Education And Training

By ALEXANDRA LEVIT

Heading into downtown Chicago on a recent morning, there were a lot fewer cars on the highway. It was a mandatory, unpaid furlough day for city-government workers, also known as a “reduced service day.” As part of Chicago’s effort to decrease its budget deficit by $8.3 million without layoffs, the city has instituted three furlough days in which most government facilities will be closed.

Courtesy Alexandra Levit

Alexandra Levit

Furloughs have infiltrated the corporate ranks too. According to a Hewitt Associates survey of executives at 518 U.S.-based companies, 70% had implemented or were considering implementing furloughs. Furloughs have become increasingly common because they allow employers to retain top talent through the current economic crisis and avoid costly rehiring and retraining when the storm abates.

Be Positive

Danny Kofte, a 33-year-old special-education teacher in Hoschton, Ga., found himself required to take three furlough days this school year. “I will miss around $100 a day, so deducted throughout the year, I will lose around $25 per month,” says Mr. Kofte. “But I’m OK with it. I know people who have been laid off, so even though I’m not happy about having to take these days off without pay, I feel fortunate that I have a job that I love.”

Career expert Lindsey Pollak thinks Mr. Kofte has the right attitude. “You can make the decision to view a furlough in a positive light,” says Ms. Pollak, author of “Getting from College to Career.” “First, you get to keep your job, which, these days, is no small benefit. Second, you can make time for personal interests you don’t normally have time for, or advance a professional goal that will position you well when the economy picks up.”

Mr. Kofte has planned his furlough days strategically. A new author, he will use the time to promote his book, “How to Survive (and Perhaps Thrive) on a Teacher’s Salary.” “On one of my furlough days, in October, I’m going to be a guest on a radio show and do a signing at a local book store,” he says. “These are things I would ordinarily have to take time off from school to do.”

Use Your Time Wisely

In order to determine how best to use your furlough, make a list of three things you’d do if you didn’t have to work today. Maybe you’d go to a museum or help out at your child’s school. Perhaps you’d read that book or listen to that Webinar you’ve been meaning to download for months.

Try to keep your attitude upbeat. Poor morale among employees is contagious and can end up negatively impacting the organization more than the furlough itself. Encourage your co-workers to adopt your positive thinking, and consider coordinating a fun social event to coincide with a day off.

Of course, before you resign yourself to the time off and possibly even get excited about it, you should know that furloughs don’t apply to every employment situation, and the specifics can be murky. If you have questions, the Department of Labor recently issued an FAQ. Go to dol.gov and type “FurloughFAQ” in the search box in the upper right.

Write to Alexandra Levit at reinvent@wsj.com

By LAUREN WEBER

Many job seekers have long suspected their online employment applications disappear into a black hole, never to be seen again. Their fears may not be far off the mark, as more companies rely on technology to winnow out less-qualified candidates.

Recruiters and hiring managers are overwhelmed by the volume of résumés pouring in, thanks to the weak job market and new tools that let applicants apply for a job with as little as one mouse click. The professional networking website LinkedIn recently introduced an “apply now” button on its job postings that sends the data in a job seeker’s profile directly to a potential employer.

While job boards and networking websites help companies broadcast openings to a wide audience, potentially increasing the chance the perfect candidate will reply, the resulting flood of applications tends to include a lot of duds. Most recruiters report that at least 50% of job hunters don’t possess the basic qualifications for the jobs they are pursuing.

To cut through the clutter, many large and midsize companies have turned to applicant-tracking systems to search résumés for the right skills and experience. The systems, which can cost from $5,000 to millions of dollars, are efficient, but not foolproof.

Ed Struzik, an International Business Machines Corp.

expert on the systems, puts the proportion of large companies using them in the “high 90%” range, and says it would “be very rare to find a Fortune 500 company without one.”

At many large companies the tracking systems screen out about half of all résumés, says John Sullivan, a management professor at San Francisco State University.

What happens to a resume after it’s submitted online? Job seekers who apply to positions online complain that they rarely even receive a confirmation, let alone a personal response. Lauren Weber has details on The News Hub. Photo: Getty Images

No wonder: Starbucks Corp.

attracted 7.6 million job applicants over the past 12 months for about 65,000 corporate and retail job openings; Procter & Gamble Inc.

got nearly a million applications last year for 2,000 new positions plus vacant jobs. Both companies use the systems.

Although they originally evolved to help employers scan paper résumés into a database, do basic screening and trace an applicant’s path through the interview and hiring process, today’s tracking systems are programmed to scan for keywords, former employers, years of experience and schools attended to identify candidates of likely interest. Then, they rank the applicants. Those with low scores generally don’t make it to the next round.

The screening systems are one way companies are seeking to cut the costs of hiring a new employee, which now averages $3,479, according to human-resources consulting firm Bersin & Associates. Big companies, many of which cut their human-resources staffs during the recession, now spend about 7% of their external recruitment budgets on applicant-tracking systems, the firm says.

At PNC Financial Services Group,

which has used the tracking software for 15 years, an applicant for a bank-teller job is filtered out if his résumé doesn’t indicate that he has two to three years of cash-handling experience. PNC emails rejected applicants within a day, suggesting they search its website for jobs for which they are better qualified, says Jillian Snavely, senior recruiting manager.

A recruiter reviews applicants who make it through the first cut, which includes the résumé screening and a brief questionnaire about relevant skills. Those applicants get a live or automated phone interview.

Tracking software has its pitfalls. It may miss the most-qualified applicant if that person doesn’t game the system by larding his or her résumé with keywords from the job description, according to Mark Mehler, co-founder of consulting firm Career Xroads, which advises companies on staffing.

But the idea isn’t to replace human screeners entirely. Experts say the systems simply narrow the field to a size hiring managers can handle. They also stress that, despite advances in the software, the single best method of getting a job remains a referral from a company employee.

One small error, such as listing the name of a former employer after the years worked there, instead of before, can ruin a great candidate’s chances.

“There are some things parsers are just too stupid to figure out,” says Bersin & Associates Chief Executive Josh Bersin. And they do add to job seekers’ impression that submitting applications online is largely futile, even after that person customizes a résumé for a job that seems a natural fit.

“I kind of wonder if some of the jobs I’m applying to even exist,” says Asa Denton, a 31-year-old software programmer in Reno, Nev., who has been job hunting for four months.

Elaine Orler, president of Talent Function Group LLC and an expert on the tracking systems, says they should be more candidate-friendly. In the future, she says, forward-thinking companies will allow applicants to check the status of their applications online. The bottom line, she adds: “Candidates deserve respect.”

For all their flaws, recruiters generally prefer the automated systems. Texas Roadhouse Inc., a restaurant operator with 350 locations, plans to adopt a tracking system this year to handle the flow of applications for hourly jobs.

Julie Juvera, head of human resources at the chain’s headquarters in Louisville, Ky., says she gets as many as 400 résumés for a job opening within 24 hours after listing it online. “We used to hand-write a postcard to every single applicant saying ‘thank you so much for applying.’ But that’s become too overwhelming and tedious.”

Now the company sends an automated email to an applicant to tell him his résumé is being reviewed, and that it will contact him if it considers him for a job.

Anthoy Freda

Résumé overload isn’t just a big-company problem. Job seekers often are surprised when they don’t hear back from small businesses. These businesses rarely hire enough people to make an applicant-tracking system cost-effective, but even a one-time posting on a well-trafficked job board like Monster.com can garner hundreds of responses.

Only 19% of hiring managers at small companies look at a majority of the résumés they receive, and 47% say they review just a few, according to a recent survey by Information Strategies Inc., publisher of Your HR Digest, an online newsletter.

When Mr. Denton, the software programmer, sent his résumé to Google,

Inc. and Walt Disney Co.,

he wasn’t terribly surprised when he received nothing but an email acknowledgment, but he expected a more personal response from a small Reno company.

When he called to ask for an update on his application, he was told the company’s vice president was in charge of hiring, and surmised that the executive was too busy to read through the submissions. “What I’m going to do is turn up on their doorstep,” says Mr. Denton. “I really have nothing to lose.”

— Rachel Emma Silverman contributed to this article.

By DIANA MIDDLETON

Despite having similar educational backgrounds and experience, female M.B.A.-holders are still not getting the same pay, positions, or promotions as their male colleagues, according to a study released Thursday by Catalyst, a New York City-based nonprofit focused on women in the workplace.

The study, which had more than 9,000 respondents who graduated from 26 M.B.A. programs between 1996 and 2007, found that starting from the first job post-M.B.A. women lagged behind male respondents. For example, 60% of women respondents reported that their first job was at an entry level position, as opposed to 46% of male respondents.

Women also earned an average $4,600 less than men in their first job, even if they had the same amount of previous work experience, the study found.

Ilene Lang, president and chief executive officer of Catalyst, attributes the disparity to something she calls “bad first boss syndrome.” The experience sours the potential for raises and promotions later on, Ms. Lang says.

Of those surveyed, about 40% were still in their first post-M.B.A.. More than 30% had changed jobs once, and 14% had worked with four or more employers.

“From the start, women start in lower positions, and they aren’t getting the right support from their management,” the study results indicate, she says.

Ann Bartel, an economics professor at Columbia Business School who studies labor economics and human resource management, says women may lag behind men for two reasons. In some cases, companies anticipate female employees will have children and do not include them in succession planning. The other reason is not driven by corporations, but rather by women themselves, who, anticipating the time commitment of a potential family do not lobby hard for plum positions.

“I think companies want equality, but they will have to redesign jobs so flex-time and working from home aren’t negatives for the fast track,” says Ms. Bartel, who has also conducted research on women’s presence in senior executive positions–such as chief executive or chief operating officer. “I don’t think we’ve had that cultural revolution yet.”

Despite potential bias toward working mothers, Ms. Lang says the results showed no real difference for women without children. The study also found that men were twice as likely to be a CEO or senior executive in their current job.

The study is part of an extensive career analysis project Catalyst is conducting, says Nancy Carter, vice president of research.

Write to Diana Middleton at diana.middleton@wsj.com

Turn down the Rihanna. No more bikinis and beer. Spring break is winding down, and college students are heading back to campus—which, if they’re at a name-brand school, is the one place, whatever their actual smarts or behavior, that guarantees them approval. Kids don’t put Harvard stickers on their rear windshields, parents do.

But for how long? These schools have much to recommend them: impressive students, organic dining halls, presidential alumni. To maintain their reputations, however, elite colleges have long relied on limiting access—Harvard’s class of 2015 is about 1,700 students, Yale’s is 1,300—and that may be coming to an end. Revolutionaries outside the ivy walls are hammering their way not onto campus but straight into class.

It’s a thrilling collegiate coup. Last fall, a couple of hundred Stanford students registered for Sebastian Thrun’s class on artificial intelligence. He offered the course free online, too, through his new company Udacity, and 160,000 students signed up. For the written assignments and exams, both groups got identical questions—and 210 students got a perfect overall score. They all came from the online group.

So if you bluffed your way into the Ivy League with plumped-up credentials or an essay edited by somebody else, it’s time to start breaking a sweat.

“I like to compare it to film,” Mr. Thrun told me at a coffee shop between Stanford and Mountain View, Calif., where his day job is running Google X, the company’s experimental lab. “Before film there was theater—small casting companies reaching 300 people at a time. Then celluloid was invented, and you could record something and replicate it. A good movie wouldn’t reach 300 but 3,000, and soon 300,000 and soon three million. That changed the economics.”

It is education’s time to change now. At the high-school level, interactive study sites are increasingly ingenious: Look at Piazza, Blackboard and Quizlet, founded by a 17-year-old. TED-Ed just launched a channel on You Tube, with three- to 10-minute lessons for kids. YouTube’s EDU Portal has been viewed 22 billion times. Khan Academy, a favorite of Bill Gates, has four million unique users a month and thousands of educational videos, from “Napoleon’s Peninsular Campaigns” to “Python Lists.” If you think that last one is about snakes, please download Khan’s new iPad app immediately.

The next big thing, though, is college-level MOOCs and MOOSes: Massive Open Online Courses and Seminars. Harvard already showcases coursework like professor Michael Sandel’s “Justice” lectures online, gratis. Now Georgia Institute of Technology, MIT, Stanford and others are offering advanced online courses, some with accreditation.

“The current search for new educational funnels must be reversed,” wrote Austrian philosopher Ivan Illich, in “Deschooling Society.” He called for “educational webs” woven among us all. That was 1971. Today, Web courses don’t just meet but beat their impersonal offline counterparts. Studies show that tutorial-style teaching is more effective than lecturing (as Oxford and Cambridge have known for centuries), even when prerecorded. Mr. Thrun’s online students told him that the course felt more personal.

In this new educational model, the shy and the easily distracted get advantages. You can rewind a video and watch whenever and as many times as you like. Plus, teachers save time with computerized grading and students save money. (U.S. college debt, nearly $1 trillion, is bigger than housing or credit card debt.)

Most important, the system promotes driven and talented students who might otherwise be denied access to higher education: a kid in Afghanistan, a young mother in Scotland, an ignored pupil in Detroit. From Mr. Thrun’s class (translated into 44 languages) Udacity chose 200 students based purely on performance and, a few weeks ago, forwarded their resumes to companies including Amazon, Bank of America and BMW.

There are glitches, of course, including a high online dropout rate, complaints about speed, questions on accreditation and the predictable whining from old-school alumni who have gotten too cozy in their club chairs.

To be truly egalitarian, classes will need to go not just online but mobile. Still, the upshot of it all is clear: more smart people is better. Just watch that ivory tower topple.

Corrections & Amplifications

Udacity recently forwarded the resumes of 200 students to companies. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said 15 students.

A version of this article appeared March 24, 2012, on page C12 in some U.S. editions of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Watching the Ivory Tower Topple.

By JESSICA C. WAKEMAN

While talk of employment growth has been circulating for the last several months and experts expect Friday’s unemployment report to show job gains for the second month in a row, another group of key players say they plan to add jobs in 2010.

According to the Society for Human Resources Management, 35% of the 1,625 employers who responded to a March survey say they expect to add full-time workers in 2010, more than double last year’s 16% of respondents who said their firms would add staff.

The increase might be a reflection of a renewed sense of calm about the business climate, experts say.

“Many organizations have a sense that the market is improving, giving them the confidence they need to start rebuilding,” said John Dooney, SHRM’s manager of strategic research.

One firm adding employees now is Bank of America

which has 6,000 open positions spanning human resources to investment banking, says Kelly E. Sapp, a spokeswoman for Bank of America. She says that the company has more than doubled the size of its intern program and also doubled graduate hiring over 2009, a shift she attributes to business need and growth from acquisitions.

iStock Photo

Friday’s job report is expected to show job growth.

Mark Anderson, president of ExecuNet, a network for business leaders providing recruiting, research and advice, says that recruiters and companies have been talking about the improving market for the last six months–and now companies are finally acting on those feelings by filling in the talent gaps left behind by layoffs and hiring freezes.

“One thing businesses do not like is uncertainity and now that things are starting to look positive, companies feel that they can add positions instead of trading up,” said Mr. Anderson.

ExecuNet’s own May benchmark Recruiter Confidence Index, a monthly survey that measures the executive job market, shows 65% of 185 responding executive recruiters are “confident” or “very confident” that the executive employment market will improve over the next six months, making May 2010 the second consecutive month that index remained over 60% since June 2008.

The SHRM report showed that 52% of professional, scientific and technical services firms will add jobs, up from 21% in 2009. Some 43% of high-tech companies also plan to add jobs.

And Mr. Dooney says that the report also shows salary freezes are being lifted and fewer employers expect to make layoffs in 2010 than in the last two years. On average across all industries, salaries are expected to rise 2.2 percent in 2010, the report showed.

By JAVIER ESPINOZA

In a crowded job market, having work experience in China on your résumé can make a big difference.

Recent graduates in industries from engineering to finance in both Europe and the U.S. are making their way to the country, hoping to land their first jobs faster and more easily than their competitors.

Lesmes Gutiérrez, a 23-year-old engineering graduate of Loughborough University in the U.K., who had a two-week placement with Baoshang Bank in Beijing late last year, says potential employers are more impressed with those who can demonstrate a willingness to move out of their comfort zone. “It’s quite a big step to go somewhere not knowing what to expect. The idea of going to China calls for awareness and the willingness to relocate,” which could be appealing to employers, he says.

And he’s not the only one to have spotted the competitive advantage work experience in China may bring. Applications for internships there have more than tripled over the past couple of years, according to figures released by CRCC Asia, a London-based recruitment consultancy.

In 2009, the company received about 250 applications, compared with more than 1,000 so far this year, says CRCC Asia Director Daniel Nivern. “The Chinese economy is booming and it’s very appealing for graduates to get an insight as to why that’s happening by visiting [the country]. With the job market depressed in the U.K. and the U.S., China offers a great opportunity to get a long-term career,” he says.

He says China has also come into focus for Western companies looking to grow. “A lot of businesses realize that if they want to be part of the global economy, they need to be going into China,” adds Mr. Nivern, whose company has mostly placed recent graduates from the U.K. and the U.S., but also from other European countries like Spain, in finance, marketing and legal firms in China.

“I have been told repeatedly that my work in China looks great on my résumé,” says Alexander Lesher, who recently finished a master’s degree in Environmental Engineering at the Indiana-based Purdue University and subsequently undertook a two-month internship at environmental company Nanjing Zhuangxun Tech Co. in Beijing.

He says his experience there gave him a greater awareness of cultural differences. He says he was surprised by the way business people interacted during lunches. During a working meal with a group of about eight people, a single person would buy enough food to completely fill the table and would go out of his or her way to make sure everyone ate as much as possible. “Then they would act humbly, as if they have done nothing,” he says. “That wouldn’t happen in the U.S.”

Others visiting China for the first time found the first few days disconcerting. Sophie Corcut, a former unpaid marketing intern at fair-trade company Shangrila Farms, says: “Living in Beijing and dealing with a totally foreign language was challenging. Things like crossing the road or buying things in the supermarket or counting the numbers were suddenly difficult.” But it was precisely that challenge that Ms. Corcut, who borrowed from her parents to fund her trip, was looking for. “It was brilliant. I was looking for that stimulation.”

Ms. Corcut, who now has a full-time job with management consultancy Accenture in London, says her two months’ work experience in China was more rewarding than previous internships she had done in her native England. “I have done a lot of work experience in the U.K., and they actually don’t need you. You are just there, and they are constantly trying to find you work. You are given something very menial,” she says. “But in China they were actually using me. I was lucky to be interning for a young company that needed a lot of help.”

She says initially after graduation she wasn’t sure what to do professionally with a degree in history and French, but in China she learned how to use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and started designing promotional leaflets for the company. “I tried to get a big sales push and tried to get new clients,” she says.

But some recruiters are swift to point out that China isn’t the only place that will help students stand out. Chris McCarthy, of London-based recruiter Hays PLC, says it isn’t China experience per se that employers are looking for but evidence that potential employees are willing to challenge themselves.

“If Europe and the U.S. are going to maintain their place in global business people need to be prepared to put on a back pack” and head for less familiar places, says Mr. McCarthy. “It is evidence that people are willing to challenge themselves, not specifically China, that employers are looking for. They want to see a bit of ambition and entrepreneurship,” he says.

He adds, however, that China can be of particular relevance to employers looking for people with experience in emerging markets.

But while experience in China may be invaluable, some obstacles can seem formidable. Mr. Gutiérrez, working at a microlender, struggled with Chinese. “The problem with a rural bank is that Chinese is its first language and English is not used at all. When it came to producing reports on the fluctuation of gold prices, there were no previous templates I could use so I had to rely on an intuitive process and then improve the subsequent reports based on feedback.”

Despite some barriers, the benefits run in both directions, and companies in China are profiting from the surge in interest from potential interns in the West. Thomas Cao, chief executive of Beijing-based Broad Global Venture Capital Co., says he finds real value in the work done by interns.

“We look for graduates to come and do real work. We have asked our interns, for example, to help us analyze the chances of companies going public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange,” he says.

Ultimately, says Mr. Lesher, going to China was about turning a personal fascination into a tangible benefit for his career. “The country was just a point of personal fascination. I wasn’t sure how it would work out.”

Write to Javier Espinoza at javier.espinoza@wsj.com

Just before the current recession set in, 35-year-old Samuel Peery quit a stable job as a vice president of marketing to start his own social-networking company. Unable to secure funding for his start-up, Mr. Peery, of Lehi, Utah, was left unemployed, with an unrealized dream.

“I got some gigs through my marketing consulting firm, but it wasn’t enough to pay the bills,” he says, adding that he had to find a way to adapt to the new stresses he was feeling.

Mr. Peery decided to take his happiness into his own hands. “I now make meditation and prayer a part of my daily routine. It helps me to connect to something larger than myself and has provided tremendous comfort and direction,” he says.

He also makes it a priority to engage in activities that will boost his mood, from exercising to listening to a song mix or motivational recording. He’s still pursuing life as an entrepreneur, and plans to release a multimedia online marketing course for small businesses next year.

Happiness, it seems, has become a new mandate. That’s partly thanks to people like New York-based writer Gretchen Rubin, who was on a city bus in the rain a few years ago when she asked herself what it would take to make her happy.

She didn’t have an immediate answer, leading to a year of research and a new book, “The Happiness Project,” and corresponding Web site (www.happiness-project.com), that includes insights on well-being from history, philosophy, scientific studies and life experiences.

Happiness is something everyone should think about, even if you have the staples of a good life — health, career and relationships — says Ms. Rubin. “It’s easier to consider how you might improve things when you aren’t completely miserable.”

When it comes to finding a job that makes you happier, start with a roster of things you genuinely like to do. Note that your list should not include things you feel you ought to like. “You have to look inside yourself, because everyone has different inclinations and varying definitions of fun,” says Ms. Rubin.

If you’ve had a rough year at work or have been laid off, being happy might be easier said than done. But you can try to change your attitude for the better by focusing on particular thoughts.

Mr. Peery, for example, made a conscious effort to concentrate on the good that came out of his period of unemployment. “I decided to look at my situation as an exciting time in which I could choose my own path,” he says.

Write to Alexandra Levit at reinvent@wsj.com

By CHERYL BUXTON

The upside to a down market is perhaps the push it gives organizations to make an inventory of their assets – not the least of which is their human capital. To do this they employ a wide range of sophisticated assessment tools that can highlight strengths and identify areas for professional development in their managers. However, research has told us that the typical interview – even when conducted by a well-trained professional – can only reveal a person’s leadership style (what he or she uses when trying to influence others). Simulation based assessments, on the other hand, can go a little deeper and determine a person’s thinking style, in other words how he or she makes decisions “when the door is closed and when someone isn’t trying to impress someone else.”

However, when confronted with “we would like you to take an assessment,” many executives face the prospect with a degree of trepidation. After all, many people dislike taking tests – especially when they are designed in part to identify and highlight personal strengths and weaknesses. An algebra test only tells you how much algebra you know (or don’t know), but an assessment must identify and expose the insecurities and flaws that you’ve tried to conceal your whole career, right? Not exactly. Following are some recommendations from experienced executive recruiters who have helped thousands of professionals “ace” assessment tests:

First, relax. Even chief executives can feel intimidated by the assessment process if they are in the final stages of being considered for a prestigious role. To alleviate this anxiety, remember that there are, in fact, no right or wrong answers. Advanced assessment methodologies use business case studies that are very hard to game so what is most important is to be yourself and respond candidly and authentically.

Courtesy Korn/Ferry International

Cheryl Buxton

To prepare, set aside ample time to take the assessment, which typically lasts 45 to 60 minutes and is conducted via an online survey, paper questionnaire or, for some organizations, over the phone. Remember that ultimately the purpose of the assessment is to raise or clarify questions, rather than provide 100% foolproof answers about your ability.

Once you have done your part and completed the assessment exercise, the administrator may walk you through the results, asking more questions to create a clearer picture of your true strengths and areas for development, such as: Does this sound familiar? When are you more likely to use this style? How has it helped you? Does it ever get in your way?

Be open to receiving the feedback by seeing it as a chance to not only learn more about yourself but also to put your behavioral patterns into perspective and demonstrate a high degree of self-knowledge.

Help the assessor understand as much about your own interpretation of the results as possible, using it to shed more light on what you bring to the table and how you apply your unique style to a variety of situations. This is especially important if your assessment scores look different from what the executive recruiter or hiring organization would have expected. In such cases, another interview might be arranged to address those areas of concern, or more targeted referencing might be conducted to deduce whether there is an underlying issue that may not have emerged initially. If everything checks out, they will continue to move you forward in the process, and may even recommend specific coaching once you are hired to fill any gaps.

As a stand-alone, assessments are not sufficient for making hiring or career-altering decisions. However, when combined with all the information that is available about you, the data they provide are an excellent supplement and can add an important dimension toward understanding who you are. They can also offer another level of confidence that you will thrive in a new position. This process not only helps to maximize the hiring organization’s investment in top talent, but also helps you to maximize your talent to perform at your highest, even when the markets are performing at their lowest.

Read the full article.  

By JIM CARLTON

With the American Cancer Society warning of the ill-effects of sitting for prolonged periods, WSJ’s Jim Carlton tells Lunch Break that some workers in Silicon Valley are now getting out of their chairs and working on their feet.

Silicon Valley’s newest status symbol is a humble piece of furniture.

A growing number of workers at Google Inc.,

Facebook Inc. and other employers are trading in their sit-down desks for standing ones, saying they feel more comfortable and energized. They also are motivated by medical reports saying that sitting for too long leads to increased health risks.

A standing desk sits high off the floor so a worker can either stand at it or sit on a high stool to use it. Officials at Palo Alto-based Facebook say a number of employees asked about standing desks after news articles were published about the health risks of sitting all day.

The stories cited medical studies that tied excessive sitting to increased obesity and other health problems because of factors including a drop in physical activity. A 2010 study by the American Cancer Society found that women who sat more than six hours a day were 37% more likely to die prematurely than women who sat for less than three hours, while the early-death rate for men was 18% higher. The American College of Cardiology released a study in January that found increased mortality among people who sat longer at home than those who didn’t.

No one seems to compile statistics on the standing-desk trend. But anecdotal reports suggest Silicon Valley is embracing the movement.

Facebook officials say they have seen an upsurge in requests for standing desks to five to eight a week with a total of between 200 and 250 deployed at the company of more than 2,000 employees. Facebook also is trying out a treadmill station—where a worker can walk or run on a treadmill while tapping at a computer.

Google spokesman Jordan Newman said that “many employees at Google opt for standing desks, and we offer them as part of our wellness program” though he said he didn’t know the exact number.

Greg Hoy, 39 years old, asked for a standing desk shortly after joining Facebook seven months ago as a design recruiter. “I don’t get the 3 o’clock slump anymore,” he said. “I feel active all day long.”

Tiffani Jones Brown, 29, said she also requested a standing desk when she joined Facebook two months ago as a content strategist, in part to keep her energy level high. “I get really tired when I sit all day,” Ms. Jones Brown said.

There is a learning curve to using standing desks, however. Ms. Jones Brown said that at first it was hard for her to concentrate on writing tasks because she was focused on things like maintaining correct posture. Other stand-up workers use tricks to not be bothered by being on their feet most of the day. “I kind of move my legs around, no real position,” said Kirk Everett, one of two standing workers in the 21-employee offices of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group in San Jose, a tech industry trade association.

Mr. Everett is a pioneer in standing desks, having gotten one seven years ago to help recover from a back injury. He said he could never go back. “It is so much better,” said Mr. Everett, vice president of government relations for the trade group. “Staying seated all day is your enemy.”

Write to Jim Carlton at jim.carlton@wsj.com

Kelley McDonald has always loved exploring new terrain. In home videos as early as age 3, “I’m always off by myself, looking under rocks or catching and studying bees,” she says. Today, at 18, the Apple Valley, Minn., college student is studying for a science career in the fast-growing field of nanotechnology—working with materials at the molecular or atomic level.

That makes her one of the lucky ones—a young adult whose career passion is in sync with one of the hot jobs of the near future.

Predicting the jobs or skills that will be in demand years from now is a tricky task for many teens, young adults and their parents. Luckily, there are rich sources of information on the Web, in books, and in most people’s communities; the challenge is to sift through them all.

Ms. McDonald found her passion through a community-college nanotechnology program funded by the National Science Foundation, where one official foresees hundreds of thousands of job openings in the field in the next five years. Other sources include government forecasts, school or college career counselors, and neighbors and friends employed in growing fields.

The richest vein of job-growth information is the Labor Department’s 10-year forecast for demand, pay and competition for more than 300 jobs in 45 categories. The department’s latest biannual compilation, published last month as the “Occupational Outlook Handbook,” is great for sizing up the long-term outlook for most fields. The forecasts have often been prescient—accurately predicting this decade’s fast growth in special-education teaching jobs and the widening range of hot health-care careers, for example.

In the coming decade, engineering—already known for paying college graduates some of the highest starting salaries—is expected to offer the fastest-growing area: biomedical engineering. Jobs in this field, which centers on developing and testing health-care innovations such as artificial organs or imaging systems, are expected to grow by 72%, the Labor Department says.

Among other professions, job opportunities for physicians should be “very good,” the guide says; health care dominates the list of the fastest-growing jobs, capturing 11 of the top 20 slots. While more attorneys and architects will be needed, competition for these jobs will be intense. Psychologists will be in demand, but growth will be fastest in industrial and organizational psychology.

The forecasts have limitations. The Labor Department’s macroeconomic model works on two noteworthy assumptions—that the economy will rebound to long-term growth and that there won’t be any more big shocks like the 2007-2008 recession. Thus its forecasts don’t predict the big job-market swings or sudden changes in the supply of workers that can easily happen in a volatile economy.

That means you could pick a job from the Labor Department’s “fastest-growing” list when you enter college, only to find the field in a slump by the time you graduate. For example, a 2006 high-school graduate eyeing the government’s 2004-2014 forecast for nursing at that time would have read about excellent job prospects, with “thousands of job openings” predicted because experienced nurses were expected to retire.

While that forecast is likely to hold for the long term, the job market for students graduating from college this year is headed in the opposite direction: Thousands of experienced nurses who had been inactive or retired have been re-entering the work force because of the recession.

Similarly, a high-school grad in 2000 might have picked computer programming—No. 8 at the time on a government list of fast-growing, high-paying jobs—only to graduate to the aftermath of the dot-com collapse.

And finally, no economic model can forecast growth in jobs that are still evolving. While the government’s latest handbook contains a supplement on “green occupations” in emerging industries such as biofuels and wind energy, it has no data on many of the jobs these industries are creating, such as fuel-cell technologists.

“Right now, all the projections we have are about a world that existed” in the past, says David Passmore, director of The Pennsylvania State University’s Institute for Research in Training & Development. “We are sitting on the precipice of the next big transformation” in energy production, “and no one in the occupational-projections area knows how to handle that.”

All that leaves much to the resourcefulness, imagination and research skills of young people weighing a career choice. The first step is to explore and try out various fields in order to figure out what kind of work you love and can do well. The next is to learn about broad career fields that are likely to grow; the government’s handbook lists job-by-job career-information contacts, such as professional associations or industry groups. Then, pick a field with this attitude: “I think I’ll jump in and learn what I can learn,” says Bob Templin, president of Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Va.

Networking with people in your target industries can help. Russell Wagner, a 20-year-old from Prior Lake, Minn., likes electronics and science, but when he tried robotics in high school, he found it boring. His mother contacted friends in industry and learned nanoscientists are in demand in many industries, developing a wide range of products, from electronic memory devices and coatings for stents to mold-resistant shingle coatings.

At Dakota County Technical College, Rosemount, Minn., where Mr. Wagner and Ms. McDonald are enrolled, program head Deb Newberry says employers contact her trying to fill more job openings than she has students.

All job markets are local, so it is important to check out job demand in the locale where you want to live. Community colleges tune into regional work-force needs and are often set up to provide counseling and work-force advice to the public.

Also, ACT Inc. compiles state-by-state data comparing the career interests of students who have taken its college-entrance exams with the job outlook in each state.

In Virginia, for example, student interest in computer-related jobs is falling far short of likely demand; only 3% of Virginia students are interested in the field, which has projected growth of 23%. To see the data, go to ACT.org, click on “2009 College Readiness Report” and scroll down to the state list; work-force data is on page 10 of each “Readiness Report.”

Of course, many people fare best by holding out for a job doing what they love. Careers in filmmaking are expected to grow very slowly in the coming decade, and competition for jobs will be keen.

But that isn’t stopping Kiel Greenfield. He has loved movies for so long—watching them, talking about them and working with them as a video-rental store employee—that he has decided, at age 28, that filmmaking is the only career for him. He signed on for a film-making program at a respected school, the Zaki Gordon Institute, Sedona, Ariz., and plans to do whatever it takes to land a job in film photography.

“It’s going to be hard,” he says, “but it’s totally worth it.”

Write to Sue Shellenbarger at sue.shellenbarger@wsj.com