How college students make internships payoff

Posted on August 9, 2014 by admin

By Rhonda Campbell

Thousands of college students are ending their summer internships. If these college students were fortunate, their internships allowed them to do more than file, scan and copy stacks of documents, completing projects that regular employees are willing to do near anything to avoid.

Trademarks of good college internships

A good business internship introduces college students to the real work world. Instead of copying, scanning and filing all day, interns:

• Sit in on webinars and conference calls. Progressive employers may also encourage interns to attend team and divisional in-person meetings and prompt interns to contribute to the meetings, offering suggestions and personal insights.
• Provide interns with projects that they can actually lead, giving interns the chance to work independently as well as build their leadership skills
• Assign interns one or more group projects to complete before the end of summer
• Develop schedules that let interns get a deeper view of the business by participating in a job rotation program
• Make is possible for college students to earn college credits based on work they complete during internships

It goes without saying that the best business internships pay college students. Some companies that operate college internships pay students $25 an hour, more than three times the federal minimum wage. These employers pay competitive wages because they know their internships are “meaty”, offering students valuable insights into today’s business environment.

Those are a few hallmarks of rewarding college internship programs. But, what happens after students return to college? How do they make their internships continue to pay off after they are back in the classroom?

Students drive good internships

What follows are steps that college students could take to keep summer internships they participated in paying off for months. Um, hmm. . . Networking plays a pivotal role in several of the steps.

• Contact business managers and ask them to connect via LinkedIn (Some business managers post job updates, training seminars, networking events, etc. that their firms are hosting that college students could take advantage of, even after their internship has ended).
• Add their summer work experience to their resume, digital portfolio and social media profiles.
• Send managers they completed internships with holiday greetings. By sending employers a Christmas, Thanksgiving or New Years greeting, students can keep in touch with their potential future employers three times a year.
• Study markets and industries employers they intern with operate in. Doing this teaches college students about terminology, trends and analytical data that’s impacting these markets and industries. Simply being able to speak a potential employers “language” (i.e. terminology) can set future college graduates apart.
• Subscribe to news feeds and alerts that deliver quality information (i.e. stats, facts, business acquisitions, mergers) right to their mobile phones or email. A lot is going to change in the business world over the next two years. It pays to keep pace with the impending changes.

College students should definitely take the time to send a “thank you” card or note (handwritten notes can leave a lasting impression) to managers and supervisors they worked with during their business internship. When they start their search for a full-time job, it also pays to contact these managers and supervisors. Even if these employers don’t hire the students, they may offer suggestions or agree to give a strong recommendation to students as they apply for jobs with other employers.

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Breakfast for champions

Posted on July 26, 2014 by admin

By Rhonda Campbell
Eggs are one of the most eaten breakfast foods and rightfully so. Loaded with protein, eggs are easy to prepare. Add in the right ingredients, and eggs become a filling food. Furthermore, of all the dishes you can cook using eggs, breakfast sandwiches and omelets are dishes that millions of Americans order from restaurants and food trucks each morning.

You don’t have to live West to love this breakfast omelet

However, you don’t have to go to a restaurant and pay for an omelet to enjoy a hearty egg breakfast. You can make this omelet at home in less than 20 minutes. Ingredients you need are:

  • Two eggs (if you’re especially hungry and want a large omelet, go for three eggs)
  • Smoked turkey (use lunch meat so the meat is thin and less chewy)
  • 1 tablespoon of margarine or butter
  • 1 small onion
  • 1 small red pepper
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • 1/4 cup of mild shredded cheddar cheese (an alternative you can use is two slices of American cheese or another favorite processed cheese)

Dice the onion and red pepper. Use 1/2 a cup of the onion and red pepper. Place the remainder of the vegetables in a small container, seal and place in the refrigerator.

Next, grease a medium sized skillet with the margarine or butter. Break the eggs in the skillet. Stir the eggs until they are well blended. Make sure the eggs are spread across the skillet.

Drop in the onion, pepper and cheese. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Let the food cook until the egg is lightly browned and the cheese is melted. This should take about three minutes.

Fold the egg in half.

Remove from omelet from the skillet with a spatula and serve with a bowl of fresh strawberries, a banana or another fruit you absolutely love during breakfast. Enjoy!

Posted in Staying Motivated and Inspired | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Get creative and build a successful business

Posted on July 12, 2014 by admin

By Rhonda Campbell
The first years of your working career might be spent trying to find jobs that pay the rent or mortgage. If you use your creative or artistic abilities several times before and after you start working these “pay the bills” jobs, you might feel a twinge of regret, something pulling you to change careers. This is what happened to Christine Hughes, owner of Darling Studio.

Take creative talents from part-time to full-time business success
Christine shares at her official website that, “Like many artists, I took the long way here. I studied communications instead of art, trying to do the right thing. I traveled up and down the coasts and throughout Europe, trying to find myself. I worked as a retail monkey, a coffee slinger, a newspaper reporter, and a web producer, trying to make a living.” She goes on to say, “I tried everything but the right thing.”

To build a successful enterprise using your creative talents, analyze the market, checking to see how you can use your talents to fill a perceived consumer need. You might spot this need as you’re searching for a product or service online. Follow your frustration with how you can’t find what you’re looking for; could you create the product or service yourself?

Some business leaders suggest that you start a business part-time. This way you could continue to receive income from your current job. Other leaders advise against this. As reported in Bloomberg Businessweek, MGPS business consultant, Phillip Moorcroft shares that launching a business part-time significantly reduces your financial and psychological resolve to make the business successful. Moorcroft says, “Going in with the Plan B mentality—”I’ll try this for six months and if it fails, I’ll go work for my uncle”—is not workable.”

Creative changes and traditions

To increase your chances of achieving ongoing business success, you’re going to have to take the traditional route. This means that you have to manage your time wisely. During the early days of your business, tracking your time in a day planner or spreadsheet could prove invaluable. Market your business, partnering with copywriters, advertising agents and marketing specialists as needed.

Creative time management techniques include exercising in the morning . . . one less thing to think about after you start working. When you’re creative, you may also appreciate your children’s artwork, letting the work inspire your next graphic arts design idea.

By developing relationships with the media, you can get coverage for local, regional, national and international events your business is involved with. This includes charitable, educational and industry-specific events. Be creative. Open up to the idea that answers to challenges you’ve been facing are at these events. For example, instead of advertising your new novel, SEO marketing firm, cafe, etc., consider hitting up these events to find a rare and innovative sales specialist, mobile app developer or outrageously funny assistant.

Be professional. Treat your business as if it is your sole source of income. If you don’t you could end up working your talents part-time forever. You could also get frustrated and start to believe that your talents will never afford you a full-time job you love.

Keep letting your creativity pay off

Other creative ways you could use your talents to generate a “lovely” income are to use pillows, material, old calendars, etc. that you’d normally toss in the garbage to design things like business cards, event handouts and branding materials. Let your sense of humor sing! Let it have it’s way!  Tie business mishaps in with your humor. Create one business related humorous quote a day.  Post the quote at your website, blog or social media accounts. Heck!  You could even create an e-book from the quotes!

Track the results of your efforts. Don’t just distribute press releases or run social media marketing campaigns. Measure the results of these efforts. You might find that working a social media ad three different ways generates more sales than using one ad by itself. To stay encouraged and inspired as you use your creative talents to build a successful enterprise, read books and stories of other creatives who found ongoing business success.

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Boost your chances of getting a good job

Posted on June 21, 2014 by admin

By Edward Johnson
Online job boards come with specific advantages. Search for employment at online job boards and you gain access to hundreds of jobs in a matter of minutes. Pay attention to salaries associated with specific jobs, and you could also discover pay ranges for jobs that interest you. Identifying responsibilities aligned with work roles, noticing the signs of a stable company versus a company that’s struggling to get a handle on its cash flows and getting an idea of how long a role has been open are other advantages you get access to when you search for employment using online job boards.

Bringing your dream job within reach

Those are the good points. Searching for quality employment at online job boards are brings challenges. For starters, you could spend hours, weeks or months applying for jobs that have already been filled. As hard as it might be to accept, some jobs listed at online boards are old, but remain up because recruiters haven’t gotten around to taking the job ads down yet.

That shared, there are steps you can take to boost your chances of getting jobs whether you use online employment boards or not. Be willing to revise your job cover letter, especially if you haven’t been hearing from recruiters. Other steps you can take include:

  • Submit a cover letter with your resume. Edit the cover letter so that it’s unique to the specific job you’re applying for. At the least, include the name of the company and the position you’re applying for in the cover letter.
  • Provide contact information (i.e. cell phone number, email address) on your resume and in your cover letter.
  • Follow-up with a telephone call to recruiters. Don’t badger recruiters. That shared, a follow-up telephone call could set you apart.
  • Ask recruiters why you didn’t get a role if you’re not hired. Listen to what recruiters share. Use this information to approach your next job search differently.
  • Study companies and markets you’re applying for work in. It’s a turnoff to recruiters and hiring managers to find out that you don’t know anything about their firm or their industry.
  • Consider working internships at companies you want to build a career at. Keep in touch with recruiters at companies you intern with. Definitely let the recruiters know when you’ll be graduating and apply for open roles when you see them at the company’s career boards.
  • Contact former colleagues and hiring managers at companies you want to work at, requesting that they refer you for employment.
  • Give employment agencies a chance. Just make sure that you work with reputable agencies.
  • Search for quality employment every day until you get the job you really want.
  • Attend corporate job fairs or recruiting events. These can yield better results than attending statewide or regional career fairs. You could also learn about higher paying jobs at corporate job fairs or recruiting events that are hosted by one to four firms.
  • Keep your skills sharp. You can learn a lot by taking online training programs and by watching free training videos.
  • Practice interviewing. On this point, you can learn new ways to interview each time you engage in a telephone or in-person job interview. From this perspective, no interview is a waste.

As with any tactic or strategy, monitor the results of your efforts. Pay attention to how many emails or telephone calls you receive from recruiters after you send them your job cover letter and resume. See if certain keywords attract different recruiters. Be open to making changes until you land the quality job that you really want, a job you’ll enjoy working for years.

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Marrying great restaurants and great deals

Posted on June 7, 2014 by admin

By Rhonda Campbell
Annually restaurants in the United States generate more than $665 billion in sales, according to the National Restaurant Association (NRA). A good portion of this revenue comes from entrepreneurs and senior business leaders, people who understand the value of good communication and rewarding dining.

When clients love great restaurants you introduce them to

Simply inviting an existing or prospective client out to lunch or dinner can create feelings of appreciation in these guests. Choose the right restaurant and entrepreneurs could close a deal they’d been working on for weeks. Several key points will need to be considered before entrepreneurs (or their assistants) contact restaurants and make reservations. Among these key points are:

  • Whether or not the client or prospect is a vegetarian (Review sites, magazines and directories could prove helpful when looking for healthy vegetarian restaurants. Examples of restaurant review sites and directories are Happy Cow, Restaurants Raw, HK Magazine and PETA.)
  • If clients have allergies and, if so, what foods they are allergic to.
  • Special diets clients may be on.

It definitely pays to ask clients and prospects to share their top three favorite entrees or food dishes. Simply asking clients or prospects, “What three foods do you absolutely love?” could save time. It could also eliminate the chances that entrepreneurs will try to close business deals at the wrong restaurants.

Restaurant features clients focus on

Lighting, decorations, interior design and personality are other factors to consider when looking for the right restaurant to close business deals at. Some clients prefer dim lit areas, others prefer restaurants that are well lit, the types of restaurants that let in lots of natural sunlight. How spaced out seating is, whether or not private rooms are available at a restaurant and Wi-Fi access are other factors to consider.

Entrepreneurs can take advantage of Zagat and Gayot reviews if they are new to an area and no idea where to begin when it comes time to make business restaurant reservations. There are also personal bloggers who visit and dine at different restaurants during their travels. These bloggers provide as in-depth reviews as some professional restaurant review sites.

A great thing about Zagat is that it categories restaurants by city, so entrepreneurs won’t have to dig through thousands of reviews to find great restaurants close to whether they live and/or work. Deals, top restaurants, seasonal menus, food hybrids and gluten-free restaurants are also covered.

Gayot covers dining, travel and safety. It also breaks restaurants down by city. Depending on the time of year, entrepreneurs could find discussions on barbecue, steak, seafood, salads, breads or desserts.

After restaurants have been chosen and reservations have been made, other important points to remember when closing rewarding business deals include:

  • Reason for the meeting (Restaurant meetings can easily drift off topic. Entrepreneurs are encouraged to write down a few talking points before they leave for the meetings, so they’ll be certain to touch on each topic as they dine with a client or prospect.)
  • Bring a business calendar or, better yet, have access to an electronic business calendar. This way, follow-up meetings could be scheduled before restaurant meetings conclude.
  • Supporting data (It is especially important to bring supporting data if entrepreneurs promised clients or prospects that they would share the data with them.)

Although restaurant meetings can be fun, it’s important that entrepreneurs remain professional throughout the discussions. Whether they realize it or not, clients and prospects are forming perceptions and opinions of them. Create winning perceptions and opinions and discussing business deals at the right restaurants could lead to deal closes and rewarding client-entrepreneur relationships.

Posted in Business Management | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment