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Even though I had a bachelor’s degree in journalism and three summer internships, I didn’t find a good-paying newspaper job right away. In fact, my situation got so bad after I graduated on Mother’s Day of 1996 that by fall, I found myself working the graveyard shift as a grocery stocker at Piggly Wiggly. The nightmare was made all the more Kafkaesque by all the “Shop the Pig!” announcements that blared every so often over the P.A. system – offending my sensibilities as an observant Muslim who doesn’t eat pork.
After a month or so at Piggly Wiggly, a school teacher job opened up, and I took it. A month or so after that, a friend called with an offer to work full time at one of the local newspapers. I’ve been in the news industry ever since. But that rough patch right before I became a full-time journalist reminds me that beyond all the hard work I did in college, at the end of the day it came down to getting a lucky break.
Jessi Streib, a sociology professor, has found through research with business majors and hiring agents that when it comes to the job search for college graduates, luck plays a much bigger role in finding a good-paying job than people may think.
“Employers regularly offer graduating students different amounts to do similar jobs,” Streib writes, “so it’s hard for the soon-to-be grads to develop a general idea about what they should be paid for the type of work they want to do.”
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Jamaal Abdul-Alim
Education Editor
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College graduates are often in the dark when it comes to hiring practices and salaries.
Chuck Savage / The Image Bank via Getty Images
Jessi Streib, Duke University
A new study finds that hiring practices, not a bachelor’s degree, may be the ‘great equalizer’ of opportunity for some soon-to-be grads.
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International
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Nakissa Jahanbani, Penn State; Daniel P. Colletti, United States Military Academy West Point
On June 28, Iranians will pick a new president. Relations with the West have been a key campaign issue.
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Health + Medicine
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Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, UMass Amherst
It’s a conundrum: While vaping can help some adults stop cigarette smoking, it also appeals to young people who may take up the habit.
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Sarah Leighton, University of Arizona; Kerri Rodriguez, University of Arizona
These dogs are trained to try to interrupt panic attacks and provide deep calming pressure to the people they’re matched with.
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Environment + Energy
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Annalisa Bracco, Georgia Institute of Technology
Coral reefs share genetic material across wide areas, with help from ocean currents. This ability is especially important during episodes like the mass bleaching currently occurring.
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Mathew Barlow, UMass Lowell; Jeffrey Basara, UMass Lowell
The June heat wave triggered warnings of a flash drought and caused a surge in ER visits. Many other countries have been facing extreme heat at the same time.
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Politics + Society
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Andrew Reeves, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis
Most efforts to project how well a candidate will do in an election are based largely on factors over which presidents have little to no control.
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Gábor Scheiring, Georgetown University
Economic insecurity is one factor that drives populism, a former politician from Hungary writes.
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Jacob L. Nelson, University of Utah
A study shows that Americans believe news organizations report the news inaccurately not because they are politically biased, but because they want to generate larger audiences and larger profits.
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Arts + Culture
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Andrea Luangrath, University of Iowa; William Hedgcock, University of Minnesota
Researchers used AI to analyze photos of Olympic medalists and found that bronze medalists appeared happier than silver medalists. A cognitive process called ‘counterfactual thinking’ may explain why.
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