New Grads

By Max Nisen Most business leaders, when asked to advise new graduates, are encouraging, telling them that though things might be rough now, they'll pick up in time. Not AIG's outspoken CEO, Robert Benmosche. He doesn't have much in the way of sympathy for graduates entering a difficult job market, telling...

The underemployed college graduate with a liberal arts degree has almost become a sad cliché in the new economy. But what about a trained environmental scientist, with years of professional experience? Surely, he won't be forced to resort to flipping burgers or working the cash register? Consider...

Fifty-four percent of college graduates under 25 are unemployed or doing a job that doesn't require a college degree: waiter, retail clerk, receptionist, and so on. That is according to an analysis of government data conducted for The Associated Press. People can debate what's causing that horrific statistic --...

Inspired by Kent State University professor Bill Sledzik's blog post, "Dear Millennials: Your Parents Lied to You," Todd Defren, an employer, wrote an open letter to college grads. Defren gave AOL Jobs permission to reprint his letter here. Share your thoughts in the comments section below. By Todd Defren

By Sonia Acosta You did it. Four years of college went by in a haze of parties, new experiences and, hopefully, at least a few dozen textbooks. Now it's time to go out into the world and get a job. Should be easy, right? You've done your part, and someone out there owes you a job. Wrong. Companies are looking...

John Duval, Flickr By John A. Byrne MBAs are taking on more and more student debt, so much so that graduates of at least six business schools last year borrowed more than $100,000 on average to finance their degrees. The heaviest debt was assumed by graduates of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School,...

By John A. Byrne If you asked Dale Stephens, the 21-year-old author of Hacking Your Education, he would undoubtedly agree. In a highly provocative excerpt from the book recently published by The Wall Street Journal, Stephens forcefully declares that even if you were accepted into Harvard Business School, you...

Are you an art history major but you dream of working in public relations? Are you a business major but now you want to work in design or tech? If so, you wouldn't be alone. I often am asked by new grads if it is possible to work outside of their major. Will employers consider you for a position when your...

In my work helping women build successful, fulfilling careers, I started to see something quite troubling. Women who had been high achievers in school-good students who earned good grades-were finding that the very skills that served them well in school were holding them back in their careers. "Good student...

By Debra Auerbach A college major gives a student direction and builds a foundation of knowledge for his future career. Yet it doesn't always define what industry he'll work in post-college. For instance, a journalism major may end up working as a communications director in the health-care industry, or a...

With all the press given to the astronomical wages that computer science or engineering grads can earn, you might think that a liberal arts degree is, well, fairly worthless in the job market. Not so. A new report by the National Association of Colleges and Employers finds that three liberal arts majors had...

By Susan Ricker Your first full-time job may have been ages ago, but it taught you more lessons than you may realize. From spending habits to co-workers to promotions, your entry to the workforce was a never-ending learning experience. Reflect on your first job, and apply those lessons to your current role.

By Matthew Tarpey As more schools in the U.S. make internships a graduation requirement, many students are coming to terms with taking unpaid positions. Some even have to pay the school for the course credits received for the internship. This arrangement may not strike you as ideal, but paid internships...

By Lawrence DeChant He has cooked for more than 120 people at a time, worked in top restaurants across the country, and entertains 12 people at his home monthly for an 18-course meal. These accomplishments may seem like the work of a veteran chef, but this cook is only 14 years old. Flynn McGarry will be...

The college degree used to be the ticket to a good middle class job. That is officially over, according to a new study by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. It found that nearly 1 out of 2 Americans with college degrees are working at jobs they're overqualified for. While less than 5...

By Annalyn Kurtz Since the recession, health care has been the single biggest sector for job growth, but that doesn't mean it's easy to get hired. Registered nurses fresh out of school are coming across thousands of job postings with an impossible requirement: "no new grads."

I will say this unequivocally: All college students need to have an internship. I promise many other job candidates will. Employers expect it. More than 90 percent of employers say that students should have at least one internship on their resume, one recent study found. And the summer internship search starts...

By Lindsay Olson It's frustrating: Spending four or more years studying at college only to not be able to find a job when you graduate. With a fierce job market, new grads have their work cut out for them. Many companies are biased against hiring recent grads. Diana Zimmerman, of the marketing...

For young workers starting out, determining where to begin a career can be either a product of happenstance or planning. If you're fortunate to be in the latter camp, it can be tough figuring out not only the best place to find a job in your chosen profession, but also a city where you can (hopefully) find...

Having worked their way through four years of school, many recent college graduates are eager to find jobs with a decent paycheck. And so are their parents. But which colleges offer the best bang for the buck? A new report by PayScale, which tracks data on employee compensation, crunched the numbers. It...