This blog was written by Hilary, our campus ambassador at Columbia College in Chicago. She recently transitioned from Communications intern to Special Events intern at The Make-A-Wish Foundation of Illinois.

Having trouble filling your free time? Here are a few ideas of how to get involved that come with some great perks!

Help out your professors. These people know what they’re doing, that’s why you pay your tuition dollars to them. Take the time to see if you could help them out in their office. This shows great initiative and gives you a chance to learn more about them and possibly who they know!

Reach out to non-profits. Non-profits are great, even if they’re not what you’re interested in long term. They always have work to be done whether its in-office or at a 5K or event they are hosting. This is a great chance to get experience you may not have had at your internship or learn about in class.

Join local organizations that fit to your interest or major. This is a biggie. Going out and getting involved on campus or in your city’s organizations that nature to your interests, career aspirations, etc. says a lot. It will look outstanding on your resume and could lead to great networking opportunities.

This blog is written by Amanda, our Campus Ambassador at Providence College. She is studying English and Business and will graduate May 2013.

On a recent episode of Kourtney and Kim Take New York, Kourtney Kardashian has an obsession with couponing. She believes she is doing a great thing by spending hours upon hours collecting and organizing coupons in order to save money. However, her friends and family realize that the amount of money she is spending is nothing compared to the amount of time she has to put in—not to mention she has no use for the items she is purchasing.

Whether or not you’re a fan of the Kardashian craze, you can learn a crucial time management lesson from this: too much of a good thing can quickly turn into a bad thing. Using coupons can be a great way for a broke college student to save some money, but if the time you spend collecting coupons cuts into your time for schoolwork or other activities, you have a problem.

Extreme couponing is definitely an extreme example, but I know there are plenty of other ways that trying to save time or money can become wasteful. Don’t spend hours planning out your week in fifteen-minute increments if you know you are not going to be able to keep to such a schedule. Buying food or toiletries on campus can be more expensive than spending time cooking or going shopping elsewhere, but allow yourself to use the convenience of on-campus options when you’re crunched for time. There is a big difference between being lazy and using your time and money wisely—don’t always opt for the easiest option, but don’t push yourself when you are already busy and stressed. Making the most of your resources should always involve balance.

Heather  attends the University of Notre Dame in Indiana where she is double majoring in Business Management and Psychology. She has been lucky enough to intern at her school’s Alumni Association doing graphic design and for the Intern Queen herself!

Ok, so that is probably not what you want to call your personal website. But maybe I am getting ahead of myself. What even is a personal website? And why do YOU need one?

Making a personal website was my New Year’s resolution. I have actually started two. One is my professional site that includes my qualifications, skills, and design/art portfolio. That is the type of site we will be discussing in this article. The other is my more creative site that is not linked with my professional name.  That site includes my blog, favorite recipes, a link to my Facebook, and an online shop where you can buy the things I make. It was important to me to keep my personal and professional identities separate and these two sites are geared to entirely different people. That is something to keep in mind as you create your site. Of course, if you want access to my sites – please let me know!

What is it?

A personal website is an opportunity for you to organize and display all of your skills and experience. Think of it as an extended resume. All the stuff that you couldn’t fit on one page can easily be navigated to within your website. There should be a spot where you can write a little about yourself, a page for a printable paper version of your resume, and so on. Possible pages to include in your website might be: awards/recognition, skills, work experience, volunteerism, contact information,  etc. The headings you would put on your resume are a good place to start and you can build from there. Do you dabble in photography? Add a portfolio page where you can display your best work. Are you looking for a job as a writer? Add some samples of your writing or include a blog component. What you include in your site is entirely up to you.

Why Should You Make One?

• A personal website is increasingly necessary in our digital world. A website is where a potential employer can go to find all of your information in one spot.
• You can have a link to your Twitter and Facebook (provided those are professional enough for an employer to see) as well as to your LinkedIn profile.
• They also allow you to expand upon your resume. If you have too many jobs or extracurriculars to list on one page, a website is a great place to put them!  You can go into much more detail about your accomplishments, (ex: duties and outstanding achievements in your last internship) than you can on paper.
• You can personalize it! While paper resumes are supposed to be black ink on white/cream paper, your website can be whatever you want! Show your fun personality! Don’t get too crazy and just have animated kittens everywhere – remember this should still look professional. But it is perfectly acceptable to add some floral flourishes or some pops of color!
• Best of all, it is just plain impressive! To be a young professional with your own website shows that you are on the cutting edge of technology and you are a go-getter who is taking advantage of new venues and opportunities. A good-looking website can easily push you above someone who only has a plain paper resume.
• If you want to create your own company, a website is a must. Most web-hosting includes email addresses, which looks much more professional than getting an email from someone at a yahoo.com address.

Okay, Heather, you convinced me. How do I make my own website?

You’re going to have to do a little research. First, check to see if your domain name is free. Make sure it is professional and easy to remember. Often, your name will be available, and that is probably the best domain name to have. For example, JohnDoe.com would be great…if your name is John Doe. At some colleges, you have a webpage linked to your email (Google Sites, for example) where you can create your webpage for free. Otherwise, you will have to find a web hosting service. GoDaddy.com, iPage.com, and fatcow.com are just a few that are cheap and secure. You can search “web hosting providers” for more options. Then you have to create the actual site. If you’re a pro at web coding – create your own from scratch! If you’re like me, you need some help. You could hire someone to make it, but that is expensive. Many hosting providers will provide templates so that you can do this yourself with no HTML , CSS, or JAVA coding skills required. Make sure to check that out before you decide which host to go with. The iLife program included on Mac computers also provides a web creation software called iWeb that is easy to use. Not sure what you want it to look like? Search “Best Personal Online Portfolio Sites” or something similar for inspiration.

So, how do I get employers to look at my site?

Obviously, include your site URL on your resume header under your home address. Mention it in your cover letter. You should already have an email signature. (If you don’t, get one!) Include the URL to your site in that signature. Tweet your site and add the URL to your Facebook and LinkedIn profiles. If you have business cards (another thing I suggest!) add the URL on that, or add a QR code. People can scan the QR code with their phones and be taken directly to your site.

I hope that you are all interested in taking on an extra project for yourselves this year. Creating a website is quite an undertaking, but it is well worth it! Happy Designing, Everyone!

In her lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, the intern, Xuedan Wang, and her law firm are asking to make the case a class action on behalf of what they say are hundreds of unpaid interns at Heart Magazines, which also publishes Cosmopolitan, Seventeen and Good Housekeeping.

Employment experts say a growing number of young people, hundreds of thousands of them, do unpaid internships each year as they seek to get a foot in the door and gain work experience. But some interns and labor advocates assert that many employers are taking advantage of these interns — and violating Labor Department rules in the process — by using the interns essentially to do the jobs of other workers and not providing a bona fide educational experience.

The lawsuit against Hearst states, “Employers’ failure to compensate interns for their work, and the prevalence of the practice nationwide, curtails opportunities for employment, fosters class divisions between those who can afford to work for no wage and those who cannot, and indirectly contributes to rising unemployment.”

According to the lawsuit, Ms. Wang, who graduated from Ohio State University in 2010, was an intern at Harper’s Bazaar from August 2011 to December 2011 and said she generally worked 40 hours a week but sometimes as many as 55 hours. Her lawyers said that Ms. Wang, with a degree in strategic communications, coordinated pickups and deliveries of fashion samples between Harper’s Bazaar and fashion vendors and showrooms and assigned other unpaid interns to help carry out the pickups and deliveries.

She also helped maintain records on the fashion samples and process reimbursement requests for corporate expense reports.

“Unpaid interns are becoming the modern-day equivalent of entry-level employees, except that employers are not paying them for the many hours they work,” said Adam Klein, one of the lawyers for Ms. Wang. “The practice of classifying employees as ‘interns’ to avoid paying wages runs afoul of federal and state wage and hour laws.”

Hearst, like many other media companies, does not pay its interns, but officials say it arranges for them to receive academic credit through their college or university. Hearst officials said that this arrangement is made clear to prospective interns in advance.

A spokesman, Paul Luthringer, said: “We have not been served with any such lawsuit and thus cannot comment at this time.”

The lawsuit pointed to guidelines from the United States Labor Department,which state that unpaid internships are only lawful in the context of an educational training program, when the interns do not displace regular employees and the employer derives no immediate advantage from the intern’s work. The guidelines also state another criterion for internships to be unpaid: “the internship experience is for the benefit of the intern.”

Ms. Wang’s lawyers said that by treating her and others as interns rather than regular employees, they were denied not only wages, but also Social Security contributions and the right to receive unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation.

Last September, Mr. Klein’s Manhattan-based law firm, Outten & Golden, filed a lawsuit against Fox Searchlight Pictures, accusing it of violating wage laws by using unpaid interns to work on “Black Swan” and other films. Fox Searchlight has denied any wrongdoing.

Article from The New York Times blog written by Steven Greenhouse.

This blog is written by Korrie, our campus ambassador from SUNY Cortland. She majors in Communication with a concentration in Public Relations and will be graduating in May 2012.

There are so many different ways to earn some extra cash while in school. It is important that you find the right one that works with your schedule and you have fun doing. In my experience, these are the best jobs to have while in college. (not listed in any specific order) To make things easier, always make sure you have a resume and references in order when applying to any job!

1. On campus Alumni Affairs. For all four years in college, I worked in a call center for Alumni Affairs and it was one of my favorite jobs. Talking to alumni is great networking, and a lot of them are very open to talk about their career and their time at your college. It’s one of the highest paying jobs on a lot of campuses and looks great on your resume.

2. Working at the Library. If you have a lot of work to do and spend most of your time there anyway, why not work there? Student library workers say they spend a lot of their time sitting at the front desk and late at night can getting their school work done while getting paid.

3. Tour Guide. Do you remember your tour guide when you were visiting your future colleges? If your upbeat and have a bubbly personality this is a great job. You already know your way around, so why not get paid to show others? You could end up being a major influence on people’s college decisions and it looks great on your resume.

4. Working at Career Services. You always first to know what is going on in the career world. You know when all of the workshops and career fairs are and I bet you will have the best looking resume out of all your friends.

5. Working for Yourself. Use your skills and be inventive. Make a list of everything you can do and what skills you have and then see how you can turn that into money. A lot of businesses will pay big money for logo design, making advertisements, recruiting customers, website building or people to update their social media accounts.

6. The Gym. Working at the gym is a great incentive to get to the gym. It’s also a high energy place with lots of endorphins in the air. A friend of mine teaches a yoga class and the pay is great. Classes are free on most campuses and after a while of taking a certain one, you can qualify to be an instructor. Get paid to be healthy and do what you love.

7. Babysitter or Afterschool Child Care Provider. If you check with your University career center, they usually have listings for local babysitting jobs or for afterschool child care centers. It is a great way to earn some extra cash and get good references. A few of my friends babysit for their professors and the pay is great and they built a long lasting relationship with that professor.

8. Lifeguarding. A lifeguarding license is always something good to have. Check with the campus pool or the local YWCA for open lifeguarding positions. Most pay between $9.00-$12.00 an hour and it’s not exhausting work.

9. Tutoring. If you got a really good grade in a challenging class you can sign up to be a tutor the next semester. The pay is really good and you set your own hours.

10. Coaching, Refereeing, Sport Instructor. One semester my friend and I replied to a listing to be an after school cheerleading coach at the local middle school. We had so much fun and really got to know all of the girls on the team. Other people we knew got paid to referee the football games on Saturday mornings and really enjoyed it. My college is right near a ski resort, a lot of students are ski instructors, snow board instructors, or cater the events.

This is a post by our campus ambassador Caitlin Pfaff from Florida State University.

Have you ever fantasized about your future job? Where you would be living? What title you would have?

Exploring the endless possibilities of the future on websites like Monster.com could lead to some beneficial insights.  First of all, if you’re not picky about what city you would like to live in, you can discover what regions of the country would be great for your career.  When I was looking for jobs in the Marketing/Public Relations area, I was surprised to find that there were many cities in Texas hiring for this profession.

Searching online for jobs also has given me a greater insight into what employers are looking for in a potential employee.  Many companies are looking for experience.  Sometimes when you don’t have years in the profession working in your favor, internships and campus involvement can help make you marketable for a job that you may not have certain qualifications.

Seeing what characteristics employers are looking for are helpful for interviews and knowing what skills to further develop.  I noticed that organization, customer service oriented, and creativity were all overlapping traits that employers are looking for.  I’ve been taking my experiences as an opportunity to develop these skills.

What have Internet Job Search Engines done for you?

This is a post from our Campus Ambassador, Jenn from Arizona State University.

All Work, No Pay, is an amazing book that is going to not only benefit readers but also connect with so many people. Lauren Berger has a way with words, and is one of the best motivational speakers I’ve ever listened to when she spoke to students at Arizona State University. Here are some of my personal checklist of information that I acquired from All Work, No Pay. I know you’ll get the same great information from it too!

-          -The benefits of virtual and larger company internships.

-         - How to successfully conduct a skype/over the phone interview.

-         - How to properly ask for letters of recommendation.

-         - How to differentiate yourself when interviewing and really make a positive lasting impression.

-        –  How to effectively write an outstanding cover-letter.

I know this book is going to get everyone super motivated to get interning or even how to achieve your desired career goals! I can’t wait to keep learning from it and blog further! Until then, Facebook and Tweet your hearts out. #allworknopay #internqueenlove

This blog was written by Alison, our campus ambassador from Sarah Lawrence College!

As the demand and popularity of college internships rises, students are increasingly faced with challenging decisions to make when deciding where to intern for the semester. With such strong emphasis being placed on securing competitive internships, it is sometimes difficult to be positive that you are making the best career choices to maximize your professional development. What can be even more puzzling is when false myths about internships are thrown into the decision-making processes. Here are a few internship myths to steer clear from when you are searching for internships or trying to deicide which internship offer to accept.

Myth #1- Always take the paid internship over the unpaid one

Yes, money is tight while you are in college. Between books, groceries, loans and trying to sneak in a little bit of a social life, your wallet can start to look pretty thin. While this is true, taking a paid internship at a company that does not have a strong internship program over an unpaid internship at a company with an accredited internship program can be as destructive as shooting yourself in the foot!  Although the unpaid internship is going to be a large expense, the professional experience and exposure that you will gain from a strong internship program is incomparable to a weak program that does pay. This is not to say that all paid internships offer poor experience, but what I am saying is not to base your placement decision just on monetary concerns. Look at the programs that each company is offering; find out whom you will be working with and reporting to and what kind of work you will be doing. Once you know this, choose the option that is offering the most legitimate and challenging work. It is better to be drafting press releases and conducting market research unpaid than fetching coffee for your boss for $7.25 an hour.

Myth #2- Only take an internship that is in the field of you college major

The job market is a hard scene right now and we are all aware of this. When job creation is stagnant one of the most important principles to learn is adaptability. If you are majoring in English, think beyond a publishing or journalism internship. An internship at a public relations firm may expand your skill set even further! This holds true with most college majors. Do not simply limit yourself to searching for an internship in one industry; there are many relevant and beneficial internship opportunities across multiple professional fields.

Myth #3- If you’ve got the internship, so you’ve got the job

Having an optimistic mindset that you want to secure an entry-level job with a company once your internship ends is great! However, feeling that this is a given simply because you were offered the internship is not a productive way to be thinking. Scoring an internship at the company of your dreams is a great first step, but if you want to get the job offer when your ten weeks are up, you need to work your hardest at every opportunity to showcase the great future employee you could be. The internship is your chance to demonstrate your work ethic, authenticity and motivation, but it is not your golden ticket into the company.

This blog was written by Nina, our Intern Queen Campus Ambassador at Erasmus University in The Netherlands! Nina has traveled all over the globe!

I spent most of November and December applying to universities in the United Kingdom for my masters. It was definitely one of the most stressful things I’ve ever had to do because applying for masters has become so competitive and universities really focus on filtering applications to find the top students. When applying for internships, cover letters are often the most important thing and it’s the same for your masters: you really need to write a great application letter. I never had the top grades, but I had a CV that stood out – I started applying for internships in my first year of my bachelors and I made sure that I did as many as I could. Filling my application letter with the experience gained during my internships was probably a game-changer for majority of the admissions board that reviewed my application letter.

Many universities in the United Kingdom require a CV and state that a CV will only make your application stronger. Students like myself that have trouble regurgitating crammed knowledge in the exam hall need to make up for it with internships because it shows dedication, motivation and extensive time management skills. Some of us are just more practical than theoretical, there’s nothing wrong with that but you need to show the admissions board that you’re not just lazy. Most universities will ask you to write about where you see yourself in five years and how this specific course will help you when starting your career. If you have internships, you can back up virtually anything you write and your application letter will only be better. I know from personal experience that without a masters degree, especially in Europe, you won’t be getting far. Internships won’t only help you getting a job later on, but they’ll definitely help you be the candidate that universities are looking for when applications start piling up in the admissions office.

This blog is written by Aviance, our Campus Ambassador for the University of Southern California.

For the college student on the go, there isn’t a lot of time to go off campus to shop. For those who aren’t quite ready to resort to wearing their old sweats to class, there is still a shopping destination that is within reach for every intern: the World Wide Web. Just follow these tips and get better deals plus exclusive clothing all from the comfort of your twin XL dorm bed.

Check for student discounts: Many retailers understand the plight of the broke college student and offer discounts for those who want to look good on a budget. Sign up for a Student Advantage card and get 10-15% at online stores like Armani Exchange, Topshop/Topman and Target. Other sites like StudentRate.com offer discounts or cash back at shops like Urban Outfitters, Free People and Nordstrom.

Shop around: Look on other website for the product that you want. If the brand isn’t exclusive to one store, you can usually find it on other websites with better prices. Nordstrom has a wonderful policy where they will match the price of any competitor who has the same color and size of a product.

Shop at the right times: Sometimes it can seem like torture to wait to purchase those perfect shoes but good things come to those who wait. If you don’t think it will sell out or if the product is brand new, wait a little for the website to either have a deal (check out the next tip) or lower the price. Online shopping is amazing right after holidays, around your birthday and, of course, on Cyber Monday.

ALWAYS look for online coupons and NEVER pay for shipping: Please don’t ever click that “Confirm Purchase” button without at least checking for online coupons! The thought of paying for shipping makes me shudder. Hunt as long as you can for a coupons online, especially free shipping ones. Simply go to your favorite search engine and type in the retailer your shopping from then “coupons,” and you’ll be amazed at the kinds of deals you can find. **BONUS TIP: Sign up for e-mail alerts for even more coupon codes and advance notice of upcoming online sales.

Use Broke Girl’s Guide: As a student in LA, this website has helped me tons when I’m looking for deals (and with giving me inspiration for this post J). Not only do they give you the latest deals for on and off-line shopping but they also give awesome ways to save when you want to go out. Check it out!