Key Technologies Featured in Office Management Training

If there’s one person who can be considered the “hub” of an office, it’s the administrative assistant. These professionals are typically in charge of doing all the daily activities that keep an office running.Woman typing at computer
According to a survey by the International Association of Administrative Professionals, the biggest self-identified need in administrative assistant training is technology applications. That means, more than ever employers expect administrative assistants and executive secretaries to be tech savvy. The Office Management associate degree and Office Administration Assistant diploma program provides students with courses that focus on key technologies used in the field. Having a foundation in these technologies is important for improving employability skills. Check out the list below and see if you measure up to succeed as an administrative assistant or executive assistant.

Hardware

Mobile devices – From smart phones to tablets, knowing how to operate a variety of mobile devices is important as an administrative assistant. Many executives rely on these devices to keep track of appointments, record ideas, communicate with their teams and basically run day-to-day operations so using one will become just as much part of your job.
Telephones – While the days of large, old school switchboards are long over telephone technology can still be complicated. Being comfortable answering, transferring and forwarding calls is still a big part of the job. You’ll likely receive on the job training for any phone system but being able to approach it with confidence of understanding a variety of technology will help you learn the new system quickly.

Software

Microsoft Office – How familiar are you with Word®, PowerPoint®, Excel®, Outlook®, and Access®? You’ll likely use one of these programs, if not all of them daily, as an administrative assistant. Since the Microsoft Office Suite is critical to many business functions, consider getting a Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) certification as a way to demonstrate your abilities to potential employers.
Cloud computing – Many companies are using cloud computing software so employees can access programs and applications over the internet. As an administrative assistant you’ll need to have a basic understanding of how these platforms work and the individual capabilities and features of the one your potential employer uses. Calendar software – Scheduling appointments for executives, managing shared calendars, and other calendar functions will likely be a big part of your job as an administrative assistant. To practice before you get a job or go back to school try creating a shared online calendar for your family and managing commitments like soccer games, parent-teacher conferences and diner with friends like you would manage meetings at a job.
Email – If your email skills are limited to your ability to forward funny photos of your sister’s cat, then you may need to upgrade before looking for a job. Email is a central function of any business. Understanding how to organize folders, set up automatic filters, build distribution lists and create tasks and reminders will help you do your job better.

Extra Credit

Learn to code – If you want to go above and beyond in your quest to be more tech savvy, learning to code can really help. Managing and updating the company website can sometimes fall on the plate of an administrative assistant, especially at smaller companies and non-profits. Having a basic understanding of code could position you as a stronger candidate for jobs. There are plenty of places to learn code online such as, Codeacademy, courses on Udacity, or Code Racer.
Be a life long learner – While it’s not a technical skill, having the desire to be a life long learner is key to keeping up with technology. The technology you use today in your job will definitely change in a year, three years and ten years. Employers value employees who are adaptable and willing to take on new challenges. If you remain open to learning new technologies, or even suggesting new platforms, so a company can run more efficiently you will increase your job security significantly. Getting administrative assistant training by going back to school to earn a certification or college degree, can help you learn the basics of these technologies and demonstrate to employers you have the knowledge and skills to do the job. Younger job seekers who have grown up with this technology may be more naturally inclined to understand how to use it. But older professionals who have experience in an office plus are technically inclined may be able to develop an edge in the marketplace.

Misconceptions of Online Education at Bryant & Stratton College

My husband is a self-professed, non-reader. He was never terribly fond of school, or writing or homework. But, he knew if he was going to advance in his career he had to earn a degree. His buddies convinced him that an online college would be easier. There would be less work, less reading, less writing, they claimed. And, no traffic to travel to class! They were right about the traffic. It seems there are a lot of misconceptions about online degree programs.
“People think it is going to be easier than traditional campus classes,” says Ricky Braun, Admissions Manager for Bryant & Stratton College Online Education. “But the curriculum is identical to our other 19 campuses.
“People may think they are going to come and glide through but that’s definitely not the case,” he says.
So, why the confusion? People make a lot of assumptions. Here are the facts for Online Education at Bryant & Stratton College
Tests: While they are often not proctored, and are open book, they are not easy. Generally, exams consist of essay questions, not multiple-choice questions.
Class participation: While there may not be any public speaking, students at online schools are often expected to participate in discussion forums. Students aren’t graded not just on how often they log in but also by the depth and understanding they demonstrate in their posts. At Bryant & Stratton College, student’s attendance in class is tracked through their activity and participation in the discussion board in their classes.
Lectures: Every instructor at Bryant & Stratton College will post a text-based lecture to their classroom. This means you don’t need to be in front of your computer at any specific time and there’s no worry about having to rewind to get proper notes written time and time again. Like with book reading, some additional assets and supplemental study materials may be video or audio assets, but that varies on a class-to-class and week-to-week basis, just like a traditional classroom.
Books: Bryant & Stratton College uses real, physical textbooks which are mailed to students for each semester. Often, supplemental reading will be provided via e-mail or other electronic means, giving students the information right at their fingertips through the online classroom.
Professor office hours: There are a number of ways to contact instructors at Bryant & Stratton College. Every instructor will provide students with an email address and each classroom also features a questions forum, which instructors monitor regularly and are required to reply to when questions are posted. Additional contact methods will vary by instructor but will include options such as Skype or other instant messaging services. Those methods typically are used for office hours each week. So, while there are differences in terms of traditional methods of communication, online classes at Bryant & Stratton College are very similar to attending class in a traditional class setting. But that doesn’t mean the program is without its perks.
Benefits of Online Education
Flexible class times: Most adult students work during the day or have responsibilities like caring for their family. Most traditional universities don’t offer the same variety of classes at night that daytime students enjoy. Online students go to school when they can, no matter what time the clock reads and have access to the same variety of subjects and classes. Each class at Bryant & Stratton College Online runs from Sunday to Saturday and students have 24/7 access to their courses. This means you can log in and access your classes at any point during the week.
Well-planned assignments: At Bryant & Stratton, students generally have a week to complete homework. Some work is assigned on the first day of the class week while others will come up in the middle of the week. However, students will have a course calendar that illustrates every assignment, reading, test and quiz that will make up the program. Still worried about the workload at an online college? Bryant & Stratton College administers placement tests to every student before they enroll in classes so they are not placed in a math or English class that is above their current level. The placement tests set students up to succeed in classes that allow them to progress. Additional support through our academic advising team and career services is available to all students, ensuring success in the classroom and beyond.
Student Support
Student Services: New students are each assigned a personal academic Success Coach for their first semester to help reinforce positive academic practices for new students. After their first semester students will begin to work with a new academic advisor for the remainder of their degree.
Career help: Upon graduation, you don’t have to road trip back to your alma mater for help building career connections. Bryant & Stratton College’s career services help graduates fine tune their interview skills, resume, portfolio and cover letter, even for students in remote locations. For students like my husband, what this all means is that there is no easy road to earning a degree. For students at Bryant & Stratton, however, that road is a little less bumpy.
“A lot of our students are working full-time and have children. Gas prices are high. Once you put the kids to bed, it’s a great time to get class work done. That’s why online school is so popular,” Braun says. “It is so flexible.  We’ve eliminated the commute, the stress and the childcare.”

Job-Seeking? Identify What Problem You Will Solve

One of the challenges of rethinking our careers these days is how to most effectively position ourselves with a potential employer for maximum opportunity (okay, first to get hired, then for maximum opportunity!). In other words, you and your outstanding skills are the solution to the problem or challenge they face.
Whether you’re writing a cover letter, tailoring a resume, or preparing for a job interview, think about how to demonstrate and document your problem-solving track record.career change arrow street sign The problem or pain point could be as simple as “we need someone reliable who can learn our system quickly and replace the employee we just promoted.” Or it might be “we need someone who knows how to turn our print content into interactive media for our website.” Or perhaps it’s “we need someone who not only understands how healthcare clinics work but also speaks Spanish to help us effectively support the healthcare needs of our growing number of Latino patients.”
Your job is to learn, from the job posting and doing as much research on the organization as possible, what problem, challenge, or opportunity the organization is trying to address through the posted position, and then focus entirely on the value you bring that will help them successfully do so. Basically, your communications should showcase four things:
You have the skills, expertise, and track record necessary to fix the problem This can include education, credentials, work experience, and/or volunteer projects that relate to the challenge the company needs to address. Whether in your resume, cover letter, or interview, your communications need to be about the professional value you bring that lets you help the company resolve its “pain points.”
You deliver results:  Prospective employers pay attention when you can point to quantifiable results from work you did (solutions you provided). Being able to say that you increased customer retention by 15% or contributed to a project that came in 20% under budget or achieved some other measurable positive result means that you have a track record of delivering actual results. How to frame this? Companies generally focus on three bottom-line benefits: an increase in revenue, a decrease in costs, or an increase in satisfied customers. If you’re able to point to achievable results in any of those areas, make sure potential employers know it. And if you’re a student without any applicable job history to point to, then be ready to discuss how you would become their solution based on the knowledge and insights you’re gaining in your program.
You learn fast  Almost any new job is going to involve a learning curve where you’re trained on existing systems, processes, and practices. The faster you can master these and actually start producing value (that is, being the solution), the happier the company. So be sure to highlight any experiences that demonstrate how you quickly mastered new information and were able to apply that knowledge in previous situations. And if you’re a student, talk about what you’ve learned about how you learn in your classes that will enable you to “learn on demand.”
You’re easy to work with and will fit in with – rather than disrupt – their team  In terms of being that great solution, think “seamless transition.” Make it clear that your great people and team skills have helped drive successful solutions in the past, and will do so now as well. So, what problems do your skills and expertise solve?

Advice for First Time Online College Students

Starting your online degree program on the right foot is important. Luckily, Bryant & Stratton College Online requires all new students to complete the First Year Experience Program. This program is designed to give you a support system that will help you succeed in your college years and beyond.
Here are more tips on how to succeed during your first year of college:
Know your college support team: Academic Advisors and Instructors
Academic advisors and instructors can be a big part of your support network at college, so get to know them well. New students at Bryant & Stratton College Online will work with a personal academic success coach throughout their first semester. This relationship is key for the first semester as new students have the opportunity to lean on their success coach for guidance when needed. After your first semester a student will continue to work with an academic advisor specific to the degree program they’re pursuing. Academic advisors can tell you which courses you need to take to graduate on time and may help you save both time and money. Instructors on the other hand are a great resource for individual class help. When you establish a good relationship with your instructor you’ll have an easier time asking questions and getting the help you need to excel in a class. Instructors can also serve as great references for job opportunities or networking opportunities.
Buckle down:
Just because you are taking classes online doesn’t mean that you can skate by without putting in the effort. Log into your classes, stay on top of discussions and create plans to complete class assignments. If you’re juggling a job or family responsibilities there may be a time when you need to ask for an extension, your instructor will be more likely to grant that request if your are a student in good standing.
Ask questions:
Don’t wait to ask for help if you find yourself falling behind or struggling with a course. Find classmates you trust to ask for help or reach out to your instructor. Bryant & Stratton College Online also offers tutoring services, online tutors and 24-hour access to our online library to help catch you up to speed.
Stay balanced:
It’s great to be focused on your academics, but you need to maintain a healthy, balanced lifestyle both in and out of school. Continue to do things in your life that make you happy, like exercising and spending time with your family and friends. Take care of all of yourself, not just your brain, in order to avoid overworking yourself and burning out.
Bryant & Stratton College Online is dedicated to helping students succeed in their first year of college and throughout their entire professional career. We’ve been preparing students for a lifetime of success for nearly 160 years. Call 1.888.447.3528 to speak with an admissions representative and get started today!

Explore Lifelong Learning Opportunities in Vermont

Do you want to try yoga, cooking or art, but feel unsure about where to start?
It’s never too late to explore new interests and activities. Learning new things stimulates your brain, which is an important part of successful and healthy aging. You can keep your brain sharp and increase your longevity by pursuing new interests and activities.
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at UVM offers year-round courses and events for adult learners at UVM in Burlington and in eight Vermont communities, including Rutland, Brattleboro, and Newport.
The OLLI spring semester on the UVM campus begins Feb. 1. OLLI programs range from engaging lectures to language and art classes to group travel to domestic and international cities.
“The concept of OLLI is peer-to-peer learning that is intellectually stimulating and engaging,” said Cathi Cody-Hudson, director of OLLI at UVM. Classes are taught by UVM professors, experts and local artists.
Whether you’re interested in classes or lectures about cooking, art, yoga, technology or foreign policy, lifelong learning has many benefits. Through lifelong learning, you can:
  • Keep your mind sharp
  • Meet people with common interests
  • Improve your memory
  • Increase your self-confidence
  • Enhance skills you already have
Programming for the 2014 spring semester includes the “Great Decisions” lecture series at UVM, which focuses on foreign policy issues facing the country today – including energy independence, food and climate, Turkey’s challenges, and relations between the United States and Israel. The lectures are held on Saturdays in Burlington between Feb. 1 and March 1.
More than 25 classes and tours are held at UVM this spring, and dozens of lectures are planned in communities around the state. The program also hosts at least one trip each year to a domestic or international location. The program has hosted recent excursions to Quebec City, Alaska, and Oaxaca, Mexico.
“As we age, it’s so important to explore our interests and stay curious,” said Cody-Hudson, who assumed the role of director on Jan. 1. “Lifelong learning and interacting with our peers is what keeps our minds active and healthy.”
UVM is one of more than 117 colleges and universities in the United States that provide lifelong learning opportunities to adults age 50 and over through OLLI. In 2002, UVM received funding from the Bernard Osher Foundation to establish eight sites around Vermont, the first being in Rutland. Additional funding received in 2010 supported the start of a campus-based OLLI at UVM.
“The people who take our classes and come to our events benefit in so many ways,” Cody-Hudson said. “OLLI is an opportunity for people over age 50 to come together, socialize, and try something new in a rewarding, fun, and economical way.”
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Global Skills: Preparing Grads for Today’s Job Market

By Gregory Dunkling
There is much media coverage highlighting the demands of today’s global economy, and the 21st century skills that college graduates need to succeed in today’s job market. Top economists and corporations around the world agree that one of the most threatening factors on world economies is a shortage of globally-competent workers. More than ever, whether you are in the United States or abroad, international work experience is highly valued.
It’s interesting to compare the high unemployment rates for college graduates and, at the same time, read about businesses who have jobs available but unable to find job seekers with the right skills to fill these positions.
In the Job Preparedness Indicator Survey prepared by the Career Advisory Board for Devry University, employers indicated one of the key gaps is in “Global Outlook.” Defined as one the top five attributes they seek in an employee, many companies also report that entry job applicants too often lack this experience and skill.

There are varying definitions of Global Skills, but most definitions include the following characteristics:

  • Global communication skills – Being able to communicate across cultures, including foreign language proficiency.
  • Global insight – Understanding and acceptance of different cultures, religions, economies, governments, and global issues.
  • Self-initiative – Capacity to take risks and not stand on the sidelines.
  • Global perspectives – The ability to communicate one’s own perspectives as well as the perspectives of others.
While any internship experience is better than no experience, limiting yourself to domestic internship opportunities may not offer the best professional training to compete against other graduates.
Global outlook and competency really require that individuals leave their home country and gain exposure in a foreign work environment and culture. Committing to this experience may mean a larger investment in time and money, but considering the very small percentage of students who participate in foreign internships, it could mean much higher returns.

Consider the following when exploring domestic or internship internships:

  • Students with internships are in demand…73.7 percent of employers prefer to hire candidates with relevant work experience (NACE 2012 Job Outlook).
  • Students with global internships have better odds of getting hired…42.3 percent of students with an internship experience receive at least one job offer versus 30.7 percent of students without an internship.
  • Students with internships make more money…the starting salary for students with an internship experience is over 20 percent higher.
How can universities best assist students in gaining this valuable global experience and perspective? And from the student perspective, what are the greatest barriers for gaining access to global internship opportunities?
Gregory Dunkling is chair of the Global Team at University of Vermont Continuing and Distance Education, which manages UVM’s faculty-led programs abroad. Greg has worked with UVM faculty to establish UVM’s Oaxaca and Belize semester abroad programs, and focused on developing and leading programs in China for the past six years.

Public Health Careers on the Rise. UVM’s Masters in Public Health Mets Demand.

Health care is experiencing dramatic growth in the number of jobs. As the U.S. population ages, more health professionals are needed, especially in the field of public health.
Growing public awareness of chronic disease prevention also is contributing to an increased focus on jobs that promote health. Finally, global health – in which health care professionals help prevent and respond to health issues and crises in developing countries – is an area with increasing job opportunities as well.
All told, students graduating with degrees in public health face many possible career choices and opportunities. Which public health careers are experiencing the most growth? Here are three of the fastest growing jobs in public health over the next decade:
  • Biostaticians: With a 14% increase projected by the BLS, biostaticians – who gather data and oversee surveys – face many job opportunities. A master’s degree is usually required.
  • Epidemiologists: Working in health departments, universities, laboratories and out in the field, may collect samples, conduct interviews and laboratory analysis, and analyze data to prevent disease and investigate causes of disease. A 24% increase in jobs is projected by the BLS. This job requires a master’s degree but starting with a Certificate of Graduate Study in Epidemiology is a good place to begin to explore this field.
  • Careers in global health: As federal and private funding increases for ever-growing and increasingly complex global health concerns, so do the jobs. Professionals in this field work with organizations and agencies dealing with disaster relief, immigrant/refugee health, maternal and child health, bioterrorism, disease prevention and more. They may work for non-governmental organizations (NGOs), research and academic institutions, governmental agencies, lending agencies, foundations, public-private partnerships, development banks or United Nations agencies such as the World Health Organization. Top jobs at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control – including epidemiologists, microbiologists, occupational health specialists, health education specialists, public health advisors, health scientists and more – all can be found in the area of global public health

What to Expect for a Salary in Health Care Administration

What can you expect for a health care administration salary? As the American population ages over the next decade and beyond, jobs in health care and social services will expand, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). With that comes burgeoning growth in health care management jobs – in hospitals, clinics, practitioners’ offices, home health care, health maintenance organizations, the pharmaceutical industry and more.
Salaries are expected to grow as the field of health care expands. The most current salary information for health services managers shows yearly wages ranging from $53,940 to $150,560 in the United States, with the mean annual wage at $98,460, the BLS reports.
“Earnings of medical and health services managers vary by type and size of the facility and by level of responsibility,” according to the BLS’ online Occupational Outlook Handbook. “For example, the Medical Group Management Association reported that, in 2010, median compensation for administrators was $86,459 in practices with six or fewer physicians; $115,000 in practices with seven to 25 physicians; and $150,756 in practices with 26 or more physicians.”
Health care administrators are not only found working in clinics, hospitals or practitioners’ offices. They also are employed in a number of other industries, from computer networking to pharmaceutics.
The BLS reports the health care administration salary (the mean annual wage) by industry in this way:
  • Computer systems design and related services: $146,160
  • Pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing: $142,210
  • Drugs and druggists’ sundries merchant wholesalers: $136,690
  • Navigational, measuring, electromedical and control instruments manufacturing: $135,500
  • Data processing, hosting and related services: $134,280
  • Specialty hospitals (excludes psychiatric and substance abuse hospitals): $112,830
  • Medical and diagnostic laboratories: $105,190
  • General medical and surgical hospitals: $104,680
  • Physicians’ offices: $97,330
  • Psychiatric and substance abuse hospitals: $95,380
  • Outpatient care services: $94,720
  • Home health care services: $88,670
  • Nursing care facilities: $82,240
In northern New England, here’s what you can find for a health care administration salary overall (mean annual wage), according to the BLS:
  • Vermont: $89,980
  • New Hampshire: $95,140
  • Maine: $85,430

Summer College Gives High School Students a Head Start

Updated December 18, 2018
High school students or graduates may earn college credit in one or more courses alongside peers and undergraduates. UVM offers entry level courses both on campus and online year round in a variety of subject areas in our pre-college summer programs.
UVM’s Summer Academy is a two-week on campus, two-week online residential or commuter program, designed exclusively for 11th or 12th-grade high school students. Summer Academy gives students the opportunity to learn what college life is like, while getting a head start on their college career and earning valuable college credit.
Student advisors at UVM’s Continuing and Distance Education, talk about what high school students can gain by taking college courses in a summer pre-college program.
Q: Can you first explain the basics of a summer college program for high school students?
A: A summer college program, also known as pre-college, gives high school juniors and seniors an early start by helping them experience the challenge of a college-level course while earning college credit.
High school students may explore career fields with professors who are leading experts, enroll in classes with other students, and earn transferable college credit.
Q: What are some of the benefits of summer college for high school students?
A: There are so many ways a summer college or pre-college program can help prepare high school students for success. Here are some of the most compelling reasons:
Get a preview of campus life. Gain insight into campus culture, student life and the opportunity to interact with other college students.
Ease the transition to college life. Socialize, make new friends and be away from home for an extended period of time. This can also can serve as a stepping stone to the transition of going away to college.
Test the school out. Some students find it difficult to choose a college. Attending a pre-college program, especially on-campus for two weeks, gives high school students a sense of whether the school is a good fit.
Assess college readiness. Get a sense of what will be expected in a college course.
Make a positive impression on admissions officials. Successfully completing a college course is a way for students to signal to university officials that they are ready for college-level work.
Explore new material. Students can try out a new subject area, such as Adventures in Neuroscience or Storytelling with Words and Photographs, possibly discovering a career field they can be passionate about.
Cut college costs. High school students will receive a 50 percent reduction of in- and out-of-state academic year tuition during the summer.
Also, Vermont’s statewide dual enrollment program for high school juniors and seniors allows students to access two college courses with tuition fully reimbursed. For example, students save money by taking a credit bearing course and then transferring those credits to their four-year school, including UVM.
Q: Can you tell us specifically about UVM’s summer college program for high school students?
A: UVM’s summer pre-college program for high school students was established in 2004 and has attracted more than 3,700 students from Vermont, New England and beyond. UVM offers more than 100 online and on-campus courses for high school students in the summer and throughout the academic year.
We also offer Summer Academy, a four-week program where students are part of a learning community and participate in off-campus and on-campus activities. Summer Academy has both residential and commuter options, and includes an online component.
Q: For students who will be on campus, what is there to do in Burlington?
A: Burlington is absolutely one of the best places to spend the summer in New England. Locals and visitors alike enjoy shopping and dining on Church Street, biking the Island Line Trail, swimming in Lake Champlain, and attending a variety of events and cultural activities.
Burlington is a vibrant, engaging place with festivals, live music, bike paths, parks, and a thriving food scene. Burlington is located on the shores of Lake Champlain and is less than an hour from some of the best hiking and skiing in Vermont. The birthplace of Phish and Ben & Jerry’s, Burlington has been named the best college town in America by Travel + Leisure.
Q: When can students register?
A: Here are the following dates:
Pre-College Summer Courses: Registration begins in late February or early March.
Q: Where can parents and high school students learn more about UVM’s summer college program

How to Be a Strategic Leader

By Merryn Rutledge
Want to make your business sustainable? In order to do so, I think you must practice strategic leadership. In my UVM seminar on strategic leadership, I propose 12 capabilities of the strategic leader. Here’s a glimpse at two that contribute to making an organization that lasts.
First, I think a strategic leader has to be a visionary. “There are a lot more people who can take a hill than there are people who can accurately predict which hill it would be best to take…It is more likely that your organization will be outmaneuvered strategically than that it will be out produced tactically. Most organizations do pretty well what they do today. It’s what they need to be doing tomorrow that’s the missing skill” (Lombardo and Eichinger, 2000).
The visionary leader takes the organization on a journey, an adventure in success. I think of two of the many great leaders I’ve had the privilege of working with as an executive coach or change management consultant.
One, a leading voice in public health, has crisscrossed the nation building both the infrastructure and support for a level of quality assurance in public health institutions hitherto undreamed of. She inspires people with her vision of “the hill it would be best to take” for public health excellence.
Another such leader could “predict the hill it would be best to take” as soon as he became CEO. He saw that in order for his company to be a leader in the field, he had to refashion internal capacity. Seeing too much under-used talent and alarming turnover among middle managers, he first uprooted several iron-fisted lieutenants. Then he hired several senior leaders with a talent for leading others. Soon, younger managers were leading innovative, scalable projects that extended the organization’s reach, raised its profile and enhanced its finances. The CEO could devote more of his focus to a strategic imperative of “scouting” for priorities that would further extend the company’s leadership.
Both these leaders were able to survey a complex environment, internally and externally, spot “the hill,” and then infuse their organizations with energy and passion that said, “We are going places; join me – together, we are going to make a difference.”
Now think about Steve Jobs, with his boundless energy and passion to change the world through high quality, easy-to-use, and aesthetically beautiful technologies. Jobs could certainly “predict the hill;” in fact, he created several. At the same time, Jobs lacked a second strategic leader sensibility that I believe is crucial to sustaining a business.
Jobs chewed through people like a paper shredder. He saw and attracted talent, but he drove people beyond their limits, squeezed them by micro managing, and mercilessly berated them (Isaacson, 2011).
Better strategic leaders know that they will “take the hill” by getting and keeping smart, self-aware, principled fellow adventurers with strong management skills. Strategic leaders “get the right people on the bus,” as Jim Collins (2001) put it, and then inspire, develop, and support their initiative.
In Lombardo’s and Eichinger’s military metaphor, you don’t want to have to build a whole new army to take each hill. It’s much more efficient, much less wasteful, much more compassionate – and therefore more sustainable – to hire great people, given them what they need to be effective, stay in touch with them, and then let them fly.

Winter Session Helps Students Link Academics with Careers

By Jeffrey R. Wakefield
Perhaps the most endearing of the fanciful organizations that mock-sponsor A Prairie Home Companion (think the Catchup Advisory Board and the American Duct Tape Council) is the Professional Organization of English Majors, or P.O.E.M. The joke – gentle as it is, given host Garrison Keillor’s clear affection for the species and card-carrying membership in the club – lies in putting the words “English major” and “professional” in the same sentence.
That knowing wink at the career prospects of English majors wouldn’t sit well with Susanmarie Harrington, professor of English and director of UVM’s Writing in the Disciplines program.
Harrington just finished teaching a one-credit online winter session course called “Careers and English: What Next?” that made clear to the nine English majors in her charge that their job prospects – given the right preparation – were just fine, thank you.
“What an English major teaches you is that words matter,” she says. “I can’t imagine a world in which those skills aren’t important, but it does mean we have to be creative in figuring out how to talk about those talents to other people.”
Harrington’s course was one of 22 offered between Dec. 26 and Jan. 10 through Continuing and Distance Education — covering majors from anthropology and computer science to areas of interest like public health, arts administration and the environment — that sought to help students marshal their academic interests and accomplishments in the service of determining an actual career direction and strategy.

UVM Alum Finds Rewarding Career in Actuarial Science

When Jeff Goulette was growing up in Shelburne, like most kids he never dreamed of becoming an actuary. In fact, he didn’t even know what an actuary was until he was 25.
In a serendipitous turn of events, the word “actuary” started popping up in his life – and at the right time, when he needed a change. After graduating from the University of Vermont with a political science degree in 2006 and working a couple of low-level jobs, “I decided I would like a more permanent job,” he says.
One day, his mother mentioned that his uncle, a doctor, was working with an actuary. Around the same time, Jeff read John Hodgman’s satirical depiction of actuaries at lunch in an Omaha steakhouse, “all pleased and prosperous-seeming, all eating the prime rib special.”
Tired of working for low pay, Jeff Googled “actuary” and not only learned more about the profession – which uses statistics and theory to analyze the financial impact of risk in areas like insurance and pensions – but also discovered that national publications consistently rank the career as one of the best.
“In the USA Today top job list, it was in the top three,” he says. “I thought, ‘Maybe I should look into this.’ I was getting sick of lower-level jobs and job hunts. It was good to find something that actually had prospects. The actuarial profession was one of the few areas that were expanding, and everything else was contracting. It’s a funny niche career that people don’t think about.”
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, actuarial jobs are expected to increase 27 percent over the next few years. CNNMoney reports that the profession has practically zero-percent unemployment. Other benefits: It’s a low-stress, highly paid (averaging more than $87,000) career, requiring only an undergraduate degree. And although actuaries must take a series of professional exams, they can be hired full time after passing the first two or three. After that, companies normally pay for their remaining training and exams.
Jeff realized he needed to take a few more college courses and study for actuarial exams. He discovered UVM Continuing and Distance Education’s Actuarial Science Sequence. Over two semesters, he took four courses – two of which covered material on the first two actuarial exams. He passed the two exams, then interviewed at two major companies. He landed a job with one of the world’s top actuarial firms – Aon Hewitt – in its Waltham, Mass., office, where he values pensions and makes projections for large, global corporations.
He quickly discovered why a career as an actuary is so appealing.
“It’s great. It’s not too stressful. I’m working with a lot of good, smart, hard-working people. I get good benefits and good pay, and it’s often casual dress,” he says. “Right now, I’m the low man on the totem pole, mostly number-crunching. But you can move up to project manager and client lead and handle a lot more responsibility. They place a lot of stock in talent retention and development. You can get all sorts of training. I’ve been encouraged to move up. Even when I first interviewed, I was told there is a lot of potential for growth.”

Seven Fun Things to Do This Summer in Vermont

Thinking about spending the summer in Burlington? We love Vermont in every season, but summer in the Green Mountains is hard to beat. Vermont is an ideal place to enjoy festivals, music, food, and the great outdoors. Whether you’re participating in a summer college program for high school students or taking classes in UVM’s Summer University program, there’s plenty of fun to be had this summer in Vermont.

Here’s a list of our seven favorite things about summer in Vermont:

Dining Outdoors Church Street

Church Street is the epicenter of Burlington, and for good reason. Visitors flock to the city’s brick and cobblestone pedestrian marketplace to enjoy a variety of locally-owned restaurants, food cart vendors, and cafes in the summer – including Leunig’s, Hong’s Chinese Dumplings, and Uncommon Grounds. Trust us, after enduring a winter of sub-zero temperatures, ice storms, and negative wind chills, dining outdoors in the warm sunshine while sampling local cuisine is a pretty outstanding experience.

Hiking Camel’s Hump

Vermont’s most distinctive and third highest mountain (4,083 feet) is the only one of Vermont’s high peaks to remain free from major human development. Start your ascent from Camel’s Hump State Park in Huntington and enjoy panoramic views at the summit of the Adirondacks, White Mountains, and Greens. The Long Trail, one of the oldest long distance hiking trails in the United States that was a model for the Appalachian Trail, runs along Camel’s Hump. Dust off those hiking boots and don’t forget your trail map.

Visiting Shelburne Farms

Established in 1886 by William Seward and Lila Vanderbilt Webb as a model agricultural estate, Shelburne Farms is now a nonprofit environmental education center and working farm whose mission is to cultivate a conservation ethic. Open mid-May to October, the 1,400-acre Shelburne Farms offers walking trails, a children’s farmyard, wagon tours, a cheesemaking operation and lodging at the Inn at Shelburne Farms. If you love wide-open spaces, historic barns, tasty cheese, and lovely views, put Shelburne Farms on your must-see list.

Biking the Island Line Trail

Built in 1900 by the Rutland Railroad, the former rail bed is now a popular Vermont bike path. One of the best parts of the trail is the Colchester-South Hero Causeway, a narrow stretch that crosses Lake Champlain. While biking (or walking) the 2.5-mile Causeway, you’ll see panoramic views as well as people fishing, swimming, and snorkeling on both sides of the Causeway. Another reason to bike the Island Line Trail is a chance to ride the Bike Ferry, which transports passengers and their bikes across a 200-foot gap in the Causeway near the southern tip of South Hero in the Champlain Islands.

Exploring The Notch

The opening of Route 108 through Smugglers’ Notch is a rite of spring in Vermont. This scenic road, also known as “The Notch,” winds through a narrow pass between Mount Mansfield, Spruce Peak and Sterling Mountain. Located near Vermont’s tallest peak, the route opens for the season once the snow is finally gone. The Notch has a unique feel with giant boulders, thousand-foot cliffs, and thick forests. In the spring, summer, and fall, thousands of visitors descend upon the Notch to hike, rock climb, and camp.

Taking a Dip in Lake Champlain

Known as the “sixth Great Lake,” Lake Champlain is 120 miles long, covering 435 square miles bordering Vermont, New York, and Quebec. The lake offers many access points for sailing, swimming, fishing, and kayaking. Visitors can also enjoy ferry rides, beach access, and lakeside resorts, including Basin Harbor Club and Tyler Family Resort. Lake Champlain is 400 feet deep in some places, which according to local legend, is deep enough to harbor our very own prehistoric monster, “Champ.”

Enjoying the Discover Jazz Festival

Burlington hosts the outstanding Discover Jazz Festival, an annual, week-long celebration featuring local talent and jazz. Established in 1983, the festival showcases incredible local talent with jazz legends from every corner of the globe. Performances are held throughout the city at indoor and outdoor venues, including Church Street, the waterfront, and the Flynn Theatre. Hands down, Discover Jazz is one of the best summer festivals in Vermont

Uganda Program Focuses on Public Health and Community

Ten University of Vermont students will get hands-on public health experience this summer when they travel to Uganda to work and study in the rural village of Kamuli, about three hours north of the capital, Kampala. They will pick up where UVM nursing students left off, working directly with community members on projects that improve public health and promote sustainable practices.
“Kamuli has many of the rural health problems and farms that we have in rural Vermont. It’s a great comparison for students,” says Sarah E. Abrams, Ph.D., R.N., who has taught undergraduate travel courses and conducted research in the area for several years. She is teaching the three-credit UVM course, Uganda: Health and Community in Rural Uganda (HLTH 295), scheduled for May and June 2014.
The course is designed for students from a wide variety of academic disciplines who want to explore global health issues and overseas development work.
“The goal for the summer program is to get students from different backgrounds helping with research and getting to know what it takes to make a program sustainable,” says Abrams, associate professor and associate dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences. “We will be looking at how the health of the community is affected by agriculture and the changing environment, by the economy, and by both the health care delivery system and the social structure.”
Students will work with Abrams on her ongoing “community participatory action research,” called as such because it promotes local empowerment. Students won’t tell Kamuli residents what to do; instead, villagers will gather data and decide what steps to take, and students will chip in as needed.
“Ultimately, what I want to happen is to work with the people of Kamuli on what they need, what they want, what’s lacking, and help them get to a better state of health and well-being from what they currently have,” Abrams says.
Through her research, she works closely with two non-governmental organizations (NGOs): the Vermont-based 52 Kids Foundation, which provides education and services to orphans, and Uganda’s Kamuli Area People’s Integral Development Association (KAPIDA).
“The partnerships with community members are really important to sustaining the efforts and building something the community owns that won’t go away when I leave,” Abrams explains. “From working with the community and working with an NGO in this area, we hope to resolve some of the basic issues of health.”
This summer, students will learn the ways in which water and sanitation, nutrition and air quality all have an impact on human health, especially disease.
“They will build fuel-efficient stoves to help women’s respiratory systems and also protect children from accidental injuries,” Abrams says. “The rural Ugandan women traditionally cook on an open fire, and they deforest their own properties to provide wood. The fuel-efficient stoves use charcoal. Because of how the stoves are built, they burn longer and they are vented outside, so that’s better for women’s lungs, preventing asthma and pulmonary diseases.”
The students also will learn about Kamuli’s lack of access to clean water; villagers must travel miles each day to government-built bore holes, which have been drilled and installed with a pump. “The children pump the water and then they carry it back,” she says. “That takes up to seven hours a day, so there are places where people still use groundwater, which is contaminated.”
Students will dig latrines to improve sanitation; in the past, they have created pits for composting. The compost boosts crops such as corn, squash and beans; as subsistence farmers, each family provides food for itself.
“We’re a great motivating factor,” Abrams says. “If you can get 10 students to help build these things, it can go much more quickly.”
Overall, the Uganda trip will help students “become more comfortable in examining culture and what effects culture has on health care,” she says. “The students get to understand what people’s health is like in sub-Saharan Africa; they learn about cooperation and international development; they get much more sensitive about cultural competency. What I stress to them is that the systems here in the United States work for here, not necessarily for Uganda. Maybe the Ugandans don’t have everything we do, but they do a pretty good job nonetheless.”
Whether they end up working overseas or in rural Vermont, the students who travel to Uganda will learn lifelong skills. “What is critical to me, regardless of whether it’s in Vermont or Africa,” Abrams says, “is the willingness to take people where they are, value them, and work with them as a community.”

Myers-Briggs: Knowing Your Type

The Washington Post reported in 2013 that the future looks unclear for the Myers-Briggs questionnaire – “the gold standard of psychological assessments” used by employees and business leaders alike to figure out how their personality styles mesh with others in the workplace.
But career consultant Markey Read says such reports are nothing new – and should not have any long-lasting impact on the popularity of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) instrument or the personality type theory that underpins it.
“MBTI is the most widely used instrument of its kind in the entire world, translated into more than 35 languages. It has a reach that is quite significant,” she says. “It’s a phenomenal door opener; it opens the door to conversation.”
A History of Myers-BriggsDeveloped by Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers, and based on Carl Jung’s theories of introverted and extroverted personality types, the multiple-choice questionnaire was purchased by the Educational Testing Service in 1962. In 1975, Consulting Psychologists Press (now CPP), a company founded by a Stanford professor, began publishing the indicator for wider application instead of its initial use as a research instrument.
An estimated 2 million people a year take the MBTI to determine their personality type: extroverted or introverted; sensing or intuitive; thinking or feeling; judging or perceiving. The result – ESTJ, INTP or 14 other combinations of the four areas – helps them explore which careers might be a good fit, how they connect with others, how they lead, and more.
As the MBTI enters its fifth decade, the third generation of the Myers-Briggs family has no interest in carrying on the family legacy, and psychologists continue to question the test’s validity, according to the Post article.
Exploring Your Personality TypeRead, owner of Career Networks in Williston, Vermont, has known the family for years and, like many other certified MBTI administrators, never expected the third generation to remain involved. She has used the MBTI for two decades; she became certified in 1994 and contacted CPP to begin offering certification training in Vermont. Over time, she has heard psychologists dismiss the test, but believes that has more to do with an internal debate over who should be allowed to conduct academic research.
“Here’s what’s true: Personality type works, and there’s tons of research,” Read says. “And more research is under way.”
Since Isabel Myers first began administering her questionnaire to medical students in the 1940s and assessing results, even more instruments have been developed to compete with the MBTI in ferreting out personality types.
Read could choose to administer any instrument – or none at all – in uncovering personality types, but she finds that most clients still ask for the MBTI, the most highly regarded.
“The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is simply a questionnaire that helps us understand what people’s personality types might be,” Read says. “Most people equate the actual questionnaire with the entire theory, but it’s important to separate them out. Personality type theory is a very rich and very alive community of people, and it’s international. When we can break MBTI apart from personality type theory, that’s when personality type will come into its own and people will fully understand the power of it.”
For now, Read emphasizes that the MBTI is not a test but “a descriptive tool. You’re not diagnosed with a type; it’s a discussion and a motivation. It’s an exploration, and it’s effective in helping determine our preferences, and our preferences happen to be in four areas: how we get our energy, how we gather information, how we make decisions, and how we orient to the outer world. And when we know those preferences, we can become more effective.”
Interpreting ResultsMBTI results should not be used to force someone down a career path he or she doesn’t want, Read says. “There’s nothing about your type that says you can’t do what you want to do,” she explains. “There are 16 personality types that I call 16 definitions of normal, and in those 16 definitions of normal, there is wide variety of expression.”
For example, an introvert can become a successful leader – just a different style of leader from an extrovert. “Whether you’re an introvert or extrovert has little to do with your ability to lead; personality type simply looks at your style of leadership,” Read says.
When taking the MBTI, it’s important to answer the questions as honestly as possible to get the most accurate snapshot of your personality type, she explains.
“Your personality type is just a good place to understand where you start out in the day,” Read says. “It helps you understand that you have a base from which you operate, from where you start, and then you move into all kinds of areas that require you to stretch or flex out of your preferences. Throughout the day, you have to get out of your ‘happy place,’ out of yourself, and interact with people, and that’s called communication. That’s where personality type comes into play, and we use that to talk about leadership styles, teaching styles, learning styles, training styles.