Landing a spot at an undergraduate business program has become a high-stakes game for this generation of business school hopefuls. This year’s application season stands out as one of the most competitive in recent years. Applications at the top-ranked business schools were up at nearly every institution this year, in some cases in the double digits, according to deans and directors of the schools. (Fortune)
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Nearly every major asset market on earth is currently expensive by historical standards. You can read more about this phenomenon – the Everything Boom, or possibly the Everything Bubble – here. But what happens now? What does this simple fact, that globally prices are high and expected returns are low, mean for the future? The answers fit into three broad categories: the good, the bad and the ugly. Here is what each possible outcome looks like. (The New York Times)
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Meditation rooms, unplugging, digital Sabbaths, reflection retreats, mindfulness classes – it seems like everyone is clamoring to find a pause button in the face of our always-on, socially connected, fear-of-missing-out lives. There’s definitely something happening here with pauses, but it isn’t exactly clear that we’re putting our pauses to good use. (Fast Company)
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Growing numbers of small-business owners say unfilled job openings are thwarting their growth at a time of high confidence in the economy. About 33% of 848 small-business owners and chief executives said they had unfilled job openings in June because they couldn't identify qualified applicants, up from 31% of 811 owners nearly two years ago, according to surveys by The Wall Street Journal and Vistage International, a San Diego peer advisory group for executives. (The Wall Street Journal)
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I have evaluated countless job candidates, many with MBAs. By the time their résumés reach my desk, I assume they have the basic job skills, earned a solid GPA, and racked up an impressive list of extracurricular activities. What differentiates a standout candidate from the pack is whether he or she has the altrocentric leadership skills needed in business. (Businessweek)
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Working for a startup can provide a fast-paced, fulfilling experience and opportunity that you are unlikely to find at larger companies. The stories you might have heard about the perceived startup atmosphere and culture – think beer kegs in the office, company paintball outings, and office pets – paint a picture that is hard to resist, but these surface draws are not true indicators of a startup’s culture. (Fast Company)
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Every office full of ambitious people has them. And we have all worked with at least one – the co-worker with an inexplicable ability to rise in the ranks. "How do they do it?" we may ask ourselves or whisper to friends at work. They don't have more experience. They don't seem that brilliant. (The Wall Street Journal)
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You show up to the office on time, you’ve never missed a project deadline, and you always refill the coffee pot when you’re done. What could you possibly be doing wrong? Maybe nothing. After all, we don’t want to make you paranoid. But, just for peace of mind, check out this list to see if you’re unwittingly doing anything that could be derailing your full career potential. (Fast Company)
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Should female secretaries be paid at the same rate as male landscapers? That was one of the many questions facing McGill University in Montreal as it launched a sweeping program, required by Quebec law, to ensure gender pay equity among its roughly 12,000 full-time equivalent employees. (The Wall Street Journal)
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"A whole lot of fathers would love to be home for their new baby’s first weeks in the world," President Obama said recently during a White House Summit on Working Families. But, in general, they aren’t. Aside from the fact that many companies don’t even offer it – and that paid paternity leave is only available in 70 countries, while paid maternity leave is available in all but three – there’s a considerable stigma attached to taking it. (Harvard Business Review)
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Somali-Americans may soon find it harder to provide economic support to their homeland: One of the last banks to facilitate cash transfers to Somalia is getting out of the business. As the East African country faces a potential drought and famine this summer, those cash transfers might grow even more important. That's why the Somali-American community in Minnesota – the largest in the U.S. – is lobbying Washington to find a way to keep the cash lifeline intact. (NPR)
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The Brazilian national team's 7-1 loss to Germany in the World Cup semi-final could contain some good news for what will likely be a devastated, demoralized and angry nation, according to a group of analysts at UBS. (The Washington Post)
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Brink’s, the armored car company, could see about $400 million in revenue disappear this year from its operations in this country. Procter & Gamble announced a write-down of $275 million on its Venezuela business. American Airlines and Delta Air Lines are slashing their Venezuela flights. Venezuela, once an apparent profit center for multinational companies, increasingly looks like a financial black hole. (The New York Times)
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The University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business announced last week that it will offer an online bachelor of business administration starting in January. While business schools have begun offering online MBAs in earnest, offering quality undergraduate business degrees online "seems like a niche that isn’t being filled," says Myra Moore, Terry’s director of assessment, rankings, and undergraduate programs. (Businessweek)
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Under with the U.S. Department of Education, Corinthian Colleges will put 85 of its U.S. campuses up for sale and close the remaining dozen. The for-profit college chain operates campuses under the names Heald, Everest and WyoTech. It has more than 70,000 students across North America. It's the largest-ever college, by enrollment, to be shut down in this way. (NPR)
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Every so often we find ourselves in all sorts of quandaries. It’s simply a part of life’s course. Join NBMBAA® as we provide practical steps to reset, refocus and recalibrate your reality and navigate the everyday compromises, sacrifices and adjustments across the eco-system of life.

The next NBMBAA Regional Symposium takes place July 17 at the Chicago Cultural Center. Tickets are $35 for students and $50 for members. Non-Members can attend at a specail rate of $75. Register today!

 

Members of NBMBAA have unlimited access to the Job Opportunity Board, where you can search and apply to opportunities with companies that specifically desire to hire candidates like you!  It’s as simple as creating your profile by uploading your résumé or importing your LinkedIn information. And to help you move to the top of the recruiters résumé stack, we’ve integrated the award winning career tool, Resunate, which can help you build a smarter résumé in seconds!

Resunate takes your current résumé and the job description, for the role you’re applying for, and scores it on a scale of 1-10; 10 being the best score. Resunate uses sentences, phrases and the context of your résumé and the job description to provide you with a score. By using advanced semantic matching technology, you are able to add, edit or remove any content from your résumé and view the score in real-time. By using Resunate, you’ll double your chances of getting called for an interview.

Because you’re a valued National Black MBA member you have unlimited free access to optimize your résumé through the NBMBAA Job Opportunity Board – just another perk of being a member!

Interested in learning more about the Job Opportunity Board? Attend a webinar on Tuesday, July 15 from 1:00-1:45 p.m. CDT. RSVP for the webinar by e-mailing marketing@nbmbaa.org. Access the webinar here.

 

Not so long ago the thought of reaching into your pocket for a digital currency might have seemed too far-fetched. But cryptocurrencies are digital money -- and they're on the rise. This method of payment, which cuts out the banks, is peer to peer and it's all done digitally. (CNN International)
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Facebook Inc. (FB) rolled out the red carpet for Michael Sayman when the social network hired him for a job that started last month, including flying him out to meet Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg. Sayman, 17, brought his mom along on the trip. The position Facebook recruited him for: summer intern. (Bloomberg)
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Got a business concept you know is a winner? NBMBAA's Innovation Whiteboard Challenge gives you the chance to put your pitch to the test by giving you a whiteboard and five minutes to sell your idea to a panel of experts. But to win big, you have to get in the game and that means uploading a 60-second video and your application by July 15.
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Let's get real here: Every entrepreneur is not starting a company "to make the world a better place." And admitting your real motivation, selfish or selfless, is crucial to your company's success. Many founders have in fact changed the world for better, and many have strengthened communities, created jobs, and built incredible products. (Inc.)
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Much has been written about the difficulties of starting a business. When you're talking about entrepreneurial challenges, the startup phase gets all the attention. But there's something a lot harder than starting a business: staying in business. (Inc.)
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All things must die. In the case of the Federal Reserve's unprecedented stimulus program that has been a big driver of the five-year stock rally, the end is finally near. In minutes released from its June meeting, the central bank said that if the economy improves as it expects, its massive bond buying program will fully wind down following its meeting in October. (CNN/Money)
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Now should be the perfect time for U.S. workers to ask for a raise. The statistics are there: The unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent in June, job openings are up nearly 20 percent over the past year and companies are flush with cash. For most employees, though, that's not translating into bargaining power. (Bloomberg)
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Today’s bull market is the fourth biggest since the 1929 crash after stocks have nearly tripled since the financial-crisis low set in early 2009. But more than any modern bull market, this one stands alone in that it’s squarely out of step with economic growth. It’s being driven higher by just a few wealthy participants and traders who have tacitly, perhaps even unknowingly, agreed to drive prices higher. (MarketWatch)
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For 20-somethings who have recently landed a first job, the logistics of financial independence can seem daunting. But "it is never too early to start laying a solid [financial] foundation for your future," says Suzanna de Baca, vice president of wealth strategies at Ameriprise Financial. Here are some things young workers should be sure to take care of within the first five years of starting out: (The Wall Street Journal)
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Parents and their adult children often aren’t on the same page – and that’s especially true when it comes to money issues. But a new study uncovers a surprisingly big disconnect when it comes to understanding how prepared your Mom and Dad are for retirement. In many cases, the parents may be in better financial shape than their kids realize. (Money)
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Midyear money check-ups are important. Six months of the year are gone, January resolutions to get our money organized are long behind us, and we're faced with some of the same money questions and situations that we started the year with. As a certified financial planner who launched her own business last year, and whose husband recently transitioned out of active duty service in the military, a midyear money checkup was a must in our household this year. (Daily Finance)
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Diversity has taken center stage in the technology industry recently, as companies like Facebook, Google and Yahoo release reports showing that only small percentages of of their work forces are women and people of color. But what about employment diversity outside of Silicon Valley? (The Wall Street Journal)
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Amazon.com has an offer for authors at the book publisher Hachette, which is embroiled in a fight with the Internet retailer over e-book prices: Amazon will restore the authors' books to its Web site and give writers all of the revenue from digital sales of their books. (The Washington Post)
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If you can’t build your own, steal someone else’s. That, one economist notes, has become the default strategy for state and city governments in their pursuit of rapidly growing businesses, with many offering increasingly lucrative incentive packages to encourage employers to move to and create jobs in their districts. (The Washington Post)
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The Federal Reserve’s trillion-dollar effort to shore up the U.S. economy is likely to come to an end in October, closing the books on a bold but controversial experiment that has tested the limits of the central bank’s power. (The Washington Post)
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I anticipated that the conversation would be difficult. Shari* and I had worked together for many years, and I knew she was expecting me to hire her to run a leadership program for one of my clients, Ganta, a high-tech company. But I didn’t think Shari was the right fit for Ganta or, frankly, for the role of running the leadership training. In fact, I had become increasingly critical of her recent performance, though I hadn’t mentioned anything to her about it yet. That was my first mistake. I should have said something before it got to this point. (Harvard Business Review)
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A business owner of no particular distinction, in an unfashionable industry, without a record of success or a vast fortune to substantiate his opinions, is given a chance to write about his company in The New York Times. He tries to tell a long, complicated story with a large cast of characters, a story that started two decades ago but concentrates on events covering the last two years. (The New York Times)
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When leaders want to create an open culture where people are willing to speak up and challenge one another, they often start by listening. This is a good instinct. But listening with your ears will only take you so far. You also need to demonstrate with words that you truly want people to raise risky issues. (Harvard Business Review)
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We’re in the middle of summer now and that means one thing: It’s time to head to the beach and have some fun. But before you go, make sure you’ve downloaded the apps you need to make your day at the beach the best it can be. (The New York Times)
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