Should You Take an Unpaid Internship position?

Finding a full time job has become harder than ever before, which has seen many recent graduates resort to taking unpaid internship positions within companies. But before accepting any offers to labor away for free, here's what you should ask.

1. What are the expectations? On paper, the internship seems like a real deal, even if it's unpaid. Still, it's wise to have a solid grasp of what you'll do and the amount of work. 

2. Will you be overextended? Whether you're unemployed or have a part-time job, it's important not to let

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The Top Five Career Regrets

Daniel Gulati, co-author of Passion &Purpose: Stories from the Best and Brightest Young Business Leaders’ asks a simple question. What would you do differently if you had the chance to magically rewind your career?
Here are the top five career regrets he identifies on most professional’s mind:

1. I wish I hadn't taken the job for the money. By far the biggest regret of all came from those who opted into high-paying but ultimately dissatisfying careers.

2. I wish I had quit earlier. Almost uniformly, those who had actually quit their jobs to pursue their

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10 Career Tips on How to be Found and prized by Job Recruiters.

Judging on extrinsic and skill-based factors is a relatively objective and straightforward exercise. Gauging softer traits such as will or attitude is much, much harder, and takes one-on-one contact, attentive listening, and careful observation. That's why it's important to approach a job interview more as an attitude audition than a question-and-answer period around skills.

Here are ten key questions to help you better understand the intrinsic "why" and "how" behind a person:
1. What is the talk-to-listen ratio? You want people who are self-confident and not afraid to express their views, but if the talk-to-listen ratio is anything north of 60 percent, you want to ask why. Is it because this person is self-important and not interested in learning from others — or just because he is nervous and rambling?

2. Is this an energy-giver or -taker? There is a certain breed of people who just carry with them and unfortunately spread a negative energy. You know who they are. Alternatively, there are those who consistently carry and share a positivity and optimism towards life. There is a Chinese proverb that

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Best and Worst careers to take a loan for.

Many university graduates dream of the day they’ll finally clear their Helb loans. Some students enrolled in the parallel degree program also take loans to finance their studies. So, which careers are the best, careers that promise a return on your investment? Which careers are the worst in which to take a loan against? Here are some of the careers we sampled. (Disclaimer: This is merely an opinion and not expert advice).

Best:

Advertising and marketing.
College grads going into advertising and marketing can pay off their loans in a few years. While not all marketing graduates will get top level pay, marketing majors can start working right after they’re done

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5 Best internships in Kenya.

The Kenyatta administration has said that it will offer tax rebates to companies that offer internships to young Kenyan graduates that are just out of university. So, which are the Kenyan companies to intern at? Here are five of the best.

1. Bamburi

Want to get lots of experience plus a little pocket money on the side? Then Bamburi is no doubt the place to be. It also encourages female interns to apply, especially in the technical and engineering fields.

2. Google.

Google is known to offer generous monthly stipends, plus you get to go to work in jeans and T-shirts,

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10 Great Hidden Careers for 2013 and Beyond

Most people limit their career choices to the well-known: doctor, lawyer, or engineer. Here are 10 professions that are not only underappreciated, but that offer advantages over the more traditional careers. Here are ten careers that you might want to re-look again and advise someone to pursue.

1. Kindergarten-ECD- teacher. Parents are forking gazillions for their children to study in top notch private kindergarten schools. Whilst in our generation nursery school wasn’t something our parents thought much about, these days it’s different. The fee for top kindergarten schools easily outstrips the fee for many primary schools, and quality teachers at this stage of a child’s development are hard to

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5 Career Tips for Women; Lessons from Facebook’s most powerful woman employee.

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's No. 2 executive and outspoken voice on the obstacles women face in the corporate world, offers a blueprint for change in her new book "Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead."

1. Sit at the table.
Plagued by self-doubt and "feeling like a fraud," women consistently underestimate themselves and their abilities, Sandberg writes. For a host of reasons, women often hold themselves back by literally not sitting at the table where decisions are made. Instead, they choose to watch from the sidelines. She urges institutions and individuals to encourage and promote women. And she encourages women to sit at the table and raise their hands. Men are already doing it, after all.

2. When negotiating, "Think personally, act communally."
Preface salary negotiations by explaining that you know women often get paid less than men, so you are going to "negotiate rather than accept the original offer," she writes. This way, women can position

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5 Jobs in which Shy People could Excel.

So, you keep to yourself, and are introverted. Small talk. Schmoozing. Networking. Buzz words like these can send shy people into a panic.
The good news is that there are careers out there that don't necessarily require tons of chit-chat or after-hour networking.

Then, these careers are likely to be the best fit for you.

1. Accountant.

Sitting behind a computer crunching numbers isn’t exactly going to endear you many people, it is? Striking small talk in the loos with fellow colleague from the marketing department will most likely be a

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Medicine, engineering students to pay higher fees.

Public University students will no longer pay the same fees in three months time, The permanent secretary for education, Joseph Kaimenyi has said. Previously, all students in the regular degree programs would have paid the same amount of fees, regardless of how cost intensive their course would have been. The new system of payment, known as’ differential unit payment’ will see fees for medicine students rise by as much as five times, if figures from parallel degree programs are anything to go by.

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Five Career Lessons from Big brother the Chase.

While many view the big brother Africa Chase game as pure entertainment, the reality is that it’s a game about power. It’s a game of love, of betrayal, of scheming, of pain, of bitterness, all enroute to the prize of $300,000 (kshs25 million). Here are five career lessons from big brother.

1. Strategy.

When Denzel from Uganda was evicted, he said that he wished he would have hidden his strategy, so he wouldn’t be seen as a threat. Strong candidates are likely to be nominated by their fellow housemates for being a ‘threat’, while weak housemates are likely to be nominated by their fellow housemates for being ‘boring’ and not bringing anything to the table. Just like in an office, a strong

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How to improve your job prospects as a college student.

It’s that time of year when college students pack up their dorm rooms and head home for the holidays. With their eyes focused on next September, they put together a resume and pound the pavement to find a job — ANY job.

Many of these jobs will be a less-than-enjoyable means to an end so that students can scrape together enough money for next semester. If your holiday job doesn’t fit your idea of the perfect job and it’s easy to adopt the mindset “I just need to get through the next few months and I won’t have to do this ever again.”

It’s easy to take a short term view, but I’d like to reframe what you think of that summer job and how you can use it to help you improve your future job prospects.

Think further ahead
Think about what will happen in your life when you graduate from college in just a couple of years:

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The right keywords to use on your CV.

Getting a job is hard anywhere in the world the days. Despite all manner of advice we receive on how to get a job, there is simply no one way of getting a job. Stellar grades might work; powerful networks might work, so too is exemplary work and leadership skills. However, increasingly, the all important reason is that your CV doesn’t have the right keywords.

Companies’ nowadays automate the CV screening process by using specialized software to look for certain keywords. These applicant-tracking systems, which are used by almost every large employer, score candidates based on rough measures like the number of keyword matches between a job

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The 10 Least Stressful Jobs of 2013.

Every job comes with stress, but some are just easier on the mind and body.
Career site CareerCast.com compiled a list of the least stressful jobs of 2013, comparing 11 factors like travel, public visibility, competitiveness, growth potential, deadlines and physical demands. The lower the score, the more relaxing the job.

Which jobs are the most laid-back?

1. University professor/ Lecturer
It’s true they have to create course work, give lectures, put in office hours, and grade hundreds of papers, but long summer vacations and seasonal breaks help wash away job-related stress. However, those looking to break into the field face serious competition, and teachers without the comfort of tenure may feel a bit more on edge.

2. Seamstress/tailor
Tailoring is mostly a low-stress job in a quiet work environment, but that’s probably not so true for those sewing costumes for big-budget productions with strict deadlines. However, CareerCast

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5 Things That Could Hurt Your Career- But You Didn’t Know.

Some of the ways you could damage your career are obvious - poor work performance, shouting at your boss and stealing from the company are all pretty well-known career-harmers. But there are less obvious things you might be doing that can also damage your career without you realizing it, and they're worth paying attention to.
Here are five ways you might harm your work progression that might not be so obvious.

1. Staying at one job for too long. You might think that loyalty to an employer would be valued, and it is, but there's also a point where staying too long at one company can raise questions for future prospective employers about how you'll adapt to new environments.
(You can combat this, however, by demonstrating adaptability: Showing a progression in responsibilities and job titles, and finding other ways to show that you're flexible, open to change and don't have an insular viewpoint.)

2. Being too good at something you don't like. In general, the better you are at something, the more

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10 Highest-Paying Blue-Collar Jobs

We tend to associate hefty paychecks with briefcases, neckties and lab coats – but it turns out there’s plenty of money to be earned by those who sport hard hats and coveralls.
This may be surprising, but plenty of talented and skilled blue-collar workers earn six figures doing electrical work, repair jobs, and other labor-intensive trades.

What defines a blue-collar job? The American Heritage Dictionary says, “Of or relating to wage earners,

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Rapelang Rabana, Forbes Top 30 under 30. Founding Partner, Yeigo Communications.

Rapelang Rabana has been listed on Oprah’s 2012 ‘O’ Power List, mentioned by CNN and is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper, all before the age of 30. A founding partner of Yeigo Communications, developer of some of the earliest mobile phone VoIP applications, shared her experiences and insights with Ventures Africa Woman in an interview. Here’s what she had to say:

 VW: Could you start by telling us a bit about yourself?
RR: I have been able to live in 3 cities thus far in my life and seen very, very different ways of life. I lived in Gaborone, Botswana, then Johannesburg and now Cape Town. I did most of primary school in Gaborone (Botswana), and then proceeded to Johannesburg to complete my primary and secondary schooling. I matriculated in 2001. Cape Town became my home when I came to study at the

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Opinion: Why President Kagame runs Rwanda like a business.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

In some circles, President Kagame is regarded as a hero, who has transformed the Rwandan economy. In other circles, he is regarded as an authoritarian leader who has suffocated dissenting voices. Here is an edited interview conducted by Harvard Business Review about his leadership style in Rwanda.

Clearly you've been very interested in getting outside input from the business community. And yet you bristle at getting it from the multilateral community.

President Paul Kagame: If you want to learn anything about a country, I think you need to ask the one who wants to make investment in that country. The one who is thinking about the risks involved. They're thinking about the return. If somebody comes to your country and says, "You know, this is a place to invest," actually that is a good place. You see?

But if you send someone and say, "Go on, look and find for me something that is at fault," in any place

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Vast majority of Job candidates lie in interviews- New study shows.

81 percent of people lie in about themselves in job interviews, a new study by the University of Massachusetts shows. The more extroverted candidates were more apt t tell lies and untruths. When the job requirements were more technical, deception decreased, because applicants ere trying to compensate for their lack of job required skills. On average, job candidates tell about 2 lies per a 15 minute interview.

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Eight ways to make your internship experience great.

A great internship could be a great learning experience, helping you learn invaluable skills, as well as build a good network that will help you get a job, and build a great career in future. Here are eight ways your manager can contribute in making your internship experience great.

The manager should take you for lunch on the first day. It's the right thing to do and it sets the right tone, messaging that your manager is excited to have you on board. It will also give you a chance to get to know one another. Even better, the manager could invite some of her colleagues along.

The manager should set aside one hour to talk about her upcoming projects. The manager should give an overview of the organization and detail what your first assignment will be. Moreover,

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Opinion: Kenya’s university double-intake a complete mess.

By Mutai Eric: Standard newspaper:

The move by the Ministry of Higher Education and the Joint Admissions Board to admit to university two groups of candidates in the year 2011 was initially plausible, but just two years down the line; it has proved to a worse experiment on the 8-4-4 system.

What is the need of joining university a year earlier for only one academic year then go for more than one-year break?
This is exactly what is happening in our public universities, forcing one to take more than the stipulated years to clear their studies.

Needless to say, this has also led to overstretching of already limited resources.

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