Also, Scholarship Points referral points awards will be going from 20 points per referral to 30 points.
Scholarship Points Instructions
Are you a Scholarship Points member? In today’s show, get a Points code for 20 Scholarship Points by subscribing to the podcast and listening to the episode. Subscribing is fast, easy, and free.
Remember, the points code is in the show itself, so you have to tune in and listen to it. I promise it’ll be worth your time.
Scholarship Update
Scholarship seekers and Internet enthusiasts alike are going to love Microsoft’s newest campaign, Create Your own Internet PSA. Can you think of an affliction or problem that Internet Explorer 8 can solve? Can you create a really fun acronym for said affliction? Then you’re halfway there. Now you just need to film your own Public Service Announcement (PSA) and you’ll be entered for a chance to win a $2,500 scholarship!
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Georgia’s public colleges can no longer afford to let entering freshmen lock in a tuition rate for four years, the state Board of Regents decided today. The regents voted unanimously to suspend the policy indefinitely, as of this fall, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The regents, meeting in Atlanta to set the higher-education system’s budget for the fiscal year that begins in July, also approved a new formula that will allow full-time tuition to rise by 25 percent this fall.
Commentary
I’m not sure which is more newsworthy, the cancellation of the fixed rate plan or the new tuition increase, which just blows me away. A 25% increase is a giant increase that I suspect many Georgia families will struggle to accommodate.
Student Lending Analytics posted the following analysis of data released yesterday by the Department of Education that summarizes the number of FAFSAs filed in the first quarter of 2009. More than a million more aid applications were filed during the first quarter of 2009 compared to the first quarter of 2008 - a 20.8 percent increase. Student Lending Analytics notes that the sharp increase in the number of original FAFSAs by independent students, 31.0% vs. 14.0% for dependent students, may reflect more adults returning to school to hone or enhance their job skills.
Commentary
I think SLA overlooked that there are now more exemptions and categorizations for independent students than there were previously on the FAFSA - we added emancipated students, homeless or at risk of homelessness, and a few other changes to the definition of an independent student. That said, the overall volume increase doesn’t surprise me - if anything, it feels a little low given the state of the economy.
“Fostering leadership, learning and empathy between cultures was and remains the purpose of the international scholarship program.” Senator J. William Fulbright THE FULBRIGHT PROGRAM: * Is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. * Is the largest U.S. international exchange program offering opportunities for students, scholars, and professionals to undertake international graduate study, advanced research, university teaching, and teaching in elementary and secondary schools worldwide. * Was established in 1946 by the U.S. Congress to “enable the government of the United States to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.” * Awarded approximately six thousand grants in 2004, at a cost of more than $262 million, to U.S. students, teachers, professionals, and scholars to study, teach, lecture, and conduct research in more than 150 countries, and to their foreign counterparts to engage in similar activities in the United States. * Receives its primary source of funding through an annual appropriation from Congress to the Department of State. Participating governments and host institutions in foreign countries, and in the United States, also contribute financially through cost-sharing and indirect support, e.g., through salary supplements, tuition waivers, and university housing. This year’s deadline is May 18th, 2009.
Having something to say is probably one of the most difficult and awkward parts of networking. I’ve been there many a time, whether at a trade show, conference, or job fair. Wondering how to approach someone, what to say, how to say it - reminiscent, in many ways, of dating. So here’s two ideas you can use as icebreakers or conversation starters.
1. If you know which industry you’re targeting, head over to TradePub.com as soon as you can and sign up for as many free publications as possible. Read them voraciously so that you know the lay of the land - and pay attention to the advertisers as well. See who the big names are in the field and keep current on what’s happening, what trends there are. When you attend any networking event or opportunity, you’ll have plenty to say and you can jump into conversations readily, as opposed to just hoping the topic jobs comes up. Prove that you’re knowledgeable about the industry you want to work in to professionals who have the potential to hire you, and making connections will be much easier.
2. If you don’t know what you want to do, go volunteer at a non-profit. Why? Non-profits are often causes, and that gives you something to talk about that isn’t necessarily a commercial sell (”get a student loan from the Student Loan Network” is a terrible networking opener) or blatantly self promotional. A cause is something that you’re expected to be passionate and vocal about - whether it’s affordable access to college, homelessness, donations for food pantries, or saving the critter of your choice from extinction. Have that passionate focus and carry it with you to events and random networking opportunities, so that when someone asks the typical, “So, what do you do?” or “So, what are you interested in?” you can have a lengthy conversation with them that demonstrates both passion and expertise in something.
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The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is closing its online-education grant program, a foundation official has told The Chronicle. Some college officials are concerned that the decision will leave a fast-growing sector of American higher education without a major source of support. The New York City-based foundation has funneled roughly $80-million into online-education ventures around the country since the early 1990s.
Commentary
Online degrees are indeed taking a hit from this closure, which is unfortunate but understandable in these times. However, it’s worth reminding and pointing out that if you take an online degree from any Title IV accredited school, you can apply for and possibly receive all the regular forms of financial aid such as Pell Grants, Stafford loans, etc. as long as you meet eligibility requirements. Of course, there are plenty of online degreescholarships as well besides the Sloan grants.
Scholarship Update
Play City, a campaign created by YouthNoise in partnership with Nike, is giving a whole new meaning to the phrase “Be a good sport.” We believe sports have the power to energize individuals, revitalize communities and catalyze change in the world. The question we want you to answer is: “What Do You Play For?” We want to know how you are using sports to make a difference in your life, your community or the world as a whole. Submit a photo that clearly demonstrates how you are using sports to make an impact, and tell us in detail what cause or purpose you play for. Whether you play basketball to stay happy and healthy, run marathons to benefit local charities or coach soccer to empower young women, we want to hear your story. You could win the grand prize of $500 cash or scholarship!
We’ve all had those college experiences that were fun and funny at the time but kind of embarrassing later on. The stories I could tell you about my undergraduate days would fill a small book and you’d leave shaking your head. Sound familiar? The difference between previous generations of students and today’s students is this, in one word:
Google.
Google doesn’t forget. Once it indexes something, it never forgets. Even if you take down a web page or change a photo, Google or one of the other major search services is constantly copying, archiving, and recording everything, all the time.
This photo is a good example. At the time, it was probably funny.
A couple of years down the road, if this person (who I don’t know) applies for a job and their name was attached to this photo, they might have some explaining to do in an interview, or worse yet, never get the interview and would never know WHY they were denied the opportunity.
So what do you do to still have a life and some adventures to retell down the road, but not sabotage your future? Here’s a 3 step recipe.
1. Don’t put up things online you don’t want to be found. At the very least, check out and restrict your privacy settings on social network and media sites like Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Twitpic, etc. so that the world can’t see everything, or even the majority of things. Ideally, avoid placing anything embarrassing online at all, since even the best privacy settings get messed up over time.
2. Take down anything you don’t want to be found. This is especially important to ask of friends who post photos and videos from parties, etc. Obviously, if at all possible, avoid putting yourself in those situations to begin with, but at the very least, ask friends to take down anything you don’t want to have seen.
3. Flood the Internet with content you do want to be found. This is where having lots of obvious bait is important. Considering working in healthcare? Start a healthcare blog and make sure your name is prominent in it so that anyone Googling for you in a few months or years finds what you want them to find. Take appropriate photos and post them up with your name and personal URL.
Here, for example, is a picture of my barbecue. Boring, right?
I want you to find all that stuff, because in this day and age, having a complete vacuum associated with your name is almost as bad as having drunk party photos out there. Searching Google for your name and coming up with nothing makes me wonder what you’re hiding, and speaking as a hiring manager at an Internet-savvy company, a Google result of zero means you don’t know the marketplace we want to serve, and thus you’re a less desirable hire.
Google yourself. Check yourself out on MySpace, Facebook, or wherever you have a profile, and honestly ask yourself what kind of impression you create. If it’s not what you want, then take some time to reshape your digital life so that you create exactly the perception you want to create.
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We covered lots of job stuff this week, such as graphing out what industries are hiring, where the jobs are in your area, and where you should be focusing your search. We also covered 3 basic job finding concepts.
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Studies of endowments don’t bring good news these days. College endowments in the United States lost an average of 24.1 percent in the last six months of 2008, according to a survey from Commonfund Institute that provides an update on an estimate the organization released two months ago. As is typically the case, the largest endowments did better than smaller endowments. Those with more than $1 billion saw average losses of only 21.7 percent. Those endowments valued at less than $10 million lost an average of 30.2 percent.
Commentary
Tuition increases will not be far behind. If endowments are losing a quarter of their value every six months, that’s a loss of half annualized. With a declining capital base and no returns on investment, the only place for colleges to get money will be from your wallet.
Especially as financial aid increases in the various stimulus acts, I would anticipate seeing more tuition increase announcements. These numbers by themselves are not shocking, especially when you consider the broader market performance.
Universities would do well to listen to the same advice we give families about 401k and 529 plans - if you need capital for major purposes - like keeping the lights on - in the next 3-5 years, the market is no place to be keeping it. Cash out, stick your money in safe harbors like bank CDs, savings accounts, and anything FDIC insured, and wait out the storm.
Scholarship Update
Alpha Phi Foundation is proud to continue the Fraternity’s high regard for scholarship and foster the pioneering spirit our Founders held close to their hearts by awarding scholarship aid to Alpha Phis everywhere.
Recipients are selected from among highly competitive applicant pools from graduate and undergraduate universities across the United States and Canada. Scholarship recipients are selected by the Foundation’s scholarship committee on the basis of the applicant’s scholastic record, essays, service to Alpha Phi and the community, campus involvement and alumnae recommendations.
The last few months have seen many of the companies that hire new college graduates revise their plans — and that’s why you may be seeing more anxiety in the career center. Data released Wednesday by the National Association of Colleges and Employers show that hiring of new college graduates this year is expected to be down 22 percent from a year ago. And 22 percent of employers responding to the survey said that they didn’t plan to do any hiring at all. While the survey found no parts of the country that are immune from the downturn, the projected hiring declines are the greatest in the Northeast and the West.
What are you doing for your job search? How are you handling looking for work after college? Here’s a sampling from Twitter:
dluberda: Job hunting difficult for graduating college students…great…
elise27: trying to find a job…graduating soon and there are nooo jobs. scary
andrewvo: I’m graduating. May I have a job? You can find me online but I wasn’t in “ping pong playa” I produce and get coffee. Please?
jjnick: is a little worried about graduating in April. CNN just posted an article about graduating college seniors and I still don’t have a job!
alexfish: advice for people graduating trying to land there first job and break into the web industry would be awesome!
Here are three key concepts you must understand for job hunting:
1. If a company is paying to advertise for any job, they’re hiring for other positions, too. Whenever you’re looking at job listings, don’t assume that’s the only job they’re hiring for. That’s the only job they’re hiring for that they’re so desperate to fill, it’s worth paying for. There are other jobs available, and a willingness to pay for advertising means the company likely has good growth prospects. Find companies hiring on pay sites like Monster.com and see what else is available at the company on their web site that they didn’t want to pay Monster for.
2. Seth Godin says it best: being remarkable literally means worth making a remark about. A resume and cover letter aren’t enough. If you have a LinkedIn profile, solicit testimonials from everyone and anyone you’ve ever worked with, volunteered with, coached with, etc. and get those remarks piling up. If a hiring manager has a choice between two nearly identical resumes (which most college student resumes are), and one of them has 57 recommendations and the other has none, guess which person will get an interview?
3. You must master networking. If there’s one resource that I’d point you to, it’s the book Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi. [disclosure: paid Amazon link] Some parts are kind of silly or hokey, but on the whole, it’s a tremendous resource and well worth a few dollars to buy. Have the basic tools of networking ready: business cards with your contact information on them (even if you’re not employed), a personal web site with lots of content that demonstrates your communications skills, and a LinkedIn profile stuffed with legitimate testimonials about what you can do, so that when someone you meet goes to dig a little deeper, they’ll find what you want them to find.
If you lack noteworthiness, go and make some. There are endless opportunities, particularly now in the Great Recession, for you to volunteer at a non-profit and make your mark. If you have great portable skills like writing, technology, accounting, whatever, you can make a difference AND build up some solid credentials.
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Davenport, Iowa is one of a number of cities along the Mississippi River that brands itself as a gateway to the West. After a special election Tuesday, some of the city’s leaders hope it will be known throughout the region as a gateway to free college tuition. The city’s voters decide today whether to approve Davenport Promise, a program which would provide college tuition to all local high school graduates starting this spring. To qualify, students would need only be Davenport residents and complete 400 hours of approved community service in the area. Private, parochial and home-schooled students would also qualify.
The program would provide students with about $20,000 – an award based on the cost of attending a local community college for two years and a state university for two more. Students, however, would not be limited as to where they could attend college and would be able to attend any institution – in- or out-of-state, private or public. Those who choose vocational training would receive an amount up to the tuition rate at the local community college, while those who enter the military would receive a $7,500 homestead grant upon returning home.
Commentary
An intriguing idea. If the city is able to make ends meet and keep the program affordable, it may well be a model to be copied to other towns and cities.
The Arkansas legislature is taking a different approach to reining in soaring tuition costs: Today it sent a bill to the governor’s desk that would cap the amount of money public colleges can spend on scholarships.
Increases in scholarship aid lead to higher tuition costs, State Rep. Bill Abernathy, who shepherded the Senate-passed bill through the House of Representatives, told Associated Press. “You almost have the reverse Robin Hood scenario,” said Mr. Abernathy, a Democrat. “You’re taking from the poor and giving it to the rich in some cases.”
Commentary
That’s got to be the most baffling idea I’ve ever heard. There’s some truth to the idea that the more financial aid available, the more colleges will charge - we saw that two years ago, when an increase to subsidized Stafford loan limits was followed literally the next day by an increase in tuition at some for-profit colleges for the exact dollar amount of the tuition increase. Even still, the idea of giving away fewer scholarships as a tuition control makes no sense.
If you wanted to rein in tuition, especially at public colleges, why not just legislate a cap on tuition increases indexed to inflation, and leave it at that? Or, as one commenter in the article points out, end merit-based scholarships and redirect the funding to need-based scholarships.
The proposal in Arkansas is really confusing, to say the least.
Scholarship Update
Recession relief scholarship. We give four $500 scholarships annually to help students hampered by debt to continue their studies, and you can apply online now. We created the award in 2003 as a once-a-year award, but based on the number of great applications we’ve received, we now grant four awards. We also send the check directly to you, not your school. To be eligible for the scholarship, you must be attending or planning to attend a college, trade school, technical institute, vocational program or other post-secondary education program in the 2009-2010 academic year.
Do you know who’s hiring in your area? If you were to focus on an industry or a field, how would you know where to focus your efforts?
Here’s a helpful way to determine just who’s hiring in your region. You’ll need a text editor, a spreadsheet capable of doing subtotals, and your local Craigslist. I’ll be doing mine with BBEdit for the Mac, Microsoft Excel, and Boston’s Craigslist.
Step 1. Create a new text file and open up the general Craigslist jobs, which lists everything.
Step 2. Mass copy and paste several days of listings into your text file. I’m using a week’s worth.
Step 3. Extract the fields from the rest of the file. I typically do this by doing find/replace and process lines containing, followed by a sort. This gives me a nice text file to import into Excel.
Step 4. Open up in Excel and do subtotals by count. This will give you a nice summary of what’s happening in your market. In Boston, we’ve seen 2,400 jobs open up in the area.
Step 5. If you’re an Excel wizard, you can of course slice and dice your results to make pretty charts.
So what’s all this mean and why is it important? Simple. Two takeaways:
1. If you work in a portable role - accounting, sales, marketing, etc., - roles that nearly all companies need, this method of finding which industries are growing in your geographic area will help you focus your job search.
2. If you work in a very industry specific role, doing this for several cities might reveal in which part of the country your best chances for employment lie. For example, in the Boston graph above, we see that government is at the bottom for jobs, which means that if you’re looking to work in government, Boston might not be the place for you. On the other hand, if you’re in healthcare or hospitality, Boston appears to very much be the place to be.
The other thing this sort of data mining does is help confirm or dispel gut feelings about the job market in your city with real data, data that hopefully illuminates where and how you should be job searching.
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Daily Aid 81: How to automate followups for job hunting, stimulus, student loan consolidation
Student Financial Aid News
Yesterday, Congress came to an agreement on the final version of the stimulus package. Unfortunately, no one has any idea what’s actually in it. We do know some more education stuff got trimmed; I would hope the provision for increased unsubsidized Stafford Loan limits to have survived since there is no net taxpayer cost, but we’ll see.
From NASFAA:
“[T]he credit crunch hit, and the market for student loans dried up. The freeze has left … thousands of borrowers … in a financial limbo, unable to put their defaults behind them. Each month an additional 15,000 students or more join their ranks,” The Chronicle of Higher Ed reports. “Guarantee agencies, which are allowed to keep a percentage of each loan they sell, are urging the Education Department to purchase the frozen loans under a loan-rescue law enacted last year. But the department says it doesn’t have the authority to do so, and some Republican members of Congress are pushing a legislative fix. The change could come as early as this week, in an omnibus spending bill that Congress is expected to take up for the current fiscal year.”
Commentary
The market for things like student loan consolidation certainly is a good deal more sparse than it was just a couple of years ago; right now, the Department of Education is the only game in town (because of legislative changes in 2007, it’s unprofitable for everyone including the Department of Education to consolidate student loans). For private student loan consolidation… I’m not actually sure ANYONE is doing that right now. (if you work for a lender that does offer private student loan consolidation, please get in touch - I’d like to chat about working together!)
Scholarship Update
Whether you’re feeling the love or totally over it, we want you to express it in a Valentine or Vendetta card design! Over the moon? Create a touching Valentine for your sweetheart, mom or secret crush. Lost that loving feeling? Create a Vendetta for your ex, that cop that gave you a speeding ticket or your noisy neighbor. Here’s your chance to ignite your love or snuff it out! The best Valentine and Vendetta design will each win $500!
One of the most important parts of any job search is followup. After you’ve sent a resume, after you’ve interviewed, you must, must, must follow up. Most job seekers don’t, and the few that do automatically rise to the top of the pile for most hiring managers. Why don’t most candidates follow up? They forget. Here’s a quick tutorial using a contact manager that will help you forget less.
Using the Batchblue contact manager for job hunting. Full disclosure: Batchblue has not paid to be featured in this post. However, if anyone from Batchblue is reading, please feel free to hit up our advertising link.
Sign up for a free account, obviously. Next, take note of the BCC address that you’ll use in every email you send. Usually looks like this: batchbox+1111111111@yourid.batchbook.com.
Send out resumes normally, but using BCC:
Next, go into the contact manager, find the person’s card, and attach a to do.
Now, what good is a to-do if you forget to do it? Enter Google Calendar. If you don’t already have a Google account, get one. It’s free too. Find your calendar subscription feed from your dashboard:
Head into Google Calendar. Find the add button and paste in your calendar URL:
Then click Settings and change notifications.
If you want to use SMS/text messaging reminders, you’ll need to set up your phone with Google as well.
That’s it! Now every time you send an email, go into your contact manager and set up a reminder to follow up. Once you do that, anything you program into reminders will automatically be sent to you via email, text message, or popup, which will help ensure you don’t miss any opportunities to make followup great impressions on prospective employers. In this market, when every little bit helps you beat the competition, a system like this will really, really help.
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“A controversial program at the City Colleges of Chicago to put student loan refund money on pre-loaded debit cards now has enrolled about 6,300 students from all seven campuses,” Chi-Town Daily News reports. “The cards, provided by JPMorgan Chase, carry high fees for withdrawing money, checking balances and talking with a bank teller. … While it’s usually free to get money from Chase’s 14,000 ATMs, City Colleges students using their Chase debit cards must pay $2 each time. Talking with a teller is $10, something that’s free for all other Chase customers. Even checking account balances on the Chase cards costs $1.25. … [Wright College student senator Christopher Collier] says while the cards are costly, he expects them to become the standard way for students to get their refunds.”
Commentary
As a rule, I try to avoid badmouthing others, even competitors, but I’ll make an exception here. $1.25 fee just to check your balance? $2 for a withdrawal from an in-network ATM? Betcha get a double hit if you withdraw from a non-Chase ATM.
If you get one of these debit cards, withdraw every penny from it in one shot if you can and put it in a regular checking or savings account. Here’s one sponsored by ING Direct that won’t charge you to check your balance. [full disclosure: the Financial Aid Podcast earns a very modest fee that can be measured in pennies for that sponsored link]
You’ll also want to check out local community banks and credit unions on campus for checking and savings accounts to put your student loan refund balances into. Personally, I’m a huge fan of credit unions, as they offer the same options as banks do, but typically have lower fees, better savings rates, and terrific personal service. If you need to find a credit union near you, check out www.NCUA.gov.
The College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) is a 100% federally-funded grant available only during your college freshman year. You must be a U.S. citizen or U.S. permanent legal resident, be obtaining your GED or high school diploma, and be seeking a four-year academic degree to be eligible. You and/or your family must been migrant or seasonal farm workers doing agricultural activities directly related to the production of crops, dairy products, poultry or livestock; the cultivation or harvesting of trees; or fish farms at least 75 days during the past 24 months. Additionally, you can only apply this scholarship at one of the (38) existing colleges that have this federal grant. Participants of the Migrant Education Program (MEP) and the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) are encouraged to apply.
If you feel like shopping for a 55 gallon drum of mayo, Sam’s Club has a free day pass. Remember that bulk isn’t always a money saver unless it’s something that’s non-perishable.
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The 11th Annual National High School Poetry Contest is now accepting submissions. This year’s scholarship prizes (12) range from $100 to $1000. We also name up to 100 Honorable Mentions and hundreds of Regional and Topical Winners every year. All winners will receive an offer of publication.
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This is both stunning and also a vitally important lesson in finance for everyone, not just universities. My opinion? Brandeis’ move is a bad one, forced out of desperation. Here’s why. When you sell off an asset like an art collection, the chances of you ever being able to reclaim it are very poor. It’s like hocking a diamond ring at a pawn shop. Sure, the cash does help, but the asset itself is lost. When it comes to personal finance or even corporate finance, tangible, difficult to recover assets should be very close to the last things you sell off to raise capital - cash - because they’re so hard to get back.
I see the same thing being done by states - they sell off toll roads, airports, etc. to raise money, but they’re then depriving themselves of future income to raise cash for the moment. They barter the future for today’s needs.
Absolutely, you need cash in order to survive. This is a cash economy. However, are there other things you could sell or discretionary expenses you could cut first? For example, at a school, could you suspend an athletic program for a year or two? Unlike an art collection which takes decades to amass, rebuilding a football team or a lacrosse team takes only a few years.
Think carefully about this in your personal life as well - if you’re desperate for money, are there expenses you’ve overlooked that you could suspend even temporarily until your personal situation improves?
We are unquestionably in the midst of difficult times, the most in a century. Navigating them will require more financial flexibility out of everyone, but it can be done.
As for Brandeis - go see their art collection now, if you live in New England. It’s considered a gem of New England and may not be there much longer.
One of the more unpleasant statistics buried in the most recent BLS labor report is that 21% of the 16-19 year old population is unemployed of those in the labor market, nearly triple the national unemployment rate. This statistic discounts enrolled students, obviously, who are by default not in the labor market. However, it also points to an exceptionally difficult labor market for students graduating this spring and for all students looking for summer work. How can you get around such difficult conditions and secure that first job out of college? How can you find ways to beat the economy? Here’s a few suggestions.
Make sure the basics are covered. Craft a great resume, even greater cover letter, and a fantastic personal professional web site with a relevant blog and your thoughts on the industry you’re in or want to be in. Do this no matter what age you are or where you are in life - high school student or baby boomer retiring in a few years (hopefully). The basics will lay the foundation for everything else. Establish your personal brand, what you’re about, what you stand for, what you do.
Network now, while you’re in school, while you have some free time. Attend conferences - many of which have reduced or free passes for students with valid ID - and make connections. Make sure you’ve got business cards with your personal professional web site on it as well as contact information of all kinds. There are lots of virtual online events as well, from casual chats to webinars and virtual conferences. Find ones that are appropriate and participate!
Get to know business networking groups in your local area in person and online. See if LinkedIn has a group for your geographical area and vertical, like the Boston Marketers Group. Here’s a LinkedIn secret power play: If there isn’t a group yet for your area and vertical (Wichita Internet Marketers, anyone?), create one and administer it - and you’ve got an instant attention getter for people in your city who might want to employ you. Do this whether or not you have a job, and do it in multiple places. No Facebook professional group in your area? Start one!
Volunteer at people-oriented events. Look for both paid and unpaid internships, because an unpaid internship can quickly turn into a full-time job if you’re good enough. Here at the Student Loan Network, we’ve converted interns to employees rapidly if they have the right stuff.
Use sites like Craigslist to find which companies are hiring. Even if a company isn’t hiring for the exact job title you want, the fact that they’re hiring at all means they have enough growth and income prospects to justify bringing on additional people - so check them out. Do your homework, and see if you can make a compelling case to bring you on, too.
Yes, the job market may be tough, but there are still opportunities if you’re able to be innovative and reach new people in new places.
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