Sleep: whether you’ve gotten thirty minutes or a full eight hours, it’s never enough. And no matter how many grande lattes you down, caffeine just can’t substitute for the real thing.

This week we’re discussing the necessity of a good-night’s rest, and what you can do to mange your hectic schedule while also ensuring quality sleep every night. While it might seem unrelated to our continuous career search and young-professional struggles, sleep is one of the most crucial factors in maintaining a healthy, balanced lifestyle.

We all know that more, better-quality sleep boosts energy, efficiency and a few other powerful terms that start with the letter “e,” but most of us are unaware of the intricate details that make sleep so powerful. Later this week, we’ll review the sleep cycle and give you clues about what might be disturbing your sleep – we’re hoping you’ll be as surprised as we were.

Stay tuned for a run-down on the elusive, albeit useful, science of sleep. What do you think are the main factors in staying well rested?

Most young professionals know what it takes to make a positive first impression on a potential employer. However, many people don’t realize that networking skills reach far beyond verbal and written communication. Body language is a significant, yet often overlooked way to show people what type of person – or employee – you’ll be.

So, how can you make sure your gestures say the right things? While there are a number of helpful tips available, the first and arguably most essential piece of advice is as follows:

Always be aware of yourself, inside and out. Maintaining a calm, composed exterior will convince other people that you’re self-confident and worthy.

So, what does your body language say about you? Here are a few possibilities:

1. Eye Contact: When you first meet someone, it’s important to strike a careful balance between “nervous darting eyes” and “creepy staring” (both clinical terms). Maintaining direct, unfleeting eye contact while someone is speaking to you, or while you’re answering a question, is simple to achieve and conveys that you’re self-assured and truly believe what you’re saying.

2. Avoid Fidgeting: Playing with your hair, biting your nails or tugging at your clothing are gestures that all convey nervousness and low self-esteem. If you’re constantly adjusting yourself, your discomfort will become immediately clear to a potential employer. In order to avoid this, make sure you feel good about what you’re wearing before you leave for an interview.

3. Smiling: Facial expressions are the best way to convey your mood to a new acquaintance, whether it be a friend or a potential employer. Smiling when appropriate can be a great way to show confidence and comfort in social situations.

What body-language tips have you picked up over the years?

This week, we’re discussing the benefits of getting a seasonal job – particularly one specific to winter break, cold weather and the always-anticipated holiday season.

When college students gear up for winter break, work isn’t generally a top priority. But overlooked winter internships are a hidden goldmine for young professionals looking to gain job experience in a narrow time frame. Many companies, from large retailers to small firms nationwide, offer month-long internship programs. While these opportunities might not give participants the same experience or “real-world feel” as a semester or summer internship, they certainly provide the connections and resume-boost necessary for that elusive competitive edge we’re all looking to gain.

If earning money is also at the top of your holiday-season to-do list, you may also want to consider a seasonal job in retail or food service. While these positions can be less glamorous than an internship, working part-time can be very lucrative this time of year. Considering most internships don’t pay – especially those lasting less than a month – seeking out an additional form of paid employment may provide extra spending money and valuable experience.

This week, Forbes released an article detailing the holiday job-search process. We think it’s a great resource for you to learn more about your seasonal options!

As a generation that grew up with Myspace and Facebook, young professionals are innately in-tune with the social media world. However, newer outlets like Twitter, LinkedIn and FourSquare might seem less natural to many twenty-somethings looking to maximize their online visibility.

Let’s face it – these new social media profiles have faced tremendous criticism not because they’re not useful, but because we don’t know how to use them. We’re scared, and that’s really okay, because similar to the outrage we experience whenever Mark Zuckerberg changes the Facebook news feed, we’ll soon adopt to the new technology before our eyes (rather, our computer screens).

This week, we’re focusing on social media as a form of networking, visibility and self-expression. Each of these factors are easily achievable, and we want to help you achieve your full online potential. Who knows – you could even get a job out of it!

Which social media outlets do you use? Some more frequently than others? Do explain, we’d love to hear it.

As we graduate from college and begin forging a career path, we do everything possible to give us a competitive edge. Whether you’re applying to grad school or an entry-level PR job, your character, experience, and background are being measured against those of thousands of people who, to put it bluntly, are identical to you on paper. For the most part, we all have college degrees, we’ve all had internships, and we can all write a decent cover letter given enough time and effort.

So, what defines us to potential employers? In some cases, it’s a stellar interview, in others it’s having the right connections. But given the increasing amount of technology at their disposal, employers are paying closer and closer attention to our online presence – not only what we make available ourselves, but what others say about us as well.

For certain industries, namely communications, having a strong web presence can be an incredibly positive tool. Giving potential employers the links to your blog, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts can give them insight into your writing abilities, personality, and goals – really, it’s anything that would be difficult to communicate during a 20-minute formal interview. However, it’s also necessary to monitor your web presence as a whole, instead of the parts you’ve “okay-ed” for professional purposes.

So, how can you start making sure your online reputation stays protected? Keeping your Facebook and non-professional social media accounts private is a start, but by no means the end-all-be-all of web security. If a Google search for your name yields some unbecoming results, like drunken photos or news articles detailing your recent arrest, you have a few options:

1.Request that the host removes the content, depending on what it is. If it’s something on Facebook, chances are you can either block it from appearing or have the original poster delete whatever it is.

2.Flood your name with other, positive results by creating more social media profiles – like a personal form of SEO.

3.If it’s something very serious that you wouldn’t want to get caught hiding from a potential employer, you really have no choice but to be upfront with it. If you’ve built enough credibility in your field over the years, a minor blip is one thing, but it’s usually risky to hide information about yourself from your first employer.

Have you ever experienced an issue with your online presence? Do you think it’s an important issue facing today’s job market?

This week, we’ve been granted the awesome opportunity to write a guest blog post for one of our members. OVIA, a video-interviewing service, asked us to write about talent acquisition as it stands in our current economic climate. Here’s what we came up with.

Networking 2.0: A Fresh Perspective

Make sure to let us know your thoughts!

Young professionals have yet another reason to watch what they’re putting on the internet.

As I’m sure many of you heard, Duke University is facing another sex scandal, except this time, the tables have turned from the hands of the school’s infamous lacrosse team. Karen Owen, a recent Duke graduate, recently crafted a mock senior thesis in the form of a 40-some-page PowerPoint. The presentation chronicled, in detail, 13 of the Duke athletes she slept with during her time as an undergrad, complete with full names, pictures, and accounts of anything from absurd intoxication levels to public trysts.

Owen’s presentation, which she intended to show only a few friends, has understandably gone viral. As a recent graduate searching for jobs like the rest of us, Owen’s name is now notoriously visible. She’s simultaneously facing lawsuits and being approached by big-name publishers, and she’s been called anything from a hero to a complete fool.

This week, we’re drawing from Owen’s unfortunate unfolding as a bridge into a greater topic – online privacy. While we’ve touched on Facebook before, there’s much more to protecting your self-image, as we’ve clearly seen in this case.

Stay tuned for an in-depth exploration of putting your name out there without the backlash.

Okay, so let’s talk about The Social Network. Critics and common filmgoers are calling it brilliant – the film of our generation – and as David Fincher’s most ambitious foray since turning Brad Pitt into an 80-year-old infant, I can genuinely say it lives up to the hype.

But once the awesomely dramatized two-hour expose came to a close, I couldn’t help but wonder if my parents, or anyone over the age of 35 for that matter, would share my awe-struck reaction. I was sure they’d appreciate its relevance and cinematic value and things like the top-notch acting and cinematography, but I knew my age alone gave me an very specific emotional connection to the film for more than a few reasons:

1. Much like the cast of The OC, we grew up with Facebook, and it grew up with us. We remember when it started, when we finally admitted its superiority to MySpace, and of course, when it became available to high schoolers nationwide – a hot-button issue to this day. There’s a reason everyone in their early twenties claims to be the “first person at their high school on Facebook,” because whether you were number one or forty-five, we all feel we had something to do with making Facebook what it is today.
2. We’re obsessed, plain and simple. It doesn’t matter if you changed your Safari homepage to nytimes.com to feel “more informed,” because in truth, you’re probably bypassing world news in favor of the wall posts and photo tags that comprise your current events.
3. Mark Zuckerberg isn’t Bill Gates just yet. He’s the world’s youngest billionaire, and he launched Facebook (thefacebook.com at that point) from his Harvard dorm room – pretty small beginnings. While Zuckerberg’s degree of accomplishment is a lofty goal at best, his humble start offers a certain attainability that young professionals relate to very easily. We’re not all trying to become 22-year-old CEOs, but you have to admit, it’s inspiring stuff.

That last point begs some elaboration, and brings me to a point I’d like to emphasize. Becoming an entrepreneur, whether you’re backing an intriguing start-up or a tattoo parlor, is one of the most valuable things you can do to gain recognition at a young age. Everyone’s capable of earning decent grades and scoring well on the GRE, but ideas are usually what set people apart. Taking those ideas and turning them into something tangible – a business, a charitable foundation, or even a blog – will make your uniqueness visible.

Do you have any experience with starting a company (yes, lemonade stands count)? How helpful did you find it to put your name out there?

With autumn in full-swing, one thing’s becoming certain for college seniors and recent grads: it’s time to apply for our first “real” jobs. But even as we polish our resumes, craft brilliant cover letters and network ’til we can’t see straight, we’ll still feel a lingering anxiousness that can only be squelched by the certainty of our ideal job offer.

That’s where 1stGiG comes in. We’re always encouraging young professionals to seek new opportunities, but we’re also here to cut out the middle man when it comes to tireless job search. We know how overwhelming networking can become, which is why we take care of the back-and-forth, leaving you stress-free and moments away from being matched with a career that fits your interests, experience and goals.

Here’s where you need to pay attention – we’re offering a full, cost-free membership to anyone who joins 1stGiG during the month of October. By “full membership,” we mean just that. All the bells and whistles without the standard cost. And get this – it won’t expire until three years after you graduate from college! So whether you’re a senior on the brink of reality, or a junior seeking a valuable internship, we’re sure you’ll benefit from all 1stGiG has to offer.

From now until the end of October, you can create a 1stGiG account free of charge by logging onto 1stGiG.com. When you’re creating your account, enter the promo code “1stGiG” and select a payment type. You won’t need to enter any payment information, and from there, your account will be active! Take the time to fill out your career profile and explore the site, and don’t hesitate to share the great news with your friends – they’re welcome to use the code as well.

Sometimes, networking takes a little more than a pre-planned encounter at your university’s career fair.

As young professionals, we’re faced with countless opportunities to meet alumni and potential employers, and it’s our job as intelligent career-hunters to determine which opportunities are worth pursuing. However, furthering your relationship with a certain company or individual often requires some personal creativity. After an initial run-in (or lacking one in the first place), it’s your job to follow-up. While it might seem pushy and unnatural, strategic networking can be the deciding factor in getting hired.

So, does a list of no-fail networking techniques exist? Absolutely not, but we can certainly give you a leg-up on the competition with a few useful pointers.

1. The power of social media: First of all, make sure your social media profiles are squeaky-clean (how to do this). Next, start following/friending/connecting with every company and important person you’re interested in. If you’re using Twitter, an explanation isn’t really necessary, as is the case with “liking” a company on Facebook. But if you’re directly requesting to follow someone’s profile on LinkedIn or Facebook, it’s always a good idea to include a quick message about yourself and why you’re connecting with that person. Once you’ve laid the groundwork, you can begin corresponding with your target person/business through re-tweets, status comments and various other messaging tools.
2. Share your genius: If you’re in communication with a person of interest, make sure they have access to anything and everything that sets you apart. If you have a blog, send them the link! If you recently planned an event that’s being covered in a local newspaper, share it with them! The more an employer can identify you, the better chance you’ll have at staying in the front of their mind.
3. Talk up your enthusiasm: Whenever you meet someone (or reconnect with an old friend) who knows people at your company of interest, make sure to emphasize your desire to work there. Always include some specific, observational details regarding why you’re so taken with the business and what motivated you to look there in the first place. Also, make sure to inquire the individual’s exact connection to the company, and relay your openness to speaking with anyone he/she knows in the industry.

Which networking tactics work best for you? We’d love to hear your insights!