So what kind of information do you have out there?  Jason Fry from the Wall Street Journal Online has this:

Last week a story crossed my desk claiming that a quarter of human-resources decision makers had rejected job candidates because of personal information found online.

The survey was conducted by a business social network, so I was skeptical of the numbers and the methodology. (My colleague and fellow Daily Fixer Carl Bialik takes a look here.) But I understand why the survey got a receptive audience. It mines something a lot of people my age find troubling — the idea that those younger than us are blithely unaware of the consequences of putting details about their personal lives online.

The conventional wisdom is that as those who grew up with the Net get older, they’ll pay the price for their youthful indiscretions — starting when they’re trying to get that first job and get Googled by the HR guy. And it’ll get worse from there. The members of Generation Exhibitionist will get older and wiser, but they’ll never escape from their boozy pictures and angry blog postings and other digital detritus. And eventually they’ll realize that they spent their teen years embroidering virtual scarlet letters for themselves that can never removed.

Having a college degree, a solid resume and a great interview should be your primary concerns when looking to get a new job – not your former past (or present) as a Myspace vixen.  Just remember that you never know who might want to dig up information on you when it comes to job hunting.  The best bet is to keep a low profile.

What they do: Work and business are about more than money, but money still matters. Just like your career, you need to manage your money. Financial advisers do what the job says: advise people on their personal financial matters. That definition isn’t helpful? OK. They review how risk averse clients are and strive to establish an investment strategy, including estate planning, that meets their needs. Some even sell insurance.

Why it’s hot: Because retirement is quickly approaching for many baby boomers, more and more people are taking a hard look at their nest egg to see if they can stop working sooner rather than later. The complexity and wide range of financial and investing options makes a little personal attention from a professional very attractive. All of this adds up to very strong job growth — almost 35% through 2012. A college degree is a must, and salary prospects are among the very best, ranging between $28,330 and $145,600. And that’s just as high as the BLS data goes; a personal finance advisor could earn millions.

So if you have dreams of hitting it big in finance, earning a degree in business and finance is the way to go. Not only is this career in demand, you also have the potential of earning a large salary.

Medical student Clarence Lam marveled at the feast that a drug company sponsored this spring at the Inner Harbor’s upscale Capital Grille.

The night’s appetizer was seafood, the entree was filet mignon and dessert was cheesecake.

“They paid for everything,” recalled Lam, 26, who attends the University of Maryland School of Medicine. “They even covered the wine.”

Like other drugmakers, Novartis Pharmaceutical Co. sponsors such events to woo practicing doctors and to promote its products to future physicians such as Lam. It’s a common marketing tactic that is raising concerns on medical school campuses nationwide. Medical scholars and student groups have called for tighter restrictions on industry access to the nation’s medical students.

The Association of American Medical Colleges has a task force investigating the issue, and several medical schools have adopted policies that restrict such marketing. Officials at UM and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine are considering similar rules.

Is marketing to people in medical school going too far for the Pharmaceutical companies?  Whether pharmaceutical companies will continue to woo future doctors or not will be looked in to by Association of American Medical Colleges.

News 8  Austin has this story:

Manuel Munoz is a junior in high school, but he’s already taking college courses at Austin Community College.

“I’m taking some history courses so I can be ahead both in college and in high school,” he said.

Munoz doesn’t have to pay a dime. He’s part of ACC’s Early College Start program. It’s one of several programs ACC offers academically eligible high school students.

ACC President Stephen B. Kinslow said the college encourages minority students to take part in school and hopes they’ll be more inclined to stick to the college life.

“It’s not just about getting people in the door to college but helping them to be successful,” Kinslow said.

Next fall, ACC predicts 25 percent of it’s population will be Hispanic. If so, ACC will become a Hispanic Serving Institution. Under the current Higher Education Act, ACC would then be eligible for more state and federal funds.

“Texas risks not having enough educated, highly skilled workers to meet the needs of business and industry. Providing access to affordable higher education is the solution to those challenges,” Kinslow said.

This is a great way to ensure that Texas continues to have skilled, college-educated workers.  These high school students who want to earn their degree can get ahead by taking college courses now.

Public Health involves the coordination of knowledge and practice among all these disciplines to promote and protect the health of individuals and our population.

 Public Health professionals typically specialize and pursue career opportunities in one or more of these disciplines. They often obtain a masters in public health (MPH) degree, a joint degree with another field (public policy, social work, business) or a doctorate degree.

 Many physicians also obtain an MPH either before, during or after medical school because they want to have a broader impact on the health of the population.

Public Health Professionals work in a wide variety of settings including public health departments, community clinics, academic or research institutions, community based organizations, bio-technology firms or Center for Disease Control.

They try to make a difference in critical public health issues such as HIV/AIDS, disease prevention, reduction in the incidence of major diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease, infant mortality, obesity, immunizations, community health status, health disparities and bio-terrorism preparedness. The may work on these and other critical issues both domestically and internationally.

Professionals with a degree in Public Health will enjoy a rewarding career helping society at large.  This sector of the healthcare field will remain in high demand as our population continues to grow.

Many career fields are seeing an increase in the numbers of foreign students. This is especially prevalent in medical school.  The Washington Post recently posted an article on diversity at med schools.
 
The six members of Medical Team 4 have a lot in common. Each wears a white coat, has a stethoscope for a necklace and has stayed up late this week. They can all start an IV and work up a solitary lung nodule.

They share something less obvious, too. With one exception, none has a grandparent born in the United States.

In the past 15 years, U.S. medicine has seen a huge influx of first- and second-generation immigrants. It follows and augments a different demographic trend that began 30 years ago with the acceptance of increasing numbers of women into medical schools. As a result of that earlier revolutionary change, half of new practitioners today are women.

The Norman Rockwell-Marcus Welby image of the American doctor — an avuncular white man, often in a bow tie — is rapidly disappearing.

From 1980 to 2004, the fraction of medical school graduates describing themselves as white fell from 85 percent to 64 percent. Over that same period, the percentage of Asians increased from 3 percent to 20 percent, with Indians and Chinese the two biggest ethnic groups.

As the American population becomes more diverse, so will professionals in many fields.  Regardless of ethnicity, the need for doctors and healthcare workers will continue to attract students to the field of healthcare. 

What do Neil Armstrong, Jimmy Carter, and Alfred Hitchcock have in common? Though they eventually chose very different careers – one as an astronaut, one as a president, and one as a filmmaker – they all started with an engineering education.

An engineering degree offers a wide range of career possibilities. Within the practice of engineering, there is an enormous variety of job functions.

If you are imaginative and creative, design engineering may be for you.

If you like laboratories and conducting experiments, you might consider test engineering.

If you like to organize and expedite projects, look into being a development engineer.

If you are persuasive and like working with people, consider a career in sales or field service engineering.

The analytical skills and technological expertise you develop as an engineering student can also be put to use in many other fields. The majority of today’s college graduates will have more than one career during their work life, and engineering can provide a strong foundation for almost any one of them.

With many technological changes in the world today, the need for creative people to work in the field of engineering is increasing.  Students who are interested in earning a degree in engineering will find that they have a great many career opportunities.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration has proposed new rules aimed at clamping down on conflicts of interest in the student loan industry.

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings had previously said she would issue the rules about this time and the department publicized the proposed rules Friday.

The action comes amid high-profile investigations into the student loan industry by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers in Congress. They have accused the Education Department of failing to police improper relationships between student lenders and colleges or their employees.

Cuomo’s investigation unveiled arrangements between universities and lenders in which schools received some of the money lenders made from loans at those schools. And in some cases, the investigators found schools or loan officials were given incentives to place loan companies on a school’s preferred-lender list.

The Education Department’s proposed rules state that schools must have at least three companies on a preferred-lender list and must explain how they were selected.

The regulations are expected to be finalized in about a year. Congress may act more quickly.

The House recently passed legislation aimed at tackling the problem of too-cozy relations between universities or their employees and the loan industry. The Senate hasn’t yet acted but is expected to in the near future.

Just because some universities have questionable relationships with lenders doesn’t necessarily mean that you are getting a bad loan.  It just means that they might be putting their best interest ahead of yours.

Why Create More Work?
There are several reasons why workers don’t use all their vacation time: having too much work to do to take a vacation (36%), not being able to afford a getaway (34%), wanting to save vacation time for emergencies (32%), and worrying about coming back to an excessive workload after a vacation (15%).

Taking a “Mental Health Day”
When people do take time off, it’s often used in ways unrelated to vacations. In fact, nearly a third of respondents (31%) said they use the time to run errands, such as doctor visits, and 30% said they often use vacation time as “mental health days” to cope with stress.

Make the most of the time you DO decide to take of.

• Choose the vacation that best meets your needs. You may need a peaceful retreat from stress, or you may benefit from something more active and exciting. Avoid the kind of vacation that will leave you even more exhausted than before.

• Plan ahead for your time off. Take practical steps to manage your workload with your upcoming vacation in mind. Try to wrap up important projects before you leave. Don’t leave behind time-sensitive tasks that only you can handle.

• Enlist help. Ask a trusted coworker to back you up while you’re away and offer to return the favor. It’s much easier to relax when you know someone’s got you covered.

• Have no regrets. You earned the vacation, so enjoy it!

You deserve some time off, and your family will appreciate you more when you are less stressed.  Balancing a career and family is always a challenge, so dont add more stress by not taking some time for your self.

Robot Programmer
Salary range: $40,000-$100,000

Experience/skills: Associate degree in a technical field and extensive training. People skills also come in handy.

Perks: Lots of travel, helping clients customize each machine to a particular task

Who’s hiring? ABB, Fanuc, Motoman, Panasonic, Toyota

Back in 1990, Matt Zeigler was pulling 12-hour shifts as an arc welder for a forklift manufacturing firm in Indiana when a technician in a white lab coat came into the factory to work on a new $85,000 robotic welder. “I said, ‘Why aren’t I doing that?’” Zeigler recalls. Self-training eventually got him out of blue-collar work and into a top robot programming position at Motoman in Dayton, Ohio, one of a growing number of industrial robot manufacturers that train humans to make sure their products perform as advertised.

Industrial robots, once a fixture in the auto industry, now are doing everything from analyzing blood samples to mixing cocktails. The latest innovations include multi-armed robots with vision systems and enough machine intelligence to read labels and pick out the parts they need from nearby bins.

Zeigler, 35, spends most of his time behind a PC and a custom hand-held controller, calibrating the robots’ moving parts to be in just the right place at just the right time. He is also on the road a lot, acting as salesman, engineer, and installer for Motoman’s customers. “I wear a lot of hats,” he says.

Far from eliminating jobs, Zeigler says robots are “creating better jobs and better-paying jobs. They’re just more technical and not as repetitive.”

Robotics is a big part of future technologies.  Students earning their degree in technology need to be aware of new careers that are being created to keep up with technological advances.