Every week I check dozens of “career” blogs and other online publications, looking for things that will help you find a job, get promoted, develop your skills, and keep everything in perspective and balance. Here’s the pick of the lot for this week. I’m pointing you to posts about finding and getting value from an internship, what to do your first week on the job, blogging to find a job, and some choices you have to make on the job.

From Lindsay Pollack: Internships are more important than ever

“One of the reasons internships are so important is because more and more companies are using their intern programs to replace on-campus recruiting. An internship is now a thinly disguised audition–for both the student and the employer–rather than a charitable learning opportunity. This makes sense: what better way for both sides to find out if a relationship is a good fit than to test it out for a few months before fully committing? If you’re working as an intern this summer, here are some tips to ace your audition and earn a future offer if you’d like one.”

Wally’s Comment: This is a great post about the importance of internships and how to make your internship pay off.

From Work in Progress: A survival guide for our summer interns

“During my seven years at TIME, I’ve watched summer interns come and go, some undoubtedly enriched by the experience, others just as undoubtedly disappointed. I think this is true at any workplace. I see a lot of advice out there from bloggers and career advisers on how to handle summer internships, but seeing as my own limited knowledge is limited further to my own employer, I thought I’d spew some of that entirely unsolicited advice here.”

Wally’s Comment: In keeping with the internship theme, here’s a great post about how to get the most value from the experience, while avoiding a few pitfalls.

GL Hoffman writing at US News & World Report: 42 Rules For Your First Week

Wally’s Comment: Whether it’s your first day on the job at an internship or a regular job, GL Hoffman has advice you can use.

From Jessica Miller-Merrell at Blogging for Jobs: How Blogging Can Land You a Job

“As the hunt for talented professionals gets more challenging, recruiters and creative head hunters are turning to blogs and blog comments to connect with passive candidates. Do a Google search on the internet for “Jobs and Blogs” and you’ll find testimonial after testimonial from job seekers who have landed jobs or been contacted by recruiters from a blog or blog comment post.”

Wally’s Comment: Jessica is a recruiter. Her blog has lots of good advice about landing the job you want, including this piece on using blogs to find it and increase your own visibility.

From Make Work Better: Human vs. Robot: Who Wins the Challenge at Work?

“On the first day of my very first job out of college, my new boss offered a piece of advice: “Be careful of making any personal relationships with your co-workers.” She was telling me this for good reason; the program I had joined was a fast-track to management, and she didn’t want me to have to manage my friends once the program had finished. However, the finality of her words stuck through me for that first year at the job, and I slowly evolved into a robot at work.”

Wally’s Comment: Most people don’t get in trouble by making a few big and bad decisions. Most of us get in trouble as the result of lots of seemingly little decisions that have a cumulative effect.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 12th, 2008 at 9:02 am and is filed under Tools and Strategies for Success. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.