The Diminishing Value of Degrees

The Diminishing Value of Degrees

Even four year at college doesn't guarantee you a running start

The stories are told on every college campus. An Ivy League graduate is folding T-shirts at the Gap, someone who wrote a senior thesis in economics is now delivering Domino's pizza, and a Phi Beta Kappa history major is still living with her parents, praying for even one response to the dozens of résumés already sent out.

A college diploma no longer guarantees job placement and success. Recent college grads currently outnumber the available jobs that require a degree. Employers aware of this surplus are demanding more than just a sheepskin from ther prospective employees, and more recent grads are being left behind. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that the trend will become more pronounced in coming years, with a dramatic increase in unemployment or “underutilization> after graduation, forcing grads into fields that require no college diploma.

Which recent grads will have the edge? Experts advise that smart students will start thinking about their careers long before they actually march in cap and gown. That means coursework tailored to a specific career, meaningful on-campus activities, and summer internships with hands-on experience. Majors in engineering and the sciences are in the highest demand and will be rewarded with the highest wages.

A chemical engineering major is not a viable option for everyone, but there are ways that every college student can improve his or her career outlook. Basic computer proficiency is a must, and computer programming skills are an added attraction to employers. Those with fluency in a second or third language will also have an advantage, given the new international focus of many corporations, and knowledge of non-Romance languages like Japanese or Czech is especially desirable.

Without the degree – without the learning and problem-solving skills that it certifies, without the web of connections that comes with it – a young person today begins work with a handicap so large as to be almost, but not entirely, insurmountable. Photo by Elena, the Soldiers Tower on Toronto University campus.

Willingness to relocate is an important factor, according to college recruiters, and job applicants should seriously consider smaller cities in the South and West that will offer the most job growth in the upcoming decades. Candidates should also consider small to medium-size companies, which will be hiring the most workers. Fewer of the big-name corporate recruiters are visiting campuses nationwide, according to the College Placement Council in Bethlehem, Pa.

Recent college graduates face a tough market, but the situation for those without degrees is even bleaker. Because of radical changes in the structure of the U.S. economy in the past decades, career outlooks are dismal for workers without a college education. Moreover, many of the jobs that don't require a degree will nonetheless be taken by 'underutilized” college grads, leaving even fewer jobs for the high school grads.

College grads also receive the majority of high-paying jobs overall. Median earnings for college grads  are almost twice as high as for high school grads, and the average unemployment rate for college grads  is twice as low as unemployment rate for high school grads. That college sheepskin may not be worth as much as it once was, but you're still a lot better off with it that without.

Finally, remember as your mother may have told you, a liberal arts major just won't pay the bills. And do not forget, and start spreading the news: the biggest new-job markets are not in the Big Apple. Cities in the West and South will be offering more opportunities than the more traditional grad-magnets of the Northeast.

Internships

Internships: Getting Your Foot in the Door

The FBI wants you, and so do others – it could lead to a real job!

Many American presidents were once interns (Bill Clinton was once an intern in Senator J. William Fulbright's office, and Obama interned with the Senate Finance Committee. Most famous TV-anchors were interned at radio-stations. Future basketball stars, politicians, spiritual leader have an even wider variety of internships to choose from. Good jobs with good wages may be sparse in today's economy but internships aren't. You can do time with the FBI, run copy for CNN, or pound the gym floor for Nike.

And you'll gain more than experience. In fact, if a company has two candidates that are equally qualified, except that one has a six-month internship experience, who would it hire?

Boeing hires 50 to 70 percent of its interns as full-time employees. Hewlett-Packard's manager of college recruiting says that her company hires about half of its interns. And Marvell Comics estimates that 20 to 25 percent of its staff were once interns. A recent survey by North-Western University found that about 30 percent of those hired by a variety of corporations had been interns – up from 20 percent in 2000. You can't get hired at CNN Sports without having been an intern there.

Internships can also have down sides. About half of them pay little if anything, though some offer academic credit. And interns often are exploited by employers who benefit from their cheap labor, willingness to endure rotten working conditions, and tolerance for boring assignments. Of course, any job has its share of mundane tasks, but prospective interns should take care when selecting an internship to get a commitment that the majority of their time won't be spent in such a manner.

Interns cheerfully accept busywork in the beginning since many employers use it as a means of assessment. Once you've proved you're competent and diligent, you should then diplomatically request more substantive, challenging work. If the internship doesn't offer more rigorous work,the intern should bring the problem to the attention of his or her supervisor. If that fails, try speaking to the internship coordinator.

Tom Hanks was a Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival intern. Photo by Elena.

Some former interns and where they interned:

Dave Barry, well-known syndicated columnist – Congressional Quarterly.

Hillary Rodham Clinto – Washington Research Project.

Sandy Grushow – Fox Entertainment.

Tom Hanks – Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival.

John F. Kennedy Jr. - The Center for Democratic Policy, a Washington, D.C. Think-tank.

Henry Muller, former editorial director of Time, and former managing editor of Time magazine – Life Magazine.

George Stephanopouls – Former Ohio Rep. Mary R. Oakar.

Family and Children’s Day Out in Reykjavík

Family and Children’s Day Out in Reykjavík

Travelling with children can be challenging and finding activities that cater for everyone’s needs can be difficult. Thankfully, Reykjavik is an exciting city with plenty of fun things to do. We have compiled a list of favourites that can hopefully give you some good ideas of how to entertain your offspring.

The Pearl

Öskjuhlíð, 101 Reykjavík.

The Pearl was built in 1991 on top of six big thermal water tanks. Surrounding the dome is a 360° viewing deck that offers panoramic views of Reykjavík and the surrounding countryside. The platform is ideal for children to walk around and explore, whilst the adults can enjoy the stunning views. In 2017, Perlan opened the country’s largest nature exhibition. This includes a glacier exhibition and a replica of an ice cave. For prices and further information, please visit www.perlanmuseum.is

Nauthólsvík Geothermal Beach

101 Reykjavik

At the bottom of the Öskjuhlíð hill, you can find the man-made beach at Nauthólsvík. Set within a 3.5 km walk from the town centre and only a 1.3 km walk from the Pearl, the beach is in reasonable walking distance for children. The child-friendly beach, cosy hot tub and steam bath make this an excellent place for families to visit. Free admission during the summer months. Opening hours: Daily 10:00 – 19:00 (Summer)

Reykjavik City Pond

101 Reykjavik

Feeding the ducks at the city pond has always been a popular activity with Icelandic families. However, a recent statement from Reykjavík City has discouraged people from feeding bread to the ducks. Still, the pond is well worth visiting as the surrounding area is ideal for outdoor activities. Try walking around the colourful streets of Reykjavík, visiting Hljómskálagarðurinn park or simply enjoy watching the birdlife around the city pond.

Viðey Island

Viðey is a small island just outside Reykjavík. It offers peaceful surroundings, abundant birdlife and is a welcome escape from the hustle and bustle of Reykjavík. For ferry prices please visit www.elding.is

Better weight than wisdom a traveler cannot carry. The poor man’s strength in a strange place, worth more than wealth. (From Hávamál Eddaic poems (AD 700-900). Iceland's sky and water... Photo by Olga

Elliðárdalur Valley

Árbær, 110 Reykjavik

Elliðárdalur Valley is one of the biggest recreational areas in Reykjavík and is a fantastic getaway from the city, within the city. It is characterised by its large river, varied plant life, plenty of walking routes and peaceful surroundings.

The Reykjavík Botanical Garden

Laugardalur, 104 Reykjavík.

Opposite the Reykjavík Park and Zoo, you can find the botanical garden, great for a stroll on a sunny day. This is an outdoor collection of living plants and conserves about 5000 plant species. Open every day. May – August from 10:00 – 22:00

Sept – April from 10:00 – 15:00. Free admission

The Reykjavík Park and Zoo

Laugardalur, 104 Reykjavík.

The Reykjavík Park and Zoo offers a fun and action-packed day out. The domestic zoo is home to both farm and wild animals, and offers children the chance to experience farm life first hand. The family park offers various activities such as rides and entertainment, but please note that the rides are not included in the admission and are only open in the Summer. The family park has good picnic facilities, and visitors are welcome to bring their own hotdogs or other foods to cook on the provided BBQ´s. Open daily 10:00 – 17:00. For further details, please visit www.mu.is

Laugardalur Ice Skating Rink

Laugardalur, 104 Reykjavik.

The indoor ice skating rink in Laugardalur is great fun for all ages, and ideal for when the weather is not favourable. Visitors can rent skates and helmets but please be aware that it can be very cold inside so dressing warmly is advisable. Opening hours vary. Please see website for details www.skautaholl.is

Laugardalslaug

Sundlaugarvegur 30, 105 Reykjavik

Laugardalslaug is the ideal finish to an action-packed day out in Laugardalur. It has pools both indoors and outdoors, a large slide and a fun play area for children. For those who wish to relax, there are plenty of hot tubs, including a salt tub and a steam bath.

Reykjavík´s Thermal Swimming Pools

Swimming is an all-time favourite of Icelanders. The thermal pools are family friendly, and most pools have fun slides, children areas, hot tubs and steam baths. For further information on swimming pools and opening times, please visit www.sundlaugar.is. Opening hours: Mon-Fri 6:30 – 22:00. Weekends 6:30 – 20:00.

Árbær Open Air Museum

Kistuhylur 4, 110 Reykjavík.

Árbæjarsafn is an open-air museum and comprises a collection of over 20 houses from the 19.th century that guests are invited to visit. The museum is located on extensive grounds where there is plenty of space to run around and play. Árbæjarsafn offers a daily guided tour between the hours of 13:00 and 14:00.

Other museums that are worth visiting with children are The Reykjavik City Museum, The Whale Museum, Saga Museum and The National Museum.

Smáratívolí

Smáralind, 201 Kópavogur

Smáratívolí is an indoor entertainment centre where everyone can find an activity to their taste, such as lasertag, a teddy bear factory and a crèche for children. Upstairs has a cinema, although screening in English may be limited for children’s movies. For more information on prices and opening hours please visit www.smarativoli.is and www.smarabio.is

Klifurhúsið

Ármúli 23, 108 Reykjavik

Klifurhúsið is an indoor climbing centre and great fun for all ages. It is suitable for young children as it has a special climbing wall for toddlers. On weekends, there are special rates for families between the hours of 12:00 – 15:00.

If none of the above ideas are to your taste, there are plenty of organized tours

Where the Best Jobs Will Be

Where the Best Jobs Will Be

The more education, the better your prospects – but it's a jungle out there

More job turmoil. Less job security. A need for better-prepared workers. That's the vision most career experts have for the next decade. The American economy economy will continue to be a powerful job-creating machine ; the U.S. Department of Labor predicts that some 30 million jobs will be added to the economy by 2030, a big raise in total employment. But the new jobs won't be evenly scattered across the landscape, meaning there's more job restructuring on the horizon. In short, for better and for worse, the immediate future will look a lot like the recent past.

With automation and the movement of factory work oversees, jobs will stagnate or fall off in many areas that require little education. That means, for example, more tough times for apparel workers and machine feeders. Those without at least a high school diploma will find very  few doors open. The fastest-growing areas require higher levels of skill and education. Three out of four of the fastest-growing job groups are executive, administrative and managerial, professional specialties, and technicians, according to the Labor Department.

Technical workers – those who diagnose, who design and operate computer machinery used to make cars and planes, and those who develop and operate the sophisticated computer and telecommunication networkers that are transforming business – are in the catbird seat. Technician jobs are expected to grow, and there will be 1 million new jobs for system analysts alone. Nuclear medicine and EEG technologists' jobs are expected to rise by more than half. But the fabulous growth rates in the latter two specialized fields can be somewhat deceiving, because these fields are small, the growth translates into only several thousand new jobs a year, on average.

Looking foe the best job... Photo by Elena.

As always, changing demographics will help create future jobs. By 2030, the number of people aged 85 and older will grow about four times as fast as the total population, increasing the demand for health services. The graying of America, combined with medical improvements that will expand life spans, will keep the health service industry sizzling. Jobs will soar. Jobs in home health care,, nursing homes, offices and clinics of physicians and other health practitioners are expected to rise. Residential care institutions providing round-the-clock help for the elderly are expected to be the fastest-growing industry in the whole economy. Other future hot-spots: child day-care and other social services, including elderly day care and family social services. One exception is hospitals, which will grow more slowly, due to cost-cutting competition in the industry.

Other service businesses will also continue to churn out jobs. Transportation, communications, utilities, retailing, government, finance, insurance, and real estate companies will account for almost two-thirds of all new jobs. Employment is expected to rise 40 percent in the services sector. Aside from nursing care, other hot service jobs will be in data processing, management consulting, and social, legal, and engineering and management services. The strong demand for financial services will continue, giving a boost to finance, insurance, and real estate jobs. The fastest-growing areas will be in investment and mortgage banking and insurance. The future is less rosy for jobs in commercial banks ans savings and loans.

A big chunk of the jobs created in the business services sector will come from temporary help agencies. Some 2 million workers already hold temp jobs, and their ranks are expect to grow 60 percent, to more than 3 million. Of the temp workers, some 25 percent are highly  skilled professionals. Wages generally are negotiable but average 25 to 30 percent less than salaries for similar permanent positions. Computer analysts, for example, earn about $30 dollars an hour, clerical workers make about $15 an hour.

Temping may appeal to workers who want to mold jobs to their lifestyle but it also comes with headaches, such as finding affordable health insurance. Some temps can get coverage through a group plan offered by the National Association of Temporary Services. A bit of good news: about 30 percent of temporary jobs lead to full-time positions. 

Despite the spotlight on high-tech careers, many of tomorrow's jobs will look much like today's. America will still need more gardeners, for example, than computer programmers in the years to come. The nation also will need twice as many teachers and three times as many nurses, according to the Labor Department. And increased income will mean increased spending, spurring the need for five times as many retail clerks.

As the shift away from railroads toward road deliveries continues, truck drivers will be in demand. Truck transportation will account for 50 percent of all knew jobs in this category. And deregulation of utilities should create some 130,000 new jobs., especially in water supply and sanitary services. Construction workers will be needed to improve the country's deteriorating roads, bridges, and tunnels. But the slow-down in demand for new housing will hurt home builders. The number of government workers will increase 10 percent, mostly in state and local governments. The federal government and the post office will lose a combined 170,000 jobs.

Manufacturing, once the backbone of the American economy, is no longer thriving. Manufacturing jobs will fall by 3 percent, most of them production jobs in the textile, metals, and automobile industries. Those in search of manufacturing jobs stand a better chance in the South. First Union Bank in Charlotte, N.C., found that the Northeast and West Coast lost more than 500,000 manufacturing jobs each year, while the Southeast gained 30,000. Companies are lured to the South by lower costs, non-union labor, economic incentives, and a relaxed lifestyle. The area, particularly the Interstate 85 corridor from the Carolinas to Georgia, has been especially successful in attracting foreign manufacturers.

Not all states are created equal when it comes to serving as attractive places to start you own business. The Corporation for Enterprise Development, a nonprofit research organization in Washington, D.C., has ranked the 50 states based on 12 criteria, including taxes, state economy, and entrepreneurial environment. The most appealing state for starting a business was Colorado, followed Utah, Minnesota Delaware, and Pennsylvania. At the bottom: Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Louisiana, and West Virginia, which was dragged down by low business vitality.

The growth in the women's labor force is expected to slow down, bit it will still increase as a faster rate than that of men. The women account today for about 45 percent of the workforce.

Not the the best job opportunities often are not where the most jobs are, but instead where the most growth is. Explosive growth is a relatively small pool indicates an industry in need of a rapid infusion of labor, and that means opportunities galore. The statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics always follow the professions expected to experience the fastest growth in the recent years.

Barry Lyndon

Barry Lyndon

Scenes from "Barry Lyndon", a 1975 British-American period drama film by Stanley Kubrick, based on the 1844 novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray. It stars Ryan O'Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Leonard Rossiter and Hardy Krüger.  The film is considered among the most beautiful films ever made.

The cinematography is ground-breaking. Especially notable are the long double shots, usually ended with a slow backwards zoom, the scenes shot entirely in candlelight, and the settings based on William Hogarth paintings. The exteriors were filmed on location in Ireland, England and Germany, with the interiors filmed mainly in Kubrick's adopted home city of London.

Barry Lyndon won four Oscars in production categories at the 1975 Academy Awards. Although some critics took issue with the film's glacial pace and restrained emotion, like many of Kubrick’s works, its reputation has strengthened over time, with many now regarding it as one of his greatest achievements, and one of the finest films ever made.

Let the man who has to make his fortune in life remember this maxim. Attacking is his only secret. Dare, and the world always yields: or, if it beat you sometimes, dare again, and it will succumb.

A lady who sets her heart upon a lad in uniform must prepare to change lovers pretty quickly, or her life will be but a sad one.

It was in the reign of George II. that the above-named personages lived and quarrelled ; good or bad, handsome or ugly, rich or poor, they are all equal now.

But it's a changeable world! When we consider how great our sorrow seem, and how small they are; how we think we shall die of grief, and how quickly we forget, I think we ought to be ashamed of ourselves and our fickle-heartedness. For, after all, what business has Time to bring us consolation?

And by these wonderful circumstances I was once more free again: and I kept my resolution then made, never to fall more into the hands of any recruiter, and henceforth and for ever to be a gentleman.

His Scotch bear-leader, Mr Boswell, was a butt of the first quality.

Fate had determined that he should leave none of his race behind him, and that he should finish his life poor, lonely and childless.

This heart of Lischen's was like many a neighboring town and had been stormed and occupied several times before Barry came to invest it.

Gentlemen, cock your pistols! Gentlemen...

Utterly baffled and beaten, what was the lonely and broken-hearted man to do? He took the annuity and returned to Ireland with his mother to complete his recovery. Sometime later he travelled to the Continent. 

His life there, we have not the means of following accurately. But he appears to have resumed his former profession of a gambler without his former success. He never saw Lady Lyndon again.

...had been bred, like many other young sons of a genteel family, to the profession of the law.

Five years in the army, and some considerable experience of the world, had by now dispelled any of those romantic notions regarding love with which Barry commenced life.

And he began to have it in mind, as so many gentlemen had done before him, to marry a woman of fortune and condition.

Thus Barry fell into the very worst of courses and company. And was soon very far advanced in the science of every kind of misconduct.

She was the wife of The Right Honorable Sir Charles Reginald Lyndon, Knight of the Bath, and Minister to George III at several of the smaller Courts of Europe, a cripple, wheeled about in a chair, worn out by gout and a myriad of diseases. Her Ladyship's Chaplain, Mr. Runt, acted in the capacity of tutor to her son, the little Viscount Bullingdon, a melancholy little boy, much attached to his mother.

For he too was an exile from home, and a friendly voice, a look, brought the old country back to his memory again.

Barry's first taste of battle was only a skirmish against a small rearguard of Frenchmen who occupied an orchard beside a road down which, a few hours later, the English main force wished to pass. 

The Chevalier was as much affected as Barry at thus finding one of his countrymen.

Barry had resolved never to see Nora again, but such resolutions, though they may be steadfastly held for a whole week, are abandoned in a few moments of despair.

It is well to dream of glorious war in a snug armchair at home, but it is a very different thing to see it first at hand.