Careers & Education
College Survival: Unenrolled … But Not For Long, the good news about rolling admissions
If it weren’t for rolling applications, I probably wouldn’t be writing this today. At age 20 and with two years of college behind me, I decided to switch majors, living arrangements, lovers, and jobs; all of which meant I needed to apply and get accepted to a new...
College Survival 101: So you’re in the Valley going to college and you haven’t found your fav spots yet …
So you’re in the Valley going to college and you haven’t found your fav spots yet. You haven’t found a mechanic or a hairdresser you trust. Some of you are new to the area, some of you are new to being out on your own, and some of you are both. That’s a hard boat to...
Careers and Education: Making Your Own Second Chances
Somewhere between climate change, the recession, and an ever-burgeoning Internet universe, the professional landscape changed a lot over the past decade. Naturally, we the worker bees can only scramble to keep up. Hit by the Great Recession, some baby boomers are...
Be Well At Work: De-zombify office life
When a zombie plague hits London in the movie Shaun of the Dead, several scenes pass before the protagonist realizes that his trudging, moaning white-collar cohorts have transformed. If you’ve ever wandered through the office like the resident undead, you should...EcoMetrics 101
By Amy CorteseRay Anderson’s conversion—what he calls a “spear to the heart”—came in 1994 while he was reading Paul Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce. In it, the Smith & Hawken cofounder argued that business should inspire a more...Thinking Small
By John Grossmaneslie Fishbein, president of Kacey Fine Furniture, was idly watching a T-Mobile commercial when inspiration struck. What if we replace our drivers’ cell phones with camera phones, she wondered. That way, she figured, delivery personnel at the...Office Politics: Not Optional
By Penelope TrunkHere is a message for people who say they can’t stomach office politics: You will die a slow, painful career death. This is because there’s no getting around office politics, and mastering them is essential to being able to steer your own...Career Lift
By Courtney E. MartinLinda Castner, a no-nonsense kind of woman with a pair of aviator’s goggles as well as reading glasses hanging around her neck, leans back in her lawn chair on the edge of the runway and watches a Cessna take a pass through the overcast sky...Reality B-School
By Christopher SheaDonald Trump has redrawn the New York skyline and altered the prime-time television solar system. Could he do the same for business education? In May, the helmet-haired superdeveloper announced the founding of “Trump University.” At the...
Education for Profit
By many measures, the University of Phoenix is the most successful institution for higher education in American history. With more than 325,000 students currently enrolled—22 times the number at the University of Chicago—Phoenix is vast, and contains...Teaching in Springfield
On Thursday afternoon, April 5, the parking lot of the Meline Kasparian Professional Development Center behind the High School of Science and Technology on State Street was packed with the cars of college graduates or those soon to be grads who’d shown up for...Generation Gap?
“Kids nowadays?”That phrase used to signal a long, weary complaint by parents about their wayward teenagers. But I’m hearing it more and more in offices, in executive suites, from managers who just can’t fathom their new work force....Making the Grade
A successful career begins before your graduate, not afterward. Consider these pointers from those experienced enough to know.1. Take leadership roles. The best way to learn to lead is to do it. Generation Y has been raised to be great team players in everything from...
Careers & Education: The Gig Economy
We are living at the dawn of the freelance world, as more and more people find themselves working as consultants, contract workers or freelancers. This change in the way we work is as profound as the shift that occurred during the Industrial Revolution. More than 25...
Careers and Education
The crisis in the cost of college came about not only because of predatory lenders, opportunistic schools and a crashing economy. Lesser things contributed: the housing bubble that began in the 1980s and has made it more difficult for students in the Valley and...
Structuring the Unstructured
When I arrive at the Florence Organic Community Gardens, Pandora Redwin is standing a couple feet off the ground, balancing on a wooden post and tending to a tarp that stretches out over her. Next to the tarp structure, several smoothed logs stretch out in a circle....College: The Debt Trap
For years, student loan debt has been mounting, and borrowers have been trapped in a bubble in which the availability of financial aid and the cost of college have driven each other up. Since the crash of 2007, the time bomb has exploded, with more and more graduates...Still In Denial
One of the most important people in finance was overlooking Central Park from his Fifth Avenue apartment, enjoying the Bach that his twin teenage daughters were playing on violin and speaking to the young Fulbright scholars from Iraq and China he’d invited for a...
The Next Generation
Part of knowing which way to steer your career is knowing what is changing in the landscape. In 10 years, Gen Y will have taken over middle management; maybe in five years, if my own office is any indication. But I am sure Gen Y will run the show differently. And no...Health Care and Aging: Fields of Opportunity
Begin with this premise: the Baby Boomers’ aging pushes a large portion of the population older. According to David Stevens, executive director of the Massachusetts Councils on Aging, in Massachusetts, this demographic currently accounts for about 20 percent of...A Matter of Degree
After high school, it's tougher for young people to continue their education than it has been for a long time. Parents losing jobs and threatened with home foreclosure are taking children out of college, or sending them to the school that's most affordable...Careers & Ed: Amateur Hour
It was glaringly sunny in Washington, D.C. on April 5, the day President Barack Obama signed the JOBS Act, and there was some confusion as to the location of the afterparty. One faction of Rose Garden attendees gathered on the roof of the W Hotel and wondered where...
Navigating Change
Cooley Dickinson Hospital is a small community hospital Northampton that has, in recent years, worked in partnership with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, then returned to its status as an independent entity, and now is forging a partnership with Massachusetts...
Rethinking College Admission
I spent the past year working as an admissions officer at Amherst College. My predominant responsibility was to recruit students and review their applications. When I’d meet with eager high-schoolers and their white-knuckled parents, I was often bombarded with...
The DIY Career
Last summer, I spent weeks shopping for an anniversary present for my wife. I searched all my usual retail sources but couldn't find anything that hit just the right note. Then I went to Etsy.com—an ecommerce site where artisans sell unique handmade...Entry Points
If you’re in the job market, you’ve probably noticed that every second job advertised online seems to be related to healthcare. From nursing to massage to long term PCA (personal care attendant) positions, healthcare is one of the Valley’s strongest...
Snow Jobs
Thankfully, the snow sports industry offers an astounding number of job opportunities. There are positions for anyone who just wants to be a ski bum for a season, as well as permanent jobs for those looking to make a career out of winter sports. Most jobs at resorts...Careers & Ed: No Executive Washroom Here
The recession may have an effect few people are aware of: it could be giving nonprofits a new recruiting edge in the search for managers and employees with business skills, says Jennifer Elder, owner of Sustainable CFO, which provides on-demand CFO services and...Careers and Education: Off Track
According to a recent study, Gen X and late baby boomers are on track to replace only about half of their current income when they reach retirement—which means they’ll need to seriously downgrade their lifestyles. Most financial planners recommend...E-Edition
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