From Ebola to killer relationships to resume tips, the top posts on Law Street really ran the gamut last week. Writer Anneliese Mahoney brought in the number one most read post of the week with her warnings against overreacting to Ebola in the United States; Marisa Mostek shed light on a few recent cases of incredibly disturbing murders that developed out of relationships gone very, very wrong in the second most read piece; and Natasha Paulmeno wrote post number three encouraging Millennials to highlight the history of temporary work experience that many of us have as positives instead of negatives. ICYMI, here are Law Street’s top three articles from last week.

#1 Keep Calm and Carry On: You Don’t Have Ebola

It seems like all anyone can talk about anymore is Ebola. Especially now that the first case of Ebola has been found in the United States, in Dallas, and the first case transmitted outside Africa reported in Madrid, people seem to be freaking out. One big concern has been that Ebola is going to become an issue in the U.S., which I just want to start by saying is unfounded and unrealistic. The public health infrastructure in the U.S., as well as our ability to isolate the disease make it incredibly unlikely that it becomes an epidemic. You’re still significantly more likely to die of the flu, or a car accident than even go near someone who has Ebola. (Read full article here)

#2 Be Careful Who You Love

People tend to do some pretty clinically insane things to get back at their exes. Disgruntled men dumped by the girls of their dreams have posted naked pictures of them online, dated their best friends, and other concerning but far-from-deadly actions. However, the men starring in recent headlines have taken revenge to a whole new and disturbing level. Recently, a dude was so peeved when his girlfriend left him that he concluded that feeding her dog to her was the best means of revenge. What ever happened to the saying “living well is the best revenge”? Not anymore, apparently. (Read full article here)

#3 Resume Booster: Maximize Your Temporary Work Experience

A history of consistent temporary work may be comparable with full time experience in the eyes of senior hiring managers. So why aren’t more millennials taking advantage of their temporary work history as resume boosters and learning experiences? Temp jobs teach young professionals a wide variety of skills they wouldn’t have otherwise acquired. These temporary work opportunities expose young business pros to many new industries and work environments. The flexibility temp workers develop under these conditions offers desirable traits to prospective employers. (Read full article here)

—

Chelsey Goff (@cddg) is Chief People Officer at Law Street. She is a Granite State native who holds a Master of Public Policy in Urban Policy from the George Washington University in DC. She’s passionate about social justice issues, politics — especially those in First in the Nation New Hampshire — and all things Bravo. Contact Chelsey at cgoff@LawStreetMedia.com.

Chelsey D. Goff

Chelsey D. Goff was formerly Chief People Officer at Law Street. She is a Granite State Native who holds a Master of Public Policy in Urban Policy from the George Washington University. She’s passionate about social justice issues, politics — especially those in First in the Nation New Hampshire — and all things Bravo. Contact Chelsey at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post ICYMI: Best of the Week appeared first on Law Street.

Law Street’s Capitalista, Natasha Paulmeno, couldn’t have been more on point when she wrote recently that Resume Lies Really Are the Worst Decision Ever.

This week it came out that David Tovar, chief spokesperson for Walmart, misrepresented his education history and will be leaving the company in the coming weeks. Tovar was hired by Walmart in 2006, but the company only discovered that he did not actually graduate with an Arts degree from the University of Delaware when he was being considered for a promotion. His background information was flagged by a private company to which Walmart outsourced the heightened background check. According to Tovar in an interview with the New York Post, “I was an art major going into a communications field. I didn’t think a degree was necessary to pursuing my career.”

Tovar is partially right — there are plenty of jobs for which you don’t need a specific degree, and some that you don’t need a degree at all to get. Where he goes wrong, however, is lying about it in the first place. Like any relationship, professional or personal, building on a lie — even if you, Like Tovar, want to call it an “error of omission” — dooms you to failure. Would Tovar have been hired for his position at Walmart had he been honest about his background? Probably not. But that’s the employer’s decision to make, and when you lie about key factors in the hiring process you deprive the employer of that right and risk the painful and embarrassing fallout.

Moral of the story? Work hard and own your truth. And read Natasha’s tips for avoiding resume lies.

—

Chelsey Goff (@cddg) is Chief People Officer at Law Street. She is a Granite State native who holds a Master of Public Policy in Urban Policy from the George Washington University in DC. She’s passionate about social justice issues, politics — especially those in First in the Nation New Hampshire — and all things Bravo. Contact Chelsey at cgoff@LawStreetMedia.com.

Featured image courtesy of [depone via Flickr]

Chelsey D. Goff

Chelsey D. Goff was formerly Chief People Officer at Law Street. She is a Granite State Native who holds a Master of Public Policy in Urban Policy from the George Washington University. She’s passionate about social justice issues, politics — especially those in First in the Nation New Hampshire — and all things Bravo. Contact Chelsey at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post We Weren’t Kidding, Resume Lies Really Are the Worst Decision Ever appeared first on Law Street.

Have you ever found yourself reading a job description and asking who in the world is capable of honing so many skills? With the rise of technology and demand for well-rounded employees, Millennials often feel discouraged just by reading job descriptions. According to the Harvard Business Review, nearly 50 percent of men and women choose not to apply to certain jobs because they feel they do not fulfill all the qualifications.

Entry-level applicants face the worst of these unrealistic qualifications. Many job postings listed as “entry-level” require applicants to have a couple years of experience in addition to their college degrees. Doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose of the label?

Quartz debunks the usual perception of job postings. Companies often list many skills that would earn applicants brownie points in interviews. In addition to listing the things they need, hiring managers list skills they could use in the future or assets they are considering implementing. But once hiring managers start listing those bonuses, they often get carried away and the list grows longer and longer. When applicants see a long list of skills labeled “required,” they often feel discouraged and move on to the next application.

Fear not applicants! Hiring managers are looking for humans, not robots. If you have the core skills for your profession and you are capable of presenting those skills properly, you’re golden. Companies would rather hire people who have several relevant skills, confidence, and a good attitude. So unless you’re a robot who can learn HTML code in 24 hours or become fluent in a language overnight, don’t sweat the small stuff.

When reading job descriptions, it can be truly difficult to pick apart what is required and what is fluff. Scott Purcell, a technology recruiter, gave Quartz a few tips for deciphering job descriptions.

…a good rule of thumb is that the further you get from the core of the job’s actual function, the further down a list of skills something is, and the newer the technology or the skills term is, the more likely it’s what he calls a “nice to have” rather than a true requirement.

Keep in mind, companies still like to check off as many boxes as possible when it comes to applicants’ skill sets. When Jimmy and Johnny are competing for the same position and Jimmy racks up more checks, he’s got the position over Johnny.

Yes, job descriptions can be intimidating.  Rejection can be scary, even embarrassing, but what’s the harm in trying? So, when you are considering a job description but you’re not sure if you’re really the right fit because you don’t meet every single qualification, chill. If you can, reach out to someone who works in the industry or at the company and ask how realistic the description is. Find out more information and if it’s a position you’re really interested in then it just might be worth the time and effort to apply. Don’t let job descriptions intimidate or discourage you. Take the chance and you might be pleasantly surprised.

Natasha Paulmeno

Natasha Paulmeno is an aspiring PR professional studying at the University of Maryland. She is learning to speak Spanish fluently through travel, music, and school. In her spare time she enjoys Bachata music, playing with her dog, and exploring social media trends. Contact Natasha at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Millennials: Don’t Let Job Descriptions Discourage You appeared first on Law Street.

For the average American public high school student, school starts around 8:00am. When you factor in the fact that bus and/or driving transportation is required, the day can start much earlier for most students. Many people have argued that school should start later for growing adolescents. Read on to learn about the laws surrounding our educational start times, the debate about changing the times, and what factors are taken into account when planning a school’s first bell.

Why does school start so early?

There’s not actually a very good answer to this question. It’s partly tradition — school has always started early, possibly as a way to “train” students for the real world. There’s also the desire to make time for extracurriculars. A packed resume becomes more desirable for college applicants, so schools want to leave plenty of time in the afternoon for students to engage in sports, clubs, part-time jobs, and other activities. With regard to sports and other outdoor activities, schools want to leave enough time for students to be able to be outside before it gets too dark. There’s also the transportation argument — often school districts stagger when local levels of schools start so they don’t need to send out buses for elementary, middle, and high school students at the same time.

What would be the benefits to changing the start times?

Less Tardiness, More Participation 

It is no secret that during their first period of the day, high school students are often still mentally asleep, which creates problems involving both class participation and school tardiness. The University of Minnesota conducted a study when the Minneapolis Public School System changed the starting time of seven high schools from 7:15am to 8:40am. The study found that students benefited academically from gaining additional hours of sleep each week. Advocates of later morning bells argue that this shift would enable students and teachers to make more of the school day.

Preventing Accidents

Additionally, many high school juniors and seniors who drive to high school in the morning are often “driving drowsy” and the decreased alertness caused by driving this early in the morning is often a factor in many adolescent automobile accidents. “Driving drowsy” is incredibly dangerous:

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration conservatively estimates that 100,000 police-reported crashes are the direct result of driver fatigue each year. This results in an estimated 1,550 deaths, 71,000 injuries, and $12.5 billion in monetary losses. These figures may be the tip of the iceberg, since currently it is difficult to attribute crashes to sleepiness.

Additionally, according to the National Sleep Foundation, adults between 18-29 are more likely to get into accidents from driving drowsy. While there doesn’t appear to be statistics available for 16 and 17-year-old drivers, it’s safe to assume they’d be consistent with or worse than that of their slightly older counterparts. Allowing students to get more adequate nights of sleep would help prevent potentially dangerous accidents.

Helping Teenagers to Grow

One of the most convincing arguments for why we might want to change the start times at the high school level is that they don’t work with the specific circadian rhythms of teenagers. According to doctors, when adolescents hit puberty, their bodies release melatonin later into the night than adults. This makes it very difficult for them to fall asleep, even if they go to bed early, and therefore harder to wake up first thing in the morning. In addition, teenagers need more sleep than adults, given that they are usually still growing. It’s estimated that a teenager needs about nine-and-a-half hours of sleep on any given night.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has recently started advocating for a school day that starts at 8:30am or later. The doctors explain that sleep deprivation can have very negative ramifications on students’ health. It’s unsurprisingly much harder to concentrate on school work and tests when you’re running on less sleep than your body needs to operate. But there are also lesser known consequences: lack of sleep among teenagers hasbeen linked to higher rates of depression, anxiety, and obesity.

What are the arguments against changing school start times?

Opponents acknowledge that current school schedules are out of sync with teenagers’ natural sleep cycles; however, many parents and administrators argue that these changes would bring about a number of problems, and therefore would not be worth the questionable academic benefits to their students.

As more students each year apply to colleges, extracurricular activities and sports have become vital in rounding out a student’s resume; however, if school starts and ends later, students will have less time for these extracurricular activities. Additionally, many students either have to watch younger siblings after school while their parents work or have after-school jobs themselves, both of which would become problematic if these students were to get out of school later. Busing would become a major problem, as well. Administrators have stated that it would be impossible to bus high school, middle school, and elementary students all at the same time, and they are unwilling to have elementary school children walking to school or waiting for the bus at 6:45 in the morning.

High school students driving to school later would often end up getting caught right in the middle of morning rush hour traffic, negating the decrease in the risk of accidents due to drowsy driving. Lastly, there are many who feel that if school were to start later, students would simply use that as an excuse to go to bed late. Oponents instead argue that it is the parent’s jobs to strictly enforce curfews to ensure that their children get adequate sleep in preparation of their early schedules, and that students need to learn to get up early before entering the real world.

What else can be done to help students get more sleep?

While it seems like schools are starting to consider later start times, and more and more doctors are advocating for these changes, we probably won’t be seeing changes anytime soon. There are a lot of logistical, financial, and policy issues that need to be untangled before schools shift start times dramatically. In the mean time, doctors recommend that students attempt to get the appropriate amount of sleep whenever possible, and that their parents help as much as they can.

One big recommendation deals with the increasingly common use of electronics before bed time. As Children’s Hospital pediatrician Mary Palmer points out:

As society has moved along, now we have things that keep us awake after the sun goes down. You have to have a time to process and decompress and if you’re still multitasking, which most of our electronics have us doing. I mean, we’re going from email to Twitter and there’s just so many inputs, so you have to have less distractors.

While adolescents’ Circadian rhythms may be different than those of adults, it’s still important to listen to advice like Palmer’s. Steps can be taken that make it easier for students to fall asleep at times that will give them the appropriate amount of shut-eye before school starts in the morning. While many schools are still working their way through instituting later start times for high school students, this advice is especially valuable.

Resources

Primary 

U.S. House of Representatives:  H. Con. Res. 176 ZZZ’s to A’s Resolution

Fairfax County School Board: Goal to Start High Schools After 8:00AM

Additional

KUOW.org: Sleep-Deprived Teenagers? Starting School Later Could Help Them Catch Up

Today: Teen Sleep Zombies: Should High Schools Have Later Start Times?

Smithsonian: School Really Should Start Later

National Sleep Foundation: School Start Time and Sleep

Start School Later: What’s the Big Deal?

Bethesda Magazine: Not Everyone Thinks MCPS High Schools Should Start Later

The New York Times: Are You Up Yet?

WFSU: Proposal to Push Back High School Start Times Raised School Districts’ Ire

Washington Post: Spend Millions to Let Teens Sleep Later?

mLive: Why Do High School Kids Go to School So Early? Because That’s the Way it’s Always Been

Week: Should High School Start Later?

ABC WFTS: More Debate On if High School Students Should Start Classes Later

Huffington Post: Should a School Change Start Time For Sleep? Later School Times Improve Student Performance: Study

Associated Press: Starting High School Later May Help Sleepy Teens

CBS: Stop Starting School So Early Doctors Say

Joseph Palmisano

Joseph Palmisano is a graduate of The College of New Jersey with a degree in History and Education. He has a background in historical preservation, public education, freelance writing, and business. While currently employed as an insurance underwriter, he maintains an interest in environmental and educational reform. Contact Joseph at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post School Start Times: Do More ZZZs Equal More A’s? appeared first on Law Street.

No one likes a liar. So why do people put their careers and professional reputations in jeopardy just to enhance their resumes? According to Forbes, about 60 percent of hiring managers catch lies on resumes, and the number of applicants who lie on their applications increased since the recession. But why do applicants still lie if they get caught? Aside from looking bad, his or her reputation is tarnished and any future work opportunities with the company are shot.

Moral of the story is don’t do it, but we can take a look at some of the most ridiculous resume lies.

1. Do your research. According to Forbes, one guy wrote on his resume that he was the assistant to the prime minister. The catch? The country he claimed to work for doesn’t even have one. Oops.
   What we learned: When you are truthfully associating yourself with any organization or group, you should do your background research on it. Know who you want to work for. This way you know who and what you represent and ensure you hold the same ideals.
2. Don’t act a fool. One 32-year-old applicant claimed to have 25 years of work experience. She must have matured rapidly as a  seven year old.
   What we learned: Putting ridiculous claims on your resume doesn’t fool anyone, it actually makes you look like a fool. Be as truthful as possible and learn the difference between embellishing your resume to make it shine and lying to get ahead.
3. Be truthful about your history. When applying to the same position at a company on two separate occasions, one applicant provided different work history for each application. That did wonders for the applicant’s reputation.
   What we learned: Employers can and will find out about your history, so be honest. It’s better to be up front than have to confess to a lie you previously told in an interview.
4. List references who will benefit your reputation. An applicant who listed three jobs in several years was definitely disappointed when he didn’t receive a call back. When the interviewer contacted the employers, she found out the applicant held one job for two days, another job for one day, and never worked at the third job. Yikes.
   What we learned: Use references to your advantage. They should make you look and sound great and vouch for your professional skills. Also, listing references who will uncover lies you told on a resume or application will definitely make you look bad.
5. Don’t burn bridges. After an applicant was fired from a company, he promptly applied to a different position at the same company. The company was listed under previous employment on his resume, but according to the applicant, he quit his previous job. The company’s records revealed the truth.
   What we learned: In every industry, people have connections all over the country, even the world. With our highly interconnected society, word of mouth spreads like wildfire. It would be wise to make graceful exits and maintain positive relationships in your professional career.

Though these are just a few examples of ridiculous lies applicants have told, many more have been caught. Embellishing resumes is a common problem – applicants who exaggerate their capabilities with coding and design skills, for example, are often embarrassed when tasked with those duties but they’re unable to perform.

Resume fluff just isn’t worth it. Be truthful, be honest and use colorful verbs to enhance your actual experience.

—

Natasha Paulmeno (@NatashaPaulmeno) is an aspiring PR professional studying at the University of Maryland. She is learning to speak Spanish fluently through travel, music, and school. In her spare time she enjoys Bachata music, playing with her dog, and exploring social media trends.

Natasha Paulmeno

Natasha Paulmeno is an aspiring PR professional studying at the University of Maryland. She is learning to speak Spanish fluently through travel, music, and school. In her spare time she enjoys Bachata music, playing with her dog, and exploring social media trends. Contact Natasha at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Resume Lies Really Are the Worst Decision Ever appeared first on Law Street.