The post A New Way to Earn a University Degree Without the Cost: Work at Starbucks appeared first on Brazen Life.

“You better study for that math test,” the stereotypical concerned parent might say, “or you’re going to end up slinging coffee at Starbucks for the rest of your days!”

But now with a new announcement from the Seattle-based coffee giant, selling grande lattes might not be the the end of a barista’s educational journey. The company just announced it will reimburse employees who earn an online degree. In partnership with the well regarded Arizona State University, Starbucks is offering free tuition to the university’s 33 undergraduate and about 30 graduate online programs with no obligation to pay back anything. (Click here to tweet this news.)

Who benefits from Starbuck’s new educational program?

There are a few caveats, but the deal remains pretty sweet no matter how you look at it. To be eligible, employees need to have the grades to qualify to attend Arizona State and must work 20 hours a week or more at a company-owned Starbucks (not a franchise location).

The company particularly rewards employees who have taken some classes already and are now going back to complete their degree; students who enroll as juniors or seniors get a free ride, while workers who have less than two years of college under their belt when they enroll are eligible for a partial tuition reimbursement of around $6,500. Starbucks advisors will help employees apply for PELL grants and other forms of financial assistance as well.

What could that be worth to an ambitious barista? Arizona State tuition runs about $10,000 a year, so for a Starbucks employee who enrolls as a junior and gets a free ride through graduation, that’s worth about $20,000.

Starbucks claims it’s making the heavy investment as an effort to fight inequality and develop its workforce. “There’s no doubt, the inequality within the country has created a situation where many Americans are being left behind. The question for all of us is, should we accept that, or should we try and do something about it,” CEO Howard Schultz said in a release.

Starbucks’ workers may be the big winners of this new program, but the move is also a huge win for online education in general and Arizona State University in particular. “The company isn’t disclosing the financial terms of its agreement with Arizona State University. But the program could significantly boost the enrollment for Arizona State’s online program,” commented The Huffington Post, for instance.

What other employers will pay you to go to school?

Starbucks is far from the only big employer to offer to reimburse educational expenses, but it is one of the very few that doesn’t require employees to stick around after they complete their degrees. As InThe Capital’s Molly Greenberg notes, “this is an intriguing move made by Starbucks, as most large organizations that offer tuition reimbursement plans require their employees to stay on staff for a specified duration of time in order to also benefit from their workers’ degree.”

Who else might be willing to foot the bill for your degree? Business Insider helpfully rounded up 15 companies that provide some form of tuition assistance and details on the terms of their programs. Firms include Best Buy, Home Depot, UPS and Gap.

What do you think of Starbuck’s new educational program? Would you be more likely to work for a company that offering reimbursement for education?

Jessica Stillman is a freelance writer based in London. She writes a daily column for Inc.com, contributes regularly to Forbes and Women 2.0 and has blogged for CBS MoneyWatch and GigaOM, among others.

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The post Manage GenY Employees? Here’s What They Want From You appeared first on Brazen Life.

The culprit? It might not be entry-level pay or the smallest cubicle, but a factor you wouldn’t expect: lacking opportunities to continue learning in their first jobs.

The 2014 College Graduate Employment Survey, released recently by Accenture, found that 80 percent of 2014 graduates expect a formal training program from their first employer. But only about half of 2012 and 2013 grads reported receiving such training.

One of the strengths of the GenY set is their willingness to learn and to try new things. In response, managers have an opportunity to help their younger employees grow. Not sure where to start? Try these ideas: (Click here to tweet this list.)

Empower your employees

If your company is small or lacks the resources to offer a formal training program, toss the keys to your employee. “This is exactly the kind of training and career path that many creative people want: to be able to set challenging goals for themselves and then try to meet them,” Richard Branson explained in an advice column on Entrepreneur. And with self-paced online learning programs like Skillshare and Codecademy, your protégé may be able to study at the office.

McLean Robbins, a freelance writer and social media trainer, noted that brown-bag lunch presentations offer younger staffers a chance to not just learn about relevant topics, but also to groom their public speaking and presentation skills.

Be a student, too

Whether you’re providing the coaching or just the encouragement to self-starters, remember that you can also learn from from GenY staffers.

A fresh graduate can be especially helpful in teaching you the ropes of new tech tools or social media trends. When you’re willing to learn — and be taught — you foster engagement. Engagement and a sense of being useful can in turn lead to company loyalty.

“[GenY workers] seek to continually improve themselves, and by providing clearly defined metrics for appropriate behavior and even promotions and success, these employees are much more likely to stay engaged,” Robbins said.

Share your experience through mentoring

Mentoring may not come with homework or formal programming, but real-world experience shared through conversation can be valuable to younger employees.

For example, Discovery Communications’ MentorNet program matches employees with more senior staffers in their department or field of interest, whether the best match is down the hall or around the world in a global office.

“I was very interested in learning more about digital content and strategy on a global scale, and the company matched me up with someone overseeing digital content for Discovery Networks International,” Kim Tran explained. “Talking to my mentor on a weekly basis was so exciting because she had over a decade of experience in the industry and was incredibly insightful. I learned so much just through our conversations.”

Tran has since left Discovery, but said that her mentor offered candid advice that helped her make decisions about the next step in her career.

If you manage GenY employees for your company, how do you offer them opportunities to learn?

Lisa Rowan is a writer and editor in Washington, D.C.

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The post How to Make the Most of Your Liberal Arts Degree While Job Searching appeared first on Brazen Life.

I found that this plan panned out wonderfully… until right before graduation. It was then that I worried that people wouldn’t take me seriously because I was going to have a degree in visual art. Luckily, as it turns out, if you know how to talk about what you studied and make connections between what you did in college and what you can do at work, you can still find a great opportunity. All it takes is learning how to own your education.

I’m not saying it’s always easy: it took me three months after I graduated in 2012 to secure a corps member position with City Year. Since it was an AmeriCorps program, I was only involved for a year, so when it ended, it took another two months to end up at the nonprofit where I currently work. That being said, here are few tips that I think helped me find my job:

I identified transferable skills I gained in the classroom

In college I spent countless hours in one studio or another, often with paint/clay/charcoal on my face. This, though kind of gross, doesn’t mean I didn’t learn a lot, nor does it mean that I don’t have skills that are applicable outside of the art world.

Art didn’t just require me to refine technical and fine motor skills; I also built up skills in creative thinking, problem solving, and time management. Portfolio presentations meant public speaking skills, and crafting artist statements meant working on writing.

I found that though my studies suggested I pursue a job in the arts sector, the skills that I developed would also apply well to the needs of a nonprofit organization, which I had become very interested in. I used my list of skills to influence the type of jobs I looked for.

What you can do: An important aspect of making a liberal arts degree work for you is thinking about and presenting the skills that you’ve built. List out the transferable skills you built in various classes. You might be surprised by what you realize!

Get started: 6 transferable skills that hiring managers value

I reflected on what I did outside of the classroom

When I was in college, I wanted to immerse myself in the whole culture of it. I had a few different work-study positions, I volunteered, and I even took on two minors.

These experiences helped round me out: While art allowed me to thrive as the introvert I love to be, my job in my college’s resource center required me to have positive phone demeanor, give people guidance in finding materials, and become customer service oriented. As a student adviser, I took on event planning and organizing for my advisees and myself. Leading a volunteer trip helped me become a planner, gave me patience and challenged me to make decisions.

What you can do: Take a look back at your experiences and figure out what they’ve done for you, or take on a volunteer experience to see what you can get from it! Take my word for it: adding variety to what you do keeps your mind moving and introduces you to new opportunities. I’ve added my other experiences to my resume, and they are great examples of how I’ve been able to develop skills and manage my time.

Get started: 4 tips for finding a career-enhancing volunteer opportunity and How can you present your volunteer experience in a competitive job market?

I embraced my background!

This is arguably the most important aspect of making your liberal arts background beneficial to your job search. When interviewing for a position, I often found that interviewers were curious about my choice in major. They would ask why I chose it, and what I learned, and this always gave me the opportunity to talk a little about my love for art, how art helped me see multiple solutions to a problem, and why watercolors are my favorite medium. As a topic of conversation, my major has always given me a way to show interviewers what makes me different, and why my uniqueness is a positive.

At my current organization, it was openly appreciated that I had this background, because it was something that added to the dynamic of the existing staff. By talking about why you chose a particular field of study, what you gained from it, and how it’s contributed to your uniqueness, you’re giving the interviewer a glimpse of who you are while also acting as a champion of your own choices.

What you can do: Practice talking with a friend, roommate, or even your mirror about what you chose to study in college. Get comfortable with telling people why your choice to study a liberal arts topic was a good one.

Get started: Download this Google doc to help you prepare stories for a job interview

I made a game plan

Because a major in liberal arts gives you the opportunity to explore many different avenues, it’s very important to narrow down your options and make a plan around what jobs you’ll apply to.

I was able to define a path for myself by looking back at my experiences and finding a common thread. For me, my most enjoyable work/volunteer/life experiences involved bettering the lives of kids, so it made sense to apply to nonprofits based in education and education reform. I also care deeply about issues of equality, and hope to work with an organization that focuses on minority issues at some point. These are the types of jobs that I focused on applying to, and it ended up working out.

What you can do: Look back on your experiences and identify your common thread. Review your resume, or list out all of your experiences. Take note of any patterns you see (like my pattern of working with kids). Use this to figure out the common thread in your experiences. From there, figure out what you want out of a job and what you can offer.

Get started: Here’s how to find a common thread in your career and how to craft an attention-grabbing cover letter and resume.

Find your niche and apply to jobs that fit with it, and use these tips to become the best liberal arts student-turned-professional the working world has ever seen.

Ashley Lee is a graduate of Wheelock College. She majored in Visual Art and minored in Psychology and Women’s Studies, and now works for a Boston area nonprofit. She is an avid crafter, reader, and hopes to be a change agent in the city of Boston for some time to come. Connect with her on Twitter.

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The post 17 Hard Truths Every College Grad Must Understand appeared first on Brazen Life.

That’s the argument from graduating students at the University of South Florida. School officials at USF have asked grads to not snap selfies as they receive diplomas.

A quote from the Associated Press:

“I don’t have an anti-selfie bent,” said Michael Freeman, the USF dean who made the selfie rule. “I would just caution students to think there’s a time and place.”

A “time and place.” How true.

Graduation is one of the most formative times and places of our young adult lives. (Click here to tweet this thought.) Soon, you will dive into the chaotic job market and join the ranks of working adults.

This spring, forget about the pros and cons of selfies at the commencement ceremony. Look up from the camera, stick it in your pocket and understand once you cross the stage, life gets real.

Oh, and congrats on graduating.

17 Hard Truths Every College Grad Must Understand

1. A diploma does not guarantee an internship, job or career. It is merely a passport into the professional world. Now you’re in the jungle with the rest of us. May the best man 0r woman win.
2. To an employer, you look like every other recent grad who suddenly needs a full-time job. Unless, of course, your application promises to deliver exactly what the company needs —like this.

3. Your college coursework, difficult as it was, will never compete with someone’s real-world experience. You need skills ASAP even if they come from an internship or part-time situation. And never forget: a personal blog will make you instantly more marketable.

4. Expect to live frugally for a while. According to CNNMoney, average earnings for recent grads between the ages of 21 and 24 are around $16.99 or 8 percent lower than in 2007.

5. You finished four years of bloated, long-winded 12-page college essays. Unfortunately, the real world is busy and demands brevity. Remember: less is always more.

6. Your resume should be one page in length. Period. You don’t have enough experience to warrant two pages, much less three or four. Give employers the best one pager possible, and they will respect you for it.

7. There are three unemployed people for every job opening. It’s true. You’d better think creatively with your applications.

8. Order of importance on your resume: relevant skills, jobs/internships and then where you went to school. So stick education at the bottom and put “Skills” as close to the top as you can. Guarantee that’s the first place an employer looks.

9. “Your diploma is…permission to admit to yourself how much you still have yet to learn.” — Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson during the 2013 graduation at Rice University. Check out 15 more hard truths from last year’s commencement exercises.

10. Your first job won’t be your forever job. Don’t think too much about whether it’s the “perfect” situation. If your instincts say it’s a smart move, then go for it and don’t look back.

11. Google’s top HR person on job interviews: “What you want to do is say: ‘Here’s the attribute I’m going to demonstrate; here’s the story demonstrating it; here’s how that story demonstrated that attribute.’” TRUTH.

12. Forget texting. Forget Twitter. Forget email. Pick up the phone and call someone. That’s what adults do in the real world.

13. To land a job, you don’t need to live in one of America’s ten best cities for recent grads. You can create opportunity anywhere you set your two feet. Again, create opportunity. Don’t wait for good fortune to fall in your lap. It won’t.

14. According to USA TODAY, unemployment for 18 to 29 year olds is 15.8%, more than double the general rate. Want to stand out? Go beyond. After a job interview, send a hand-written thank-you note within 24 hours.

15. If you want people to take an interest in you, then you need to first take an interest in them — like this. [tweet the line]

16. With enough preparation, grit and confidence, you can land any entry-level position you want. Be proud of your degree, sure, but from here on out, success depends on you and not a piece of paper.

17. One more thing: “…trust me on the sunscreen.”

Danny Rubin is the creator and writer of News To Live By, a blog for Millennials that highlights the career advice and leadership lessons *hidden* in the day’s top stories. His columns have been featured on several blogs and news sites, including The New York Times and Business Insider.

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The post What College Students Should Focus On (And It’s Not GPA) appeared first on Brazen Life.

In an interview with the The New York Times, Laszlo Brock, senior VP of people operations for Google, did say that “GPAs are a worthless criteria for hiring,” but he didn’t mean to imply your entire college education is moot. Rather, he meant that your focus in college should be on much more than simply making the grade.

In a follow-up piece, New York Times writer Thomas Friedman shared additional statements from his interview with Brock, which clarify that what really matters to employers is what you get out of your time at college — the skills you learn, the choices you make and the thought processes you demonstrate. As Friedman writes:

“My belief is not that one shouldn’t go to college,” said Bock. It is that among 18- to 22-year-olds — or people returning to school years later — “most don’t put enough thought into why they’re going, and what they want to get out of it.” Of course, we want an informed citizenry, where everyone has a baseline of knowledge from which to build skills. That is a social good. But, he added, don’t just go to college because you think it is the right thing to do and that any bachelor’s degree will suffice. “The first and most important thing is to be explicit and willful in making the decisions about what you want to get out of this investment in your education.” It’s a huge investment of time, effort and money and people should think “incredibly hard about what they’re getting in return.”

To find out how to make the most of your college years, read the full article here. (You can also read the original article, which sparked the debate, here.)

What should college students do to make the most of those college years? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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The post Does Your GPA Really Matter? Here’s the Truth for College Grads appeared first on Brazen Life.

According to Google, your GPA can wait. (Click here to tweet this thought.)

That’s right, in a recent article on the NY Times, Lazlo Bock, the senior vice president of people operations for Google, revealed that:

GPAs are worthless as a criteria for hiring, and test scores are worthless… We found that they don’t predict anything.

But surely good grades and your degree count for something, right?

Google’s answer:

When you look at people who don’t go to school and make their way in the world, those are exceptional human beings. And we should do everything we can to find those people.

To add insult to injury, he added that too many colleges “don’t deliver on what they promise. You generate a ton of debt, [and] you don’t learn the most useful things for your life.”

Now that you’ve mentally put your degree through the shredder, you’re probably left with the question: What does matter if I want to get my dream job with an awesome company like Google?

Well, here are three traits companies like Google look for in their hiring efforts:

1. General cognitive ability

That’s a fancy way of saying the ability to learn and process information on the fly.

There’s no doubt that hiring quick and adaptive thinkers plays a huge role in these companies’ continued innovation and success. So drink some brain juice before applying.

2. Emergent leadership

Sorry guys, this isn’t the same as being class president. Bock says:

What we care about is, when faced with a problem and you’re a member of a team, do you, at the appropriate time, step in and lead? And just as critically, do you step back and stop leading, do you let someone else? Because what’s critical to be an effective leader in this environment is you have to be willing to relinquish power.

Some political leaders may not be so fond of the whole “relinquishing power” deal, but you should definitely consider it if you want to work for a company like Google.

3. Intellectual humility

Organizations of the Google caliber want people who will work their butt off to solve a problem, and then step back and create the space for other people’s ideas and contributions.

They need to have the confidence to fight for their ideas and the open-mindedness to accept other people’s points of view with the goal of creating the best possible solution.

But the most interesting point Bock made was that expertise is the least important attribute they look for. Fitting in on a character level is more important than education or expertise.

Don’t drop your education entirely after reading this article, because a degree and relevant experience are still important to many companies out there.

But Google doesn’t care about your GPA because there are far more important criteria to consider.

And they’re not the only ones.

If you’re driven to do something amazing with your life and work for an inspiring company, take your GPA with a grain of salt, and focus on developing the skills and characteristics these companies are looking for.

It’s the way of the future.

Ryan Niessen partnered up with the founder of the GameChangers500 to create The Gateway Method: a simple, proven way to gain inside access to the world’s best employers and get your dream job. You can connect with him on Google +, LinkedIn or Facebook.

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The post Ready for Spring Break? Why You Should Skip the Parties and Focus on Your Career appeared first on Brazen Life.

OK, so your spring break may not involve holding up a restaurant to fund your vacation or working with a drug dealer. But it can be just as productive.

When you’re in the final stages of your college career, you may want to throw all productivity out the window. But this crucial time can contribute to your future career. This spring break, don’t go the stereotypical route — have a productive “vacation” that ensures you’re on the right track come graduation time.

Here are some ways to stay productive this spring break:

1. Kick your social habits up a notch

Studies indicate that employers scour social networks to find the perfect candidate. While you may not have graduated yet, kicking your social presence into overdrive can set the stage for your future job search.

Blogging about your professional adventures can help shape you as a candidate. Creating an online job search campaign helps you stand out from the crowd. Straight interaction with your dream organization also puts you in a great light. When a hiring leader stumbles on your social platforms, you’ll have enough content to prove you know your stuff.

2. Discuss your job search with mentors

Your mentors can be an important part of your job search. They can recommend you for a job or advise you on how to navigate your career. After all, an internship employer or a professor has been there before; they understand the industry and can give you key pointers to ensure success.

3. Take on more work in your internship

It’s no surprise that internships are the key to landing an entry-level job. Increase your chances of landing a full-time job by taking on some additional projects this spring break.

Since you may have more time on your hands, ask your internship employer what you can do to help. This shows your dedication to the organization and your eagerness to learn more, which are both attractive qualities in a potential hire.

4. Create a job search plan

It’s smart to start looking for a job before graduation. During your time off, start a job search plan. Make a list of your ideal companies, qualities you’d like in a position and salary requirements. In addition, create a spreadsheet that manages where you’ve applied, contact information and whether or not you’ve followed up.

The job search can be complicated — be on top of it before you begin. (Click here to tweet this thought.)

5. Have fun

There are plenty of ways to have fun during your spring break, some of which can benefit you in the long run, like volunteering for your favorite organization or attending networking events or virtual meetups. While these activities don’t exactly scream “spring break,” they’ll positively contribute to your career — and you’ll have fun doing them, too.

What happens on spring break shouldn’t stay on spring break. Use these five productivity tips to ensure you’re ahead of the competition and nabbing your dream career before anyone else.

What do you think? What are some other productivity tips you can use this spring break?

Ashley Mosley is Community Engagement Manager at InternMatch, an online platform connecting the best intern candidates and employers. Connect with Ashley and InternMatch on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

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The post First Year of College? 9 Tips to Start Your University Years Right appeared first on Brazen Life.

You’ll encounter a big learning curve as you transition from high school to college. For probably the first time in your life, you’re living on your own, making important life decisions, meeting new people and trying to pick a career. To top it off, you’re still a teenager.

You’re bound to make some mistakes. That’s OK. The good news is that many have gone before you and learned their lessons the hard way. I’m here to share with you nine things I wish someone had told me before I started college:

1. Don’t buy books at the bookstore

Campus bookstores are ridiculously overpriced. Yes, your bookstore is convenient, but when you think outside the bookstore box, you can save tremendously on textbooks.

It’s cheaper to buy your books online. Buy your books used on Amazon if possible. At the semester’s end, you can head back to Amazon to re-sell your books to other budget-conscious students. This tip will literally save you hundreds of dollars per semester. Use this tip to stretch your budget and spend your savings on groceries (or beer) instead.

2. Get to know your professors

Brown-nosing has its perks. I’m not saying your professors will absolutely play favorites… actually, that’s exactly what I’m saying. Go to their office hours to chat about how you’re doing in class and ask questions. Lots of questions.

College professors can seem intimidating at first. But once you get to know them, you’ll notice they have a lot of insight to offer.

Go in weekly, chat ‘em up and before you know it, they’ll be buying you coffee and inviting you to golf on the weekends.

3. Understand the value of unpaid internships

 If you graduate with no work experience, the job market will be tough, no matter how good your grades were in college. Employers like to hire graduates with some related work experience.

Apply for as many internships as you can find in your field, and do it early. Take the best one you can get with the most reputable company. Adding a good internship to your resume is the best way to land a job after college.

4. Get involved on campus

Your college will have tons of activities you can get involved in. You’ll find everything from rock climbing clubs to financial management clubs. Join whatever club relates to your major, and try out some fun ones, too.

You’ll meet awesome people and build your resume at the same time. Many of the academic-based clubs will help you to meet potential employers and get to know their hiring managers. Take advantage of these opportunities, even though graduation is still a few years out. The earlier you start networking, the more connections you’ll build — and the better chances you’ll have of getting hired once you have your diploma.

5. Study something you’re actually interested in

Most people don’t know what they want to do after college, and that’s perfectly OK. Specialization is overrated, anyway.

Take classes in several subjects and see what you like. Don’t be afraid to switch majors — it’s more common than you think, and it’s easier than switching careers down the line.

In the long run, you’ll be happy you pursued something you were passionate about.

6. Make the cloud your best campus friend

Back up every paper, project and essay you write so it’s available on any computer with Internet access.

You won’t believe how awesome cloud backup really is until you get to your lit class only to realize you forgot the essay you stayed up all night writing in your dorm. If you backed it up on Google Drive or Dropbox, all you have to do is go to the nearest computer lab and print a new one.

7. Get out of the dorm to study

The library is a good place to get in study time because you can focus better when everyone else is also studying. You might prefer a coffee shop or the campus union as your study headquarters. Try out different locations to see what works best for you.

Just don’t study in your dorm or apartment. Your grades will suffer if you try to study in the same place your friends are playing beer pong and blaring Macklemore.

8. Find ways to meet people you wouldn’t have met otherwise

College is one of the best opportunities in your life to meet new people and create long-lasting relationships. (Click here to tweet this thought.) Meet as many people as you can and stay close with the ones who are important.

Of course, new friends will make college fun, but they could also help you land jobs down the road. Networking will help you find work opportunities just as much (or more than) good grades.

9. Prepare for these four years to fly by

As a college student, it’s easy to get caught up in passing your classes. But with all the focus on GPA, you might miss one simple fact: College is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

You only get one shot at living in the dorms, meeting so many new people in such a short amount of time and playing beer pong at random parties. Revel in those moments and take the time to enjoy yourself, because these four years fly by too quickly.

Bryce Nelson is the founder of Traffic Minded and a freelance blogger for hire who works with amazing clients to increase their reach and traffic.

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The post Why You Should Start Building Your Brand While You’re Still in College appeared first on Brazen Life.

Two-thirds of U.S. colleges and universities — more than 2,000 schools — currently offer a course in entrepreneurship. It’s no wonder students are ditching the traditional internship route and going into business for themselves. (Click here to tweet this thought.)

Companies like Facebook and FedEx were started while their founders were still in college and have grown to become household names.This proves there’s great growth potential in college startups. Whether you’re kickstarting your brand with a blog or developing a new app, here’s why getting your ducks in a row pre-degree works…

Read more at Black Enterprise…

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The post More High School Kids Feel Pressure to Do Internships appeared first on Brazen Life.

Now, as we all know, it’s more about resume- polishing and internship collecting. And it seems this flurry of career prep is spreading to high schools.

The Rat Race comes to high school

That’s according to a new survey. from Millennial Branding and Internships.com. Released today, the survey asked 4,769 people (mostly students with about 300 employers thrown in) about career preparations and ambitions. The results reveal that pressure to think about resume building and internships is seeping down into high schools.

Have a look at some of the numbers:

• 60 percent of companies agree students will need to begin to focus on their careers in high school to compete for internships and jobs in the future.

• 90 percent of companies agree high school internship programs can help students get into better colleges.

• 89 percent say they’ll have a competitive advantage when looking for a college internship or full-time job.

• 83 percent said those internships will yield better paying jobs.

Parents, it seems, agree with employers that an early-start will yield benefits. More than half of students (55 percent of high school students and 57 percent of college students) reported their parents put pressure on them to gain professional experience during high school.

It’s no shock that the economy is mostly behind this increased early focus on career. “We found that the two driving factors were their parents and the economy, both of which are most likely correlated,” Millennial Branding Managing Partner Dan Schawbel told Brazen when asked what was behind the trend. “In order to get into a better college, get better college internships and eventually a higher paying job, you need to start focusing on your career as early as possible. Parents see how bad the economy is and want to prepare their children for the worst.”

Is this a good thing?

So should we stand up and cheer that internships and volunteering are inching in on the high school experience, putting a squeeze on pep rallies and studying? Schawbel is optimistic but admits not everyone sees the early focus on careers as a good thing.

“A lot of people are concerned that this study is going to change the high school experience and that they should be partying and having fun. The bad news is that the economy has changed the job landscape and if you don’t react and manage your career differently, you will wind up on the unemployment line. High school students are volunteering and are already focused on entrepreneurship. They can absolutely handle taking on jobs that will help them stand out and grow,” he said.

“Even if they were distracted from academics, we all know that work experience is much more important than someone’s educational background. You hire someone based on prior work experience and if someone went to Cornell but hasn’t even had an internship, they are immediately removed from the pile unless their dad is the CEO!” he added.

Those who see academics as preparation for leading a more thoughtful and fulfilling life, as well as participating meaningfully in a democracy, might disagree with Schawbel. Taking the focus away from studying and socializing is an unalloyed good, but it’s hard to deny that whether we like it or not, career pressure has now reached deep into the high school years.

Do you think internships in high school are a good idea?

Jessica Stillman is a freelance writer based in London. She writes a daily column for Inc.com, contributes regularly to Forbes and Women 2.0 and has blogged for CBS MoneyWatch and GigaOM, among others.

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The post The (Good) Truth About Student Credit Cards appeared first on Brazen Life.

This article isn’t trying to sell you a credit card. This post will show you how you can set up your financial future right now and save yourself a lot of money and time in the long run.

1. Treat your credit card like a debit card

When used responsibly and correctly, student credit cards can help improve your credit score. A better credit score gives you better interest rates on future mortgages or loans, so it saves you money in the long run.

And guess what? You already have the mentality to be responsible with one. It’s safe to assume you already have a checking account and a debit card you use to make some, if not all, of your purchases. You frequently monitor your checking account online or on your phone to make sure you don’t spend more than you have.

If you can follow these same practices with a credit card, then you’re ready to use one responsibly. Don’t spend money you don’t have, and always pay your balance in full.

Your credit card and your debit card look the same, so treat them the same. (Click here to Tweet this thought.) Just because you have a credit card with a $2,000 limit does not mean you should spend $2,000 in a week.

2. Think about your long-term goals

Now let’s look at what your debit card has done to reward you for spending your (or your parents’) hard-earned money.

For the rest of your life, you’ll have a credit score attached to your name. This credit score is a grade on how well you pay off your debts and how trustworthy you are with money — mainly other people’s money.

Sometime in the future, you’ll likely want to buy a car, go back to school or put money down for a mortgage. Whether you like it or not, you most likely will have to borrow money from a financial institution to do any of those things. And along with that loan will come an interest rate.

The better your credit score, the lower your interest rate will be, and the faster you can pay off that loan.

3. Establish good credit scores now to help you out later

The only way to improve your credit score is to essentially borrow money and pay it back. That’s what a credit card does.

With a credit card, you get to spend money you don’t have and prove you possess the ability to pay it back. This is key — credit cards are also the easiest way to destroy your credit history.

So by paying off your student credit card each month, you get a head start on your credit score. Start developing an excellent rating now so you’ll be prepared for the financial decisions you need to make in the future.

4. Take advantage of student perks while you got ’em

So, why not wait until after college when you have a job to get a credit card?

Unfortunately, it’s much harder to get approved for a credit card when you have little to no credit history. Students credit cards are not available to anyone else, and banks make the approval process easy. They know from experience that many students will spend money they don’t have and make the banks tons of money.

But you won’t. You’re smart. You can apply for a student credit card, easily get approved and start using it responsibly.

Remember, you’re using your credit card as you would your debit card.

5. Get big benefits even if you’re a small spender

With a student credit card, you might think the more money you spend, the better your credit score will be. That’s not true.

Even if you put just $50 a month on your student credit card — say, for groceries or gas — your credit score will still improve as long as you pay your balance in full each month.

Additionally, most student credit card companies walk you through the whole process with tips and alerts to make sure you stay on top of your payments. After all, the last thing a credit card company wants is for you to spend a bunch of money you can’t pay back.

A student credit card can be a tool to help you start your credit history on the right foot. So look at all your options and find one that’s right for you. You might even find one that comes with some extra rewards, like cash back, airline miles or points you can put towards merchandise.

And, just maybe, once you’re done with school, your credit score will be high enough that you can get a better rewards credit card and a lower interest rate on a loan than even your parents have.

Matthew Coan is the founder of Casavvy.com, a website startup designed to help people find the best credit card offers and reviews, as well as checking and savings accounts.

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The post 15 Tips to Stretch Your College Budget appeared first on Brazen Life.

1. Newer isn’t necessarily better

Go thrift shopping for clothes and apartment furnishings. You’ll find more than just ugly sweaters at Goodwill, and you’ll save money.

2. Spend less on textbooks

If you buy your textbooks new at your college’s bookstore, you could be spending $500 or more each semester on books alone. To make a smaller dent in your wallet, do your research and shop for textbooks online.

You can also rent books for a semester. When you don’t need them anymore, sell your books online — you’ll get more money than returning them to the school store.

3. Steer clear of sororities and fraternities

If you’ve always dreamed of wearing Greek letters, be warned: it comes at a high cost. Every year you have to pay dues, spend money on clothing and other Greek life accessories and buy expensive presents for your “little” or “big.”

If you can’t afford to be a part of a fraternity or sorority, don’t worry. You’ll still be able to make friends and have fun without breaking the bank.

4. Graduate in four years (three is even better)

Aside from tuition, every semester has housing, food and fees that add up and put you in debt. To stay on track and graduate on time, talk with your advisor, make a plan and stick with it. This means maxing out your credit load each semester, if you can handle it, and taking a few CLEP exams to cut costs.

5. Budget

At the beginning of each semester, take inventory of how much money you have and how you can wisely spend it. Allow percentages of your budget for textbooks, rent, laundry, school supplies, food and leisure.

6. Rent an apartment with friends

Campus living can be very expensive. Move off-campus with friends to lower your rent and costs for utilities and apartment furnishings.

7. Turn down the heat

When the winter months hit, don’t turn up the heat. Instead of raising the temperature in the apartment, put on some slippers, a sweatshirt and even long underwear. You could save about $100 per billing cycle.

8. Cut the cable

While having Internet is essential, cable TV isn’t and costs you a large chunk of money. Cutting cable from your life could also help you focus more on your studies. You can catch up on your shows during the summer.

9. Take the bus

Most colleges offer a free shuttle service for students living off campus to get to school. Taking the bus — or even walking — saves you gas money and the cost of an on-campus parking permit. If driving is a must, see if your school has a carpool deal and hitch rides with friends and roommates.

10. Shop savvy

Food is a huge cost when living on your own. Use coupons when you can, buy store brand products and look for sale items. Think about getting a store rewards card that offers discounts or even gas rewards.

11. Make two big meals weekly

When cooking at home, two big meals a week could save you money. Make enough so you have leftovers for the week.

12. Ditch expensive drinks

If you’re on a tight budget but still need to satisfy your daily coffee craving, make it at home and save hundreds of dollars. When eating out, order water with your meal. It’s free and you’ll save at least $2.

13. Always ask for a student discount

If you go to the movies, a museum or any leisure activity, ask for a student discount. If you’re an AAA card holder or have a military ID, you can get discounts at many restaurants, hotels and attractions.

14. Save your money to pay off student loans

Just because you’re in college doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be saving money. Save a certain percentage of your income. Use that money to hold yourself over until you get a job after college or, better yet, use it to get a head start on paying off your loans. You’ll thank yourself later.

15. Cut out the extras

You don’t need to get that martini, pair of shoes or Glamour magazine. It may only seem like a few dollars here and there, but it adds up. You can still have fun without spending money, and you should encourage your friends to choose cheap or money-free activities.

The best way to combat the expenses of college is to be smart with your wallet and stick to a tight budget. (Click here to Tweet this thought.) Every dollar you save will help you maintain your checking account balance and leave you with some money when your college days end. When stretching your budget, remember to be thrifty, shameless and wise.

Alicia Lawrence is a content coordinator for WebpageFX and blogs in her free time at MarCom Land. Her work has been published by the Association for Business Communication, Yahoo! Small Business and iGrad.

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The post Is Going to College Worth It for You? How to Decide appeared first on Brazen Life.

It’s a common question — should you enter the job market right away or take a leap of faith and enroll at a university, community college or technical school?

The answer depends on several factors, including the amount of student loan debt accumulated, declared major and ability to gain employment, and the future of job industries.

1. Student loan debt

These three words are a potential burden for the next 10 to 20 years. The cost of higher education is nothing short of expensive; in fact, the rates have doubled.

On top of higher living expenses and a fluctuating job market,student loan debt reached the $1 trillion mark in 2012. Market Probe, Inc. and Wells Fargo conducted a study that showed many young professionals — 31 percent — believe working would have been a better choice than college.

The study fails to mention several important factors: what did the 31 percent major in, and what were their employment statuses and salaries?

Sure, it’s hard to pay off an average of $28,000 in student loans, yet if that’s the path to take, there are ways to minimize the pain.

The real question becomes: what’s the prospective return of this expensive investment? (Click here to Tweet this thought.)

2. Declared major and gaining employment in the job market

Before making your mind up as to whether or not to apply to colleges or tech schools, research your intended major. Some majors are more lucrative and employable than others.

Know the product before you buy it. That $28,000 is a big price tag, so find the median salaries and unemployment rates for your prospective study area.

Depending on the industry, that $28,000 or so in student loans could be worth it.

3. Up-and-coming job industries

If education is an investment for the future, it makes sense to see where the future is headed.

Certain positions are becoming outdated thanks to growing technology and other advancements. Don’t get caught up in a dying industry; seek careers with future job growth.

Check out resources like the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ list that shows specific industries projected to grow or decline from now until 2020.

Before you throw in the towel — or dive into the land of academia — know what to expect career-wise. College is an investment that can offer little or much in return. It just depends on your circumstances.

Andrea Fisher is an online marketer and content specialist for ADT business security. She is a published journalist and blogger with an English degree and Political Science minor from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

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The post How to Get out of Paying Your Student Loans appeared first on Brazen Life.

Is there any way to avoid paying student loans? Have you considered a student loan forgiveness program? If you’re years away from paying off student loans, having debt forgiven might seem too good to be true. While the process can take some time, it can be simpler than you might think.

In my work for SALT, a site created by nonprofit organization American Student Assistance, I counsel consumers on managing their student loans. When I bring up student loan forgiveness, many have the same reaction: “I wish I’d known this option existed before.”

As you look further into this option to decide if it might be right for you, consider these other little-known facts about student loan forgiveness:

1. You may be eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness and not even know it

PSLF is both a great and a terrible name for this forgiveness program. It’s a great name because of the promise it portrays: by participating in public service opportunities rather than working in the private sector, some of your student loan debt is forgiven.

But Public Service Loan Forgiveness is also a terrible name because you’d never realize how many people outside of public service are potentially eligible for this benefit.

Federal Direct Student Loan borrowers who work for federal, state or local government agencies or 501(c)(3) organizations while making 120 payments under an income-based, income-contingent or standard repayment plan may qualify to have their remaining balance forgiven. Think about it. Almost any state, federal (except members of Congress) or nonprofit organization counts.

According to a report by the Center for Civil Society Studies at Johns Hopkins University, more than 10 percent of the US population works in the nonprofit sector. That means more than 10 million workers are potentially eligible for public service loan forgiveness in that area alone. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau estimates that potentially 33 million people are eligible.

2. More student loan forgiveness programs exist than you might think

So if PSLF is the most well-known student loan forgiveness option there is — and hardly anybody knows about this program — what else is out there?

At SALT, we found more than 60 different student loan forgiveness programs. Some of these can add up to well over six figures in student loan forgiveness. (Click here to Tweet this thought)

Do you work in health care? Move to an underserved area in California and receive up to $160,000 in student loan forgiveness. Love to ski? Colorado will pay health professionals up to $105,000 for three years of service. Dentists can sign up for an additional two years for another $50,000.

Like cows? (And who doesn’t like cows?) The state of Kentucky will pay $6,000 a year towards your student loans if you come to work as a vet and spend at least half your time working with large animals or those used for food.

And it never hurts to do your own legwork, because these aren’t the only programs out there. Many employers now offer student loan repayment as a benefit. The SALT resource only covers programs found through Internet research — and, believe it or not, not everything is on the Internet. So try doing your own digging to find other programs. A little work could save you a lot of money, to the tune of thousands of dollars.

3. You still have to pay income taxes on your student loans

No good deed goes unpunished. But in the world of student loan forgiveness, it sort of does. You should always consult with a tax professional (or visit www.irs.gov), but in general, if you receive the forgiveness benefit for doing something good, it’s probably not taxable. Examples include PSLF and the Teacher Loan Forgiveness Programs.

But beware that in some student loan forgiveness programs, the forgiven amount will be taxed as income. If you received loan forgiveness as a result of paying for 25 years under the income-based repayment plan, because you became disabled or because you’re a parent borrower and the student passed away or became disabled, the amount forgiven will still likely be taxed.

4. Sometimes you’re better off just paying your loans

Loan forgiveness is great — unless it costs you more in the long run. It’s important to do the math before making any drastic life changes to qualify for these programs. Ensure the risks and sacrifices are worth the reward. You may be better off knocking out your student debt on your own.

Let’s say you’re eligible for a lower payment under the income-based repayment plan. After 25 years under this plan, you determine that about $10,000 will be forgiven. Sounds good, right? But the total amount you pay back in that 25 years could be more than you would pay under a different repayment plan with no forgiveness benefit. After all, the longer you take to repay a loan, the more you pay in interest.

How will you know? Play with SALT’s repayment calculators or the federal government’s. You can also contact your loan servicer to determine the cost/benefit analysis of pursuing these options.

Overall, just as with any other financial decision, it’s important to understand all the terms of a loan forgiveness program. Be sure to weigh both the long-term and short-term benefits to determine the right decision for you.

Betsy Mayotte is the director of regulatory compliance for American Student Assistance, a nonprofit organization with 50+ years’ experience helping people make better decisions about financing their education and repaying student loans.

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The post Plan Out Your College Finances to Avoid Debt Pitfalls appeared first on Brazen Life.

Depending on which side of the country you choose to relocate to and whether the college is a public or a private institution, the expenses can vary. Luckily, there are ways to navigate the costs of going to college by mapping out how you intend to utilize the options available to you. The infographic below is a great resource for students seeking to chart out the average costs of attending college:

Link source: DormRoomMovers.com

What do you think about these figures? Are they more or less than you expected?

Miki Noble is a writer for DormRoomMovers.com. If she doesn’t have her nose in a book or her head behind a camera, she’s usually dreaming about her next big travel extravaganza. Having bounced around the globe in her younger life, she’s now happily settled in Arizona with her tribe of three. Her next adventures encompass potty training her three-year-old son and hiking the entire top 10 trails in the US with her husband.

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The post Why Gaining Work Experience is More Important Than Your Education appeared first on Brazen Life.

My friend looked at me like I had two heads. “What do you mean?” he replied. “I work hard all semester long. I deserved a summer vacation, and I took one.”

He was taking pre-med courses and also considering other professions. While other classmates had spent the summer working in hospitals, doctor’s offices and other jobs in fields related to their degrees, he never worked a single second as an undergraduate.

There’s a difference between studying hard and working hard. My friend believed his grades were all that mattered for admission to graduate school or to land a good entry-level job.

I’m here to tell you he was wrong. In fact, colleges are the first to tell you that you need more than a degree to get hired.

Graduates with work experience are more attractive than those without

After reviewing numerous studies, California State University concluded that work experience began becoming more crucial in hiring in 1980. By 1993, 93 percent of interns in work-study programs were offered jobs by their employers, according to a Northwestern University study that was part of California State’s review.

A 2013 report by High Fliers Research concluded that college graduates without work experience have “little chance” of getting a job. High Fliers Research managing director Martin Birchall told The Huffington Post that work experience is “now just as important” as a college degree.

“New graduates who’ve not had any work experience at all during their studies are increasingly unlikely to be offered a good graduate job after university,” said Birchall.

How work experience helps—even if it’s unpaid

Many ambitious young adults disrespect the value of work experience because they‘ve had jobs that have no connection to their future plans—and pay poorly.

But working can teach you many valuable lessons, even if your job isn’t intellectually challenging. Try to get a job in a field you’re interested in, even if the job itself seems like a dead end.

Anna Alanko, the career services advisor at Rasmussen College, lists five reasons why an internship is a valuable work experience. They include learning more about the industry you’re interested in, impressing a potential employer and learning about your own strengths and weaknesses.

Perhaps you’ll find the industry so interesting that an internship will cement your career decision. Perhaps you’ll find the industry so boring that your internship will lead you to change your career plans. But it’s better to learn that lesson during a one-semester internship than as a full-time employee.

Performing well as an intern can also lead you to the next step in the industry. Your manager may write you a recommendation for graduate school or for a better internship. You could even get a full-time job offer or a job lead from a coworker who was impressed by your work. Don’t discount the opportunities that working for free can provide down the road.

Plus, interning can give you a chance to learn what your best job skills are, which skills need improvement and how to work with people.

Work experience and your degree go hand-in-hand

Many ambitious young people think that lower-level jobs are an impediment to success because they’re time-consuming and cause employers to stereotype you as someone with lower-level skills.

Several schools disagree. In fact, these schools represent so many different fields that it’s fair to say their advice might be pertinent to dozens of careers.

Iowa State University’s Engineering Career Services reports that 90 percent of students who earned a bachelor of science degree in engineering after being in cooperative education programs that alternate semesters of work and study got jobs after graduation. This compares to 80 percent of graduates with a one-semester internship, 75 percent who worked during the summer and 50 percent who didn’t work.

Students pursuing a master’s degree in business administration from Davidson College are advised to work full-time for a few years after graduating college because “MBA programs rarely accept students directly from college.” Davidson notes that work experience is important because its MBA coursework analyzes everyday business problems and is one of three criteria for admission.

The University of Mississippi’s Croft Institute for International Studies trains students who will hopefully attain atypical jobs in embassies as foreign affairs experts, but the school nevertheless recommends that students get “real-world experience” before applying to its master’s degree program.

Students who make the jump without work experience “are less competitive for employment when they finish their degrees than their classmates with work experience,” according to Croft.

Future employers want more work experience

Colleges aren’t the only ones weighing in. Even future employers—in a variety of fields—feel that real-world experience is the only thing standing between some graduates and their dream jobs.

Take it from Oklahoma City plastic surgeon Dr. Tim Love: “Whether it is a paid or volunteer status, this involvement [in your desired field] will increase [your] confidence and savvy while exhibiting dedication and responsibility.”

That’s right—even medical professionals want to see you put in a little legwork. Besides showing them how responsible you are, it gives you an idea of what to expect from yourself.

Jack Gloriod from Becky Gloriod Real Estate in Colorado Springs also speaks to the value of experience, regardless of career field: “I believe that a person should focus on what they are good at and what they enjoy. My own staff had prior experience to show that they were highly skilled and motivated before joining me.”

Don’t be afraid of spending your summers putting in a few hours in your industry, no matter how menial the job may seem. The few weekends at the lake you miss will be well worth it when you graduate with job offers and your lake buddies don’t.

Thad Baker is an outdoor enthusiast, musician, writer and food junkie. He likes to write about many different topics, ranging from digital marketing to career advice and even men’s fashion.

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The post Why We Won’t Need College in 15 Years appeared first on Brazen Life.

If you think hard enough, you can probably find something like this in your life. The same is true for society as a whole. Have you ever seen a pay phone and wondered why it’s still there?

Some things outlive their usefulness. Is a traditional college education one of them?

Why we used to need college

Long before the Internet came along, in post-WWII America, information and knowledge were hard to come by. Knowledge was largely centralized in the universities, so if you wanted to gain the education necessary to obtain a middle-class job, you needed to go college. And the government paid you to go to college through programs like the GI bill.

Somewhere along the way, though, things changed. College tuition started rising more than the cost of living, and wages stopped increasing, making college a questionable financial investment. The quality of a college education began to decline, and employers started to realize that doing well in college didn’t correlate with doing well in a real-world job. The old system started breaking down.

Today, the Internet has decentralized knowledge and government funding for college has dried up, but we still see college as the only viable option for an education. Why? Because most employers still require college degrees.

But what if we could find jobs that didn’t require a traditional college degree? And what if we could find a way to acquire the knowledge required to be successful in those jobs without incurring $100K in student loans?

With the decentralization of knowledge, we can acquire the education to be successful without a traditional college education and, at the same time, find good jobs that don’t require traditional college degrees. The infrastructure for this type of system is already being built, and the disruption of the traditional university system has begun.

Why we won’t need college

Have you ever watched a how-to video on YouTube? Or searched Wikipedia for an article on a topic you didn’t quite understand? These are simple examples of how the Internet has decentralized knowledge over the past 20 years. Imagine if we could extend these examples to replace an entire college education.

Massive open online courses (“MOOCs”) like Udacity and Kahn Academy, which give you the tools to educate yourself for free, are building the infrastructure for this new system. If you question the quality of the education you can get from MOOCs, organizations like Dev Bootcamp provide apprentice-like experience for much less than a college degree.

If these non-traditional options are too risky for you, there are more traditional options available to you that avoid an expensive college degree and still give you access to a good middle-class job.

The main reason most of us don’t take advantage of this type of education is because most employers don’t accept it. Lucky for you, the employment infrastructure suited for this type of education is being created, too.

Are you a computer programmer? Apple gives you access to millions of customers through its App Store. Are you an author? Amazon has a platform for independent publishers. Are you a film buff who dreams of producing videos? YouTube lets you do that.

Many of these options are still unproven, and the path won’t be easy for the early adopters. There’s a lot of risk in self-employment, and there are questions about the quality of MOOCs. But, with rising college costs and stagnating wages, we’re not being given much choice. Necessity is, after all, the mother of invention. The opportunity is there for you.

You just need to grab it.

Brent Ritter is a Chicago-based writer and a recovering financial professional. Connect with him on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter.

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The post 4 Things You Can Do During College to Ensure You’ll Land a Job When You Graduate appeared first on Brazen Life.

That’s all true, but will you feel that’s all there is to college when you’re forced to move back home, aimless, jobless and with a mountain of debt? The fact is, attending college today requires a different mindset than when your parents went to school. While your mom and dad could graduate without direction or serious planning and still be confident they could live the American dream, you won’t have it so easy.

You need to take matters into your own hands and bring a DIY mentality to career planning—even as early as your senior year in high school. Follow these four steps, and four years from now you’ll find yourself with more than a cap and gown; you’ll be on your way to landing a great job in your ideal career path.

1. Learn which careers fit you

Career planning fits perfectly as part of the college selection and application process. Just as you evaluate your interests and passions to select the right school, you should also take this opportunity to consider different career paths and use those paths in your college selection process.

Thankfully, finding information and resources to identify which careers might make the most sense is easier than ever. The key is to find an engaging way to bring those resources and tools together to make a real impact on your college years. As with any endeavor, complementing online research with individualized guidance can be vital, so turn to the wisdom of parents, family and friends to fill in gaps in your career understanding. Just keep in mind that not all career guides—whether they be a website or an industry pro—are created equal; finding the right resource is half the battle.

2. Create a college roadmap

With this more focused career lens based on your interests and skills (or desired skills), you’ll be able to identify suitable careers for which you can easily build a tailored college roadmap beyond just choosing a generic “major.”

And if you can create that college roadmap as early as possible, even before setting foot on campus, it will be that much easier to select appropriate majors and courses, find the right extracurricular activities (clubs, speaker series, athletics, etc.) and internships and refine your career focus.

3. Set milestones

Roadmap in hand, identify annual milestones to hit as you advance toward graduation. For example, while conventional wisdom might say that your freshman and sophomore years should be filled with basic college requirements like “rocks for jocks” (a.k.a. Geology 101), you may instead want to load your schedule with more skill-centered courses to have a leg up on landing great internships earlier in your academic career.

These early internships will not only help build attractive and practical skill sets, but also help you further refine your career trajectory. That experience will lead to a higher likelihood of landing great job offers at graduation.

4. Be open to change

The last step to avoid unemployment (or underemployment) at graduation is both the easiest and the scariest: be open to change. Growth and self-discovery are fundamental parts of the college experience, and there’s little doubt your priorities and interests will change. If this happens, adapt your roadmap so that past decisions don’t push you toward a less-than-perfect career path.

Just remember to always give serious thought before you make a change. The less disciplined you are, the longer it will take to figure out your career trajectory, the larger the deficit you will face and the harder it will be to get the right job.

While you have just four steps ahead of you, it certainly won’t be easy. But little is easy for today’s college student facing long odds due to high unemployment and skyrocketing tuition.

That said, if you buckle down and bring a DIY mentality to career planning, you can identify the right career path and collect the passions, skills and knowledge required to be an insanely attractive candidate when recruiters hit campus.

Adrien Fraise is a former recruiter for Deloitte and CEO of Modern Guild, an online one-on-one career mentoring service for college students and high school seniors. Modern Guild is a member of the inaugural Kaplan TechStars EdTech Accelerator in New York City.

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The post How New Graduates Can Make the First Few Weeks at a New Job Really Count appeared first on Brazen Life.

The first few weeks of a new job are a pretty big adjustment—and it’s not just that you can no longer work in your sweatpants. Here’s how to successfully tackle this transition and make your new job worth your while:

1. Don’t be intimidated by orientation week

Whether you’re joining a large company or a small business, there will usually be an orientation to introduce you to the company culture and set your expectations.

If you’ve joined a small company, you’ll probably sit by yourself, clutching a fat binder filled with company policies that were developed by HR just a week before you joined. As you clutch that fat binder and sit in your empty cubicle, feeling just a little isolated, remember that the “Executive Office” door and the “Exit” door are fairly close to each other. And it’s up to you to decide which one to walk through next.

If you’ve joined a large company, these orientations usually involve hundreds of new hires. The orientation starts off with networking advice and the company’s value proposition, then quickly transitions into endless happy hours and absolute sh** shows. People get wasted, hook up, get pregnant and then curl up into a ball of shame and cry in a corner for days thereafter. But it’s not all fun and games.

During orientation week, in addition to networking with colleagues, take this time to also determine your career path. Orientation week informs you how to further your career (trainings, performance reviews, etc.) and what it takes for you to move up the corporate ladder. At the end of orientation, determine your professional goals and build a one- or two-year plan to reach your target position.

2. Network like your life depends on it

If your company repeatedly emphasizes the need for you to network, it’s a euphemism they’re using to actually say, “Starting today, you are on your own.” In consulting, that usually means searching for various potential opportunities, begging management to take you onto their projects and getting staffed out of your own accord.

In the non-consulting world, it means seeking out opportunities and taking your career growth into your hands. Nobody is going to mollycoddle and nurture you into the perfect rock star—your successes and your failures are all your own.

3. Make sure your boss knows you exist

After orientation week, you’ll invariably have a week or two of downtime where they will either not know what to do with you or forget you even exist. Use this downtime to outline a plan of action regarding what training, certifications, projects and yearly goals you would like to work on.

Note these down on your laptop, reach out to all of the people who interviewed you and ask them if you can help them out in any initiatives they’re involved in. Then close your laptop and go to the nearest bar for a drink. Repeat these steps until you get work.

4. Prioritize for the inevitable avalanche of work

Once you get stuff to do, you will feel slightly overwhelmed. Set up a task list, capture deadlines, create milestones to meet those deadlines and keep track of everything that you need to do.

If you’re not clear about something you need to get done, get it clarified immediately. As you work through your deliverables, set up meetings to review drafts with your manager. This ensures that by the time you finish your product, you will deliver exactly what was specified. The last thing you want to do is work really hard for weeks, only for your manager to come back and say, “This isn’t what I had in mind.”

5. Ask lots of questions, even if they seem stupid

Many entry-level hires just keep quiet, unsure of whether they should risk asking stupid questions. Prepare to ask lots of stupid questions. Make a list of stupid questions, title it “My List of Stupid Questions” and be proud of that damn list.

To this day, when I go into a new project, the first thing I say is, “Look, I’m going to ask a lot of questions, and most of them are going to be really stupid. But I want to make sure I understand everything.”

People will invariably reply, “No, no, of course—please ask all the questions you need to.”

You can then start with, “Who am I, and how did I get here?”

Just kidding. Seriously, though, don’t be shy about understanding what the project lead wants you to do; if you don’t understand it, there’s about a zero percent chance you’ll get it right.

6. Relax and have fun

This is pretty self-explanatory. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes; they’re the best way to learn and improve yourself. And, finally, take your work seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously. Relax and have fun!

Shilpi Chakrabarti is a senior consultant at Deloitte Consulting and likes to write about work, college and life in her free time. She has written a book titled Doggy Paddle, which offers advice to new graduates transitioning to the corporate world.

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The post Crush College Debt: 5 Tools to Help You Find Financial Freedom appeared first on Brazen Life.

Debt affects your personal finances, confidence and overall happiness. But it doesn’t have to rule your life! With a solid plan and budget, you can attack your loans and get closer to living the life you want, free of debt.

Use one of these five services to help you battle debt and get on track to financial freedom sooner:

1. Tuition.io

What Mint is to budgeting, Tuition.io is to debt. Using an interactive graph, it shows you exactly how long it will take you to pay off your current debt. This is a great resource if you’re recently out of school and still have some time to figure out how you want to actually begin your repayment. It synchronizes with federal and private loans and updates your balances automatically.

You’ll also receive recommendations on what your optimal loan situation is and see how much you will actually pay over the life of your loan. If you need a way to clearly align your loans with a plan to erase them, Tuition.io is your best bet.

2. Campus Slice

Crowdfunding has become one of the best ways for anyone to raise money to accomplish a goal or support a charity. Campus Slice uses the same model, except you raise money for your tuition. By tapping into your network of friends and family, the platform allows you to raise money for your tuition during each semester. It offers you a personal page where you can describe your goals, accomplishments and future plans.

One you raise your required funds, you request a payout and the money is disbursed directly to your financial aid office. Easy, simple and fast. If you need to start saving for college and want a simple way to get ahead, Campus Slice is a great option.

3. StudentLoanHero

StudentLoanHero is built to “empower student loan borrowers with the tools to repay their student loans more intelligently.” The site lets you enter in your current balances, then gives you the best options for repayment. It features a unique loan breakdown with a sliding scale that forecasts different monthly payments.

It also has a great overview of different payment options so you can stay informed and make the best decision with your money. If you’re unsure where to go or how to start paying back your debt, StudentLoanHero was made for you.

4. ReadyforZero

Part of the key to eliminating debt is creating a solid plan. ReadyforZero lets you do that by giving you a streamlined platform to collect all your debt and customized recommendations about how to pay it off. They have helped their users pay down over $50 million in debt and make better financial decisions.

ReadyforZero is focused on helping you pay down debt and build wealth at the same time. They have tools to check your progress, payments and next steps to take control of your debt. Their blog offers great information on personal finances and money insights that can help you make better decisions. If you need a plan and free resources to get you on track to beat debt, ReadyforZero can help.

5. Pave

If you have a dream, Pave is there to help you make it a reality—without debt. Pave lets students set up an “innovative social-financial agreement.” What does that mean? A team of backers gives you money to fund your idea, dream or educational goals and, in exchange, you pay back a small percentage of your income over the next 10 years.

As a prospect, you choose the amount you want to share, and it can be no more than 10 percent of your income. If you need help to finance your education and pursue your own path to career freedom without incurring tremendous debt, Pave is a great choice.

Each of these sites offers different opportunities to help you beat student loan debt and achieve your financial goals.

What strategies do you use to attack your debt? Share your experiences in the comments!

Jonathan Jackson is a writer, young professional and freelancer about to move to California. You can catch him musing about life as a 20-something and connect with him on Twitter or Google+.

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The post Tips for Minimizing the Pain of Federal Student Loans appeared first on Brazen Life.

A quick call to the student loan servicer results in a forbearance. But forbearance means your balance will keep going up while you get a breather. Once that ends, those student loan payments will be even worse.

Luckily, the federal government has ways of helping you minimize the pain of federal loans. Follow these quick steps to keep ahead of the game:

1. Assess the damage

To understand what you’re up against, get the facts about your student loans. Grab your Federal Student Aid PIN and head over to the National Student Loan Data System for Students to get a printout of all of your federal student loans.

2. Estimate your payment amounts

The U.S. Department of Education has a Repayment Estimator to help you see monthly and overall payment estimates. You’ll need to sign in with your Federal Student Aid PIN to use this tool.

3. Consider consolidation

If you’ve got multiple federal student loans, look into consolidation. This will make repayment easier because it brings all of your loans under a single servicer and allows you to make one payment. This Forbes article breaks down the pros and cons of student loan consolidation.

4. Choose the right repayment option

Forbearance is a sucker’s bet because it causes interest to capitalize. In other words, interest piles up during forbearance, and you end up paying interest on top of interest long-term.

Rather than falling into that trap, look into a repayment option that works for your financial situation. For many borrowers, repayment plans that hinge on your income will give you the best bang for your buck.

Federal Student Aid gives you a comprehensive overview of the repayment plans, but here’s what you need to know:

Graduated repayment. The standard repayment option for federal student loans is 10 years, but most people make far less in the first few years after school than they do later on. The graduated repayment plan lets you keep payments low for the first two years, then rises gradually every two years for the life of the loan.

This is a tricky plan to take on because it results in far higher payments later on than would otherwise be the case. For those who need a little time to ramp up their income, however, it’s a choice to consider.

Extended repayment. Rather than paying for 10 years, you can get your loan term extended to 20 or even 25 years. This will lower the monthly payment amount, but beware: by extending the term of the loan, you could be spending more than double on interest charges.

Extended graduated repayment. This is like the graduated repayment option, except it extends the repayment for up to 25 years.

As with graduated repayment, payments will skyrocket as time goes on. And the interest charges over the life of the loan will be much higher than in a 10-year repayment scheme. Use this option only when you’ve got no other viable choices.

Income-based repayment (IBR). Under IBR, your payments depend solely on your income and not on the amount of the loan. IBR is designed for people who are having financial hardship, and the payment due under this program will never be higher than what you’d pay under a 10-year standard repayment.

Payments change each year based on your income, and at the end of 25 years, the balance of the federal student loan debt is wiped away. You can check out a handy IBR calculator here.

Pay-as-you-earn (PAYE). PAYE, a program that was rolled out in 2012, is designed for newer borrowers. Like IBR, your payments and repayment terms are capped.

So, what are differences between PAYE and IBR? Under PAYE, you’re paying 10 percent of your adjusted gross income when taking into account the poverty level, rather than IBR’s 15 percent, and repayment under PAYE ends after 20 years rather than 25 years.

PAYE is a great option for newer borrowers. As time goes on, more will become eligible for this program.

Income-contingent repayment plan (ICR). ICR is similar to IBR, but payments are calculated differently. ICR depends in part on your income and loan balances and remains helpful if your loans don’t qualify for IBR treatment.

5. Keep the rest of your bills in check

If you’ve got federal student loans, you probably also have private educational debt. None of the above programs are available for private loans, so it’s important to do everything you can to make those payments on time each month. Those private loans often carry higher interest rates, so it’s a good idea to tackle those loans first.

Using one of the repayment options that lowers your monthly federal student loan debt can free up extra money for the private loans. Don’t be shy; send in that extra money each month, and you’ll work closer to your goal, little by little.

Jay S. Fleischman is a student loan lawyer practicing in New York City and the Los Angeles area. You can find him on Google+ and Twitter.

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The post Important Tips for New Graduates as You Head Into the Working World appeared first on Brazen Life.

This is the time of the dreaded “quarter-life crisis.” Unpredictability seems to surround everything—particularly when considering employment opportunities and financial stability. You face a rocky start in an economy that’s still recovering from the Great Recession of 2008.

Amid this difficulty, you can stay ahead of the financial curve by following two basic tips:

1. Personal marketing trumps all other tactics for landing your first job

In the job market, a college degree doesn’t guarantee a job, nor does it give you a huge advantage. Yet, a degree is worth the hundreds of study hours you put in and the thousands of dollars you spent on tuition (or will be paying over the next 10 years). With the fragile labor market, you may have to make do with a position that’s completely out of your field. The good news is that if you have a college degree, you face half the unemployment rate as those with only high school diplomas.

According to a 2012 study from the National Employment Law Project, three-fifths of the jobs lost during the recession paid middle-income wages. Since then, the economy has improved, but many of the recently created jobs pay lower wages. Fewer jobs are available in certain fields, making the job-to-applicant ratio disproportional. It’s the perfect employer’s market, with a large pool selection of qualified candidates.

Adding to this predicament, recent grads must either climb the corporate ladder or become self-made entrepreneurs; all the while being 10 to 15 years financially behind graduates from previous years. Quite simply, a college degree won’t get you in the door, and it won’t mean getting paid top dollar. It simply provides one of the basic components that need to be checked off on your resume.

What will help you get hired is how you market yourself.

Today’s luck of the draw depends on the trainability and flexibility given from those four, five or six years spent in college. Research, write and ace the test. Translated to the real world, that means: create an effective resume and cover letter and leverage your LinkedIn profile to network and aggressively job hunt. The key is to be seen throughout the employment market and distinguish yourself from the competition.

With social media platforms, networking has never been easier. Job search platforms such as Indeed.com list millions of available jobs. As someone who grew up in this multi-faceted digital era, it should be easy for you to use online tools and mobile apps to increase your odds for success.

2. Stick to your budget and save

If you just graduated, frugal living might be a reality. But try to make it a priority, too. Putting that extra graduation cash towards bills or for a rainy day will help set the stage for financial success.

Today’s economic uncertainty makes it essential to budget, reduce spending and save. Begin by calculating all of the necessary monthly payments needed for rent, utility, gas and groceries. Find ways to curb spending, research the best deals for new appliances, Internet and other optional daily amenities. Or, simply do without.

Even if you’re making bank as you’re job hunting, saving should still be a priority. Check to see if your bank has special offers on savings accounts. When you make a purchase with your debit card, some banks will round up to the nearest dollar and automatically deposit the extra “change” into your savings. Even if it doesn’t seem like a lot, that money adds up and will come in handy if you need it.

For recent graduates who are looking to find their way in society, there’s plenty of opportunity. It may not be as accessible as in previous years, but by marketing yourself in this type of economy and learning to live on a budget, you can set yourself up for financial and career success.

Andrea Fisher is an online marketer and content specialist for DISH’s best internet and TV bundles. She is a published journalist and blogger with an English degree and political science minor from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

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The post One Way to Get Rid of Student Loans: Not Paying Them? appeared first on Brazen Life.

Which is why the folks at SALT (a site by nonprofit organization American Student Assistance) have released a new ebook to help you better understand the options available to you. Cleverly titled 60+ Ways to Get Rid of Your Student Loans (Without Paying Them), the ebook breaks down your various options in an easy-to-understand format.

As SALT writes:

The number of options out there is dizzying and confusing, and we think it’s cruel to make you figure it out on your own…We figured you might want some help, and you might not like that help to come in the form of a big, intimidating table or webpage. So we wrote this easy-to-navigate book and did our best to collect everything in one place.

You can check out the full post, and download the guide, here.

What option(s) have you found best for handling your student loan debt?

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The post Student Loan Rates Double Today: Here’s What You Need to Know appeared first on Brazen Life.

Yes, they’re DOUBLING. Why, you wail?

NPR explains—and, basically, it’s the usual culprit: Washington gridlock. “Republicans, Democrats and the Obama administration could not agree on a plan to keep it from happening. Lawmakers say a deal is still possible after the July 4th recess. But if they don’t agree on a plan soon, seven million students expected to take out new Stafford loans could be stuck with a much bigger bill when they start paying the money back,” reports Claudio Sanchez, who also offers all the details on competing plans to fix the issue from both parties.

So there’s hope that lawmakers and the Administration will get their act together—but in the meantime, how should you handle the rise in rates? That depends, of course, on whether you’ve graduated or are still studying.

If You’re Still in School

If you’re still studying, you want to keep your loan burden as low as possible, of course.

Yes, that’s easier said than done, but Eric Greenberg, founder and president of the Greenberg Educational Group, has some suggestions, which he laid out for Brazen in an email:

• Examine which schools are most generous with financial aid and merit-based scholarships. Don’t be afraid to negotiate with the school of your choice based on other offers they’ve received. The “sticker price” for a college is often a lot different from what many students and families pay, and it’s not uncommon for colleges to have some flexibility with tuition. After you receive your financial aid award, if the amount isn’t what you’d hoped for, meet with a financial aid officer at the college (you might bring your parents, too) and further explain the circumstances as sometimes a paper application can’t convey all of the factors.
• Explore vocational training to align with job opportunities. The stigma associated with vocational training has to go, as that’s a practical choice for many students these days.
• Consider whether it’s possible to graduate early.

Brazen, of course, has lots of other advice to help you out, too.

If You’ve Graduated With Debt

First, you might want to contact your elected officials and tell them, politely, exactly how pissed off you are that they’re playing politics with your future. It won’t help your immediate finances, but it might help the country (and make you feel slightly better).

Once that’s done, it’s time to face the facts. If you’re looking for a magic wand answer to the debt you’ve racked up, click on, as it doesn’t exist and this post won’t pretend it does.

There is, however, plenty of good advice out there on how to get a handle on your payments, sort out a budget and get the best deal you can out of the whole mess. The Project on Student Debt is a good place to start. Get Out of Debt Guy has not only a catchy name but also a lot of solid information, including on the different repayment options from the federal government (and when you should take longer to pay, which isn’t “whenever you possibly can.”)

The only bright side of this whole mess among lawmakers might be that it drives you to finally sit down and take a painful but necessary look at your situation. And hopefully, after you do that, lawmakers will just get their act together to reach a compromise, making paying it all back that little bit easier.

Hopefully.

Jessica Stillman is a freelance writer based in London. She is an editor at Women 2.0, writes a daily column for Inc.com and has blogged for CBS MoneyWatch and GigaOM, among others.

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The post 3 Ways to Turn a Summer Gig Into Long-Term Work appeared first on Brazen Life.

Website Design

Plenty of high schools across the country teach website design to students these days. But even if you aren’t lucky enough to receive this in-class training, it’s easy to teach yourself the basic Web design skills that can provide plenty of extra income throughout college and beyond.

To get started quickly, learn basic HTML. Then, to focus your website design training, plan on learning established CMS platforms like WordPress, Joomla or Drupal. Once you learn how to create templates (or “skins”) for these systems using any of the template design tools on the market today, you’ll be able to set up professional-looking websites quickly and easily.

As soon as you’re confident in your Web design skills, you’ll want to start finding clients. One great opportunity for young people to target is small business owners—including your boss. These companies may not have the budget to work with the established marketing firms in your area, but they still need websites designed. As an added bonus, you may find it easier to secure these jobs as a college student, since many small business owners like to feel as if they’re giving back to the community.

Freelance Writing

If you feel more confident in your writing skills than your visual design acuity, be aware that there are plenty of freelance writing opportunities available—whether you’re looking to take on a few jobs during the summer or to turn your talents into a full-on small business.

First, forget about the standard line of thinking that freelance writers only work for newspapers, magazines and other print publications. Today, the world of online content creation is booming—which means that there’s an incredible amount of demand for freelance writers who can work effectively with website owners.

To find these jobs, check out Guru, Elance, Freelancer.com, Problogger Job Board, BloggingPro Jobs Board and FreelanceWritingGigs.com, where you can bid on jobs that business owners have posted.

Alternatively, if you have specialized industry knowledge, you may be able to find sites that will pay you a set rate for each accepted blog post you submit. For a good list of these opportunities, check out YoungPrePro’s article 30 Websites That Pay You to Contribute an Article, Instantly.

Social Media Marketing

Another option to consider when it comes to tech-oriented jobs that make great small businesses is social media marketing. Although interacting on social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter may seem second-nature to you, plenty of companies need help using these platforms effectively in order to connect with customers.

Finding work as a social media manager can be accomplished using many of the techniques described above. Using freelancer portal sites like Guru or Elance (or even traditional job search websites like Monster or Simply Hired) may uncover a number of consulting opportunities, while contacting small businesses may have the same effect.

However, before you toss your name into the ring, be aware that businesses may expect a different set of social media skills than the ones you’ve cultivated on your own time. For this reason, you’ll want to brush up on the following items before applying for social media consulting positions:

• Increase your familiarity with social networking platforms you don’t personally use. For example, even if you aren’t on Google+, you’ll want to know how the site runs in case a future client uses it heavily.
• Demonstrate your ability to connect with social media users. Businesses will look at your personal social networking usage to assess your skills, so don’t disappoint them with a Twitter following of only 20 users.
• Learn how to measure social media success. Businesses that hire social media consultants want to see metrics that demonstrate they’re getting a good return on their investment, so take the time to learn how to quantify your social networking efforts in a way that business owners will understand.

Because the Internet has created so many new business opportunities that are accessible to everyone, it’s possible to turn just about any job experience into an online company. Even if you don’t have experience with the three options listed above, paying attention to how Internet companies are hiring should uncover a few chances for you to turn your past summer jobs into a solid business idea.

If you’ve turned a past summer job into a small business, we’d love to hear your story—as well as any recommendations you can offer to other students who are interested—in the comments section below!

AJ Kumar is the co-founder of Single Grain, a digital marketing agency based in San Francisco. Single Grain specializes in helping startups and larger companies with search engine optimization, pay-per-click, social media and various other marketing strategies.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

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The post Are English Majors Doomed? appeared first on Brazen Life.

Humanities majors at Harvard fell to 20% in 2012 from 36% in 1954. And the trends are similar at colleges across the country. Meanwhile, more incoming freshman are opting out of so-called softer subjects, placing their bets on STEM (science-technology-engineering-math) majors instead.

Harvard sophomore Shannon Lytle considered majoring in history but will opt for computer science instead. “We do have to worry about living after graduation. I don’t want to be doing what I love and be homeless,” he told the Journal.

But is his fear warranted?

Certainly the numbers aren’t encouraging. Among recent college graduates nationwide, who majored in English, the unemployment rate was 9.8%. By comparison, recent chemistry graduates were unemployed at a rate of just 5.8%, according to a June report from the Georgetown Public Policy Institute which used data from 2010 and 2011.

The cool thing about this piece is the Journal didn’t stop there. Rather than write one article about how some students are rethinking humanities majors — and others are wondering whether they should be — the Journal offers an entire series of opinion pieces on this topic, including Education Isn’t Just About Getting a Job and Choose a Humanities Major, But Minor in Math.

Whether you’re a college student trying to choose your own major or a recent graduate who’s wondering whether you made the right decision, this is an interesting conversation. Here’s where you can browse all of the Journal’s recent articles on Debating the English Major.

And if you still want more, here are a few Brazen posts on this topic:

• Why English Majors Don’t Have to Finish Last

• Specialization is Overrated: On Being Kinda Good at Many Things

• Stressing Over Which Major to Choose? It Might Not Matter as Much as You Think

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The post The Truth Hurts: 7 Lies You’ve Been Told About the “Real World” appeared first on Brazen Life.

After all, simply being there isn’t the same as contributing, and participating isn’t the same as succeeding. No one will be rewarded for just showing up in the real world.

Success isn’t found inside a rubric. And it certainly isn’t something achieved without a few experiments, mistakes and failures along the way. Here are seven common lies that young people hear growing up—and the blunt, uncensored truths behind them:

1. You’re amazing at everything you do

Any five-year-old will tell you it’s not polite to hurt a person’s feelings. Instead, society sells us a lie because, apparently, it’s better to tell someone she’s great than tell the truth when she isn’t. We think we’ll stunt growth if we tell the cold truth; in reality, we’re stunting growth by handing everyone a participation trophy instead of rewarding real talent and achievement.

Beyond that, it’s much more traumatic when, after 20-something years, someone finally tells you that you’re not as amazing as you thought. Here’s an example: I teach college, and after completing their first college-level course, many students tell me, “This is the first ‘C’ I’ve ever gotten.” My response? “Welcome to college.” Why? An “A” isn’t something that you’re entitled to; it’s something you earn.

2. You have to be perfect

Failure is a great teacher. You don’t learn anything if you go through life being told you’re perfect. Writer and director Kevin Smith put it best when he said, “The truth is…failure is success training.”

So you don’t have a 4.0? That’s okay. Don’t have a job lined up right after graduation? That’s okay, too. You don’t need a perfect track record, grade point average or plan to make a good career and life for yourself. You just need the perseverance, bravery and grit to forge a path for yourself.

3. You have to be married before you’re 30

College isn’t for everyone. Neither is marriage. Need proof? Just look at the divorce rate. There’s a lot of societal pressure to find the perfect person to spend your life with by a certain age. It’s completely arbitrary—and for a lot of people, it’s completely wrong.

Don’t force it. Don’t stress. And don’t buy into the myth; not everyone is ready for marriage by age 25.

4. You can only succeed if you go to the right college

Success comes from all walks of life. Today, there’s unbelievable pressure on students to get admitted to their first-choice college. Give yourself a little more credit. It might require some work, but you can succeed in all different kinds of environments.

5. You can get a great job by just having a degree

Some of the most valuable lessons are learned outside the classroom. Before you graduate, get involved, intern, study abroad and network. Employers are looking for students who did more than just sit through four years of classes.

6. Your first job defines your career

College graduates often buy into the “perfect first job” myth. They think they need to be in the right place at the right time right after graduation. That isn’t true.

My first job was pushing carts at Walmart. Skills and lessons are transferable, especially the ones you learn during your first job out of college. Those lessons will get you all kinds of places—including your dream job.

7. You’ll be in a better financial place than your parents, immediately

Many Millennials are incredibly sheltered. Some don’t even know what their parents do; they think the money just shows up. When you begin your career, you’ll have to work hard. You’ll have to put in time and pay your dues.

Don’t expect to live the same lifestyle that took your parents 20 years to achieve. Make peace now with the fact that the Baby Boomers have gobbled everything up from the table and you are now on your own to thrive.

Find your own truth

Society, peer groups and the media may have good intentions, but they often reinforce these seven lies.

To find your own truth, test everything. Ask hard questions. Demand—and give—honest answers. And don’t be afraid to fail. The best life lessons are learned through mistakes and imperfections, getting you closer to success than any participation trophy ever will.

Charles W. Keene is an award-winning assistant teaching professor at the University of Missouri’s Trulaske College of Business. He is a proud member of Generation X who took 11 years to earn his undergraduate degree, was married at 28 and has never received a participation trophy in his life.

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The post The Real Reasons College is a Bad Investment appeared first on Brazen Life.

Not so long ago, young adults were sent to college for the purpose of becoming educated, socially aware members of society. The goal of a college education was the learning process itself and the acquisition of beneficial knowledge.

But something changed. Along the way, colleges realized that their graduates were given priority in the job market. College diplomas transitioned from simple indications of education to bargaining chips holding measurable monetary value. People started noticing the increase in net value associated with a college degree.

And just like any other private business, colleges across the country responded to rising demand with significantly higher prices. At this point—at this price—college was no longer simply an educational experience; it became an investment.

Today, young adults pay thousands of dollars to colleges for one reason: to get jobs. And yet every year, too many kids are walking off their campuses with expensive degrees and no jobs.

It’s no secret that our economy is in a tough spot. It would make sense that much of the flak directed at universities is simply the result of frustration with our high unemployment rate. But few are looking past the temporary issues and discerning that a complete overhaul is needed.

Here are the real reasons why college is a bad investment:

1. It’s debatable whether colleges even offer valuable information anymore

The course hours a student invests in a degree can typically be divided into thirds: major-specific courses, mandatory courses and electives. For the major-specific third, courses are based on information required to prepare you for a career in that field. Outside of a job context, the information has little value.

The electives third is impossible to categorize. If an academic can publish a paper on a topic, he or she can teach a course on it. You can find offerings on everything from insect anatomy to dinosaur history. And while taking that Web design class is probably the most productive thing you’ll do in school, it’s going to be difficult demonstrating how your History of Rock and Roll elective has transformed you into a more valuable member of society.

The final, mandatory third is comprised of the courses your institution requires all graduates to complete. For most colleges, this section of your degree is the closest you’ll actually come to the traditional idea of a liberal arts education. This is where the bulk of your educational value is supposed to be derived.

Unfortunately, quality tends to follow the money, and these courses are no longer the breadwinners for their universities. The vast majority are taught by graduate students, and even if you’re lucky enough to get an actual professor, he or she is likely using the university as a research grant and completely uninterested in being an effective instructor. You’ll probably end up reading bullet points from a textbook or PowerPoint written 10 years ago.

2. The educational value you do receive can easily be acquired elsewhere

The legitimate value of a university lies in its professors. You’re paying people to teach you because, theoretically, they have experience you don’t, information you need and the ability to impart all of this to you. If every course was taught by a quality professor, I wouldn’t be writing this article; I’d be re-enrolling for an additional degree.

But the opposite tends to be true in today’s secondary education system. I graduated from a major program that was ranked third in the country, at a school that is considered one of the country’s finest public universities. Yet most of my instructors were incompetent grad students, uninterested professors or ineffective communicators. That may seem harsh, but consider that for three-quarters of the courses I took, not a single piece of beneficial information was provided by the instructor that couldn’t be found in the textbooks.

If the professors aren’t providing the educational value, there is none, because everything else can be acquired via the textbooks or with a simple online search.

3. For 90 percent of careers, all required skills are learned on the job

“That’s all well and good,” you say, “but we’re attending college to get a job, so aren’t the major-specific courses worth the expense?”

For a handful of careers, yes. If you plan on going into engineering, public accounting or psychology, the major-specific undergraduate courses you’ll take are essentially required training. You can’t start down these career paths without acquiring an undergraduate degree.

For most careers, however, job-related skills are learned through an entry-level position. This is why music majors make up the highest percentage of medical school applicants. It’s why biology majors end up in law firms and why anyone still dares to get a philosophy degree. You learn what you need to learn on the job, rendering your degree useless on a practical level.

Is there any reason to get a degree?

If you aren’t going to be an engineer, you aren’t going to learn anything and you aren’t going to receive any actual job skills, is there any reason to go to college? Here’s where we discover the truth about our secondary education system.

For the last few decades, college degrees served as a guarantee for mediocre employees to make middle-class money. But the middle class is on the decline. Those who have acquired and perfected a skill set are rising to the top of the economic ladder, while those who put their trust in the pay-to-be-hired system are finding themselves with nowhere to climb.

If you must go to college, there’s still a chance at stability with a college degree. As the economy picks back up and more mid-level jobs open up, many will fool themselves into thinking the system works—until the next downturn, when the value providers will further separate themselves. Degree holders across the country will watch their savings deteriorate as they wait for the next upswing of mediocre jobs.

If you don’t want that to be you, use your time and money to learn a marketable skill and then spend the rest of your life perfecting it rather than throwing a ton of money into a degree.

Jacob McMillen is the proudly regretful owner of an accounting degree. He writes blogs on everything from awesome manly topics to Chicago injury law firms and enjoys thinking in his spare time.

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The post Stressing Over Which Major to Choose? It Might Not Matter as Much as You Think appeared first on Brazen Life.

In a piece for The New York Times Education section, editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education Jeffrey J. Selingo discusses the ways in which the subject we majored in in college means less in the real world than other skills and character traits: 

So does the college major matter? I posed that question recently to my roommate at Ithaca College, who like me, majored in journalism. He had known since middle school what he wanted to do—become a television journalist. Now almost 20 years after we both graduated, David Muir is an anchor and correspondent for ABC World News.

He works with plenty of people who do not have journalism degrees. The commonality among them, he says, is that “we all majored in what we were interested in. The curiosity and the willingness to adapt are more important than what the degree is in.”

These are many of the same qualities that employers say, in survey after survey, they want in future workers. Hiring managers complain that they often find today’s college graduates lacking in interpersonal skills, problem solving, effective written and oral communication skills, the ability to work in teams, and critical and analytical thinking. Employers say that future workplaces need degree holders who can come up with novel solutions to problems and better sort through information to filter out the most critical pieces.

You can check out the full post here.

It’s a strong argument for the importance of soft skills—something you can focus on learning no matter which major you decide to pursue.

How much of a role do you think your college major has played in your career success? Has it been as important as the skills you’ve acquired?

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The post Why Your College Degree Has More Value Than You Think appeared first on Brazen Life.

Here are just a few of the benefits you should take into account to start giving college credit where it’s due, according to the College Board’s newly updated study “Education Pays: The Benefits of Higher Education for Individuals and Society”:

Improved Self-Esteem

There’s just something about a college grad that makes her stand a little bit straighter and a little bit taller. It likely has to do with the boost to one’s self-esteem and confidence that comes with making it through a higher education program.

Studies conducted by the College Board and others like it have found that those who have completed additional schooling are not only more well-equipped to handle mental challenges, but also report a higher level of satisfaction when doing so.

Since earning a college degree has long been considered a rite of passage, there’s an extra sense of accomplishment when you reach the finish line. You’ve accomplished something that no one can ever take away from you.

Sure, you can lose the physical piece of paper, and you may move on from the job your degree helped you attain, but you’ll never lose the work behind the journey you undertook to get your diploma. Even when tough times fall, you know you have what it takes to start something and finish it successfully, and that is priceless.

Healthy Choices

In addition to the mental boost that comes with higher education, college grads are healthier overall. Higher socioeconomic status (measured by total family income, level of education attained and professional career status) is directly correlated with better physical health and life expectancy.

This correlation seems obvious when you consider that those who earn more money have greater access to health care and healthier food options. But what you may not have considered is that higher education means the ability and desire to make better choices when it comes to habits—eating and otherwise.

For example, those with extended educations are less likely to smoke and more likely to exercise. When you put greater emphasis on taking care of your mind with additional schooling, you naturally put greater emphasis on taking care of your body, too. It’s truly as simple as: when you know better, you do better.

Higher Job Satisfaction

While we’re on the subject of bettering ourselves, one common reason people seek higher education is to get out of a dead-end job. Having a degree often means having an actual career rather than punching the clock to pay the bills.

That’s all fine and good, you may say, but having a career means nothing if you can’t keep it—a task many are finding difficult as of late. Fortunately, a diploma gives you the upper hand when it comes to economy-driven layoffs.

Graduates not only have higher job retention rates during a recession, but also an easier time finding re-employment due to higher marketability than their non-graduate colleagues. That means less stress overall during tough economic times.

Passing on the Legacy

Finally, one of the greatest benefits to having a college education is passing on the legacy to your children. Children of a college grad are more likely to have a better quality of life and pursue extended education themselves. Those children also have a much easier time getting into good schools because their parents have emphasized the importance of an education to them. They also tend to have better grades and test scores.

As experts often state, children of college grads—even those who don’t attend college themselves—are more motivated to reach for their dreams. They know that their parents pushed through adversity to earn their degrees, and they apply that same philosophy to going after what they want in life—a bar that is placed that much higher by having college-educated parents.

Although financial enrichment is one of the main reasons people choose to pursue higher education, there are many other benefits to obtaining that degree. You better yourself through improved self-confidence and enhanced decision-making ability, which also betters the lives of your family members and others around you.

What are some of the hidden benefits to a college degree that you have found? Are there life lessons you learned along the way that you would have missed if you passed on higher education?

Lizzie Wann is the Content Director for Bridgepoint Education. She oversees all website content and works closely with New Media, Career Services and Student Services for Ashford University.

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As a recent college “stopout” myself, there are three things I feel you must realize and accomplish before you take the initial leap from a traditional education to “uncollege.” But once you accomplish these, taking the next step—jumping into entrepreneurship—is not as risky as you might think.

You can prepare for the startup journey by accurately calculating the risks:

1. Know all the facts

Movies like The Social Network have glorified entrepreneurship in such a way that people actually believe success in 72 hours is feasible. Unfortunately, it’s not. Being an entrepreneur means condensing all the blood, sweat, tears and stress of a normal person’s entire life into a very short four or five years. When you actually live that lifestyle, you realize it is not easy or glamorous—random pool parties, endless alcohol and Sean Parker are usually not involved.

2. Take an inventory of what you know and have

Take a look at what skills you possess. Can you build a product yourself, or are you a business guru? Do you have someone else on your team to cover your weak spots? Do you have the technology or resources necessary to actually begin to get something off the ground? Or do you have a plan (and the money) to attain all of those resources?

There would be nothing worse than dropping out of college without knowing what goal you wish to achieve, some sense of how you’re going to achieve that goal and all the right resources to start working toward it. Make sure you have all the necessary equipment in order to survive the entrepreneurial trek.

3. Weigh your options

Look at the job ratings from your college. Do you have a good chance of actually being employed once you graduate? Do you honestly need a degree to succeed? If you’re planning on going into the medical field, I’ll answer this one for you: yes, you do need one. But if your degree is something that can be learned in the field by actually working for/on a real business, would you rather get the hands-on experience or use your parents’ (or your) entire life savings to earn a diploma?

If your life goal is to become an entrepreneur, the money to be spent toward a diploma could probably be better spent on your livelihood while you get your company off its feet. Will you seriously be able to live on your own and survive off of more than Ramen noodles? Think about your learning style as well as your chances of startup survival in the industry you choose to pursue.

If you feel confident that you have everything under control after calculating the risks, get ready. Although it may seem scary at first, if you have thought it out, it is not as risky as it seems.

While many companies don’t succeed, there are millions of people who do. After all, everything around you (your chair, computer, doorknob, etc.) is now in existence because of a successful entrepreneur.

So calculate the risk, take the leap and hold on tight!

Stacey Ferreira co-founded MySocialCloud, a technology startup that allows people to store their usernames and passwords for all their online websites for auto-login and share websites with friends easily, during her senior year of high school with her brother Scott. When she was just 18, she raised a seed round of funding of just under $1 million from Sir Richard Branson and Jerry Murdock.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

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The post Overwhelming Student Debt Has Parents Getting Life Insurance Policies on Their Kids appeared first on Brazen Life.

Why would they need to do such a thing? I’m only 27. The mere thought of it was grim.

But they did have a reason: my student loan debt. Since they co-signed with me for the loans, they’d be left with the debt if I ever—god forbid—died.

I asked several friends whether they’d heard of such a preposterous idea, and one friend told me his parents, too, took out life insurance on him immediately following his college graduation.

This is apparently becoming a trend—a disturbing one

An increasing number of parents are taking out life insurance policies on their college graduates in an effort to avoid being left tens of thousands of dollars in debt if their child dies and can’t repay the loans, The Financial Times reports. With unemployment above seven percent and many baby boomers having already tapped their retirement savings just to weather the difficult economic times, the last burden a grieving parent needs is a loan company hounding them to make payments.

We all know student loan debt is nearing bubble-bursting levels and ready to swallow students and parents. In 2012, outstanding student loan debt exceeded a breathtaking $1 trillion, surpassing other types of debt including credit cards and car loans to become the second largest source of consumer debt behind home mortgages.

To break that down into a figure we can actually comprehend, a recent U.S. News & World Report found that 2011 graduates shouldered an average of $26,220 in student loan debt. My outstanding school loan debt from undergraduate and graduate school is double the average, but I still didn’t think it was enough for my parents to take out the minimum $100,000 life insurance policy on me.

At my parents’ request, when I got the phone call from the life insurance company several weeks ago, I reluctantly obliged and went through the 30-minute verbal questionnaire. The woman on the other end of the phone told me she was surprised to hear how healthy I am.

So I asked her if this was the first time she’d gone through a policy with a young, healthy individual relating to student debt. She said it wasn’t.

How much does this sort of policy cost? MetLife offers a non-smoking individual under 40 with student loans a 10-year, $500,000 life insurance policy for about $10 per month.

What do you think? Have your parents considered taking out a life insurance policy on you to protect them from your student debt? Would you support the idea?

Jennifer De Paul is a tax reporter for The Bond Buyer in Washington, D.C. She hails from New Hampshire and loves to cook and travel. You can follow her on Twitter @BondBuyerJen.

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The post How to Tackle Student Loan Debt Before You Graduate appeared first on Brazen Life.

Couple that with tuition rates rising faster than inflation, a depressed job market, no legislation in place to make higher education more affordable and the fact that most loans only require minimum monthly payments, and it’s clear the problem is only going to get worse.

So what can you do to avoid feeling like you’ve been punched in the gut when you graduate? Here are a few ideas:

1. Save early

I wish someone had drilled this suggestion into my head early on. I justified frappuccinos from Starbucks on my way to class and late night beer runs by telling myself I’d worry about my bank account balance later. By the end of freshman year, I had blown through the meager sum of money my parents had saved for me to go to school and was about to take on my first loan.

Walking out of the financial aid office with a promise of $5,000 being delivered to my account felt great, but I knew it was time to change my behaviors. If you’re not saving—or at least being frugal—right now, do whatever you can to change your habits NOW.

For me, that meant taking a part-time job. It enabled me to save about $50 a week. The key here was not just saving that $50, but putting it in a separate account and leaving it untouched. The weekly contribution amounted to $3,136 by the time I graduated three years later.

2. Take out manageable loans

A little-known resource for college-bound high school students and currently enrolled college students is the Student Loan Advisor application (find it at finaid.org). This free tool lets you look at the average starting salary for your projected major and suggests a manageable loan amount based on that salary.

3. Consider work exchange programs

Many federally-funded programs offer college students the opportunity to work in low-income areas or developing industries in exchange for loan forgiveness or aid.

While some of these programs work like a typical part-time job would, others are in areas beneficial to the community (like working at a homeless shelter) and result in the university’s work-study funds being allocated directly to your loan. Every school is different, but if you’d like to read up about the Federal Work-Study (FWS) programs available at your school and find out what types of employment may be available to you, you can read more on the Department of Education’s website.

4. Change schools

Community colleges perhaps aren’t as glamorous as a four-year institution, but they offer a much more affordable way to get an education. Even better, you can still transfer to a well-known university after two years at community college.

Taking general education requirement courses at a community college for two years will help keep  tuition costs low—to say nothing of the savings you can build if you can live at home. In most cases, receiving a diploma from a prestigious four-year school only requires two years of enrollment, meaning you can still receive a diploma in the field of your choice from a bigger-name school.

5. Use credit cards with cash rewards—carefully

Some credit cards give you cash back every month, and it can really add up. Take that cash back and put it directly into your loan payoff plan for an easy boost.

But be careful; this only works if you’re in a position to pay off your credit card in full every month. If you think student loans are bad, the interest rates on credit cards are much, much worse, and you should never let your credit card balance balloon in the name of paying down student loans.

6. Go with philanthropic service

Philanthropic organizations like AmeriCorps offer recent graduates the opportunity to earn up to $5,500 for each year of service. AmeriCorps works with health and educational organizations around the U.S. to provide philanthropic services to those in need and distributes loan reimbursement through a Segal Education Award to participating post-graduates. These reimbursements may only be applied to student loans or to the tuition of a post-graduate program.

Additionally, if you’d like to commit to more than a one-year term of service for additional funding to help pay off your loans, you can enroll in a two- to five-year program with the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF). They offer complete loan forgiveness options to graduates but require longer commitments. More information about this organization can be found at the PSLF branch of the Federal Student Aid website.

A final option to consider is Teach for America, a subsidiary of the AmeriCorp blanket. This two-year contracted program offers both a salary and loan stipend. The school district you are assigned to teach in will pay a regular salary for your teaching service, and Teach for America will award you a stipend of up to $11,000, which you can use to pay down your student loans.

As brutal as student loans are, college is an incredible way to learn and move toward a better career. There’s no magic bullet for getting rid of loans, but by planning ahead or restructuring your current post-graduation plans, you can greatly minimize the headache.

Oliver Denton is studying computer science and also works part-time as a tech writer at MegaHowTo, an online repository of useful guides. You can follow Oliver on Twitter.

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The post Slaying the Student Loan Debt Dragon, Video-Game Style appeared first on Brazen Life.

The good news is that with a little creativity and imagination (and an app for your smartphone), you can be in a better position to overcome student loans. In other words, you’re about to gamify your debt.

Real-Life Experience Points

There’s something to be said for video games, especially the ones that allow players to advance to the next level. Whether it is one more brick with Minecraft (*beta) or the next FarmVille level, being gradually rewarded while working toward a goal is something many people find addictive.

The problem is that these “victories” are just in the virtual world. What if there was a way to take this excitement and desire to reach the next level to real life?

There is! While some apps, like Chore Wars, are geared more toward children, the concept has been developed by others as well. Here are a few fun apps that make life more like a role-playing game where you earn experience points by completing tasks:

1. EpicWin

“Level up your life,” as their tag line says. This is basically a to-do list with the added feature of experience points. Some people definitely feel a psychological effect when they see a simple screen congratulating them on achieving the next step toward a goal.

To be used to slay student loan debt, this app might be set up with a list of tasks you need to complete to get the debts under control. From budgeting to finding extra ways to pay the loans down quicker, there are plenty of tasks you could use, allowing you to level up your way to financial freedom.

2. Mindbloom Life Game

While similar to EpicWin, there are a few differences with this app. Users create a “life tree” that shows the important things in their lives and what they should be working on today.

Once again, while not specifically designed to work down student loan debts, that goal can easily be added to the tree that represents the life you want to grow—one where you’re not burdened by unpaid college loans.

3. Mint.com

While Mint.com doesn’t have an app version of its “Goals” yet, this game-like feature was added to their website and was really well-liked by members when it was released, with many begging for an app version. There’s no word yet on whether this will happen, but even without Goals as a game angle, Mint.com is still a great way to get a handle on your finances so you can work down your student debts.

Yes, student loan debt is a serious topic, but with a little fun and creativity, you can learn to win the game so you’re not held back by the debt you accumulated in college.

If you use any of these apps (or know of other great ones), let us know in the comment section!

Paul Smithson works for LeadBolt, a leading mobile ad network, where he is a level 42 writer with a +1 Keyboard of Wit.

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The post Is It Possible to Work Through College to Avoid Drowning in Loans? appeared first on Brazen Life.

But what’s sometimes left out of the chatter is the option of working through school to defray the costs. And the reason WHY is obvious from a story in The New York Times this weekend: it’s not easy to pull off good grades while earning bucks on the side. Plus, as the cost of education increases, the money college kids can earn simply doesn’t go as far toward covering tuition and living expenses.

Here’s an excerpt from the piece:

While many students are trying to defray some of the costs, few can actually work their way through college in a normal amount of time without debt and little or no need-based financial aid unless they have an unusual combination of bravery, luck and discipline.

“I literally never went out,” Mr. Tolmie says. “There just was not time to do that.”

The story also takes on a lawmaker who seems out of touch with exactly how much a college degree costs these days:

Others recall working their way through college themselves, including Representative Virginia Foxx, a Republican from North Carolina who heads a House subcommittee on higher education and work force training. “I spent seven years getting my undergraduate degree and didn’t borrow a dime of money,” she once said at a subcommittee meeting, adding that she was bewildered, given her own experience, by tales of woe she had heard from people with $80,000 in debt.

Here’s the full article if you want to read more.

What do YOU think? Is it possible to focus on school AND a job? What are some good ways for college kids to make money? Have you tried to hold down a decent-paying position while still maintaining your grades?

Let us know in the comments!

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The post Want a Job When You Graduate? 4 College Courses You Shouldn’t Miss appeared first on Brazen Life.

The current employment crisis is only partly due to the recession. Another part of the problem is that there are fewer and fewer science, mathematics and engineering graduates and more and more art, psychology and communication graduates. Since we are in the midst of the technology revolution, those numbers should be reversed.

A recent study from Georgetown University showed that liberal arts degrees were accompanied by low wages—for the duration of the employee’s career. A college graduate with a bachelor’s degree in art earns about the same salary as a community college graduate. That means those last two years at a four-year school have no value on the job market.

Ideally, college should be about earning an education, not just a job. Fortunately, there’s a way for you to get an education, study something you’re passionate about and help yourself get a job after graduation.

How? Just take these four classes:

1. Economics

All you need is one class. If your college breaks the topic into macroeconomics and microeconomics, sign up for micro; it has more use in a variety of careers. You’ll gain basic knowledge about the role of price, value and cost—economic principles that will enhance not just your career but your life.

2. Statistics

It’s not just for mathematicians. Art gallery managers, retail clerks, non-profit executives and state senators need to be comfortable analyzing and interpreting numbers.  In short, knowing how to work with numbers is helpful for any career—and your life, too.

3. Computer Programming

Don’t freak out. This class isn’t as intimidating as it sounds, I promise.

If you devote one semester to earning a broad understanding of a computer programming language—any language—this single course could be more rewarding in a future career than a half-dozen other electives combined.

People with computer programming skills reported finding employment during the economic downturn. What more do you need as encouragement?

4. Financial Planning

This course might be the trickiest to track down. Some schools require an introductory finance course as a prerequisite, and it’s different than what you’ll learn in economics. In financial planning, you’ll learn about budgeting and debt and how to project revenues and costs. Students can set themselves up for a lifetime of financial stability with these skills. The more financially savvy you are, the more mileage you’ll get out the money you’ll be earning in your new job.

Steve Aedy is a writer for FreshEssays.com, an online service that offers help with the editing and writing of college papers. Follow him on Google+ and Twitter.

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The post Why English Majors Don’t Have to Finish Last appeared first on Brazen Life.

I have always been fascinated by the assumptions behind this question. They get echoed back to us in remarks like:

• “Ugh, what are you going to do with philosophy?”
• “You majored in psych? Enjoy grad school for the rest of your life.”
• “Hell of a job market out there for that English degree!”

Someone has apparently decided that math, science and engineering are the only majors that matter. Back in 2009, a survey seemed to confirm this, with Businessweek reporting that “only 6 percent of employers want to hire humanities or liberal arts majors, and only 5 percent seek graduates with social science degrees.”

Is that true? Are thousands of students getting painted into a corner by their degrees?

The real truth is: it’s not whether your degree is marketable. It’s whether YOU market it!

In Glengarry Glen Ross, Alec Baldwin delivers a brutally honest speech to a demoralized sales team. His message? There are no weak leads, only weak salesmen:

The same is true of college. Someone who knows where they want to work can position virtually any degree to get hired.

This is even true of supposedly “unmarketable” majors. Just because something doesn’t directly ladder up to a high-paying career doesn’t mean you’re doomed to wait tables forever. Invariably, I find myself reminding my DIY Degree students of this whenever they email me about credit-by-examination.

With a new approach, you can reframe your degree to not only get the job you want, but actually blow a hiring manager away.

Don’t believe me? Go to Monster.com and tell me how many job postings include the words “Bachelor’s Degree in X OR EQUIVALENT.” That’s code for “if you don’t have the degree I want, tell me why yours fits.”

Let’s examine five “unmarketable” majors and some reframing scripts to achieve maximum impact:

1. Psychology

The common assumption: “All I can do is go to grad school or intern at a therapist’s office.”

How to reframe: Let’s say you have decided against psychology and are now eyeballing a career in marketing. Here’s what you might say to persuade a hiring manager your degree fits:

“You know, it’s funny. Most outsiders think business is just about numbers and money, but I totally disagree. My psychology courses really opened my eyes to the human element. There are so many biases, barriers and personality quirks that go into a buying decision, for example. It’s not simply about having the best product. If you don’t understand the emotional state of a customer or what’s going through their head, you miss huge opportunities to win them over. My goal at Acme Corp. is to soak up as much marketing experience as I can and whenever possible, try to apply my psych training to tackle your challenges from a unique perspective.”

Why it works: First, you show insight by identifying a missing piece: the human element. Second, you give examples of psychological phenomena that affect what the hiring manager cares about: sales. Finally, you show some humility (“I want to soak up as much marketing experience as I can”) and offer a hint of intrigue (“a unique perspective”) as to what the hiring manager can expect from you.

2. Philosophy

The common assumption: “All I can do is teach philosophy or pontificate on the is-ought dichotomy in my mother’s basement.”

How to reframe: So you’ve decided that leading college freshmen through Hegelian dialectics is no way to go through life and want to forge a career in journalism. How about saying this?

“Frankly, I expect a learning curve for getting up to speed in this role compared to a journalism major. That’s just reality. However, my philosophy courses actually gave me an incredibly strong framework for being a journalist. As we studied the great thinkers of western civilization, I really focused on the methodology: critical thinking, chains of reasoning, evaluating evidence, a thirst for different perspectives and clear expression of ideas. I’m committed to writing the most insightful, evocative and compelling articles I possibly can and I think XYZ Corp. is a terrific place to develop my skills.”

Why it works: First, you employ a strategy known as the damaging admission by conceding you are somewhat less qualified than a journalism major. Next, you immediately pivot to why, DESPITE this weakness, you are still totally capable of doing an amazing job thanks to your philosophy training. Finally, you close by promising what the hiring manager wants: great content.

3. Communications

The common assumption: “All I can do is write boring memos and buy coffee for my boss.”

How to reframe: Here, we’ll assume that you don’t want to work at a PR agency and are instead dying to work as a social media manager. Here’s something to say if questioned about your degree:

“To be honest, I decided that a traditional PR role wasn’t for me before I even graduated, and this career was a total no-brainer. Each day after class, I raced home to answer questions in the Facebook community I was running about [insert topic here]. Before long, I was not only updating the page, but also doing podcasts and creating editorial calendars for an ongoing blog. I loved the rush and the sense that I and I alone had to keep the train running on time. That’s what led me to you guys. I know I can turn any project you throw at me into a smooth-running machine.”

Why it works: Right off the bat, you explain why you broke ranks with the other communications majors. Next, you clarify that this was due not to laziness or idle drift, but a burning passion that lies somewhere else (not, coincidentally, somewhere directly in line with the job you’re applying to). You proceed to give examples containing the code words a project manager ought to know and close with a powerful statement of value.

4. Business

The common assumption: “All I can do is ride the 9-to-5 grind to an early grave in my corner office.”

How to reframe: Not everyone is cut out for corporate life. Want to ditch business and break into a service-based organization? See below.

“I did briefly consider a management career. In my internship at ABC Corp., I got a lot of hands-on experience supervising a team and coordinating projects, which was great. If I’m being honest, though, my real passion is in caregiving. This was especially clear to me whenever I volunteered at Habitat For Humanity and the local Boys & Girls Club. I care way less about making a six-figure salary than I do about making a difference, and I would love to use the skills I’ve learned so far to carry out Red Cross missions. I’m willing to start at the bottom in order to make headway in this field.”

Why it works: You are explicitly disclaiming the goals most business majors have and replacing them with a personal mission to do good. This alone is disarming, as it suggests you really do have the selfless nature required of a devoted caregiver. Next, you express a sincere willingness to learn on the job and start out small. In a field like this, enthusiasm matters more than experience and can often render your degree irrelevant.

5. English

The common assumption: “All I can do is write novels or get my master’s.”

How to reframe: Let’s say you have zero interest in an academia and want to work in public relations—a career you might assume requires a communications degree. Try this:

“No question, I lack the formal training of a communications curriculum. I knew I was looking at an uphill climb, so I took it upon myself to enroll in Dale Carnegie seminars in New York City and read the 10 best PR books at my library cover-to-cover. Since then, I’ve offered to help some local businesses expand their outreach, with pretty promising results. Believe it or not, my English degree gave me a good springboard for this, because you learn the craft of communication from the true masters. I think that with a little training, I can grow into one of the best PR people you’ve got.”

Why it works: You make the damaging admission, but immediately back it up with the steps you took to compensate and what you did to build on that. Next, you play up the relevant features of your English degree to position it as a benefit instead of a burden. Finally, you close by vowing to not just enter the field, but ultimately dominate.

Are you willing to market yourself?

What this approach requires of you is a focused career vision. After all, what gives these reframing scripts their power? It’s not just confidence or enthusiasm. It’s the impression that you have selected this particular company out of many possible options, often after thankless work performed with no outside prompting.

Am I saying these exact scripts will work every time? No. What I am saying is that you have control over how you are perceived, and a little framing goes a long way. Conversely, relying on a degree to speak for you is lazy, short-sighted and destined to disappoint.

Anyone can do this. The day you realize your degree is not simply “marketable,” but something YOU market, will be a turning point in your career.

Jay Cross runs The Do-It-Yourself Degree, where he teaches students how to graduate in record time via degree-by-examination. He also resides in Connecticut and believes all of life’s major realizations occur on a mountain.

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The post 7 Steps to Eliminating the Student Loan Debt That’s Weighing You Down appeared first on Brazen Life.

You’ve got a multitude of consolidation and repayment methods to choose from. Needless to say, it’s important to figure out how to pay down your loans quickly—and with as little stress as possible. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Be familiar with the loans

There are scores of school loan types, and every one of them has different payment requirements. Learning about the variety of interest rates is important in determining which plan is right for you.

2. Talk to a real person at a bank

Even if you only go to your bank every once in a while, it’s still important to talk with a real-life banker or financial advisor in person about your loans. Working with a local bank’s loan representative or a school loan specialist helps you figure out the best solution for you.

3. Consolidate your loans

It’s a good idea to consolidate the entire sum of your school loans into a single amount before you think about the repayment of school loan debt. More often than not, it lowers the monthly installment and, in turn, reduces the interest rate of your payments. It also facilitates the repayment of school loans simply by allowing a single payment instead of different payments for each installment of loan repayment.

4. Pay as much as possible

That minimum monthly requirement? Quite often this is merely an accrued interest payment and doesn’t help reduce the primary balance that you owe—not by a prominent margin, anyway. You should pay as much as you can every month. The more you pay, the faster your loan is repaid, which would both ease your burden in a shorter span of time and decrease the accrued interest.

5. Be regular with your payments

You should make student loan payments with punctuality, even if you only pay the minimum. Otherwise, late fees will be added to the balance, and it could eventually lead to default. If you can’t make payments, contact loan holders, and they will help you out with the payment arrangement.

6. Steer clear of big purchases

Anything that allows for a higher payment toward the loans will help you get rid of them a lot faster. If that means driving the car you have for a bit longer before you eventually buy a new one, sticking to simplistic and basic phone and cable services and minimizing leisure spending, then just do it.

7. Regularly review your payment options

Did you know there are options that allow you to pay a share of the balance that you owe and school loan repayment extensions that span a particular number of years? You need to pick out the option that suits you the best, which is in accordance with the status of your job and the financial fluctuations of your wallet.

Look into repayment options regularly to make sure the option you’re using is the one that suits you the best. Stick to these tips, and you’ll soon be on the way to enjoying the benefits of your degree—debt-free.

Natalia David, a tech writer, blogs for mobistealth.com. She can also be followed on Twitter @NataliaDavid4.

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The post Learn to Code: Online Courses That Will Turn You Into a Hacker appeared first on Brazen Life.

So how do you learn those skills? An increasing number of e-learning sites are popping up to help you brush up on your hacking abilities. And since all those options can be overwhelming, we’ve showcased a few of the best sites, giving you insight into the pros and cons of each one so you can choose the platform that’s right for you.

The best part? Some of these courses are even free. Check out your options:

1. Code Academy

Code Academy looks like a gamified web app and manages to teach you how to code without making it feel like a learning experience. Get through the first few exercises on the main page and you’ll find yourself wondering, “Wow, so this is what programmers do? This is easy!” The New-York-City-based company is good at teaching the basics, and it feels like you’re making progress right away.

Code Academy doesn’t require you to download anything, and you can do tasks at your own pace. If you leave the site, you can even pick up later where you left off. You won’t find many bells and whistles, but now that the startup has Code Academy Projects, you can show off your new skills by sharing them on the social media profile of your choice.

Besides JavaScript (what you’ll learn on the main page), Code Academy features units on Ruby, Python and jQuery—all hot right now, as far as new skills go.

2. Udacity

This California-grown project has been written about in The New York Times with the team building its brand around its acclaimed Computer Science class (or “CS101” for short). Udacity is also brimming with geek-worthy forays like Differential Equations and Artificial Intelligence, and there’s a class on building your own business, too. Courses are designed around units, with constant “quizzes” for comprehension. Completion of a class garners you a certificate, tangible proof that you passed the course.

The key teaching component of Udacity is lecture-style YouTube videos. This could be distracting if you’re in an open work space, and sometimes (especially in the introductory classes), it feels like you’re learning at a snail’s pace. There’s no in-browser “sandbox” for you to test your new skills—you’ll have to download Python for that. And (oh yeah) Python is the only programming language they teach.

The shining jewel of this e-learning site is their job placement program. Udacity refers their most impressive students to more than 20 different companies, working through an internal recruiter to find the right match for you! You’ll have to study hard to get noticed, though. After getting the basics, try out the Building a Blog class. Or you could always try Applied Cryptology—you know, for those pesky job application riddles.

3. Coursera

Coursera goes on a more traditional track than its contemporaries, offering actual courses taught through universities. The names are impressive enough: Duke, Stanford and CalTech all have classes available here. (Expect flashbacks to freshman year studying on the quad.) There’s a wide range of coursework, some of it a little inaccessible and overly technical. But don’t worry; Coursera does a great job of breaking down the classes by category, format and requirements. You can even search by institution.

You must take classes when they’re scheduled; there’s no on-demand option, and that’s Coursera’s major drawback. You can join a course that’s already started, but it’s up to the instructor whether you’ll receive credit towards a certificate.

Like other sites, Coursera offers a computer programming module. But options are far more narrow than, say, Code Academy.

4. Khan Academy

Geared towards brick-and-mortar schools, Khan Academy is definitely more accessible in both content and feel. (There’s even a section that teaches you how to manipulate a drawing of Kirby.) Most of the site is YouTube-based, just like Udacity. But the Computer Science section is where this non-profit excels.

Khan Academy offers the most intuitive interface yet. During your training, you can either scroll through the code editor at your leisure or click the “play” button and let the tutorial take you through every detail. Not only is it engaging; you also get the instant gratification of running your code and seeing it in action. You can even post a project once it’s completed.

Khan Academy also has an ambitious point system, where you can earn “achievements” for assignments of varying difficulty (a la Xbox). The user dashboard gives a detailed account of both what you’ve mastered and which skills you need to improve.

The site is aimed at the younger crowd—much younger than college grads. But the user experience on Khan Academy makes all the difference.

This is just the tip of the iceberg for learning how to code online! If you decide to go this route, be sure to pick a site that truly engages you—that’s the best way to learn skills you can apply towards your career. A few hours every week could lead you to a better, more fulfilling job!

What other e-learning sites have you tried and enjoyed?

Kimber Gillus is a New-York-based writer whose only true area of expertise is her rural Virginia hometown. Find her at her tumblr and @kimbergillus.

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The post Online vs. Brick-and-Mortar: Which Type of Education is Better For You? appeared first on Brazen Life.

How many of you roll your eyes every time you hear someone declare that with the utmost pride during one of those University of Phoenix commercials? Surely they must be paid tons of cash to say that, because no self-respecting college graduate would ever admit to attending an online college, right?

Wrong.

If you have that kind of mindset, maybe it’s time for you to join the 21st century. Online education is not a sham, but a new concept that has been proven to better accommodate students’ schedules, improve students’ performance and give painfully shy students a fair chance to earn a degree. Online education is the new frontier of learning, and more and more reputable colleges and universities are investing in online programs every year.

You’re probably thinking, “So, that means brick-and-mortar classrooms are becoming a relic of the past, right?”

No, not necessarily.

Traditional education is still just as important as it was centuries ago. Attending brick-and-mortar classes allows students to participate in hands-on learning, interact with their professors and classmates and stay focused without being distracted by funny cat pictures or anything else the wondrous Internet has to offer.

You just need to figure out which type of education best matches your needs. The following four questions will help you decide whether you should take online classes from the comfort of your home or travel to a nearby college to earn your degree:

1. What kind of degree do you want?

The type of degree you’re pursuing plays a big part in whether you should enroll in online courses or take traditional classes. If you need a lot of hands-on training and human interaction to earn a degree and succeed in your field of work, learning in a brick-and-mortar classroom among your classmates is the way to go. If your degree can be earned solely by learning information and taking tests without the need to interact with others, you can take online courses and still excel at your job after graduating.

Research your degree, figure out which learning approach works best in that particular field of study and then determine which type of education best accommodates it.

A bonus question to ask yourself: “Would I be laughed out of a job interview in this particular field if I told them I graduated from an online college?”

2. What’s your learning style?

If you learn best by:

Seeing: Reading, looking at graphics and watching demonstrations can all be done online. Some classroom teachers don’t offer any visual aids, so online education may be the best choice for you.

Touching: An online course would easily put you to sleep. You need to be in an actual classroom where you can have a hands-on experience.

Listening: This can be done either online or in the classroom. However, there’s a downside to each scenario. Some online courses don’t offer lecture videos, and some classrooms may be too loud for you to be able to listen and concentrate.

3. Are you easily distracted?

If you’re sitting behind a computer screen, Miss Trunchbull can’t slap your hand with a ruler and tell you to sit straight and pay attention. It’s every student’s dream to be out of reach from a teacher’s iron fist, isn’t it?

Perhaps, but not everyone would fare well in such a scenario.

If you’re an easily distracted person with a tendency to procrastinate, you probably won’t pay much attention during an online class. You’ll be likely to give in to your temptations and check Facebook, read up on the latest celebrity gossip or even turn on your Wii and play Zelda during an online class session.

A 2012 study revealed that technology is the biggest culprit when it comes to distraction from school work. The average student can only focus and stay on task for three minutes before being interrupted by some form of media. Holy technology overexposure, Batman!

Now, you must be thinking it’s next to impossible to graduate with high marks from an online college if you’re using technology to learn…without any supervision whatsoever. But it is possible; you just need to discipline yourself. The question is, do you have the chops for it?

4. What’s your financial situation?

On average, online education is 70-87 percent cheaper than traditional education. If you have no financial aid whatsoever (not even from the Bank of Mom and Dad), an online education would be much easier on your wallet. If you’ve been awarded a hefty scholarship or told not to worry about college costs, you can consider attending a brick-and-mortar college if it’s the better option for your field of study.

Which type of education would give you the most bang for your buck?

Kate Simmons is a part-time blogger and slow food enthusiast currently pursuing studies at Colorado Technical University.

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The post Your Year-by-Year Plan to Make the Most of College appeared first on Brazen Life.

Here’s a list of what you should do every year to help give yourself an edge:

Freshman Year

This is a year of firsts. It may seem too early in the game to be thinking about a job, but by the time you’re a senior, you’ll be grateful for the head start. Your two must-dos:

1. Make the most of every group you join, like jumping at opportunities for more responsibility or an open leadership role. Not only will you feel like a part of the group socially, but you will gain more experience and build your resume.

2. Learn how to save money. Budgeting is a problem that plagues many college students. Forming good habits now will make you better at managing money during a future internship or job. Learn to cook, research bargains, rent or buy textbooks online, avoid debt and make putting even a sliver of your measly paycheck into savings a habit.

Sophomore Year

Courtesy of that year under your belt, you’re now comfortable in your environment. Your two must-dos this year:

1. Get your resume checked over by Career Services and learn how to write a cover letter. These are the building blocks of all job applications, and writing them successfully will help you understand how to present yourself.

2. Apply for an internship. Work experience is one of the top things employers look for when interviewing job candidates. Interning is a way to explore an industry that interests you, network and broaden your skill set. (Be aware that the most competitive summer internships will have applications due in the fall and winter.)

Junior Year

Now you can really start thinking about your goals for after school, especially since you’re pretty committed to your major at this point. Your two must-dos:

1. Start building relationships with your professors. Not only are they helpful if you need letters of recommendation, but professors are great career resources. They can help you learn about a field, offer guidance and put you in touch with their industry contacts.

2. Imagine post-grad life. Does the career you want require more education? Is graduate school on the table? You may need to take a few years off before applying. There are many options to start considering, whether it’s entering the workforce, going to grad school or even applying for fellowships abroad.

Senior Year

Time to pat yourself on the back; you definitely deserve it. But there’s still a ton of work to do. Your two must-dos for your last college year:

1. Attend career fairs offered by your school. Talking with employers is not only good experience, but a way to learn about different industries and the types of positions available to you. Research employers before attending, and make sure you have formulated an elevator speech.

2. Become a networking pro. Networking is really just meeting new people to gain information and find new opportunities. Reach out to alumni in your desired field via LinkedIn, ask to do informational interviews and attend any networking events in your area. As you quickly start to build your connections, keep track of who you’ve met, what they have done and how you can contact them in the future. Follow up with your contacts regularly to keep communication open.

Don’t be discouraged if your dream job doesn’t fall into your lap—life rarely works that way. It takes hard work and dedication to achieve most things worth having. But by taking action each year to become more career-savvy, you will learn what it takes to make it in the post-college world.

Lindsay Traiman is a writer for Skyo, an online site with cheap textbooks for college students with flexible rental options. Visit www.skyo.com for more information on how to buy or rent textbooks.

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The post Should You Consider an Entrepreneurship Degree? appeared first on Brazen Life.

Before you take out those student loans, you need to know what you’re paying for. That’s even a bigger issue if you may need a business loan to put your knowledge to use.

Placing a Value on an Entrepreneurship Degree

The value of an accounting degree is clear: you can earn $45,000 a year straight out of college at one of the big accounting firms, and there are plenty of job titles in the field with average incomes of over $70,000 a year. But putting a dollar amount on entrepreneurship isn’t nearly as simple. During the first year of operations, many companies are lucky just to break even, while some startups get multimillion dollar exits. Calculating an average doesn’t tell us anything.

The value has to be a question of whether or not the degree helps a brand-new entrepreneur start her first business—and if it improves her chances of creating a business that either lasts or has a successful exit. Of course, with brand-new degree programs, there are no statistics on success rates of alums. Articles promoting entrepreneurship degrees routinely rely on broad statistics about how many new businesses were established in the U.S. during the last year, not how many of those business owners have entrepreneurship degrees.

But there is one basis of value we can judge on: the impressions the professors teaching those classes have of what they’re offering students. And therein lies something concerning. I heard a professor (who happened to be in charge of teaching entrepreneurship at the university I was then attending) tell a class full of students that they need to go out and actually build a business to get a full education in entrepreneurship.

An entrepreneurship degree is essentially a regular business degree with some warnings tacked on about what has gone wrong in other new businesses. There isn’t an effective way to teach much more than that, because each new business is different. Even individual franchises face different problems than their parent companies. I’ve started several business of my own at this point (including one during college that blew up spectacularly), and I still run into problems I don’t foresee with each new venture. Furthermore, some of the professors teaching these classes haven’t ever started businesses of their own.

But does that mean an entrepreneurship degree is worthless?

Value Beyond the Academic

The major value behind a degree in entrepreneurship is the value of any college degree: you’ve got four years to try out a bunch of different things, access to a huge number of resources and connections to a wide variety of people. If you go to a school with an entrepreneurship program, odds are good that you’ll get chances to network with successful entrepreneurs—the guest speakers brought in for classes, the industry connections of the professors you’re learning from and even the alumni who graduated from your school.

Think about how many businesses have been founded in dorm rooms already. If those student entrepreneurs can do so when many aren’t even taking business classes, think what a dedicated individual willing to make the most of the resources in front of her might accomplish.

Any college degree is worth only what you make of it. An entrepreneurship degree might not have the intrinsic ability to help you found a successful company that much faster than you could figure out on your own. But a university is full of resources that are harder to access without a student ID.

It’s a big financial bet; don’t get me wrong. If you’re confident in your abilities and you’ve got a great idea for a business, it may work out better to just found your first business as many experienced entrepreneurs suggest, rather than racking up student loans that very well may force you to take a job and wait on your dream of entrepreneurship. It’s a tough decision. Yet if you’re clear on what you want to get out of the deal, that will certainly make the decision easier.

Thursday Bram is the editor of 21times.org, a daily newsletter for developers.

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The post How Will Your College Peers Vote on Election Day? appeared first on Brazen Life.

What would get you to the polls?

And most importantly, if you are going to the polls — and you should be! — for which candidate will you vote?

As we gear up for election day, have a look at this infographic from Online Colleges about how college students are thinking and acting on the big day.

And let us know in the comments…

What do you think? Is this right on?

Courtesy of: Online Colleges

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The post 5 Must-Do Items for Your College To-Do List appeared first on Brazen Life.

Being in college gives you that mixed feeling of being able to be irresponsible but at the same time being proud of growing up. But while you should enjoy your college experience, it’s also important to focus on what will help you after you graduate.

Here are five must-do items for your college to-do list:

1. Get a job

Jobs aren’t just for after college. You’ll want to get a job during college, too.

Why? Because whether it’s a summer internship or a part-time job, having a few relevant working experiences will always make you more appealing to employers—and that will help when you start searching for a full-time job after graduation.

Even better, if you’re part of that group of students who have not quite figured out what they want to do in life, trying a few significant job positions can help you figure out what you don’t want to do for a job.

Knowing what you don’t want to do is a step forward in discovering what you would like to do for a living.

2. Build relationships with your professors

Stick out from the crowd!

Establishing a relationship with your professor (especially for those classes you really like) can help you not only during school, but also afterward. If that professor knows you, they’ll be more willing to help.

They’ll be more engaged when you do your master thesis, they’ll keep you updated if they hear of a conference or networking event they know you would be interested in, they’ll happily write a recommendation letter for you and they will give you useful tips on how to reach your objectives after graduation.

These are just some of the positive benefits you can receive by just going that extra mile in and outside your classrooms. It might take some extra effort to get to know a few professors who value and appreciate you, but it’s totally worth that effort.

3. Learn a language

Especially if you want to work in an international environment, knowing at least one other language is a must. By learning one or more languages, you’ll qualify for jobs that require that ability, as well as putting yourself ahead of your competitors for jobs that don’t.

Language skills are unique, especially for Americans, so being able to communicate in Spanish or Mandarin or whatever language you choose can only help you later in life. And once you’re out of school, it might be difficult to find the time to dedicate to learning this skill.

4. Participate in an exchange

A semester abroad isn’t just a good excuse for a prolonged vacation; it’s one of the best experiences you can get in life. Experiencing a new culture, traveling, meeting new people, studying in another country, possibly learning a language—it opens your mind and adds to your knowledge, not to mention helps you learn about yourself and grow up in ways you would have never imagined.

Study abroad is also an awesome experience to put on your resume. Hiring managers are often impressed if you have an international background, mostly because putting yourself in a situation that’s outside your comfort zone takes initiative and courage. You’ll develop intercultural communication skills, adaptability, sociability and the capacity to analyze things with different perspectives—all valuable skills in almost any kind of job.

5. Don’t focus too much on grades

After a four-point list of things that require hard work and commitment, it’s equally important to stress that you should also enjoy life. Grades are important, but that’s not all there is.

Take time to party (yes, party!), cultivate your hobbies, sleep, visit your family and hang out with friends. That last point is especially important because friendships acquired in college will often last you for life.

What would you add to this list? What else should college students focus on?

Sara Coppola is an aspiring freelance writer and a creative content writer for Miinto UK. Sara has a background in economics and international business with a focus on social media and online marketing.

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The post 9 Helpful Apps for College Students appeared first on Brazen Life.

As a college student, you’re on a limited budget, so the task of selecting apps that are useful for your education can be daunting. The right apps can serve as a tool to become a more efficient, organized and informed student, from elementary school through college.

Let’s take a look at nine apps that are worthy of being in your study arsenal:

Study Support, Exam Prep and Memorization

1. Open Study Mobile: Free tutoring? Who doesn’t love that? Open Study launched a mobile app in May 2012 that gives students access to study assistance, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, gratis. Students can work together or get the help of a volunteer “hero” to solve challenging homework problems and complete assignments.

2. Exam Support with Andrew Johnson: This app for iPhone and iPad offers guided meditation to help you relax, prepare and focus before exams. It may sound hokey, but a stress-free test taker can be an A student. For a mere $2.99, it’s worth the money to alleviate pre-exam anxiety.

3. AnyMemo: This is a flashcard app designed to help you memorize just about anything. Users can download thousands of flashcards in a variety of languages to get up to speed quickly, prep for tests and take sample quizzes.

Completing Quality Work

4. Dictionary.com: Never struggle to find the right word again when writing an essay or paper that requires originality and advanced vocabulary. The Dictionary.com mobile app offers 200,000 definitions, synonyms and antonyms for free.

5. Google Drive: Ideal for on-the-go students, Google Drive is a document hosting system. Students can access homework, notes and even update spreadsheets, all on this cloud-based system—and all at no cost! This app also makes it easy to share your work with your peers.

Subject-Specific Apps

6. Math Monkey: Math Game Time has dubbed Math Monkey the “educational Angry Birds for kids.” This app is geared toward younger students, but if your basic math skills are rusty, it’s a fun and engaging way to build them back up for only $2.99.

7. NoRedInk: NoRedInk is a free teacher-developed, web-based app to aid high school students with writing and grammar. Chicago-based teacher Jeff Scheur developed the app to help students learn how to avoid common writing and grammar mistakes. It might be aimed at high schoolers, but most college students do a lot of writing, so this free app is worth trying.

GPA Calculators with Organization Options

8. IStudiez Pro: This GPA calculator for Mac, iPhone and iPad is a comprehensive tool for managing your life, including calculating your GPA, schedules and class deadlines. This $2.99 app is any high school or college student’s best friend.

9. GPA & Final Exam Calculator: Built for Android phones and tablets, GPA & Final Exam Calculator enables students to input their school’s grading scale and requirements for exams and critical deadlines. It’s a free opportunity to stay ahead of the curve.

From tablets to smartphones, these apps will help you get the most out of your education, whether you’re studying at a traditional university or an online college.

Which apps do YOU use to kick butt in college?

Allie Gray Freeland is Editor in Chief of CollegeOnline.org, a guide to online schools and degrees.

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The post Who Says You Need a College Degree to Land a Middle-Class Job? appeared first on Brazen Life.

And while the data certainly show a large and growing gap between the earnings of those with a four-year degree and those without, and no one would argue with your worthy high school guidance counselor’s advice that it’s generally a good idea to go to college, all this hand-wringing can have the side effect of suggesting ALL IS LOST if somehow getting a bachelor’s degree failed to work out for you.

Not so, says a recent study from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce and Civic Enterprises. The research found that despite the obvious erosion of many traditional routes to middle-class earnings for non-graduates (nope, I wouldn’t bet on that factory re-opening in town), there are still 29 million jobs in America that pay middle-class wages (defined here as between $35,00 and $75,000 annually) that don’t require a bachelor’s degree. Forty percent of those pay more than $50,000 a year. (For New Yorkers and inveterate high achievers, $50,000 might not sound like a lot, but it beats the U.S. median.)

While in the past, blue-collar gigs were the route to the middle class for non-graduates, this study reveals that most of today’s jobs for non-grads are now in service sectors like healthcare or white-collar office jobs.

So how do you find your way to one of these reasonably decent jobs if you missed the boat on college? The research suggests getting one of these gigs still takes some effort, with the center suggesting five paths to this sort of steady employment:

• Associate’s degrees. Half of associate’s degrees are related to career-oriented fields, such as nursing, business, and information technology.

• Postsecondary certificates have eclipsed associate’s and master’s degrees as the second most common post-secondary award after the bachelor’s degree—about 1 million are awarded each year.

• Registered apprenticeships. Nine out of 10 apprentices are men and more than half of apprenticeships are in construction.

• Industry-based certifications such as Microsoft, Cisco, and CompTIA certifications are test-based postsecondary credentials awarded by employers.

• Employer-based training represents the largest pathway at $454 billion of spending.

Of course, while it’s great to get some counterweight to the general cultural gloom hanging over those who fail to make it out of a four-year college program, the authors of the study don’t think enough is being done to help those who need to find a non-college route to a good job.

“Compared to other advanced economies, the United States under-invests in sub-baccalaureate, career and technical education,” said Anthony P. Carnevale, the Center’s Director and the report’s lead author.

What do you think? Can you get just as good of a job even if you don’t go to college?

Jessica Stillman is a freelance writer based in London. She writes a daily column for Inc.com and has blogged for CBS MoneyWatch and GigaOM.

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The post 11 Tips That Will Change the Way You Think About Grad School appeared first on Brazen Life.

You might have some preconceived notions about what your experience in graduate school will be like. But once you’re living it, the view completely changes. And I think you’ll find grad school to be a spiritual journey as much as a professional one.

As someone who spent two years in grad school only to finish without a job prospect in sight, here are 11 tips I’ve learned to get the most out of your graduate school experience:

1. Your resume is useless

This might come as a surprise, but your resume is the most useless tool in your job search arsenal. It’s quickly becoming obsolete. Considering thousands of resumes are submitted for any one position, it’s close to impossible to stand out based on that document alone.

To add to that, your resume is nothing but a bunch of bullet points on a page. It’s not tangible evidence of any of the skills you claim you have. Ultimately, your resume will never get you your dream job. A blog, a portfolio of work, a network of contacts will have a significantly bigger impact on your ability to land work.

2. Don’t get caught up in the ego-driven pursuit of a life that looks good on paper

Most of the choices I’ve made throughout the my career have been a byproduct of my ego. I used to choose jobs that would look good on my resume. That meant the biggest brand or most impressive job title.

The result was a deeply unfulfilling career, which is absolutely no one’s big dream. Give some thought to WHY you want the job you do, and make sure you’re not caught up in the ego-driven pursuit of a life that looks good on paper.

3. Your grades don’t matter that much

Nobody (other than you and maybe your parents) really cares about your grades as long as you do relatively well. Most hiring managers certainly don’t care about specific grades. Straight As won’t give you much more than bragging rights and cocktail party conversation.

Why? Because good grades don’t show that you know how to do anything. Real experience shows that.

4. Your degree won’t get you a job

When I started my MBA, I thought that simply having the degree would open up a world of job opportunities.

Upon graduation, I got a rude awakening. The degree itself didn’t open doors to a job for me—and it won’t for you, either. It’s all about what you do with the degree and what you do with your time during graduate school, not the piece of paper you get when you leave.

5. Take responsibility for your career

The entire time I was in school, I complained that the career office wasn’t helping me with my job search. What I realize looking back is it was up to me to take responsibility for my career.

Putting your career in the hands of somebody else will severely limit your options. If you want to pursue a certain career path, then make it your mission to find the BEST resources about that career. Often that won’t be the career office—it will be real people working real jobs in the real world.

6. Build relationships

You can do nothing more valuable with your time in graduate school than building relationships. I hate the word “networking” because it sounds like feigning interest in somebody so you can get something out of them. Instead, be genuine in your efforts to connect with people.

As a student, you have the ultimate trump card: the informational interview. If you start conducting informational interviews at the beginning of your time in graduate school, you’ll already know people when it’s time to graduate. Those interactions will also give you an eye-opening look into your career choice. I thought I wanted to work in the entertainment industry. Two informational interviews changed that. You might be surprised by what you find.

7. Read smart books by smart people

These books will cost less than one of your textbooks and you’ll likely get far more out of them:

• The Education of Millionaires
• Linchphin
• The Art of Non-Conformity
• The $100 Startup
• Tribes
• Outliers

These books will give you a glimpse into career paths you may not have considered, ones that might be far more appealing than what you had in mind. Use them to set a higher standard for yourself than a better job and a higher paycheck. Use them to help you find a career you actually enjoy.

8. You’re a brand, whether you like it or not

So, what do you do if your resume is useless? You build a personal brand. Social media offers you a way to showcase your most unique and interesting qualities. Wouldn’t you rather get hired for who you are than for the bullets on your resume?

9. Start something, build something, create something

Not only will this be deeply fulfilling and satisfy your need for self-actualization; it will also give you an opportunity to create a tangible asset that showcases the skills you have on your resume.

Start a blog, non-profit, student organization or anything else you think might be interesting. As  a student, you have one of the most valuable assets in the world: TIME. What  you do outside the classroom matters just as much as what you do inside the classroom. Give yourself an education that kicks the crap out of the one you’re getting in school.

One of my friends at Columbia planted the seeds for a venture lab that will open up an insane amount of doors for her career. This is how you stand out in a world where there are so many distractions and so much noise.

10. Ditch the script

Whether you realize it or not, you’ve likely been living your life according to a script. That script is the byproduct of a system that tells you to follow a formula:

• Go to school.
• Get a job.
• Go back to school.
• Get a better job.

If an economic meltdown has taught us anything, it’s that the system is broken and the formula no longer works. The bad news is that this is not going to change. We’ve entered a forever recession. The good news is that you now have an opportunity be the author of your own life.

11. Be flexible

Adaptability is one of the most important skills you can develop for your career. By the time you graduate, plenty will have changed. New products, technologies and companies will disrupt the world as you know it, creating opportunities that might not exist today. That’s a good thing. But if you fight it and don’t adapt, you’ll become a victim of it rather than a beneficiary.

Don’t just show up to class, do the required reading and get good grades. When you do that, you’re robbing yourself of the opportunities at your disposal.

For the price you’re paying for your education, don’t you owe it to yourself to walk away with more than a piece of paper that hangs on the wall in a nice frame at your parent’s house?

Srinivas Rao is the host and co-founder of BlogcastFM and the author of The Skool of Life, where he writes about things you should have learned in school but never did. Sign up for his free newsletter on the 7 Most Important Things You Never Learned in School.

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The post How to Make the Most of Your College Years appeared first on Brazen Life.

Are you ready?

To get your year started off right, we’ve collected 10 of our favorite Brazen posts that will help you make the most of your campus experience.

1.  6 Regrets-Turned-Tips That Will Make College Worth Your While

Save yourself some “learning the hard way” and maximize your college years by learning from those who have been there, done that.

2.  5 Life-Saving Browser Extensions for College Students

If you can use the Internet in a smart way, you can study better and finish that term paper faster (and move on to the fun parts of being in college).

3.  What You Can Learn About Success From the Education of Millionaires

Writer Michael Ellsberg went from being broke to making six figures doing work he loves. Discover the lessons he learned from successful college dropouts and self-educated entrepreneurs in this inspiring podcast.

4.  Test Out of College: Graduate in 1 Year With Degree-By-Examination

What if you didn’t need to spend years in a classroom or take out mortgage-sized loans to earn your degree? What if you could cut your graduation time by 75 percent—completing a bachelor’s degree in one year instead of four that had the same earning power as a regular degree? This post will teach you how.

5.  4 Ways to Dive Into Entrepreneurship While You’re Still in College

What do Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Dell and Bill Gates have in common? They all founded their companies while still in college. If you dream of starting your own business, you don’t have to wait until you graduate.

6.  How to Make “Bank” in Your Unpaid Internship

For many students, an internship is a great way to gain experience and get your foot in the door of your chosen profession. And just because an internship is unpaid, that doesn’t mean you can’t still “bank” plenty of benefits (including, yes, even a little cash in your pocket).

7.  How Useful is a College Degree These Days?

That’s right, we’re asking that question in a list on how to make the most of your college experience. Because considering the author’s argument—and the great discussion it generated in the comments—can make you truly examine what you want to get out of your college degree and how to make that happen.

8.  Are Recent College Grads a ‘Lost Generation’?

Another post with great debate in the comments to get you thinking about what the future might hold and how you can use your time at college to best prepare yourself for success.

9.  5 Life-Changing Courses All Universities Should Teach

Your school might not offer these courses, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get a jump on your classmates by learning about the topics now. Consider it Real World 101.

10.  5 Bad Reasons to Apply to Grad School

If you’re at that point in your college journey where “the next step” is something you need to seriously start considering, make sure you’re making the right decision by checking out these wrong reasons for applying to grad school.

What other tips do you have for making the most out of college?

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The post International Students: Don’t Make This Job-Search Mistake appeared first on Brazen Life.

The unusual life experiences.

And the bilingual advantage.

Yet, most international students in America struggle to find decent jobs.

This struggle has nothing to do with a weak resume or cover letter. Work experience isn’t to blame, either. The problem is bigger but more subtle than any of these usual suspects.

There’s something fundamentally amiss from the average international student’s job search. Unfortunately, this missing piece is also the key to job search success.

What exactly am I talking about?

The Missing Piece

It’s not a quick fix, it won’t lead to a job offer within 24 hours, and it won’t cure anybody’s acne. But those that have it are always better off than those that don’t.

What is this missing piece, you ask?

Americans.

Let me explain.

America is a strange place. It’s filled with people from all over the world. Whether you’re from Singapore or Samoa, there’s a friend from home waiting for you in America.

Here’s the problem: most international students get sucked into these cultural pockets. Nigerian students end up hanging out with Nigerians. Chinese students end up marrying each other. And Mexicans? Same deal.

What I’m about to say might not be what you want to hear. It might not even be politically correct. But it will make all the difference in your job search. (I’m speaking from experience here.)

If you’re an international student looking for work in America, don’t get sucked into these cultural cliques. Instead, cultivate deep friendships with Americans.

I don’t mean those “hello… hi” friendships where you only talk about the weather. I mean deep friendships. The kind of friendships where if you find yourself in jail, your American friend will be passed out on the floor beside you.

What’s in it for you

Why, you ask? Why break out of your cultural clique?

Here’s the short answer: a job.

Compared to the average American, international students often have no network. No connections to key decision-makers. No insider information on who’s hiring and where.

Developing friendships with Americans opens opportunities that might otherwise be unreachable. Besides, most companies are willing to make exceptions for candidates who come highly recommended. If you have enough solid relationships with Americans, these recommendations will come a little easier.

Spending time with people from home is great. Unfortunately, it will do more harm than good for your job search. If you want a job, make it a priority to develop deep relationships with Americans.

What do you think? Should international students make an effort to make friends with Americans?

Kola Olaosebikan freely shares information that makes life easier for international students and immigrants in America. Visit http://www.kolasblog.com for more success tips and advice from experienced international students and immigrants.

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The post A Must-Watch Commencement Speech: Author Neil Gaiman on Creating Art appeared first on Brazen Life.

Who could forget that famous speech Steve Jobs gave at Stanford? Or J.K. Rowling’s Harvard speech?

Here’s another to add to your list: author Neil Gaiman’s speech this year at the University of the Arts.

We heard about this from Tim Ferris, who called it “mandatory listening for anyone who hopes to be creatively successful.”

Our favorite line? “I didn’t have a career,” Gaiman said. “I just did the next thing on the list.”

Watch for some serious inspiration, and then tell us in the comments: What’s your favorite commencement speech?

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The post A Must-Watch Commencement Speech: Author Neil Gaiman on Creating Art appeared first on Brazen Life.