Dear BNET reader,

If you've every toyed with the idea of going back to school to get your MBA, BNET's newest blog -- Back to B-School -- is a must-read. You'll learn how to get into business school and what to expect once you get there, but it's more than just academics. It's also about creating the right balance between work, home and school. It's about getting your MBA without losing your job or sanity.

Back to B-School

College 2.0: Is It Time to Go Back for Your MBA?
As with most projects, the hardest part about going back to school is getting started. Should you or shouldn't you? Can you afford it? Can you get in? Just like any new assignment at work, you need to do some due diligence before jumping in.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation
The Back to B-school blog is about heading back to college when you've no longer 21. It's about juggling a full-time job and a master's program. It's about keeping your head above water while trying to finish up that latest project at work, writing that five-page paper due in two days, and not forgetting your mother's birthday in the process.

Find the Time to Get Back in School
First, you need to determine the feasibility of going back to school. While many MBA programs are tailored to full-time professionals, there are plenty of other obstacles that could derail your plans. Is it a good time at work, or did your team just undertake a massive new project?

Work Life

How to Win at Office Politics
Like it or not, every workplace is a political environment. But operating effectively within it doesn't have to mean sucking up, lying, or slinging dirt. Playing the game well is about defending your position, earning respect, exchanging favors, and keeping your sanity amid the chaos.

Top Seven Workplace Plays and Maneuvers
All office politicking relies upon a simple concept: the biggest help (and the biggest hindrance) to reaching your goals is other people. What's the right way to win friends and influence people? The most effective moves build alliances, sell your ideas, and solve problems.

Techniques of the Office Politics Masters
Sure the CEOs at America's biggest corporations have smarts, confidence, a good track record, and a gut sense for when to take risks and when to sit tight. But underscoring their decisions and actions is their political style. Here's a look at some of the highest-profile CEOs of the last decade and how their political styles have shaped their careers.

The You in Team

Are You in Your Boss's Top Eight?
A crucial aspect of creating and maintaining an effective team is evaluating your employees and using that information to help both the team and the individual grow. To this end, an array of software suites is on the market to help harness your most important resources - the human ones.

Lessons From the Manhattan Project
Depending on who you ask, the Manhattan Project either started humanity on a path to its destruction or put an end to world wars. No matter what you believe, it is beyond dispute that the project was an incredible achievement, carried out in a shockingly brief period of time.

Kick-Starting Your Team
The true test of a team is how it weathers the hard times: failure to complete a task, lackluster performance, times when upper management isn't living up to its promises. The team leadership must take responsibility for making sure the team is ready to face adversity. Here are some ways to approach challenges that might confront you.

BNET1

State of Labor Unions in the Union
Labor Day - it's that one day in the year that we celebrate America's deep Gilded Age roots in trade unions. In reality, though, the U.S. has been on the decline for years.

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Sincerely,

Leslie Leite
BNET

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