Level Up
ExploreAre you ready for the Fourth Industrial Revolution?
To remain competitive in a changing economy, workers are turning to universities and training programs to level up their skills. The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce has found repeatedly that a growing share of future U.S. professions will require a postsecondary degree. Of course, college degrees and other programs must be designed to meet the changing needs of our businesses, economy, and society.
These guides offer multiple academic and credentialing pathways to prepare for the in-demand careers of the future. They accommodate professionals of varying education levels, experience, and economic backgrounds, paying thought to online education and affordable, flexible alternatives.
Degree Programs
Degrees Without Borders: Online Pre-Veterinary Programs
Pre-vet programs can prepare graduates for various roles, including certified veterinary technicians (CVTs), veterinarians, laboratory technicians, fish and wildlife biologists, or zoologists.
Degrees Without Borders: Online Programs in Genetic Counseling
Genetic counseling is a unique medical specialty that combines the disciplinary fields of clinical healthcare, education, and psychology. Genetic counselors provide support beyond the borders of traditional medicine to individuals and families facing the risk of genetic and inherited health conditions and diagnoses.
Degrees Without Borders: Online Programs in Applied Statistics
Within the statistician field, several career and educational paths have evolved that focus especially on working well with Big Data. Some are in the area of data science, which generally deals with making sense of available information; and others focus on statistical analysis, which can involve creating the frameworks and parameters for effective qualitative and quantitative research, a field generally referred to as applied statistics. People with training in the latter area are in especially high demand.
Skill-Building Guides
Leveling Up: How to Build Prompt Engineering Skills
Though still an emerging field, prompt engineering allows everyday users to tap into the vast potential of artificial intelligence through carefully crafted instructions. The more detailed prompts are, the more customizable and useful the capabilities of large language models like ChatGPT can become.
Leveling Up: How to Build Skills in Communication
Clear, concise, and effective communication skills are the cornerstone of successful personal and business relationships. In professional contexts, strong communication skills enable us to share information accurately, foster healthy collaborations, and build trust with clients and colleagues.
Leveling Up: How to Build Medical Billing & Coding Skills
A skilled workforce that can nimbly work with information within the immense variety of healthcare sector settings will continue to be in demand for the foreseeable future. Professionals seeking to work in the medical coding and billing profession can enter the industry through several pathways.
Work from home
ExploreAre you a current or aspiring telecommuter? Want to work without borders?
The internet has liberated many traditional careers from the confines of the cubicle. Global Workplace Analytics (2023) found that allowing people to work from home provides compelling benefits for both employees and employers. GWA concluded that having the option to work remotely can improve employee satisfaction, reduce attrition and unscheduled absences, enhance productivity, save employers and employees money, create fresh employment opportunities, strengthen worker autonomy, improve performance measurements, reduce workplace discrimination, decrease traffic, and benefit the environment.
These resources for “open-collar” professionals examine the best places to work remotely; the growing WFH careers; companies with options to telecommute; and how to secure more flexible working arrangements with existing employers.
Wfh Career Guides
Remote Jobs for Those With Master's Degrees
Earning a master’s degree has become popular for students who want to set themselves apart. According to the US Census, in 2021, 23.5 percent of people over 25 in the US held a bachelor’s degree, while only 14.4 held an advanced degree such as a master’s or doctorate.
Remote Jobs for Those With Bachelor's Degrees
While finding full-time remote work straight out of undergraduate studies can be difficult, it is possible and can be very rewarding. Remote work offers many benefits, such as more flexibility and autonomy regarding job responsibilities and a better work/life balance overall. It also eliminates the need for a daily commute, saving money on transportation costs and increasing the number of free daily hours.
An Employer's Guide - What Workers Want in a Job-Seeker’s Market
The Great Resignation, also known as the Great Reshuffle or the Great Quit, is an ongoing workplace trend that has many economists, public policy experts, and management professionals puzzled.
Resources
How to Advance & Get Promoted While Working From Home
In the past five years, remote work has experienced unprecedented growth, significantly reshaping the workforce landscape. According to a report by FlexJobs, remote work has increased by 159 percent since 2009, with a notable acceleration following the Covid-19 pandemic as organizations adapted to new operational realities. This shift has not only expanded the scope of job opportunities for remote workers but also led companies to reevaluate their policies around flexible working arrangements, indicating that remote work is likely here to stay.
What Factors Influence a Work-From-Home Salary?
Being able to work remotely comes with many perks. While many employees may seek out remote work for the flexibility, lack of commute, or work-life balance, there is another significant benefit to working remotely: higher wages.
An Expert's Guide to The Post-Pandemic Hybrid Work Model
CBT Nuggets, a Eugene, Oregon-based IT company, has weathered the transition to hybrid work just like many other technology and software companies across the country. Along the way, they have learned what does and doesn’t work with work from home and listened to their employees' needs and wants. Keep reading to learn from their chief people officer and director of philanthropy, Shelly Galvin, on how they have used the hybrid work model to grow their company and improve staff satisfaction.
Become The boss
ExploreAre you a budding entrepreneur?
Business owners are integral to the growth of the U.S. economy, and ventures in some industries are more likely to succeed than others. The Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that healthcare and social assistance establishments have the highest survival rates, while construction companies don’t fare as well. Additionally, the Kauffman Foundation detailed three major trends shaping new business creation: 1) Entrepreneurs are still predominently white and male, demographics that are not reflective of the population; 2) It’s becoming more of an urban phenomenon, transcending traditional hubs such as the Silicon Valley; and 3) High earnings do not necessarily translate into more jobs, as emergent technologies allow companies to scale revenue without hiring more people.
Check out these resources for prospective business owners, including guides on MBA alternatives; how to pitch companies to investors; the hottest American towns for new companies; and degree programs for entrepreneurs.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP GUIDES
Awesome Towns for Entrepreneurs: A Spotlight on Bozeman, MT
Bozeman appeared on the business map in a big way in 2011, when RightNow Technologies, a local company with 1,100 employees, was acquired by Oracle for $1.5 billion. What followed was a new class of Bozeman entrepreneurs, bolstered by a new startup incubator and national recognition.
Awesome Towns for Entrepreneurs: A Spotlight on Athens, GA
With a small-town feel and plenty of heart, “the Classic City” is rooted in history while providing a thrilling place for new businesses to flourish. Ranked sixth in the nation for most jobs added (USA Today), Athens saw an increase of 4,632 jobs in 2017 alone.
Awesome U.S. Cities for Entrepreneurs: Spotlight on Boise, ID
In spite of its fame in tech circles, Idaho still has a national perception among some as nothing but a collection of remote, isolated frontier towns. But recent demographic information, especially Boise’s explosive growth, may tell a different story.
Resources
Women's Access to Venture Capital - What Female Founders Should Know
For founders of a modern startup, securing access to venture capital is an increasingly important step, one with potentially life-changing ramifications. But accessing venture capital is still harder to do as a female or non-binary founder, with conscious and unconscious biases in the VC community acting as potential obstacles.
How to Start a Business From Home (2022)
Data from the US Small Business Association (SBA) suggests that home-based businesses account for more than half of all businesses in the country (if businesses without employees are included). That share is likely to increase further in 2022, with the Covid-19 pandemic accelerating the shift of many workers into the virtual and non-office realms.
Negotiating For a Raise: Tips & Scripts From a Pro
For some, the thought of asking for a raise can produce levels of fear usually reserved for public speaking. Women, minorities, and younger professionals who have just earned their degrees may feel reticent to broach the subject, given the unconscious and conscious biases they are likely to face at the negotiation table.
Be Outdoors
Explore“Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.” (John Muir, Our National Parks)
Are you an outdoors enthusiast seeking liberation from your cubicle walls?
The health benefits of being out in nature are well-documented. New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation summarized the advantages of spending time in forests, which included boosting one’s immune system; lowering blood pressure; decreasing stress; enhancing mood; increasing one’s focus; heightening one’s energy level; improving sleep; and even augmenting creativity.
Explore career and education guides for high-growth careers in nature.
working parents
ExploreAre you a working parent overwhelmed with your career and family responsibilities?
With the rising costs of healthcare, education, and other basic needs, having a dual-income household is mandatory for most modern families. The Pew Research Center found that in 1970, only 31 percent of families with children had both parents working full-time. These days, nearly half of U.S. families are headed by two full-time workers. Fifty-six percent of working parents reported that striking a balance between their professional and family lives was difficult. Furthermore, the United States is the only industrialized nation without paid parental leave for new mothers and fathers, and the cost of child-care for two children exceeds the median rent in all 50 states. As PhD graduate Jen King described being a working parent in her UC Berkeley commencement speech: “It’s not just about leaning in, and leaning in, and leaning in, until you fall on your face...It requires restructuring the entire workplace, to allow for a range of opportunities for participation, for women and men, for birth parents and co-parents.”
Learn about various family-friendly careers; ways to advocate for more flexible work arrangements; and how to overcome the self-doubt, stress, guilt, and fatigue of being a working parent.
National Working Parents Day: Advocacy Guide
Celebrating National Working Parents Day can be an excellent time to recognize parents working hard professionally and at home. There are lots of ways to get involved with this day. A great place to start is simply by reaching out to any working parents you may know and offering them an encouraging text or post on social media acknowledging how hard they work.
Guide to Affordable Summer Camps
For most American children, summer marks a reprieve from books and tests. However, for many working parents, it epitomizes the widespread shortage of affordable childcare. There are a lot of local, private, and donor-funded programs designed to help families send their kids to day schools and summer camps at little to no cost.
Guide to Awesome Careers for Parents
The era of single-earner families is waning. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly two-thirds of married-couple families with children under 18 are dual-income homes, and if numbers over the last decade are any indication, the trend is unlikely to reverse any time soon.
Tips for Working From Home With Kids: A Parents' Guide
Working from home can seem like a dream come true. Standard work attire can include pajamas, there is no more commuting, and lunch and snacks are only as far away as the kitchen. However, this dream can quickly become a nightmare for working parents who have to juggle kids at home.
Five Companies with Cutting-Edge Support for Working Parents
The Department of Labor reports that 63 percent of families have both parents in the workforce. Not surprisingly, striking a balance between work and family life can be hard. However, there are some employers who are making it a priority to support their parent employees.
Online Education Syllabus & Resources for Kids During COVID-19
Through the uncertainty of school closures in the COVID-19 era, many parents like myself are struggling with their new role as teacher. With school closures likely to continue through the summer, parents and teachers worry that children will fall behind academically.
Features
ExploreBustedCubicle.com explores the disruption of traditional work environments through interviews, cross-cultural studies, and in-depth features.
Examining the WFH Backlash: Is a Return to the Office Inevitable?
The option to work from home any number of days per week has contributed to a marked rise in the number of women in the workforce. For the individual, flexibility, work-life balance, and reduced commute are all immediate benefits when working from home. The removal of those benefits would also be immediately felt in a return to the office, which is part of why working from home remains resoundingly favored by employees and middle managers.
Affordable, Comfortable, and Not Hideous: The Best WFH Attire
Gone are the days when formal suits, ties, and high heels dominated the office landscape. Instead, remote work has ushered in an era where comfort is preferred to formality, allowing for a more relaxed dress code that ranges from business casual to cozy athleisure.
How to Combat Remote Worker Loneliness and Isolation
For remote workers, loneliness can be exacerbated by the lack of face-to-face social interactions and the blurring of work-life boundaries. Often, remote workers may feel detached from their team's culture and camaraderie, adding to the sense of isolation.
Advocacy
ExploreWant to get involved in causes beyond your cubicle?
These informative pamphlets and petitions can help you shape beneficial policies regarding family leave, worker training, achieving a better work-life balance, engaging communities, and enacting other measures to promote a healthy labor force and society.