Hustlin' is back as a permanent series. Every week, we'll go beyond the pitying articles about recession-era youth and illuminate ways our generation is coping. The last few years may have been a rude awakening, but we're surviving. Here's how.

Every few months, like clockwork, a new study [PDF] from researchers at Georgetown University concludes that arts majors can't get jobs and that engineering degrees are the only way to guarantee a living wage. ThenThe New York Times prints the study's conclusions under a glib headline like "Want a Job? Go to College, and Don’t Major in Architecture." Oversimplifications like these, combined with initiatives in the U.K. andChina to do away with non-lucrative majors completely, make me want to throw up. Not only do they laugh in the face of learning for learning's sake and put pressure on kids to choose their careers too early, they also reinforce cultural biases about what professions deserve to make money. 

We get it, Georgetown, English majors are poor. But instead of accepting that people like teachers and journalists get paid shitty salaries, how about re-evaluating why we give those professions the shaft? How about encouraging new grads to be creative about what they do with their majors? College students should certainly know what they're getting into when they choose to study, say, philosophy or German, especially with tuition costs and student loan interest rates rising. But those figures should be coupled with a few important caveats.

A future of unhappy robots is pretty bleak. It's well-documented that a good salary alone can't make you happy. That's doubly true if the job isn't suited to your talents. Doing away with arts or humanities, whether in kindergarten or college, gives credence to those horrible parents in movies who crow that "singing doesn't put food on the table" before their kid turns out to be Lauryn Hill. Steering young people into career paths they'll hate is the oldest parent faux pas in the book, and often leads to a midlife career change—or crisis.

The broader the major, the more well-rounded the student. Arts, humanities, or social science majors may not have crystal-clear career paths ahead of them, but that's only because they have so many paths to choose from. There are plenty of sociology or political science majors who turn into bankers or lawyers or doctors or entrepreneurs. I was an American studies major, which meant I was able to follow the best professors whose classes cross-listed with my department. More important than learning facts and history, I learned how to write and think critically, an invaluable skill that employers, wisely, appear to be seeking out.

There's no getting around the fact that certain majors are more pre-professional than others. Math and science majors provide more direct training for specific jobs, so it's easy to make generalizations about what kind of salaries a graduate should expect to earn. On the other hand, some of these tech jobs are contingent on the next big thing and may be outdated within a few years. Many professions of the future haven't even been invented yet. Super-specialized, esoteric majors like 19th-century Russian lit may indeed pose problems in the current job market. But vague majors often teach someone how to absorb information, rather than just memorize facts.

Where you go to school counts far more than what you major in. I'm well aware that my American studies degree from Wesleyan University got me a lot further than one from a community college would have. An elite university comes with connections and prestige. That opens a whole 'nother can of inequality worms, but not taking this truism into account when presenting these statistics is disingenuous. A better way to gauge one's future earning power would be to track the relative starting salaries of individual institutions, not just of the majors they offer.

If we shun certain majors, their fields—and the people who work in them—will continue to be undervalued. Telling kids that writers or social workers make no money perpetuates the harmful stereotype that science and math-related careers deserve to be better paid. This is undeniably gendered—STEM careers are still dominated by men. By diminishing (and feminizing) certain discliplines, we're preserving the status quo—and worse, discouraging the youngest generation from emotionally investing in making these jobs better.

Finally, let's be real: Lots of educated 20-somethings are in jobs that require no degree at all. Forty-seven percent of people under 25 work in food and retail, a growing sector of our economy in which the workforce is increasingly educated. The problem isn't that jobs for poetry majors make less money; it's that there are too few jobs in general. Sooner or later, we're going to have to accept that not everyone going to college will be using their degree to get a job. In a way, this is depressing. But in another, it's utopian. Maybe if we started honoring service jobs—along with manual labor and other professions that don't require degrees—with a living wage and some cultural respect, higher education would be less about preparing for the workforce and more about, I don't know, learning. 

I know you're passionate about changing the world, but if your business model sucks and you go out of business, it helps nobody. Here's how to make the smartest moves. 

How sweet would it be to be able to make a difference in the world while making a profit? I think it's pretty sweet—and so do the 30,000-plus social entrepreneurs in the U.S. So what's stopping you from making a change? 

Consumers actually demand that companies use their business to have a positive social impact: Cone Marketing found that 85 percent of Gen Y said they would switch to a cause-oriented brand over a non-cause related brand when given a choice. 

So if it's something you want to do—and it's something customers want—the question becomes: How do you get started? 

Here are five tips to help you get going:

1. Establish a business that has value in the market and solves a real problem. It's the same as with any other type of company: The most important tasks for any entrepreneur are to see a problem in an industry, recognize an opportunity, and create a new business model that solves the problem. I know you're passionate about changing the world, but if your business model sucks and you go out of business, it helps nobody.

2. Integrate cause into your business model—authentically. In a cause-related business, people need to buy both what you do and why you do it. That "why" can create authentic and engaged customer relationships, and keep people coming back for more. So make sure the cause behind your business is something you're truly passionate about—because consumers can sniff out a phony a mile away.

Remember: There's a difference between cause marketing and cause integration. Marketing is temporary, integration is forever. (To see a couple of good examples of cause-integrated brands, check out No One Without or This Shirt Helps.)

3. Do the math—account for the cause. Make sure that your cause factors into your "cost of goods sold." That ensures that as your profitability scales, so does your impact. It also helps you accurately set market pricing, so your margins are healthy and your impact is secure. If you plant a tree for every purchase made, make sure you account for how much it will actually cost to do so per unit sold—before you set the MSRP.

4. Don't take the whole world on your shoulders. No matter how passionate you are about finding a cure for cancer, breaking the cycle of poverty, or putting an end to global hunger, your business does not need to solve the entire issue. So as you integrate cause, ask yourself: Where can I make an impact? Do I need to solve global hunger, or could I start by helping feed the hungry in my community?

When we all do our part to make the world a better place, the aggregate social impact becomes incredibly powerful. 

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In honour of women’s day in South Africa, ITNewsAfrica is profiling 10 leading women who have made significant contributions to Africa’s Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector and occupy high profile positions in this fast paced, and sometimes cut throat industry.  
The ICT industry provides endless opportunities for Africans to advance their careers and although it is still largely male-dominated, the following women have made great strides in changing the face of the industry on the continent.

The global community is moving towards the digital age and what better way to celebrate Africa’s Innovation than to laude the achievements of the rising, smart and assertive African women in the technology sector.

Here’s our list of top 10 African women in ICT, in no particular order:
1. Nombulelo Moholi
Nombulelo was appointed Telkom SA CEO in March 2011 after a lengthy evaluation process. She became the first black woman to head up a JSE listed telecommunications company in South Africa. Moholi is a qualified engineer with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from University of Cape Town. Moholi has completed executive management programmes at Stanford and Harvard University.
Nombulelo has over 23 years experience in the telecoms industry. She joined Telkom as GM of payphones in 1994 and spent 11 years at the helm. She then moved to Nedbank for 3-year tenure as a chief strategy and corporate affairs officer. She subsequently returned to Telkom SA as MD for the business unit.

2. Thoko Mokgosi-Mwantembe
Thoko is the CEO of Kutana Investments Group. She has vast experience in South Africa’s telecommunication industry, (including Managing Executive: Consumer Sales and Marketing at Telkom.. Mokgosi- Mwantembe has held several senior positions including divisional MD for Siemens, CEO of Alcatel SA and CEO of HP South Africa.
She currently sits on the Vodacom board of directors. Thoko holds an MSc in Medicinal Chemistry from Loughborough University and a BSc from the University of Swaziland. Thoko is a recipient of several awards including the 2007 BWA Businesswoman of the Year Award in the corporate category, ICT Achiever of the Year Award, Top ICT Businesswoman in Africa Award and ICT Personality of the Year.

3. Felleng Sekha
Felleng is a non- executive director of Business Connexion, a South African black owned ICT company. She was also the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) board deputy chairperson and has chaired the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) and the National Telecommunications Forum. Ms. Sekha holds a BA in Law from the Universities of Lesotho (NUL) and LLB from Universities of Cape Town, and a post graduate diploma in Media Communications and Information Technology law from the University of Melbourne.
Sekha has worked for the Centre for the Development of Information and Telecommunications Policy, Telkom SA as corporate accounts manager, MTN SA as GM for business development and and led the team that successfully set up MTN in Nigeria from 2001 to 2005. She currently owns an NGO, Platinum Ring, whose aim is to create entrepreneurial and career opportunities for young South Africans.

4. Zandile Mbele
Zandile was appointed as Executive: Public Sector for Internet Solutions in 2010 and as Executive Director of Transformation for the Group in 2008. She plays a significant role as the group’s Executive Sponsor for some key Public Sector Accounts for Dimension Data, IS and Plessey.

Zandile serves as the Director of Plessey Pty (Ltd) and Chairperson of Plessey South Africa, and represents the Group on the board of National Association of Business (NAB). Zandile has more than twenty years experience in the Media, Regulatory and ICT sectors and has served as an Executive for Regulatory Affairs at Sentech, a state owned signal- distribution company; she represented Sentech in the High Frequency Co-ordination Committee (HFCC) a sector member of the ITU.

She also served on the first Parliamentary appointed Board of the Universal Service Agency, an organisation tasked with bridging the digital divide in South Africa.

Prior to joining Sentech Zandile held the following positions; General Manager: Group Corporate Marketing at Metropolitan Holdings and Managing Director at Hive Communications.Mbele has an MBA from Durham Business School, an MA in Journalism from City University in the UK and an Executive Management Diploma from UCT Business School.

See the rest of the top 10 ...

What are the jobs of the future? The demographics of an aging population suggests health care will be big, say some. Data science is scheduled to explode, suggest others, or maybe anything computer-related is a solid bet. But let’s be honest, predicting exact job titles set to soar or the fates of specific sectors is nearly impossible.

With technology and economic developments moving so quickly, it’s hard to keep up with what’s going on today, more or less foresee what career paths will make you a winner in a decade or two. But even if betting on specific jobs is a fool’s game, the Institute for the Future believes it is still possible to say something useful about how to prepare yourself for the careers of tomorrow.

The Palo Alto, Calif.–based nonprofit research center focuses on long-term forecasting and recently released a report titled “Future Work Skills 2020″ (available for free download here) that analyzes some of the key drivers reshaping work — including WebWorkerDaily’s greatest hits like connectivity, smart machines and new media — coming up not with specific, recommended professional paths but instead with broad skills that will help workers adapt to the changing career landscape. What are they?

• Sense-making. The ability to determine the deeper meaning or significance of what is being expressed
• Social intelligence. The ability to connect to others in a deep and direct way, to sense and stimulate reactions and desired interactions