In the years before most people didn’t have a college education in the US, having a master’s degree, law degree, MBA, or, the holiest of holies, the PhD was seen as demonstration of great intellect and potential. With these higher degrees, even in the humanities, you could likely find a job in academia or in a highly paid position within an organization, not even saying “do my homework” to someone in school at least once.

Unfortunately, this is not the case today. Gone are the days when the college-educated person was an anomaly and the PhD-educated person was as rare as the white elephant. Today, there are simply too many overeducated people with too little work experience who don’t realize what they are getting themselves into.

Since most gainfully employed people have an undergraduate degree, it is still important to have one in today’s job market. Most HR departments require all suitable candidates to have a college degree as the starting point of their candidacy. The same cannot be said for people with higher degrees. This is especially true with a PhD in the humanities or non-practical sciences. A person who has graduated college then went to a PhD program, or even got a master’s degree before the PhD program, will spend at least fourteen years pursuing higher education. When this person completes their PhD, they will be 32 years old. This 32-year-old has no practical job experience nor have they been building up their career throughout their twenties. If this person cannot find a job in the ever-shrinking job sphere of academia, they are worse off than a 22-year-old right out of college.

The reason for this is simple. A 27-year-old who has worked after college graduation, even if they have changed careers several times or had career lulls, has gained valuable experience that can be marketable to a potential employer. A person who has spent their entire lives being validated by grades and pursuing degrees has little value in the eyes of a potential boss. They have proved that they don’t have enough intellectual curiosity to pursue intellectual interests in their free time and instead have wasted years they could have been building their money-making potential. Yet it gets even worse. With all of the loans taken out to acquire that PhD, you start in a bigger financial hole than you would have if you just would have started working right out of college.

While law and business students may think that they’re able to luck out, the unfortunate truth is the opposite. Currently in the US, there are 11 lawyers for every person seeking legal advice. Unless you’re the next Clarence Darrow who graduated the top of Harvard Law, you’re probably going to have a difficult time getting a job. It’s exactly the same situation for MBA students. While they spent money getting that MBA, they could have founded their own business and gained valuable, applicable, experience even if the business would fail.

With all that said, if you still think getting an advanced degree would be a worthwhile endeavor, try to get into a one-year master’s program. Instead of spending two plus years getting that degree, you only spend one. You get your degree and start working. While staying in the comfort of academic encouragement is familiar and less terrifying than going out into the big bad world, it’s much better to try and get your break into your potential career sooner rather than later.

Sponsored by www.hwsolvers.com.

A lot happens in college that should stay in college. Unfortunately, students allow their beer bong photos to make it onto Facebook, which leads to them popping up in Google searches. Don’t let one night of fun in school keep you from a dream job. Here are tips to get your social reputation in line with your dreams.

Keeping your reputation clean during college is the best way to land a dream job. Here are some tips to remember:

• Sensor Tags: Un-tag yourself from any image that shows you drinking, being physical with another person, or doing anything illegal. You won’t remember to delete these pictures years down the road.
• Never Post Unflattering Images: Drinking shots will make you seem unprofessional. Never post a picture that couldn’t be framed on your desk.
• Hide Your Name: Use privacy settings and fake names to keep yourself from being linked to unprofessional sites. Even sites that seem harmless like Reddit can put you off your guard enough that you might post an uncensored comment or two.
• Sit With Mom: Imagine you are sitting with your mom while you are tweeting, posting, and sharing information. If she would scoff, then you should at least reconsider your social share.

If you already have a bad image online, then there are many ways to clean it up. Here are some of the best methods to repair your social black eyes.

Hire a Company

Reputation management companies know how to find the skeletons in your closet. Bessemer Venture Partners Reputation.com is one option. These experts know where to look and what to do to repair your image. From puke pictures to Girls Gone Wild comments, reputation managers can help you become squeaky-clean again.

Get Googling

Google yourself with keywords like “[profanity]” or “marijuana” to see if you have inappropriate posts. Imagine you are a potential employer: what would he or she be looking for in your pages? Clean up your social sites systematically, or wipe them clean by removing them.

Make a Contest of It

Encourage your friends and family to search all of your social pages. Tell them that anyone who finds something defaming or in bad taste will be given a free coffee. Having hundreds of eyes scanning posts the way a potential employer might is a great way to find cranky tweets.

Stuff Your Name

Create as many new profiles using your name as possible. Go to each budding new social network and sign up. Make sure these profiles are pure and nice. Also, post hundreds of pictures of yourself in professional attire using variations of your name as the title. All of these new results will push the old, bad results pages down in Google’s search results.

By preventing negative images and comments you can make sure you never get a bad reputation. However, if you already have issues, experts can repair your image. Be smart think of your dream job when you post or tweet, and you won’t have to worry about employers reviewing your social presence.

Maintaining a positive reputation online is a difficult task. But in order to actually make the most of your online presence, you’re going to need a particular set of skills. Here are 5 ways to maximize your online presence, each modeled after one of the avatars that reign over the Internet: the Bluebird, the Bookworm, the Monkey, the Panda, and the Mighty Eagle.

To truly understand the essence of the Bluebird, you have to consider what the Bluebird does best; it sings, and beautifully, but it does so to mark its territory. By composing engaging and relevant tweets, you’ll expand your follower base. Keep the flow positive by ignoring or rapidly neutralizing negative comments, but don’t get caught up in a battle. Bluebirds don’t fight well — instead, just keep singing.

The Bookworm is a slow, careful animal that can be hugely effective given time. Facebook is about building a movement, not making a splash. By posting relevant, positive, engaging, and sharable facts and links, you’ll build your list of people who interact with your content regularly.

It’s also a great place to mine data and control your reputation on your own terms, according to Reputation.com’s CEO & Founder Michael Fertik. The longer your list of followers gets, the more impact each of your posts will have. so think carefully about each post before you make it: will it improve your standing in their eyes, or not?

The Monkey is the smartest of the Internet’s avatars, and blogs are among the most versatile of the weapons in the social media arsenal. A blog is able to direct backlinks to the pages you value most, drawing ‘Likes’ and ‘Pins’ visa social media buttons. It also can expand your traffic funnel, and give you a place to be a thought leader about industry relevant issues. Truly, having a regularly updated blog is one of the fundamentals of social supremacy.

The Panda may seem passive, but beware: without this black-and-white beast on your side, you have little support for anything else you do. Content is the basis of all of your social media, period. If you don’t have something that you can link to and say “This is superlative,” you don’t have the basis for interaction. Creating amazing content is the background activity that fuels everything else you do…so get good at it.

The Mighty Eagle is often seen soaring far and wide over vast amounts of terrain, making itself seen by thousands of roaming, mobile eyes. In today’s social environment, apps are becoming popular enough that learning the Fist of the Mighty Eagle will almost certainly be a necessity (if it isn’t already). Yelp, Foursquare, Vine, Roost, FlipBoard — if you do not yet know these things, become familiar; they are the future of mobile social marketing.

These five ways to maximize your online presence are your weapons. The Internet is your arena. Begin!

As more and more studies indicate the terrible risks associated with smoking, it has become appropriate to ask what causes certain groups to smoke. One of the most problematic parts of smoking is that most lifetime smokers have already started by the time they are 24. This would indicate that people generally start during their college age or earlier, so that is an age group that should be targeted.

Social pressure in a totally new environment is likely what leads to most college students to start smoking for the first time. Peer pressure is still a major part of the college life, and things like smoking and partying have become associated with the “college experience”. While many college students have learned how to turn down negative peer pressure, that does not mean they will avoid doing things just to fit in. Upon reaching a new college, freshmen have almost nothing to turn to that they are used to doing from before, as the entire culture around them is different. Personally, I started smoking in college when I realized that a cigarette was the perfect compliment to a full stomach of pizza or beer.

However, according to the CDC, approximately 90% of smokers have already tried smoking by the time they are 18. So, realistically, it is hard to reach out to college students before they try smoking, as most of them already have before they came to college. This is not to say there is no way to reduce the amount of smoking in college-age students. Instead the method of helping them needs to be different. One possible step is the use of e-cigarettes as a stepping stool from smoking to non-smoking. The US National Institutes for Health indicate that these e-cigarettes do decrease tobacco use, and are not unhealthy enough to warrant worry about their primary use.

What else causes college kids to smoke? Based on the CDC’s facts, 1 in 5 high school males smokes cigars. I was also one of those who tried out cigars in high school when the first of my friends turned 18. Similarly, the use of smokeless tobacco has begun to increase once again. What does this have to do with cigarettes? A group of students is going to be much less likely to smoke if they do not do any other drugs or use other forms of tobacco. Basically, using one version of tobacco is very likely to encourage the user to experiment in its other forms. Once again, the easiest way to prevent this from spreading and slow its growth is to reach out to teenagers who are in high school, because most of them try it before they even get to college. Those who do wait until college may be met with social pressures, but these are nowhere near as strong as an addiction that has already been formed.

There are several methods that can be used to reduce the number of young smokers. Based on the previous statistics mentioned, this would be the best way to combat college-aged smokers. First of all, a decrease in advertising and stricter laws regarding how tobacco can be advertised would be effective. The CDC reports that young people are more likely to smoke if they are exposed to smoking advertising earlier. Likewise, a more in-depth education regarding the harsh possible consequences in health classes before and during high school would likely prove beneficial in the long run. Since the habit has generally already formed for college kids who smoke, it is not likely to get them to stop on a large scale, so prevention from smoking in the first place is key. However, methods such as education about health risks and possible stepping stones like rehabilitation or e-cigarettes may be the best options.

Resources

• http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/reports/preventing-youth-tobacco-use/factsheet.html

Obtaining an online education no longer carries the stigma once associated with a virtual diploma. In fact, almost every major college and university offers undergrads classes online, as well as certification programs, graduate degrees, some even have their PhD’s available for students to complete remotely.

Learning is never a bad thing – but going back to school, even when working towards online degrees, is a step in life not to be taken lightly. With so many options to apply to, one needs to be certain the education will benefit their needs. These 5 criteria for discovering the best fit for an online diploma can help those researching programs make a decisive leap.

1. Be sure the degree program, certification, or institution you are applying to is accredited
When applying to an online degree program with an established college or university, it’s pretty much guaranteed that both will be fully accredited. If you’re applying to learn from one of many online schools (i.e.: Kaplan University, Coursera, etc.) it’s good to double check the organization’s accreditation.

There are multiple “checkers” online that will tell you if a specific institute of higher learning is accredited. Or, you can simply Google it.

2. Is Online Learning worth your time?
When considering a return to school online, one must include time management in their decision making process. Will you be able to keep life as an adult, with a full-time job or possibly children, on course? Sure, online degree programs allow for flexible schedules, but can you be certain assignments will be handed in on time? Make sure the class’s pace is something you can manage.

3. How much does an online degree cost?
Aside from the flexibility of scheduling, many opt for online learning because of its affordability. Tuition varies depending on degree programs, but you’ll save on materials, commuting costs, and gain the ability to focus on assignments and tests privately.

Another positive regarding the rise of online education is that many scholarships and loans are available to cover the cost of learning. Don’t forget to check employer benefits. Many companies offer tuition reimbursement for employees enrolled in job-related courses. Are you a current or former Armed-Services member? The government offers a variety of loan forgiveness and grant programs for those who have served.

4. Find an online program that will help boost your career.
Since it began, online courses have allowed those who felt they’ve plateaued at their jobs a way to advance careers. Changing careers is still one of the top reasons many go to school online. When looking into an online degree program, make sure that a) it’s something you’re interested in, and b) that the degree or certification will help you move on with a career.

5. Avoid getting ripped-off by Online Degrees
Do a little extra research into online programs by reading student blogs. See what current and former attendees have to say about the program you are exploring. If an online program is making “outrageous promises” like earning degrees in a week, it might be time to look elsewhere.

Stick with well-known colleges and universities. State schools and large city universities can help you obtain a solid, useful degree online, on your own time.

Coachella always offers surprises that redefine the limits of music festivals. If you were there, you probably remember these 5 best Coachella moments of all time.