Friday, June 18, 2010
Make the most of your summer internship
If you’re a student or graduate who has landed yourself a summer internship consider yourself lucky, very lucky. You’re on your way to starting your career! Since you landed the gig, and since you will probably be spending the better part of your summer there, possibly even unpaid, you should take full advantage of the opportunity. The tips below will help you make the most of your summer internship.
Avoid doing nothing. You got the internship so use it. Know your role as the intern. Establish goals early on with your supervisor laying out what they expect of you as well as what you want to get out of the experience. Set goals you are confident you will obtain but also set a few stretch long-term goals. When you meet these goals make your supervisor aware, in a polite non-boastful manner of course. If your internship experience is not going as well as you hoped speak up early on so that you and your supervisor can work to change it and no one wastes their time.
Do more than what is asked of you. Often interns aren’t given a lot of responsibility with their internship providers, it could be as little as picking up lunch and making coffee and you clearly don’t want that to be the only thing you did with your position all summer. So take it upon yourself to go above and beyond what is asked of you. Suggest ideas when appropriate, ask to sit in on meetings, test something out, write an email, a report, or crunch some numbers; it might just be the difference between getting a call back when a position opens up and getting forgotten about at your desk.
Ask questions. This goes along with the above point, remember you’re there to learn (and you want to know more than how your supervisor takes his/her coffee right?) so ask away. Look for opportunities to learn instead of waiting for them to come along. Be excited about your intern position and remember the more you put into it the more you’ll get out of it.
Develop contacts. Although you might think no one knows your name (and they might not) you’re still a new face in the office/field, so introduce yourself whenever possible. Networking starts on day one. Remember people’s names, if you’re bad at this keep a list of who you’ve met and their position. Grab lunch with an employee you’ve worked with, your supervisor or even an intern who’s been there longer than you.
Keep in contact. Even if your internship only last a few short months you were still a part of the company at one point so work this. The best thing you can get from an internship is a job, the second best thing, a reference. Stay fresh on your supervisor’s and coworker’s minds. Should a position open up you want to be the first person they think of.
Have a good attitude. So you may not be getting paid for the work you’re doing and maybe your best bud is spending his/her summer days at the beach but you need to put all that aside. You’re focusing on your career and it will all pay off in the end. Have an open mind, a positive attitude, a strong work ethic, try new things, face new challenges and be willing to help out when asked. Just think, when your friend is peeling off the last of his/her sunburn you may be landing yourself a great job.
Follow the company dress code. Maybe this goes without saying but this point needs to be driven home. You may want to stand out at work but using your wardrobe to do so is not the best idea. Have a sense of style without going against the company culture.
Inquire about entry level positions. Express your interest in working for the company where you intern. Don’t assume that the employer knows you want a full time position, for all he/she knows you could be there just to fulfill a college requirement.
You got hired for a reason; you’re the man/woman for the job! Maybe you even beat out a few fellow applicants. Use your skills and really work your internship, make this summer a memorable one for your career. Good luck out there!
Source: fastweb.com
10 ways to make scholarship sponsors love you
Before you submit your scholarship application, check out these tips, provided by scholarship sponsors nationwide.
Tip #1: Apply only if you are eligible.
Read all the scholarship requirements and directions carefully to make sure you’re eligible before you send in your application.
Tip #2: Complete the application in full.
If a question doesn’t apply, note that on the application. Don’t just leave a blank. Supply all additional supporting material, such as transcripts, letters of recommendation and essays.
Tip #3: Follow directions.
Provide everything that’s required, but don’t supply things that aren’t requested—you could be disqualified.
Tip #4: Neatness counts.
Always type your application, or if you must print, do so neatly and legibly. Make a couple of photocopies of all the forms before you fill them out. Use the copies as working drafts as you develop your application packet.
Tip #5: Write an essay that makes a strong impression.
The key to writing a strong essay is to be personal and specific. Include concrete details to make your experience come alive: the who, what, where, and when of your topic. The simplest experience can be monumental if you present honestly how you were affected.
Tip #6: Watch all deadlines.
To help keep yourself on track, impose your own deadline that is at least two weeks prior to the official deadline. Use the buffer time to make sure everything is ready on time. Don’t rely on extensions—very few scholarship providers allow them at all.
Tip #7: Make sure your application gets where it needs to go.
Put your name (and Social Security number, if applicable) on all pages of the application. Pieces of your application may get lost unless they are clearly identified.
Tip #8: Keep a back-up file in case anything goes wrong.
Before sending the application, make a copy of the entire packet. If your application goes astray, you’ll be able to reproduce it quickly.
Tip #9: Give it a final “once-over.”
Proofread the entire application carefully. Be on the lookout for misspelled words or grammatical errors. Ask a friend, teacher or parent to proofread it as well.
Tip #10: Ask for help if you need it.
If you have problems with the application, don’t hesitate to call the funding organization.
Source: fastweb.com
Develop your scholarship game plan
To win the big game, you have to have a strategy. To mount an effective scholarship campaign, the first thing you need is a winning game plan. Start by implementing the following four key action strategies.
1. Plan to apply for as many scholarships as possible
Some students make the mistake of thinking that they maximize their chances of winning by pouring all of their energy into one or two scholarships.
But applying for scholarships is partially a numbers game. A variety of factors outside of your control affect the outcome of any given award. Only by applying for large numbers of scholarships can you minimize such factors, and maximize your chances of winning. In my own scholarship quest, I ended up applying for about three dozen awards.
Even if the scholarship prize is only a couple of hundred dollars, I still recommend entering the contest. This might not sound like much in the context of an entire college tuition bill, but the extra cash can help cover the cost of books for a term, or help pay for that spring break “research” trip to Cancun.
In addition, winning smaller awards provides you with additional credentials that you can include in applications for larger scholarships.
2. Develop a suite of generic reusable materials
When applying for large numbers of scholarships, creating a suite of generic reusable materials saves a great deal of time and energy. By having this suite to draw from, you will be able to focus less on just completing application requirements, and more on customizing and fine-tuning the material you’ve already prepared.
More than just a reduction in your workload, reusing and rethinking old materials can mean vast improvements as you repeatedly refine and edit the same work. By employing this strategy, you gain the opportunity to fine-tune your materials with every submission. And take it from me—your tenth draft will be far better than your first.
To create this suite of generic materials, first seek to develop standard essay responses to perennial scholarship application themes—such old favorites as college plans, career goals, and future contributions to society.
Next, survey the scholarship landscape and isolate common themes and requirements (whether it is a similar essay question or a comparable extracurricular activity worksheet). Attempt to bridge multiple applications with every sentence you write or form you prepare.
Also, go back into your archive of old scholarship applications (you’ll develop one quickly) and try to recycle essays and other past materials. Don’t just recopy such passages verbatim; instead, try to rethink, improve, and hone everything to fit the criteria of each new contest.
3. Leverage schoolwork and class time
If you have to do the schoolwork anyway, why not make it count toward your scholarship quest? For example, if you’re asked to write an essay on a book of your choosing, you may want to select The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. This way, you’ll have a submission ready to go for the annual essay contest on this famous novel. If you’re assigned a self-reflective essay, pick a personal topic that fits in well with scholarship applications you’re pursuing. Moreover, teachers can serve as a helpful source of early feedback for these potential scholarship submissions.
This technique isn’t restricted merely to classroom assignments. Most schools offer some type of independent study credit, in which you can pursue your own project under the guidance of an adviser. At many schools, you’re even allowed to use a class period during the day to pursue this work. Use the time to complete self-initiated projects that add to your record and improve your chances of scholarship (and college admission) success.
4. Learn from past scholarship winners
In playing the scholarship game, it’s extremely useful to have a roadmap of what it takes to win. To obtain this roadmap, make a point of reviewing past winning applications, essays and other materials. Many times, you can request sample winning entries from the organization administering the scholarship program.
In addition, it’s useful to interview past winners of scholarships you plan to enter. Ask them about their unique qualifications, the approach they took in filling out applications, and any insights they have about particular scholarship contests you’re planning to enter. Many scholarship contests will provide a list of past winners upon request. The best way to master the scholarship game is to learn from those who have played it well.
Ben Kaplan
Source: fastweb.com
Never trust a programmer
Programming is a bit of mystery to people. It breeds a lot of distrust in an organization. In general, when you don’t understand what it takes to make something, anything seems plausible. You might think a house can be built in couple of weeks if you’ve never gone through the process. In truth they probably could finish construction in that time, but not as a sustainable business. If you watch a house being built and track the progress, you can physically see the foundation being poured, the framing of the structure and so on. It’s easy to understand because you physically see it. Writing code for a computer application or a Web site isn’t so apparent.
Code is invisible to everyone but the programmer. It’s like the magic that takes place behind the curtain. Any team has to just trust a programmer about what is and what isn’t doable. The best course of action, estimates, and progress updates are all subject to the programmer’s opinion. There’s plenty of Type A personalities that have trouble with this, but it goes deeper.
First issues arise when a client decides what they want and when they need it by. Sales people want to sell. Telling the client they have unreal expectations doesn’t close sales. And holy shit, is that a recipe for disaster. I have seen account service cut estimates in half and move money around to accommodate their sale and their commission. At the end of the day it looks like the programmers are screwing up. They do it because it’s easy to blame the programmers.
They don’t teach office politics in school. They should, but that’s a different story all together. A programmer has to be quietly focused doing mental gymnastics to produce clean working code. It’s difficult and takes all your energy. There’s no time to run around to see whose throwing you under the bus. The games account service plays have consequences.
At a previous agency I worked at, I saw a 7 figure project go down in flames. Who caused the problem? Was it the group of industry leading programmers who worked 70 plus hour weeks to accommodate the client’s arbitrary schedule or was it the account service people who agreed to everything the client asked?
I don’t want to say programmers never cause issues. If you have ever seen the TV show Seconds From Disaster, catastrophic problems arise from a mix of people not doing their jobs. But, I did see the programmers doing their work. Not sure what everyone else was doing.
So what did the agency think? They laid off (fired) every one of those programmers. All the account service however, still works there. After that demoralizing death march, no one wanted to be there anyway.
The programmer’s path to hell is paved with the word yes. In order to police their own world they have to be vigilant about what is feasible. Being analytical, they usually put a lot of effort into an estimate. From what I have seen, it’s usually more effort than most put forth because they’re adept at thinking through multiple scenarios. Unfortunately, I have seen good estimates ignored or challenged. The more realistic they are, the more it is scrutinized from some reason.
It’s tough going back to the client with a set of realistic expectations. It makes closing far more difficult. You run the risk of someone else agreeing to the work (who will fail). But the programmer’s job isn’t any less difficult. Actually, they are the one group of people who are capable of understanding all of it. They know the code and they know the business problem. They may not be good at managing clients, but they certainly can understand what’s going on.
Trust your programmers. They are not only engineers and craftsmen, but businessmen as well. They will know from experience what happens to client relationships when someone makes promises no one can keep.
Source: johnnance01.wordpress.com
Five scholarship Myths
MYTH #1: “Only students with high academic achievement win merit scholarships.”
The Real Story: Scholarships are awarded to students with all sorts of talents and interests. In fact, many of the best scholarship programs are designed for students who devote time and energy to such diverse fields as music and the arts, foreign languages, community service, science, leadership, writing and oratory, to name just a few. Typically, these programs are entirely “grade blind”—meaning that grades are not used as a judging criteria.
Furthermore, many scholarships that do take into account grade point averages (GPAs) only use such quantitative measures as preliminary cutoff points. For instance, some scholarship contests specify that applicants have a minimum 2.0 GPA. Once you’ve cleared this minimum bar, grades don’t impact your chances of winning.
Finally, even when GPA is used as an evaluation factor, it’s only one aspect of your application. Scholarship programs aren’t myopic: They want to recognize students with all sorts of achievements and backgrounds. They realize that applicants have much more to offer than simply the grades that appear on their transcripts.
MYTH #2: “Scholarship applicants should seek to compile the longest list of extracurricular activities.”
The Real Story: As is the case in many other aspects of life, winning scholarships is about quality, not quantity. Some people think that to win these awards you must devote your entire high school career to participating in extracurricular activities. On the contrary, most scholarship winners distinguish themselves by the devotion they have demonstrated to a particular activity or activities, rather than by the sheer quantity of their involvement. Winning scholarships isn’t about having the longest list of extracurriculars. It’s about communicating who you are and what you care about through the activities you participate in and enjoy.
MYTH #3: “Scholarship contests are conducted on a level playing field.”
The Real Story: Each scholarship contest has its own biases. This is not to say that scholarship judging is unfair. Rather, it’s just that each scholarship program is looking for students with particular qualities. The subjective process of valuing certain qualities over other ones tilts the playing field far from level. In this way, the ideal application you submit for one scholarship contest may, in fact, place you out of the money when submitted to another. Because of these biases, it’s essential to define each scholarship’s “ideal applicant” and to emphasize personal attributes consistent with this definition.
MYTH #4: “Applying for scholarships is just like applying to college.”
The Real Story: Actually, scholarship contests demand a modified approach from the college admissions process because scholarship contests are characterized by substantially more head-to-head competition. While college admissions officers compare students primarily to a standard, scholarship contests directly compare students to one another. Because of this more competitive environment, students who devise creative techniques to stand out from the crowd have a distinct advantage. In this way, a good scholarship application (which distinguishes you from everyone else) will likely be a good college application—but the reverse is not necessarily true.
MYTH #5: “The track record you’ve already accumulated determines whether you’ll win scholarships.”
The Real Story: What you do after you decide to apply for scholarships is just as important as the record you have already accumulated. This holds true regardless of how much time you have until a particular scholarship application is due. Content strategies, for instance, increase your chances of winning by adding depth and breadth to your existing record. Likewise, packaging strategies help make your application stand out from the crowd by creating a cohesive message that highlights talents, communicates passions, and emphasizes potential. So don’t fall into the trap of thinking that your die has already been cast. What you do now will make all the difference in the world.
Ben Kaplan
Source: fastweb
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Internship mistakes that students make
For many, an internship is the first real job experience—don’t screw it up. Avoid making these mistakes as you apply and interview for internship opportunities.
Not caring. You live in the here and now. It’s hard enough to think ahead four months to final exams let alone to a future career. Internships should be regarded as the cornerstone to the job you will eventually have.
Procrastinating. Summer internships are filling up NOW. Don’t think that in April, you’ll be able to land one just as easy.
Bad grades. Employers aren’t just looking for a warm body to fill in at the “intern desk.” During the interview, they’re evaluating your performance abilities. The greatest indicator of performance for college students is their GPA.
Racing through applications. A summer internship may not be the most important thing on your mind at the moment, but give it the attention it deserves. Check spelling, punctuation, and be sure you have all names or locations correct.
Irrelevant references. Though Grandma can surely vouch for your hard-working and attitude, it’s best that references come from people other than family. There are plenty of “references” in your life: high school teachers, youth group leaders, program directors.
Awkward interviews. You’re applying for a job. Dress like it. Wear slacks and a nice shirt or sweater. Show up on time, bring copies of your resume, speak articulately, and look your interviewer in the eye. And don’t forget to give a good, firm handshake. Maybe your dad can show you the ropes.
Not following up. It’s ok to contact the interviewer after the interview. In fact, it’s best. Send a “thank you” note and call or e-mail the next week to check your status. Avoid badgering the poor woman though—there are other things on her plate.
By Kathryn Knight
Source: fastweb
Why LESS is MORE
I’ve been playing a lot lately with these concepts: less, more and the thing in between (usually called balance). Why do we need more? And more of what? Why sometimes we tend to value balance, while otherwise we tend to lean towards one of the ends? And, most of all, why sometimes less is good?
The following list is my answer to the last question. And, being a list about less, I will skip every unneeded clutter and just start it away (it won’t take you more than 10 minutes to read the whole article):
1. Less Money in Your Life Will Push You To Value More Everything Else
The money rat race is a never ending game. The more money you get the more money you want. It’s a thrill in many ways similar to the one you get by putting your fingers in a power outlet. You get an amazing experience but at the same time you slowly decrease your overall resistance and health. Next time you’ll need more because you created a little bit of tolerance to it. And then a little bit more. And so on.
Money is just raw energy. Without a goal to direct it, without a plan to make it something material, it will remain in its raw form. And every form of raw energy is a dangerous thing to play with.
Now, imagine you won’t aim for this raw energy all the time. Imagine you aim for something simpler. Climbing on top of the world for instance. Or having a balanced family and raising kids. Or writing a fantastic story, painting or sculpting. All in all, just getting out your creative potential. The less money you’ll aim for, the more you’ll want to put your creative potential to work.
Less is more: less money is more creativity.
2. Less Negative Thoughts Will Make Room For More Positive Thoughts
Now that’s an easy one. It works out of the box and everybody could understand it at the first glance. Just eliminate the negative thoughts and you’ll make room for some more positive thoughts. Alas, it’s not always like this. The problem is we’re having different understanding of the concept “negative thoughts”. What I perceive as a negative thought may be something natural for somebody else. Negative thoughts are highly personal. They are shaped by our life experience, upbringing, current environment and more.
So, how can you identify those negative thoughts in the first place? My number one trick in doing that is: are they making me feel angry? Am I experiencing feelings of fear and abandonment? If yes, that’s a negative thought. No matter how “right” that thought may look like in my own internal values system, if it triggers feelings of anger, revenge or fear, it’s a negative thought.
Less is more: less fear, anger and revenge will definitely make room for something else. And that something else has no chance left but being something good. We already got rid of the bad stuff, right?
3. Less Fights Means More Time for Understanding Yourself
Fighting is a constant activity in our modern society. We’re doing it almost on autopilot. Every time we’re not heard, every time something is not working according to our own expectations, every time somebody is making us feeling bad, we’re starting to fight. Most of the time, we’re doing it on the inside. We’re arguing, we’re playing our case, even if we don’t say it out loud.
We’re getting better and better at that. I know I won thousands of fights on the inside: I knew I was right. But in the end, it doesn’t really matters who is winning a fight. All that matters is that you’re using your resources in something useless. You’re spending time and energy on something irrelevant. Ok, it’s in the past now. Move on.
Fighting is such a waste of time. Just make this simple exercise of writing down every argument you had in your mind (or out loud, if you’re more extrovert) and be amazed about how much time you’re spending on this. Now imagine how it would be to make this time available for something really important, like understanding yourself.
4. Less Compromise Means More Power for Your Own Decisions
Compromise is a good social tool. It was invented to keep some sort of a balance between different opinions and create a middle path, allegedly a safer one. As such, compromise is a useful tool for survival. But as with any other good thing in our lives, overusing compromise made it toxic. We compromise on almost everything.
When was the last time you gave full power to your decisions? When was the last time you took into account your own desires and goals, without getting infected by external intentions? If you live in a modern society, you did this last time when you were a kid. And I bet it wasn’t very well received, either.
Less compromise will bring back color and shape into your life
5. Less Procrastination Will Push You To Get More Done
I bet you didn’t know that, by even procrastination can be done in a productive way. Joke aside, spending time without doing what you are committed to do is such a waste. Procrastination is the bigger client of our modern time expenditures. We spend more time procrastinating than maybe sleeping.
Imagine how it would be to have less of procrastination in your life. Less time spent on nothing. Naturally, you’ll start doing things. You’ll start making the world spin again. Staring at something (a project, a task, a client) without acting on it will make it stop. It won’t move, it will be dead. Procrastination is just a softer way to slowly kill your time (in both senses).
6 Less Something Is Always More of The Opposite
And with that, we’re getting to the core of it. Less something is always more of the opposite. That’s the fundamental principle of quantity and it’s a basic rule of our perceived Universe. Some of you may think that’s just a normal fact and I emphasis a normal fact too much. It’s simple, everybody knows that less of something is more of the opposite. Well, for those of you who are really getting this, I apologize. You’re not into the target of this article.
But if there are some readers who think that less of something could really trigger more of the opposite, and that is an incredible powerful tool for switching our world, our life, our universe upside down the way we need it, the last item on the list is for you.
7. Less of This Blog Post Means More Time for Your Brain To Ponder Things By Itself
That’s right, I could go like this forever. But I won’t. I think it’s far more better for you (and, to some extent, for me too) to let you think things by yourself now. If you mentally allocated 10 minutes to this blog post, be happy: you only spent 5 so far, so the remaining 5 are going to be used for somebody really special: you.
Just leave this blog post behind and start thinking: do you have too much of something?
How less of that can give you more? And more of what?
Source: dragosroua