Student creates a Lego résumé

Photo credit: Imgur, Pastlightspeed

You’ve been to the Lego store. You’ve watched the Lego movie. But have you seen the Lego résumé?

Last year, college student Leah Bowman created a Lego-themed résumé for an Account Services internship. Using Lego Digital Designer, Bowman created a Lego version of herself and placed it on her résumé.

Bowman’s résumé also contained “assembly instructions” that highlighted her skills and explained why she was the #1 choice for the internship.

Advertisement

Making the most of an internship

Photo credit: Blogging4jobs.com

We’ve all heard the stereotypes of interns being forced to do menial tasks like fetching the coffee, but internships can actually be a great launching pad for your career. My article on Chelsea Krost’s blog shares four things you should consider when you’re finding an internship:

What You Should Consider When Choosing An Internship (chelseakrost.com)

Thanks to Chelsea Krost for publishing my guest post. And if you haven’t already, please check out my previous guest post on Chelsea’s blog, Top 6 Ways To Gain Experience Before Your First Job.

How to gain experience for your first job

Photo credit: ventiq.com

As a job seeker, I was often frustrated by the catch-22 that you need experience to get a job, but you need a job to get experience. But then I realized that you don’t necessarily need a job to get experience.

So I wrote a guest post on Chelsea Krost’s blog about alternative ways that young job seekers could get the experience they need for their first full-time job:

Top 6 Ways To Gain Experience Before Your First Job (chelseakrost.com)

Special thanks to Chelsea Krost for publishing this post. And I hope that if you’re searching for your first job, this post will help you become a more competitive candidate.

20something profile: Lisa

This post was written by Lisa, a Creative Director for a nonprofit’s community magazine:

May your twenties be messy…

Growing up, I always knew that I was going to go to college. It was never even a question! So, senior year of high school, I applied to one school and headed four hours south to complete my undergraduate in Marketing.

Marketing was also a confident path for me! My major was Marketing when I enrolled at Georgia Southern, and I left having it be exactly that. I was very sure of my presence and education at Southern, but I was never prepared for what I was going to endure once I graduated.

20something profile: Stephanie

This post was written by Stephanie, a graduate in news editorial journalism:

As I am sitting here writing this post for the Twenties Blog, it suddenly hits me that I have been out of college for a year. It is really crazy how quickly time flies. The past year of my post-grad life has been nothing at all like what I thought it would be, but surprisingly, I can say that I am happy and even grateful for that.

I walked across the stage at my alma mater, Oklahoma State University, on May 5, 2012. I graduated with top honors, receiving my degree in news editorial journalism with a minor in English. Ask me then where I saw myself a year later, and I would have confidently told you, “In New York, working as an editorial assistant at a major magazine.”

20something profile: Alexa

This post was written by Alexa, who is pursuing a career in sports communications:

I started researching colleges in middle school. Ever since I was about 12 years old, I knew I wanted to work in communications. It was just something that I was good at and kept me interested. My early researching made making a college decision quite easy.

In the fall of 2009, I enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — the school I had pegged as my dream school since a young age. UNC’s journalism school is consistently ranked as one of the best in the nation. The beautiful campus, excellent athletic programs and lively student body made me fall even more in love with the university.

Intern allegedly worked to death

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Moritz Erhardt, a 21-year-old German intern for Bank of America’s investment banking division in London, was found dead after allegedly working for 72 hours without sleep:

Bank intern’s death spotlights workaholic culture (news.msn.com)

The article describes the grueling workloads that finance interns in London, New York and Singapore go through to procure a coveted, high-paying job in the finance industry.

20something profile: Kayla

This post was written by Kayla, a college student with an interest in the nonprofit field:

I entered college an excited and nervous 18-year-old dance major on the path to become a physical therapist and one day open my own dance studio.  I was beyond excited to start the journey towards the “real world.” Little did I know that my life was about to do a complete 180. Ankle surgery, an internship in D.C., and four majors later, I am now a government major interested in working in the nonprofit field.

This is something I would have never imagined for myself as I entered college, but now, only two years later, it seems like the right fit for me. After deciding to switch out of the dance program, I struggled to figure out my next move. As someone who plans everything, this was a huge shock to the system.

20something profile: Samantha

This post was written by Samantha, who turned to unpaid work to build her experience:

When it comes to entering the job market, you can’t be too picky.

That’s the mistake I made this summer, and I vow to never make it again.

Going into the field of journalism, jobs are particularly scarce when it comes to getting paid to write. So when the summer rolls by, almost everyone in your field of interest is scrolling through the same job postings board and applying for all the things that seem remotely relatable to the degree they are currently working towards.

Are unpaid internships fair?

Black Swan (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This New York Times article discusses how two production interns on the movie Black Swan won a lawsuit against Fox Searchlight Pictures claiming they should have been paid for their work:

Judge Rules That Movie Studio Should Have Been Paying Interns (nytimes.com)

Despite the seeming prestige of working on an Academy Award-winning film, the interns who filed the lawsuit were tasked with menial administrative duties, like getting lunch orders, taking out the trash, and assembling furniture.

I personally have mixed feelings about internships. They could be a great way to break into an industry, make valuable networking connections, and form a bond with a company that could eventually hire you as a paid employee.