Are Elite Colleges Worth the Cost? … The New Normal—Employers Check Workers’ Online Presence … Flip Phones Making a Comeback?

Are Elite Colleges Worth the Cost?

Degrees from costly, prestigious colleges pay off only in certain fields, according to new research conducted by The Wall Street Journal.

The research team examined thousands of college graduates ten years after leaving school. The researchers found that in business and the liberal arts, degrees from prestigious colleges and universities resulted in higher pay. However, in STEM jobs, the school the student attended did not matter. Higher-than-average earnings for those graduates remained consistent despite the college attended.

The findings are significant because knowing that future earnings will not be affected by the student’s undergraduate degree can save parents and students thousands of dollars.

–From The Wall Street Journal

The New Normal—Employers Check Workers’ Online Presence

The casual Google search on a potential employee is a given today. However, more than 50 percent of employers take it a step further and actively search for red flags on candidates’ social media pages. Such probes into Internet identity can lead to a host of problems. Below are a few areas to constantly monitor, so that your online persona is squeaky clean:

Mistaken identity. If someone with the same name is mistaken for you, your reputation is the one that will take the hit.
Inappropriate comments. Whether made by you or your friends, unsuitable information or images that appear on your social media pages can harm your candidacy for a job.
Employer’s branding. Current workers are not immune to their employers’ forays into employees’ Internet presence. Any unkind comments about stakeholders, racist remarks, or provocative content may adversely affect your reputation and career.

–From The Washington Post

Flip Phones Making a Comeback?

As a way to disconnect from the constant distractions of smartphones, some people are reverting to the good old days of the flip phone. Manufacturers Sony and LG have given up on the small market for the devices, but Microsoft and Samsung continue to produce the simple and inexpensive phones. Tired of smartphones’ short battery life, some users choose the low-tech devices as a way to uncouple from the digital world. Others use a sophisticated smartphone during the day but take the lighter, smaller flip phones when they go out at night.