faith in. The only God is the idealistic impulses that reside with each of us. 



So the songs in this Seder would be: 



Exodus. (Yes, it mentions God, but only peripherally)

Defying Gravity



5.  The dinner would be anything the host wants to prepare or bring in, or potluck. The only changes from the norm: matzah instead of bread, sweet wine (e.g., Manischewitz, Mogen David) instead of standard wine.




What do you think? Suggestions for improvement?