I found a great tool for any college student looking to negotiate the salary of their first job.  Indeed is a site that strives to be a "One stop shop" for job seekers.  It includes job trends, average salaries (city specific), and jobs that have been posted by employers.  It’s definitely worth a peek if [...]

I’m giving a presentation this week about how social networks (Facebook/MySpace/LinkedIn) are changing the job search process for college students.  I’ve got some great responses from LinkedIn and would love to hear many more opinions.  Here’s some thoughts so far: Two groups will be affected- prospective employees and prospective employers.  It is going to change [...]

Normally I’m the one looking to older people for advice.  When the tables were turned and the students were asking me questions, a few thoughts became much more clear in my head: Be Unique – All the students were given business cards made from the same template in black and white.  All it took was [...]

Last week I had the pleasure of volunteering at Business Horizons.  I got the chance to sit down with about 30 students and give some insight on the professional/college world. Business Horizons is a truly amazing program that is hosted by Wade Den Hartog and ABI.   Over 100 high school students around Iowa got together [...]

How important can the Common Point of Interest (CPI) be?  How about the basis for an entire relationship? Today I asked a co-worker of mine if I could have 30 minutes of her time to learn more about what she does, her experiences, etc.  And whenever I meet someone new, I always like to start [...]

I love coffee shops for a few reasons: One, it gets me away from my dirty apartment.  Two, I can easily entertain myself by people watching. And three, you never know who you’ll meet… Like tonight.  Recently, I’ve noticed an influx of Independent Business Owners…. A.K.A. People in the cult of Quixtar. I first was [...]

So Ryan tagged me with my first meme to share 8 random facts about myself… So here goes: Sometimes I think I suffer from ADHD.  I’ll never find out for sure…  Just my theory. I spent a semester studying in New Zealand and caught the travel bug.  Now I’m planning on graduating early and go [...]

Being a college student puts us at a significant disadvantage to young professionals.  What separates us is experience. Experience in the work place and, more generally, experience living in the real world.  But, as Napoleon Hill said, "Every adversity comes with it the seed of an equivalent advantage." So why is being a college student [...]

One thing I’ve yet to mention is my life as an intern.  This summer I’m interning at Principal Financial.  It’s a great internship, one of the top 100 companies to work for, and I’m learning a lot.  But one thing I’ve noticed (somewhat depressing) is the lack of drive some people have. You know who [...]

July has been an extremely busy month.  In the last two weeks I’ve been to St. Louis, Omaha, and have been playing catch up.  My apologies if I’ve been late on e-mails, posting, or any other forms of communication.  But I’ve finally caught up (kind of).  And will be back on here a lot more.