It’s finally here: week ten of my summer internship at Magazine X in New York City. I’m proud to report that I’ve made it through numerous days of unpaid labor and braved the horrible commuting conditions (apparently Mother Nature decided that this summer was going to be characterized by either torrential downpours or blazing heat, and nothing in between), and I actually managed to have a pretty good time while doing so. I only had to get someone coffee twice (and I could get myself one too, so leaving the office for a Starbucks run wasn’t too awful), and I have a ton of good clips to add to my resume.

So what have I learned? Read More »

I’ve learned many lessons since graduating from college. I’ve learned that buying a pair of shoes isn’t as important as eating dinner, that keeping in touch with friends is hard and that your first job out of college isn’t always as amazing as you think it will be.

But the biggest and most important lesson I’ve learned is that networking is the key to success.

You may not want to believe it, but when it comes to getting ahead in life, it’s all about who you know. Every single job (from full time gigs to random babysitting jobs) that I’ve gotten since I graduated from college has been because I had some connection to the person hiring. Whether it be the college I went to, the sorority I was in, or just some random person who knew my mom, I would not have gotten the position if that connection hadn’t been there.

And it’s not like I wasn’t qualified. Read More »

Sarah Merion is a “Social Media” pioneer for Gen Y. She has her own website, SarahMerion.com, where she educates on Social Media and challenges people to think about using social media to benefit their business. She has a cult following on Twitter (check her out @SarahMerion) and has even hosted multiple workshops on using Twitter and LinkedIn at her campus at Northeastern and at MIT. Her RoofUp Tweetup was the biggest in Boston and Northeastern approved a grant she wrote to finance her trip to a Social Media conference in Chicago called SOBCon.

On top of all of that, she’s only 21 and still a student at Northeastern, studying Spanish, Management Information Systems and Finance, currently on internship in NYC doing data analysis for a mega media company. Not to mention, she’s sassy, hilarious and can we say: Coolest. Hair. Ever. When I discovered this girl, I knew I had to bag an interview, so I contacted her via YouTube to grab her attention (don’t laugh). It worked and we quickly began collaborating on this interview, on top of a few other projects in the works. Sarah Merion is an inspiration for college girls who want to be entrepreneurs while still in school and proof that maybe, just maybe, the finance world isn’t as screwed as we thought.

5 Questions We Ask Everyone:

1. What is your most ridiculous college memory/most trouble you’ve ever gotten into?
Haha, no comment. Definitely did not involve me dancing on a bar. Hoo boy.

2. What are five things you can’t live without?
1. MAC foundation.
2. iPhone! Hello Tweetdeck, I love you.
3. Pink and black Herve bag. I seriously carry it EVERY. WHERE.
4. Hanky Panky underwear
5. Classic cherry chapstick. Wait, no! Friends! The TV show. Oh also, vanilla Yoplait light yogurt. And Kashi GoLean. Kashi GoLean Crunch. Grande non fat cappuccino with one Splenda. Shoot, that’s more than five, isn’t it? Read More »

Last spring, I was gearing up to graduate and was waiting for the job offers to come rolling in. Instead, the only opportunity that came my way was a summer internship. At the time, I was making plenty of money waiting tables, but I knew that the added experience of an internship would add to my credentials– even if it meant taking a pay cut. So I moved to upstate New York to a place that was a five-hour drive from everyone I would care to visit.

When I first got there, I quickly realized that this job sucked. My boss, the woman who had hired me, misinformed me when I had inquired about the hours, the workload, and the learning potential of the position during my interview. However, by the end of August, when it was time to pack up and move on, I realized I had just had one of the best summers of my life.

Before I go into the ways that you, too, can make the most of your summer internship, let me explain why mine was so terrible. I had been hired by a nonprofit regional theater company as an administrative intern for their summer season. As an English major who was trying to break into theater, that sounded right up my alley when my boss had described my duties. However, when I arrived, I quickly learned that the majority of my time would be spent serving as assistant house manager — ripping tickets and listening to patrons bitch for 8 shows a week. Read More »

As the semester comes to a close, one thing that’s on my mind (and the minds of most everyone I know) besides finals and start-of-summer parties is getting a job.

Whether it’s a summer job, internship, or, if you’re graduating like I am, an entry-level position into a career, finding a job is a top priority.  However, we all know that isn’t as easy as we’d like it to be.  Competition for jobs is higher than ever with the tough job market we’re in, which is why you have to stand out in the sea off all the other job/internship applicants out there.

But before you purchase some sort of ridiculous costume or do the dirty with your interviewer in attempts to stick out in his or her mind, try a few of these more professional ideas:

1.  Network, network, network – You’ve heard it before, and I’m telling you again: networking is one of the most important things you can do when it comes to helping you get a job.  Think you don’t have connections?  Think again.  Reach out to everyone you know–professors, friends, coworkers, your parents–you never know who has info on great job openings. There are also tons of online groups catered to all sorts of fields that set up networking events in cities across the country. Sign up and go to these; you will meet tons of people in your field that can help you out down the road.

2. Utilize your school’s career center – Sometimes universities get job listings that don’t go into public listings.  You may not find anything the first time, but keep checking, because new jobs open up all the time.  Plus, your career center can offer more than just job listings.  Depending on your university, you can get career counseling, have your resume checked, and even do mock interviews. Read More »

I know you’re all still swamped with the work you neglected over spring break and don’t even want to think about the fact that exams are just around the corner. That’s why I hate to break it to you, but if you’re planning on sacrificing your summer for an internship this year,  the time to start searching, applying, and interviewing was yesterday. But don’t worry – you can still start now!

Whether you’ve already pledged to yourself that an internship will be beneficial to your eventual career, or this article only just now put the idea into your head, it can be difficult to know where to look. After all, if we are going to spend the summer working for little or no pay, we want the best damn internship out there, don’t we? As a bit of an intern connoisseur (I have five under my belt), I’d like to help steer you in the right direction. Read More »

New Years resolutions were made (and probably broken ), but here is a new set of important resolutions that you might want to get started on. And, yes, they involve Facebook.

I don’t mean updating your status every 3 hours instead of every 30 minutes (addict), or finally getting even with your sister by posting up those New Year’s Eve pics of her passed out in her own puke (ew); I mean using Facebook for different purposes. So here we go.

Facebook resolution 1: De-Clutter your friend List.

Remember when you first joined facebook and you added everyone and anyone who added you just so that you could gloat to your friend that you had five more friends than her? Well, when the games stopped, what happened to all those random people that you added? Do you still talk to them? Have you ever talked to them? While having 200 friends verses 25 is cooler, if you don’t talk to half those people, it’s time to delete them. Do you really want that rando who friended you to know what you are doing at all times? Who knows what he’s doin’ with those pics you put up last week?!

Facebook resolution 2: Learn to use the privacy settings!

Because you really don’t want to have to deal with your conservative aunt who suddenly calls you asking “Since when where you an alcoholic and hookah smoker?” (Um, since 9th grade?) Even if your aunt/mom/dad doesn’t have a Facebook account, chances are they know someone’s daughter’s- friend’s- niece’s- cousin’s (you get the point) who has a huge mouth and grudge against you. So customize your photo albums so that only the people who you get drunk with (and a few others) see those specific pics. Read More »

Life in prison for this fashionable felon.

President-Elect Obama loves YouTube!

Paula might be leaving American Idol.

Is Kim Kardashian really engaged?

Hulk Hogan & Co. are a bunch of douches.

Anderson Cooper watches Real Housewives of Atlanta.

ESPN is stereotyping your school.

Makeup trends for the holiday season.

It’s a hard-knock life for your RA.

The idiot’s guide to networking.

[The following is the first of a five-part series I'm calling "The Top 5 Things You MUST Do In College." Everyone's already heard about buying flip-flops for the shower, stocking up on veggies to avoid the Freshman 15, and to steer clear of mojitos before midterms, but there are other tips for enjoying college that the experts might have neglected to tell you about.

This series is meant to provide advice for getting the most out of college, rather than just getting through it. So whether you're a freshman just starting out, or a senior on the job hunt, you've still got plenty of time to live it up (and do it right) as an undergrad.]

If there is one thing you should do before you graduate, it is to make friends with at least one of your professors.

For one thing, a professor has to be well established in his or her field, whether it’s philosophy or business, or something in between. If you get along really well with one of your professors, chances are they can connect you to a job or recommend you for an opportunity you might not have even heard about yet. You remember that old adage when it comes to getting a job, “it’s all about who you know”? Not many twentysomethings are chummy with CEOs or top magazine editors, but your professor might be. Besides, what if some day you do decide to go to law school? Imagine how hard it will be getting a recommendation letter from a professor you had years ago, especially when they see so many students in such a small window of time.

I know, I know, your school is so large you need to text your professor so he can answer your questions in lecture. Or maybe you’re thinking you just don’t know what to say. Valid excuses, but not good enough to get out of this one. Read More »

Why does breaking up suck so much? No, I don’t mean the broken hearts, the swapping of past birthday / anniversary / Valentine’s gifts, or the empty void on his half of the bed. I mean, why does the actual act of breaking up suck so much?

You’re in a relationship. Obviously, there’s something compatible between you and your partner. But once the break-up hits, BAM! Everything changes. It’s very difficult to get back to the friendship level, if possible at all.

Breaking up doesn’t just mean you’ve lost a mate, but a really good friend as well. In fact, you’ve probably lost several friends, because now it’s taboo for either of your own friends to associate with the other’s ex. It could also mean you’ve lost a confidante, a study pal, a Guitar Hero partner (or the entire game, if it was his!), a personal chef, or whatever your now-ex used to do that made the relationship special.

It also means a definite disturbance in many, most, or all of your daily routines. Whether you called each other every day to talk through your commutes to school, or you were living together, suddenly, there’s something missing. And even if the break-up was necessary or inevitable, that void is a gaping hole in your life. That keeps getting bigger. And just won’t go away. Read More »