DISTANCE LEARNING | CONTINUING EDUCATION | ONLINE DEGREES

More people are getting college degrees than ever, and those degrees don’t always guarantee that graduates are worth their weight in wood chips, much less their weight in gold. For example, that idiot who sat next to you in Math 110 playing World of Warcraft got a diploma, too. He will get hired somewhere, show his new boss what a useless lump he is, and get fired. His boss will resolve never to hire someone just because of their degree. He will look for something more than just a fancy piece of paper from a fancy school. He will be looking for real skills, experience, and accomplishments.

The best way to get those skills, experience, and accomplishments is internships. Unlike the insulated assignments and exams of academia, internships give students a chance to strut their stuff in the real world. During internships, students can network with knowledgeable business leaders, pick up new skills, make tangible contributions, and refine their career goals. As an added bonus, internships can also involve making new friends and going new places. Graduates with internships under their belts are far beyond their peers when it comes time to find their first job.

Finding a great internship is much like finding a great job except that the application and screening processes are much less rigorous. Check out the following tips to help you nail the right internship and give your career a turbo-boost:

1. Start early. The early bird catches the worm, and the early student catches the internship they want. After all, you won’t be the only student smart enough to seek out an internship. If you wait too long, all the good ones will be taken and you’ll find yourself selling nightcrawlers at Jed’s Fine World of Fishing theme park.

It’s never too early to start contacting recruiters. The more contact you have with them, the more they will remember you. Email them with questions (good questions only). Send them notes to thank them for their help. Stay on their radar.

The web also offers some great internship-hunting resources. Vault.com, in particular, has one of the best internship databases I’ve seen. Among other things, they provide detailed internship descriptions and recruiter contact info. Check them out at Vault.com.

2. Get the most bang for your buck. Naturally, you want to find the internship that will give you the most leverage after graduation. Assuming that you know what you want to do after graduation, you should find an internship that has as much in common with your goal as possible.

For instance, if you plan to work as a fashion journalist, seek out an internship in the fashion industry. If you can find one with a fashion publication, even better. Another way to maximize the value of your internship is to find one with a well-known company. Future employers will be looking at the companies you’ve worked for and the positions you’ve held. The closer you get to what they’re looking for, the better off you will be.

3. Treat career fairs like an interview. Some students just wander into career fairs oblivious to what is really happening. They’re dressed like bums. Bits of their lunch is still hanging from their lip. They walk up to recruiters and mumble something like "So, like, what is all this stuff?" The recruiter shoves a pamphlet into their hands and moves quickly on to the next person.

Recruiters at job fairs are looking to fill internships and much of their evaluation of you is done on the spot. They will be assessing your attire, your mannerisms, your poise, and your questions. Therefore, you should prepare for career fairs as if you were going to an interview. Research the companies you are interested in. Think of insightful questions beforehand. Bring several polished copies of your resume. Dress in appropriate attire. Brush your teeth. Fix your hair. You know, all that ‘clean, respectable appearance’ stuff.

4. Be willing to bend. I’m not recommending that your compromise your ethics in any way. I am, however, suggesting that you show a certain degree of humility as a lowly intern. If they tell you there might be some travel required, don’t tell them you hate flying and would rather not. Instead, take up the challenge to do something that might be difficult. If they want you to rearrange their files, take up the challenge and show them how quick and effective you can be.

To be an intern is to take on the lowliest tasks. Do them with efficiency and a positive attitude and they may move you on to worthier tasks. By the time you finish, you will have a slew of accomplishments to list on your resume. If you constantly turn down opportunities to prove your usefulness, you will find yourself being ushered out the front door prematurely.

So go get ‘em! Internships can be a lot of fun and definitely worthwhile. Good luck in your internship search.

From time to time, we’re all faced with investment decisions. We can put our time and money into school, real estate, a new car, stocks, and the list goes on. What about multi-level marketing opportunities? Are they a good investment?

Let’s say you sit down with your good friend, who has promised to show you a very important video. Up on the TV screen pops Joe Schmoe. He was stuck at a dead-end job, up to his neck in debt, about to be divorced by his wife, yada yada yada. He put his meager savings into becoming a distributor and KAPOWEE! Five years later, Joe doesn’t have to lift a finger. His wife adores him. He just helps his kids with their homework and cruises around in his sailboat all day. All the while, the checks roll in from his downlines. All this by selling a product that will cure any ailment known to man and bring world peace. And he couldn’t have done it without (insert product name here). Cue heart-stirring music and fade out…

Doesn’t that sound great? Wouldn’t you like to be a high-roller like Joe and have all your debt paid off and just have fun for the rest of you life? Sure. If we could make as much money as Joe, any of us would put down the couple hundred bucks right there. I mean, sailboat, free-flowing checks, helping mankind, all good things. So, what’s wrong with MLMs? While many MLM distributors do reach this goal, the unfortunate truth is that the vast majority of MLM distributors, those at the bottom of the downline, end up in worse financial shape when all is said and done. By its very nature, MLMs cannot provide a win-win for everyone and therein is their fundamental flaw.

Fewer than 1 percent of all MLM distributors turn a profit. Fewer still are able to make a sustainable living off of their MLM alone. So, that story you just heard about Joe? It only goes for that small handful of distributors at the top of vast networks. It means that beneath Joe on the MLM food chain someone is not getting paid what they deserve for their efforts. They come into the chain, they fail to sell enough or sign up enough of their friends, and they cycle out. The money they paid to get started goes to Joe’s sailboat. Kind of makes you despise Joe, doesn’t it?

All the while, Joe keeps telling his downlines the same velvet lies about achieving the American dream, getting rich quick, and living large.

So, if you are looking to invest your time and money in a better future, the odds are against you with MLMs. Your odds are better in Vegas or the lottery. Your odds are better still in real estate or mutual funds. Your odds are great with education, where degrees of higher learning can significantly increase your earnings for the rest of your career. Education, real estate, and mutual funds require more patience and discipline, of course. But, historically and statistically, the returns are virtually guaranteed. MLMs can’t and won’t guarantee that.

No one is announcing it formally, but a recession is on its way, if it is not here already. Recession means the job market is going to get a lot tighter. What does this mean for working professionals and upcoming college grads alike? Does this mean the job market and the workplace will become a virtual American Gladiators arena where the weak and uncommitted are run asunder by the powerful and ambitious? Not quite. But it is time to bring your A-game and be prepared for the worst.

Your game plan should be two-pronged: make yourself as invincible as possible and create a safety net. The coming job market will be handling an overwhelming surplus of applicants. With company belts tightening, employers will be looking for the absolute most bang for their buck. Taken together, this means employers will pick and choose between candidates with the highest level of scrutiny. Only those who can offer real value to the company will survive the sifting process. Those with weak credentials or performance may soon find themselves in the unemployment line. Also, of course, nothing is guaranteed in markets like these, even for the most deserving. Take steps to prepare for the possibility of unemployment.

The following four tips will help you survive the coming recession with your shirt on. Put your best foot forward and watch your back, and you will live to fight another day. You might even find yourself riding higher than ever:

1. Make yourself indispensable.

Think about it: Who gets laid off in a recession? The love handles of the organization, the excess weight, the folks that are not essential to the company’s future. Your focus, therefore, should be on getting your name into that pool of people who are indispensable to the organization, those who are the heart, brain, or lungs of the company.

How do you accomplish this? If you are an upcoming college grad, you should be focusing on obtaining skills and experience that will say to recruiters that you will be a strong contributor to their company. First you want to be clearly superior to your job-hunting peers. You might work on gaining relevant certificates or taking on internships. You should be going above and beyond the crowd in participating in relevant extracurricular activities, like business competitions or field studies. Second, you want that superiority to translate clearly to value added for the company. Show in your resume and interviews how these skills and experience will equal success for their company. The candidate who can bring the most to the table and plainly show how they will benefit the company will win the job.

If you are a working professional, you also can obtain relevant degrees or certificates on the side. Most of your advantage will be found, however, in embedding yourself into the most vital functions of the business. Take on the most important projects and knock the ball out of the ballpark. Volunteer to be a part of new, important initiatives. Make yourself absolutely crucial to their plans. When they are considering who to let go, they will tremble at the thought of losing you. Maybe Joe in the next cubicle over, but certainly not you.

2. Mine your network.

Most people wait until they’ve been handed their walking papers to start calling friends and family looking for jobs. Obviously, that is too late. Networking now is one of the best things you can do to ensure that you have a job later for a couple reasons. During a recession, employers are inundated with job applications and resumes. Going through friends and family allows you to cut through all of that clutter and get straight to the decision-makers. It also gives you that extra boost over most of your competitors.

If you are getting ready to graduate, get on the phone with Uncle Charlie and Grandma Joyce and you will find yourself leaps and bounds beyond most of your peers, most of whom are likely pouring resumes into Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com which will be destined for that black hole where internet resumes go. If you are catching negative vibes at work, start mining your friends now. Having another job to fall back on is always a good thing. And who knows? You may actually network yourself into an even better job.

3. Cut down your debt.

The people who fare the worst during recessions are those who have procrastinated resolving their financial problems. In the event that you lost your income, nothing would put the nail in the coffin faster than exorbitant credit card payments. No, the Piper does not take a break during a recession; he mails you, calls you, takes your boat, car, big screen TV, house, and the shirt off your back if he has to. He will get paid. That’s why it’s best to minimize, or eliminate altogether, your relationship with the Piper before you find yourself empty-handed.

Begin now to say no to additional credit card spending and yes to putting as much money as you can into reducing your consumer debt. Learn to live lean. Once you’ve lost your job, it’s too late to decide to get those bills under control. Do yourself a huge favor and start now. Maybe you’ll keep your job. Maybe you’ll end up make more than you did before. But you will never regret take this step toward financial freedom.

4. Put some money away.

Experts recommend having three- to six-months worth of income set aside for a rainy day. I know, in this day and age of wild consumer spending, this advice sounds like it came straight from your great-aunt Dolores. I mean, how can you possibly set aside that much money? Most of us are lucky if we have anything in our savings accounts. But let’s be realistic here: an average severance package is around two-weeks pay. It takes more than two weeks to find, start, and get paid for a new job. The bills won’t stop coming in. What choice do we have but to put some amount of money away, at least enough to pay the bills for a few weeks?

Saving money sounds old-fashionable now. But it won’t when you don’t have to worry about Bruno the Repo Man showing up in the middle of the night to take your BMW. In fact, Great-Aunt Dolores is sounding better and better.

You’re probably realizing by now that the key to surviving a recession is to get ahead of the curve. Six months from now, authorities will announce that the recession is official. Everyone else will be going bonkers. But not you, my friend. If you’ve heeded my advice, you will be resting easy.

About the author

Marcus Varner earned his BA in English from Brigham Young University with a Creative Writing emphasis. He is currently in his second year at BYU’s lauded MBA program studying Marketing. He blogs, writes fiction and screenplays, loves movies, and can’t resist playing superheroes with his kids.

After the initial novelty of starting new classes, meeting new professors and friends, finding your new classrooms, and buying ridiculously overpriced textbooks, things start to slow down. Sometimes, usually during a really boring afternoon lecture, things can seem to stop completely. The professor’s voice melts into the din of the air conditioner. Eyes glaze over. Heads nod. Mouths trail drool across notebooks.

This kind of boredom can be hazardous to your education. It can become a self-perpetuating spiral of boredom, disinterest, and poor performance. Subjects that you otherwise would have mastered become a black mark on your academic record.

Don’t let this happen to you! Beat boredom in the classroom before it ruins your life. Take a moment to resuscitate your mental faculties with some fun and games. Your career is depending on it!

Following are five fun games you can play under the radar during lecture, in addition to the host of online games available. Some are old school, some high tech. All are guaranteed to break the boredom cycle and renew your love of learning without getting caught by the professor:

1. Stick Man Kung Fu Battle

Anyone can draw a stick man. To launch a fight sequence worthy of Jet Li, both people start with a simple stick figure each. They then take turns striking at the other person. Weapons and armor can be added, but adding a piece of armor or weaponry takes up a turn. Each stickman is as immortal as imagination allows- you know, using force fields, regrowing severed limbs, etc. The action can literally continue indefinitely, certainly for an hour of class time.

Be careful of a few things. Keep your sound effects and soundtrack to a minimum. Also, do not get so excited that you exclaim out loud or otherwise alert the professor to your activities. If you have to trashtalk, just write it down. Keep it on the down low, and let the smackdown continue.

2. Cell Phone Shame

Any college student knows that cell phones have become public enemy number of self-important college professors everywhere. One’s ring tone going off in the middle of lecture first brings a raised eyebrow of contempt from the professor. A second ring can halt the lecture altogether. A third may bring a verbal rebuke from the professor and a permanent place on his naughty list. Students, however, can capitalize on this new social faux pas.

To get the action started, call an unsuspecting friend across the room. If she has forgotten to turn off her ringer, her phone will chirp loudly, incurring the disgusted glare of the professor. She will quickly deactivate the ringer and shoot you a dirty look. Continue this attack on every student across the room until every face is red with embarrassment and the professor has completely lost his composure. Be careful, however; if you are discovered, the professor will most certainly make an example of you.

3. Passing Notes

Old-fashioned? Yes. Out of style? Never. Of course, you can opt for a simple scrap of paper or just use text or instant messenger. You can trashtalk, make fun of people in the room, ask people if they think your friend is cute, ask them what their favorite My Little Pony is, ask them who their favorite New Kid on the Block is, etc.

4. Capture (aka Boxes or Dots)

For the more strategy-minded people out there, this game is a classic. Best of all, you can play it with a simple pen and paper. Just draw a grid of dots- the more, the better. The players take turns drawing a line between two adjacent dots with the goal of creating squares. Every time they complete a square, the player marks that square with their initials. The player with the most squares finished at the end is the winner.

5. Laser Pointer

Hazardous schmazardous! Those little ruby-red dots are guaranteed to generate laughs. Moving the dot around on people tends to be funny, especially when they can’t see it. Especially brave souls may want to try pointing at the professor or at the screen when his back is turned. Getting your friends in the eyes can be funny, but not for a prolonged period of time. Warning: do not point the laser in the eyes of people who are not your friends. That could get you beat up. Getting beat up is not fun. Another warning: do not point the laser in people’s eyes during a lecture on optical health.

What good is learning if you’re not having fun? Take some time to wake up and have a laugh. Then get back to work and remember, you didn’t hear it from me.

About the author

Marcus Varner earned his BA in English from Brigham Young University with a Creative Writing emphasis. He is currently in his second year at BYU’s lauded MBA program studying Marketing. He blogs, writes fiction and screenplays, loves movies, and can’t resist playing superheroes with his kids.