# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Vick Center for Strategic Advising & Career Counseling | TEXAS Undergraduate Studies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Confidential career counseling is available to both undergraduate and graduate students from all colleges and disciplines. Topics include: majors, careers, internship planning, graduate school planning, personal statements, resumes, curriculum vitae, and mock interviews. For job search assistance, please visit your college's career services office.

# data[].attributes.headline
How Often You Need to Update Social Media - The Muse

# data[].attributes.subject
How Often You Need to Update Social Media - The Muse

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
If you've amassed a large, diverse social media collection, it's safe to say you're probably having a hard time keeping up with them all.

Facebook you can do. Facebook and LinkedIn? Easy. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter? Making it work.

But Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, and Snapchat? You can barely remember all the passwords, let alone what and when you should be posting.

Whether you've signed up for each one as a way to grow your personal brand, keep in touch with contacts, or build an online portfolio of your work for recruiters to find, here's the deal: If you want those tools to do any of those things, you can't let them sit there, unattended and neglected.

That said, not every single one needs the same amount of attention.

So which ones should you be comfortable putting the brakes on, and which ones should you be ramping up for them to be useful? Here are posting parameters for your most beloved (and loathed) platforms:

Twitter

While Twitter is great for live tweeting political debates-or boxing matches-it's also a really fantastic platform for professional networking and relationship building. Because the hierarchy that factors into the real world doesn't seem to apply here, it's much easier to spark conversations and start discussions with industry influencers here than it is via a straightforward email.

If you're on Twitter and serious about building your personal brand, I'd recommend increasing the amount of time you spend on the platform. Not to worry-you can have a lively feed without tweeting all day, everyday.

Dedicate one hour a week to tracking down four to six pieces of content (articles, videos, photos, quotes) on topics you want people to begin associating with your name. For example, if you're an HR professional looking for jobs in human resources, you'll want to find content related to this industry-especially material written by the influencers you're looking to build relationships with or things you've written or responded to.

Once you know what you want to post, you can schedule those tweets throughout the week to stay organized and on top of your account. Even with the advance scheduling, it's still a good idea to pop in once a day to see if your post received any engagement, say hello to new followers, and check your timeline for any interesting, trending things to share.

LinkedIn

If you're looking to build your personal brand-and, I'd argue, if you want to be taken seriously in the professional arena-you must be on LinkedIn. It's one of the first places recruiters, industry leaders, speaker organizers, and journalists look to learn more about your experience and expertise, and as far as social media sites go, it's an extremely low-maintenance platform; all you really need to do is keep your profile updated and current.

Of course, depending on where you are in your career or if you're in the middle of a job search, you might wish to engage beyond showcasing your awesome profile. If you want to proactively promote your professional story and become a part of your LinkedIn community, you can share articles on the platform-similar to the way you might on Facebook. Once a week is a good rule of thumb, but again, as long as you have a descriptive bio, history of employment, and profile picture, you don't technically need to do anything else to feel comfortable staying on LinkedIn.

Facebook and Instagram

While these platforms need little introduction-you're well versed in posting personal photos, updates, and sharing articles-there's probably a lot you didn't realize you could do with them as far as boosting your career goes.

Consider how your Facebook and Instagram presences can help you build your personal brand and function as great networking tools. Both platforms offer an interesting opportunity to give recruiters and industry influencers a sense of who you are not just as a business professional, but as a person. If you're already pretty active on one or both, you can focus on finding ways to integrate more information about your experience and expertise, including photos of you at industry conferences or links to your latest guest blog.

If you're not interested in using the sites to proactively build your brand, that's absolutely fine. Just remember that any public profiles can (and likely will) be seen by people interested in learning more about you-whether the content you post was created for them or not. So, whether you're using the platforms to build a professional online presence or just connecting with friends, it's time to take down those frat party photos if you're not private.

Pinterest

This is a platform that needs the least hand-holding as long as you've got a credible foundation in place. When I work with my clients on creating their Pinterest presence, for example, we always go in and create six to eight initial boards. Then, we add content to those boards as we come across them, whether that's once a week or once every two weeks.

Saying that, this is one of the least likely ways to introduce yourself to industry influencers. Few recruiters are browsing boards in an effort to get to know potential candidates. Still, it can provide tons of inspiration, and if your focus is on marketing yourself and your skills, you might consider using it to get ideas for how to better do that. Or, you might decide that it's just not worth the time and effort. Being an inactive user here will hardly hurt your professional reputation.

Snapchat

If you're primarily interested in keeping platforms that'll benefit you from a personal branding standpoint-and you're feeling overwhelmed with managing all of your accounts-this is one to lose.

While there are certainly creative ways to build a presence and relationships that can help your industry credibility and career, people on this site are generally much more interested in pictures with doodles on your face than they are about your marketing expertise.

Again, it's fine to keep your account if you genuinely enjoy using it. It's worth remembering that while social media can be a great way to build upon your career story, it's not the only reason to participate with the online communities.

If you've come to the conclusion that you're ready to ditch one or more of your accounts, that's fine-just don't mass delete them! Even if you've decided that Pinterest isn't living up to your expectations, don't forget that you've still spent time creating content and engaging with a group of people-reason enough not to erase all of your efforts. One day you might even decide you want to give Twitter or Snapchat another chance, and it'll be a lot easier if you don't have to start from scratch.

So, before you step away from whichever social media tool you've decided isn't working for you right now, write a two to three sentence exit post. Explain that you're no longer active on the platform but that you are vocal in several other places, and anyone that's interested in learning more about you and your business or brand should should check them out. Let them know you're happy to connect via one of the sites where you have a regular and consistent presence.

You could post the following in your profile bio: "Hi! Thanks for stopping by and sorry I missed you. I'm no longer active on this Facebook page but I am on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn." Make sure you link to your active accounts in the message to make it as straightforward as possible for others to contact or follow you.

Now you have no excuse not to concentrate on the sites you like and care about building up for the sake of your brand.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to Spring Clean Your Social Media Platforms (and Make Them Recruiter-Ready)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If you've amassed a large, diverse social media collection, it's safe to say you're probably having a hard time keeping up with them all. Facebook you can do. Facebook and LinkedIn? Easy. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter? Making it work. But Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, and Snapchat?

# data[].attributes.headline
What to Wear for a Job Interview - 2Morrows Dress2Morrows Dress

# data[].attributes.subject
What to Wear for a Job Interview - 2Morrows Dress2Morrows Dress

# data[].attributes.headline
The 5 jobs most likely to be taken over by robots | Career Path News for College Students | USA TODAY College

# data[].attributes.subject
The 5 jobs most likely to be taken over by robots | Career Path News for College Students | USA TODAY College

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In a world of ever-shifting technology, a career's staying power is top of mind for many who are in the workforce or studying for that first big job. Whether your job will exist in the future depends on a variety of factors, chief among them is whether your job can be done by a machine, according to researchers at Oxford.

In their study, "The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerisation?" Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne determine which jobs are most and least likely to be replaced by machines. Using 2010 data from the U.S. Department of Labor, they studied the tasks and skills required for 702 occupations, looking at such characteristics as originality, social perceptiveness, negotiation, caring for others, and persuasion.

According to their estimates, about 47% of US employment is at risk of computerization in the next 20 years, and the biggest factors associated with this are educational attainment and wages. Is your job at risk of being replaced by machines? Here's a look at the top and bottom five jobs from this study.

The five jobs most likely to be taken over by robots

Alright, let's start with the bad news first. Note that the Oxford study's methodology determined that all of these jobs are nearly 100% likely to be done by a computer in the next 20 years. The education requirements, job description, and career outlook information comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

1. Insurance Underwriters

These are the workers that determine whether or not to provide insurance, a task quickly becoming redundant due to automated underwriting software. In fact, the BLS predicts that between 2014 and 2024 we will see an 11% decline in employment in this field, a loss of nearly 12,000 jobs.

2. Mathematical Technicians

This job requires the application of mathematical formulas to diagnose and solve problems in the scientific field, particularly in the field of engineering. A math technician processes data and translates it into charts and graphs that can be easily consumed by decision-makers. Though there is some degree of consultation with scientists and engineers in order to plan projects based on these mathematical models, a majority of the tasks related to this job can be done using computer software. The BLS predicts a roughly 2% decline in these types of jobs over the next decade.

3. Hand Sewers

These workers know what to do with a needle and thread, but they should also know that their jobs will continue to decline in demand due to the use of machinery. Even the apparel manufacturing business, which employs a majority of sewers, will continue to seek machines to do this work in order to cut costs. The BLS predicts a decline of about 2% in these jobs over the next decade.

4. Title Examiners, Abstractors and Searchers

These are the people that search public and private records for information, from real estate to insurance documents. They typically work for law firms, real estate agencies, or title insurance companies. Though the BLS predicts little or no change in growth for this position, it's clear that computerization is slowing demand for these workers. New computer software that can search, process, and organize documents means that title examiners can do their job much more quickly, reducing need overall.

5. Telemarketers

Soliciting donations or orders by telephone is quickly becoming a thing of the past due mainly to growth in call center software and online marketing campaigns. Those who do excel in the human element of this job - explaining a product or service, answering customer questions, and delivering a sales pitch - should consider pursuing a career in sales or marketing. The BLS predicts a 3% decline in these jobs between 2014 and 2024. However, this may not be a bad thing: In O*Net's survey of these workers, 81% said they experienced unpleasant or angry people "every day."

Bonus: The five jobs least likely to be taken over by robots

Fear not! The Oxford study did find a large number of jobs that are not at-risk for being automated anytime soon. Many of these jobs require attention to detail, care from a human person, and creativity. If you're looking for a job that will be around regardless of advances in technology, here are the jobs to watch.

1. Recreational Therapists

These health care professionals plan and coordinate recreation programs for people with disabilities that often feature arts and crafts, drama, music, dance and sports (all things computers are notoriously bad at doing.) Employment of recreational therapists is expected to rise by 12% from 2014-2014, according to the BLS. Driving this need is an aging population, a rise in chronic conditions, and a shift in treating patients in outpatient and community-based settings, rather than in hospitals. For recreational therapists, there is a huge need for social perceptiveness and the ability to care for others, two important variables in the Oxford study.

2. First-Line Supervisors of Mechanics, Installers, and Repairers

These workers supervise the people who install and repair various systems, such as electrical power systems and telecommunications cables. The BLS predicts a 5% growth in this field in the next decade, translating to 24,300 new jobs. This rise in demand follows a rise in population, particularly the expansion of urban areas where complex systems require the most maintenance. The supervisory nature of this job, in addition to the necessity for problem-solving skills, means that automation is often not an option.

3. Emergency Management Directors

These are the VIPs of the emergency preparedness world; they direct the procedures for responding to emergencies, such as natural disasters. This job requires dynamic negotiation skills as directors coordinate with elected officials, nonprofit organizations, and governments to make sure measures are in place when disaster strikes. The BLS expects a 6% rise in these types of jobs in the next decade, fueled by an increased emphasis on planning for natural and human-made emergencies.

4. Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers

These mental health professionals provide support and treatment to individuals suffering from a wide range of addictions and disorders - truly a job that only a human could do. When it comes to the social perceptiveness category, these workers are off the charts, and it shows in the career outlook figures: The BLS predicts a whopping 22% increase in employment in the next ten years. That means an additional 21,200 jobs for mental health and substance abuse social workers. Reform in federal health insurance, which makes this type of counseling available to more people, and an overhaul of the criminal justice system are factors that will drive the growth in this field, the BLS says.

5. Audiologists

This is the only career in this roundup that requires more than a bachelor's degree. These doctors diagnose and treat problems with hearing or balance that relate to the workings of the ear. As most would agree, computers make terrible doctors. Therefore, audiologists will see a 29% increase in demand for their jobs between 2014 and 2024, driven by an aging baby-boom population and an increase in life-expectancy.

This content originally appeared on RWM.org and was written by Johanna Sorrentino.

This article comes from The USA TODAY College partner network. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of USA TODAY. You understand that we have no obligation to monitor any discussion forums, blogs, photo- or video-sharing pages, or other areas of the Site through which users can supply information or material. However, we reserve the right at all times, in our sole discretion, to screen content submitted by users and to edit, move, delete, and/or refuse to accept any content that in our judgment violates these Terms of Service or is otherwise unacceptable or inappropriate, whether for legal or other reasons.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
Ramsey Touchberry, University of Florida

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The 5 jobs most likely to be taken over by robots

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In a world of ever-shifting technology, a career's staying power is top of mind for many who are in the workforce or studying for that first big job. Whether your job will exist in the future depends on a variety of factors, chief among them is whether your job can be done by a machine, according to researchers at Oxford.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Career Resources Toolkit for Job-Seekers | LiveCareer

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Career Resources Toolkit for Job-Seekers Find the best free career development resources" on every major job-search and career topic" to help job-seekers find a better job or career in our Career Resources Toolkit.Need some professional help or advice to further your career or job-search? You'll find it here!We've organized all best career-related resources available on ...

# data[].attributes.headline
Creating a Career Plan | Michael Page CA

# data[].attributes.subject
Creating a Career Plan | Michael Page CA

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A succinct, detailed career plan is one of the most useful tools you can use to identify where you are, where you want to be and how to get there. Here are five key steps to help you create your own career plan.

Step 1: Self Evaluation

To discover what you really want to do, try answering these fundamental questions about your personality, preferences, and values in your career plan:

Step 2: Skills Analysis

As well as your personal preferences, your existing skills are an important indicator of the direction in which you could head. Reflect on your skill set with the following questions:

Step 3: Setting Your Direction

Based on your key interests, attributes, skills, and experience, you can now start to formulate ideas on the type of roles/industries that will suit you best. Try brainstorming as part of your career plan:

Now that you have an idea of where you want to go, it's time to work out how you can get there. Ask yourself the following questions to help break down your goals into smaller, more manageable milestones for your career plan:

Having established your goals and how to achieve them, you will now have a clear pathway in which to head. It's important to monitor the progress of your career plan at least every six months to ensure that you are on track to meet your goals. Re-evaluating your career plan and goals allows you to make adjustments based on changing economic and personal circumstances.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Creating a Career Plan | Michael Page CA

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A succinct, detailed career plan is one of the most useful tools you can use to identify where you are, where you want to be and how to get there. Here are five key steps to help you create your own career plan.

# data[].attributes.headline
Promising careers within reach - CareerOneStop

# data[].attributes.subject
Promising careers within reach - CareerOneStop

# data[].attributes.headline
Careers and Career Information - CareerOneStop

# data[].attributes.subject
Careers and Career Information - CareerOneStop

# data[].attributes.headline
Job Growth Might Be Slowing Overall — But It's Surging For New College Grads : The Two-Way : NPR

# data[].attributes.subject
Job Growth Might Be Slowing Overall — But It's Surging For New College Grads : The Two-Way : NPR

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The pace of job creation slowed substantially last month, the Labor Department said Friday.

Employers added 160,000 employees in April, downshifting from the monthly average of 192,000 workers so far this year. That was a disappointment for many job seekers.

But the country does have one group enjoying lots of opportunities: newly minted college graduates. In fact, economists say this might be the best time to be graduating in a decade.

While the overall unemployment rate held steady at 5 percent last month, the Labor Department says the rate is only about half that for college graduates.

And the freshest grads - the ones getting diplomas this month - are particularly attractive to employers, according to Andrea Koncz, research director for the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

Companies are seeking the young and educated to replace baby boomers, Koncz said. "They are continuing to increase hiring knowing that there are retirements, there are open positions to fill, and ... it's important to keep new college graduates in their talent pipelines," she said.

Nearly 3 out of 4 employers surveyed by CareerBuilder, a job search engine, say they plan to hire 2016 graduates, the highest level of hiring in nearly a decade.

This year's graduating seniors are stepping into a generally healthy marketplace: Job openings have been running at nearly record highs, with roughly 5.4 million vacancies, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That's very different from a few years ago when the Great Recession was still depressing hiring and wages. The National Bureau of Economic Research found that "graduating in a recession leads to large initial earnings losses" of about 9 percent.

"For young workers just entering the labor force, being lucky enough to graduate into a tight labor market like ours today can have a huge impact on wages and career prospects," said Andrew Chamberlain, chief economist for Glassdoor, an online job and recruiting marketplace.

Mohammed Ahmad, who is finishing up his MBA at Stony Brook University in New York, told NPR he knows he is lucky to be graduating now. His bachelor's degree is in pharmacology, so his resume matches up closely with his older sister's. She also earned an MBA to layer on top of a medicine background.

But there's one big difference. He is graduating now, and she graduated right into the jaws of the recession.

So when Ahmad sat down to send out his resumes, "within like about 20 minutes to a half hour, I got a phone call ... and I scheduled an interview."

When his sister sent out resumes, she had a very different experience. "She would constantly be applying, wouldn't be able to hear back. And if she did hear back it would be for positions she wasn't interested in," he said.

Employment experts say the most in-demand jobs today involve technology, business and engineering.

Friday's jobs report underscored such trends. Professional and business services added 65,000 jobs in April. By contrast, jobs in mining and logging fell by 8,000, piling more losses on top of an already-long losing streak. The leisure-and-hospitality sector, which also offers jobs for noncollege graduates, added only 22,000 workers in April. That's the smallest gain in a year.

Even though overall hiring slowed, raises showed momentum. Average hourly earnings for private-sector workers rose by 8 cents, to $25.53, in April. Compared with a year earlier, wages are up 2.5 percent.

Nariman Behravesh, chief economist for IHS Global Insight, said in his analysis that those pay gains were the bright spot. With more money in paychecks and less pain at gas pumps, most Americans are in better financial shape.

"The April weakness in payroll jobs is temporary," he said. "In the coming months, jobs growth will rebound to 200,000 a month, or possibly more. Most indicators of the labor market continue to point to ongoing strength."
WSHU reporter Charles Lane contributed to this report.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Job Growth Might Be Slowing Overall - But It's Surging For New College Grads

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The pace of job creation slowed substantially last month, the Labor Department said Friday. Employers added 160,000 employees in April, downshifting from the monthly average of 192,000 workers so far this year. That was a disappointment for many job seekers. But the country does have one group enjoying lots of opportunities: newly minted college graduates.

# data[].attributes.headline
Backer of Student Loans Pivots in Push to Reshape Higher Education - The Chronicle of Higher Education

# data[].attributes.subject
Backer of Student Loans Pivots in Push to Reshape Higher Education - The Chronicle of Higher Education

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Backer of Student Loans Pivots in Push to Reshape Higher Education

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
USA Funds is increasingly a player - to some, a suspect one - in efforts aimed at helping students make strong connections between college and their career.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We share a sense of urgency about this work because we are public universities with a public mission. Higher education needs to do a better job of graduating students across the socioeconomic spectrum, particularly low-income students, first-generation students, and students of color. Raising graduation rates is imperative for individual social mobility and U.S.

# data[].attributes.headline
Predictive Analytics Supports On-Time Graduation at the University of Texas at Austin

# data[].attributes.subject
Predictive Analytics Supports On-Time Graduation at the University of Texas at Austin

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Using predictive analytics and an on-track graduation tool, leaders at the University of Texas at Austin are working toward the audacious goal of increasing the on-time graduation rate to 70 percent by 2017.

This month, the university's preliminary enrollment analysis revealed a four-year graduation rate of 57.7 percent - a record that puts the university closer to its goal. The freshman class of 2013 set another record with a 90.5 percent persistence rate after two years in college. That's a big deal because this class is the first to go through the university's comprehensive student success program.

"By providing them the support services that we did and the community that we did, we're showing that we're able to make a difference," said Carolyn Connerat, associate vice provost of student success initiatives at the University of Texas at Austin. "But the key is that we're able to identify them ahead of time and make sure that they get the support they need."

That's where predictive analytics comes in. A predictive analytics model looks at 12 years of student admissions and graduation data to help determine what characteristics could lead to on-time graduation, including demographic factors, transferrable high school credits, SAT scores and colleges that admit students. Based on these factors, they determine the likelihood for each incoming freshman of graduating in four years.

The students who are unlikely to graduate on time based on this model will receive extra support when they arrive on campus. For example, they join a 360 Connections small group community where students feel like they belong. In these small groups of about 20 students that meet each week, they receive peer mentoring and help with time management, among other things.

On themed weeks throughout the year, all freshmen learn about things like academic integrity, career counseling and university traditions. And to help students create a culture of graduating with their cohorts, the university runs campaigns promoting the class of 2016 or 2017, complete with their own logos and social media accounts.

But students also need to know what to do in order to graduate in four years. That's why the university created a progress-to-degree tool within the Registrar's Office that shows students where they are in the process. Other universities call this tool an early warning system, which shows students and their advisors a green bar when they are on track and a yellow bar when they are not.

The progress-to-degree tool is based on the degree path that students have chosen and the actual credit hours that count toward the degree. Before they register for classes, students and their advisors look at this tool, and they can pull up their degree audit at any time.

All students have an advisor through their college who works with them throughout their time at the university. And as they get closer to their senior year, they can call a graduation help desk if they can't get a class they need to graduate. The help desk staff works with them to solve the problem, whether it means adding one more student to a section or opening up a summer class. In their last year, students receive additional career counseling, alumni networking opportunities and priority support so they can graduate.

Because on-time graduation is a priority for university leaders, the entire university staff - from the faculty to the president - are collaborating on student success to meet their graduation goal in 2017. And that's critical to making any progress on four-year graduation rates.

"The key is you have to have a university leadership who is committed to this goal of student success and improving graduation that changes the culture for the university," Connerat said. "And then you have to provide the support needed for the students, and work with the university and faculty and others to help to make sure that we change our systems."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Predictive Analytics Supports On-Time Graduation at the University of Texas at Austin

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Using predictive analytics and an on-track graduation tool, leaders at the University of Texas at Austin are working toward the audacious goal of increasing the on-time graduation rate to 70 percent by 2017. This month, the university's preliminary enrollment analysis revealed a four-year graduation rate of 57.7 percent - a record that puts the university closer to its goal.

# data[].attributes.headline
SSI Home | Student Success Initiatives | The University of Texas at Austin

# data[].attributes.subject
SSI Home | Student Success Initiatives | The University of Texas at Austin

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Home | Student Success Initiatives | The University of Texas at Austin

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Ensuring our students have the opportunity to complete a world-class education within four years is an essential part of UT Austin's commitment to serve the people of Texas. Students who graduate in four years begin their careers or pursue graduate education sooner than their peers while incurring less student loan debt.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Where Revolutions Begin | 1776 Startup Network

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
1776 is a global business incubator for startups that solve the world's most challenging problems in education, energy, health, transportation, and cities.

# data[].attributes.headline
Searching for Jobs in the Internet Era | Pew Research Center

# data[].attributes.subject
Searching for Jobs in the Internet Era | Pew Research Center

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The internet is a central resource for Americans looking for work, but a notable minority lack confidence in their digital job-seeking skills

The internet is an essential employment resource for many of today's job seekers, according to a new survey by Pew Research Center. A majority of U.S. adults (54%) have gone online to look for job information, 45% have applied for a job online, and job-seeking Americans are just as likely to have turned to the internet during their most recent employment search as to their personal or professional networks.

Yet even as the internet has taken on a central role in how people find and apply for work, a minority of Americans would find it difficult to engage in many digital job seeking behaviors - such as creating a professional resume, searching job listings online, or following up via email with potential employers. And while many of today's job seekers are enlisting their smartphones to browse jobs or communicate with potential employers, others are using their mobile devices for far more complex and challenging tasks, from writing a resume to filling out an online job application.

Among the key findings:

The internet is a top resource for many of today's job hunters: Among Americans who have looked for work in the last two years, 79% utilized online resources in their most recent job search and 34% say these online resources were the most important tool available to them

Online employment resources now rival personal and professional networks as a top source of job information for Americans who are looking for work. Roughly one-third of Americans have looked for a new job in the last two years, and 79% of these job seekers utilized online resources in their most recent search for employment. That is higher than the proportion who made use of close personal connections (66%) or professional contacts (63%) and more than twice the proportion who utilized employment agencies, print advertisements, or jobs fairs and other events. Taken together, 80% of recent job seekers made use of professional contacts, close friends or family, and/or more distant personal connections in their most recent search for employment - nearly identical to the 79% who utilized resources and information they found online.

Indeed, 34% of these job seekers say resources and information they found online were the most important resource available to them in their most recent job search, which places the internet just behind personal and professional networks of all types on the list of Americans' most important job resources. In total, 45% of recent job seekers indicate that personal or professional contacts of any kind were the most important resource they utilized in their last search for employment: 20% cite close personal connections as their most important source of assistance, 17% cite professional or work contacts, and 7% cite more distant personal acquaintances.

Like many other aspects of life, job seeking is going mobile: 28% of Americans have used a smartphone as part of a job search, and half of these "smartphone job seekers" have used their smartphone to fill out a job application

Americans increasingly reach for a smartphone when they need to accomplish a variety of online tasks and looking for work is no exception. Some 28% of Americans - including 53% of 18- to 29-year-olds - have used a smartphone in one way or another as part of a job search.

94% of smartphone job seekers (representing 26% of all American adults) have used their smartphone to browse or research job listings.

87% (representing 24% of all adults) have called a potential employer on the phone using their smartphone.

74% (representing 20% of all adults) have used their smartphone to email someone about a job they were applying for.

At the same time, many are using their phones for much more complex tasks:

50% of smartphone job seekers (representing 14% of all adults) have used their smartphone to fill out an online job application.

23% (representing 6% of all adults) have used their smartphone to create a resume or cover letter.

Americans with relatively low levels of educational attainment tend to lean heavily on their smartphones for online access in general, and this also play out in the ways members of this group utilize their smartphones while looking for employment. Among Americans who have used a smartphone in some part of a job search, those with higher education levels are more likely to use their phone for basic logistical activities - such as calling a potential employer on the phone or emailing someone about a job. On the other hand, smartphone job seekers who have not attended college are substantially more likely to have used their phone for more advanced tasks, such as filling out an online job application or creating a resume or cover letter.

Overall, 47% of smartphone job seekers say their phone is "very important" in helping them look for job and career resources, and an additional 37% describe it as "somewhat important." But despite the overall significance of smartphones to these users, many of them have encountered challenges navigating the job search process on a mobile device. Nearly half of smartphone job seekers have had problems accessing job-related content because it wasn't displaying properly on their phone or had difficulty reading the text in a job posting because it was not designed for a mobile device. And more than one-in-three have had trouble entering a large amount of text needed for a job application or had difficulty submitting the files or other supporting documents needed to apply for a job.

Even as digital job seeking skills have become increasingly important, a minority of Americans would find it challenging to engage in tasks such as creating a professional resume, using email to contact potential employers, or filling out a job application online

Despite the importance of digital resources when it comes to looking for work today, a minority of Americans would find it difficult to engage in a variety of digital job-seeking behaviors.

Building a professional resume is among the most prominent of these challenges: Some 17% of Americans (not including those who are retired and/or disabled) indicate that it would not be easy to create a professional resume if they needed to do so. Another 21% say that it would not be easy to highlight their employment skills using a personal website or social media profile. Roughly one-in-ten indicate that it would be difficult for them to go online to find lists of available jobs (12%); fill out a job application online (12%); use email to contact or follow up with a potential employer (11%); or look up online services available to assist job seekers (10%).

In many cases, Americans who might benefit the most from being able to perform these behaviors effectively - such as those with relatively low levels of educational attainment - are the ones who find them most challenging. For instance, 30% of those with a high school diploma or less would have trouble creating a professional resume (compared with just 6% of college graduates), as would 28% of those who are currently not employed (double the 14% of employed Americans who would find it difficult to do this).

Many Americans now use social media to look for and research jobs, share employment opportunities with friends, and highlight their skills to potential employers; 13% of social media users say their social media presence has helped them find a job

Nearly two-thirds of Americans now use social media platforms of some kind, and a substantial number of social media users are utilizing these platforms to look for work - and also to pass along employment tips to their own friend networks. Some 35% of social media users have utilized social media to look for or research jobs, while 21% have applied for a job they first found out about through social media, and 34% have used social media to inform their friends about available jobs at their own place of employment. In addition, 13% of social media users say information that they have posted on social media has helped them get a job.

Younger users are especially active at utilizing these platforms for employment-related purposes, but many older users are taking advantage of social media when looking for work as well. Roughly one-quarter of social media users ages 50 and older have used these platforms to look for work or to let their friends know about job openings, and 11% of older social media users have applied for a job they first found out about on social media.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The internet is a central resource for Americans looking for work, but a notable minority lack confidence in their digital job-seeking skills The internet is an essential employment resource for many of today's job seekers, according to a new survey by Pew Research Center. A majority of U.S.

# data[].attributes.headline
If you're the only woman or person of color being considered for a job, you almost certainly won't be hired.

# data[].attributes.subject
If you're the only woman or person of color being considered for a job, you almost certainly won't be hired.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images

According to conventional wisdom, simply getting a foot in the door is a step toward equality for women and people of color in fields dominated by white men. If hiring managers actually consider and interview women and non-whites, then women and non-whites have a good chance of actually getting ahead on their merits, right?

Maybe not. A series of studies described in a recent Harvard Business Review article indicate that having a single woman or a single person of color in the finalist pool for a job is effectively equivalent to having zero women or people of color. "If there's only one woman in your candidate pool, there's statistically no chance she'll be hired," write business professors Stefanie K. Johnson and David R. Hekman and Ph.D. candidate Elsa T. Chan.

Johnson, Hekman, and Chan suspected that since "people have a bias in favor of preserving the status quo," they'd be more likely to select candidates who conform to the status quo-which, in most business settings, means white men. So they asked undergraduates to evaluate the job applications of three equally qualified candidates and select one. But the researchers manipulated the "status quo" by altering the race and gender makeup of the fake applicants: Some groups of applicants comprised two white men and one woman or black man; the others comprised two women or two black men and only one white man. (The researchers signaled race and gender by changing the names of the fake job applicants, varying between the black-sounding "Dion Smith" and the hilariously white-sounding "Connor Van Wagoner," among other made-up names.)

When the group of applicants was majority white, the study participants chose a white candidate more often than you'd expect based on chance. But when the group of applicants was majority female or majority black, the participants chose a female or black candidate more often than you'd expect based on chance. In other words, when the status quo of the candidates was white and male, a white male candidate won out, but when the status quote was non-white-male, a non-white-male candidate won out.

So what, you might be thinking-there's a reason we don't allow college undergrads to make hiring decisions. Indeed, it's unwise to draw too many conclusions from choices made by random college kids evaluating hypothetical scenarios that have no real bearing on their lives. But Johnson, Hekman, and Chan bolstered their lab findings with a study of real-world hiring decisions-and the results were even bleaker. By looking at the demographics of 598 job candidates who were finalists for academic positions at a university, the researchers found that in groups of finalists with a single non-white-male, the non-white-male had virtually no chance of being hired, regardless of how big the group of finalists was. It was as though hiring managers patted themselves on the back for being progressive enough to consider a candidate who wasn't a white man, and then went right ahead and hired the white man they'd been planning to hire all along.

This is, needless to say, infuriating. But the silver lining of Johnson, Hekman, and Chan's research is that putting more than one woman or person of color in your pool of job finalists improves their chances dramatically. "The odds of hiring a woman were 79.14 times greater if there were at least two women in the finalist pool," they write. "The odds of hiring a minority were 193.72 times greater if there were at least two minority candidates in the finalist pool." When hiring managers stop seeing each woman or person of color as an other or a token and start seeing them as an unremarkable participant in the workforce, they're less likely to hire white men by default. "If managers can change the status quo of the finalist pool by including two women, then the women have a fighting chance," the researchers write.

Great! So hiring managers just need to consider more women and people of color, right? Alas, the very idea is threatening to many of the white men who make hiring decisions. "Some might argue that adding a second minority or woman candidate to the finalist pool is a type of affirmative action or reverse discrimination against white men," Johnson, Hekman, and Chan write, somehow restraining themselves from inserting the word "assholes" in between "some" and "might." The authors go on to explain patiently that since women and people of color collectively outnumber white men in the workforce, and since more women than men graduate from college, there's no reason to assume that a non-white-man being considered for a position is less qualified than a white man, or that women or people of color will somehow be getting an unfair advantage if they're considered for jobs in greater numbers. Indeed, if this research shows anything, it's that the only people getting an unfair advantage in most hiring situations are white men.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
If You're the Only Woman or Person of Color Being Considered for a Job, You Won't Be Hired

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
According to conventional wisdom, simply getting a foot in the door is a step toward equality for women and people of color in fields dominated by white men. If hiring managers actually consider and interview women and non-whites, then women and non-whites have a good chance of actually getting ahead on their merits, right?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
career readiness; skills and abilities employers seek in new hires; competencies that prepare college graduates for the work force

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The career readiness of college graduates is an important issue in higher education, in the labor market, and in the public arena. The National Association of Colleges and Employers developed a definition, based on research among employers, identifying seven competencies associated with career readiness.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
TechHire Careers connects qualified, diverse job seekers with employers in need of talent for in-demand tech jobs. Sign up today!

# data[].attributes.headline
The 'Connective Tissue' That Liberal Arts Students Need For Lifelong Professional Success - Forbes

# data[].attributes.subject
The 'Connective Tissue' That Liberal Arts Students Need For Lifelong Professional Success - Forbes

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
For professionals, a great liberal arts education is an appreciating asset, like a wise investment that earns compounding interest over decades. That's because the knowledge, skills, and learning capabilities that students develop in college gain value as their careers progress and their responsibilities grow more complex.

This was the point of an earlier piece I wrote- "Four Ways Talented 20-Somethings Are Building Great Careers" -that examined the rising professional trajectories of four recent graduates of my college. A rigorous education empowers us to ask smart questions, adapt to change, draw upon multiple types of knowledge, distinguish between good and bad information, and learn fast and independently-and those skills are desperately needed in the current world of work.

That said, while I believe undergraduates should have confidence in the accumulating value of their liberal arts educations, I don't mean to suggest that if we simply give students access to great faculty, seminars, and curricula, stellar professional futures are ensured.

Not in today's lightning-fast tech-driven global knowledge economy, in which most businesses and organizations must reinvent core practices, if not their core missions, every few years because of the dizzying pace of change.

That's why in 2012 my institution, Franklin & Marshall College, created the Office of Student and Post-Graduate Development (OSPGD). The name speaks to our mission-the development of each student and graduate as unique individuals with their own interests, goals, and gifts, so that all can thrive by adapting and adjusting to the fields and occupations of the future.

In this regard, OSPGD goes beyond the function of a traditional career center in providing a one-time transactional experience consisting of a resume review or mock interview. Instead, the office serves students beginning in their first year with education on life skills (e.g. financial literacy, mindfulness and leadership, social media etiquette and practices) while providing ongoing career advising and professional development opportunities that address students' emerging interests and post-graduate possibilities.

What does this approach actually look like for undergraduates?

Take the example of Clare Wirth '16, who just began working at the Advisory Board, a health care consulting firm in Washington, D.C.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The 'Connective Tissue' That Liberal Arts Students Need For Lifelong Professional Success

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A great liberal arts education is an appreciating asset, like a wise investment that earns compounding interest over decades. That's because the knowledge, skills, and learning capabilities that students develop in college gain value as their careers progress and their responsibilities grow more complex.

# data[].attributes.body
Potential Resources:

RSA Animate: Carol Dweck, Growth and Fixed Mindset https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl9TVbAal5s&index=1&list=PL39BF9545D740ECFF

# data[].attributes.headline
New Item on the College Admission Checklist: LinkedIn Profile - The New York Times

# data[].attributes.subject
New Item on the College Admission Checklist: LinkedIn Profile - The New York Times

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Technophoria

Applying for admission to many American colleges already has high school students jumping through hoops.

School transcript? Check. Recommendations? Check. Personal statement? Standardized test scores? List of accomplishments? Check. Check. Check.

Now some social media experts are advising high school seniors to go even further. They are coaching students to take control of their online personas - by creating elaborate profiles on LinkedIn, the professional network, and bringing them to the attention of college admissions officers.

"They are going to click on your profile," says Alan Katzman, the chief executive of Social Assurity, a company that offers courses for high school students on how to shape their online images.

Last year, for instance, Mr. Katzman's company advised a high school senior in the Washington area to create a detailed LinkedIn profile and include a link on his application to Harvard. (His mother asked that the student's name be withheld for privacy reasons.) Soon after, LinkedIn notified the student that someone from Harvard had checked out his profile.

The student is now in his first year at Harvard. Whether the LinkedIn profile had any bearing on his admission is unknown. Harvard did not respond to a request for comment. But Mr. Katzman says that high school students who use social media to showcase themselves may gain an edge with colleges.

"No one has quantified the power of this," Mr. Katzman told me recently. "But I maintain that it is very powerful."

Public schools from San Francisco to New York City are teaching online conduct skills as part of a nationwide digital citizenship push to prepare students for colleges and careers. Teenagers who set up LinkedIn profiles in the hope of enhancing their college prospects represent the vanguard of this trend.

But the phenomenon of ambitious high school students on LinkedIn also demonstrates how social networks are playing a role in the escalation of the college admissions arms race. For students in high-pressure schools who already start packaging themselves for college in ninth grade, LinkedIn could add yet another burden to what might be called the careerization of childhood.

"Will an overstuffed profile become a must?" asked a review of LinkedIn by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit children's group. "Also, is it even healthy for kids to be so future-focused?" Teenagers, the site concluded, "should think twice before posting an online résumé."

Professionalized teenage résumés could also further intensify disparities in college applications.

"Kids from privileged families tend to do more of those things both offline and online - joining school clubs, writing for their school newspaper, getting tutoring so their grades go up, doing SAT preparation," says Vicky Rideout, a researcher who studies how teenagers use technology. Using LinkedIn on college applications, she says, "is yet another way for there to be a disparity between the haves and the have-nots."

For high school students, LinkedIn is partly a defense mechanism against college admissions officers who snoop on applicants' public Facebook and Twitter activities - without disclosing how that may affect an applicant's chance of acceptance.

A recent study from Kaplan Test Prep of about 400 college admissions officers reported that 40 percent said they had visited applicants' social media pages, a fourfold increase since 2008.

Officials at Vassar College and other institutions that deliberately do not search out applicants' social media profiles suggested that colleges disclose their admissions practices.

"We prefer to evaluate a candidate based on the items that candidate has prepared and submitted to us," said Art D. Rodriguez, Vassar's dean of admission and financial aid. He added, "While we understand that some colleges and universities do look into candidates' online profiles, we believe those schools should be transparent about the procedure and alert applicants to it."

Some high school students are establishing LinkedIn profiles to give the colleges that do look something they would like them to find. Students who naturally tailor posts for their peers on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook told me they used the professional network as a separate space to market their accomplishments to adults.

"I did not make a LinkedIn profile for my friends," says Matthew Martratt, a 17-year-old high school senior in Marietta, Ga., who is an Eagle Scout and a member of his school's marching band and organizes community service projects. "I made it to show people who don't know who I am what I am about."

Mr. Martratt, who took a LinkedIn course from Social Assurity, said he followed colleges to which he intended to apply on LinkedIn and Twitter and posted about them.

"It's like sending them an invitation to look at my profile," he said. "When I get likes or notifications back, it shows that they are looking."

To attract high school students, LinkedIn in 2013 dropped its minimum age requirement for members in the United States to 14 from 18. Since then, the site has had a significant increase in high school users, said Suzi Owens, a LinkedIn spokeswoman. The company declined to specify how many high school students used the network.

At the High School of Fashion Industries in Manhattan, students majoring in business learn to use LinkedIn to look for internships, explore colleges that have set up pages and connect with alumni.

"LinkedIn makes sense from a professional standpoint of showcasing their expertise and their skills," said Vita Vaccaro, the school's marketing and virtual enterprise coordinator.

In a culture where digital citizenship is often taught as a series of prohibitions - "Don't post anything you wouldn't want your grandmother to see!" - coaching students to build online résumés may increase their sense of agency.

"We are helping them tell really good stories so they can control their own narrative," says Chad Williamson, a co-founder of Noble Impact, a nonprofit education group that teaches students entrepreneurial skills they can use in their communities.

Given the privacy issues raised by teenagers using sites created primarily for adults, however, Mr. Williamson said his group kept close tabs on the students it had taught to use LinkedIn. Although LinkedIn has default privacy settings for users under 18 - like automatically displaying only their first names and last initials, rather than their full names - students can change the settings.

The push for digital citizenship education also raises the question of whether some schools are so fixated on teaching social media skills that they are steering students to the most popular commercial sites - rather than helping them develop a more expansive worldview, both online and off.

With widening students' horizons in mind, Noble Impact offers courses at eStem High, a charter school in Little Rock, Ark., where students not only use LinkedIn but also separately create their own online portfolios and learn real-world entrepreneurship skills.

Nate Reeves, a senior at eStem High in the Noble Impact program, for instance, has a LinkedIn profile. But when he wanted an internship at Little Rock Technology Park, he did not rely on it. He called the co-working space directly and landed an in-person interview. He is now an intern there. And Mr. Reeves is trying to cultivate an online presence that is unique to him and not limited to LinkedIn.

"On LinkedIn, they see what you are good at," said Mr. Reeves, 17, who has studied computer programming and is building a personal website to display a fuller picture of his experiences and interests. "But they don't really get to know you."

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page BU6 of the New York edition with the headline: Now on College Checklists: A LinkedIn Profile. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
New Item on the College Admission Checklist: LinkedIn Profile

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Technophoria Applying for admission to many American colleges already has high school students jumping through hoops. School transcript? Check. Recommendations? Check. Personal statement? Standardized test scores? List of accomplishments? Check. Check. Check. Now some social media experts are advising high school seniors to go even further.

# data[].attributes.headline
Job Interviews Are the Worst Way to Find the Right Candidate -- Science of Us

# data[].attributes.subject
Job Interviews Are the Worst Way to Find the Right Candidate -- Science of Us

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A job interview is really a parade of small, awful indignities: You have to be good at mindless small talk. You have to rehearse your answers to sound smooth but not too smooth, lest you sound overly polished. You have to openly discuss your flaws. And after all that, legal scholar Cass Sunstein recently argued in Bloomberg, you have to make your peace with the fact that whatever opaque system the interview just used to evaluate you may not even be relevant to the job itself.

Here's how Sunstein laid it out:

Suppose that you are considering two candidates for a job in sales, Candidate A and Candidate B, and have interviewed both. You and your colleagues were far more impressed with Candidate A, who was dynamic, engaging, and immensely likable - a natural, especially for sales. By contrast, Candidate B was a bit awkward and reserved, and so seemed to be an inferior "fit."

One of your colleagues points out that both candidates have taken an aptitude test that relates to the job; their personnel files also contain their scores on a general intelligence test. On both tests, Candidate A was just OK; Candidate B performed superbly.

For most people, Candidate A will come off as the better option, with their in-person performance outweighing their less than stellar test scores - and that's a problem, Sunstein argued: "Specific aptitude tests turn out to be highly predictive of performance in sales, and general intelligence tests are almost as good," he wrote. "Interviews are far less useful at telling you who will succeed."

The problem with interviews: We see what we want to see. We're great at quickly forming first impressions, but we're pretty terrible at changing our minds when new information comes in after the fact; instead, we tend to filter everything through the lens of that first impression, bending the facts to fit the theory, as it were. But as more and more companies focus on making happiness a part of the workplace culture, "who would I want to get a drink with after work?" has taken on outsized importance as a metric of who would be the best employee for the job (even though bosses focusing too much on workers' happiness can actually be detrimental to their overall well-being).

Choosing between a high scorer and a great interviewee, then, is a little like picking between the steamed veggies you should have and the cheeseburger you really want: Even though you know one might be a safer choice, the other one's just so much more enjoyable. The bottom line: Job interviews are great for highly charismatic underachievers, but kind of screw over the quieter go-getters among us. At least you still have power posing to help you through the process. Sort of.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Job Interviews Are a Terrible Way to Find the Right Candidate

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A job interview is really a parade of small, awful indignities: You have to be good at mindless small talk. You have to rehearse your answers to sound smooth but not too smooth, lest you sound overly polished. You have to openly discuss your flaws.

# data[].attributes.headline
Job Interviewers Judge You by Your Awful Small-Talk Skills -- Science of Us

# data[].attributes.subject
Job Interviewers Judge You by Your Awful Small-Talk Skills -- Science of Us

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Small talk in any context is mildly terrifying. Small talk before a job interview, with the person you very much hope will offer you gainful employment, is even more so. Now, new research, summarized by the study authors themselves this week at Harvard Business Review, suggests that you were right to be wary of preinterview pleasantries: Your job interviewer is indeed likely judging you by your terrible small-talk skills.

The researchers recorded interviews with 163 "job-hungry, and realistically nervous" business-school students, starting the interviews with a quick "rapport-building phrase" - academic-speak for small talk. They then showed the videos to two groups of experts (they don't define "expert," but one presumes they were people with actual hiring experience). One group saw the entire thing, small talk and all; the other group saw an edited version, with the small-talk part edited out. All the group members rated the interviewees on how well they answered each question. (And now I'm imagining an unseen panel of experts silently judging my performance at every job interview I've ever been on.)

In the end, the findings suggested that small talk did change the experts' minds about the job candidates, as the researchers observed a noticeable difference in scoring between both groups (who, again, watched the very same interviews, save for the small talk). That's not so surprising; the preinterview banter formed the experts' first impressions of the candidates, and first impressions have a frustrating way of sticking around. More to the point, the researchers claim that their experts were picking up on specific "job-relevant attributes" in those few minutes of chit-chat. The HBR piece, annoyingly, does not outline what those attributes are, but other studies have suggested that these tend to be things like communication or listening skills, or some brief moment that suggested the interviewee might have a team-oriented (as opposed to a self-oriented) attitude.

The HBR article is targeted in part toward hiring managers, and it instructs them how they might make small talk a structured part of the interview process. For job seekers, however, they offer this advice: "Candidates need to be 'on' during all interactions with prospective employers, even the initial chit-chat," they write. "Interviewers can, and likely will, use this information to make inferences about candidates' suitability for the job, especially early on in the interview." Concerning.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Your Job Interviewer Is Judging You by Your Terrible Small-Talk Skills

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Small talk in any context is mildly terrifying. Small talk before a job interview, with the person you very much hope will offer you gainful employment, is even more so. Now, new research, summarized by the study authors themselves this week at Harvard Business Review, suggests that you were right to be wary of preinterview pleasantries: Your job interviewer is indeed likely judging you by your terrible small-talk skills.

# data[].attributes.headline
Find Out What Job Best Matches Your Personality | TIME

# data[].attributes.subject
Find Out What Job Best Matches Your Personality | TIME

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Feeling the itch to change jobs, or even careers? Before you take the plunge, try this quiz to see which job best fits your personality.

Developed in partnership with the Workplaces and Virtual Environments Lab at George Washington University, the following interactive will ask you twenty simple questions about what sort of activities you might enjoy doing. It will then compare your interests with nearly 1,000 job profiles to find the one that most closely matches your personality. All questions are anonymous, and the demographic questions on the first slide are for research purposes only.

The questions, which were created by by Arizona State University professor Terry Tracey, are designed to measure six personality traits, captured in the acronym RIASEC: Realistic (aka "doers"), Investigative ("thinkers"), Artistic ("creators"), Social ("helpers"), Enterprising ("persuaders") and Conventional ("organizers").

The RIASEC score, which was originally created by John Holland in 1959, matches people's interests and abilities to occupations with similar characteristics. In 1999, the U.S. Department of Labor adopted RIASEC to create occupational interest profiles, which are used in the quiz above.

Every job requires a distinct combination of personality traits. Fashion designers and choreographers, for example, are Artistic and Enterprising, while people who are Realistic and Conventional--that is to say, detail-oriented--might make good umpires or referees. Those with high Social and Enterprising scores are well suited to be morticians.

Men tend to score higher than women on the Realistic ("doers") type, while women tend to score higher than men on the Social ("helper") type, Illinois State University professor Margaret Nauta wrote in a 2010 journal article. But the metrics have since been revised with the aim of reducing gender bias, and research has found that the model is largely accurate across socioeconomic and demographic groups, ensuring its continuing influence in vocational psychology.
Methodology
Each of the 20 questions in the quiz is associated with one of the six personality types, resulting in an aggregate score that is compared to the RIASEC profiles for all occupations in the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Information Network, to produce the closest match. A team of researchers will work with TIME to analyze the responses to this quiz and report any interesting findings in aggregate. All responses are completely anonymous.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Find Out What Job Best Matches Your Personality

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Feeling the itch to change jobs, or even careers? Before you take the plunge, try this quiz to see which job best fits your personality. Developed in partnership with the Workplaces and Virtual Environments Lab at George Washington University, the following interactive will ask you twenty simple questions about what sort of activities you might enjoy doing.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Psychological Case for Dressing Way Up for Work -- Science of Us

# data[].attributes.subject
The Psychological Case for Dressing Way Up for Work -- Science of Us

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
At a talk at the James Beard Foundation last week, Tim Gunn - former fashion-design professor, forever fashion icon, only reality star that doesn't make me want to vomit - gave a talk about dress and what it does to people. Gunn noted that his pinstripe suit helped him with the anxiety prompted by addressing such a crowd, Ephrat Livni reported at Quartz.

"I believe in the power and appropriateness of semiotics," he said, referring to the study of signs and symbols. "The clothes we wear, the accessories we wear, the way we groom ourselves sends a message about how we want the world to perceive us. It's a very important responsibility and we need to accept that. I don't care how people [do it], as long as they own it."

Indeed, psych research around dress shows all sorts of social effects. A 2012 study found that when people wear lab coats, they have greater sustained attention. What's more, If it was called a "painter's coat," the effect wasn't there nearly as much as if it was called a doctor's coat. Conversely, a 2014 study found that a male professor in a beard and a T-shirt was more highly rated by students than one clean-shaven and dressed in a suit, earning the name "the red sneakers effect." And a 2015 paper found that when people felt more dressed up than their peer group, they thought more creatively and abstractly. This is because, one researcher told Science of Us, people who dress nicely tend to be leaders, and leaders don't have to focus on the details of the workday, and instead focus on the big picture.

That's all pretty amazing evidence of how cut-and-sewn pieces of fabric carry all sorts of cultural symbols and interpersonal meaning. "We are performing our identites" in everyday life, and clothes are a huge part of that expression, says Kim Jenkins, a visiting assistant professor of fashion design at the Pratt Institute. Your wardrobe houses your personal history, your sense of place in the culture, your ethnic identity. And a uniform says something special. Gunn "has made a career of out being an authority figure," Jenkins tells Science of Us, and his way of dress is aspirational, the sort of thing you might look up to. "I don't find it surprising that you find him always in a suit, there's something trusting in that, and that speaks to his sensibility or personality," she says. "You can trust that, if you're looking for an authority in fashion."

This is also why, Jenkins says, the powerful are given to uniform, whether it's Steve Jobs in his sweater and jeans; Karl Lagerfeld in any variety of jackets and trousers, all in white or black; or Mark Zuckerberg in his T-shirts and hoodies. But the benefit goes beyond streamlining your wardrobe, Jenkins says, it also communicates that you're distancing yourself from the trends and fluctuations in fashion. "It offers the viewer a stability, knowing that every time I see Steve Jobs, I know what he's going to look like," Jenkins says. "I don't have to be distracted by something new, I always know what his look is going to be." To extend an unfortunately gendered phrase, clothes make the man - both what you think of yourself, and what other people think of you. And with a uniform, there's less thinking, and, in a way, more reverence, whether it's hoodies or pinstripes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Psychological Case for Dressing Way Up (or Down) for Work

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
At a talk at the James Beard Foundation last week, Tim Gunn - former fashion-design professor, forever fashion icon, only reality star that doesn't make me want to vomit - gave a talk about dress and what it does to people.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
When the National Society of High School Scholars asked 18,000 Americans, ages 15 to 29, to rank their ideal future employers, the results were curious. To nobody's surprise, Google, Apple and Facebook appeared high on the list, but so did the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Security Agency. The Build-A-Bear Workshop was No. 50, just a few spots behind Lockheed Martin and JPMorgan Chase. (The New York Times came in at No. 16.)

However scattershot, the survey offers a glimpse into the ambitions of the millennial generation, which already makes up more than a third of the work force. By 2020, it will make up half. Survey after survey shows that millennials want to work for companies that place a premium on employee welfare, offer flexible scheduling and, above all, bestow a sense of purpose. These priorities are well known and frequently mocked, providing grist for the oft-repeated claim that millennials are lazy, entitled job-hoppers.

But it's important to remember that this generation was shaped by a recession, an unprecedented crush of student debt and a broad decline in the credibility of all kinds of institutions. Stability is an abstract concept to these young workers, so they instead tend to focus on creating a rich, textured life now, rather than planning for a future obscured by uncertainty. How these desires map onto companies like Google and Facebook is clear, given their strong roots in philanthropy and innovation. But the high ranking of national-security employers also speaks, just as clearly, to millennials' hope to make a difference in the world.

Companies that want to attract the best young workers are already finding that they need to accommodate these wishes. The question is whether, when millennials are running things, they will abandon these priorities as youthful indiscretions - or establish them as the norm. Maybe one day, even the N.S.A. will have nap pods.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
national society of high school scholars

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When the National Society of High School Scholars asked 18,000 Americans, ages 15 to 29, to rank their ideal future employers, the results were curious. To nobody's surprise, Google, Apple and Facebook appeared high on the list, but so did the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Security Agency.

# data[].attributes.headline
How to write a cover letter people will actually read - The New York Times

# data[].attributes.subject
How to write a cover letter people will actually read - The New York Times

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This article is part of a series aimed at helping you navigate life's opportunities and challenges. What else should we write about? Contact us: smarterliving@nytimes.com.
You're probably not the only one applying for that job.

That might seem obvious, but too many cover letters are written in a robotic style that leave little impression on hiring managers who are sifting through vast piles of applications, according to career counselors. The cover letter is your chance - most likely your only one - to stand out from many other candidates who have similar résumés.

Don't botch it. Despite the high stakes, a lot of job-seekers treat the cover letter like a formality, putting little thought and few personal flourishes into it.

"A cover letter can make the difference between two equally qualified candidates," said John O'Neill, the assistant dean of career education for Stanford University.

While every industry and hiring manager is different, here are some tricks to increase your chances of scoring an interview.

Don't stick to a template

You could easily Google "cover letter template" to get some ideas on how to write it. Don't.

"You need to think about your audience," said Kristen Fitzpatrick, the managing director of career and professional development at Harvard Business School. "Who's reading it? How do you capture their attention enough so they move you from one pile to another?"

This is your time to show your communication skills and your personality. You must make the case that the other 99 percent of applicants don't have what you have. Following a template, or otherwise putting little effort into making your letter stand out, suggests you're just another applicant.

Don't rehash your résumé

Focus on the organization you're writing to and the job description of the open position. If you nail your cover letter, the hiring manager will end up reading your résumé anyway, so don't waste precious space duplicating it by going down the list of where you've worked.

"It's to complement your résumé, not repeat it," Mr. O'Neill said. "Cover letters where you're just rewriting the content of your résumé aren't effective."

Instead, you could list some specific examples of projects you've worked on, and explain what you learned from them and how that knowledge would apply to the open position. Or you could offer some new ideas, showing from the start that you understand the company's goals and would bring creativity.

(Related: Getting past the first cut with a résumé that grabs digital eyes)

Don't state the obvious

Read your letter again, and zap any clichés or platitudes that don't say something meaningful about you, the position or the company.

As an example: Don't say you're a "hard worker." Everyone says that, and it would be easy to lie about if you weren't, making it a meaningless sentiment to include. It merely takes up space that could be better spent on something that actually sets you apart from the other candidates.

"It's not even worth saying," Ms. Fitzpatrick said. "You'll show you're a hard worker by going above and beyond in writing a letter."

Do your research

This requires going past the first page of Google results.

You could go to a library to sift through professional databases that might have more information, or get coffee with someone who works at the company you're applying to. Show a familiarity with recent projects, acquisitions and public statements. It doesn't have to be a lot, but a few sentences to show you've put time into it could go a long way.

If you're not preparing for something as crucial as a cover letter, why would they trust you would prepare for an important meeting?

Focus on what you can offer them

A lot of applicants spend too much time talking about why they love the company, Ms. Fitzpatrick said.

"How many letters does Apple read that say, 'I couldn't live without my iPhone'? Probably a lot," she said. "So you want to show you are unique and you've done your research."

You do want to make it clear that you respect the company and explain why you're interested, but the focus should be on what you can do for them.

"You want to avoid too many 'I' statements - 'I know this,' 'I did this,' 'I can do X, Y or Z' - because that's too much about what you're going to get out of this opportunity," Mr. O'Neill said.

The company isn't posting a job for charity, or to improve your life; they're trying to fill a position they consider essential. Convince them that you're the one who would most help them, not that you'd benefit most from it.
Want more? You might also like:
* Why it's fine to job-hop for a few years after college

* The incalculable value of finding a job you love

* Looking for a new job? These free apps can help

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to write a cover letter people will actually read

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This article is part of a series aimed at helping you navigate life's opportunities and challenges. What else should we write about? Contact us: smarterliving@nytimes.com. You're probably not the only one applying for that job.

# data[].attributes.headline
Your Spoken Voice Is More Powerful Than the Written Word -- Science of Us

# data[].attributes.subject
Your Spoken Voice Is More Powerful Than the Written Word -- Science of Us

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Thanks to bone conduction and weird features of the skull, you may hate the strange, alien sound of your own voice. But to everyone else, it's an intractable part of who you are. And if you're trying to land a job, you literally need to make it heard.

That's the takeaway from a paper from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business recently written up by Chris Pash at Business Insider. Researchers Nicholas Epley and Juliana Schroeder found that when hiring managers and recruiters heard potential candidates (who were Booth M.B.A. students) explain why they should be hired, they rated them as smarter and more capable than if they had only read the pitch. Watching video and listening to a recording had similar effects, owing to, the researchers reason, the fact that both are vessels for voices. Subsequent experiments using paid voice actors and visitors to a Chicago science museum as participants confirmed the finding.

"The words that come out of a person's mouth convey the presence of a thoughtful mind more clearly than the words typed by a person's hands-even when those words are identical," write Epley and Schroeder, who's now at the University of California's Haas School of Business. "A person's voice communicates not only the content of his or her thinking, but also the humanlike capacity for thinking," they write.

To me, this looks like another example of Media Richness Theory (MRT) at work. Sprung from organizational psychology, MRT contends that various forms of media - from the printed word to text messages to phone calls to video-conferencing and beyond - are more or less " rich " in the range of signals they convey. As anyone who's gotten into a fight with their partner over a misinterpreted iMessage has learned, text is relatively "poor": You don't get the shifts in tone, pauses, and other musical qualities of voice when it's flattened into the written word.

Indeed, as Harvard linguist Stephen Pinker once told me in an interview, this is probably the reason that emoji have become so popular, and probably necessary, in text-based conversation. "As with many of our punctuation symbols, like a question mark or an exclamation point, they are there to convey some communicative force that would not be obvious just from the arrangement of words on the page," he said. Since you're probably not going to include 🔥 in your cover letter, it's a good call to get a recruiter on the phone.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Your Spoken Voice Is More Powerful for Getting Hired Than the Written Word

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Thanks to bone conduction and weird features of the skull, you may hate the strange, alien sound of your own voice. But to everyone else, it's an intractable part of who you are. And if you're trying to land a job, you literally need to make it heard.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Incalculable Value of Finding a Job You Love - The New York Times

# data[].attributes.subject
The Incalculable Value of Finding a Job You Love - The New York Times

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
But moral satisfaction alone won't pay the rent. You'll be more likely to land a job that offers attractive working conditions and pays well if you can develop deep expertise at a task that people value highly. As the economist Philip Cook and I have argued, those who become really good at what they do are capturing a much larger share of total income in almost every domain, leaving correspondingly smaller shares available for others. Moral: Become an expert at something!

That's obviously easier said than done. The psychologist K. Anders Ericsson and his co-authors have estimated that many thousands of hours of difficult practice are required for true expertise at any task. That's why my first response when students seek advice on how to succeed is to ask whether any activity has ever absorbed them completely. Most answer affirmatively. I then suggest that they prepare themselves for a career that entails tasks as similar as possible to that activity, even if it doesn't normally lead to high financial rewards. I tell them not to worry about the money.

My point is that becoming an expert is so challenging that you are unlikely to expend the necessary effort unless the task is one that you love for its own sake. If it is, the process will be rewarding apart from whether it leads to high pay.

The happiness literature has identified one of the most deeply satisfying human psychological states to be one called " flow." It occurs when you are so immersed in an activity that you lose track of the passage of time. If you can land a job that enables you to experience substantial periods of flow, you will be among the most fortunate people on the planet. What's more, as the years pass, you will almost surely develop deep expertise at whatever it is you've been doing.

At that point, even if few people in any one location place high value on what you do, you may find that your services become extremely valuable economically. That's because technology has steadily extended the geographic reach of those who are best at what they do. If even a tiny fraction of a sufficiently large group of buyers cares about your service, you may be worth a fortune.

There is, of course, no guarantee that you'll become the best at what you choose to do, or that even if you do you'll find practical ways to extend your reach enough to earn a big paycheck. But by choosing to concentrate on a task you love, you'll enjoy the considerable proportion of your life that you spend at work, which is much more than billions of others can say.

Again, you'll have bills to pay, so salary matters. But social science findings establish clearly that once you have met your basic obligations, it's possible to live a very satisfying life even if you don't earn a lot of money.

The bottom line: Resist the soul-crushing job's promise of extra money and savor the more satisfying conditions you'll find in one that pays a little less.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Incalculable Value of Finding a Job You Love

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
But moral satisfaction alone won't pay the rent. You'll be more likely to land a job that offers attractive working conditions and pays well if you can develop deep expertise at a task that people value highly.

# data[].attributes.headline
How to Suck Up Without Being Obvious About It -- Science of Us

# data[].attributes.subject
How to Suck Up Without Being Obvious About It -- Science of Us

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to Suck Up Without Being Obvious About It

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Sucking up to the boss is a lot like the early stages of dating: On the one hand, you want to make the other person feel good - and, by extension, good about you. On the other hand, you also want to play it kind of cool, lest you come off as too eager to please (I believe the kids these days call it "thirsty").

# data[].attributes.headline
Professionalism 101: A Class On How To Get The Job : NPR Ed : NPR

# data[].attributes.subject
Professionalism 101: A Class On How To Get The Job : NPR Ed : NPR

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
You can take a college course on just about anything nowadays. There's a class on Kanye West lyrics. And one about the American vacation.

But some teachers think that crucial basic skills are being overlooked in the process. Things like showing up on time for class, meeting deadlines, dressing appropriately, working well in teams.

Some of those things might pop up indirectly in other courses - business or communications, for example. But a growing number of campuses are focusing specifically on "professionalism" - what it entails and how to achieve it.

At George Mason University in Washington, D.C., Dedra Faine teaches a six-week course called Professionalism and Civility. It's now mandatory for George Mason's hospitality students.

Among the subjects Faine covers are: dining etiquette, proper dress and behavior in the workplace, and how to answer a phone properly or handle difficult people.

"All of that plays a role in the morale of the company," she says.

Deborah Popp, a 24-year-old hospitality major, took Faine's course last year.

At first glance, she was skeptical: "I was initially taken aback that it was even acknowledged as something important or something to be aware of."

In her mind, "professionalism" simply meant turning things in on time, she says.

But after taking the class, "I've learned that there is a heart behind it," she says. "There is a deeper meaning, a different kind of care that you give and a different response to people that's more than getting a job done."

Faine, who's been teaching the course since 2013, says she's teaching material that a lot of 20-somethings seem to need.

York College in Pennsylvania does a survey of campus faculty and officials every few years that measures professionalism on campuses. The most recent one, in 2014, found that more than a third of professors and human-resources respondents thought professionalism among upperclassmen had decreased in the past five years.

That survey defined "professionalism" as showing up on time and prepared, being focused and working well with other students.

Teresa Ward, a professor at Butte College, a community college in northern California, decided to incorporate lessons about professionalism into her English and reading classes.

She uses a rubric that students have to fill out and follow. They're asked to identify three to five behaviors that they feel embody professionalism and write them down - for example, speaking coherently or setting goals and practicing self-management.

Then, the students track their own behavior using the rubric, and see how well they did.

One big goal in all of this, of course, is helping students get jobs when they graduate.

Research shows employers are increasingly demanding these skills. According to the 2015 Skills Gap survey, almost half of executives within the manufacturing industry thought their employees didn't have basic employability skills - things like punctuality, attitude and teamwork.

"I think everybody can learn these skills and be trainable and incorporate them into their routine and into their life so they are effective at them," says Gardner Carrick, vice president of strategic initiatives at The Manufacturing Institute, an industry advocacy group. "Understanding the priority that companies are putting on that skill set raises the importance of them and the requirement to have them."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Professionalism 101: A Class On How To Get The Job

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
You can take a college course on just about anything nowadays. There's a class on Kanye West lyrics. And one about the American vacation. But some teachers think that crucial basic skills are being overlooked in the process.

# data[].attributes.headline
Five Myths About Landing a Good Job Later in Life - WSJ

# data[].attributes.subject
Five Myths About Landing a Good Job Later in Life - WSJ

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Five Myths About Landing a Good Job Later in Life

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Five myths about landing a good job later in life. The conventional wisdom says it's impossible. The facts say otherwise.

# data[].attributes.headline
This comic from The Oatmeal illustrates how we're missing the mark on happiness.

# data[].attributes.subject
This comic from The Oatmeal illustrates how we're missing the mark on happiness.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
This comic from The Oatmeal illustrates how we're missing the mark on happiness.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"Happiness" can be a complicated subject. But this comic shows that that's OK.

# data[].attributes.headline
Why Bad First Impressions Are Hard to Shake -- Science of Us

# data[].attributes.subject
Why Bad First Impressions Are Hard to Shake -- Science of Us

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Among the many forces that influence our social lives - geography, age, personality, history - laziness is kind of an underrated one. Who we like, who we don't, who we think is kind of boring but we're fine hanging out with in group settings: All of these categories are shaped in large part by quick judgments that typically just become too much of an effort toreconsider.

As Science of Us has previously explained, humans are "cognitive misers," expending only the minimum amount of mental energy we need to in order to reach a conclusion - when we meet someone for the first time, the path of least cognitive resistance is to assume they're presenting themselves the way they always are, not that some extenuating circumstance is making them act a little differently than usual. It's not impossible to change that first impression, but it'shard.

And it's harder still if the first impression is a less-than-flattering one. In a study recently published in the journal Social Cognition, researchers from the University of Chicago examined what they call the "moral tipping point," the moment when our view of someone shifts from bad to good, or vice versa - and that moment is a lot tougher to get to, they found, if we're deciding that a person has changed for thebetter.

Study participants read a series of scenarios about people whose behavior patterns were shifting over time. One of these, for example, described a woman named Barbara who generally kept to herself at work, acting cordial and neutral toward her colleagues most of the time. Every so often, though, Barbara would swing in one direction or the other, either showing brief flashes of niceness, like paying someone a compliment or else temporarily breaking bad, like spreading a piece of gossip. But lately, the participants read, she'd been breaking out of neutral more frequently, generally becoming friendlier or nastier to the people around her. Other groups read similar scenarios about a person tipping more or less than usual at restaurants, or being more or less generous with reward money co-earned with apartner.

In each case, the volunteers reported how much time - how many weeks, meals, or payouts - it would take for them to conclude that the new behavior was something more than a fluke. On average, the researchers found, it took longer for someone to "become good" than for the opposite - in Barbara's case, for example, the study subjects who were told she was acting more positively also said they would need to see more weeks of improvement before they were convinced that she was actually a more moral person. The people who were told she was on a downward swing, on the other hand, were quicker to pronounce that her character hadchanged.

It just takes a few bad acts, in other words, for us to decide that someone's rotten to the core, but a lot more effort for them to convince the world that they're actually pretty okay after all. It's kind of a bummer of a finding, but not exactly a surprising one - even in first impressions, we tend to give more weight to the information we don't like, a phenomenon known as negativity bias. Describe someone with an equal number of good and bad traits, for instance, and we're more likely to dwell on the bad ones, building an image that's unflattering rather thanneutral.

Our tendency to cling to our initial judgments also means that often, the way we think of someone comes down to chance: Did we happen to catch them at a happy moment, or one where they were stressed-out or moody or otherwise less than pleasant? A first impression, it seems, often comes down to timing as much as to the people involved. "Character is found in the smaller acts of virtue and vice common in daily life," the study authors wrote - and most people's days contain plenty ofeach.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bad First Impressions Are Hard to Shake Because People Are Lazy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Among the many forces that influence our social lives - geography, age, personality, history - laziness is kind of an underrated one. Who we like, who we don't, who we think is kind of boring but we're fine hanging out with in group settings: All of these categories are shaped in large part by quick judgments that typically just become too much of an effort toreconsider.

# data[].attributes.headline
Research: How Subtle Class Cues Can Backfire on Your Resume

# data[].attributes.subject
Research: How Subtle Class Cues Can Backfire on Your Resume

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Executive Summary

Research on the effect of social class on hiring found that elite law firms' hiring practices discriminate strongly based on social class but that, surprisingly, an advantaged social background helps only men. In the studies, attorneys viewed higher-class candidates of either gender as better fits with the culture of large law firms, with some attorneys even steering lower-class candidates to less prestigious sectors of legal practice, where positions tend to be more socioeconomically diverse. But even though higher-class women were seen as just as good "fits" as higher-class men, attorneys believed these women were the least committed to working a demanding job of any group (including lower-class women). The findings confirm that the social class people come from greatly shapes the types of jobs they can attain, regardless of their achievements. There are ways to combat this discrimination, however: applicants can ditch the extracurricular activities on their resume, eliminating cues about their backgrounds. Hiring managers can help keep women in the pool by blinding evaluators to first names or substituting with initials.

Every fall, tens of thousands of law students compete for a small number of coveted summer associateships at the country's top law firms. The stakes are high: getting one of these rare internships virtually guarantees full-time employment after law school. The salaries are unbeatable, six-figure sums that catapult young students to the top 5% of household incomes nationally and are often quadruple of those offered in other sectors of legal practice. These jobs also open doors to even more lucrative employment in the private sector as well as prestigious judiciary and government roles. For these reasons, employment in top law firms has been called the legal profession's 1%.

Now imagine four applicants, all of whom attend the same, selective second-tier law school. They all have phenomenal grade point averages, are on law review, and have identical, highly relevant work experiences. The only differences are whether they are male or female and if their extracurricular activities suggest they come from a higher-class or lower-class background. Who gets invited to interview?

We set out to answer this question in a series of studies reported in the December 2016 issue of American Sociological Review. Based on prior research showing that hiring in top professional services firms is highly skewed toward applicants from wealthy families, we expected that an applicant's social class background would play a decisive role in determining interview invitations. And indeed, we found that, in contrast to our national lore that it is individual effort and ability-not family lineage-that matters for getting good jobs, elite employers discriminate strongly based on social class, favoring applicants from higher-class backgrounds. But our research uncovered a surprising - and disturbing - twist: coming from an advantaged social background helps only men.

We uncovered this through a field experiment with the country's largest law firms. Specifically, we used a technique - known as the resume audit method - that is widely seen as the gold standard for measuring employment discrimination. This method involves randomly assigning different items to the resumes and sending applications to real employers to see how they affect the probability of being called back for a job interview. All in all, we sent fictitious resumes to 316 offices of 147 top law firms in 14 cities, from candidates who were supposedly trying to land a summer internship position. All applicants were in the top 1% of their class and were on law review, but came from second-tier law schools. This was important because graduates from the most elite law schools (e.g., Harvard and Yale) are typically recruited on-campus. But law school students from second-tier schools must compete for coveted internship positions by sending in their resumes directly to firms in hopes of attracting employers' attention by virtue of their C.V.s.

We signaled gender by varying the applicant's first name (James or Julia). Directly indicating a parent's occupation or income on a resume might be strange for an employer to see, so we signaled social class position via accepted and often required portions of resumes: awards and extracurricular activities. Reflecting the fact that social class is a complex characteristic that cannot be boiled down to income, education, or lifestyle alone, we used a constellation of resume items to signal social class.

For example, to capture the economic component of class, our lower-class applicants received an award for student-athletes on financial aid. To incorporate its educational competent, they listed being a peer tutor for fellow first-generation college students. By contrast, our higher class candidate pursued traditionally upper-class hobbies and sports, such sailing, polo, and classical music, while the lower-class candidate participated in activities with lower financial barriers to entry (e.g., pick-up soccer, track and field team) and those distinctly rejected by higher-class individuals (e.g., country music). But crucially, all educational, academic, and work-related achievements were identical between our four fictitious candidates.

Even though all educational and work-related histories were the same, employers overwhelmingly favored the higher-class man. He had a callback rate more than four times of other applicants and received more invitations to interview than all other applicants in our study combined. But most strikingly, he did significantly better than the higher-class woman, whose resume was identical to his, other than the first name.

Why did the higher-class man do so much better than the higher-class woman? To further explore this issue, we conducted a follow-up experiment with a sample of 210 practicing attorneys from around the country. We asked each attorney to evaluate one of the same resumes we used in our field experiment and to tell us whether they would like to bring the candidate in for an interview. We also asked them to rate their candidate on factors proven to influence how favorably people view job candidates but that vary between men and women. These included perceptions of the candidate's competence, likability, fit with an organization's culture and clientele, and career commitment.

Just like the employers in our audit study, the attorneys we surveyed favored interviewing the higher-class man above all applicants, including the higher-class woman. This time, though, we were able to understand why. Attorneys viewed higher-class candidates of either gender as being better fits with the culture and clientele of large law firms; lower-class candidates were seen as misfits and rejected. In fact, some attorneys even steered the lower-class candidates to less prestigious and lucrative sectors of legal practice, such as government and nonprofit roles, positions that tend to be more socioeconomically diverse than jobs at top law firms.

But even though higher-class women were seen as just as good "fits" as higher-class men, attorneys declined to interview these women because they believed they were the least committed of any group (including lower-class women) to working a demanding job. Our survey participants, as well as an additional 20 attorneys we interviewed, described higher-class women as "flight risks," who might desert the firm for less time-intensive areas of legal practice or might even leave paid employment entirely. Attorneys cited "family" as a primary reason these women would leave. Parenting strategies vary between social classes, and the intensive style of mothering that is more popular among the affluent was seen as conflicting with the "all or nothing" nature of work as a Big Law associate. One female attorney we interviewed described this negative view of higher-class women, which she observed while working on her firm's hiring committee. The perception, she said, was that higher-class women do not need a job because they "have enough money," are "married to somebody rich," or are "going to end up being a helicopter mom." This commitment penalty that higher-class women faced negated any advantages they received on account of their social class.

Our findings confirm that, despite our national myth that anyone can make it if they work hard enough, the social class people grow up in greatly shapes the types of jobs (and salaries) they can attain, regardless of the achievements listed on their resumes. More broadly, our results illustrate a phenomenon that social scientists call "intersectionality" - a fancy way of saying that, when it comes to understanding sources of advantage and disadvantage, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Crucially, we have found that privilege works differently for men and women in the labor market. While coming from a higher-class background helps men, it can actually hurt women.

Together, biases related to social class and gender skew employment opportunities toward men from privileged backgrounds. Our research adds another twist to just how difficult it is for certain groups to get ahead, even when they achieve an advanced degree.

There are some potential solutions for law firms, however. While biases themselves are difficult to change and merely making people aware of them via training has little payoff, there are quick and cost-effective ways to make the playing field more even in resume screening. When it comes to social class, the answer is simple: ditch the extracurricular activities. We were able to conduct our study only because employers and career services offices encourage (if not require) students to lists hobbies and activities on resumes. Without this information, we would not have been able to indicate social class background effectively. While social class still manifests in other types of resume cues (especially attendance at a top-tier undergraduate institution or law school), blinding evaluators to extracurricular activities or having students omit them from resumes entirely could eliminate those class signals that are least performance-related.

As for gender, blinding evaluators to first names (or substituting with initials) could help keep more women in the pool. In fact, one reason why women seem to do better when they come from the most elite schools may be that employers have limited ability to screen resumes and do not have the chance to engage in the types of resume-based class and gender discrimination we found in our study. Eliminating signals about class and gender as resumes are screened could open the door more widely for talented individuals with varied backgrounds, while creating a more diverse workforce of qualified talent.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Research: How Subtle Class Cues Can Backfire on Your Resume

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Executive Summary Research on the effect of social class on hiring found that elite law firms' hiring practices discriminate strongly based on social class but that, surprisingly, an advantaged social background helps only men.

# data[].attributes.body
http://www.pbs.org/pov/wagingaliving/

# data[].attributes.headline
Ask a Boss: The Interns Don’t Dress Professionally!

# data[].attributes.subject
Ask a Boss: The Interns Don’t Dress Professionally!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I'm a new manager. Each year, the company I work for brings on college students as interns. One thing I have noticed is the lack of following the dress code and unprofessional outfits from the interns. Our industry is on the conservative side and wearing suits and button-downs is expected for everyone, from the receptionist right up the C-suite. I've seen the odd issue with the male interns (one had swear words shaved into his hair and another would wear bright colored undershirts and t-shirts under his button-down shirt), but the problems I have noticed are almost exclusively from the female interns. As a woman who has worked my way up to management in a field that is still male dominated, I want to guide these young women so their clothes don't hold them back. In a perfect world, clothing and dress would not matter but in the current world it does matter immensely. I understand most interns don't have a large, functional work wardrobe yet, but some of the clothing I have seen is atrocious and definitely unprofessional. Some examples are skirts that are well above mid-thigh, visible thongs, sheer blouses or tank tops under jackets instead of button-down shirts, full smoky eye shadow with false lashes, and non-natural lip or hair colors. One of the interns we have this year wore a jacket and tank top that had pieces missing and showed the skin of her lower back and under her arms.
Get Ask a Boss delivered every week.
Our policy is to send someone home if they are not conforming to the dress code and can't change whatever it is that is breaking the code, and to escalate to write-ups and beyond if it happens several times. This is my first year as a manager and I have had to send several interns home for not following the code. I feel bad doing this because they are here to learn, but not dressing professionally could lead to them not being taken seriously once they start working after college. I figure it is better for them to find out now rather than once they're in post-college jobs. The dress code does state clearly that suits must be worn and employees must look professional, but I'm thinking that these interns are new to the working world and might not know what professional means, or they might have a different idea of it. How do I guide them without seeming condescending? How do I explain to them what is and is not professional? I don't want to make them self-conscious when I talk to them, or have them think that they are in trouble and I'm upset with them. How would you handle this if you were in my shoes?
Well, good for you for being willing to talk to them about it. Too often managers find talking about dress to be so awkward they don't bother doing it ... which then can indeed lead to people, especially people new to the work world, being taken less seriously and having no idea why.

I think at least part of the reason why these conversations feel hard is that they feel personal, like you're weighing in on someone's fashion sense. So keep in mind that you're not commenting on that at all: You're just talking about what works for this particular office.

There's also a piece of this where it can feel like you're policing women's dress in ways that come awfully close to policing their bodies. For example, bustier women are more likely to be told, "That shirt is too low-cut for this office," than their less curvy co-workers whose shirts have similar necklines. Of course, managers can't single-handedly change societal perceptions of this stuff, so that can leave them having to choose between playing right into those dynamics or not mentioning something that might truly impact how someone is perceived professionally.

Luckily, in your case it sounds like the issues are more straightforward than that. Visible underwear, sheer tops, and shirts with cutouts are pretty objectively unprofessional, which makes this easier to address.

So - how to talk about it? First and foremost, you can minimize the number of dress-code conversations you need to have by setting really clear expectations from the very start, when interns first start working for you. Don't just give them a copy of your employee handbook and mention that there's a dress code in there; that's not enough guidance. Most office dress codes assume a certain knowledge of professional dress is already in place, so they tend to talk in broad categories - like no shorts, no T-shirts, etc. That makes sense for experienced professionals, when it would actually be pretty condescending to spell out "no visible underwear." But for people who are brand new to the work world, broad categories can leave a ton of room for misinterpretation, which is why your interns may genuinely not know that cutout tops and visible underwear are issues.

So at the start of their internships, get really specific - as in, "In the past, some of the things we've seen interns wear that aren't work-appropriate are sheer shirts, anything that exposes your underwear, clothes with cutouts, and exposed shoulders." You can even find some photos online and use those to illustrate your points! People aren't born knowing what "professional" means, and ideally an internship is the time when they'll learn it. And yes, you might feel like you're being really remedial - but it's so much kinder to give them this guidance at the start than to wait for them to mess up before you clue them in.

You can make this easier on everyone by presenting it as a subject where it's completely normal for people to need guidance at the start of their careers. Frame the initial discussion with something like this: "This stuff can be tricky to figure out when you're new to working in an office and it might be very different from dress codes that you're used to before now, so I'm going to be very detailed about what is and isn't work-appropriate here." You could even add something like, "If you're not sure about a particular outfit or clothing item, please feel free to come talk to me. It might not always be intuitive, and you shouldn't feel weird about that."

Also, if your office truly expects button-downs every day, be very clear about that. Don't hope they'll figure it out by observing others; that's clearly not working, so do them the favor of letting them know from the start. (In fact, do them the favor of telling them before they start work, so they don't show up in the wrong thing on their first day.)

Doing this is going to cut way down on the number of conversations you have to have afterwards. But if at some point someone does show up dressed inappropriately, just be straightforward: "That's a great shirt but it's outside of our dress code. Can you save it for the weekend?" And if it's a pattern: "Your outfits haven't been quite professional enough for our office. I know this can be an adjustment when you first start working in an office. Can we go over the dress code again?"

You also might consider advocating for your company to rethink its policy about sending people home to change. Being sent home is a pretty humiliating consequence, especially for someone who's young and still learning these norms. Unless someone is dressed truly egregiously, a simple conversation is usually the better way to go.

Get Ask a Boss delivered every week.
Got something to Ask a Boss? Send your questions to askaboss@nymag.com.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Ask a Boss: The Interns Don't Know How to Dress Professionally!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I'm a new manager. Each year, the company I work for brings on college students as interns. One thing I have noticed is the lack of following the dress code and unprofessional outfits from the interns. Our industry is on the conservative side and wearing suits and button-downs is expected for everyone, from the receptionist right up the C-suite.