How financially literate are college students while they are attending college?
Most are illiterate when it comes to financial matters. They likely have been protected from real-life business transactions. Just ask a student how much interest he's paying on a credit card, or to read a simple pay stub, and you'll quickly learn how ill-prepared they are for commercial life after graduation. As schools learn about the deficiencies, they are seeking out solutions for their students.

How do twenty-somethings in college successfully consume and process financial advice?
Actually, most students don't presently have easy access to financial advice. When they do get the opportunity, they like to receive it by video, short interactive web modules and peer discussion groups, either live or web. One reality however, they often pay more attention to peers than to elders. We've become adept at including experts in ways that appeal to them.

Does that change after they graduate and leave school?
Their reality changes at graduation. They find themselves making several life decisions in what seems to be quick time. The parent lifeline may not be as available. The learning process remains pretty much the same, though the peer group may change somewhat. Since they're taking immediate action, they take on a sense of urgency that was absent during their college years.

How adept are twenty-somethings at locating, applying for and interviewing for jobs?
Many graduates use the shotgun approach. They submit hundreds of applications, because it's easy to press the "Apply" button. A more prudent job seeker targets a smaller number of employers and tries to tailor his or her submitted material to that company and position.

How can you tell that the advice or information has been processed by a young person with success?
We have the ability to pre-test and post-test members for financial literacy, reading comprehension, and video comprehension. That's one way. Our business is fairly new, but we're discovering that success can also be measured by analysis of traffic patterns on our site. The pages and areas that member visit repeatedly give us indications of the value we add to their lives. Added value translates into new skills for the member.

Please disclose a little-known employer hiring practice.
Many employers today purchase access to resume databases in order to find qualified candidates. As part of their narrow-down process ,employers will define keywords that are related to their available jobs - and then search the resume databases for those keywords. If your resume doesn't contain at least a few of those keywords, you'll be off the employers' radar.

Please discuss your killer app for resume optimization.
The iGrad Resume Optimizer provides access to our Job Genius where a member can identify 'ideal jobs.' The optimizer then aggregates those job descriptions and recommends the keywords that should be included in the member's resume.