FACTS AND FINDS
More internships, more job offers
More students than ever are participating in internships and co-op before they graduate from college, according to a report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). In 2013 over 63 percent of graduating college seniors had worked as either a paid or unpaid intern. That’s well above the previous high of 57 percent in 2008.
A second report from NACE indicates that internships also pay off in more job offers and higher salaries after graduation. Slightly more than 63 percent of students who performed paid internship receive job offers after graduation, compared to 37 percent of paid interns and 35.2 percent of those with no internship experience.
Source: “Class of 2013: Majority of Seniors Participated in Internships or Co-ops”
Class of 2013: Paid Interns Outpace Unpaid Peers in Job Offers, Salaries www.naceweb.org
The buzz of creativity
If creativity had a soundtrack, what would it be? One study suggests that it probably the busy hum of activity, neither too loud nor too quiet. A 2012 study found that subjects ask to perform a creative task generated more and better ideas when sound levels were around 70 decibels, similar to the buzz of café or restaurant. In contrast, quieter conditions, more like a library, produced fewer creative solutions and louder conditions, more like a busy city street, also inhibited creativity.
Says lead researcher Ravi Mehta, professor of business administration at the University of Illinois, “An increased level of distraction makes you think ‘out-of-the-box’ – what we call abstract thinking or abstract processing, which is a hallmark of increased creativity.”
He adds, “But when you start to go beyond that moderate level of noise what happens is that distraction becomes so huge that it really starts affecting the thought process.”
Source: “Too much, too little noise turns off consumers, creativity,” news.illinois. edu
Manufacturing is dead, long live manufacturing
“Insourcing” is the new word in manufacturing, and for the first time in over a decade the number of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. is actually increasing. No one is predicting a return to the heyday of assembly line jobs but some manufacturers, especially those of expensive-to-ship heavy equipment and furniture are building facilities and adding jobs in the U.S. Most of the new manufacturing jobs are for skilled workers with two-year and four-year degrees who work in high-tech facilities. James Manyika, a specialist in global high tech and director for McKinsey Global Institute, told Time magazine, “Manufacturing is coming back, but it’s evolving into a very different type of animal than the one most people recognize today.”
Source: “Made in the U.S.A” April 22, 2013 time.com
Choose your career adventure
Chances are your future career is something you’ve never even heard of before. In fact 65 percent of school-aged children today will work in jobs that currently don’t exist. So how do you prepare for that? One answer is to choose an education that provides you with flexible, adaptable skills. Another answer is to learn about new jobs trends and ask questions of the people currently working in them. That’s what TEDed Click Your Fortune is all about.
The short videos allow viewers to “meet” people in unusual careers, such as a sustainability expert, a documentary filmmaker, and an executive coach. In a sort of “choose your own adventure” format each person will answer a handful of questions about themselves and their jobs.
Find Click Your Fortune at ed.ted.com/series/click-your-fortune