In high school, students longed for summer because it was a three-month free ride. Sure, some students needed to get a summer job, but just as many would spend their time on an extended vacation. During college, you might have the same impulse. After all, the college curriculum is far more demanding than high school so you might feel like you’re owed a break.

Certainly, there’s time to relax on a summer break, but college students should also be thinking about the future. A summer internship is a good way to build up your resume so you’ll have some real hands-on work experience when you enter the job market.

Students on a work-study program at college may not have the time to take on an internship during the school year. For instance, those students who work at the library, cafeteria, or other job on campus may not be able to add an internship in addition to classes. For these students, a summer internship is a good alternative.

A summer internship is a good idea even if you worked at an internship during the school year. The more experience you have, the better your resume will appear. In some cases, a summer internship can carry over from the internship during the semester. This may be set up ahead of time or as the internship progresses. In other cases, students can think about getting an internship in a different wing of an industry than a previous internship. In this way, students can gain a wide range of knowledge about a particular business.

Because the internship occurs during summer when there are normally no academic classes, summer internships can be more intensive than internships during the school year. If you also need to work a paying job as well as work a non-paying internship, you should determine the hours required for a summer internship. Some summer internships can be as many as 40 hours a week—no different than a full-time job.

The best way to find internships is to go to your department and find job listings. Often these job listings are listed online. These jobs go quickly—much like a paid position—so it is important for you to apply early.

Depending on the department of your major, some summer internships will not be at local companies. Many science related internships will be at on-campus laboratories at colleges and universities throughout the country. As such, you don’t necessarily have to apply for an internship at the college where you are attending. Often science internships are considered research opportunities—the equivalent of a non-paid research grant.

Finding a summer internship is much like finding a scholarship. Just as there are scholarships for minority students or students with particular skills, the same goes for internship programs. There are summer internships primarily for minority students and internships for very specific majors: medical research, marine biology, accounting, etc.

In addition to unpaid internships, there are also paid internship opportunities as well—jobs with a specific time frame. These are highly competitive so apply early.

benefits, business, Career, choose a major, choosing, college, degree program, education, Family, financial, Friends, Fun, future, Internship, Job Search, Success, Time Management, you

If you come from a limited financial background, that’s no reason that you shouldn’t go to college. In fact, the less financial support you have, the easier it may be to secure financial aid. Financial aid is only given out to the neediest students. That being said, there can be stiff competition for financial aid packages, so you should apply early.

If you are looking to save money on tuition, state schools are much cheaper overall than private schools–especially if you can prove residency. This is not true across the board, however. In special situations, you could potentially get a higher scholarship for a private university than financial aid at your local university. It’s important to weigh all of your options. Obviously, the school with the lowest tuition is a good first bet, but there are other factors to consider as well.

A good financial aid or grant program should be able to help with tuition, room and board, and supplies. If the latter is not included, cut costs by buying and selling used textbooks. Room and board can be a huge chunk of expenses–if you can cut costs by living in a shared living space, instead of a dorm, this is recommended. The trade-off is that you will have to make your own meals, but you can save hundreds of dollars a month on rent.

Getting a job is an absolute necessity–and may be mandatory as part of your financial aid package. Many financial aid packages require that you get a job on campus–a sort of pay as you go student loan. This may be preferable to other types of student loans, as you won’t be saddled with payments after you graduate. The problem is that your work study paycheck will go right back to the school, which doesn’t provide money for other expenses.

Student Loans

Student loans are by far the most popular form of tuition payment: borrow now, pay later. If you get a job during the school year, much of your paycheck will be going in pocket. At the same time, it is important to start paying off your student loan early on. Defaulting on student loan payments after you graduate can have long-term consequences. As you are trying to get footing in the workforce, it can be difficult to have to spend a large chunk of your paycheck on loans.

All that said, there is no reason to not go to college just because your parents cannot afford it. They may be able to meet you halfway by fronting some of the money if you are able to find a loan from somewhere else. Even if they don’t help out at all, you can still pay off tuition and other expenses through government loans, private grants, school scholarships, work study programs, and more.

Admissions, bachelors, benefits, business, Career, choose a major, choosing, college, College Visit, colleges, degree, degree program, degree programs, degrees, education, Family, financial, future, grad student, Job Search, MBA, online, online classes, Online Degree, Online Education, Online University, paying for college, Scholarships, school, student, succeed, Success, Time Management, Univeristy, University, you

Cover letters are generally poorly written and boring. It’s true. Most of them just repeat what was already in the resume and show no personality at all. I don’t know how the poor human resource people survive having to look through them day after day. The problem is that most people don’t know what should go in their cover letter. The following are the cover letter essentials.

Expanded Experience

What do I mean by expanded experience? You want to detail some of the experience in your resume and expand on it. Don’t just repeat the information. In your cover letter, you’re trying to sell yourself, so talk about what you did, how it increased your competence, and why it matters to this company.

Specifics

Whatever you do, whatever you say, BE SPECIFIC! The specific details of your experiences are far more interesting than a few general statements about what you do in your current job or what you learned during a special training. Details will make or break your cover letter.

Personality

I know you have one, but if you write the normal type of cover letter, I’d probably be surprised to know that you had more going for you than being a bump on a rock. Let your personality shine through in your cover letter. Share your enthusiasm for the job and your interest in your field. They want to know that you would enjoy what you want to do.

Contact Information

Obvious, I know, but include your contact information. A lot of people forget to include the basic contact information including phone numbers, email, etc. You can also be proactive and tell the company you will check back with them on a certain date, but be sure they have your information in case they want to talk to you sooner.

Say Thank You

Your momma taught you to say thank you, so be sure you say it. Thank the reader for their time and state that you hope to hear from them soon. They will appreciate this little note of thoughtfulness that says a lot about the type of employee you could be.

Send It Correctly

If you’re sending your resume and cover letter electronically, please make sure that you save it in Plain Text format. Otherwise, the company may not be able to read it, and they probably won’t contact you for another copy. Plain text can be opened by any type of Word Processor, and the company will appreciate your efforts.

Career, cover letter, Interview, Job Search, Resume, Success, Time Management, you

More and more companies today are making it a position requirement for employees or prospective employees to have a college degree in order to be hired. For someone who has been in the workforce for many years, and is considering going back to school to get a college degree, a competency-based degree is the perfect solution. Competency-based degrees are designed so that the focus of study is structured to meet the professional and personal goals of the individual.

The best part about a competency-based degree program is that the individual is given college credits for their previous education, as well as life and career experiences. In a competency-based program these types of credits are often referred to as “life credits.” Therefore, competency-based degrees allow individuals with some education and/or work experience to accelerate the completion of their degree.

A source of the life experiences or “life credit” will have to be provided in order to earn the credit toward a competency-based degree. Some examples of sources include:

· Work experience
· Military service
· Certifications or licensures
· Published books or works
· Seminar, training sessions or workshops

Competency based degrees can usually be completed within a 1 to 2 year time period, which is much faster than the four-year college degree. These types of programs also allow candidates the flexibility of completing their degree when it is convenient for them. This is a great arrangement for working professionals who want to finish their college degree, but just don’t have the time to devote to it like a full-time student does. Competency-based degree programs are offered in an online learning environment as well as in an on-campus traditional classroom environment.

college, competency, degree, Job Search, online classes, Online Degree, Online Education, Success, Time Management

You’re out of the military and looking for civilian employment. You may be worried that potential employers will see you only as a soldier (or sailor, or pilot, etc.) and not someone who can take on civilian working tasks. To convince them that you not only have a place in the civilian work force, but can be more of an asset than others applying to similar positions, you will have to make your military experience fit into a civilian resume.

The main problem you will encounter in this regard is that the military has a different culture and language than the civilian world. What this means for you is that you must change your skill descriptions and responsibilities so that they have civilian names instead of military ones. If there is not an exact civilian skill, responsibility or job that matches the ones you had in the military, there should at least be something comparable. You can find books that will tell you how to translate military duties and positions to civilian ones. Use these to build your resume.

If you have any civilian experience, such as a job you may have held before entering the service, be sure to include this on your resume, even if it has been some time since you had this position. It is important for you to show prospective employers that you are able to function effectively in the civilian world. If you have not had such a job, don’t worry. Take the military jobs and skills that you have newly translated into civilian speak and present them sequentially in the reverse order of when you learned them or began performing them. This will give your military resume the appearance of a civilian one.

Be sure to consider extracurricular activities. If you have participated in any volunteer organizations or clubs outside of the military that required you exercise certain abilities or taught you certain skills, include those too. Remember, your main goal is to get an employer out of the mindset that you can do little more than march and fire a weapon and into the mindset that you are a brave, resourceful, skilled individual who can be a major asset to any civilian company.

Be sure to highlight skills that have a direct relationship to the job for which you are applying. If these are retitled military skills, they can help emphasize the fact that your military skills have direct civilian applications that can be useful to this employer.

Finally, remember that the resume is only a part of the job application process. If you are able to generate a resume that indicates you are reasonably competent to take part in the civilian work force, you will be invited to participate in an interview. This will require a different set of skills than building a resume requires, but it will give you the opportunity to further emphasize the applications your military background has to civilian employment. If you can do that, the perfect job could be right within your grasp.

Career, college, degree program, financial, future, Job Search, MBA, Online Education, organization, paying for college, popular, Resume, school, student, succeed, Time Management