New Jobs Numbers – Mixed (But Good For Medical Field)

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In April, the U.S. economy added 244,000 jobs — the third straight month to see an average of over 200,000 new positions created, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  However, despite the growth in employment, there is real concern that the jobs being added to the economy are not the high-wage, “quality” jobs lost over the course of the brutal recession. That’s bad news if you’re a manufacturing factory worker or a homebuilder as those fields don’t show the resiliency reflected in the latest employment figures.  If you’re in the following career fields, professional and business services, health care and leisure and hospitality, the news is good.  Those fields were called out specifically by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as areas where job and wage growth shows continued strength.  Now’s a good time to be studying for a career in medical billing and coding.  Don’t you feel smart?

Multitasking Gone Too Far

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Okay gang.  As online students, you understand perhaps better than most, the value in being able to juggle more than one activity at a time.  After all, you couldn’t effectively watch your young children if you had to go to some campus to study.  Multitasking and online study definitely go hand in hand.  But as with everything in life, there needs to be limits.  There needs to be moderation.  This is why I think this new device – a nose stylus for operating touch screen phones/tablets while in the tub – is a bridge too far.  I mean really, if you cannot take 15 minutes out of your busy day to take a bath without electronic distraction, you really need to step back.  A break may be in order.  But, if you’re intrigued by the possibilities this new nosey device unlocks, here’s a link to more information on the new product.

Happy Birthday Day World Wide Web…

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You don’t think about it any more than you think about the numbers you dial into a telephone to make a call.  But the World Wide Web is the important protocol that enables the use of web browsers to navigate the internet.  Without the ubiquitous, “WWW” your web browser (Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, etc.) would be about as useless as a telephone without a phone number. It was exactly 15 years ago today that the Center for European Nuclear Research or CERN and granddad of the Internet, Tim Berners Lee, released the source code for the world wide web.  The rest, as they say, is history.  So happy birthday dear World Wide Web.  Just don’t try to stuff a piece of cake into your laptop while studying on line.

Ten Cover Letter Don’ts

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How to keep your resume and cover letter out of the wastebasket

Online job aggregator Monster.com’s Kim Isaacs developed this list of 10 common cover letter mistakes: Mistake No. 1: Overusing ‘I’ Mistake No. 2: Using a Weak Opening Mistake No. 3: Omitting Your Top Selling Points Mistake No. 4: Making It Too Long Mistake No. 5: Repeating Your Resume Word for Word Mistake No. 6: Being Vague Mistake No. 7: Forgetting to Customize Mistake No. 8: Ending on a Passive Note Mistake No. 9: Being Rude Mistake No. 10: Forgetting to Sign the Letter Click here to read the details behind each of these common errors and make your cover letters rock solid!

Don’t Stress!!!

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A new report circulating on the internet lists the top 10 most stressful jobs.  You’ll be glad to learn that only one of them is in the medical field, and that is “emergency medical technician”.  Reattaching someone’s severed arm on the side of the road after a motorcycle accident?  Stressful.  Also stressful?  Advertising Account Executive, Architect, Stockbroker, Emergency Medical, and Real Estate Agent. On the other hand, more than half of the top 10 LEAST stressful jobs in the report were in the medical field.  These included audiologist, dietician, dental hygienist, chiropractor, speech pathologist and occupational therapist.  Flossing someone’s teeth while listening to soft rock in a clean white environment?  Not so stressful.  Medical billing and coding did not make the list of either most or least stressful jobs.  But its good to know many of you will end up working in the offices of low-stress industries.

What’s Inside Your Favorite Easter Candies?

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Ok, so I am a “Peeps” person.  How about you?  One needn’t be religious at all to enjoy the plethora of yummy Easter treats that line store shelves each spring.  Jelly beans, creme eggs, marshmallow eggs, solid milk chocolate bunnies, pale-tinted malted milk robin’s eggs, gghghgh… Anyway, here’s a neat look at the things (some downright strange) used to create these springtime goodies.  You are what you eat right?  Anyway, happy Easter, happy Passover and happy Spring (for the neo-pagans among you).

Doing a Career U-Turn

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If you’re considering ditching your old career in favor of a new one in an exciting field like medical billing and coding, you may be wondering if it is the right thing to do.  With the employment picture being difficult to say the least, it can seem like a daunting challenge and one that you might consider holding off on.  However, there is never a better time than the present to make a life change and change can be fraught with challenges in any environment.  At the Geek Mom blog, Julia Sherred discusses her thoughts on mid-course career corrections.  Read her post and then share your thoughts and feelings on this topic in the comments below.

Backup! The Data You Save May Be Your Own

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As online students, you cannot fall back on the old “the dog ate my homework” excuse if you fail to turn your assignments in on time.  After all, your dog may have a hard time swallowing your laptop or digesting the hard drive in your desktop.  However, the modern day equivalent of this old chestnut could be characterized as “the computer ate my homework”.  This is actually something that can indeed happen.  Hardware failures and other computer glitches can result in lost data.  So what can a dedicated online student do to protect him/herself from losing the term paper to the Blue Screen of Death? Geeks to the rescue!   The boys and girls at my favorite geek site, Wired.com, have created an excellent Do It Yourself piece, detailing how you can protect your data by devising a good backup strategy.  Visit here to learn tips and tricks for backing up your important school work (to say nothing of your important pictures, MP3s and anything else of value in your machine).

Spring Rebirth?

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The Federal Reserve announced that the US economy improved in every region this Spring.  Despite the continued rise in fuel prices, the growth is a welcome event.  For those still seeking employment, the hiring numbers, while still grim, are showing modest improvements as well.  According to the Fed report, ” Consumer spending picked up modestly in most of the Fed’s 12 regions, despite the higher gasoline prices. Shoppers, however, focused on necessities and lower-priced goods. Auto sales rose and tourism also strengthened in most areas. Factories boosted production across most of the Fed’s regions, and many manufacturers increased hiring.” For those in the healthcare field, the news is even better with healthcare continuing to be among the fields least effected by economic fluctuations.  Hiring is expected to remain strong in healthcare relative to the rest of the market.

Top 10 Spingtime Superfoods

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One of the best parts about Springtime is anticipating the return of greater varieties of fresh produce in the Northeast.  All winter long, we survive on produce either in cold storage since Fall or fruits and veggies weeks old and flown in from more southern latitudes. Here’s a great list of the top 10 superfoods for Springtime: 1. Artichokes 2. Asparagus 3. Avocado 4. Blueberries 5. Fava Beans 6. Fresh Figs 7. Leeks 8. Oregano (and other fresh herbs) 9. Spinach 10. Strawberries To read more on why each of these are considered superfoods, click here for the Yahoo! article.