In the old days, college selection consisted of rolling into your high school guidance counselor's office, hopefully sometime before your senior year, leafing through a few brochures, and sending out applications. The times, my friend, have changed. Twenty-five percent of college-bound kids hire outside help to guide them through the college process. The trouble is, of course, that costs money.

Seventy-five percent of workers feel that they have more on-the-job stress today than their parents had back in the day. While our folks might have a different opinion on that one, it's safe to say stress in the workplace isn't going away any time soon. So what causes it? And what can we do to make things better?

Every Friday we round up the salary trends, career stories and job news that you may have missed during the past week.

A college education is more expensive than ever before, and debt-saddled students are graduating in an environment where perhaps half of them can expect to land jobs in their fields. After awhile, you have to wonder if it's worth the cost.

Dimagi, a New England-based software company that creates mobile healthcare apps for developing countries, recently embarked on a six-week remote working experiment in which most of its team headed to Brazil. Was this working vacation a hit or miss?

Hackers, identity thieves and cyber criminals are rampant in today's tech-centric society, and BackgroundCheck.org recently compiled this infographic to suss out once and for all which country's young professionals engage in the riskiest tech behavior.

The most recent jobless claims report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals a troubling trend: layoffs are up, and they're growing at rates we haven't seen since 2007.

Choosing a college? Unless you're well-funded, you may have over $200,000 in tuition and expenses to deal with once you have your degree. If you want to make a decision that accounts for paying off those loans one day, PayScale can help. Check out our most recent version of the PayScale College Salary Report where we rank schools and majors by post-graduation earnings and other key factors.

You might think that most women would prioritize a marriage proposal over a promotion at work, but a recent study in Australia found just the opposite was true. Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment polled 1,054 single Australian women to find out where their preferences lie, and as it turns out, wedding prospects aren't so high on the list.

The Consumer Team has been hard at work with the latest site release. Not only did we release the latest (and greatest) version of the Consumer website, but we also published our 2012-2013 College Salary Report and the brand-new College Selector.

Executive coach Kristi Hedges offers some stellar career tips in her latest Forbes column. These strategies apply for any level of professional; apply them and watch your success soar.

Experts have extolled the virtues of online networking for eons, but how can you make it work for your career? It's one thing to become buddies with an influencer on Twitter and another thing entirely to develop a more meaningful and mutually beneficial relationship. Brazen Life suggests the following five strategies to take your networking skills to the next level.

By Adam Phillabaum, @adamb0mb

What Is PayScale HackDay?

Once per quarter, the product development, data, and analytics teams all block off our calendars and get together in one big room. Fueled by doughnuts, pizza, coffee, and (later in the afternoon) beer, we build something that isn't on anyone's agenda other than our own.

Here is what everyone built.

Could a career academy model like that at the Mountain Home charter school revolutionize high school education as we know it? The school, which is located in Arkansas' Ozark Mountains, sorts incoming ninth-grade students by learning style and career aspirations. Next, they meet with school representatives and take personality surveys to help them decide between one of three tracks: Health and Human Services, Communications, Arts and Business; and Architecture, Construction, Manufacturing and Engineering. This process aims to engage students by teaching them material that's relevant to them.

Low overhead isn't necessarily the only thing important thing about where you live. After all, you could live in a yurt made of recycled materials for free, but the plumbing might leave something to be desired. But what about when the cost of living becomes too much to bear? At what point do you say, hey, city, it's been great and all, but call me when my monthly rent is less than the total cost of my first car?

Today's overworked employees are under more stress than ever. Unfortunately, a mountain of studies link stress with severe health problems, productivity drops and even premature death. These stress-busting tips from Brigid Ashwood for Wired will help you feel more at ease while on the job.

Ah, introductions. Whether it's at a cocktail party, a board meeting, or a totally unrelated social event, introductions are the best time to show the whole world that you are the most important person in the room.

Oh, wait. That's actually the opposite of what they're for. Let's try this again.

As our tech-savvy culture continues to change the face of the modern job market, serial mastery is becoming employees' best strategy for staying relevant. How much time have you invested in developing your own skills?

If you're like most of us, you probably eat lunch at your desk, wolfing down your food while working or taking a brief internet break. This is despite the fact that by this time, we all know that eating and typing isn't good for us, either from a productivity or a general health perspective. So how can we end this trend?

No one is going to advise you to quit a job until you have a new one, especially in an economy with an 8 percent unemployment rate. But how do you know if it's time to start looking?