Guest Post: Set Up a Personal Brand Home Base

Luck should have nothing to do with your reputation online.

Today's post in Internship Week is actually a guest post. (Oh my!) Today's advice comes from Shep McAllister, a sophomore at Trinity University. If the name sounds familiar, that's probably because you read his previous two contributions The Best iPhone Apps for Students and Dealing with a Car Accident in College. Let's see what he's got to say about putting yourself online for that killer internship you just zeroed-in on.

These days, any employer considering you for a position or internship is likely to Google your name. While there is no overstating the importance of maintaining a clean and respectable online identity on social networks and blogs, it never hurts to have a personal page, an online business card if you will, designed specifically to show your would-be bosses just how tech-savvy you are. You don’t necessarily need to know anything about HTML to set up an online faceplate, as there are many ways of doing this.

Click to read more ...

Choosing the Best Internship

A double soy mocha Frappuccino with a splash of half-and-half, a little whip and heated to exactly 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Learn it well. Photo by flickr user David Boyle licensed under CC BY 2.0

This week is Internship Week at HackCollege. Keep your eyes out for advice on securing a coveted summer internship throughout the week!

For many students, just getting an internship in the first place might be difficult. But that is just not the case for the readers of HackCollege. You guys have business cards, have landing pages and have SEO'd your name to the top of the stack. Hopefully. It still might be difficult to get exactly the internship you want. Don't use the crappy job climate as an excuse; there are plenty of high-quality internships out there. You just might have to look a little bit harder. This post will be about identifying the summer internship that you will be the most beneficial to you.

Click to read more ...

This Week's Best Discuss Campus Questions - February 12, 2010

We're adding two new reward to the Discuss Campus Race to 5,000. Here they are, sitting on my bed. Don't worry, my bed's clean.

I don't know if you've seen, but Discuss Campus is explodifying. Maybe it's because we've decided to giveaway a Dell Mini 10 to the first user to reach 5,000 reputation points? Or maybe it's just because the site is a great place to get some answers for your student-related questions?

So that got us to thinking, why don't we give away more stuff? As of today, we're going to start a running list of stuff to win on Discuss Campus. I'm adding two things to the list this afternoon: an Onyx Boox 60 eReader and a 2 Gb Intel Spacesuit Thumbdrive Dude. The eReader goes to the first person to reach 2,500 reputation points and the thumbdrive goes to the first person to reach 500 reputation points. But we can't have one person winning all of the prizes, so once you reach a threshold you can choose to accept the prize or keep going. For now, you can only collect one reward from Discuss Campus. We want to encourage everyone to participate fully, not just one person.

Here are this week's best questions:

Ways to avoid activists on-campus?

You are walking to class on a beautiful day. The sun is shining, birds are singing, freshmen are wandering around lost... Then you see them. The activist with his/her clipboard waiting at the bottleneck in the path to get you to sign or donate or listen about saving whatsits or legalizing something or accepting someone...

I mean, activism is great. Young people need to care about something and the dedication these people have is truly admirable. However, when I'm headed to class or anywhere, I don't like being stopped to be forced to sign something. Sometimes signing your name can be a whole lot more dangerous than saving the whales.

What are good ways to get away from these people?

How can I stay awake during lectures?

Do you guys have any tips on staying awake during long, boring lectures?

What qualities make a good RA?

So my roomie decided to move into a sorority house, so I'm floating in the uncertainty of where to live next year. Having lived and worked in the residence halls for two years, I think becoming a resident advisor is my best option for my 4th (and final) year of school.

For the people on this site who either a.) lived on campus with an RA or b.) worked as an RA, what qualities are vital to be a successful RA?

Got an answer? Head on over to Discuss Campus and post it!

Next Week is Internship Week at HackCollege

I would hate to brag too much, but last summer my team for blip.tv won the Gawker media startup beer pong tournament. We edged out the long-standing champions, College Humor, one night on a rooftop high above New York City. Photo by blip.tv founder and awesome sysops baller, Jared Klett.

Hello! It's been a slow week or two because of the plague. Okay, I had the flu and the rest of us were busy. We're getting back on the horse with our annual Internship Week. Isn't it like so far away before summer? you ask. Correct you are. But if you want an internship this summer, you've got to start working now.

We are not the only ones out there that cover the topic of summer internships. There are others out there, like Lauren Berger (the Intern Queen), that dedicate far more resources to the topic of summer internships. I think there are two areas of getting an internship: the boilerplate stuff and those things that will set you apart. We will be covering the more unconventional stuff in getting an internship, but you still shouldn't get yourself involved without a clue. We like to think of ourselves as pretty well-versed in the subject and have had some kickass internships in our day. Lesinski and I interned for the Internet TV company Revision3 during the summer of 2008. Last summer, I interned for blip.tv. These internships were our first choices and both are awesome companies to work for.

So tune in next week to have HackCollege help you zero in on your summer employment plans and hopefully help you make a few bucks, too.

From the Vault: 5 Ways to Live Life Like an Improv Game

While getting our ducks in line for next week's content, I ran across one of my favorite posts in the HackCollege vault. I've gone on record at LMU saying that joining the improv team was one of the best things I've done at college. Participating on a good improv team in college will teach you more than any class.

One of my favorite principles is the "yes-and." You don't have to go Yes Man on your life, but don't negate so much:

One of the most important rules in improv is to rarely negate, or negate someone with good reason. Saying "no" to an offer can stop a scene in its tracks. What do you mean you don't want to board this alien spaceship with me? What else are we going to do?

Obviously, Yes-and-ing all the time will get you in trouble. You don't want to be taking out the trashand doing the dishes, do you? It's the mentality that counts: when you're doing something, do it well. Do something extra that's unexpected. Go the extra mile. Invent a new colloquialism.

You like that? Check out the full post!

5 Ways to Live Life Like an Improv Game [HackCollege]

How about you? Do you improvise? Have a good weekend!

Taking Notes in Class By Hand or By Keyboard

Earlier in the week, Lifehacker highlighted a post at Carolyn Blogs titled "My Classmates Are Taking Their Notes Digitally, But I Can’t Fathom How They Keep Up." That's me, too... my preferred OS is a pad of paper and a pen. 

But the debate ensued at Lifehacker and they posted some highlights, today. 

So, how about we settle it once and for all?-- with a comprehensive comparison of by-hand and by-keyboard notetaking tactics. I've scoured the Lifehacker post, the web and my own (amazing) brain. I'll tally the official pros and cons of each, and keep the list right here. Leave your additions in the comments. 

Advantages of Keyboarding

• Faster (with practice)
• Easy erasure and/or re-ordering
• Standardized/legible
• Easy to share/collaborate
• Searchable
• Accessible remotely
• Unlimited space
• Easy to back-up
• Potential to copy/paste into assignments and papers
• Has a built-in reference materials
• Can include real images

Advantages of Using Your Hands 

• Easily create diagrams/visuals
• Faster with special symbols
• Cheap
• Helps you retain information
• Unlimited battery life
• Easy on the eyes
• Less bothersome noise
• Potentially more portable
• No online poker (and other distractions)

Advantages of Using a Tablet

[we're not even going to go there!]

Let's not forget that both can give you carpal tunnel syndrome. Maybe the best option is to not take notes at all...

Don't You Wish You Went to Kansas State?

While reading Michael Wesch's blog this morning (the bomb professor who made the "A Vision of Students Today" video), he talked about the K-State Proud in a post. Some students at Kansas State documented their "Flash Mob of Kindness" in video form and Dr. Wesch shared it on his blog. The video is a good example of what a few hundred bucks, some good ideas and a little bit of free time can result in. Take a look:

The Kansas State Proud is an organization that's raised over $250,000 from students for other struggling students. (That is nuts!) I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this organization in the future.

What did you think of the video? Let us know in the comments!

TVGorge Streams TV to International Students

Image: TVGorge.comThis one is just for our international readers because as students in America, Hulu has spoiled us with it's free on-demand television shows. Students outside of the United States don't have that luxury. TVGorge wants to help you out by showing the shows that stream on Hulu and other sites anywhere in the world.

Yes, this is an epic win for those of us who don't live in the U.S. of A. but, there are still benefits for American students also. The site offers shows from networks that might not be on your school's cable plan. For instance, there's Dexter which airs on Showtime and Entourage which is on HBO. Both are from premium channels and you can watch all of the episodes each has ever aired, anywhere on the planet.

You are probably wondering how they do this. Well, they do it by "searching and indexing streaming TV sites around the globe". I don't really know what that means, but whatever it is, it's awesome!

Are you excited for TVGorge? Comment below to share!