new job in 2012? we're going to tell you how to get hired. and from camping and cooking to mortgages and taxes, today's girl scouts can get a badge for money smarts. let's begin with politics. when it comes to the gop, here's the bottom line. they want to cut taxes, they really want to cut taxes. they all want to repeal what they call obama care, the president's health care plan, and they want to shrink government. ron paul, his plan is really the most extreme. he doesn't just want to shrink government, guys, he wants to shut it down, a third of it to be exact. he wants to slash 440,000 federal government jobs, and eventually ron paul says he would like to be the ones to turn off the lights for good at the irs. mitt romney says america has to live within its means, and this week he even said no one, not even 7-foot tall burns would be spared. >> we're not going to keep spending money we don't have. the national endowment for the arts, the national endowment for the humanities, pbs, they all got money from the government. maybe big bird needs to have advertisers. i'm not going to keep borrowing and borrowing and putting america in more and more peril. >> what does your vote mean for the american middle class? let's talk about it. mark is a democratic strategist of the public relations firm, and christopher is the senior associate dean of georgetown university school of continuing studies, and a conservative commentator. republicans want to act more like the american families. republicans say, well, yeah, that sounds reasonable. but living within our means demands huge spending cuts, and that will directly affect the middle class. are they walking the tight rope here, and what's it going to mean for how our families live? >> well, as you can see, washington has had a great deal of trouble balancing its budget and getting back to the balanced budget that we had when i worked with president clinton. and i think this is very crucial to the middle class outlook. they want the government to spend somewhat less. but they want to make sure that when it comes to making those cuts, that those cuts are made according to their values. so that means if medicare and social security are cut first, they're going to say that's not according to their values. they're going to say, they're looking at their future, they're looking at their kids' future and they want the cuts to be real, but not too harsh on themselves and the futures that they need. >> chris, when we talk about cuts, education, for example, that's the main focus of our show, ron paul wants to eliminate the department of education. it's an idea that others have endorsed as well. we asked the department of education, what do you think about the talk that you should be eliminated and not surprisingly they said we're not watching the republican debates, we're too busy working. the department also said it provides loans, grants to some 15 million college students, discretionary budget of almost $70 billion, 4,000 employees. why do conservatives don't think we need it, chris? and how would a typical family feel without it? >> i think it goes back to the point that mark just made, it's a question of values. fundamentally, we believe that if you look at education, that is primarily a local issue. and so from the standpoint of the department of education, i think that there are some efficiencies that can be gained. what we have to look at with the department of education is getting back to what does the department of education do best? is it better to have colleges or universities become direct lenders of these particular loans? i think these are all discussions that we have to have. because a federal bureaucracy, i think it can be more efficient. whether or not it should be completely eliminated, i'm not convinced. >> when you look at ron paul for example, and i mentioned he has the most extreme and detailed budget plan out there, for what he would do, mark zandy from moody's economy.com said the economy would evaporate. evaporate was the word he used. if we cut $1 trillion in spending in one year, evaporate. you know, that's a pretty significant kind of thing to say. mark, young kids like ron paul. young people who don't really know what the government can do for them, but also they just want to get the government out of their . really going to matter to how we live our life. is that an overstatement? >> well, no, it's not an overstatement. i think, first, you know, just to make a comment on the department of education, 85% of the voters support the department of education. this is a very weak position for the republican party and goes against the values of the middle class. i think the attraction of ron paul is that young people coming out of college are sitting there saying, you know, my parents are running up these huge debts, and who do they want to pay? me. i don't want to pay these bills. i don't want to be stuck with them. i don't think that statement is a responsible policy, but a statement that has to be taken account of. the young generation will not tolerate being the ones who have to foot the bill. >> chris, let's talk about santorum versus romney. both came out strongly in iowa. you say, you know, for the middle class, it's a beer versus a champagne vote between these two. >> sure. if you look at romney, for example, you know, romney is a, i don't know, billionaire, millionaire, we don't know. but he's fairly rich. and so if you then look at santorum, the question for people is, who would fight much harder for me. it's really kind of difficult for romney to come out with a position that i'm for the middle class. that just kind of doesn't seem to resonate. i think from the standpoint of santorum, though, it does. because if you look at kind of blue collar working roots, those kinds of things, i think that you would see people who are much more attractive to -- attracted, rather, to santorum than to romney. it is the beer versus the champagne vote, the champagne vote being for romney and the beer vote being for santorum. i think that's pretty much what you see with both of those guys. >> i think mark, overall, though, our government can't be keeping the promises that it's been making for all of these years. it's pretty clear. the question is, how do you sell austerity in an election year, and how do you make sure it's responsible austerity, mark? because that's what this has to be about, so people aren't hurt too badly. look at the low income heating oil program, it's facing funding cuts. it has to. it got very, very big during the recession. but you've got veterans coming home, and in many cases where they need help paying their energy bills, right? so these budget cuts, they matter to people, real people. >> well, i don't think you're going to see this election be about austerity. i think that really, americans look towards optimism and economic growth. americans have been pessimistic now, really, for seven or eight years, the longest period of american pessimism i've been able to find. they're going to look for a leader who's going to create jobs, who's going to do something about gas prices, who's going to do something to make homes more affordable and easier for them to get. the key artifacts of middle class life, a car, a home, a job, and a good education for their children, and they're going to say which candidate, regardless of which class they come from, is going to do more to provide that. that's what the election's going to come down to. austerity is going to come in later, when somebody's elected and they realize, what are we going to do about these deficits. >> that's true. guys, thank you so much. mark and chris. really nice to see you. i hope both of you will come back. as we go over the next 11 months, let's come back and keep touching on this conversation and have a running conversation about what these promises on the campaign trail are going to mean for our families. is that all right? >> absolutely. >> we can do that. >> have a great weekend, everybody. thanks. forget chinese, spanish or french, if you want to thrive in a changing job market, you need to be fluent in another language, a new language. we'll tell you what it is, next. 0 [ beep ] [ man ] you have one new message. 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[ laughs ] [ female announcer ] just one cap of tide plus bleach gives you more cleaning power than six caps of the bargain brand. visit facebook.com/tide to learn about special offers. that's my tide. what's yours? finding a job in this market is hard enough, as you know, finding one that pays exceptionally well right out of college, that's even harder. unless, that is, you speed code. poppy harlow paid a visit to new york university where 94% of computer science grads got a gig. >> the social network is the wall street movie of this generation. >> you guys were the inventors of facebook. >> a lot of students want to be the next mark zuckerberg. >> reporter: mark zuckerberg may have dropped out of college, but back on campus computer science is hot. and students with coding skills are burning up the job market. >> by graduation, how many companies reached out to you about working for them? >> i'd say between 10 and 20 reached out to me. just before graduating. >> reporter: how many job offers did you get? >> around four or five. >> reporter: you haven't even graduated yet. how many companies have reached out to you? >> between 10 and 20. >> reporter: it's a common story for computer science majors. >> most of my friends are also are not worried about jobs. >> reporter: look at tech job postings to see the demand. at nyu, that translated into a 94% placement rate for computer science grads last spring. for the class of 2011, computer science majors did the best on the job hunt. 56% had a job offer before graduation, compared with 41% overall. what do your friends tell you who aren't computer science majors about getting a job? >> they think i don't live in reality. >> reporter: an average starting salary of $66,000, and job security, may be why the major is taking off. with enrollment at nyu up 50% since 2007. >> many students, whether they're computer science majors or not, are starting to understand that coding is literacy of the future and they want to get in on that. >> when i started, the program was really small. had one section for each class. and now there's for the introductory ones, there's three or four at least. >> reporter: they both participated in a summer program offered founded by columbian professor chris wiggins. it shows them their career choices are broader than just google and goldman sachs. >> in addition to teaching them topics, we wanted to explain to them the variety of career options available to them. >> reporter: the hacking community may speak a slightly different language. >> you can present google's fundamental algorithm. and then they sort of -- >> reporter: the what? but one thing is crystal clear. this is where the jobs are. >> i get e-mail every day asking me if i have a student that could build x or build y. >> reporter: are the jobs here today gone tomorrow? >> is the internet going to be gone tomorrow? >> reporter: no. >> i don't think the jobs will be gone tomorrow either. >> makes me wish i was a computer science major, although i do love my job. the two people you saw in the piece tell us the job offers out there are really, really great. the salaries, starting salaries are comparable to entry level investment banking jobs. one hasn't heard of getting any offers below $70,000. they're usually getting six-figure offers. he now consults with tech companies after a stint at a startup, and is considering multiple offers and still hasn't even graduated from college. >> they say coding is the new investment banking of the '80s. but you know, not everybody can afford a pricey school like nyu, one of the most expensive in the country. are there affordable programs out there that teach this? somebody whose parents can't afford to send them to nyu? >> reporter: not only affordable, but free, right? you saw chris and evan in the piece, they run hack ny, a free summer program that kids get better at hacking or just learn how to do it. there's also neat online free courses. one is called code academy. and they teach you how to code online, for people just like me and probably you, christine, who don't know how to code, they will take you through it. what code academy also just started is something really interesting, that is a program that will basically e-mail you once a week your coding lesson for the week. it's called codier. so far they've had 140,000 people sign up, say i want to learn how to code in 2012. they say they'll teach you how to do it and you'll be building websites in no time. as you heard in the piece, a lot of people are saying, coding is the literacy of the future, so we better get onboard. >> for those of you who don't speak code, we'll tell you where to get hired in 2012. that's coming up next. lost your appetite for romance? 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[ laughs ] hey! forty years ago, he wasn't looking for financial advice. back then he had something more important to do. he wasn't focused on his future. but fortunately, somebody else was. at usaa we provide retirement planning for our military, veterans and their families. now more than ever, it's important to get financial advice from people who share your military values. for our free usaa retirement guide, call 877-242-usaa. if you're starting the new year looking for a new job, we're here to help you figure out the perfect plan to land one. ellen is a career coach, an expert in job search strategy. she's the author of a book called "job interview skills 101." ellen, i see these cautious signs of improvement in the labor market. but it's still pretty tricky to land a job. mostly people are being hired through connections. you call these secret jobs. tell us about how to get into that secret job market. >> okay. well, the number one skill that you must have number one skill u must have for this job market is networking skills. and that means being able to connect with people who can connect you to people who know wres jot are. so the first thing you really have to do is build a contact list. so that would consistent of people that you know. your friends, your family, your relatives, and including former colleagues, people that were your previous managers, teachers, etcetera. so you need to set up that list and be very strategic about it. so create a spreadsheet. everybody's name, their phone number, their e-mail address and how you know them and what your conversation is about and when will you follow up with them? and then after you do this -- >> and find your job by finding those people, i guess. it's almost like making a job. >> exactly. recently, a boss told me that he rescinded a six figure job offer because of what he found when he did a quick social media search on the person. he told me we basically googled the guy, looked for the facebook page, we pulled it. that is a cautionary tale and it's true. what are some dos and don'ts when networking online? >> make sure your pictures are professional looking pictures. you don't want to have your pictures out there with a group of friends having drinks in a bar. >> if somebody tries to friend you or add you on linkedin, you don't just add, say where are you working now? what's going on? try to connect with them so it's more than a random ad and now you have livened up a connection. >> exactly. tell them why you want to connect with them and how you can add some value to them and what you would like to know from them. people will always connect with you when you ask for advice. but if you connect with them and ask for a job, most likely they're not going to do that. >> then there's a job interview. i always thought you got about 30 seconds to make that first impression, really, and you better have a great question for the manager, too. when they say do you have anything you would like to ask? you better have something that's really good to ask. >> and i suggest you prepare those questions before you get to the interview. everybody brings a part fellow to the interview where you have questions. ask your questions, written on the second page, and after you ask those questions, it's perfectly okay to say to the interviewer, you know, we've only had about an hour to meet with each other. i'm wondering if there wassing in that you were hoping to see in my background that you didn't. the interviewer only has one hour to get to know a lifetime of experience for you. so i really believe you need to help them hire you, help them through the process. and i want to be quite frank. you know, we do these segments now and then and i get a lot of e-mail from people who say, christine, that's conventional wisdom to put a list of people you know and try to connect with them. those are the kinds of things that aren't working for me right now. i've been out of work too long and i can't back in. what do us to people who say, i've tried all that, ellen, and that's not working. >> something you can do is go to industry conferences. maybe they're expensive. if you can't afford to go, ask if you can volunteer and work at the conference. you will surely meet people who are involved in your industry and may have an interest in shepg you or tell you how you can help them. sooner or later, b you will engage with the right people and you will get there. it's most important that you stay active and you not get negative and you keep the positivity going. >> thank you so much. really nice to meet you. have a wonderful weekend, all right. >> thank you for having me. want your daughter to learn about taxes and mortgages when she's like 7 years old? sign her up for girl scouts. it's knot just about camping and cookies any more. in america, we believe in a future that is better than today. since 1894, ameriprise financial has been working hard for their clients' futures. never taking a bailout. helping generations achieve dreams. buy homes. put their kids through college. retire how they want to. ameriprise. the strength of america's largest financial planning company. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you, one-to-one. together, for your future. ♪ when you think of girl scout badges, what do you imagine? that sash, that shirt, maybe camping, cookies, of course? how about careers, mortgages, interest rates and taxes? 3.2 million young women can now earn one of those famous badges for being good with money. take a look. >> amelia and ava are not saving for toys. they're not saving for games, but something much more important. >> college. >> so is 5 1/2-year-old emily. why? >> it's a lot, a lot of money. >> meet the modern girl scouts, where money smarts count and will earn you a badge. the girl scouts are 100 years old this year and way past the days of cross stitching and sewing. 13 new badges reward money savvy. amelia, ava and emily are daisies. girls their age learn about savings. >> five dimes equals a half dollar. >> junior girl scouts like abigail learn what to do with their money. >> save it and donate it. >> and in the cadet troop, it's about mortgages, property taxes and careers. master it and nab the financing my dream bad. >> let's hold up our dream job. go ahead, gabby. >> lawyer. >> 12-year-old gabby is exploring whether she can explore her dream home. >> if you take your $2.35 million house that you want and you put 20% down, that means you're going for a $2 million loan. >> a real estate broker helps this cadet realize -- i really couldn't afford it. it was a bit too much money. >> it's so important because, you know, the largest purchase they're ever going to make is going to be their home. and, you know, to learn that at a very young age, you really need to save your money to purchase that dream home is so important. >> of course, if you've ever bought a box of could happen cookies from an aggressive entrepreneur in a green or brown sash, it's pretty clear these girls know mow. ask girl scouts ceo anna chavez. >> there are stereotypes of girls and money, but girls have been handling money for a long time. >> and consider by the time these girls graduate from college, they'll have on average $28.900 in student debt. >> you can't get around it. you have to learn about mope. >> absolutely. and it's so important. it touches everybody's lives. we're hoping that the girls not ohm learn those issues for themselves, they understand how to invest their money, they teach other kids around and and bring them along with path with them. >> so little abigail is learning how to save it, spend it and donate it. what are you? let's continue that conversation online. if he also if you've recently found a job,