American employers have a variety of job vacancies, piles of cash and countless well-qualified candidates. But despite a slowly improving economy, many companies remain reluctant to actually hire, stringing job applicants along for weeks or months before they make a decision. If they ever do. (The New York Times)
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Since allowing users to designate skills – and be endorsed for them – five months ago, LinkedIn’s members have given out 1 billion endorsements. If those recommendations are to be believed, the professional social networking site could transform what was traditionally one of the more boring sections of a resume into one of the most dynamic. (SmartMoney)
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What was your favorite TED talk this year? I found both Amanda Palmer's and Nilofer's spectacular. Yet, this year, TED made me wonder about Great Ideas, and our relationship with them. And I began to ask myself: even if we enjoy a great TED talk, should the rise of "TED thinking" concern us just a tiny bit? (Harvard Business Review)
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Best Buy followed Yahoo this week by ending its work from anywhere policy, but that doesn't mean there's a new trend in corporate America. Unless you're at a struggling company desperate to turn business around, working from home is here to stay. (CNN/Money)
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Changing jobs every couple of years used to be a red flag to prospective employers. It's less so now, as long as your résumé tells a clear story. (Fortune)
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When the interviewer asks if you have any questions for them, it's your opportunity to show them how much insight, moxie, and knowledge you have stored up. Here's your playbook. (Fast Company)
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For U.S. companies, diversity has nothing to do with political correctness or window dressing, and everything to do with business survival, writes guest columnist Edward Iwata. (The Seattle Times)
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Benevolent sexism. Motherhood penalty. Dominant negotiation paradigm. These were some of the ideas discussed at a conference on gender and work hosted by Harvard Business School last week. According to the academic presenters, all three contribute to ongoing discrimination against women in the corporate world. And they have the research to prove it. (Harvard Business Review)
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n the six years since Kenya’s M-Pesa brought banking-by-phone to Africa, the service has grown from a novelty to a bona fide payment network. Unlike in the U.S., where mobile banking demands an app (or three), a smartphone, and a high-speed Internet connection, more than 55 million Africans use basic mobile phones to transfer money from one person to another, take out insurance policies, and collect payment from government agencies. (Bloomberg/Businessweek)
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The majority of China's new leaders grew up during the Cultural Revolution, laboring in factories and the poverty-stricken rural regions, so they have a deeper understanding of those who have been left behind during the country's economic boom. (Fortune)
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Business schools are exploring a new service: matchmaking. After relying for years on assembly line-like interview schedules, career-services offices at some top schools are taking a personalized approach to the student job hunt. Some are beefing up one-on-one advising sessions to help students define career goals, while others are making individual introductions to alumni or sending job postings to student clubs. (The Wall Street Journal)
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For a college student, Reid McCann had an enviable résumé: a statistics major at Harvard University, he played varsity football and won awards for his volunteerism. During summers and before starting college, he worked at Northwestern Mutual, Morgan Stanley and other top financial firms. But heading into summer-internship interviews with private-equity and consulting companies last year, the Dallas native was anxious about how he would stack up against students with business majors. (The Wall Street Journal)
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New Address and Job Opportunities at NBMBAA

 

What it means to own something in the digital age is being re-negotiated. Few of us own the music we listen to or the movies we watch in exactly the same way we did a decade ago. And today if you buy a smartphone from a cellphone company, what you can legally do with it – how and where you can use it – may be proscribed even if that phone is fully bought and paid for. (NPR)
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It’s been two weeks since Google unveiled the Chromebook Pixel – a stylish yet mystifying addition to its line of machines that run the Chrome operating system – and pretty much every tech reviewer in the world has already offered his assessment. They all agree, too: With its stylish design and amazing high-resolution touch display, the Pixel is a wondrous machine ... and only an idiot would consider buying it. (Slate)
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You could probably tick off an infinite number of excuses for why starting up now isn’t ideal. If you’re reading this website, you’re obviously seriously considering becoming an entrepreneur – if you’re not one already. And though it’s only natural to be apprehensive about starting up – that first dive into the pool is the toughest, after all – but you must have faith in yourself and your abilities. (Entrepreneur)
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If your company's values don't inform everything you do – and everything your employees do – you won't be doing it for long. (Inc.)
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Have you read the opinion section of any newspaper in the last three years? Yes? Then there is a better-than-even chance you have come across some impressive-sounding analyst predict that the United States is "turning into Greece." Maybe it's been a while, so we'll recap. The short version of this story is that we'll spend ourselves into bankruptcy. (The Atlantic)
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President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans have stumbled into an approach to deficit reduction that inflicts the pain of economic austerity without the gain of addressing the long-term budget gap. Automatic spending cuts that began March 1, combined with tax increases enacted earlier this year, will depress U.S. economic growth by about half in 2013, according to government projections. (Bloomberg)
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It was the same Swingline stapler, on the same Staples.com website. But for Kim Wamble, the price was $15.79, while the price on Trude Frizzell's screen, just a few miles away, was $14.29. A key difference: where Staples seemed to think they were located. (The Wall Street Journal)
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The financial foundation of leading-edge boomers looks stronger in the aggregate than commonly assumed, and it’s likely to improve in coming years. A better grasp of boomer finances lets us see how a majority of boomers can improve their own circumstances when it comes to retirement – and where policy makers should take a stand to help out the most vulnerable. (Bloomberg/Businessweek)
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A few years ago when Bank of America Corp. wanted to study whether face time mattered among its call-center teams, the big bank asked about 90 workers to wear badges for a few weeks with tiny sensors to record their movements and the tone of their conversations. (The Wall Street Journal)
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After soaring to more than $705 a share in September, Apple stock entered a months-long slide, closing Monday below $419. The reasons for the slide aren’t secret and they aren’t crazy: Samsung has proved it can produce excellent smartphones that people like, Amazon is making tablets, and Apple’s iconic CEO is dead. (Slate)
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For years, federal programs for seniors and those that help kids have been on a collision course. Now, given the automatic spending cuts taking place under sequestration, the moment for real competition may have arrived. While Medicare and Social Security will come through the sequester mostly unscathed, a broad swath of programs targeted toward children – Head Start, education, nutrition assistance, child welfare – stand to lose hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars. (NPR)
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You might consider America's vast wealth inequality, vividly illustrated in this viral video, to be offensive, infuriating, or irrelevant. But it is not terribly mysterious. Rich people have more money. More money tends to lead to bigger properties, fatter savings, and better access to capital markets. As a result, the top 1% of the country controls between 40 and 50 percent of the total wealth from stocks and bonds. (The Atlantic)
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Delegating is a great way to ensure that more tasks get done in less time, and it also builds team capacity. Unfortunately, a lot of managers don’t pay enough attention to the delegation process, and thus fail to reap the benefits. Are you a successful delegator? (Fast Company)
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With all of the attention Sheryl Sandberg’s book "Lean In" is getting, it’s probably one of those books you feel like you should read. Except, quite frankly, between all that "leaning in" you’re doing at work and all those responsibilities you’re dividing up at home, reading an actual book calls for something you no longer have: free time. (The Washington Post)
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Like many firms, Direct General places a hefty surcharge on the health insurance of workers who smoke – an extra $480 a year in premiums. And for years, the Nashville-based insurer levied the fine the way most other businesses do: using the honor system. (MarketWatch)
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