Promotions are tricky to get right. Ideally, anyone who might qualify would ask to be considered for leadership roles, and yet companies find that promising candidates sometimes stay silent. A new survey from WorkplaceTrends.com and consulting firm Virtuali suggests one reason for the disconnect: a full 91% of polled Millennials said they were interested in leadership roles, but the biggest identified reservation was a concern about work-life balance. (Fortune)

"People used to brag and say, 'Oh yeah, 21-hour days, seven days a week for eight months,' that was a badge of honor,'' said Kiran Gandhi, who like others in this year's class applied to technology companies. "The humble brag is now, 'Oh yeah, I work 9 to 5, I get paid a ton of money, and I have a great life.' It's green juice from vats in the office and amazing organic iced coffee cold-brewed -- the quality of life.'' (Bloomberg)

"I am a warrior with a warrior spirit!" This is the phrase I repeated to myself over and over again after I heard my pastor say it one Sunday morning. I quickly rushed home so I could jot it down and hang it up on my wall. Those eight words helped me stay encouraged through eight months of unemployment—yes, that’s 243 frustrating, résumé-writing, tear-filled days. And in that period, I went on more than 100 interviews, from the traditional, in-person sit-down to nerve-wracking phone calls and dozens of video chats. There is so much that I learned about myself and the job search during that time that has made me a wiser woman and a more confident job candidate. (Fast Company)

Ah, the blank whiteboard: The ultimate canvas for unfiltered creativity, where ideas pour out of your brain just as fast as you can move a marker. Such a shame, then, that even the best-drawn ideas are likely to elicit yawns the second they migrate over to PowerPoint. Research backs this up. A study conducted last year by a Stanford Graduate School of Business researcher found that concepts have more impact when presented as whiteboard-style drawings than when photos are used. (Bloomberg)

Getting to the top of your field is a challenge, but it’s easier with the support of a strong peer network. A group of trusted colleagues – often known as a mastermind group – can provide honest feedback, help you refine your ideas, and share insights and leads. They can also inspire you with their successes and support you when you face setbacks. Most of us have some helpful professional contacts, but if you want to be part of a community of people focused on helping one another, you’ll likely need to take action to create it. (Harvard Business Review)

The Great Recession threw a wrench into many people's career plans, forcing detours into lower-status or unrelated jobs and periods of unemployment. Explaining those periods of career diversions is a new challenge – but, like any other part of the interview process, it's all about how you sell yourself. Here's some expert advice for how to talk about résumé gaps and unimpressive jobs. (Fast Company)

Silicon Valley's poor diversity record for employees was confirmed this year when Google and Facebook owned up to the lack of minorities on their current payrolls. But what about the diversity of their future payrolls? A look at tech companies' intern classes can provide a clue as to whether these companies' future staffs will be less homogeneous. At least, it could if tech companies released demographic data on this next generation of full-time staffers. (Bloomberg)

Salary negotiations fill many people with fear, but studies show that women find them particularly challenging. "You have to remember that women are newer to the workplace," says Katie Donovan, the founder of Equal Pay Negotiations, a consultancy that helps women get the pay they deserve. "Sure, we've been secretaries, teachers, and nurses forever, but in terms of executive positions that require negotiating a salary, we're on relatively new ground. In my own life, my father taught my brother to negotiate, but my mother taught me to how to wear lipstick. Many of us did not have role models giving us the inside scoop." (Fast Company)

China on Thursday sought to calm fears that the country’s depreciating currency had set off, as authorities defended the devaluation decision. The country’s central bank has pushed the value of the currency lower for three consecutive days. Since Tuesday, the currency, the renminbi, has fallen 4.4 percent, the biggest drop in decades. (The New York Times)

The Greek economy grew by 0.8% in the second quarter of the year, confounding expectations of a steep contraction. The official figures, based on a flash estimate, also revised a reading of 0.2% negative growth in the first quarter to a flat reading, showing no change in economic activity. The reading did not break down which sectors had been most active. (BBC News)

I enjoy the summer. It is a good time for family outings, more relaxed schedules (relatively speaking), and no homework. As summer winds down and Fall approaches, it’s time to turn our attention to school matters again. It’s fun – full of hustle and bustle. There is the excitement of new school clothes, getting those school supplies, and making sure all the school-assigned summer reading has been completed. And, then its finally here, the first day of school. (UrbanFaith)

When it comes to full-time, two-year MBA programs, the conventional wisdom is that they are on the wane. Applications are dropping. Acceptance rates are increasing. And it’s generally thought that it’s a lot easier to get into the MBA program at a business school. Forget it. That notion may apply to the vast majority of business schools. After all, there are now as many as 13,000 business schools in the world. But when it comes to the leading business schools–and not necessarily the very elite institutions – the data shows that it’s harder than ever to get into an MBA program that is ranked in the Top 50. (Poets & Quants)

The National Black MBA Association® (NBMBAA®), the largest association of MBA professionals in the U.S. has named The University of Florida Warrington College of Business Administration as the exclusive academic sponsor of the 37th Annual NBMBAA Conference and Exposition. More than 9,000 business professionals, job seekers and MBA graduates attend the NBMBAA conference annually for networking, leadership development, and on-site job recruitment opportunities. (PR Newswire)

Rates Increase Monday! Register Now for The National Black MBA Association® 37th Annual Conference and Exposition 

Celebrating 45 years of Black professional development and executive leadership, The National Black MBA Association® (NBMBAA®), the nation's premier organization for Black business professionals, today announced early bird registration is open for  the upcoming NBMBAA® 37th Annual Conference and Exposition at the Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, FL where more than 9,000 attendees are anticipated to convene for networking, leadership development, and career opportunities.

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Samsung being Samsung, it isn't content to have one flagship smartphone. It wants to offer several of them. So today, less than six months after unveiling the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, the company is back with two more high-end models, which it's announcing at its "Samsung Unpacked" event in New York City. The two new phones, the Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Galaxy Note5, have much in common. (Fast Company)

Maren Kate Donovan so far hasn’t talked to reporters about what caused her company, Zirtual, to abruptly implode earlier this week. But after the company’s second turn of events – the announcement late Tuesday night that Zirtual would be acquired by a company called Startups.co – she agreed to talk to Fortune. (I am a three-plus-year customer of Zirtual and have written about Donovan and my experience with the service.) (Fortune)

The 2015 list of the Inc. 5000 ranks the fastest growing private companies in America, with success stories, cool products, startup tips and much more. (Inc.)

All growing companies eventually reach an adolescence--a no man's land between scrappy startup and big, established company. It may make you feel like an overwhelmed teen again. Don't let it. (Inc.)

The rise of companies like Uber and Instacart is only part of a larger trend in the ways Americans work, away from full-time employment and toward "contingent" freelance jobs, according to a new study by financial services company Intuit and consulting firm Emergent Research. Non-permanent workers such as freelancers have grown from 17 to 36 percent of the U.S. workforce over the past 25 years and are expected to comprise 43 percent of the workforce by 2020, according to Alex Chriss, vice president and general manager of Self-Employed Solutions at Intuit. (Inc.)

When the jobs numbers are reported each month, it’s easy to think of America’s workers as a single entity, moving (however glacially) toward economic recovery. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s latest report, the unemployment rate in July was 5.3 percent, which is encouragingly low compared to the height of the recession, when it reached 10 percent. It’s also tantalizingly close to the 5.0 to 5.2 percent range that Federal Reserve policymakers say will signal the country’s return to full employment. What’s lost in that marquee number, though, is that this progress has been incredibly uneven, and minorities continue to struggle disproportionately. (The Atlantic)

The way you pay for things at the register is set for a change this fall. After a string of high-profile data breaches, U.S. stores and credit card companies are finally pushing to switch from antiquated magnetic-strip cards to more secure cards with chips in them. For consumers, this will eventually mean learning how to use the new cards – it's more of a dip than a swipe – and having a little extra patience as their fellow shoppers do the same. (The Washington Post)

Do you feel as if you’ll be in debt forever? You’re not alone. According to a survey commissioned by CreditCards.com, 13% of Americans say they’ll never pay off all their loans, and another 8% say they won’t pay off what they owe until they’re at least 71 years old. That’s a discouragingly large number of people who consider themselves stuck in debt with no way out. If you’re in this situation, step back, set aside the despair and ask yourself how you got here in the first place. Here are 10 common reasons people fall deep into debt and can’t get out of it. (Kiplinger's)

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KKR & Co., one of the oldest private equity firms, is rolling out a new perk in the struggle to hire and retain talent: flying nannies. Billionaire co-founders Henry Kravis and George Roberts in May extended the company’s leave time for new parents and added a benefit allowing them to bring a new child and caregiver on business trips, paid for by KKR. It’s the only major private equity firm, and one of the few U.S. companies, to offer the travel policy, according to the Families and Work Institute. (Bloomberg)

I recently shared why Millennials are getting fired, and it started an intense discussion. Now, it's time to discuss why seasoned workers, a.k.a. Baby Boomers, are getting fired too. As companies re-evaluate their corporate cultures to determine how to create environments that support the newer generation of workers, some are learning their Baby Boomer employees are making the job tougher. The solution? Eliminate the source of resistance. (Inc.)

How do you handle giving unfavorable feedback to someone who will surely take it badly – and I mean really badly? Think: shouting, tears, defensiveness, accusations, personal attacks, revising history, twisting words – pick your nightmare. Consider the case of Melissa, who was the team leader on a recently concluded project that had not been a stellar experience for anyone involved. (Harvard Business Review)

Although the workers directly affected by unpredictable schedules are the most obvious winners, the biggest beneficiaries of a change in the practice could be their children. A growing body of research suggests that children’s language and problem-solving skills may suffer as a result of their parents’ problematic schedules, and that they may be more likely than other children to smoke and drink when they are older. (The New York Times)