MyLifeMyCareer.com

I'm taking a break. I will see you in 07'. If you want to take in a little history about Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, then check that out. Safe Travel, Good Food, Solid Times, and Relaxation to all [dropping the mic, walking away in slow motion].

The holiday season especially emphasizes giving...and the importance of the package handling and logistics business of UPS. One of the most recognized international businesses, and one that is growing in new directions. Not only do they ship packages, they are logistics consultants providing solutions for all different sizes of business managing manufacturing materials, inventory, and all of that other stuff. The 'just in time' manufacturing method depends on parts arriving no more than a few days before they are needed, and if they are late or early this untimeliness could cause big problems. This is a model of any business today that produces or stocks a product. UPS also provides positions for engineers, pilots, drivers, and all the usual business positions. If you're in college, they will help pay for school and provide work shifts around your classes, one of the best employers outside of campus position providers. Check out their career page.

Google acquired YouTube not too long ago for a ridiculous chunk of change. Google is an advertising company and Youtube is a "broadcast you" video sharing and community site. Why pay so much when you already have your own video sharing site? Google is going to somehow place ads in videos on YouTube. Who knows how they will do it: before the video plays, a small banner below the video, some kind of embedded text, or something crazy that we don't even know about. Maybe they will be editing the videos and adding cleverly placed products in videos of sleeping cats. So, what does this have to do with you, the college student, looking for a career path after college. If you are going into marketing, advertising, sales, art, design, etc, then you will have many new types of positions available to you. "search engine placement manager", "google adword optimizer", "youtube clever product placement-er" (that last one isn't real...yet). These sound slightly technical, but they really aren't. The advertising aspect is still there, it is just shorter, more targeted, and more efficient and it is presented in a new medium. Get ready to change from year to year with the rise and fall of new technology and trends. That cat almost fell asleep standing up.

I haven't used CB in a serious manner since I became employed, but the other day I checked it out for about 30 minutes to see if the filtering and searching had improved. They have a new interface, and from what I could tell there were not as many blatant work at home scams posted. I will elaborate more on this at a later time and maybe even put together a searching tutorial to find the jobs aimed at college students, but for now the basic findings. Do not search for just entry level positions in your desired industry. There were way too many jobs that were not what I would call quality opportunities, and then there were some that a candidate with a HS degree could apply for. Here and there in between these types of jobs you will find your quality jobs offered by average to solid companies. The best way to find them is to search for a specific position, like "financial analyst" or "consultant". The more specific you are, the greater your chances are of getting less results with more potential rather than a crapload of crap with very little potential. And then you have the hundreds or thousands of other students who actually took the time to find the same jobs that you will be competing with on a nationwide basis. Either way, I still had to search for a long time to find several positions that I might have been interested in a year ago. I will take a more detailed look at CB.com and CBcampus.com as well as the other sites, and will get an updated guide posted by the end of your winter breaks, so that if you choose to use these sites you won't waste too much time. I still like your odds using your campus career site and resources. Less competition, targeted jobs for college students, on-campus recruiting, and way less hours spent searching for jobs.

Who wouldn't want a BMW? Every college student dreams of one day owning a luxury automobile, or at least something else that is nice and rather valuable. There are great career opportunities with auto companies, and the auto company that is becoming known for investing in graduates and young professionals is BMW. Their "Drive." program is a learning/rotational program that I don't remember being around even a year or two ago. I was looking at them for internships two years ago when I was a junior. It looks like it would be a good chance to learn the business process, work for a solid company, and build a great foundation for your career. They have some other opportunities as well, like a research thesis project that you work on with specialists at BMW. Definitely worth a look for all types of positions.

With the hype and long lines of consumers that come with every video game system release, I can guarantee that there are many opportunities for college students to work for different type of interactive media companies. You know the big companies like Microsoft (XBOX 360), Sony (PS3 and PSP), and Nintendo (Wii & DS). These are very popular, and you will have much greater competition getting into. Go small, and work your way up. Everyone goes for the big names or bust, and then when they don't get picked out of the thousands of applicants they complain why they can't find a job. You on the other hand will be working your way into the industry as a fresh out of college, very little professional experience, but ready to learn employee. Look into entertainment software companies first and foremost. You know when you fire up a game and you see the logos as the game is loading. Take note of them and look them up online to see what kind of careers they have. Another popular route to take more than ever is cell phone media and gaming companies. You know, those companies that provide ringtones, videos, and gaming. This segment of the market is very hot right now, and many smaller companies are around. These companies are not just for programmers or video game players. Again, they need all of the standard business positions such as accountants, sales people, and marketing associates. They also need many artists, both for in-game art and printed materials, logos, etc. The lessons here that can be applied to any other industry or company: think smaller companies with less competition among applicants. Also, remember that just because a company is in an industry unrelated to your major, they still have many business type positions. Just because you are applying with a slinky company doesn't mean you will be winding up plastic and dropping it down the test stairs. You could be designing new ads, balancing budgets, or managing business sectors. Horrible example, I know.

Unless you're a lady, then invest in business suits and nice blouses and [insert other classy articles of female clothing because this is all I know]. I have seen guys walking in to interview with companies wearing dress pants and button down shirts which may be fine for some companies. Too bad their interviewers were in full suits aka rocking the business professional. When you are not dressed up at the same level of the interviewer, points have just fallen off your side of the scoreboard. It's always good to at least wear a tie. Dress to impress as the interviewer's perception of you is decided in the first few seconds after they see you. From there on out, your responses and personality can either weaken or strengthen their initial decision of if you may be a good fit for their company. Don't dig a hole to climb out of before you even begin the interview which is going to be awkward enough for you. Plus, walking around campus in your finest garments will no doubt result in some wandering eyes becoming strangely attracted to your aura.

Are you kidding me? This screams SCAM! Any site that charges you for their "job placement" services is crap. This scam has been around since 1996 accoding to an article from the FTC. Do not pay for someone to place you into a position after college. They will make some bogus guarantee that you will be placed by such and such a date with a baller company. Oh really, well here, take my one-time fee of $99 and run with it. Thanks! Look at the biggest job posting sites on the internet and tell me what you see. Oh yea, you can post your resume as many times as you want for as many positions as you want for free. You all know how I feel about the actual results you will see from using these sites, though. As the growth of the internet increases, our level of laziness also increases. Some of you will get a job through little work online, but the majority of you will have to work quite a bit off-line and use several different resources to land good offers. And I can tell you who will be happier 6 months into that new position with the company you choose.