These Are the Most Popular College Degrees Earned by Millionaires

 

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This piece originally appeared on John A. Byrne‘s LinkedIn Influencers page.
Having a net worth of one million dollars may not be what it used to be. But it’s still a mark of success for those who are able to achieve it. Which college degrees helped to produce the most millionaires?

The answer to that question came out in a new survey and the MBA degree held up surprisingly well in the millionaire sweepstakes. The survey reveals that engineering degrees produce the most millionaires, followed by MBA, economics and law degrees.

The review, conducted by wealth management magazine SPEAR’s and consultancy company WealthInsight, assesses some 70,000 millionaires worldwide (individuals with over U.S. $1 million in assets–excluding primary residences), to reveal their most popular degrees and top-attended universities.

However, the results are slightly misleading: Many of those engineering majors made their millions in entrepreneurship, points out WealthInsight’s Oliver Williams in a statement. “…Interestingly, few of these degrees turn out to be outright vocational; Most engineering graduates, for example, are not engineers but entrepreneurs,” he says. “The same goes for most law and politics graduates, who owe their fortunes not to practicing their professions but climbing the ranks of the financial services sector.”

Predictably, business degrees dominate the list. “You would expect to see a high number of scientific or financial degrees in the top 10, like engineering, commerce and accounting. Numerical degrees are a notable advantage when it comes to amassing a personal fortune,” Williams points out.

The survey results also dispel the myth that college dropouts, such as Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, regularly make it to millionaire status. Roughly 1% of millionaires in the survey did not obtain a degree, meaning the other 99% clearly depended–at least in part–on a diploma.

Not surprisingly, Harvard University and Stanford University top the table for millionaires’ most-attended universities. University of California, Columbia University and University of Oxford round out the top five.

The U.S. claims nearly half of the millionaires’ 500 most-attended universities with 216 institutions on the list. The UK comes in a distant second with 42, followed by Canada and France with 27 universities, each.

SPEAR’s editor Josh Sepro explained in a statement that top schools equip their millionaires with more than academics: “The universities which dominate are exactly the ones you’d expect, not just because of the quality of the education but because of the self-confidence they instill in their students.

They also have strong alumni networks which give their students a leg up when they move into the world of work.”
For the full top 100 list of global universities visit SPEAR’s story.

Read more: The Most Popular College Degrees Earned By Millionaires | TIME.com http://time100.time.com/2013/11/11/these-are-the-most-popular-college-degrees-earned-by-millionaires/#ixzz2r8dRqmUf

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How are prepare for 2014 at work

Turn in all expense reports
Credit: Forbes

Whether you have a few days off or you’re working right through the holidays—there are a few things you’ll want to do around the office before 2013 comes to an end.

“Sometimes this depends on your industry or job, but I think all professionals–no matter their role–can use this time of worldwide renewal to do at least a little bit of wrapping up and preparing for the New Year,” says Sara Sutton Fell, chief executive and founder of FlexJobs.“This ritual is important because many of us are so busy that if we’re not given a specific time of year to do this, it may never get done.” And if we want to see real career progress and advancement, we have to take stock of where we’ve been and what we’ve done, so we know how to move forward, she says. 

Anna Sidana, the vice president of corporate marketing at BrightEdge, agrees that it’s necessary to end the year right at work. She says it is important to start the New Year with a fresh perspective, because this provides an opportunity to refocus on professional goals to ensure that you are expending your energies on projects that are going to make a difference and further your career. “Making a conscious decision to think about the New Year as a new beginning provides a natural milestone to reassess your career and its progress,” she says. “It is a chance to plan any changes and initiatives you might want to begin, however small.”

By wrapping up loose ends and projects, making any outstanding phone calls and addressing unresolved e-mails before the holidays, people can come back to the office with a renewed focus on the New Year, Sidana says.

“Taking the time to close the year out allows you to start the New Year off on the right foot, headed in the right direction,” adds Ryan Kahn, a career coach, founder of The Hired Group, star of MTV’s Hired! and author of Hired! The Guide for the Recent Grad.

Close out any outstanding projects. Your time off during the holidays is there for you to recharge and refresh. “Don’t leave loose ends or missed deadlines lingering over you,” Kahn says. “Spend the extra time now to make sure you can enjoy worry-free time off.” Plus, when you return to your workplace in 2014, you’ll have one less thing on your to-do list.

Complete all end of month/year reports. If you’re responsible for end-of-month or end-of-year reports, get those done before 2014, if possible, Sutton Fell says.

Turn in all expense reports.  This can be a challenge when recent charges have not been posted to the credit card—but try to make sure you’ve completed as many of your 2013 expense reports as possible, says Jay Canchola, an independent human resources consultant.

Set an out-of-office response on your voice mail and e-mail. This may seem obvious, but it’s often overlooked, Kahn says. “You may be on vacation, but others may not be. Don’t risk inadvertently damaging any relationships.”

Coordinate travel plans and contact information. In addition to your out-of-office reply, you’ll want to make sure your team, and especially your manager, are aware of your travel plans and know how to reach you in case of an emergency, Kahn says. “You should also get a sense of where they will be and how to get in touch with them. This will eliminate any potential stress or surprises heading into your time off — and also demonstrate responsibility.”

Update your professional profiles. Ensure your LinkedIn profile, résumé and other professional resources are up-to-date, especially if your New Year’s resolution includes searching for a new job, Sidana says.

List your accomplishments. Reflect on the last 12 months and make a list of your accomplishments, Sutton Fell says. “Quantify anything that you can, and be as detailed as possible. Include what you did, why you did it, who was affected by it, and how it benefited the company. This information can be used in the future, either during your performance review, when requesting a raise or promotion, or in your résumé when applying for new jobs.” And you should do it now because once the New Year begins, you might not be able to recall all the details.

Lay out your goals. On the flip side, make a list of what you hope to do in the New Year, Sutton Fell says. “These can be both for your current job and for your own professional edification.”

“Planning goals for yourself and your team gives you a head start when you return after the holiday,” Sidana adds.

Are there projects you want to be involved with, or tasks you want to take on? Do you want to take a class or join a professional association? “Write these down and post them where you’ll see them regularly, either in your office at work or even on your refrigerator at home,” says Sutton Fell.

Reinforce your network. The holidays are the perfect excuse to send out cards or check-in with contacts you may not have been in touch with as much you’d like to be, Kahn says. “If you missed the opportunity to send out holiday cards, consider sending out New Year’s greetings.”

Complete all benefits forms. The end of the year is often a deadline for employee benefit changes, so check with your HR department and make sure you have all changes completed and paperwork signed, Sidana suggests.

Give thanks. Acknowledge how others have helped you in your career over the course of the year, Kahn says. “Let them know that you appreciate their efforts.”

Get organized. Clear your desk and e-mail and voicemail inboxes. This way, if you do take a few days off during the holidays, you’ll return in 2014 to a nicely organized workspace—which can significantly reduce any stress.

Disconnect. Take the time to enjoy being on vacation (even if you only have a day or two off) and spending time with loved ones. If you can avoid checking your e-mail or phone messages, do it. You’ve earned a break, Kahn concludes. You’ll return to the office in 2014 feeling refreshed and ready for what lies ahead.

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AC/DC Battle Returns to Rock Data-Center World

The battle between AC and DC goes back centuries.

In the late 1800s, Thomas Edison fought viciously for DC (direct current) power, where the electrical current moves in a single direction. But fellow inventors Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse fought just as hard for alternating current (AC), which regularly reverses direction. Ultimately, Tesla and Westinghouse won this “War of the Currents,” thanks in large part to a massive AC hydroelectric plant built at Niagara Falls in 1889 that powered most of New York. But more than 120 years later, the argument has resurfaced inside the data center.

AC power continues to drive the modern data centers underpinning the world’s businesses and internet applications, with DC playing a supporting role. But DC power has long been touted as a way to reduce the ridiculous amounts of power consumed by these massive computing facilities, and a new study hopes to catalyze its widespread adoption.


The study comes from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), a not-for-profit based in Palo Alto, California, and it details a set of experiments performed at a data center operated by Duke Power in Charlotte, North Carolina. With their experiments, Dennis Symanski and his team tried to balance the power to the servers equally between AC and DC sources, performing multiple load tests on each, with equipment in various states of operation (on, off, idle).

The results of six different tests show that the DC power system exhibited an energy savings ranging from 14.9 percent (when all servers and storage arrays were run at full power) to 15.8 percent (when the servers were turned on, but idle). On average, DC improved efficiency about 15.3 percent over AC systems.

Today, direct current is used for massive trans-continental power lines, reaching more than 500,000 volts.

But AC is the standard for local power grids, and it’s what powers devices plugged into the wall at home. In the end, however, most of those devices convert the AC current back to DC. “When Edison lost, we didn’t have today’s technologies. Things were mostly motors, and AC made sense for that,” Symanski tells Wired.

“But now, just about everything in your house runs on DC.”

Changing the entire grid is one matter. But revamping the data center is another. Today’s data centers are anything but the picture of efficiency (See the top picture below). Data centers typically convert AC power from the grid into DC power to charge their uninterruptable power supply (UPS) batteries — which provide back-up power when there’s even the flicker of an outage from the grid. But that DC current must then be converted back to a lower AC as it enters the center’s power distribution units (PDU), and then it returns to DC when it hits the server racks.

Top: The typical data center power flow today. Bottom: Configuration proposed by Symanski and ERPI. (Image: ERPI)

Until someone invents the perpetual motion machine — a contraption with a net energy loss of zero, that would defy the laws of physics — these conversions will always waste some amount of energy. Symanski argues that simply keeping everything in the data center on DC power will save at least three energy-wasting conversions: at the UPS, at the PDU, and at the front end of the power supply unit (PSU) on servers. (As seen in the second half of the figure above). EPRI is also calling for a worldwide standard DC voltage of 380, as they believe this level hits a “sweet spot” that meshes well with common power requirements and safety regulations.

As data center designers turn away from the cumbersome power grid — and toward the sun and the wind for their energy — DC will certainly make its way into the data center. Photovoltaic cells and wind turbines only generate DC power. But the progress of DC power is limited by the companies that make other data center equipment. Changing the servers is relatively simple. They just need new power supplies, Symanski says, as everything else on the server uses DC. But most other infrastructure equipment runs on AC power.

Dave Cappuccio, an analyst at Gartner, believes shifting to DC power is a fine idea. But he points out that there are countless other ways for the average data center manager to improve efficiency — through cooling systems, ventilation, etc.

“People have been talking about [using DC power] for years,” he tells Wired, pointing out that Facebook’s new data center in Prineville, Oregon, has made the push toward DC. But hospitals, banks, utilities and other operations have so many other ways to reduce power and save money, he says, that it could be some time before they really embrace DC power. Cappuccio hopes that Facebook’s efforts to open their blueprints and share efficiency measures will be that needed spark. But he’s skeptical.

“A lot of things are good — but it doesn’t mean you can afford them all.”
[Top photo: The Planet/Flickr]

http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2011/12/ac-dc-power-data-center/

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AC/DC: The Tesla–Edison Feud

You’ve probably heard about the famous rivalry between Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison—both giants of electrical engineering whose innovations changed history. But what exactly was their history with one another?
That whole boss/employee thing. Tesla, a Serbian by parentage, began working for the phone company in Budapest. In 1882, he headed for Paris, where he took a job with the Continental Edison Company. He was invited to work stateside after his supervisor wrote a recommendation praising the young man as a genius on par with Edison himself. While he hired Tesla, Edison thought the man's ideas were “splendid” but “utterly impractical.”
Clash of the methods.
Edison relied heavily on tedious experimentation for most of his discoveries, a commitment which some historians attribute partially to his lack of formal education. Tesla, in contrast, was an emotionally driven dreamer with years of engineering training, which allowed him to work out theories before physically implementing them. Later in life, each man publicly criticized the other’s work.
Clash of the lifestyles. Tesla was a germaphobe, fastidiously clean to the point of (allegedly) using seventeen clean towels a day, and claiming to have a “violent aversion against the earrings of women.” He once said that Edison, “lived in utter disregard of the most elementary rules of hygiene.”
Clash of the...similarities? Edison and Tesla were alike in some equally irreconcilable ways. Both were egocentrics who abhorred egocentricity in others. And both men required little sleep, which would have made for many long, grumpy hours in the workshop.
War of Currents! Edison’s least favorite of Tesla’s “impractical” ideas was the concept of using alternating current (AC) technology to bring electricity to the people. Edison insisted that his own direct current (DC) system was superior, in that it maintained a lower voltage from power station to consumer, and was, therefore, safer. But AC technology, which allows the flow of energy to periodically change direction, is more practical for transmitting massive quantities of energy, as is required by a large city, or hub of industry, say. At the time, DC technology only allowed for a power grid with a one-mile radius from the power source. The conflict between the two methods and their masters came to be known as the War of Currents, forever immortalized by the band AC/DC.
The Bet. Tesla insisted that he could increase the efficiency of Edison’s prototypical dynamos, and eventually wore down Edison enough to let him try. Edison, Tesla later claimed, even promised him $50,000 if he succeeded. Tesla worked around the clock for several months and made a great deal of progress. When he demanded his reward, Edison claimed the offer was a joke, saying, “When you become a full-fledged American, you will appreciate an American joke.” Edison offered a $10/week raise, instead. Ever prideful, Tesla quit, and spent the next few months picking up odd jobs across New York City. Nikola Tesla: ditch digger.
The rift. Tesla eventually raised enough money to found the Tesla Electric Light Company, where he developed several successful patents including AC generators, wires, transformers, lights, and a 100 horsepower AC motor. Always more of a visionary than a businessman, Tesla ended up selling most of his patents (for the healthy but finite sum of $1 million) to George Westinghouse, an inventor, entrepreneur, and engineer who had himself been feuding with Edison for years. In fact, Westinghouse was a more economic participant in the War of Currents than was Tesla. Their partnership, one can imagine, made the eventual popularizing of AC that much more bitter for Edison.
“Post-war” history. In the end, AC won out. Mostly. Westinghouse fulfilled Tesla’s dream of building a power plant at Niagara Falls to power New York City, and built upon its principles the same system of local power grids we use today. Edison’s original point about the practicality of DC is well-taken, however: The average person can’t have alternating currents flooding massive amounts of energy into their household appliances, so most plug-in devices must internally convert AC back to DC (that’s what’s going on inside the brick of your laptop cord). That conversion wastes a lot of energy (think of all the heat coming from the brick of your laptop cord). Major studies are beginning to examine ways in which AC and DC power can work together with modern energy-harnessing technology, to run our overall grid more efficiently.

Tesla on Edison: "If he had a needle to find in a haystack he would not stop to reason where it was most likely to be, but would proceed at once, with the feverish diligence of a bee, to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search. ... I was almost a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety per cent of his labor."
—New York Times, October 19, 1931 (the day after Edison died)

Read the full text here: http://mentalfloss.com/article/30140/acdc-tesla%E2%80%93edison-feud#ixzz2RY5TWdrh
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