Career Development

"Companies plan to raise their salary budgets a median of 2.8% in 2011 after giving median 2.4% raises in 2010, according to a survey by management consulting firm Hay Group."

"As the economy gradually recovers, some big U.S. companies are cranking up their recruiting and advertising thousands of job openings, ranging from retail clerks and nurses to bank tellers and experts in cloud computing."

"College-admission letters are starting to roll in, but a growing number of students will decide instead to take a year off to try out potential careers or broaden their horizons. Gap-year activities range from doing volunteer work or taking classes, to working for pay, traveling or tackling outdoor adventures."

"10 Things Your Boss Won't Tell You"

"Matthew Gonzales Sanchez calls it his "midterm crisis." Halfway through the first semester of his freshman year here at Our Lady of the Lake University, he considered dropping out. He had failed all of his midterms. "It scared me because, man, I was giving it my all," says Mr. Gonzales Sanchez, 22. "I thought, 'What am I doing wrong? They say college isn't for everybody, and maybe that's me - maybe I'm not one of those people who belongs in college.'""

College students work for different reasons. Many take jobs to pay tuition and related educational expenses. Others work to afford electronic gadgets (often ones that we, their professors, don't yet know exist). Regardless of the reasons, many professors and administrators consider students' working during college to be an unfortunate distraction from what should be their primary focus: their academic studies.

"I met Dorothy Walker in my first year of Shades Valley High School, one of several schools in the Birmingham, Ala., area. Confident of little and terrified of much, I entered the honors section of her 10th-grade English class. Known to us simply as Mrs. Walker, she began by using the prescribed curriculum to shape and mold us as her students. Without my realizing it, she began teaching me a lesson that took me three graduate degrees, 24 years of service in higher education, and countless life experiences to understand: the enormous impact educators can have on their students."

"In the last few years, leadership programs have sprung up in remarkable numbers at colleges and universities across the country. Institutions as diverse as Creighton University, Arizona State University, and Highland Community College, in Illinois, now offer leadership training and opportunities to their students. Some universities and colleges, like Gonzaga and the City University of Seattle, have developed degree programs in leadership, and many more such programs are being planned. It seems that every university Web page and presidential message now highlights leadership opportunities for students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels."

"In my experience, few factors have a bigger impact on the juggle than the emotional climate where you work. At a previous employer years ago, the prevailing employee attitude was ceaseless, simmering resentment and cynicism over ever-rising workloads and a lack of recognition to us for shouldering the burden. I tried to keep an optimistic attitude there, but a fierce desire to get out drove me to work weekends and holidays to land a better job at a better place to work. When I did, my energy for family and personal life soared."

"The number of online listings containing the keywords "HTML5," "Mobile app," and "Android," have skyrocketed over the past year, making them the fastest growing keywords in jobs posted online, according to data tracked by jobs search engine Indeed.com."

"I answered my phone recently to hear a friend shrieking in my ear. "Check your inbox for the email I just sent you," he wailed. "And please, please tell me I didn't hit Reply All." What happens when we hit "reply all" by mistake? The result can be very embarrassing to say the least. Elizabeth Bernstein offers some tips on how to avoid making such a potentially costly mistake. You know that feeling: You hit Send-and your heart nearly stops. This shouldn't still be happening. After almost two decades of constant, grinding email use, we should all be too tech-savvy to keep making the same mortifying mistake, too careful to keep putting our relationships and careers on the line because of sloppiness. "

"On just about every reality TV show, from "The Bachelor" to "Jersey Shore" to "The Real Housewives" (pick a city -- any city), we hear the same thing: "I don't like drama." But disdain for drama isn't limited to our favorite reality stars. It's also apparent in the workplace. Bing: Don't get burned by office politics"

"We've written before about bosses who have gotten fed up with the demands of the juggle and have made changes to their workplaces to relieve some of the pressures. But is it possible to have a boss who takes work-life balance to such an extreme that "life" outweighs "work"?"

"Death on the job was a routine hazard for American workers a century ago. About 100 workers, on average, died every day as mines collapsed, ships sank, trains crashed and factories burned. Nearly all of them are long forgotten."

Information and advice for students and adults returning to school, as well as parents, counselors, faculty advisors, and education policymakers.

"In 2003, Career Development Alliance (CDA) was challenged to provide quality career services to the diverse, geographically dispersed workforce of the Transportation Security Agency (TSA)-and to do so on-demand and at a reasonable cost. We met this challenge by designing a dynamic system of telephone and Internet services provided by over 30 career counselors across the U.S., supported by a state-of-the-art website, streaming video, podcasts-tech tools. At the seven-year mark, we have provided career counseling, training, and executive and management coaching to thousands of clients and have worked within budget while garnering consistently strong feedback."

"Do you feel like your job choice out of college is the most important decision you will ever make, and that blowing it will tank your career? Relax and get used to it. It is just the first of many job choices you will be making throughout your career."

"The last three men nominated to the Supreme Court have all been married and, among them, have seven children. The last three women - Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Harriet Miers (who withdrew) - have all been single and without children. "

"Recently, I said goodbye to a beloved coworker and former boss who left to pursue new career interests. She was here for less than three years-I've been here for 10-but during her short tenure, she made a very big impression on me. Her management and editing style was stronger and more inspiring than that of anyone I had reported to previously, and under her guidance, I saw my career ascend to a much greater level."

"Hiring has yet to hit a rapid clip, but it's not for lack of job openings. Since December, the economy has added about 130,000 jobs a month, barely more than what is needed to keep up with population growth, according to the U.S. Labor Department. Meanwhile, the number of job openings advertised online has grown by more than 400,000, to 4.2 million, according to the Conference Board, a research organization. That increase continued a trend that began in the spring of 2009."