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Easy dinner party recipes that will impress any guest

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Dinner party

You've marked the date on your calendar. You've made the guest list. Now comes what can feel like the most daunting part of hosting any dinner party: planning the menu. 

Don't worry, Pinterest has you covered.

Here are the 12 best and easiest dishes that will impress any guest — and keep the evening stress-free for you.

Antipasto skewers make a great appetizer.

View the recipe here.



So does prosciutto wrapped asparagus.

View the recipe here.



Balsamic caprese chicken takes less than half an hour to make if you're in a rush.

View the recipe here.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

What it's really like to work as a TSA officer

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TSA students

When Jason Pockett joined the TSA in 2010, he said his intentions weren't wholly altruistic.

"In all honesty, what brought me to the TSA was the health insurance and the pay," Pocket told Business Insider.

"I didn't know what TSA really was other than airport security. But once I got there I realized the importance of the job."

Before joining the US Transportation Safety Administration as a transportation security officer, or TSO, Pockett was a youth pastor at a church. He spent two years working as a TSO in California before joining the TSA Academy team at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Glynco, Georgia, as a training instructor.

"When I came to TSA, saw what they were about, and realized the importance of what they have to do with protecting the nation — making sure airplanes stay in the air — it clicked with me and it became that career," Pockett said. "It made it so I wanted to be here to ensure the safety of all the traveling public."

In July, Business Insider visited FLETC and spoke with academy instructors and recruits to learn more about what it's really like to join the TSA as an officer, and then we followed up with the agency's head recruiter for more details.

Here's what they told us.

SEE ALSO: 'You're at war': I went inside the new TSA Academy, where officers learn to detect bombs, spot weapons, and find out why failure isn't an option

DON'T MISS: Finally! Watch TSA agents line up and go through security as they role-play passengers in training

Who are the TSA?

Willie Gilbreath, a retired veteran from Grand Rapids, Michigan, and incoming TSO, told Business Insider that his perception of the TSA was pretty vague before joining. "I didn't know a lot about it. Going through the airport, I wasn't really paying attention to those people. I was like everyone else. I wanted to get through as fast as possible.

"But now that I'm into the process and I'm starting to learn some of the procedures and some of the things that we're looking for, I understand why it takes a little bit longer. Now, my perception is, I'd rather take a little bit longer and be safe than to rush through the process and have something go wrong or have something slip through."

Gilbreath said he found his TSO job through a veterans' website. "The job popped up and I said, 'Wow, an opportunity to get a job with the federal government. I better jump on this.'"

Diane Brundidge, the executive director of recruitment and hiring at the TSA, said it's helpful if applicants have done similar work, like security at a non-federalized airport or security work in the government. Many TSOs have law-enforcement, military, or security background, and 17% of TSOs are veterans.

Gilbreath said he's able to apply some of the skills he has as a veteran to the job of a TSO. In the military, he said you learn "the skills to assess a situation and to actually have the discernment to understand a threat. You learn how to actually guard and protect.

"The only thing about this job is you've got to learn how to serve the public, too," he added. "That's the aspect I'm going to have to work on, because in the military it's a little bit different. It's more protection than service. This is service and protection."



Finding the right people

All the incoming TSOs Business Insider spoke with said they had heard about the job through an online job site.

"I always wanted to do something important to me — I always wanted to help someone," said Carmen Guzman, and incoming TSO from Stockton, California. "When I was looking online, I came across TSA. I was pretty curious, so I started looking into more information about that and how they wanted to protect people when they flew."

Internet job listings aren't the only way the TSA recruits.

"We really satisfy ourselves at the length we go to advertise," Brundidge said.

Among other places, the TSA recruits at colleges, universities, military bases, and military-transition assistance programs. It advertises on college listserves and on the side of buses. "We target it to the area that we're in. If we're in Martha's Vineyard, we'll put it on the side of a boat ... We're very astute to what gets attention, and based on the number of applications we receive, we know it's working."

Brundidge said the TSA received more than 200,000 applications in 2015.



Getting the job

"We're hiring constantly," Brundidge said. "There are 100 or so job-opportunity announcements open at any given time, and we always have people in our 'ready pool' ready to hire."

The TSA ramps up its hiring efforts before anticipated surges and converts people from part-time to full-time during busy periods.

From its pool of applications, the TSA will first invite some people to take its computer-based test. Applicants are tested on things such as imaging, color-blindness, and English proficiency.

From there, applicants go through airport assessments, which is sort of like a job interview. That's followed by a medical exam and pre-hire background checks, where the TSA will take fingerprints, perform a criminal background check, and check to see if applicants are on the terrorist watch list, among other things.

If all goes well, applicants then go into the "ready pool," and, once there is a job vacancy, the TSA will present a tentative job offer, where they'll be invited to participate in job training.

The starting salary ranges from about $15 to $22 an hour, and both full-time and part-time employees get benefits.

"I would love to, personally, raise that salary, but that's legislature," Brundidge added.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

14 eerie vintage photos show how Americans used to celebrate Halloween

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HAUNTED AIR Ossian Brown 3 a

Long before it was possible to use Amazon Prime for your mass-manufactured Halloween costume, people put serious effort into making them.

Without a fast-churning popular culture abetted by the internet, the costumes reflected much of the holiday's original intent: to disguise yourself from vengeful spirits, and in some cases, be scary enough to ward them off entirely.

In Haunted Air, English musician and artist Ossian Brown collects a series of anonymous photographs that show how Americans, circa 1875-1955, dressed up for Halloween. The book features a foreword by famous surrealist and horror veteran David Lynch — a sure sign you're in for a twisted read.

The photo collection features candid shots of Americans in old Halloween garb, in all their imperfections and unique grotesqueness. Read on to see how people dressed for the year's spookiest holiday, decades before it became commercialized. 

SEE ALSO: The most surprising in-demand Halloween costumes this year, according to the UK's biggest costume company

All the photos feature candid shots of family members, friends, and children in Halloween garb in the US. Here, a man with a handmade cowboy mask holds a young girl.



"These are pictures of the dead," author Geoff Cox wrote in Haunted Air. "Torn from album pages, sold piecemeal for pennies and scattered, abandoned to melancholy chance and the hands of strangers."



As you can see, masks were prevalent in earlier costumes.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The 10 US cities with the largest share of upper-class residents

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georgetown washington dc 2

The American middle class is shrinking, and consequently, the lower- and upper-income tiers are gaining share.

In a May 2016 report, the Pew Research Center found that between 2000 and 2014, the share of upper-income adults increased in 172 of the 229 US metro areas it analyzed.

The report also highlighted the 10 areas with the largest upper-income populations, which were mostly in the northeast region or on the California coast.

"Midland, Texas, the exception to this rule, leads the metropolitan ranking of upper-income areas,"Pew reported. "Some 37% of the adult population in Midland was upper income in 2014, thanks to a prospering oil economy."

Pew defined upper-income households as those with an income that is more than double the US median household income. Incomes are adjusted for household size and for the cost of living in the area relative to the national average cost of living. "That means the incomes of households in relatively expensive areas, such as New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA, are adjusted downward," Pew explained in its methodology.

Note that New York City didn't crack the top 10. In addition to Pew adjusting incomes for the cost of living, it's important to recognize that New York City, with a population of about 8.5 million, makes up less than half of the New York-Newark-Jersey City metro area, which has a population of about 19.8 million.

Read on to see which other metro areas joined Midland in the top 10. We included the share of the population that qualifies as upper-income in each metro, along with the median household income of the upper class (also from Pew).

SEE ALSO: The 13 best big US cities to live in if you want to get rich

Trenton

Residents who are upper-income: 28%

Median household income of upper class: $180,110



San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward

Share of upper class: 28%

Median household income of upper class: $185,290



Norwich-New London

Share of upper class: 29%

Median household income of upper class: $164,030



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

How 3 real people turned their side jobs into full-time gigs

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female dj

Whether it's running an Etsy craft shop or building the occasional website for a friend, there are few of us out there who’ve never had a side gig.

Not only does it help you pursue a passion, but having the extra income can also help you pad your budget and make progress toward your financial goals all the faster.

But the benefits that come from a side gig don't stop at the payout.

For many, it can be a good way to test-drive a new career, get a foot in the door of a new industry or polish skills that can ultimately help lead to a more fulfilling or lucrative full-time job.

Ed McMasters, director of marketing, communications and design for FusionWRX, a marketing engagement agency in Crestview Hills, Kentucky, says he hired his current graphic designer because he was impressed with the work she put into her side gig as a designer of invitations.

"We had a couple people come in [who said] they had side gigs or were freelancing but they only had one or two pieces of work — whereas her portfolio showed she had been doing invitation design for years. It was fantastic," McMasters says. "In my opinion, [giving time to your side gig] is broadening your horizons and giving you the opportunity to learn something new and different, and ideally you can adapt it to your 9-to-5."

Inspired yet? To show you some examples of how a side gig can help you get ahead in your full-time job, we asked three people to share their successful career-shift stories.

SEE ALSO: 7 ways to bounce back after an unproductive workday

'My side gig helped me get a foot in the door of my dream industry.'

Who: Brittany Johnston, 27, marketing assistant, New York City

Former Job/Side Gig: Elementary school teacher/Style blogger

How My Side Gig Helped Me Land My New Job: I graduated from Penn State University in 2011 with a degree in elementary education, so the natural thing to do after school was to get a job as a teacher. My real dream, however, was to work in fashion in New York City, but everyone around me said getting a job in a field unrelated to my degree was slim.

I had started a fashion blog in 2010, but not much came of it because I wasn't confident enough to publicly put it out there and I didn’t know exactly what I was doing. So I just kind of had it on the back burner.

After graduation, I was determined for it to take flight. When I finally launched my new blog NotAnotherBlonde.com in January 2015, it received a lot of positive responses, and it's been growing ever since.

I then decided to switch paths from education to marketing because I didn't see a lot of growth opportunities as a teacher. In marketing, the sky's the limit. If you're good at it, you can create the life of your dreams, and I also saw this as a way to pursue my dream of getting a job in fashion in New York City.

In January 2016, I took a leap of faith and moved from Doylestown, Pennsylvania, to the Big Apple. After 80 applications and eight interviews, I was beginning to lose hope of getting a fashion job, until I finally came across a fashion recruiting firm, 24 Seven.

I interviewed initially as a recruiter, but that position didn’t work out. I was heartbroken and had one month's rent left in my bank account when I got a call saying they had another opening, this time in marketing.

I interviewed for that position and nailed it. I had put my side gig on my résumé because that was something I’d been consistently working on, and the skills I had gained through that were invaluable: digital and social media marketing, trend forecasting, coding, networking, content curation, photography, self-discipline and time management. I can confidently say my side gig didn’t just help me, but it was essentially the deciding factor in landing the job.

My Advice for Others: Find someone who’s doing what you want to do and copy their strategy. Listen to what they’re saying, but more importantly, watch what they’re doing and how they execute. Look for the little gems in what they do, because nobody puts something out there without a strategy behind it.

RELATED: My Money-Making Side Gig: 'I Teach Bloggers How to Turn Likes Into Paychecks'



'My side gig helped me ramp up my professional experience.'

Who: Ryan Taylor, 38, network operations center manager, greater Los Angeles area

Former Job/Side Gig: IT system center administrator/Co-founder of a website that connects parents with local child sports teams

How My Side Gig Helped Me Land My New Job: Sports has always been a big part of my life. Growing up, I played baseball and basketball, and I’ve also coached a girls' Little League softball team.

In fact, it was while I was coaching and sitting on the Board of Directors of the local Little League that I realized parents needed help figuring out what teams their daughters could join next after they reached the age ceiling. So one of the other board members and I decided to start a directory of youth sports teams called AllTeamz, which enables players to find teams and teams to find players. We’ve been going strong for over three years.

At that time, I worked in IT as a system center administrator, but about a month after I launched AllTeamz, I got laid off. I can say, however, that the skills I developed working on the site helped me land my next job. I’d been working in IT management for some time but prior to developing AllTeamz, I always felt like I was the least experienced person in the room.

Now I could say I was the site’s administrator, architect, development team, sales and marketing team and, last but not least, the sole individual responsible for our customers. I leveled up my technical skill set and quickly became a jack of all trades. I learned more about infrastructure build and maintenance, coding and customer empathy, among other key skills. All this helped me land my current job as an engineer and tech manager for a major provider of tax and accounting software.

I’ve been with my current employer for about three years, and being part of operations here means being responsible for the availability of services to external customers — and lots of them. I wouldn't have been able to operate in this environment without the knowledge I gained from my own side project.

My Advice for Others: Too many people give themselves roadblocks for why they can't do something. The truth is, the best thing you can do is just start. When I decided to launch AllTeamz, I first went to a whiteboard and drew what I thought the site should look like. Getting started was the secret sauce.

RELATED: My Money-Making Side Gig: 'My Husband and I Lead Local Food Tours'



'My side gig helped me launch my own business.'

Who: Melissa Weinberg, 46, sunless-tanning entrepreneur, Wellington, Florida

Former Job/Side Gig: Mortgage post closer/Spray tanner

How My Side Gig Helped Me Land My New Job: In 2010, I was diagnosed with skin cancer and being fair-complected, I knew I would never be able to achieve a tan the natural way again. So I purchased a spray-tan machine and started airbrush tanning myself.

Once I noticed that there weren’t many businesses offering spray-tanning services in my area, I decided to give that a shot as a side business and began taking on clients on the nights and weekends.

At the time I was working in the mortgage sector, and since the recession, I’d been unsure about the future of the industry. I really felt that I should follow my passion and learn about the beauty trade, just in case something happened to my full-time career. Plus, I really wanted to do something different at this stage of my life.

So I continued to grow my clientele and knowledge of the industry, and in June 2014, even launched Perfect Glow Sunless, my own proprietary line of professional airbrush tanning sprays, along with Melissa Weinberg Tanning & Beauty, a retail self-tanning and skincare line — all while still working my full-time job.

But I got to the point where I knew I needed to give up the comforts of the corporate world in order to expand my brand. It was scary giving up things like a steady paycheck, health benefits and my 401(k), especially as I was basically a one-woman show, doing everything from sales to customer service to marketing to packing daily orders. With so much going on, I just couldn’t continue to do both jobs.

So in June 2015, I finally left my day job. This was the right decision for me. My business has continued to expand at a fast rate; my products are now used in over 300 spray-tanning salons. I am currently looking for larger retail and warehouse spaces, and I recently brought on my first sales account executive.

My Advice for Others: First, your side gig has to be something that you enjoy, because your passion is going to fuel everything. Whether it’s a beauty service or a tangible good, people can read honesty, and if you’re passionate about what you’re doing, it’s really going to show. Second, your side business has to be feasible — there has to be a need for it. If it doesn’t fulfill a need for somebody, then you might run into problems being successful in the long term.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

19 castles around the world that look like they're straight out of a fairy tale

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Chateau de Chenonceau and Gardens

Many of the fairy tale castles we grew up with are inspired by real-life places — places that you can visit.

We rounded up some of the most majestic castles (and a couple of palaces too) around the world, from a medieval castle in a walled city in Wales to a château sitting on the shores of Switzerland's Lake Geneva.

Miramare Castle, Trieste, Italy

Although it sits on the Italian Gulf of Trieste, Miramare was built for an Austrian Archduke and his wife. The castle combines gothic, medieval, and Renaissance architecture, and is surrounded by a beautiful park



Eltz Castle, Wierschem, Germany

Eltz Castle is still owned by the Eltz family — a family that has owned and lived in the castle for 33 generations, starting in the 12th century. It sits in the picturesque forests of Western Germany's Rhineland.



Château Chambord, Loir-et-Cher, France

Château Chambord is one of France's best examples of Renaissance architecture. The château was constructed in the 16th century, and has remained relatively unchanged since then. Walt Disney used it as inspiration for the Beast's castle in "Beauty and the Beast."



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

7 stupid beliefs even the smartest people have about money

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woman reading outside madrid park

Certified life and executive coach Megan Walls has noticed a recurring weak spot among the otherwise intelligent, capable professionals she works with: money.

"For some reason or another, these clients aren't as mindful or deliberate as they'd like to be. Some are business owners, lawyers, or in education," Walls tells Business Insider.

When these clients started asking Walls to help them master their finances, she got right down to their core beliefs about money.

"A belief is a thought you think over and over again," she says. "And then that belief gets buried in your subconscious, and causes an emotion — anything from contentment to fear — which then causes you to take action and produce some sort of result. That's the chain: emotion, action, result."

If these core beliefs are self-sabotaging, you can imagine how that chain progresses.

Here, Walls shares some of the more damaging financial thought patterns she's observed in her practice, among the most impressive professionals.

SEE ALSO: The 12 dumbest things you can do with your money in your 30s — and how to avoid them

"Money magically appears."

Walls remembers a client who inherited money while in grad school and thought he'd be set for years.

Instead, he ran out halfway through school — and later in life he ran out of funds again. After some discussion, they found that his core belief was that money magically appears.

"As a kid, whenever he needed money, he'd ask his dad, who would hold out a $10 or a $20 bill," Walls says.

"We had him replace that money thought with a new one, something to the effect of 'I am in control of my money and can make good financial decisions for me and my family,'" she says. "He started meeting with a financial adviser and using Quicken to track his spending."



"Credit-card debt is normal and acceptable."

The average American household owes over $7,000 on their credit cards, and among indebted households, it's an average of nearly $15,500. It's no wonder we think debt is a normal part of life.

Walls says that while consumers know they have to pay the credit-card companies back, there's a lack of fear or immediacy surrounding the debt. Especially among younger cardholders, she finds, the need for immediate gratification outweighs any reservations about spending money on the cards. 



"Spending will make me feel better."

"I think what's surfacing is people operating with these beliefs about money are spending in unhealthy emotional states," muses Walls.

"They're saying, 'I'm going to go buy something to avoid feeling sorry for myself; I'm going to buy whatever I want,' when they don't really have the budget for it," she explains. "When the bill comes, they're absolutely panicked."



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Some of the best ways to build wealth are painfully obvious

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wealthy

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to build wealth.

In case you didn't let that first sentence sink in, read it again.

The wealthy generally understand that while being smart can certainly help you earn money, that doesn't necessarily mean you'll build wealth with your earnings. Likewise, being famous doesn't necessarily mean you'll be able to build wealth. Sure, it can help, but there are countless stories of those who earn a ton of money only to watch it disappear seemingly overnight.

So, what are the secrets to building wealth? And once you build wealth, how do you keep it? The truth is that the "secrets" to building wealth really aren't secrets at all. They are simply common sense behaviors that, when practiced with purpose and over a long period of time, are likely to result in a pool full of cash (if that's how you like to stockpile your money).

Let's take a look at some of these behaviors.

SEE ALSO: A financial planner shares the first thing she tells people who come to her looking to build wealth

1. Say 'no' to debt

"The most successful clients that I have worked with over my 18-year career are those that have no debt and positive cash flow," says Joseph A. Carbone, Jr., CFP, wealth advisor and founder of WealthManagementfortheRealWorld.com.

Saying "no" to debt is truly a behavior at the heart of so many wealthy individuals. Why? It has something to do with interest rates.

Student loans, credit cards, personal loans, car loans, and many other types of debt all have interest rates. Some of these rates are higher than others, but one thing is guaranteed: You will pay a lot more money than necessary if you make minimum payments on a loan, and the interest rates will slowly drain any wealth you do have. (Making only the minimum payment can also drag out the life of your loan. You can track how your payments how affecting your credit for free on Credit.com.)

Unfortunately, that's where many people get stuck. They are so used to debt, they think it's normal and shrug it off as a way of life. Sure, it might be a way of life for some people, but it doesn't have to be a way of life for you.

The way to get out of debt is to focus your energy on saying "no" to more debt. Make money fast, and you might choose to attack your debt even faster than you initially thought was possible.



2. Practice discipline and invest for the long-term

The media continually reports on this or that "new hot stock." Don't fall for it. We all know it's better to diversify your investments and not get carried away by the allure of quick wealth.

"The number one behavior that inevitably leads to more wealth is staying disciplined. Emotions are very real and very dangerous, and it's hard to be objective about your money, especially when people around us are talking about doom and gloom as it relates to the economy," Scott Wellens, CFP, financial advisor and founder of BestinWealth.com explains

The stock market, for example, can be extremely volatile from year to year. Newbie investors might find themselves panicking when the stock market takes a steep dive, and decide they can pick the winning stocks. That's a mistake.

"Most of your money is invested for the long-term — do not make short-term decisions about your long-term money. The best way to get market-like returns is not to fool with your investment mix. If you do, the probability of achieving your financial goals will most likely go down," Wellen says.

The best advice is to buy and hold. And when you do so, hold for a long, long time. The discipline to stick to the buy-and-hold strategy isn't easily found, but if you can do it, you're much more likely to be financially stable in retirement.



3. Stay frugal

You just got a new job. Now you're bringing in the big bucks. Time to relax and buy that boat you always wanted and that recreational vehicle and that gold-infused (and bejeweled) smartphone case (to protect your less-expensive smartphone), right?

You guessed it: Not a good idea!

It's a much better idea to stay frugal. Remember, you can only build wealth by saving money, not spending it. Sure, you're going to have to spend some money, but you don't have to inflate your lifestyle to match your new income. Far from it.

"It's human nature for any increase in income to be immediately swallowed by lifestyle improvements, a phenomenon known as ‘lifestyle creep'," Benjamin Brandt, CFP, at RetirementStartsTodayRadio.com, says. "Avoid lifestyle creep and build guaranteed increases into your savings plan by changing the way you think about annual raises. The next time you are presented with a raise, challenge yourself to save half of the increase and ‘creep' with the other half. This strategy will allow you to pay yourself first, enjoy the fruits of your labor and build wealth over time."

It's better to stay frugal, build wealth and have a firm financial position rather than squander your money on things that you really don't need – especially over the long-term.

There are plenty of ways to save money. Learn them, dream them and act on them. Stay frugal. Your wallet will thank you. (Well, maybe not right away, but over time it will.)

There is a common thread that ties all of these tips together: Earn more, save more and spend less. That's an equation that will get you on the moderately fast track to building wealth. Sure, it's not an overnight fix, but it's worth the journey.

To motivate yourself, envision what you could do with your wealth. Perhaps you could quit your day job and go on that mission trip that would be much more fulfilling. Maybe you could give more than you ever thought possible. Leave an inheritance to your children and grandchildren! The sky's the limit. 

More from Credit.com

This article originally appeared on Credit.com.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The 18 companies where employees are happiest with their vacation and paid time off

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Beach Nature Water Vacation

The holiday season is quickly approaching, and you may be thinking about taking some time off.

But perhaps you've already used up all your days. Or maybe you're trying to plan a very long vacation to avoid losing any of your paid time off.

As it turns out, employees at some companies rarely find themselves in these predicaments because they're afforded ample vacation time, or their unused days roll over to the next calendar year.

To find which companies have some of the best vacation and paid time off (PTO) policies, Glassdoor did some digging.

Using thousands of reviews shared by employees, the careers website just released a new list of the 25 Highest Rated Companies for Vacation and Paid Time Off.

Below are the top 18. Click here to see the complete list.

SEE ALSO: 26 high-paying jobs for people who don't like stress

18. Intel

An innovator in cloud computing, data, Internet of Things, and PC solutions, this Santa Clara, California, tech company offers more than just its well-known processors.

Vacation and paid time off rating: 4.3/5

Company rating: 3.7/5

Intel employees report receiving 3-4 weeks of vacation each year. Employees say the company's "paid sabbatical program is great"— the program can allow workers to take four weeks of paid time off every four years or eight weeks every seven years.



17. Federal Express

Based out of Memphis, Tennessee, Fedex is a major global transportation provider, delivering over 3.5 million packages daily to over 220 countries.

Vacation and paid time off rating: 4.3/5

Company rating: 3.7/5

Paid vacation days can add up for employees at FedEx, who say the company is "very generous with their paid time off." Employees say they start with two weeks of PTO, which goes to three weeks after the first five years, and four weeks after 10 years.



16. Nokia

Nokia is a global communications and information technology company based in Nokia, Finland, with offices worldwide.

Vacation and paid time off rating: 4.3/5

Company rating: 3.7/5

Nokia employees say they get a "generous amount of time off." After several years on the job, employees report they can accrue up to four weeks of vacation time per year, in addition to sick days and holidays.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

11 things we learned about the making of the 'Walking Dead' season 7 premiere

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negan rick walking dead

Warning: There are massive spoilers ahead for "The Walking Dead."

"The Walking Dead" returned Sunday to AMC. 

Monday, episode director and executive producer Greg Nicotero and Michael Cudlitz, who plays Abraham, spoke to reporters in two separate conference calls to learn more about the gut-wrenching premiere.

From the movies which inspired the episode to the fact that the entire cast knew exactly who was going to be killed for a year, the two revealed more about the making of the anticipated episode. 

INSIDER was on both conference calls. Here's what we learned.

Michael Cudlitz, who plays Abraham, was told he was going to be killed off the show a year and three months ago.

The actor said he's just been traveling and lying to most people he would run into. He has continued to dye his hair and keep his long mustache so fans wouldn't grow suspicious. The only people he told were his wife and kids because otherwise they would wonder why he was home all the time.

You can read more about what Cudlitz had to say about his character's death here.



The cast and crew all knew who died more than a year ago too and they have been lying about it ever since.

Cudlitz said the death scene in the finale was filmed about a year ago. All of those reports about no one knowing and finding out later on were all just rumors made up and spread to make it easier on the cast and crew to keep the secret.

"One of the good things was that we were able to spread a rumor that not even the cast knew what was going to happen,"said Cudlitz. "They were going to find out when they got back. They said they filmed everybody's death scene just in case and they said they were re-doing contract negotiations for some of the cast and we weren't sure who it was going to be. All of that was a lie." 



The reason two characters were killed off in the premiere instead of one was so Negan could really break Rick Grimes emotionally.

"Part of the whole show is we really needed to drive Rick and Negan's story throughout the season and we felt that one death would do the trick, but the second death — Glenn's death — really, really propelled us into a very different direction," Nicotero said. "It's really about Negan laying down the law and saying, 'Listen guys, the bottom line is, if you listen to me, you'll be fine. But if you step out of line, that's not gonna fly.'"

You can read more on Nicotero's response here.



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19 easy and adorable Halloween costume ideas for babies

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Fact: Halloween costumes look a million times cuter on tiny humans.

And while they may have no idea what's going on, Pinterest put together 21 easy costume ideas so parents can look back on their kids' first Halloween fondly.

This oompa loompa look is great for twins.



The mouse and chef from "Ratatouille" is perfect for dads.



Book characters are great, too, like The Boy Who Lived.



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The 5 best new songs you can stream right now

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Now that new music comes out every Friday — though not always on every streaming service — it can be hard to know where to find the next great song.

To help you out, Business Insider compiles this rundown of the best new music you can stream right now.

This week, Drake released his latest potential hit, and indie-rock band The Shins released their first single in five years. 

Check out this week's best new songs:

SEE ALSO: The 5 best new songs you can stream right now

Drake — "Fake Love"

While the prospect of a new Drake single about fake friends will rightfully elicit a resounding, disinterested groan from half of the world, the other half will vibe out to the stellar melodies and bright production on "Fake Love," likely in semi-ironic appreciation. Please do not hesitate to file your most colorful Drake insults in the comments below. 

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The Shins — "Dead Alive"

Indie-rock greats The Shins are back from a five-year hiatus with "Dead Alive." The spirited single is accompanied by a surreal music video, wherein lead singer James Mercer lives in a miniature world and is nearly crushed to death by a giant in Vans shoes. 

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Saba — "Photosynthesis"

On "Photosynthesis"— a highlight from Chicago artist and Chance the Rapper collaborator Saba's debut album — smooth, guitar-led production runs alongside his compelling, pitch-shifted vocals and a pleasant hook from Jean Deaux. 

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What it takes to serve in the Navy's elite warfare boat crew

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Often referred to as the Navy's best kept secret, Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen (SWCC) operators drive well-armed, fast boats in support of special ops missions including stealthy insertion and extraction of SEALs, clandestine reconnaissance, and combat gunfire support. 

SWCCs are the Navy's high-risk water mission experts and therefore, must be physically fit, mentally tough, focused, and responsive in high stress situations — and getting to that point requires brutal mental and physical training.

The Discovery Channel's "Surviving the Cut" shows what SWCCs undergo at a 35-day basic course in Coronado, Calif.

SEE ALSO: The 11 most incredible weapon systems used by the Russian army

SEE ALSO: 41 pictures that show why a US aircraft carrier is such a dominant force

These 26 sailors begin their first day of the 5 week Special Warfare Combatant Craft Crewman Training Center in Coronado, California. Each year, 240 sailors start SWCC training and about half pass.



The instructors are prepared to weed out the weakest sailors. "This is a gut check for these guys. They have a small idea of what they have gotten themselves into at this point and we are really going to open their eyes on day one," said one SWCC instructor.



Sailors run a quick 2 miles to the beach and spend the next six hours completing brutal workouts in the sand.



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25 photos that prove Heidi Klum is the queen of Halloween

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No one loves Halloween more than 43-year-old model Heidi Klum. 

Every year since 2000, Klum has hosted over-the-top Halloween parties for her famous friends — and every year she arrives in a costume that's somehow more jaw-dropping than the last. 

She takes this stuff seriously: In fact, nobody gets into her parties unless they're in costume. 

"I always put on my invitation, 'Costume required,' because if you're not dressing up, you're not getting in,"she told People in 2011.

Here's a look back at all of Klum's fabulous outfits over the years.

Klum was just 27 when she hosted her first party in 2000. That night, she rocked a goth Pippi Longstocking kind of look.

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She arrived on horseback for her Lady Godiva costume the next year.

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Lady Godiva was an English noblewoman — and legend says she once rode her horse through the streets of Coventry, England while naked. 



She kept it much simpler in 2002, dressing up as Betty Boop.



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Take a look inside ISIS' newly-discovered escape tunnels outside of its Iraqi stronghold

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Iraq Counter Terrorism Service forces have discovered several underground tunnels used by ISIS to escape Mosul on Thursday.

The forces have launched a campaign last week to retake the ISIS stronghold of Mosul, which, if successful, could "mark the beginning of the end" for the terrorist group.

ISIS is fighting back — sending hundreds of fighters to Mosul and preparing for fierce battles with intense defenses, according to CNN— while at the same time, the militant group has established an elaborate network of tunnels across the city and neighboring villages that are used as escape routes.

Here are some astonishing photos of ISIS' secret tunnels.

SEE ALSO: ISIS is losing territory on all fronts — here's what the group leaves behind

SEE ALSO: Trump knows absolutely nothing about military strategy

The tunnel used by ISIS militants in Bazwaia, east of Mosul, Iraq, stretches for almost two miles.

Source: NBC News



The tunnels were used at escape routes and meeting points for the jihadists.

Source: CNN



Some tunnels are big enough for a motorbike, and some tunnel entrances were to be connected by a newly built road.

Source: CNN



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21 of the most creative résumés we've ever seen

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Job hunting can be a frustrating odyssey of nos and non-responses, and applying for gigs can feel like screaming into a void. (Are you alive? Are they alive? Is anyone out there?)

To combat that, many job seekers with coding and design experience go to extreme — and extremely creative — lengths to stand out and demonstrate their skills.

It's a risk: Not every hiring manager is going to be on board with an unconventional approach. But as the creators of these masterpieces prove, a clever résumé can also yield big rewards.

From designing a personal Amazon page (complete with reviews) to making a candy bar wrapper to showcase job skills, here are some of the most creative résumés we've ever seen:

Vivian Giang, Melissa Stanger, and Rachel Sugar contributed to earlier versions of this article.

SEE ALSO: 12 hobbies that look great on your résumé, and one that doesn't

DON'T MISS: 11 ways to pad out your résumé without lying

Jessica Wen's sweet résumé started off as a class project and ended up landing her an internship

Wen, now a designer and strategist, designed the chocolate résumé packaging concept in 2012 when she was a graphic design major at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. 

Wen repackaged chocolate bars with her brief résumé printed on the inner side of packaging with the words "THANKS" or "EAT ME" cut out by hand as a leave-behind item for one of her college's career fairs.

"I was able to get a call-back and ended up landing a four-month internship position at a large architecture firm in DC," Wen tells Business Insider.



Charlotte Olsen's "Golden Ticket" offers an extra incentive to hire her

As a part of a self promotion task from her time as a graphic design major at Southampton Solent University in England in 2012, Olsen created a chocolate packaging résumé that included a "Golden Ticket" offering 10% off her design services.

"I thought I would try to stick out as a job seeker and make something fun and eye catching to show my personality and my own original style as a designer," Olsen says.

Her "100% RAW TALENT" design plays on traditional chocolate packaging with things like an ingredients section that lists her skills, a "best before" section that says "Before someone else snaps me up", and phrases along the packaging like "No artificial skills" and "Not factory made."

"So far that chocolate CV has been quite the success for my career," she tells Business Insider.



Erik Sena used SnapChat's 'on demand' geofilters to get noticed by employers

After seeing how geofilters were being used by fashion moguls to advertise locally, Sena tells Business Insider he was inspired to create geofilters in May with his personal brand on them to help him stand out in the oversaturated advertising job market.

"I had been interviewing and sending my résumés to companies for months since the beginning of the semester with no luck, so this was a last ditch effort to get my name out there," he says.

Sena says he used his experience as a copywriter and a designer to quickly whip up his design, and he paid $108 to Snapchat to have them run on-demand geofilters targeted at the ad-companies he wanted to work for.

Snapchat let's you assign an area where you want your geofilter to appear, and whenever someone uses snapchat in that area, your design shows over messages in the app. Sena targeted BASIC and Red Door Interactive in Downtown San Diego and TBWA\Chiat\Day, Ignition, Deutsch and R/GA in Playa Vista, Los Angeles, with his geofilter. 

"Thankfully, two of the companies that I tried to reach out to actually took notice," Sena says. "Red Door tweeted a screenshot of my geofilter and actually invited me to the office for lunch." Sena says one of the associate creative directors at BASIC also liked a couple of his tweets and followed him on Twitter.

"Even though I didn't get a job offer or even an interview from any of the companies I targeted, the least I could have hoped for was to be noticed by them, and I was," Sena says.

Since then, he says he's included the move on his résumé and talks about it during interviews, "which definitely helped generate some conversations."

"In fact, one of the biggest talking points during my most recent interview was this situation, and I was lucky enough to land the job, so I'd say it helped tremendously," Sena says.



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The 29 best jobs for people who want a life outside of work

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Most of us strive to juggle the demands of both our personal and professional lives. But only some jobs afford us the ability to achieve just that.

To help us find which professions offer the best work-life balance, Glassdoor recently did some digging.

The jobs website sifted through thousands of employee reviews to find which professions offer the most flexible schedules, the option to work from home, and allow employees to set their own schedules. It then scored each job in terms of work-life balance on a 5-point scale. (Read more about the methodology here.)

"As humans, we need other outlets in our lives, such as friends, family, and hobbies, to live the kind of lives that bring us greater satisfaction," says Scott Dobroski, a community expert at Glassdoor.

Here are 29 jobs that won't require you to work 24/7:

SEE ALSO: 27 smart questions to ask employees at the company you want to work for

29. Lab assistant

Work-life balance rating: 3.7

Median salary: $28,000



28. Creative manager

Work-life balance rating: 3.7

Median salary: $106,800



27. Research technician

Work-life balance rating: 3.7

Median salary: $37,300



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I tried Kroger's new grocery service, and I'm never buying food the old way again

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Kroger ClickList

I just got a glimpse into the future of food shopping, and my life will never be the same again.

Earlier this week I tried Kroger's ClickList, which lets you order groceries online and then pick them up at a store where employees load everything into your car.

The service — known in the industry as click-and-collect — has been popular for years in the UK, but it has just started taking off in the US.

Kroger started testing ClickList two years ago, and it recently started rolling out the service nationwide. ClickList is currently available at more than 500 stores, the company told Business Insider. I tried it at a location in Richmond, Virginia. 

Other companies offering grocery pickup include Walmart, Harris Teeter, and soon Amazon.

My friends have been raving about it, so I decided to give it a try. 

Here's what it was like.

SEE ALSO: Chick-fil-A has a new ad to hook millennial moms — and some dads are offended

The ordering process was so simple.

The site used my Kroger rewards number to populate the items I purchase most often. That made it really easy to start building my shopping list. 

For other items, I used the search bar and found exactly what I was looking for in a matter of seconds. This saved me at least 20 minutes of criss-crossing the sprawling store in search of random ingredients. 

And it was so easy to compare prices. 

Gone are the days of wandering around the condiments aisle trying to pinpoint the cheapest ketchup or mustard brands in a sea of dozens of choices. 

 



Once I placed my order, I selected a one-hour time slot to pick it up on the following day. Pickup times for this location run from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. and every time slot was available.



When I arrived at the store, I noticed that eight parking spaces near the store's entrance had been turned into a ClickList pickup area.



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The 10 most talked-about new TV shows of the fall, ranked

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luke cage

The fall television season is in full force and there's definitely been some ratings winners among the new shows, but which shows actually have people talking? In many cases, they aren't the same.

A few of the highest-rated shows on TV right now are NBC's "This Is Us," CBS's "Kevin Can Wait," and Fox's "Lethal Weapon," yet only one of those shows is on our list of ten shows people are most buzzing about.

Conversely, two shows that aren't bringing in the ratings numbers, The CW's "Pitch" and Fox's "The Exorcist," are getting people talking.

To find out which new TV shows are creating the most buzz, we partnered with technology and marketing platform Amobee. It analyzed real-time content consumption across the internet, video, social, and mobile between September 1 and October 26 to determine which shows were generating the most engagement.

Here are the ten most-talked about new TV shows of the season:

SEE ALSO: The history of Donald Trump and NBC's love-hate relationship that made him a star

DON'T MISS: The 20 best new TV shows ranked, according to critics

10. "Notorious" (ABC)

Jake (Daniel Sunjata), a charismatic defense attorney, and Julia (Piper Perabo), a powerhouse television producer, work together when high-profile incidents are breaking.



9. "Exorcist" (Fox)

Geena Davis plays a mom whose daughter has returned from college exhibiting very dark behavior, so she searches out her local priest to help.



8. "This Is Us" (NBC)

This drama follows several people who are connected by their shared birthday.



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Even with its flaws, Vine was too good for this world

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This week, we received the somewhat surprising news that Vine, the creation and distribution platform for looping six-second videos, is shutting down soon. Though Vine was/is owned by Twitter and the videos have always embedded nicely into tweets, it had a separate app and website to create, edit and host everything.

So even though the news came as a surprise, it makes sense. The videos and the site will stay online (for now), but it's probably in Twitter's best interest to encourage its users to create videos using Twitter's built-in video tools. 

I don't think anyone will actually do that, but Twitter is allowed to dream.

Anyway, Vine was a frustrating platform for a lot of reasons; its native editing tools were never great, searching for old Vines was always a hassle and much of what was promoted on the Discover page was terrible. You had to dig a little deeper to find value in Vine, but that made Vine special.

Here's why:

The format was perfect for comedy

Comedy is all about pacing and timing. "Saturday Night Live" skits often fall apart because they go on for twice as long as they should. 

Obviously, that's not a problem when you only have six seconds to work with. While six seconds seems like an extremely stringent limitation, it forced creators to prioritize what they include in order to maximize comedic impact.

Here's an example:

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That joke was everything it needed to be in about the amount of time it will take you to read this sentence, which I'm totally not artifically stretching out in order to make my point. The punchline even comes right at the loop, so you barely have enough time to process what you just saw and heard before you're seeing and hearing it again.

As I hinted at before, I had a lot of misgivings about the kinds of Vines and creators who were the most heavily promoted on the platform. That said, when people actually put forth the effort to be funny instead of cashing in on topical memes, it occasionally produced some great stuff.

 



Even the bad stuff could be endearing

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That's a Vine of some dude documenting his quest to buy some chewing tobacco. Even though it's set up like one of the countless terrible "that moment when..." jokes out there, there's no punchline; dude just buys some dip and enjoys himself.

I'm one of the curators of a semi-active Twitter account (not safe for work) that finds and posts bad Vines, but when I say "bad," I mean like the Vine above. I adore Vines by people who made something for an audience of none — people who have no ulterior motive beyond making something because they have the tools in front of them.

You can find so many Vines with loops in the single digits, where the creators were clearly some bored teens who felt like saying something into their front-facing camera because they could. I downloaded this app, so I should probably use it, right?

Whether it's someone singing a bad screamo cover of a pop song or someone doing vape tricks, the corner of Vine where everything exists purely for the pleasure of its creator was always my favorite part. I will miss it dearly.



Vine was actually good for creators of color

I'm not especially qualified to talk about this, but NPR's Kat Chow sums it up well. In a media landscape where racial diversity is still hard to come by in mainstream productions, Vine offered a wide diversity of creators a space to make things and rise to prominence on their terms. 

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The ease with which you could film, edit and post something in less than a minute also made Vine valuable for documenting protests in places like Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. Social media has been a key factor in increased awareness of police brutality.



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