Come listen in on my conversation with Pete Kistler, the founder of Brand-Yourself.com, who was named one of Entrepreneur magazine’s Top 5 College Entrepreneur of 2009. He joins me to talk about personal branding as it relates to college students and young professionals.

In this podcast, we define personal branding, talk about Pete’s own personal branding process and explain why students and young professionals need to think about your personal brand — especially the image you’re projecting online.

For more on this topic, here are two great new resources that can help you create and enhance all aspects of your personal brand:

PricewaterhouseCoopers Personal Brand Week – a terrific collection of downloadable worksheets to help you create an elevator pitch, express your passion, build a network, promote yourself online and more. PwC has also collected free personal branding advice on Twitter with the hashtag #pwcpbw.

Student Branding Blog – a new resource expressly designed to help college students with personal branding. This site was created by Dan Schawbel, who also launched the Personal Branding Blog.

Click here to listen to this week’s podcast.

How have you approached personal branding in your career? As always, I welcome your comments below!

TAGS: career advice, Generation Y, personal branding

There is a Facebook group called “I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar.” It currently has over 460,000 members.

I am one of them.

Perhaps because I’m the daughter of an English teacher, I believe in the importance of proper spelling and grammar. Employers of recent college grads agree with me. In a 2007 survey, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas asked executives, “What skill do entry-level job seekers lack the most?” The number one answer by far was written communication.

This means that good writing skills can really help you stand out from the crowd. Good grammar is a competitive advantage. If your writing skills need some improvement, here are 7 quick tips to help you:

1. Lead with your main point. In professional writing, you are communicating in order to accomplish something, so get to the point. For instance, when you’re writing an email, state the purpose of your email in the first paragraph. When you’re writing a cover letter, state the exact job you’re applying for in the first sentence or two. Don’t make people wade through loads of details before they understand why you’re writing in the first place.

2. Be concise. Speaking of getting to the point, do it quickly and then wrap up. We live in a world of multi-taskers, so conciseness is the only way to keep people’s attention (140 characters is quickly becoming our average attention span). When I review resumes, cover letters and networking emails, my first piece of advice to the writer is almost always, “make it shorter.” When you write concise, powerful sentences and paragraphs, people are more likely to pay attention. Long, rambling communications get deleted.

3. Don’t trust spell check. Because you’re a generation that’s grown up with spell check, you tend to rely on it way too much. Spell check doesn’t catch errors like confusing “effect” and “affect” or “there,” “their” and “they’re.” And it never catches misspellings of the names of people, products or companies. When in doubt, have a human being check your work, not a computer.

4. Use proper capitalization and punctuation. my biggest pet peeve when it comes to emails i receive from college students is when everything is in lower case and there is very little punctuation if any at all trust me its not cute its really unprofessional so please dont do it thnx. AND NOTE THAT ALL CAPS MAKES IT LOOK LIKE YOU ARE YELLING.

5. Limit those exclamation points! This is another big pet peeve among the older professionals I meet!! Young people use way too many exclamation points!!!

6. Consult a writing manual. What do you do when you are unsure of a grammar or punctuation usage? If you’re like most people, you shrug your shoulders and say, “Well, hope I got that right!” This is not a wise strategy. Instead, consult a writing website or manual such as The Chicago Manual of Style or the Associated Press Style Guide. Taking a few extra seconds to look up a rule can land you a job or a promotion — it’s more than worth it.

7. Don’t hide behind your keyboard. Finally, don’t write when you should pick up the phone or talk to someone in person. Remember that the written word — especially in the form of an email — doesn’t always correctly convey the tone you intend. And, in situations like giving bad news, quitting a job or criticizing someone’s work, writing is simply a cop-out. Although it’s hard to have difficult conversations in person, you’ll thank yourself for doing the right thing.

What are your best writing tips? Please share!

Note: This blog post originally appeared on my “College to Career” blog on MyPath.com.

TAGS: Communication Skills, Generation Y

In addition to the fantastic financial advice Valerie provides on this blog, this week I’m excited to share a podcast interview I recently conducted with Manisha Thakor, financial literacy expert and co-author of two great books on personal finance, On My Own Two Feet and Get Financially Naked.

In this 15-minute segment, Manisha answers the questions on the minds of today’s college students and recent grads, such as:

- What are the most important financial steps to take in your 20s?

- What are the biggest mistakes to avoid in your 20s?

- How can college students make good decisions about how much student loan debt to take on?

- What are the best ways to save money and live on a budget?

- What are the important financial steps to take when starting a new job?

Don’t miss this essential information for you and your wallet! Listen to the podcast now.

TAGS: 20 to 29 year old women and money, Generation Y, Money Basics

Last Tuesday evening I gave a talk for students visiting New York City from American University. Besides the fact that I got to speak at a very cool venue – the stage of Caroline’s Comedy Club in Times Square – something else cool happened. When I asked how many students were on Twitter, almost half of the audience raised their hands.

Granted, it was a room of students seeking communications careers, who are more likely to enjoy the hyper-communication of Twitter. But, it was the first time I’ve seen so many college students involved in the three-year-old micro-blogging site.

If you haven’t yet checked out Twitter, you should. If you’re not familiar with Twitter, it’s a free social networking site that allows only 140 characters per announcement or “tweet.” Get rid of any preconceived notions you might have that Twitter is a waste of time where people post silly messages about their cats and what they had for breakfast. While some people do tweet about nonsense, there are many, many other people whose tweets can be incredibly valuable to your career.

My philosophy is that I follow people on Twitter for three reasons:

1. I follow people I admire or whom I want to work with someday, so I can learn what those people are thinking or talking about.

2. I follow people who tweet out great career advice and help me learn something new.

3. I follow people who share interesting news, articles and announcements that help me stay up-to-date in my industry or the world in general.

You can follow this same strategy by following professionals you admire, companies you’d like to work for someday, career advisors who provide free advice and news outlets that will keep you up-to-date on current events. While there are hundreds of people I could recommend, part of the fun of Twitter is making your own unique list of people to follow. To help get you started I’ve put together a list of 10 of my favorite college-to-career tweeters:

www.twitter.com/lindseypollak – that’s me!

http://twitter.com/MyPath_Manpower – Tweets, news and updates from all of my fellow bloggers at MyPath.

http://twitter.com/alevit – Alexandra Levit is the author of “They Don’t Teach Corporate in College” and many other career advice books for young professionals.

http://twitter.com/CAREEREALISM – Careerealism offers loads of advice from a variety of career experts, all in one Twitter feed.

http://twitter.com/DanSchawbel – Dan Schawbel is founder of the Student Branding Blog and tweets about personal branding for college students and recent grads.

http://twitter.com/InternQueen – InternQueen is a great resource for – you guessed it – internships.

http://twitter.com/SalaryExpert – SalaryExpert’s tweets help you answer that dreaded question, “What are your salary requirements?”

http://twitter.com/Under30CEO – Under 30 CEO offers inspiring tweets that motivate you to go for your biggest career goals.

http://twitter.com/willyf – Willy Franzen is the founder of One Day, One Job and One Day, One Internship – sites that share information about one potential employer every day.

http://twitter.com/WSJcareers – Wise advice from contributors to the Wall Street Journal Career Journal.

Who else do you recommend for career-minded college students to follow on Twitter? Please share in the comments section below!

This post originally appeared on Lindsey’s College to Career Blog at www.mypath.com.

TAGS: career advice, Generation Y, social networking

It’s no secret that 2009 has not been the easiest of years for most college students and young professionals; however, over the past year there have certainly been bright spots. Today, in honor of Thanksgiving and the start of the holiday season, I wanted to share some of the positive trends I’ve noticed this year.

More resources to help students and recent grads. While we’ve lost some bloggers and websites this year, we’ve also welcomed many helpful new resources for young professionals. I’m particularly grateful for the resources I find myself recommending over and over again, such as UrbanInterns.com, LinkedIn’s Grad Guide and Twitter lists (check out my list of career/workplace experts to follow).

University career centers serving more alumni. Resources for more experienced job seekers are growing as well — and some of that growth is coming from college career centers, which traditionally only served students. Almost every career services professional I spoke with this year mentioned the influx of alumni calling for their help. One career director at an Ivy League university told me that, for the first time ever, they’ve added a dedicated staff person to service alumni.

I think this is a great thing: as people face more career changes and job hunts, they need more resources to turn to. While I do suspect that career centers will begin charging their alums (currently the vast majority serve alumni for free), I believe this trend is here to stay. Perhaps in the future university career services will become more of a lifelong resource rather than a one-time stopover.

Students getting smarter about the pros and cons of social media. As the campus spokesperson for LinkedIn, I have a unique insight into this topic. Student participation on LinkedIn, the professional social network, is growing exponentially, and many students are learning for the first time that social networking can help them professionally. For many students, this is carrying over into the way they use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social sites. Many of these sites are still primarily social, but I’ve noticed more awareness among students that recruiters are Googling them, which means they need to be smart about what they’re putting on the web. I hope that in 2010 we see more tools that help all professionals better separate the personal from the professional online.

Ditto for employers. At the same time, recruiters are paying far more attention to social sites and trying to figure out how to use them to find entry-level candidates. Over the past year, I’ve seen companies making more strategic decisions about which social media sites to use and what policies to implement when it comes to connecting with students, vetting students and retaining young employees. We certainly have a long way to go, but 2009 should go down in the books as the first year social media became part of HR manuals and recruiting guidelines.

Wider definitions of “job” and “career.” I recently wrote a blog post that generated a lot of discussion. It was about the way careers are now more pyramid-shaped than ladder-shaped. In 2009, I’ve observed so many young people creating unique career paths through various combinations of part-time work, virtual work, freelancing, entrepreneurship, paid interning, volunteer-to-temp-to-perm and beyond. The economy is in a huge state of flux right now and the people who get creative are the ones who will get ahead.

Finally, I am so grateful to all of you who read our blog, share your comments and keep me inspired every day. Happy holiday season and thank you for your ongoing support!

This post originally appeared on the Lindsey Pollak Career Blog.

TAGS: career advice, Generation Y, trends

At Thanksgiving dinner this week, parents and other relatives are bound to ask their Gen Y children, “How’s that job search coming along?”

While some people fear this question, I encourage job seekers to embrace it. Why not use your family’s interest as an opportunity? If you’re comfortable asking your loved ones for help, there are several ways you can enlist their support — appropriately — in your job search efforts.

Listen to some tips on this topic in my new podcast.

TAGS: Generation Y, Job Search

I’m excited to announce a brand new podcast series I’m creating for MyPath.com, a new online career management website guided by Manpower, one of the global leaders in employment services.

MyPath provides you with a variety of tools and services to help you plot and plan your career journey. As MyPath’s “College to Career” blogger, I’ll be recording a weekly podcast on a timely job search or career management topic for entry-level job seekers.

Click here to listen to my first MyPath podcast, “How to Get a Job Now.”

Have a topic you’d like me to discuss on a future MyPath podcast? Please share in the comments!

TAGS: Generation Y, Job Search

A recent BusinessWeek cover story called today’s graduates “The Lost Generation,” citing statistics that young people who graduate in recession years continue to earn less over the long-term course of their careers.

This weekend, New York Times columnist Bob Herbert addressed the same issue, writing:

“These recent graduates have done everything society told them to do. They’ve worked hard, kept their noses clean and gotten a good education (in many cases from the nation’s best schools). They are ready and anxious to work. If we’re having trouble finding employment for even these kids, then we’re doing something profoundly wrong.”

Like BusinessWeek and Herbert, I am very worried about the situation for recent college graduates. Today I want to share with you what I’m doing about it:

I have and always will pay any interns who work for me. If you are a business owner, I ask that you do the same.

The reason I call myself a Generation Y career and workplace expert is because I spend my days studying and talking to college students, recent grads, university career services professionals and employers of entry-level workers. Lately, a major topic of these conversations has been the fact that so many ambitious, energetic, intelligent college graduates are currently working for free as unpaid interns.

Bob Herbert has noticed this as well. “As jobs become increasingly scarce,” he writes, “more and more college graduates are working for free, at internships, which is great for employers but something of a handicap for a young man or woman who has to pay for food or a place to live.”

Certainly unpaid post-college internships have been popular for many years, particularly in glamorous, highly competitive fields such as magazine publishing, fashion and politics, or in the nonprofit world where employers simply can’t afford to pay. Over the years I have regularly advised students, particularly those interested in internship-heavy professions, to get the best experience they can, which often means working for free.

But, before the recession, most students did internships before graduating, to receive college credit or to gain “real world” experience over the summer. Today, a large number of college-educated young people are working as unpaid interns after graduation, in the hopes that they may one day receive paid positions. This holds them back from becoming financially independent, and it means that students with no family support are excluded from many opportunities because they have to make money to support themselves.

Bottom line: companies that can afford to should pay their interns. Right now lots of businesses that could pay interns are taking advantage of the recession and bringing in recent grads to work for free, simply because they can.

If you are a business owner of any size and you employ or are thinking about employing an unpaid intern, I encourage you to reconsider and pay that young person a decent wage. A relatively small amount of money, such as $100 or $200 a week , probably won’t impact your bottom line, but will help a young person get by and get experience.

I recently hired a part-time assistant, who is a 2009 college grad. She works 10 hours per week and I pay her a fair hourly wage. She works additional hours for another business owner, who also pays her for her work. I have paid an intern in the past and will pay all interns in the future.

If you are concerned about older workers or rural workers or single moms or any other demographic hit hard by the recession, then hire and pay an intern or part-time worker in that situation. (For more on adult internships, read Marci Alboher’s column on the topic.)

I know that my paying interns won’t move the needle on job creation or GDP, but it’s a small step toward helping the next generation avoid becoming “lost.” I want to see young people succeed and receive payment for work they perform. This is why I will always pay my interns and I encourage you to do the same.

Resources for hiring interns:
UrbanInterns.com
CollegeRecruiter.com
Internships.com
Craigslist.com

This post originally appeared on the Lindsey Pollak Career Blog.

TAGS: current recession, Generation Y

Today I’m pleased to share my third and final post on all the types of experience you have that you might not be giving yourself credit for. I hope you find this valuable, and please share any additional suggestions in the Comments!

Part III: Personal Interests and Experiences

1. Investing. Have you put away money since your tenth birthday and watched your savings grow significantly? Are you active in trading and investing through your E*TRADE account? Do you currently manage your finances beyond balancing your checkbook? Since many high school and college students don’t manage their own money, your experience and knowledge could stand out.

2. Family business. If you’ve been part of your parents’ business development process or worked in a family-owned restaurant or store, your dinner table conversations may have involved hiring practices and workplace challenges. Even if you didn’t start the company, your experience is a source of knowledge and brings value to your job search.

3. Travel. Any trip that has broadened your perspective of the United States or the world adds value to your relevant work experience. Did you hike the Grand Canyon or backpack through Europe? Did you visit a country where you couldn’t even read the street signs? Be sure to tell potential employers how you overcame these challenges and broadened your life experience.

4. Passions or hobbies. What do you care about and what do you do in your free time? Whether it’s running marathons, building model airplanes or teaching yourself to cook, anything that demonstrates your dedication and drive has value in the workplace. If you’ve committed yourself to a goal and achieved it (or are working on achieving it), you’ve spent a lot of time and energy in this area of interest. Be sure to mention these experiences in an interview or professional networking situation.

5. Social media. Have you made a (positive) name for yourself in the social media word? If you’ve become highly involved in an online community like Twitter, YouTube, Ning or LinkedIn, be sure to mention this experience in a job interview. Many companies are focused on enhancing their presence online and may appreciate your experience and knowledge in this still-new arena. If your talent includes more than Facebook-stalking your peers, and you’re proud of what you’ve done, don’t hesitate to share.

6. Technology. If you have computer knowledge beyond Microsoft Word, take it into consideration as a marketable skills. If you have significant experience with Quickbooks, Photoshop or are really advanced with Excel or PowerPoint, definitely play up these skills. If you can write HTML code (even basic), that can be very valuable too.

7. Moving. Did you attend more than one high school because your parents decided to move? Did you transfer colleges after your freshman year? If you successfully made friends and acclimated to a new environment, you might mention this experience in an interview. If you didn’t love your first pick of colleges, your desire to change and improve your situation shows strength and courage. Play up your ability to make the most of change when speaking to potential employers.

8. Overcoming a life challenge. Were you injured and completed physical therapy? Have you dealt with a learning disability or taken care of a sick parent? Though these are very personal experiences, you might mention these personal trials in an essay, cover letter or interview. Some of life’s greatest challenges have nothing to do with work or professional experiences. Give yourself credit and consider talking about these difficult life experiences from an attitude of strength. They’re part of who you are today and potential employers will appreciate your honesty and courage.

In addition to brainstorming all of the above types of experience, I poked around the Web to find even more. Freelance work, certification that requires training or courses, awards of all kinds and any involvement with a nonprofit are also worthy of mention. If I’ve left anything off this list, please share additional types of experience in the comments below.

As your post-summer assignment, go back through this list and put together a master list of your own. If you’re stuck, talk to five people who know you best. Ask your parents, siblings, mentors, best friends and favorite professors to help you come up with a list of valuable experiences you’ve had and specific qualities you bring to the table.

When it comes to selling ourselves, we often don’t see what’s right in front of us. Yes, it’s important to be humble, but in a competitive job market it’s also necessary to articulate exactly what knowledge, skills and experiences you bring to the marketplace. Happy listing!

This post originally appeared on the Lindsey Pollak Career Blog.

TAGS: Generation Y, Job hunting, Job Search

Continuing on my last post, here are eight more examples of experience that “counts” in your job search. Stay tuned for my final list, covering personal interests and experiences, on Monday.

Part II: Work and Extracurricular Experience

1. Sports. Even if you aren’t a star athlete, your participation in an organized sport (varsity, JV, club level or just for fun) is valuable. An employee who is a “team player” and works well with others can move mountains in the workplace. Athletic experience builds your competitive nature, increases your level of confidence and gives you strong leadership skills. Remember to consider these lessons and experiences when discussing your skills and abilities in a job interview.

2. Clubs and organizations. From French club to student government, be sure to note your involvement in organized group activities. Make special note of any leadership roles that involved coordinating events, budgeting or acting as liaison among group members, faculty and staff. Also take some time to think about club projects you managed from beginning to end – employers will correlate these to workplace project management skills.

3. Greek life. Aside from the toga parties (which employers definitely don’t want to know about), Greek organizations provide some valuable experience for the working world. Many Greek organizations place significant value on networking events, fundraisers and recruitment. If you held a direct leadership role, planned events or coordinated publicity for your fraternity or sorority, you should share these achievements with potential employers. Keep in mind that there are some lingering stereotypes from Animal House and the like, so proceed with caution.

4. The arts. Whether you’re involved in art, music, dance or theater, your performance skills and the self-confidence it takes to share your talents in front of an audience are very attractive to an employer. Don’t be shy about touting your creative accomplishments, even in a serious corporate setting.

5. Entrepreneurship. Did you start a business, activity or club? Have you participated in a family business? Whether it’s been a success or struggle in today’s economy, the lessons you’ve learned from taking initiative and building your own group or company are worthy of mention. Be able to speak of your motivation to become an entrepreneur and the ups and downs you faced throughout the process.

6. Volunteer experience. Did you tutor peers at your school, help manage a food drive or give your time to an elderly community? Whether you’ve spent one week, one month or one year volunteering, you have gained skills, built relationships and experienced struggles and triumphs that are valuable to an employer. Include these experiences on your resume and discuss them in your professional conversations.

7. Part-time work. Have you worked in retail, at a restaurant or behind the snack bar at your neighborhood pool? Even telemarketing, babysitting, mowing the lawn and dog walking can demonstrate hard work, dedication, organization and persistence – qualities that all employers want and need. When you discuss these work experiences, however, it’s up to you to point out how they are relevant to jobs you are seeking now. Give serious thought to what your part-time work has taught you and how it’s contributed to your skill set.

8. Campaigning and activism. Were you active in the 2008 presidential election? Have you written letters, made phone calls or found other ways to speak out about the causes you support? If you’ve shown dedication to a cause or movement, it can be smart to share this in a job interview. Keep in mind that politics and certain issues are a source of controversy, though, so focus more on explaining your involvement and the specific abilities you developed rather than trying to convert a recruiter to your cause or point of view.

Remember to check back next week for Part III!

This post originally appeared on the Lindsey Pollak Career Blog.

TAGS: Generation Y, Job hunting