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LinkedIn has created a new web button that allows users to apply for a job, automatically, using their LinkedIn profile. The button, a blue rectangle, reads “Apply with LinkedIn” and is said to make it easy for users to submit their profile for any job application on the internet with one simple click.

Many of the best jobs in companies are never advertised. Head hunters go out and look for suitable candidates, but how can you be visible enough for a head hunter to become aware of you?

The Economist Intelligence Unit expects a sub-Saharan banking boom, with banks addressing the many Africans who do not have accounts. The Unit’s new report estimates that banking in 16 African economies will boost assets by 178 percent to 980 billion US dollars by 2020.

A new report from financial services firm UBS names the most expensive cities in the world. Oslo, Zurich and Geneva grabbed the top three spots, followed by Copenhagen, Stockholm, Tokyo, Sydney, Helsinki, Toronto and Singapore.

To get into business school you need application essays, letters of recommendation, academic credentials, work experience and an entrance interview. Washington Post interviewed the admission officers of some of the top schools. We have compiled the top tips for you.

“You won’t have one career your whole life,” says Sydney based career coach Pauline Müller. “So manage your career at all times!” Pauline Müller, an Australian with Indian heritage who is married to a German journalist, has done exactly that her own life long. She has been in the work force for 30 years now and has had careers that span across four completely different areas: from being a lawyer with the public prosecutions office to managing the administration of a court and other government agencies to being a consultant to heading the compliance department for two of Australia’s major banks. She has seen it all and at the peak of her career decided to live her life again and leave her all consuming work. After a year of readjusting her life, she started from scratch, following what she enjoyed doing and became a career management consultant. Today, she helps executives find their right career paths – something she has done so many times herself.
MBA Channel spoke to her about the secrets of being successful in different careers.

The recent news that the TiasNimbasBusiness School will close its MBA programme in Germany came as a surprise to staff, students and the general public. It has now been confirmed that the Duke-Goethe Executive MBA programme will also be discontinued in 2012. Both institutions have offered their programmes as premium part-time MBA programmes and both cite a lack of demand and market conditions as the key reasons for discontinuing the programme. This begs the question: Is the market for part-time MBA programmes trending downward in Germany?

Unaccredited universities in the US often promote themselves as helping students getting a visa into the country. A group of schools—including San Jose’s ITU, Sunnyvale’s Herguan University and until recently Pleasanton’s now-closed Tri-Valley University – have attracted a student body that consists entirely of student-visa holders – most of them from India. But are they genuine universities and their MBA programmes proper courses?

How do you prepare yourself for an MBA programme? How easy is it to move from work life back onto the school desk, miss out on bonuses and even a regular salary? Bloomberg Business Week has launched an interesting new series to help MBA candidates ease into their new life. Part one is all about budgeting and avoiding debt.

India was the most active country regarding new MBA programmes and offers last month, but we also want to take a look at what’s new in the US and South America.

Five of the top ten desired employers of MBA’s this year are consumer technology companies. Long-standing service firms like McKinsey, Bain, BCG, Goldman Sachs and Blackstone were joined by likes of Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Ideo.

“We are small, but great” - The Leipzig Graduate School of Management wants to grow, but with consideration for quality and a sense of proportion. Bachelor degrees will not be offered but a family-friendly part-time MBA, more personable service and new scholarships. Rector Andreas Pinkwart spoke about his plans to MBA-Channel.com.

At the annual conference of business school in Berlin MBA-Channel.com interviewed Francesca Gino from Harvard Business School. The economist wrote her PhD at home in Italy, in Harvard she researches issues like negotiations and decision making, teamwork, ethics and innovation.

“For some people, the GMAT can become a months-, even years-long obsession. It shouldn’t be that way. That certainly isn’t what business schools, or the makers of the test, intend for it to be”, writes Jeff Sackmann. He should know, he has written many GMAT preparation books like “Total GMAT Math” or “GMAT 111”.

One of the greatest challenges managers and business leaders worldwide are facing today is to attract, retain and develop talent. At the fourth annual conference of the European School of Management and Technology ESMT in Berlin international experts in business, economy and science discusses success strategies in talent management. MBA-Channel.com talked to some of the speakers.

“At drinks with some full time MBA students, we talked about how they all have ipads with apps for case studies, websites to elaborate finance models and how they submit coursework online through complex plagiarism software”, writes Wesley Cole, business systems manager for a recruitment company, in a blog from London’s Cass Business School – and admits how baffled he feels. “I quickly realise I have no idea how to learn.”

One wonders why we do this to ourselves:
At some point of our lives – typically around the mid-thirties, some earlier, some later – we start to make ourselves busy.  While, as teens, we literally had to be dragged to any type of activity that barely resembled work, and the weekends seemed eternally far away at any day of the week (especially on Thursdays…) when we were in our 20s, now that the magic number 40 is in close sight just ahead, we embrace any activity that presents itself, voluntarily taking up more responsibilities in our jobs, tirelessly raising our children, re-activating one or two old hobbies that we had neglected for much too long and seriously think about adding another degree to our collection of qualifications.

Blogger Linda Brewer comments on the relative earning capabilities of MBAs: “It seems to me it’s still all about connections. The rich elite get into the rich, elite schools because they are part of rich, elite society. Regardless of the education they receive, they get out of school with those same connections and are hired at top salaries. No way do I believe that a middle-class kid, no matter his abilities or education, can break in to their world.”