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Jobs News & Market Trends
Jobs News & Market Trends guides on Careerbearings.
9 Soft Skills Employers Want in New Hires
Employers hiring for entry-level and early-career roles screen for a short, repeatable set of behaviours: can you define a problem, explain your thinking, work with people you did not choose, and show up reliably. In the National Association of Colleges and Employers' Job Outlook 2025 survey, nearly 90% of responding employers said they look for evidence of problem-solving ability and nearly 80% look for strong teamwork skills (NACE, December 2024).
Desmond Okafor · 14 min read
How to Ask for a Raise: 5 Steps (With Scripts)
Asking for a raise works best as a planned conversation, not a spontaneous one: you gather evidence of your results, benchmark what the role pays elsewhere, book a dedicated meeting with your manager, name a specific number, and agree on what happens next in writing. Most of the work happens in the four to six weeks before you open your mouth.
James O'Connor · 14 min read
What to Say When You Don't Have an Answer in a Job Interview
When you don't have an answer in a job interview, say so plainly, give whatever partial information you do have, and describe how you would go and find the rest. Career advice site Indeed (2026-06-15) suggests pausing for a few seconds, paraphrasing the question back, thinking aloud through your reasoning, and admitting uncertainty briefly rather than guessing — and Fast Company's career advice makes the blunt case that interviewers can usually tell when a candidate is bluffing.
Wei Chen · 12 min read
Career Change at 50: Where to Start
Start by narrowing the change to one or two specific target roles, then work backwards from the entry requirement for each — a licence, a certificate, a portfolio, or simply a different way of describing what you already do. Most changes at 50 take six to twelve months of part-time preparation, and the biggest risk is not age but money: an unplanned pay dip with no buffer behind it.
Marisol Andrade · 14 min read
12 Certifications That Lead to Cybersecurity Jobs
No certification hires you on its own, but a short list of them gets your resume past the keyword filters and HR screens that US employers use for SOC, cloud, audit and penetration-testing roles. This guide ranks 12 by how many doors they open relative to the effort they take, then explains how to build each one and what to put beside it so the credential reads as skill rather than a multiple-choice pass.
Priya Nathwani · 14 min read
10 Jobs You Can Get Without a College Degree
You can get into skilled trades, healthcare support, transport and technical support work with a high school diploma plus a license, an apprenticeship or a short certificate instead of a degree. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical entry-level education for electricians and for plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters (2025), and a postsecondary nondegree award for HVAC technicians and for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers (2025).
Theo Lindqvist · 13 min read
How Long Does It Take to Become an Electrician?
Becoming a licensed electrician usually takes four to five years, because almost every state ties licensing to a set number of supervised on-the-job hours — commonly in the range of 6,000 to 10,000 — plus classroom instruction each year. You can start earning from the first week of an apprenticeship, so the time is spent working, not waiting.
Nadia Hassan · 12 min read
How to Become a Dental Hygienist (Steps, Skills and Pay)
To become a dental hygienist you complete a dental hygiene program accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA), pass a written national board exam and a clinical exam, and then get licensed by the state you want to work in. Hygienists typically need an associate's degree, and programs usually take about three years to complete (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026-08-27).
Marcus Lee · 13 min read