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ARLINGTON, Va., Oct. 2, 2008 – Military spouses often have a hard time finding employment, and even when they do, there’s little opportunity to continue their career because it’s only a matter of time before their servicemember spouse is transferred to another duty station. Inova Health System of Northern Virginia is trying to help. “It’s a challenge to build and keep a family together, especially while the nation is at war,” Michael L. Dominguez, principal undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said yesterday during a ceremony in which Inova made its commitment to the military community. Inova’s pledge gives...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 25, 2008 – Because they are military veterans and have a unique understanding of the sacrifices servicemembers make, some of the top leaders of the law firm Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge and Rice have created a military-friendly work environment that supports not only veterans, but also employees who serve in the National Guard or Reserve. The law firm has many policies and programs in place to support its employees who serve part-time in the military, and for its efforts in this area, it is receiving the 2008 Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award. Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge and...

Even as the economy slumps and unemployment rises, strong demand for power plants, oil refineries and export goods has many manufacturers and construction contractors scrambling to find enough skilled workers to plug current and future holes. With the shortage of welders, pipe fitters and other high-demand workers likely to get worse as more of them reach retirement age, unions, construction contractors and other businesses are trying to figure out how to attract more young people to those fields. Their challenge: overcoming the perception that blue-collar trades offer less status, money and chance for advancement than white-collar jobs, and that college...

CAMP TAJI, Iraq, Aug. 12, 2008 – Growing up in Lansing, Mich., Army Pvt. Ryan Bruin didn’t have many opportunities to make a life for himself. He joined the Army purely for the steady pay. Army Pvt. Ryan Bruin, an AH-64D Apache attack helicopter maintainer serving in Multinational Division Baghdad with the 4th Infantry Division’s Company D, 1st Battalion, 4th Aviation Regiment, Combat Aviation Brigade, works at his company's maintenance hangar on Camp Taji, Iraq, Aug. 5, 2008. The 18-year-old Lansing, Mich., native is the youngest soldier in his battalion. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Jason Dangel, Multinational Division...

Distressed at criminals’ preferences for committing their offenses in the downtown sector of the city, Eugene, Oregon city officials are poised to enact an ordinance aimed at excluding these felons from of the downtown area for up to one year. Under the proposed law, persons charged with a crime such as robbery or assault would be barred from entering downtown Eugene for 90 days. Convicted criminals will not be allowed downtown for one year. The proposal is the brainchild of city council members Andrea Ortiz and Mike Clark. “The outer fringes of the community are not bearing their fair share...

Good Afternoon! When I need advice, I turn to Freepers. I am interested in learning more about becoming a paralegal. I've done some research, but I was hoping to get some first hand accounts. As a career, how would you rate it? Is it challenging, interesting, etc. More importantly, are you in charge of fetching the coffee?

Doctor No by: Deborah Lambert, April 24, 2008 Among the questions that apparently plague academics these days is—Why don't more conservatives pursue doctorate degrees? When Matthew Woessner and his wife April Kelly-Woessner of Elizabethtown College wrote about this subject, they made some interesting discoveries. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, “the Woessners found that in a variety of ways conservative students were less interested than liberals in subject matter that leads to doctoral degrees, and less interested in doing the kinds of things that professors spend their time doing.” On the other hand, liberal students reportedly savored the opportunity...

Ashley Qualls doesn't sound like a typical high school student. Maybe that's because the 17-year-old is the CEO of a million-dollar business. Ashley is the head of whateverlife.com, a website she started when she was just 14 — with eight dollars borrowed from her mother. Now, just three years later, the website grosses more than $1 million a year, providing Ashley and her working class family a sense of security they had never really known. It all started with capitalism 101, the law of supply and demand. Ashley became interested in graphic design just as the online social networking craze...

Robert Beasley says he is “training young adults to be professional” — and he approaches his job with all the enthusiasm of an evangelist. Beasley, 48, is a career specialist with Arbor Education and Training located at the Greenwood WIN Job Center. The program teaches young adults how to act during an interview, complete a job application, assemble a resume and cover letter and perform other related tasks. “Basically, we’re giving them the skills to find a job, to get a job and to keep that job,” said Beasley, a Greenwood native and Jackson State University graduate. Arbor Education and...

As we each search for our personal pot of gold, many of us wonder whether the rainbow leading us to a six-figure paycheck has to be so long. We want financially rewarding jobs, but not everyone is eager to commit the time and money necessary to complete a medical or law degree. The good news is that, even though statistics have shown that more education translates to higher earnings, there are still plenty of six-figure salary jobs for those of us who have decided not to take the seven-years-and-a-stethoscope route. The following is a list of seven lucrative fields in...

.S. News & World Report, which has made a name for itself by ranking and announcing the best colleges every year, is now ranking and listing the best careers for young people. A comparison of the latest lists shows a shocking disconnect and makes for dispiriting holiday reading. While the price of a college education has skyrocketed far faster than inflation, many careers for which colleges prepare their graduates are disappearing. U.S. News' Best Careers guide concludes, "college grads might want to consider blue-collar careers" because bachelor's degree holders "are having trouble finding jobs that require college-graduate skills." Incredibly, U.S....

COLUMBIA'S LOSS By RALPH PETERS September 25, 2007 -- THE Iranian president's welcome to Columbia - following a self-serving whine by the university's president - reflected brainless activism, not academic freedom. It was the professoriate imitating Hollywood's embrace of terrorists. Meanwhile, Columbia denies our military's ROTC programs the chance to recruit and teach on campus - ostensibly because of the Congress-approved "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Of course, it's just a cultural issue when Ahmadinejad executes homosexuals (although, according to him, there aren't any in Iran). The victims of the ban are students - who are denied one of the...

Get-Ahead Careers for 2007 By Marty Nemko Doctor. Lawyer. Business executive. Most people planning a career aim for professions they know the most about. But those aren't always the best jobs. In its Best Careers 2007 guide, U.S. News has sifted through trends in the economy and the workplace and has identified 25 professions that will be in growing demand as baby boomers age, the Internet becomes ubiquitous, and Americans seek richer, simpler lives. All of the jobs offer a great mix of pay, status, and quality of life. Many are not surprising, such as engineer, pharmacist, and dentist. But...

Top Career #1: Nursing & Caregiving Though job prospects across the healthcare industry are forecasted to rise, nursing jobs are expected to be in critical demand. Registered nurses work in nursing care centers, inpatient and outpatient departments of hospitals, home healthcare facilities, and government agencies. The job requires stamina and patience, but the rewards of helping people are immense.Growth: 27% to 56%Education: Nursing diploma, associate's degree in nursing, or RN to BSN in nursing Skills: Empathy, high-energy personality, attention to detailWhat Your Mother Says: "What an angel! If you meet anyone named "McDreamy," give him my number." Top Career #2:...

CHICAGO -- Some parents are writing their college-age children's resumes. Others are acting as their children's "representatives," hounding college career counselors, showing up at job fairs and sometimes going as far as calling employers to ask why their son or daughter didn't get a job. It's the next phase in helicopter parenting, a term coined for those who have hovered over their children's lives from kindergarten to college. Now they are inserting themselves into their children's job searches -- and school officials and employers say it's a problem that may be hampering some young people's careers. "It has now reached...

Like many other baseball fans, Joe Kosa, 28, is spending his Sunday glued to a TV. But relaxed he's not. Instead, the ESPN (NYSE:DIS - News) production assistant is stationed in front of dozens of flat-screen TVs tuned to global sporting events at the headquarters of the Disney-owned network. He's furiously jotting down notes to weave into a storyline that will be read in 60 seconds flat on tonight's 6 p.m. SportsCenter broadcast. With the San Diego Padres leading the Chicago Cubs 9-0, the outcome is hardly in doubt, and writing the highlights should be easy. Then, Clay Hensley, who...

"If I take a class and never study, I can still get a B," said Scott Daniels, a 22-year-old at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. "I know that if I'd applied myself more, I would have had better grades." On each campus, many young men concluded that the easy B was good enough .. At Greensboro, where more than two-thirds of the students are female, and about one in five is black, many young men say they are torn between wanting quick money and seeking the long-term rewards of education. "A lot of my friends made good money working...

Many 20-somethings find themselves moving home to live with Mom and Dad, just like the movie 'Failure to Launch.' Blame it on the inertia -- and some very real challenges.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Feb. 27, 2006) College students in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, business administration; transitioning military; and entry-level aerospace personnel are invited to attend the fourth annual Space Career Fair in Colorado Springs. The event, hosted by the Space Foundation at the 22nd National Space Symposium, provides unique access to premier space industry professionals and the opportunity to become part of our nation’s aerospace community. The Space Career Fair will commence at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, April 4, at The Broadmoor Hotel’s West Ballroom. “The Space Career Fair was established four years ago to address the critical need to...

AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 27, 2006 – More than 400 middle school, high school and college students from across Texas flocked to student expositions at Huston-Tillotson University here Feb. 25 seeking information about military service and civilian jobs in the Defense Department. The expositions were part of the two-day National African American History Month observance sponsored by DoD and Huston-Tillotson in conjunction with historically black colleges and universities. The students were provided information about appointments at the service academies, entry into ROTC programs and civilian career opportunities in DoD, including how to participate in civilian intern programs. Missy Adunbarin, 18, a...

A controversial bill called the Dream Act, if passed, would grant permanent residency – and the right to land a job - to college-educated illegals who came to the U.S. as children. This would indeed be a "Dream" come true for a growing number of well-educated American students who are finding it impossible to land a job in the U.S. because they’re illegal aliens. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that all children, including undocumented aliens, can attend elementary and secondary school for free. But higher education was left up to the individual states. In 2001, Texas became the...

"Do what you love and the money will follow" is great in theory, but the truth of the matter is, certain jobs and fields simply pay more. The Bureau of Labor Statistics National Compensation Survey, published in August 2004, showed that white-collar earnings -- which averaged $21.85 per hour -- were the highest among occupational groups. Blue-collar pay averaged $15.03 per hour, while the hourly pay of service occupations averaged just $10.40. Though many of these occupations require an advanced degree, there are jobs at every education level that pay more than other jobs for workers with similar levels of...

Editors' preface: A noted historian of the Middle East has said the following about the legacy of scholars who devoted their careers to the study of the region: The giants of the recent past tend to be largely forgotten as soon as they are dead if not before, especially if what they have written isn't what is now considered fashionable or central … They are criticized when they are in error, but their achievements are forgotten.[1] While this is largely true in the English-speaking countries, it is not true in France, where a few French "giants" of Islamic and Arab...

I guess it would be for the best for me to first introduce my situation: at the moment, I'm a high school senior and currently in the running for the Navy Nursing Option ROTC Scholarship (as a matter of fact, my interview is tomorrow). I was wondering if anyone could offer advice on how to get myself prepared before going into college so as to get a good hold as to what I'll need to do to pursue a degree (and, later, a career) in nursing. Secondly, I am currently doing a school report on military nursing. The Senior Project,...

Q&A: Joe RichTitle: Executive vice president Company: Clark Consulting, Marlboro, Mass. What he does: Having just surveyed 37 U.S. IT companies about their college recruiting plans, Rich is lukewarm at best in his optimism about new IT graduates' job prospects in the U.S. high-tech sector. The main reason: Graduate hiring by U.S. high-tech companies this year increased by a mere 1.6% over 2003. What's more, although the total number of new college graduates has increased, most U.S. high-tech companies hired fewer college graduates this year than in 2003. What is the near-term IT employment forecast for recent university graduates? Hiring...

JULY 19, 2004 - Employers are doing a collectively lousy job at filling positions. People who have been employed for the past four years don't know how difficult it is to search for work in today's economy. Despite recent gains in job creation, we're still in a hiring slump. For every job that appears, at least two seem to disappear. Looking for a job is the most frustrating and demeaning job there is. Worst of all, employers are the most removed from the pain of this experience. Those with openings receive so many applications that they can never appreciate job...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 26 - Bill Gates went on a campaign tour last week, trying to reinvigorate his base, as they say in politics. The number of students majoring in computer science is falling, even at the elite universities. So Mr. Gates went stumping at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, M.I.T. and Harvard, telling students that they could still make a good living in America, even as the nation's industry is sending some jobs, like software programming, abroad. "Will this create more competition? It will," he told students at M.I.T. on Thursday. "It means the U.S....

Maybe women are smarter than men. This year, for the first time ever, more women than men have applied to go to medical school, dramatizing a decades-long trend that has women dominating nearly all areas of higher education. Female college students make up 56 percent of the nation's 15.3 million collegians, outnumbering men by 1.87 million students. They earned almost 400,000 more bachelor's degrees in 2001-2002 and appear to be within reach of overtaking men in earning professional degrees and doctorates. They already surpass men in such schools as optometry, pharmacology and veterinary medicine. Women still lag far behind men...

Opportunities in this area seem to abound, and the money looks pretty good. I'm sure there are pros and cons, and I'd like to hear them. However, I checked alamo-girl.com, FR profiles, and I didn't find any FReepers who were drug reps. Is this a field that a nice, educated conservative would never consider or what? It can't be as bad for a conservative as government or a university setting, can it?

<p>For a person who favors stability, Sean Doyle has had a rough decade.</p> <p>He jumped into computer sales in 1992, when anything that smacked of technology held the promise of big bucks and early retirement.</p> <p>Instead, Doyle became a casualty of the technology bust.</p> <p>Laid off in July 2001 when Rosemont, Ill., tech services company Comdisco Inc. filed for bankruptcy, he is among thousands of workers now seeking careers with greater stability, in terms of both job security and a reliable salary instead of unpredictable, make-or-break commissions.</p>

The Forbes/Milken list of Best Places for Business and Careers ranks 200 metropolitan areas based on the latest government data for employment and wage growth over one- and five-year periods. Analysts at the Milken Institute also search for critical shifts within the vast technology sector, weighting one- and five-year changes in gross tech output, technology as a percentage of the total metro economy and the diversity within tech industries. We added a job momentum category this year, tracking employment during the first quarter of 2002 to gauge how the metro areas were handling the effects of Sept. 11 and the...

<p>THE BOOK ''Creating a Life: Professional Women and the Quest for Children'' by economist Sylvia Ann Hewlett has launched America's latest round of soul-searching and hand-wringing over women's new roles.</p> <p>Hewlett, whose survey found that more than half of 35-year-old professional women have no children and between a third and half are still childless at 40, warns that many successful women may miss out on having children altogether. She is concerned that women are focusing too much on their careers in their prime childbearing years and that reports of miraculous advances in fertility treatments are causing them to underestimate the risks of delayed childbearing.</p>