Client Work: The NSHSS Top 16 Preferred Employers of Millennials in 2016

The NSHSS Top 16 Preferred Employers of Millennials in 2016

(Client Work)

The National Society of High School Scholars (NSHSS) has published their 9th annual exploratory research survey on the emerging career and life aspirations of over 13,000 of the nation's highest-achieving millennial students and professionals in April of 2016. NSHSS hopes that the results of their survey will help them to continue their mission of providing relevant  scholarship and mentorship programs to over 1 million extraordinary young men and women around the world who might not have any other opportunities to reach their goals.  

One of the most valuable categories in the survey, The Top Preferred Companies, asked the participants to rank the top 200 companies they wanted to work for. The list revealed a lot of interesting changes in the career goals of young people since the first survey in 2008 and even showed a huge shift since the 2015 survey.

Some of the major highlights of the survey include the 3M Company, formerly known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, that made its debut on the list and beat Google out of last year's top choice and into second place. Participants continued to rank technology companies as their most preferred employers, with health companies and hospitals following closely behind. One other surprising debut to the top 200 companies was BuzzFeed, an American private internet digital media company that provides trending social and entertainment news.

The top 5 factors that the survey participants reported using in their preference choices included fair employee treatment, flexible work hours, career advancement opportunities, healthy work/life balance, and social responsibility. Employers can model the success of these high-demand, competitive employers by providing their employees with a work experience that values these top criteria choices.

The top 16 Preferred Companies for Millennials in 2016 are ranked in ascending order as follows:

1. 3M
2. Google
3. St. Jude Children's Hospital
4. Walt Disney Company
5. Local hospitals
6. FBI
7. BuzzFeed
8. Apple, Inc.
9. CIA
10. Amazon
11. Children's Healthcare of Atlanta
12. Health Care Service Corp.
13. Mayo Clinic
14. Microsoft
15. Nike
16. U.S. State Department

References:

Thurman, S. (2016). NSHSS Scholar 2016 Millennial Career Survey Results. National Society of High School Scholars.  https://www.nshss.org/media/71029/2016-NSHSS-Millennial-Career-Survey.pdf  

SAHM Separation Anxiety When Toddler Started Preschool

This article is aimed to address the under-discussed very real issue of separation anxiety that many stay-at-home-moms go through when their toddler begins preschool. There are many wonderful articles written on the topic of helping the toddler adjust, or aimed at helping a working mom transition from babysitters to preschool, but not a lot of very helpful information for the SAHM with no other young children in the house. I'd like to open a dialogue on the topic and share my own story as well as invite you to comment on yours.

I wasn't just any SAHM, I was very VERY over-attached to my premie 2.5 year old son when we discovered that he had delayed speech and social skills and were told that he should be enrolled in an education-geared early-preschool program. Prior to this moment, I was already debating on whether we would even enroll him into pre-school at all and had begun researching into the possibility of home-schooling. I was devastated. I felt so guilty for not having socialized him in some sort of play group. I felt even more guilty for having forced an unhealthy attachment with him and knew that it would be just as hard on him as it would be on me.

Neither he, nor I, do well with abrupt changes to our schedules so I knew that this new full-time preschool routine would have to be developed gradually. For whatever reason, I decided on a 30 day deadline to get us both ready for all of the new adjustments we would have to be making, especially with our very liberal sleeping and meal routine.

The very first thing we needed to tackle was our nap and sleeping schedule. I had already received the schedule from his pre-school and set out to get us prepared for it. This was no harder than any other parent's struggle to get their children on a reasonable schedule, except that we had been way too passive in making him sleep in his bed at a decent time. This alone took about 1 week of screaming and sleepless nights to get his wake-nap-bedtime routine into better shape. Of course there are still always ups and downs with illnesses and activities, but once we set more regular meal and snack times, a loose resemblance of a schedule sort of fell into place.

Getting him to nap and sleep alone on a schedule also helped to deal with the next issue at hand, separation anxiety. We were so close that I took him everywhere with me, including into the bathroom when I showered, to my my mental health counselor, and even my OBGYN. My counselor once pointed out to me that I was treating him very much like an anxiety comfort dog!

I knew that I had curated an unhealthy attachment with him and that it would cause him a lot of trauma if I didn't help ease him (and myself) into spending time apart. His daddy worked full-time days but had every evening and weekend off, so with his help we started to create more separation over the following few weeks. I spending a little more time away from him in the evenings and leaving him with his dad to go grocery shopping. It was really hard at first. The first time I had left him home to go to a store without him, I cried the whole drive and rushed home in a panic. Eventually it got a little easier, and I felt the benefit of having a little time to myself, and giving him more time to play with his dad without me trying to micro-manage their play time.

When we approached his official start day, I had already informed the day care that we would start with just an hour a day for the first week, then 2 hours the second week, and continue to gradually increase his stays until we worked up to the current schedule of four, 6-hour days a week. The entire ordeal of getting him used to being left there and getting me (and his dad) used to being able to just drop him off and rush off with him screaming will have to wait for another day. Let's just say, that even with my attempt to make things easier on us all, it was still a nightmare worst-case-scenario story full of screaming, pleading, and tears for us all. I could only imagine how much worse it would have been for everyone if we hadn't started making the adjustments early.

Well, I cannot believe it has only been 3 months now. He has grown and developed so much since he first started. He still doesn't like bedtime, and really hates waking up early, but now he actually gets excited about grabbing his backpack (of ninja turtles and dinosaurs) and heading off to school. He's talking a LOT and has become so sociable and outgoing. Our next milestone is to work on potty-training so that he can graduate from early-head-start and enter the preschool program.

Brr Baby It's Cold Outside! (Tips to get through winter school mornings)

For most parents, the early morning hustle to get the kids up and off to school is stressful enough. Bring on an icy, single-digit winter and the task becomes even more daunting.

A few simple changes to the night before routine can help make the mornings go a little smoother. Although I personally am lucky to be able to remember at least a few of these, I'm sure a more organized person could pull it off.

The Night Before Winter Morning Routine

1. Make sure the car is fueled up the night before. I may sound like Captain Obvious, here, but warming up your car in the morning is going to take a lot more gas than your normal routine. The absolute last thing you are going to want to deal with is a last-minute prayer rush to the gas station before taking the kids to school.
2. If you're a coffee drinker, and you're not normally a fill-the-coffee-maker-at-night kind of person, you might want to give it a serious thought. Wouldn't it be a nice change to be able to fumble your way to the coffee maker an only have to push a button because you took the time to get it ready the night before? Even better, of course, if you have one of those timed makers.
3. While you're getting the coffee set up the night before, you might as well get a head-start on the morning oatmeal prep; go ahead and pull out the bowl, spoon, measuring cup, and oatmeal packets.
4. Make sure to have all those extra layers of clothes, sweaters, coats, and gloves laid out the night before, especially if your closet is like ours and butts up to an exterior wall that gets a little chilly in the winter.
5. Do your last-minute check on the kids' homework and book bags and set them by the door. We don't have a lot of space in our small living room, so we use a cheap dollar store over-the-door hook for the sweater, coat, hat, gloves, and book bag.
6. And finally, go ahead and set that timer on your thermostat to start heating the house before the alarm clocks are due to go off. If you don't know how to set it, now is a good time to look up the user manual online. ***Makes mental note to look up my own.***

Preventing Winter Fires

Every winter, the number of house fires seems to increase compared to other times of the year. Is this due to the unfortunate timing during what should be a joyful time of year, or is there a proven increase in winter house fires and, if so, what can be done to prevent them?

The following links provide some interesting insight that warrant further review:

1. Keep Homes Fire Safe This Winter
2. ESFI Holiday Data and Statistics
3. The 8 Most Common Fire Hazards in the Home
4. Why Are There So Many More Fires Around The Winter Months and Holiday Season?
5. The “Four C’s” of Winter Fire Risks
6. Fire Safety Tips During Winter
7. 11 Ways to Prevent Christmas Tree, Holiday Decoration Fires
8. Holiday, Candle and Christmas Tree Fire Safety Outreach Materials
9. NFPA Put a Freeze on Winter Fires
10. Holiday Safety Tips: Preventing Fire and Electrical Hazards from Lights, Electric Decorations and Christmas Trees

Just to Pay For Gas

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A small debate early this morning left me wondering about the true and actual dangers of leaving a child in a running, unlocked car.

On one freezing cold December morning, a rather good father by all measures stopped at a gas station on his way to taking his toddler to his daycare center.

The father left the car running as he got out and ran his credit card through the pump reader. The reader didn't work, so he left his child in the unlocked, running, warm car to pay the cashier. He claims that because he could still see the car that his child was perfectly safe.

As soon as I heard the story, my memory raced back to several news stories of parents doing just the same sort of thing and then having their cars, along with their child, stolen within minutes:

• On April 26, 2016, a mother left her 11-month-old inside her unlocked, running car that was parked directly in front of the gas station entrance, and it was stolen right in front of her eyes;
• On August 24, 2016, a car was stolen from a gas station in Florida with a 1-year-old boy inside;
• On September 22, 2016, another unlocked, running car parked outside of a gas station was stolen with a 2-month-old baby inside.

While I have not yet found any documented statistics on just home many similar thefts occur, the number of articles published around the world are too numerous too mention.

So, no thank you. While the idea of fighting a cranky toddler out of his carseat and hauling him through a cold, icy gas station parking lot is not at all appealing, I'd rather endure that inconvenience than risk these nightmare scenarios.

Maybe next time, the father could have waited until after he dropped his toddler off or made sure he filled up the previous night.