Broadly, the engineer's job is to apply scientific and mathematical principles to solve problems and/or fill human needs. This can range from planning a bridge to sending a person in space to inventing medical instruments. Since an engineer's solution should be fully functional, economical, and compatible for human use, an engineer's job may also consist of testing for these many critical factors.Engineering is a field broken down into specialty areas, including but not limited to: Aerospace engineering, biomedical engineering, chemical engineering, electrical engineering, environmental engine... view article details

Most people think of games as fun entertainment. But searching for a job and getting hired is a game too, and it's one that many people have been playing for far too long in these tough economic times. And one of the big problems is many of the people playing don't know the rules.So says Skip Freeman, author of Headhunter Hiring Secrets: The Rules of the Hiring Game Have Changed...Forever, who is this week's Salary Talk guest. As a professional headhunter himself and president of an executive search firm, Freeman tells Aaron and Wendy the stunning truth: that many people don't know what they'r... view article details

Q. My performance review is coming soon, and I would like to learn more about the do's and don'ts of performance reviews. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.A. The review process is normally broken down into two parts. The first is spent discussing your overall performance during a defined 'performance period.' The second part of the process is how much you will receive based on your performance.I always advise managers that employees should never be surprised by their review. The purpose of a performance review is just that: to review an employee's performance. In other words, your manag... view article details

Q: I joined my current company (Pre-IPO) right out of school as a junior QA engineer testing our product. Over the last three years, I have moved from that position to one with key responsibilities while the company has gone from 30 people to 50. Although I have been given the responsibilities of a software project lead reporting to the CTO and supervising the work of the others, there has been no official change in my title. I have been given raises quite frequently, but am still getting paid less than those I supervise. This is mainly due to my low starting salary as I have been given approx... view article details

Two of the country's premier academic institutions -- the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University -- have joined forces to launch an online education initiative that might just 'reinvent education,' according to Anant Agarwal, president of the new program.Dubbed edX, the program is based on MITx, a similar initiative launched by the science and technology school earlier this year. EdX will act as a sort of umbrella organization, allowing participating institutions to offer free, online courses from their curricula. Harvard and MIT are the initial partners in the program, b... view article details

The rise of technology has led to growing concern over surveillance in the workplace. Monitoring employee productivity is not a new trend, but tech has given new breath to Orwellian skepticism about who is watching and listening – and to what extent. In many cases, surveillance policies are addressed in the onboarding process, but it’s important to be aware of the basic legalities and modern trends involved. Workplace Privacy: Legal Basics In the U.S., The Federal Privacy Act and Electronic Communication Privacy Act each address privacy rights at large, but there are no federal laws which expl... view article details

With the Labor Department reporting that the number of people receiving unemployment benefits is the highest it has been in seven years, is there such a thing as a “recession-proof” job? Probably not, but there are some careers that may survive the current economic crisis better than others. The key is to focus on work that continues even when most people do not have extra discretionary money to spend. So what are some in-demand jobs in a slow economy?Accountant Now more than ever, companies are paying attention to the bottom line. They need good “bean counters”, whether they are fres... view article details

Can You Learn from Your Cell? Back in the dark ages when cells were molecular and phones were for spoken communication, it may not have been simple but it was predictably segmented. Tasks were sequential, not simultaneous. People could disappear for minutes at a time and emails could languish undetected for whole afternoons when a recipient was off grid. Smartphone technology created expectations for increased and untethered productivity, because they allow us to engage in extreme multi-tasking. But, how well do you do it? Is your smartphone-ish office efficiency truly effective?Find ... view article details

New London topped our list with salary ranges above the national average, a low cost of living, and a low unemployment rate. Are you living beyond your means? Is your paycheck not stretching far enough? Perhaps you're even having trouble finding a job. Maybe it's time to jump a plane to one of the cities at the top of Salary.com's 'Salary Value' index. We found the top (and bottom) US metros for building personal net worth (taking into account local salaries, cost of living, and unemployment relative to the national average). Median base pay was correlated across more than 2,500 different benc... view article details

When Early Isn't an Option How does a night owl who arrives at work after noon each day succeed in his career?The first story in this series covers the basics about a type of circadian rhythm disorder called delayed sleep phase syndrome (also DSPS, or delayed sleep), which half a million Americans suffer. In the second story, a writer with delayed sleep says she felt like death holding down a 9-to-5 job, and ultimately felt better when she began freelancing. In this third story, you’ll meet Tom Lemmon, a software engineer at a top Internet company in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Lemmon, ... view article details