A Powerful Push for Students to Earn a Degree

We’re hearing about so many great things people are doing to raise and give money to the relief efforts in Haiti, even on college campuses. It’s a tragic situation and major organizations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are among those giving millions to the effort.
It makes you stop and take notice of all the foundation is doing beyond aiding a world tragedy. Did you know that foundation also is donating billions of dollars to help students attend and graduate from college, particularly community colleges? It’s already given nearly $4 billion in grants and scholarships since 2000.

Continue Reading

Penny Loretto’s Internship Pick: Office of the Attorney General

The Office of the Attorney General Internship Program (OAG) for the District of Columbia (OAG) hires undergraduate and graduate students to work as volunteers during the academic year as well as during the summer. Interns participating in the OAG Program are given first-hand exposure to what it’s like working in public service. A diverse group of students are selected each year to participate in the program.
Interns get an opportunity to work alongside professionals in the field and are able to participate in doing legal research, motions, advice memos, discovery, trial, and/or administrative tasks pertinent to the office. Interns can also assist attorneys at trial or while working in a hearing, selecting jurors, or in making opening statements. These are just a few of the exciting tasks that take place while working in the OAG Office. Continue reading …
Article by, Penny Loretto, a career counselor at a small liberal arts college in upstate New York, has her own private career counseling practice, Career Choice, and is About.com’s Guide to Internships.

Helicopter Parents on ADVANCE

Helicopter Parents
This posting is for parents of all ages … The allure of becoming a helicopter parent starts early in one’s parenting career.
Lessons learned in childhood, as a tween, a teen and a college student will serve your child for life. This is where lessons are learned under the protection of a family.
Allow your child to both “try and fail” and “try and succeed”.
Not everyone can be #1. Someone has to be second. It may be the person who comes in second who learns a valuable lesson that takes them to the top the next time.
If parents do all the work, they deny their children the feeling of success. Success from knowing that they did it … on their own!
Land the helicopter and take a seat in the lounge. Celebrate your child’s successes or listen to their tales of woe. Always ask them, how they plan to solve their problems.
Article by, College Parenting Expert, Dr. Debi Yohn, whose advice on successfully getting college students through college with an emphasis on graduation and rewarding employment is sought by parents from around the world. Now for the first time, she reveals 27 Winning Strategies for Success – a guidebook geared to parents of new college students. Get her free e-Book now at http://www.collegeparentsadvice.com/ and improve your child’s chances of a successful college experience.

Acceptance or Rejection. It Belongs to the Student.

Now That the Application Is In, What’s a Parent to Do? – The Choice Blog – NYTimes.com
The take away from this article is to allow the student to feel the satisfaction of being accepted or the disappointment of not being accepted without you, the parent, taking ownership.
Do not compare your student with any other student.
Do not discuss anything that is not supportive with other parents.
Be supportive and kind when your student does not get the acceptance they have been waiting for. No “I told you so’s…”. This is not the time. This will not be the first time in their life that they will not get what they wanted. This is a life lesson.
Celebrate every success, every acceptance as if this is THE acceptance. It may become the acceptance that works for your child.
Do not put the weight of the world on one acceptance letter. It may not be the right college for your child.
Enjoy these last months with your high school student. You will never get them back. Often the senior year is lost to stress and over scheduling. Try to savor the time.
Article by, College Parenting Expert, Dr. Debi Yohn, whose advice on successfully getting college students through college with an emphasis on graduation and rewarding employment is sought by parents from around the world. Now for the first time, she reveals 27 Winning Strategies for Success – a guidebook geared to parents of new college students. Get her free e-Book now at http://www.collegeparentsadvice.com/ and improve your child’s chances of a successful college experience.

Your Career Campaign: How Will You Navigate the Journey in 2010?

I recently dusted off some of my old books and rediscovered one of my favorite poems, “Autobiography in Five Short Chapters,” from Portia Nelson’s book, There is a Hole in My Sidewalk: The Romance of Self-Discovery. It creates an analogy between life, change and making choices that affect our life outcomes.

Here it is:
Chapter One
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost …I am helpless.
It isn’t my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.
Chapter Two
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend that I don’t see it.
I fall in again.
I can’t believe I am in this same place.
But, it isn’t my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.
Chapter Three
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in…it’s a habit…but,
My eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault
I get out immediately.
Chapter Four
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.
Chapter Five
I walk down another street.

Continue Reading

Smart Money, Smart Jobs, Smartphone – Leverage Your Job Search

Smart Money
A smartphone may not sound like the best way to spend your money if you are currently unemployed, but in fact, it just may be. Job hunting in today’s market is all about getting there first, getting there fast and leveraging all of the Internet tools available to you. Yes, you can do this from the comfort of your home (or Starbucks), but when you are out of the house (hopefully on a job interview), a smartphone can give you the edge you need to get the next interview. Now I’m not saying that you won’t get a job if you don’t have a smartphone, I’m just saying this is another tool in your Job Marketing Toolkit.
So where to start? While I won’t tell you which smartphone and carrier are best for you, I will give you some tips and tricks on leveraging your smartphone in your job search. You should also read my post Taking your Job Search Mobile

Continue Reading

How to Become an Entrepreneur by Starting and Running an On-line Business

Earlier this week, I posted a couple of blog articles about how people can start their own e-businesses even if they don’t know much about technology or running a businesses. Our partner, SBI! Learning, has taught tens of thousands of graduates at prestigious universities across the country why e-businesses make good fiscal sense, how to start them, and, most importantly, how to run them.
As a lifelong entrepreneur born into a family full of entrepreneurs, the idea of starting CollegeRecruiter.com wasn’t scary and I knew where to turn to for help with just about any issue. But the reality is that very few families are blessed with successful entrepreneurs and if your family is like that, then understanding how to start a business and how to run that business must seem overwhelming. Fortunately, SBI! Learning has the tools you need. They’ll walk you through why e-businesses (businesses which are located on-line like a blog or other web site) are good ideas for many people, how to get the training and other help you’ll need to get started, how to launch the business, and how to run it.

Continue Reading

What You Have… That They Don’t

Ok, so you know you’re not the only one looking for a job. There are millions of people either out of work entirely or looking for something different, and their resumes are in the same pile as yours.
So how do you make sure your resume stands out in the crowd? The key is this: sure, there are many other people looking for your position – and they might have a similar background and qualifications. But, you have something they don’t have: your personality. This isn’t to say you can use your resume as a place to wax poetic about your basket-weaving hobby or tell a bunch of jokes; but despite what many job-hunting websites tell you, a touch of personality can go a long way to reach your desired audience.

Continue Reading

Couch Potato Job Seeker

It is amazing how many people I have spoken with lately that are looking for work and somehow still think that by purely looking through employment opportunities on job boards and applying online with a generic resume – it is going to land them their next dream job. This topic has been in the news, in many blogs, on the radio and all over various newspapers and magazines, yet so many have not yet gotten the picture. Job seekers… you must do better than that!
Think outside the box and get creative! Put yourself in the hiring manager’s shoes with 500 resumes in front of you and one opening, what would get your attention and make you want to learn more about the person in the resume? Or if you are going to a job fair or career forum, what will set you apart from everyone else there? What will get you noticed (in a positive way)?

Continue Reading

Use Twitter To Prepare For Your Job Interview

As companies and professionals are using Twitter for far more than lunch updates, Twitter has turned into a great place to get real time information.
Job seekers can use Twitter information to research companies and hiring managers prior to interviews.
Is your hiring manager on Linkedin? There’s a good chance the hiring manager, the HR representative, and the especially the recruiter are also on Twitter.
Now that over 50 million people use Twitter (close to surpassing Linkedin’s user base) you will find people from your target company on Twitter. With that large of a user base Twitter can help you with your Guerrilla Job Search Tactics – it’s especially helpful to help you prepare for a job interview.

Continue Reading