Some college grads are at opposite ends of a dynamic that is pushing those with college degrees down into competition with high-school graduates for low-wage jobs that don’t require college. As this competition has intensified during and after the recession, it’s meant relatively higher unemployment, declining labor market participation and lower wages for those with less education. (Bloomberg)
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Now, efforts are under way to fill that void and offer some structure to an otherwise difficult-to-navigate and fast-growing market. Apollo Education Group Inc., best known for its University of Phoenix for-profit college, is expected to launch an "online marketplace" dubbed Balloon on Tuesday. It will start with a catalogue of nearly 15,000 technology classes from big-name course providers including Microsoft Corp., Adobe Systems Inc., Coursera and Udacity, and explicitly link them to job opportunities. (The Wall Street Journal)
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There is an old cartoon I often show to the managers I work with. It portrays a smiling executive team around a long table. The chairman is asking, "All in favor?" Everyone’s hand is up. Meanwhile, the cloud hovering above each head contains a dissonant view: "You’ve got to be kidding;" "Heaven forbid;" "Perish the thought." It never fails to provoke awkward laughter of self-recognition. I have a name for this cocktail of deference, conformity and passive aggression that chokes people and teams. I call it violent politeness. (Harvard Business Review)
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There are countless ways you can spend money on your professional development. From conferences to coaches, you can "invest" until you’re broke. So how can you choose smart investments that actually generate returns? I asked several people whose careers I admire about the smartest investments they’ve made. Here are their guidelines for making the most of what you’ve got. (Fast Company)
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When Ravi Saligram ran OfficeMax Inc., he revamped the Fortune 500 retailer's digital strategy and engineered a merger with its chief rival before leaving last November after three years at the helm. Now on the hunt for a new job as a chief executive, the 57-year-old Mr. Saligram has traded the corner office for his home office in Naperville, Ill. Without an executive assistant for the first time in more than a decade, his hours are suddenly his own. Recently, he debated whether to join LinkedIn. (The Wall Street Journal)
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Warren Bennis, one of the most respected authorities on leadership in the world, said: "Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality." On the surface, this sounds perfunctory. But when we examine this more deeply, several important implications arise. If leadership is the ability to translate vision into reality, what is the method to do this? One way, according to the latest research, is to use our brains to optimize our chances of success. (Harvard Business Review)
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If you want to be more productive, don't start by taking on new habits and routines. Instead, do less. The most productive people know how to stay focused and how to say no – but most importantly, they know how to delegate and outsource. (Inc.)
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As Western officials try to salvage Ukraine's near-bankrupt economy they might want to visit the country's Ministry of Agrarian and Food Policy to take stock of how difficult their task might be. Inside the Soviet-era building off Kiev's Independence Square on Wednesday night, the lobby was piled high with grimy mattresses, shoes and clothes stuffed into garbage bags. They belong to protesters who have set up camp inside Kiev's government buildings for months, sheltering through a freezing winter of violent battle on the square. (Fortune)
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In July 2012, a few months before he was to officially take over as president of the College Board, David Coleman invited Les Perelman, then a director of writing at M.I.T., to come meet with him in Lower Manhattan. Of the many things the College Board does – take part in research, develop education policy, create curriculums – it is perhaps most recognized as the organization that administers the SAT, and Perelman was one of the exam’s harshest and most relentless critics. (The New York Times)
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This week, HEC Paris became the first business school in France to offer a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), drawing more than 30,000 students to its debut class, "Understanding Europe," which is taught in English and available on Coursera. (Bloomberg/Businessweek)
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NBMBAA's new website is almost ready to go live. Go in today and update your profile to take advantage of new features, like a résumé review and score! And while you're updating, why not take the time to give your résumé a quick refresh. Whether you're actively job hunting, or just keeping your network active, a current, vibrant résumé  is key to ensuring your future success.

With thousands of applicants applying for the same jobs, recruiters are only spending an average of six (yes, that's 6!) seconds scanning your résumé, Making it past those few seconds is critical.
Click here for tips on refreshing your résumé and login to your NBMBAA member account to update your profile.
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The next wave of fitness trackers will do a lot more than count your steps, mold raw data, and present it all for you in a pretty chart for you to glance at and forget about. If Jawbone Up is any indication, these wearables will use the subtle power of suggestion to help us live healthier lives, too. (Fast Company)
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While there was much talk of wearable technology and large-screen smartphones at last week's Mobile World Congress (MWC), another trend has begun to emerge: secure phones that ensure your privacy. Ever since Edward Snowden blew the whistle on global surveillance operations run by the U.S. and other governments, the privacy of citizens' messages, phone calls and emails has become a major concern. (CNBC)
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At a party in the fall of 2012, Casey Gerald, Michael Baker, Amaris Singer and Hicham Mhammedi Alaoui – all first-year students at Harvard Business School – were talking about potential summer jobs. "We thought, ‘What if we ditch the cubicle and spend the next summer on the road learning from and working with entrepreneurs?’ " Mr. Gerald said. (The New York Times)
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Phil Libin, a self-confessed nerd and geek, does not have the personality of a typical chief executive. For while most bosses of major companies have a hard-edged, go-getting confidence, the top man at US technology firm Evernote freely admits that he is "not particularly good" at many facets of his job. (BBC News)
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Valerie Daniels-Carter is a business powerhouse. Serving as the co-founder, president and CEO of V&J Holdings Inc., a Milwaukee-based franchise company that operates fast-food restaurants, Daniels-Carter has spent her life fine-tuning her business talents to build her food empire. She opened her first Burger King store in 1984 with her brother John Daniels Jr., leaving behind her banking background in favor of new entrepreneurial opportunities. (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
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A Federal Reserve survey shows severe weather held back economic growth in much of the nation from January through early February. Even so, conditions strengthened in most U.S. regions, thanks to slight gains in areas such as employment and commercial real estate, (The Washington Post)
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First-time homebuyers hurt by rising prices and tougher credit standards are disappearing from the market, slowing the pace of the three-year recovery. The decline of these buyers, many of whom are young and non-white, also threatens to widen the wealth gap between owners, who benefit from appreciation, and renters, said Thomas Lawler, a former Fannie Mae economist. (Bloomberg)
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When Washington residents voted in 1998 to raise the state's minimum wage and link it to the cost of living, opponents warned the measure would be a job-killer. The prediction hasn't been borne out. In the 15 years that followed, the state's minimum wage climbed to $9.32 – the highest in the country. Meanwhile job growth continued at an average 0.8 percent annual pace, 0.3 percentage point above the national rate. Payrolls at Washington's restaurants and bars, portrayed as particularly vulnerable to higher wage costs, expanded by 21 percent. Poverty has trailed the U.S. level for at least seven years. (Daily Finance)
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Short on personnel and funding, the IRS audits less than 1% of all individual tax returns annually. We expect the audit rate to fall even lower as resources continue to shrink and even more employees are reassigned to identity theft cases. So the odds are pretty low that your return will be picked for review. And, of course, the only reason filers should worry about an audit is if they are fudging on their taxes. (Kiplinger's)
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You meant it when you said, "Study hard in high school, and we'll send you to the best college you get into." But now you're looking at the cost of Dream U – and panicking. Sticker prices at the top private colleges exceed $60,000. Even with scholarships, typical middle-class families face bills totaling $24,500 a year at private colleges, and $16,500 at public ones, the Department of Education reports. (CNN/Money)
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Most of the initial stages on the road to wealth involve making sure that you're moving forward, not slipping backward. Unfortunately, many of us are too consumed by day-to-day life to focus on the countless instances of small-scale back-sliding: completely unnecessary waste, extra money we could have if we just reached for it, fees we could avoid if we just made a little effort. The stupid easy stuff, in other words. (Money Magazine)
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In less than two years, stockbroker Marcos D. Leiva racked up a personal bankruptcy, a tax lien, a court judgment for unpaid debt and a criminal guilty plea relating to a false report to law enforcement. Each should have been promptly disclosed to investors. None was. (The Wall Street Journal)
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For fliers, the ideal seat is usually in first or business class. For airlines, the sweet spot on long-haul flights is, increasingly, farther back in the plane. A new hybrid class, called premium economy, is appearing on more planes due into its attractive economics. The seats generally give passengers a bit more space than traditional coach and often come with extra amenities like better food. Tickets are pricier than for basic economy, but still much cheaper than flying up front. (The Wall Street Journal)
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Warding off the specter of election-year health insurance cancellations, the Obama administration Wednesday announced a two-year extension for individual policies that don't meet requirements of the new health care law. (NPR)
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The Congressional Budget Office's, or CBO's, recent report that projects the impact of increases in the minimum wage has generated a good deal of controversy. Much of that controversy has been the result of the fact that by and large, coverage of the report has not provided a complete context in which to view the agency's projections – blurring the fact that the benefits of raising the minimum wage far outweigh the costs. (Huffington Post)
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Jill Hazelbaker has advanced faster than any other senior executive in the Fortune 100, according to research in the March issue of HBR – and she’s the youngest leader in that exclusive data set. She cut her teeth in electoral politics, quickly developing the skills and confidence there to thrive at a high-octane company like Google, where she’s now director of communications, internal communications, and government relations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In this brief interview with HBR, Hazelbaker attributes much of her career success to mentoring from "some real greats," relentless preparation, and a willingness to pick up and move for the right growth opportunities. (Harvard Business Review)
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If you're one of those bosses who thinks your company's employee engagement couldn't be better, this infographic by Socialcast may scare you. It shows that most American employees, many of them recent college graduates, are totally disengaged at work. Click through to see why that is and how you can fix the problem at your own company. (Inc.)
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Everybody knows there are certain things you can't share on the Internet without the risk of serious consequences – photos of yourself in compromising positions, intimate details of your travel plans, or what you really think of your boss, for instance. But there are other morsels of information we share with regularity and without considering the consequences to our own detriment, as one of ZDNET writer Zach Whittaker's colleagues found out recently after granting Whittaker permission to try and hack him. (Huffington Post)
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