When Kaleigh Quinn decided to enrol in grad school last year, it wasn't because she had fallen in love with the ivory towers of academia.
If anything, her decision to pursue her master's in education immediately after completing her bachelor's degree last May has increased her time spent in the working world.
On top of a full course load, Quinn often works 50 hours a week at four jobs to pay for her education.
"The bachelor's (degree) certainly made me employable," says Quinn, studying English-as-a-second-language program development at the University of Manitoba. "But a master's degree will make me more eligible for a wider diversity of positions."
Quinn's timing likely couldn't be better. By the time she graduates in 2011, Canada's economy should be purring along, economists predict.
After one of the worst recessions in modern history, and in the midst of a jobless recovery where corporations have shed jobs to return to profitability, many former university graduates may be considering returning to school to beef up their future job prospects.
But even before the recession, graduate-student enrolment had been on the rise. A Statistics Canada report last year found graduate-student enrolment in Canada increased 31 per cent between 2002 and 2008.
It's a figure that's not at all surprising to Liz Gonzalves, working on a master's degree in molecular epidemiology at the U of M.
"As I was coming to the end of my undergrad, I was doing a part-time job in a lab, and I was afraid that I was going to be stuck there, because a lot of people that I worked with in the lab had been there a long time," says the 33-year-old. "In my field, if you don't at least have a master's, you don't have any qualifications."
Once Gonzalves completes her degree in 2011, however, her school days won't be over just yet. "Ultimately, I'm going to continue on to law school after this," she says. "I'm looking at trying to create a job for myself in the Canadian government with regards to bioethics and biotechnology."
According to economic forecasts on labour-force demand in the next decade, Gonzalves has the right idea.
Economist Diana Petramala, who prepares job forecasts for TD Economics in Toronto, says the more education you have, the better your job prospects will be.
"If you want to find a good-paying, full-time job, they're hard to come by unless you do have higher education," Petramala says. "All the manufacturing and low-skill jobs are giving way to service-sector jobs."
The shift in labour demand, however, is not a new development.
"If you look at manufacturing, it's fallen significantly over the last decade," she says. "Certain services have been picking up the slack -- professionals, scientific and technical services."
Petramala says Canada's job growth will largely be driven by domestic growth in the next few years. In particular, the health sciences and services sector will show tremendous growth.
"We have an aging population that will require a large amount of health-care resources."
The expected wave of retirement among boomers, which was delayed because of the downturn, will also leave a vacuum of highly skilled labour jobs that need to be filled, especially when it comes to management positions, she says.
In the meantime, however, the skilled workers of the future need to find the financial means to pay for their education today.
And post-secondary education doesn't come cheaply, particularly graduate studies, says Dave Ablett, director of tax and retirement planning at Investors Group.
Ideally, Canadians should be saving years in advance to pay for post-secondary education, using Registered Education Savings Plans, to which the government will contribute grant monies. But people considering going back to graduate school to increase their employability because of lacklustre job prospects often do not readily have funding in place.
"If you're looking at somebody who has been in the workforce for seven or eight years, one source of funding they can use is their RRSP through the Lifelong Learning Plan, which allows you to make a tax-free withdrawal from your RRSP for either yourself or your spouse to pursue education," Ablett says.
Individuals can draw up to $10,000 a year from their own RRSP or a spouse's during a four-year period, to a maximum of $20,000.
After completing school, they have up to 10 years to replace the money.
"You are not required to pay back any of it to your RRSP, but if you don't, you are required to declare it as income," Ablett says. "For some people, if they weren't able to find employment after completing their degree, they may choose to deliberately not make that payment, because then they would, in effect, not pay tax on that amount if it's all they had to report as income."
In many cases, however, $20,000 may not be enough to cover the cost of graduate school and additional funding is required.
"If you're looking at an MBA program, you're probably looking in the range of $40,000 to $50,000," he says.
Ablett says individuals with a spouse who is working or who have significant savings themselves, often do not qualify for funding such as student loans. In those circumstances, they should consider accessing other savings they might have built up while employed, such as a tax-free savings account or a home-equity loan.
Despite the cost of additional years of graduate education, Ablett says it's often worth it in the long run.
"One of the things that people should consider is the average income of a person with one degree is about $58,700, whereas the average income of somebody with a graduate degree is just over $69,000," he says.
"So in the short run, you are sacrificing current income, but it could be that you will be generating extra income in your later years once you have obtained that graduate degree."
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Does a poor economy equal higher grad-student enrolment?
At the University of Manitoba, graduate studies enrolment is down this school year compared to last year, says Trish Kelley, vice-president internal with the University of Manitoba Graduate Students' Association. She says it wasn't a significant decrease and likely doesn't represent a trend. Kelley says when she began working on her doctorate in environmental science in 2006 during a strong economy, she heard then it was an ideal time to be in graduate school. "When I started graduate school, everyone was telling us it would be ideal conditions for a job when I graduated because everyone would have been retiring, and now it's not the case," she says. "I'm little bit more anxious about my job prospects because people are staying at their jobs longer because they lost so much out of their retirement plans."
When it comes to grants and scholarships, start now
U of M graduate student Kaleigh Quinn says don't delay in applying for funding for graduate school. "If you want to be funded while you're in school, whenever you put your application in, start looking for funding the same day," she says. Tuition and other related costs run at about $4,500 a year for most graduate studies programs, says Kelley. Unlike undergrads, graduate students have not seen any increases in their tuition at the U of M, she says. But scholarships are harder to come by since the economic downturn as corporations have cut back on their educational support programs. Still, some graduate students, particularly those getting PhDs, might get funding from organizations with a vested interest in the results of their research. "It's not just 'I got good grades and got a scholarship,'" says Kelley, who studies whale feeding and mating habits in the Arctic.
"Especially in my field, where I'm required to be away for parts of the summer, it does help to have funding because of the amount of time you need to devote to your work."
Israeli unveils tank-defense system of the future, by By JOSEF FEDERMAN
Associated Press Writer Josef Federman, Associated Press Writer – Fri Apr 2, 4:20 am ET
HAIFA, Israel – On a dusty, wind-swept field overlooking the Mediterranean, a small team of researchers is putting the final touches on what Israel says is a major game changer in tank defense: a miniature anti-missile system that detects incoming projectiles and shoots them down before they reach the armored vehicles.
If successful, the "Trophy" system could radically alter the balance of power if the country goes to war again against Hezbollah guerrillas in neighboring Lebanon or Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. Its performance could also have much wider implications as American troops and their Western allies battle insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I think people will be watching the Israelis roll this thing out and see if they can get the hang of it," said John Pike, director of the military information Web site GlobalSecurity.org in Alexandria, Virginia. "The future of the United States army is riding on the proposition that something like this can work."
The Trophy is believed to be the first of a series of so-called "active defense" systems to become operational. Such systems aim to neutralize threats before they strike the tank. In the past, tanks have relied on increasingly thick layers of armor or "reactive" technology that weakens an incoming rocket upon impact by setting off a small explosion.
Israeli weapons maker Rafael, the developer of the Trophy, says the system has been in the works for years, but the bitter experience of Israel's 2006 war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon gave the project an extra push.
Developers say the Trophy can stop any anti-tank rocket in the formidable Hezbollah arsenal, which struck dozens of Israeli tanks and killed at least 19 Israeli tank crewmen during their monthlong war.
"We can cope with any threat in our neighborhood, and more," said Gil, the Trophy's program manager at Rafael. Citing security considerations, the company would not permit publication of his last name.
Israeli analyst Yiftah Shapir said it is premature to tell whether the Trophy can make a major difference, however. He said the army must cope with the high costs of the system and determine exactly how it will be used.
"When everyone knows that it works properly, it will change the battlefield," he said.
Israeli media have said the cost is about $200,000 per tank. Rafael refused to divulge the price of the system, saying only that it's a "small fraction" of the cost of a tank.
Gil and his small team of scientists conduct tests at a site in the outer reaches of Rafael's sprawling headquarters in northern Israel — firing rocket-propelled grenades, Sager rockets, and TOW and Cornet missiles at a lone tank set up in front of a massive fortified wall. The results are analyzed in a concrete hut loaded with laptops and flat-screen monitors.
The tiny Trophy system, lodged behind small rectangular plates on both sides of the tank, uses radar to detect the incoming projectiles and fires a small charge to intercept them, said Gil.
After firing, the system quickly reloads. The entire process is automated, holds fire if the rocket is going to miss the tank, and causes such a small explosion that the chances of unintentionally hurting friendly soldiers through collateral damage is only 1 percent, the company says.
Pike, the military analyst, said systems like the Trophy are considered the way of the future for ground warfare. The technology is a key component of the U.S. "Future Combat System," the master plan for the American military, he said. The U.S. and Russia are developing similar systems.
If the technology works, he said it will reduce the need for heavy armor on tanks — resulting in lighter vehicles that are easier to transport and deploy and are more nimble on the battlefield. But, he noted, "it's a lot easier to get it to work on a test range than it is to get it to work on a battlefield."
Lova Drori, Rafael's executive vice president for marketing, said "there is a lot of interest" internationally in the Trophy and he expects "quite a few customers" in the coming years.
Rafael officials said the Trophy has passed more than 700 live tests, and already has been installed in some Israeli Merkava 4 tanks in a pilot project.
In a statement, the army said "dozens of tanks should be outfitted with the new system" by the end of the year, adding that Trophy contributes to "maintaining a strategic advantage over enemy forces."
More than three years later, the 2006 war continues to shake Israel's defense establishment. Upward of 1,000 Lebanese were killed in the fighting, according to tallies by the Lebanese government, humanitarian groups and The Associated Press. In all, 159 Israelis were killed. The war ended in a stalemate and is largely viewed in Israel as a defeat.
The Trophy is the latest in a series of new systems. State-owned Israel Military Industries is producing "Iron Fist," an anti-missile defense that is expected to be installed on Israeli armored personnel carriers next year.
That system takes a different approach from Trophy, first using jamming technology that can make the missile veer off course, and if that fails, creating a "shock wave" to blow it up, said Eyal Ben-Haim, vice president of the company's land-system division.
State-run Rafael is also developing "Iron Dome," which can shoot down the short-range Katyusha rockets that rained down on Israel in 2006, as well as Hamas rockets fired from the Gaza Strip. Iron Dome is expected to be deployed by this summer near Gaza.
The Israeli air force recently unveiled a squadron of unmanned airplanes capable of reaching Iran, the key backer of Hezbollah and Hamas militants.
Rafael has also developed an unmanned naval boat called the Protector, which it says is already prowling the waters off the Gaza coast. The Israeli navy confirmed the Protector is being tested, but gave no further details.
HAIFA, Israel – On a dusty, wind-swept field overlooking the Mediterranean, a small team of researchers is putting the final touches on what Israel says is a major game changer in tank defense: a miniature anti-missile system that detects incoming projectiles and shoots them down before they reach the armored vehicles.
If successful, the "Trophy" system could radically alter the balance of power if the country goes to war again against Hezbollah guerrillas in neighboring Lebanon or Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. Its performance could also have much wider implications as American troops and their Western allies battle insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I think people will be watching the Israelis roll this thing out and see if they can get the hang of it," said John Pike, director of the military information Web site GlobalSecurity.org in Alexandria, Virginia. "The future of the United States army is riding on the proposition that something like this can work."
The Trophy is believed to be the first of a series of so-called "active defense" systems to become operational. Such systems aim to neutralize threats before they strike the tank. In the past, tanks have relied on increasingly thick layers of armor or "reactive" technology that weakens an incoming rocket upon impact by setting off a small explosion.
Israeli weapons maker Rafael, the developer of the Trophy, says the system has been in the works for years, but the bitter experience of Israel's 2006 war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon gave the project an extra push.
Developers say the Trophy can stop any anti-tank rocket in the formidable Hezbollah arsenal, which struck dozens of Israeli tanks and killed at least 19 Israeli tank crewmen during their monthlong war.
"We can cope with any threat in our neighborhood, and more," said Gil, the Trophy's program manager at Rafael. Citing security considerations, the company would not permit publication of his last name.
Israeli analyst Yiftah Shapir said it is premature to tell whether the Trophy can make a major difference, however. He said the army must cope with the high costs of the system and determine exactly how it will be used.
"When everyone knows that it works properly, it will change the battlefield," he said.
Israeli media have said the cost is about $200,000 per tank. Rafael refused to divulge the price of the system, saying only that it's a "small fraction" of the cost of a tank.
Gil and his small team of scientists conduct tests at a site in the outer reaches of Rafael's sprawling headquarters in northern Israel — firing rocket-propelled grenades, Sager rockets, and TOW and Cornet missiles at a lone tank set up in front of a massive fortified wall. The results are analyzed in a concrete hut loaded with laptops and flat-screen monitors.
The tiny Trophy system, lodged behind small rectangular plates on both sides of the tank, uses radar to detect the incoming projectiles and fires a small charge to intercept them, said Gil.
After firing, the system quickly reloads. The entire process is automated, holds fire if the rocket is going to miss the tank, and causes such a small explosion that the chances of unintentionally hurting friendly soldiers through collateral damage is only 1 percent, the company says.
Pike, the military analyst, said systems like the Trophy are considered the way of the future for ground warfare. The technology is a key component of the U.S. "Future Combat System," the master plan for the American military, he said. The U.S. and Russia are developing similar systems.
If the technology works, he said it will reduce the need for heavy armor on tanks — resulting in lighter vehicles that are easier to transport and deploy and are more nimble on the battlefield. But, he noted, "it's a lot easier to get it to work on a test range than it is to get it to work on a battlefield."
Lova Drori, Rafael's executive vice president for marketing, said "there is a lot of interest" internationally in the Trophy and he expects "quite a few customers" in the coming years.
Rafael officials said the Trophy has passed more than 700 live tests, and already has been installed in some Israeli Merkava 4 tanks in a pilot project.
In a statement, the army said "dozens of tanks should be outfitted with the new system" by the end of the year, adding that Trophy contributes to "maintaining a strategic advantage over enemy forces."
More than three years later, the 2006 war continues to shake Israel's defense establishment. Upward of 1,000 Lebanese were killed in the fighting, according to tallies by the Lebanese government, humanitarian groups and The Associated Press. In all, 159 Israelis were killed. The war ended in a stalemate and is largely viewed in Israel as a defeat.
The Trophy is the latest in a series of new systems. State-owned Israel Military Industries is producing "Iron Fist," an anti-missile defense that is expected to be installed on Israeli armored personnel carriers next year.
That system takes a different approach from Trophy, first using jamming technology that can make the missile veer off course, and if that fails, creating a "shock wave" to blow it up, said Eyal Ben-Haim, vice president of the company's land-system division.
State-run Rafael is also developing "Iron Dome," which can shoot down the short-range Katyusha rockets that rained down on Israel in 2006, as well as Hamas rockets fired from the Gaza Strip. Iron Dome is expected to be deployed by this summer near Gaza.
The Israeli air force recently unveiled a squadron of unmanned airplanes capable of reaching Iran, the key backer of Hezbollah and Hamas militants.
Rafael has also developed an unmanned naval boat called the Protector, which it says is already prowling the waters off the Gaza coast. The Israeli navy confirmed the Protector is being tested, but gave no further details.
With MBA Value in Doubt, B-Schools Pursue New Deans, By Louis Lavelle and Geoff Gloeckler
Kellogg just named a new dean, while Chicago and Harvard are still looking. All three leaders will face difficult challenges
In the next few months there'll be a rare confluence of change at the pinnacle of management education. The two top business schools in Bloomberg BusinessWeek's biennial ranking of full-time MBA programs—the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Harvard Business School—will lose their deans to a rival and retirement, respectively. Their replacements, as yet unknown, will have a huge role in determining how thousands of future business leaders get educated. That is, if they get educated.
This changing of the guard comes at a moment when the utility of a business school education increasingly is being called into question. The financial crisis has made it difficult for graduates from even top schools to find jobs. At No. 1-ranked Chicago, 13.5% of 2009 graduates were jobless three months after graduation, a more than fivefold increase over 2007. Endowments, having sustained their worst losses since the Great Depression, are so battered that even storied Harvard has been forced to lay off 16 HBS staffers. And with so many alums working on Wall Street, top B-schools are under attack from critics who blame the financial meltdown on MBAs—an acronym that author Philip Delves Broughton considers shorthand for "Masters of the Business Apocalypse."
It's this transformed world that the new leaders at Chicago and Harvard are expected to inherit this summer. One institution, No. 3-ranked Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, has already taken the first steps. On Tuesday, it announced that Sally Blount of New York University's Stern School of Business will replace interim dean Sunil Chopra, assuming the position vacated by Dipak Jain.
The choice speaks volumes about where Kellogg sees its future. At NYU, where Blount is dean of the undergraduate college and vice-dean at Stern, she is known as a skilled fund-raiser and a curriculum innovator with a global bent. Under her guidance, NYU started two new global degree options that require students to spend several semesters abroad. "The fundamentals haven't changed," Blount says of the challenges she will face at Kellogg. "The bigger changes are more global, and making sure that people know how to be 'boundary-spanners'—across geographies, ethnicities, and disciplines."
Deans at top B-schools are expected to be fund-raisers, construction foremen, consensus builders, talent poachers, publicists, foreign emissaries, and visionaries-in-chief. It's not an easy gig to fill in the best of times, especially for the top three schools, whose leaders are under a microscope. "They're very influential over the rest of the 12,000 business schools in the world," says John J. Fernandes, CEO of AACSB International, which accredits B-schools worldwide. "It's like being appointed head of a G7 country."
Business schools may need fresh blood to tackle the problems they face, but new deans are almost always academic lifers, not corporate kingpins. One reason, says Glen Urban, dean emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management, is that even top schools can't afford the best corporate talent. And such "nontraditional" candidates often simply aren't equipped to deal with tenured faculty, who frequently are resistant to change. "There's always the analogy of herding cats around a baseball diamond in the rain," Urban says. "You might think you're in control more than you actually are."
At Chicago, outgoing Dean Edward Snyder was particularly adept at fund-raising: He scored the biggest B-school gift ever, a $300 million whopper from alumnus David Booth. He also expanded Booth's international footprint and retained its roster of star faculty, including several Nobel Prize winners. Still, the school got hammered by the economy last year, with its job placement rate at graduation falling 16 percentage points, to 79%; its endowment posted a 23% loss, to $389 million.
Those mentioned as possible successors—according to alumni, faculty, and student leaders—include two Booth deputy deans, Mark E. Zmijewski and Stacey Kole, and Associate Professor Hasell H. McClellan of Boston College's Carroll School of Management. Zmijewski says he's not a candidate, Kole declined to comment, and McClellan, reached by telephone, said he has not been contacted by anyone from the search committee. "This is the first I heard of it," he says.
Harvard, being Harvard, is taking a big-picture approach to its dean search. At the HBS 2008 centennial, outgoing Dean Jay O. Light spoke about the importance of experiential learning and keeping the curriculum relevant and focused on leadership skills. His remarks were a road map of the challenges his successor, and all B-school deans, soon will face. The names that have surfaced in connection with the search are all Harvard insiders. Joseph L. Badaracco is a senior associate dean and chair of the MBA program, Nitin Nohria is a business professor, and Srikant M. Datar is a senior associate dean. Badaracco and Nohria declined to comment; Datar did not return calls.
Whoever it is, says HBS Alumni Board President Ann Kelly, the new dean should have strong leadership skills and a deep understanding of HBS. "We want someone who can be visionary, but not so visionary that you undo all of the good things that have been done in the past," Kelly says. Maybe so, but with their collective past under attack, B-schools might want to consider a radical idea: a clean break.
Lavelle is an associate editor at BusinessWeek. Gloeckler is a staff editor for BusinessWeek in New York.
In the next few months there'll be a rare confluence of change at the pinnacle of management education. The two top business schools in Bloomberg BusinessWeek's biennial ranking of full-time MBA programs—the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Harvard Business School—will lose their deans to a rival and retirement, respectively. Their replacements, as yet unknown, will have a huge role in determining how thousands of future business leaders get educated. That is, if they get educated.
This changing of the guard comes at a moment when the utility of a business school education increasingly is being called into question. The financial crisis has made it difficult for graduates from even top schools to find jobs. At No. 1-ranked Chicago, 13.5% of 2009 graduates were jobless three months after graduation, a more than fivefold increase over 2007. Endowments, having sustained their worst losses since the Great Depression, are so battered that even storied Harvard has been forced to lay off 16 HBS staffers. And with so many alums working on Wall Street, top B-schools are under attack from critics who blame the financial meltdown on MBAs—an acronym that author Philip Delves Broughton considers shorthand for "Masters of the Business Apocalypse."
It's this transformed world that the new leaders at Chicago and Harvard are expected to inherit this summer. One institution, No. 3-ranked Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, has already taken the first steps. On Tuesday, it announced that Sally Blount of New York University's Stern School of Business will replace interim dean Sunil Chopra, assuming the position vacated by Dipak Jain.
The choice speaks volumes about where Kellogg sees its future. At NYU, where Blount is dean of the undergraduate college and vice-dean at Stern, she is known as a skilled fund-raiser and a curriculum innovator with a global bent. Under her guidance, NYU started two new global degree options that require students to spend several semesters abroad. "The fundamentals haven't changed," Blount says of the challenges she will face at Kellogg. "The bigger changes are more global, and making sure that people know how to be 'boundary-spanners'—across geographies, ethnicities, and disciplines."
Deans at top B-schools are expected to be fund-raisers, construction foremen, consensus builders, talent poachers, publicists, foreign emissaries, and visionaries-in-chief. It's not an easy gig to fill in the best of times, especially for the top three schools, whose leaders are under a microscope. "They're very influential over the rest of the 12,000 business schools in the world," says John J. Fernandes, CEO of AACSB International, which accredits B-schools worldwide. "It's like being appointed head of a G7 country."
Business schools may need fresh blood to tackle the problems they face, but new deans are almost always academic lifers, not corporate kingpins. One reason, says Glen Urban, dean emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management, is that even top schools can't afford the best corporate talent. And such "nontraditional" candidates often simply aren't equipped to deal with tenured faculty, who frequently are resistant to change. "There's always the analogy of herding cats around a baseball diamond in the rain," Urban says. "You might think you're in control more than you actually are."
At Chicago, outgoing Dean Edward Snyder was particularly adept at fund-raising: He scored the biggest B-school gift ever, a $300 million whopper from alumnus David Booth. He also expanded Booth's international footprint and retained its roster of star faculty, including several Nobel Prize winners. Still, the school got hammered by the economy last year, with its job placement rate at graduation falling 16 percentage points, to 79%; its endowment posted a 23% loss, to $389 million.
Those mentioned as possible successors—according to alumni, faculty, and student leaders—include two Booth deputy deans, Mark E. Zmijewski and Stacey Kole, and Associate Professor Hasell H. McClellan of Boston College's Carroll School of Management. Zmijewski says he's not a candidate, Kole declined to comment, and McClellan, reached by telephone, said he has not been contacted by anyone from the search committee. "This is the first I heard of it," he says.
Harvard, being Harvard, is taking a big-picture approach to its dean search. At the HBS 2008 centennial, outgoing Dean Jay O. Light spoke about the importance of experiential learning and keeping the curriculum relevant and focused on leadership skills. His remarks were a road map of the challenges his successor, and all B-school deans, soon will face. The names that have surfaced in connection with the search are all Harvard insiders. Joseph L. Badaracco is a senior associate dean and chair of the MBA program, Nitin Nohria is a business professor, and Srikant M. Datar is a senior associate dean. Badaracco and Nohria declined to comment; Datar did not return calls.
Whoever it is, says HBS Alumni Board President Ann Kelly, the new dean should have strong leadership skills and a deep understanding of HBS. "We want someone who can be visionary, but not so visionary that you undo all of the good things that have been done in the past," Kelly says. Maybe so, but with their collective past under attack, B-schools might want to consider a radical idea: a clean break.
Lavelle is an associate editor at BusinessWeek. Gloeckler is a staff editor for BusinessWeek in New York.
MBA Mows Grass To Make Ends Meet
As part of our Bearing Witness 2.0 project, the Huffington Post is rounding up local stories of formerly middle-class families who are now struggling to stay afloat. If you or someone you know has a story to tell, please e-mail me at LBassett@huffingtonpost.com.
When Frank Harris completed his MBA degree in May of 2005, he never expected to end up mowing grass for a living. But after losing his $103,000-a-year upper management job at Lowe's, just as the job market was crashing in December 2008, he didn't see many other options.
"I thought the MBA would differentiate me from anyone else," said Harris, who lives with his wife and two children in Lafayette, Louisiana. "I thought if times got tough, I'd be able to find a job or have an advantage to get out the retail industry. Every weekend, every holiday, it was a rougher life than I wanted to have. I wanted to be able to spend more time with my young family. But here we are, December would be two years down the road, and the only thing I've been able to do is continue to grow my little one-man grass cutting business."
Harris says he currently has 36 customers and counting, which, combined with his wife's teacher salary, is enough to pay the bills and take care of their kids. But he works long, odd hours, and his job stability is often dependent on the weather and the season.
"I work part-time in the mornings for a packaging company and make a little money there, particularly through the fall when there isn't as much grass to cut. Thank God for the time change, because now I can work until dark at least. Then I get home, take a shower, plop down in front of the computer and fill out as many job applications as I can."
Harris' wife Angela, who stayed home to raise the kids when he was making enough money to support them both, has gone back to work as a special education teacher to supplement his income and provide the family with health benefits. She also teaches in an after-school program and works as an occasional server and bartender for a friend's catering company. The Harrises now have six jobs between them, compared to the one Frank had before.
"I am completely exhausted, physically and emotionally," Angela said. "Frank is doing the best he can to be the provider of our family, but he has his emotional ups and downs to deal with too. It is extremely hard to remain positive when you are an experienced and proven man with an MBA and you can't even get an interview."
Frank, who now makes about $45,000 a year mowing grass, says he doesn't mind the job itself -- his clients have been very respectful to him, and one of them even helped him overhaul his resumé. The hardest part about his job, he says, is not having as much time for his kids.
"That's been the biggest change, the difficult part. My daughter Hayley had a dance recital and I wasn't able to go. We needed the work, the money. In the past I had a little flexibility to take a long lunch to see the recital, but I can't do that anymore. At least she understands it better than my son -- Hayden is four, and every time he sees me putting on my jeans, he's like, 'Daddy, are you leaving again?' It pulls at my heart strings a little. But we have to do what we have to do."
Angela Harris says the hardships they have endured have only made their marriage stronger.
"I encourage Frank daily, as he is working very hard to earn a living for us, even if he is not utilizing that expensive college education or all those years of hard work climbing the corporate ladder. He comes home extremely tired, scraped, burned, bruised, and sore, seven days a week. I can't see how beat up his heart and pride are, but I know he has had some pretty low days that only God could have gotten him through. Our marriage suffered at first, but it is now stronger than ever as we have learned to rely on each other, understand each other and accept each other for our individual strengths and weaknesses."
Frank Harris remains positive as well, despite all the lifestyle changes he and his wife have had to adjust to. "I'm just fortunate in the fact that I can still physically do this and tolerate the heat and have the skill set to do handyman stuff that will pay the bills," he said. "I know I won't be able to do it forever."
When Frank Harris completed his MBA degree in May of 2005, he never expected to end up mowing grass for a living. But after losing his $103,000-a-year upper management job at Lowe's, just as the job market was crashing in December 2008, he didn't see many other options.
"I thought the MBA would differentiate me from anyone else," said Harris, who lives with his wife and two children in Lafayette, Louisiana. "I thought if times got tough, I'd be able to find a job or have an advantage to get out the retail industry. Every weekend, every holiday, it was a rougher life than I wanted to have. I wanted to be able to spend more time with my young family. But here we are, December would be two years down the road, and the only thing I've been able to do is continue to grow my little one-man grass cutting business."
Harris says he currently has 36 customers and counting, which, combined with his wife's teacher salary, is enough to pay the bills and take care of their kids. But he works long, odd hours, and his job stability is often dependent on the weather and the season.
"I work part-time in the mornings for a packaging company and make a little money there, particularly through the fall when there isn't as much grass to cut. Thank God for the time change, because now I can work until dark at least. Then I get home, take a shower, plop down in front of the computer and fill out as many job applications as I can."
Harris' wife Angela, who stayed home to raise the kids when he was making enough money to support them both, has gone back to work as a special education teacher to supplement his income and provide the family with health benefits. She also teaches in an after-school program and works as an occasional server and bartender for a friend's catering company. The Harrises now have six jobs between them, compared to the one Frank had before.
"I am completely exhausted, physically and emotionally," Angela said. "Frank is doing the best he can to be the provider of our family, but he has his emotional ups and downs to deal with too. It is extremely hard to remain positive when you are an experienced and proven man with an MBA and you can't even get an interview."
Frank, who now makes about $45,000 a year mowing grass, says he doesn't mind the job itself -- his clients have been very respectful to him, and one of them even helped him overhaul his resumé. The hardest part about his job, he says, is not having as much time for his kids.
"That's been the biggest change, the difficult part. My daughter Hayley had a dance recital and I wasn't able to go. We needed the work, the money. In the past I had a little flexibility to take a long lunch to see the recital, but I can't do that anymore. At least she understands it better than my son -- Hayden is four, and every time he sees me putting on my jeans, he's like, 'Daddy, are you leaving again?' It pulls at my heart strings a little. But we have to do what we have to do."
Angela Harris says the hardships they have endured have only made their marriage stronger.
"I encourage Frank daily, as he is working very hard to earn a living for us, even if he is not utilizing that expensive college education or all those years of hard work climbing the corporate ladder. He comes home extremely tired, scraped, burned, bruised, and sore, seven days a week. I can't see how beat up his heart and pride are, but I know he has had some pretty low days that only God could have gotten him through. Our marriage suffered at first, but it is now stronger than ever as we have learned to rely on each other, understand each other and accept each other for our individual strengths and weaknesses."
Frank Harris remains positive as well, despite all the lifestyle changes he and his wife have had to adjust to. "I'm just fortunate in the fact that I can still physically do this and tolerate the heat and have the skill set to do handyman stuff that will pay the bills," he said. "I know I won't be able to do it forever."
Alternatives to getting your MBA, By BRUCE WALSH
Is it right for you?
Ideal MBA candidates are:
Students just two to three years removed from their undergraduate business degrees, with a confident passion for the particulars of business administration.
Students in their 30s and 40s who have reached a plateau in their chosen fields and wish to deepen their administrative skills.
According to the Business School Journal, 69 percent of MBA programs nation-wide are vastly changing their curriculums, and 25 percent are adding deeper specialization to the degree. The word is out: Many students now find the MBA degree too broad for the current business climate.
“Each discipline now has its own ‘coin of the realm,’ so in public relations they might value a Master of Communication. That’s a more powerful signal than the MBA in that field,” says Karen Boroff, dean of Seaton Hall University’s Stillman School of Business. “For instance, we have found that in health care, the Master of Public Administration or the Master of Health Care Administration was the stronger degree.”
When considering, a question to ask yourself is: Is my passion in administration? Will I wind up managing people who are doing work I want to do? “The MBA has grown in popularity over the years, due to pretty advanced marketing, frankly,” says Kate Klepper, dean of graduate programs at Northeastern University. “The MBA is really a general business degree. You get a bit of everything.”
Ideal MBA candidates are:
Students just two to three years removed from their undergraduate business degrees, with a confident passion for the particulars of business administration.
Students in their 30s and 40s who have reached a plateau in their chosen fields and wish to deepen their administrative skills.
According to the Business School Journal, 69 percent of MBA programs nation-wide are vastly changing their curriculums, and 25 percent are adding deeper specialization to the degree. The word is out: Many students now find the MBA degree too broad for the current business climate.
“Each discipline now has its own ‘coin of the realm,’ so in public relations they might value a Master of Communication. That’s a more powerful signal than the MBA in that field,” says Karen Boroff, dean of Seaton Hall University’s Stillman School of Business. “For instance, we have found that in health care, the Master of Public Administration or the Master of Health Care Administration was the stronger degree.”
When considering, a question to ask yourself is: Is my passion in administration? Will I wind up managing people who are doing work I want to do? “The MBA has grown in popularity over the years, due to pretty advanced marketing, frankly,” says Kate Klepper, dean of graduate programs at Northeastern University. “The MBA is really a general business degree. You get a bit of everything.”
Hiring tighter for MBA, law-school students
By Darrell Smith
New MBA graduate Nelson Chiu said it's tough to compete with the laid-off who have the same degree plus years of experience.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Nelson Chiu shook hands with the PepsiCo representative, exchanged a few brief words and received a parting "good luck."
He was dressed in a crisp, pinstripe suit on a recent Wednesday, and his voice was starting to fade; he'd been at a career fair at the University of California-Davis since 11 a.m., had talked to more than a dozen companies, and it was nearly 2 p.m. on the afternoon of his daughter's first birthday.
For Chiu, who earned his MBA in 2009 from UC-Davis' Graduate School of Management, a solid lead would have been a great gift.
For years, someone like Chiu with a newly minted degree from a top-flight business or law school had the closest thing to a golden ticket for a high-paying job. But the recession has brought graduates - many of them staggering under mountains of student-loan debt - face to face with a new economic reality.
For most of the past decade, markets for both groups of grads were humming: 10 percent to 20percent growth per year for MBA graduates, according to the nonprofit Graduate Management Admission Council; a 10-year stretch of near-90 percent job placement for law grads, the National Association for Law Placement reported.
But those days seem like ancient history.
"The biggest challenge is the people who've been laid off with the same degree and with a lot more experience," said Chiu, 31. "There are too many applicants and not enough career opportunities right now."
Companies that hired, on average, 12 MBAs in 2008 hired fewer than six in 2009, the Graduate Management Admission Council reported.
Nearly 80 percent of employers scaled back on-campus recruiting of MBAs in fall 2009, and nearly half reported a decline in full-time MBA job postings, according to the MBA Career Services Council, which tracks MBA hiring.
James Leipold, executive director of the National Association for Law Placement, had two words to describe the market for law school grads: "It tanked," he said. "The pipeline is clogged up."
A student-recruiting survey released this month by the association was not encouraging.
Second-year law students received far fewer offers of summer internships - the traditional gateway to a firm - in 2009 than in 2008. Law firms cut back sharply on recruiting. Grads who received offers were often told the job wouldn't start for months.
"For the class of 2009, the largest impact was the deferral phenomenon," Leipold said. Some grads still await their start dates.
Much like their business clients, law firms are fretting about overhead as they mind the bottom line.
"There's a fear of overhiring and, with the downturn, law firms aren't investing until they need people," said Jeff Koewler, managing partner at Downey Brand, Sacramento's largest law firm.
Downey Brand continues to extend job offers to its summer associates - second-year students accepted into the firm's internship program - including all 11 from 2008, who started in fall 2009.
But in 2009, just eight were offered positions to start in fall 2010. This year, seven or eight will enter the summer program with a chance for a job with the firm in fall 2011.
For anxious and jobless graduates saddled with debt, the timing couldn't be worse.
Law-school students borrow an average of more than $80,000 for a private school and more than $54,000 for a public school, according to the National Association for Law Placement.
Despite the tough market, law and business schools are seeing more, not less, interest.
Two-thirds of MBA programs said they received more admission applications in 2009 than in 2008, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council, which administers the Graduate Management Admission Test.
New MBA graduate Nelson Chiu said it's tough to compete with the laid-off who have the same degree plus years of experience.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Nelson Chiu shook hands with the PepsiCo representative, exchanged a few brief words and received a parting "good luck."
He was dressed in a crisp, pinstripe suit on a recent Wednesday, and his voice was starting to fade; he'd been at a career fair at the University of California-Davis since 11 a.m., had talked to more than a dozen companies, and it was nearly 2 p.m. on the afternoon of his daughter's first birthday.
For Chiu, who earned his MBA in 2009 from UC-Davis' Graduate School of Management, a solid lead would have been a great gift.
For years, someone like Chiu with a newly minted degree from a top-flight business or law school had the closest thing to a golden ticket for a high-paying job. But the recession has brought graduates - many of them staggering under mountains of student-loan debt - face to face with a new economic reality.
For most of the past decade, markets for both groups of grads were humming: 10 percent to 20percent growth per year for MBA graduates, according to the nonprofit Graduate Management Admission Council; a 10-year stretch of near-90 percent job placement for law grads, the National Association for Law Placement reported.
But those days seem like ancient history.
"The biggest challenge is the people who've been laid off with the same degree and with a lot more experience," said Chiu, 31. "There are too many applicants and not enough career opportunities right now."
Companies that hired, on average, 12 MBAs in 2008 hired fewer than six in 2009, the Graduate Management Admission Council reported.
Nearly 80 percent of employers scaled back on-campus recruiting of MBAs in fall 2009, and nearly half reported a decline in full-time MBA job postings, according to the MBA Career Services Council, which tracks MBA hiring.
James Leipold, executive director of the National Association for Law Placement, had two words to describe the market for law school grads: "It tanked," he said. "The pipeline is clogged up."
A student-recruiting survey released this month by the association was not encouraging.
Second-year law students received far fewer offers of summer internships - the traditional gateway to a firm - in 2009 than in 2008. Law firms cut back sharply on recruiting. Grads who received offers were often told the job wouldn't start for months.
"For the class of 2009, the largest impact was the deferral phenomenon," Leipold said. Some grads still await their start dates.
Much like their business clients, law firms are fretting about overhead as they mind the bottom line.
"There's a fear of overhiring and, with the downturn, law firms aren't investing until they need people," said Jeff Koewler, managing partner at Downey Brand, Sacramento's largest law firm.
Downey Brand continues to extend job offers to its summer associates - second-year students accepted into the firm's internship program - including all 11 from 2008, who started in fall 2009.
But in 2009, just eight were offered positions to start in fall 2010. This year, seven or eight will enter the summer program with a chance for a job with the firm in fall 2011.
For anxious and jobless graduates saddled with debt, the timing couldn't be worse.
Law-school students borrow an average of more than $80,000 for a private school and more than $54,000 for a public school, according to the National Association for Law Placement.
Despite the tough market, law and business schools are seeing more, not less, interest.
Two-thirds of MBA programs said they received more admission applications in 2009 than in 2008, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council, which administers the Graduate Management Admission Test.
Finding A Job Is Hard For Even The Most Educated : By Yuki Noguchi
Getting a degree in down times can be a liability for some who can't find jobs and have massive loans.
The conventional wisdom that getting a degree helps your career is not quite panning out for Shana Berenzweig.
The 33-year-old quit her job at the Texas Medical Association to get a master's in public administration at New York University. She worked part time, graduated nearly two years ago and moved back to Austin, Texas. So far, she hasn't been able to find a job.
A Rarified Elite
"It's very scary to be in this position," says Berenzweig, who is trying to make payments on her six-figure school loans with some assistance from her parents and by cobbling together babysitting gigs.
Berenzweig's education puts her in the rarefied elite among job seekers. The unemployment rate for college graduates is 5 percent, which is less than half of the 10.5 percent rate for high school grads. But now she sometimes considers that degree she paid so dearly for a liability, at least when it comes to some jobs. She takes it off her resume when applying for waitress jobs.
"It's almost like people are just going to assume that because I have a master's degree, I'm going to ask for money," she says. "Or if something better comes along, I'm just going to jump ship."
With the unemployment rate at 9.7 percent, sustained unemployment is afflicting even some of the most educated. Some fled to graduate school recently as a temporary safe haven from the economy, only to find themselves still without jobs. Many are applying for low-paying or nonpaying internships to try to fill in gaps in their resumes.
A lot of people who are qualified for more higher level jobs are settling for more entry positions, and so that's a roadblock for new graduates.
- Blair Coward, an American University senior
New Graduates At A Disadvantage
American University senior Blair Coward visited several employer booths at a recent job fair. She has a couple of summer internships lined up, but is finding that few employers have any full-time, entry-level jobs open.
"A lot of people who are qualified for more higher level jobs are settling for more entry positions, and so that's a roadblock for new graduates," Coward says.
In August, Coward, who will graduate magna cum laude with a degree in international economic relations, will not only be unemployed, she'll lose her housing. "I'm quite terrified," she says.
Instead of standing in line alongside her, many of her classmates are opting for more schooling, Coward says.
Higher education comes, of course, with many benefits. Some degrees are still in demand and command high salaries, especially engineering.
Still, today's economy will force many graduates to settle, says John Irons, policy director at the Economic Policy Institute. Young people who start their careers in a bad economy tend to accept jobs at lower wages, and that leaves them at a disadvantage with their salary for about a decade, he says.
The scarring has another effect — in the same way that people who lived through the Great Depression might hoard food, people affected by this Great Recession might feel less willing to leave their jobs. They might stay in jobs that aren't a great fit.
Recent and soon-to-be college grads attended a jobs fair at American University.
Enlarge Yuki Noguchi/NPR
Recent and soon-to-be college grads attended a jobs fair at American University. With the unemployment rate at 9.7 percent, sustained unemployment is afflicting even some of the most educated.
Recent and soon-to-be college grads attended a jobs fair at American University.
Yuki Noguchi/NPR
Recent and soon-to-be college grads attended a jobs fair at American University. With the unemployment rate at 9.7 percent, sustained unemployment is afflicting even some of the most educated.
"I think the recession in a way is pretty traumatic," says Max Caldwell, managing principal for Towers Watson, an HR consulting firm. The healthy response, he says, is for graduates to start managing their own career development, and rely less on employers to provide training and advancement.
Is More School The Right Choice?
Matt Jones wishes he had a career to manage. Right now, he'd take a job even if it didn't make use of his new law degree.
Jones graduated from Michigan State University's law school two years ago and has not been able to find work outside of AmeriCorps, where he worked for several months. He has the financial and emotional support of his family, his fiancee and her family, but he still thinks "many times a day" about how and when he might find a job.
Jones says he's cut back on as many expenses as he could. And he thinks the austerity has also made him a more spiritual person. "That's been a nice source of comfort," he says. "But it hasn't gotten any easier."
"There's been a lot of soul searching, especially in the last six months," he says. "Did I make the right decision going to law school?"
The conventional wisdom that getting a degree helps your career is not quite panning out for Shana Berenzweig.
The 33-year-old quit her job at the Texas Medical Association to get a master's in public administration at New York University. She worked part time, graduated nearly two years ago and moved back to Austin, Texas. So far, she hasn't been able to find a job.
A Rarified Elite
"It's very scary to be in this position," says Berenzweig, who is trying to make payments on her six-figure school loans with some assistance from her parents and by cobbling together babysitting gigs.
Berenzweig's education puts her in the rarefied elite among job seekers. The unemployment rate for college graduates is 5 percent, which is less than half of the 10.5 percent rate for high school grads. But now she sometimes considers that degree she paid so dearly for a liability, at least when it comes to some jobs. She takes it off her resume when applying for waitress jobs.
"It's almost like people are just going to assume that because I have a master's degree, I'm going to ask for money," she says. "Or if something better comes along, I'm just going to jump ship."
With the unemployment rate at 9.7 percent, sustained unemployment is afflicting even some of the most educated. Some fled to graduate school recently as a temporary safe haven from the economy, only to find themselves still without jobs. Many are applying for low-paying or nonpaying internships to try to fill in gaps in their resumes.
A lot of people who are qualified for more higher level jobs are settling for more entry positions, and so that's a roadblock for new graduates.
- Blair Coward, an American University senior
New Graduates At A Disadvantage
American University senior Blair Coward visited several employer booths at a recent job fair. She has a couple of summer internships lined up, but is finding that few employers have any full-time, entry-level jobs open.
"A lot of people who are qualified for more higher level jobs are settling for more entry positions, and so that's a roadblock for new graduates," Coward says.
In August, Coward, who will graduate magna cum laude with a degree in international economic relations, will not only be unemployed, she'll lose her housing. "I'm quite terrified," she says.
Instead of standing in line alongside her, many of her classmates are opting for more schooling, Coward says.
Higher education comes, of course, with many benefits. Some degrees are still in demand and command high salaries, especially engineering.
Still, today's economy will force many graduates to settle, says John Irons, policy director at the Economic Policy Institute. Young people who start their careers in a bad economy tend to accept jobs at lower wages, and that leaves them at a disadvantage with their salary for about a decade, he says.
The scarring has another effect — in the same way that people who lived through the Great Depression might hoard food, people affected by this Great Recession might feel less willing to leave their jobs. They might stay in jobs that aren't a great fit.
Recent and soon-to-be college grads attended a jobs fair at American University.
Enlarge Yuki Noguchi/NPR
Recent and soon-to-be college grads attended a jobs fair at American University. With the unemployment rate at 9.7 percent, sustained unemployment is afflicting even some of the most educated.
Recent and soon-to-be college grads attended a jobs fair at American University.
Yuki Noguchi/NPR
Recent and soon-to-be college grads attended a jobs fair at American University. With the unemployment rate at 9.7 percent, sustained unemployment is afflicting even some of the most educated.
"I think the recession in a way is pretty traumatic," says Max Caldwell, managing principal for Towers Watson, an HR consulting firm. The healthy response, he says, is for graduates to start managing their own career development, and rely less on employers to provide training and advancement.
Is More School The Right Choice?
Matt Jones wishes he had a career to manage. Right now, he'd take a job even if it didn't make use of his new law degree.
Jones graduated from Michigan State University's law school two years ago and has not been able to find work outside of AmeriCorps, where he worked for several months. He has the financial and emotional support of his family, his fiancee and her family, but he still thinks "many times a day" about how and when he might find a job.
Jones says he's cut back on as many expenses as he could. And he thinks the austerity has also made him a more spiritual person. "That's been a nice source of comfort," he says. "But it hasn't gotten any easier."
"There's been a lot of soul searching, especially in the last six months," he says. "Did I make the right decision going to law school?"
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