In an effort to escape from the ever present bad news that seems to be the cornerstone of our current civilization I have spent much time recently watching old movies, and reading good books.

The desire that I feel to escape to a “happier time” is understandable, after all, we are living in an unstable world, where no one knows what the next shoe that will drop will be. Oddly enough, instead of turning to fantasy or other such genres I find greater comfort in books that mimic reality, reading about the extremes of what could be possible, but thankfully what has not yet occurred.

One such book is “Death Wave” by Stephen Kahn. This book provides an excellent analysis into much of what is currently happening in our world – in terms of the financial crisis.

From the book cover:

“In the midst of a financial crisis one man must save the world with the aid of a maniacal serial killer, his dead hamster, and a homeless bum named “Troll”.

Stewart is a young man trying to keep it together during the worst financial crisis since the great depression. The corrupt politics and corporate scandals…”

If you want to read more about this book, or listen to free excerpts from the audio book, please go to http://www.kafilmworks.com/deathwave/contents

By David Replogle, University of Virginia

Like the national census or a good Bruce Willis movie, a recession hits the United States about every 10 years or so. It doesn’t take a math major to see it’s been nearly that long since the burst of the dot-com bubble, and now, the collapse of mortgage-backed security has brought Wall Street — and the rest of the economy — to its knees again. As for college students? Well, we’re just crossing our fingers that four years is enough time for the job market to rebound.

Luckily, the U.S. financial system seems to be on the upswing. “By the end of the year, things should be looking better,” says Laurence Shatkin, author of The 150 Best Recession-Proof Jobs. But Shatkin warns that a recovery would not necessarily signal a return in jobs. “They are the last thing to recover in a recession; businesses are going to wait until the last minute to stop using temporary hires. It will easily be over a year until this country starts seeing an increase in job openings.” Here, we relay the crème de la crème of careers so you can declare a major now that will set you up for success later.

What to Pursue
Health care Even in dire straits, people need certain services. Shatkin cites the health care industry, which pays well and continues a growth pattern as the field most adept at staying afloat during a financial downturn. Careers in the medical realm — physicians, surgeons, pharmacists, health service managers — round out No. 6 through No. 10 on Shatkin’s list of 150 recession-proof jobs.
Major in: biomedical sciences, biology, chemistry. Plan on being pre-med.

Information technology High tech is an industry with heavy growth — recession or no recession. With the Internet getting bigger by the millisecond, the stakes for finding a job in the technological world are up. The market does, however, face competition from outsourcing, since labor abroad is cheaper.
Major in: computer science, mathematics, computer engineering, electrical engineering. No lit majors here.

Government Shatkin is quick to point out that careers in government don’t have to be defined by bureaucratic paper pushing and yards of red tape. “Careers like school administrators and law enforcement officers fall under the government’s sphere,” he says. Government positions have had better protection against layoffs, which means more job security.
Major in: public policy, history, politics. Law school is another path to take if you’re looking to snag a spot working for the Feds.

Green jobs An important, budding movement is the green sector — especially green energy. Organizations are looking for enthusiastic college grads to jump on board. Plus, the current presidential administration wants to transform energy needs into a self-sustaining machine anchored by clean and renewable power.
Major in: environmental science, civil engineering, environmental engineering. Although, there are opportunities for activists, advertisers and writers to get involved too, since the field is relatively new and malleable.

Education The good news is that there’s still a very high demand for teachers. The bad news is that schools get funding from local taxes, so when this revenue dries up, so does money toward teachers’ salaries. Making big bucks is almost out of the question.
Major in: various topics in education, from math to P.E.

What to Avoid
Journalism While Shatkin says several journalists still maintain great jobs in various trades, from padding the blogosphere to entertainment reporting, the field faces an uphill battle against two formidable opponents: bankruptcy and the Internet. Shatkin, himself a writer, claims the trick is to find a good niche: “I write about careers now, and I love what I do.”

Entertainment “The field has always been fiercely competitive,” Shatkin says. He points out that many who can’t make it in other jobs resort to packing up and moving to Hollywood, betting on a slight chance of making it big. Now that the masses have less money to spend on entertainment, the industry has lost some of its sheen.

Finance Careers in finance have been hit harder than most. “It was oversold for a very long time, and now it’s hurting,” says Shatkin. He describes the nature of finance as extremely cutthroat. Many financial companies value experience, which puts recent college graduates at an immediate disadvantage. And since many former employees in the financial realm were laid off and are now looking for work, the competition is stiff.

Staying Smart
In the eight months since Shatkin’s book was published, the situation has gotten worse. “When I wrote the book, there was only the likelihood of a recession,” he says. “You never know you’re in a recession until you’re knee-deep. Nowadays, it’s harder to find a job, investments have lost value and layoffs are increasing. People’s retirements are at stake.”

Shatkin’s advice to freshmen? Get a well-rounded education. “We need people in liberal arts who understand science and math, and engineers and scientists who can write,” he says. By pursuing different subjects, students discover skills or talents they never knew they had. “You become more versatile and learn about yourself. Don’t limit it to schoolwork. Pursue out-of-class activities on campus as well.”

So perhaps it’s time to switch your major from economics to environmental science or from journalism to education. Make a smart move now and you might score a true recession-proof job later.

This blog post was copied from realcollegeguide.com

Remember as you were growing up your parents inundating you with the idea that to be successful you have to go to college? It was good advice on its own, but guess what? Everyone else’s parents were telling them the same thing.

The ugly truth is that a college education and a Bachelor’s degree is to our day what a high school degree was to kids fifty or sixty years ago. It’s so commonplace to have a B.A. or a B.S. that it doesn’t really set you apart from anyone else in the job market anymore. And it’s no revelation that the quality of collegiate education isn’t what it was back in the days when it meant something to go to college.

So what do you do to set yourself apart from the rest, especially with these challenging economic times and the highest unemployment rate in roughly forty years? As a recent graduate and one facing the grim prospects for the job market in the near future, there are a couple of things I would recommend to current and prospective college students.

First, internships. Though they may be required at certain schools and in certain programs, internships are an invaluable thing to have on one’s résumé regardless. Studying abroad is great if you have the opportunity, but it doesn’t impress as much as an internship. An internship shows employers that you are able to translate classroom learning to workplace skills. A (hopefully) successful internship demonstrates that you have real world experience and relieves worries that they’d have to train you from the start. You may learn how to use a specific software or system that is crucial in your industry, or you may gain management or administrative experience. If you’re lucky, some internships may even become actual job offers upon graduation. At the very least you will meet people and gain networking opportunities.

Speaking of which, the second thing to pursue is networking. This has become something of a hype word, but the hype doesn’t reduce its importance. Networking, or meeting people and making connections, is the most vital thing one can do as a student and as a professional. It has been said that around only 30% of job opportunities are advertised in classifieds or on job sites, while the other 70% are acquired through direct referrals. These statistics may not be completely accurate, but what is accurate is the fact that more people get jobs through contacts in the company or organization they are applying to than through cold applying and hoping for an interview. Networking is a skill that is developed and can’t be learned overnight. I know from experience how intimidating it can be to face a room full of established, successful people and find the courage to approach them. But if you can overcome your fear and master this skill it will become the most essential tool in your belt.

Lastly, learning a marketable skill will always distinguish you from the sea of applicants. Are you a business student? Learn a foreign language. Art? Learn web-based graphics. Whatever industry or sector your studies are taking you, if you take the time to learn the skills that are required and valued in your line of work you show employers that you bring to the table abilities and knowledge that you can use from day one.

Don’t neglect the classroom, but know that academic success won’t necessarily get you everywhere you wish to be. Augment classroom studies with real world experience, networking and a marketable skill and you will be sure to impress on interview day.

Lately, as the economy continues to decline I have seen more and more of this, my friends, and friends of friends, and pretty much everyone else I went to college with who managed to get a job post graduation are now facing layoffs.  These are all people with a graduate education, but given that the economy is loosing half a million jobs a month, and last hired makes you the first to get laid off recent grads (within 2 years of graduation) are being hit hard.  The bright side in all this is that having a college education still makes you far less likely to be unemployed (unless of course you are in the finance, or real estate industry). The reality is, and this is something that has surprised me, a number of my friends who have gotten laid off managed to find new jobs within a few weeks, and a few even got a raise!  And what’s more, some sectors seem to be far less susceptible to the downturn we are having, and a few sectors such as parts of IT, online development, e-commerce are still expanding and are still hiring. So there is some cause to be optimistic!

So the question you might ask is, what is there to do for the rest of us? What can one do if they just graduated from college and have no experience, or what can a person who just lost a job in an industry facing a severe downturn do? The answer is simple! Well OK, not simple, and not easy, but few things worth doing in life really are…

This is probably the best time in many years to start a business, to be an entrepreneur, to follow your dreams, to build or create something new.  Some of the bluest of the blue chip companies we know today were founded during the Great depression, (Boeing being one). Others, such as Coca-Cola took advantage of the depression to codify their brand in the minds of Americans.  What is more, the current recession seems to have significant other advantages for those of us looking to start a business, one being that the barrier to entry, to many businesses has disappeared.  Years ago, if I wanted to start a newspaper I would need significant resources, today I can start a blog for free. If I wanted to produce documentaries, I had to have a studio; today I can do it with a digital camera and youtube. If I wanted to teach anything I had to have some type of resources to get started- today I can use my webcam to create lectures on any subject, from philosophy, and teaching Chinese, to quantum physics, and I can promote these lectures through video sharing sites and my blog, once there is a following for my lectures I can institute a small fee for the more advanced lectures (while continuing to provide the beginners lectures for free).  I can open up a store, or sell widgets online for very little, if any start up cost, and given that we are all looking for ways to save money more and more of us are turning to the internet to purchase our widgets.  The possibilities are really endless, restricted only by your interests, and your creativity.

The point I am trying to make is that there is more than one way to look at this recession, one way is to look at it as years lost, another is to look at it as an opportunity to make a name for yourself, or to grow a business, and this way when we come out of this recession you will be in a stronger position.

This is great advice for students and those with few responsibilities, and I understand that for many of us we need to have money to pay for the kids’ new clothes, and for the mortgage. So to those of us out there with responsibilities, my advice is this, continue networking, continue looking for a job, sending resumes… but instead of doing that for 8 hours a day, do it for 6 hours and spend the other 2 hours on some of the other ideas that you might have.

There are perhaps very few positive things about a recession, people lose jobs, and life is more difficult in general.  The one positive thing is that during a recession the “used” market tends to expand as people are looking to save money.  This is especially a truism when it comes to textbooks.  Although I am sure that the prices of new textbooks will continue to increase (though perhaps not as much), there will be, and already is, an increase in the amount of quality used books/textbooks on the market.  As people look for ways to cut back and save money, they also look for things that they can sell to make a little extra money, and books are a quick and easy thing to sell.  This trend of increased used books creates downward pressure on the overall prices of books, causing average prices of used books to drop significantly, which is, again, fantastic for those shopping for that used textbooks.

My single word of advice, relevant in the current market more than ever, is to shop around, and compare prices. Bargain shopping does not make you cheap, it makes you smart; going to your college bookstore and paying full price, when you can get the same book online cheaper makes you stupid. It pains me to say this as I can recall times when I purchased my textbooks in the school bookstore.  But those were different times, and at the time I wasn’t very savvy. Do not make the same mistakes I did! Buy online or buy local, but buy at the lowest possible price.