Negotiating Salary In Tough Economic Times

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You’re a certified medical billing and coding professional in a field that is predicted to continue to grow.  Yet unemployment is still near historic highs and there are more applicants than jobs available, even in high growth fields.  So, it is not a good time to ask for a higher starting salary (or a raise if you’re already employed) right?  Wrong!  Good help, as the old saying goes, is hard to find.  Employers are always happy to have quality, highly trained people working hard for their organizations.  Knowing how to negotiate salary can help you earn what you’re worth even in tough times.  Michael Chaffers at Monster.com writes this list of Top Ten Tips for Salary Negotiations.  Read it and arm yourself with the knowledge needed to get what you’re worth as an Allen School Online graduate!

The Modern Resumè What’s “In” and What’s “Out”

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The ongoing unemployment problem in the US has effected many changes in  the way Human Resources departments deal with hiring.  With 6 applicants for every single available job, the dynamics of how an applicant gets noticed have changed.  In fact, much of what was once the conventional wisdom with regard to resumè writing has been turned upside down.  So US News has prepared a list of the top 10 most outdated resumè strategies and practices.  The top 5 are: 1. You must use a land line for a phone interview. 2. Your resumè can only be one page.” 3. Every job has to go on your resumè to present a complete account of your professional history. 4. Include “references available upon request” on the bottom of your resumè. 5. Include an objective at the top of your resumè. To read the details of the thinking behind these tips and for the rest of the top 10, visit this excellent article from US News.

Keep Computers Cool Online Students

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You’d be pretty hard up if your computer died cutting you off from the ability to study online.  Well, with 100,000,000 Americans – a full third of the US population – experiencing the broiling effects of a huge heat wave, you should take some steps to protect your link to the online classroom.  Just like humans and pets, the computer too is vulnerable to breakdown brought on by excessive heat. Symptoms of Overheating – Turning off on its own – Not wanting to boot up after it turns off – Freezing – Blue Screen – Is hot to the touch – Loud fan running – Frequent memory errors Here is a great list of steps you should take to protect your machines during periods of extended heat.  Oh, yeah and also, drink plenty of fluids and make sure that the young, elderly and pets do too!  Wouldn’t want anything to happen to them either!

Best Hospitals of 2011-12

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US News and World Report has released its list of the top hospitals for 2011-12.  This is interesting as it shows where some of the most sought after jobs might be for Allen School Online graduates.  The rankings include hospitals in 15 states so there’s lots of choices if you’re seeking to move to a specific area to begin your new career.  View the list here.

Friday Cocktails Edition

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Image source: http://www.foodrecipesworld.com

OK, its a hot Summer Friday.  And this blogger has to admit to writing this post from the beach where he enjoys an idyllic summer day with his family.  Being here in the sun (and playing hooky on a Friday) I am thinking it may be time for a refreshing, tropical-style, Summertime cocktail.  You know the kind: Pina Colada, Singapore Sling, MaiTai.  Mmmmmmm.  So in the spirit of TGIF and Summer, I offer the following list of Tiki Cocktails and their recipes as I am sure Allen School Online students will be glad to join me in a little refreshment.  Pick one.  Mix it up.  Then raise it in a TGIF salute!

Why They Don’t Call You Back

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Taking your new medical billing and coding certificate out to look for a job is exciting.  You comb over listings, find positions, send cover letters and get interviews.  But then something curious happens.  You go home and wait for a call from the interviewer which never comes.  Ever wonder why sometimes you get the silent treatment from a prospective employer?  There are a number of surprising reasons why you may not get called back.  The good news is that most of the reasons why are not mystical.  In fact, if you’re aware of the most commonly occurring mistakes, you can avoid them altogether and improve your call-back ratio. Yahoo! Hot Jobs’s Larry Buhl put together a list of the Top Six Reasons They Didn’t Call You Back.  Read the list and take to heart the message so you can become a more effective interview subject and land that dream job.

How Much Would I Earn in Miami?

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Medical Coding Bell CurveOnce you have earned a certification in medical billing and coding, you have the ability to find a good job in many different parts of the country.  Some markets pay more than others.  Some markets have a high cost of living while others do not.   Knowing what you can expect to earn in this field (in any given zip code) can really help you decide where you want to go to ply your new trade.  To determine how much you could earn in any town in the USA, I recommend the salary wizard at www.salary.com where you enter in your job title and zip code where you’d like to work to find out what the earning potential is there.

Netizens, Protect Yourself From Clickjacking!

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OK Allen School Online students.  You’re online a good portion of the day every day right?  You know your way around the Internet and likely spend alot of time using social media to stay in touch.  But beware the latest threat to cyber living: clickjacking.  Clickjacking is defined in this excellent Wired online article thusly: “Clickjacking, put simply, is when a button, image, video, or some form of embedded content on a website is overlaid by an invisible layer that sits on top of the site underneath it. For instance, you may see a page with a movie embedded on it. You want to watch the movie, so you click on the play button. You don’t think twice about it — you’ve done it a million times. Meanwhile, a hacker has superimposed an invisible web page over the movie. It just so happens that a button allowing access to your camera and microphone has been placed over the movie’s play button. Now, when you think you’re playing the movie, you’re actually permitting the hacker to access your video camera and microphone.” Read the rest of the article to learn how to avoid being taken by clickjackers.

Noticeably Absent

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Noticeably absent from this depressing article about the disappearance of middle class jobs was any mention of declining numbers of available careers in medical fields.  The middle class squeeze, as we all know, has hit hard at industries like manufacturing where thousands of jobs in factories and assembly lines have been sent overseas to “low cost labor markets”  like China and India or automated with robotics and other technologies.  But this article showed the top five hardest hit career fields outside of manufacturing.  They were: Travel Agents Five-year decline: 14% Vocational Education Middle School Teachers Five-year decline: 14.4% Broadcast News Analysts Five-year decline: 15.9% Agricultural Engineers Five-year decline: 18.4% Transit and Rail Police Five-year decline: 18.7% Notice what was (thankfully) not included in this sad list?  If you said, “medical industry jobs”, give yourself a prize!