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I discovered an article on USAToday.com this evening (I think it first appeared on the site a few days ago, though) encouraging recent college grads to pursue a life of entrepreneurship and, as you’ve probably gathered from the other things I’ve written here, I couldn’t agree more. In fact, making the career change out of the rat race and into the world of start-ups is something I contemplate almost daily, it seems.

The article’s author, USA Today columnist Rhonda Abrams, explains why just after college really is the perfect time to strike out on you own,

As a young person, you’re at the forefront of entrepreneurship. Your tastes drive decisions in new businesses, new products. Successes like Yahoo, Google, and Facebook means venture capitalists and investors will actually take you seriously.

And most importantly,

After all, graduate, this is probably the best time in your life to take a risk. You’re used to living on the cheap, surviving on pizza, and no, you don’t really need a new car or that Coach purse. So, move back in with the parentals, get a few friends together and start something in your garage or den.

She then went on to a half-dozen or so pointers to help recent grads get started in entrepreneurship. They included,

• Do something cool... you’re young, so do something fun, challenging, interesting.
• Choose a business that will make a difference. Go ahead, start a business that will save the planet, people or animals. The hottest thing in business today is “social entrepreneurship“.
• Develop a business plan — at least a very simple one. Sit down and think through what you’re going to do, how you’re going to do it, and how much money it will take.
• Choose a concept with low start-up costs. After all, you’re broke. And remember, Internet-based companies can be dirt-cheap.
• Start with a friend, or friends (but remember to draw up a simple agreement to clarify who owns what, who does what, and what happens if someone drops out).
• Make a sale. Nothing teaches you more — and emboldens you more — than having a real customer.
• Get some good business advice books. And lastly,
• Work hard. You thought you worked hard in school? You’re going to have to work even harder to make your business a success.

To see the rest of Abrams’ article, complete with tons of advice and tips for starting your own business, check out “Strategies: Grads, think about starting your own business” from USAToday.com. Then get out there and get started (but feel free to invite me along for the ride!).

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While many of us are either in school or just entering the Real World, the end goal of retirement is always out there and the reality is the sooner you start saving for it, the better off you are. Consider the following: If you are 30 years old and set aside $448/month for the next 35 years at an 8% annualized return you’ll be a millionaire by 65. I don’t know about you, but I could certainly live comfortably off that kind of money for long, long time (which is precisely the idea behind saving for retirement!). The only problem is how to get that money in the here and now to set aside.

Thanks to Yahoo! Finance, here are some great places in your monthly budgets where you can find some of that extra cash to squirrel away for your golden years.

1.    Save $100 a month on food.

As I mentioned here awhile back, not bringing a bag lunch to work with you can get costly in a hurry. Considering an average meal at McDonald’s runs about $5, a large coffee from Dunking Donuts or Starbucks can cost $2 or more each and the savings rapidly add up.

2.    Save $80 a month on entertainment

By cutting out one dinner and a movie nights each month you can save $80 right there. The article bases this on the $33 per person average at a restaurant, according to Zagat and the $7 each people spend on tickets at the theater, according to the Motion Picture Association of America. While I think the $33 a head is a bit high, especially for us recent grads, when you factor in gas traveling to and from dinner and a movie I think this is a pretty accurate figure.

3.    Save $8 a month on a well maintained car

By keeping your engine tuned and your tires properly inflated you can save a reasonable amount of money on gas. Over the course of a year those savings add up to around $100.  I know I personally keep a milk crate in my trunk with oil, transmission fluid, anti-freeze, washer fluid, a rag and a tire pressure gauge just to make sure I keep my car running smoothly and save trips to the mechanic.

There are several other helpful money savings tips in the Yahoo! Article, which you can read in its entirety here. While the savings are geared towards retirement, you can certainly use them for paying down student loans, credit cards or other bills to climb out of debt as well. And if you are one of the many people who struggle to keep to a budget every month, try one of the various online budgeting tools like Mint.com.

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One of the biggest issues for many college students is finding good off-campus housing. Many Colleges and Universities have a large number of students seeking off-campus housing each year and the competition can be fierce for many of the best locations. The competition involved in finding an apartment however, is nothing compared to the competition many students face in finding someone to sublet his or her room for the summer. If you, or someone you know, are looking to find a sublettor for this coming summer then I have some helpful tips for you to follow in order to get that space rented.

1.    Draw up a list of the facts about the sublet
This should include the rent, the approximate cost of utilities, the size of the room available, the duration you are looking for a sublettor, if the room will be furnished or not and the general location of the apartment. Putting all these facts together will help you write a good advertisement for your space.

2.    Write and post an advertisement
Use the list of facts you just created as well as any other selling points, like a great view or easy access to public transportation, to portray your apartment in the best light possible. The Internet is a great place to advertise for free, using sites like Craiglist.org and Sublet.com and you can also post the ads in stores and around campus on billboards to attract as many potential sublettors as possible.

3.    Always include pictures
Especially when posting on the Internet some pictures of your room and the common areas of the apartment are a great thing to include because as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Including pictures also makes it easier for those interested who may be coming from a distance to get a sense of which places to visit in person. Additionally, take pictures of the condition of your room before you sublet and after, in case there is a dispute about any damage.

4.    Prepare the necessary paperwork
You want to make sure you have a copy of your lease handy in case one of your potential sublettors wants to look at it. Also, it makes a lot of sense to have a sublet agreement written up stating the rent, utilities, the dates and acceptable forms of payment as well as the length of the agreement on it for both of you to sign when the time comes. Having these details in writing protects you in case the sublettor damages your space or fails to pay their share of the bills.

5.    The market is not in your favor
In most places, the number of available rooms for the summer or a semester is going to be much greater than the number of people looking to sublet those rooms. This works against those people trying to sublet their space. Oftentimes potential sublettors will try and negotiate a lower price, or get utilities included to get the best deal for themselves. You need to decide if you are willing to do this, and if not, state up front that these things are non-negotiable. You may get fewer replies, but those who do won’t try to haggle you.

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If you just wrapped up your junior year of college that now is the perfect time to start a blog of your own. Blogging is (relatively) easy, lots of fun and could be the one thing that sets you apart from the crowd when it comes to applying for a job in a year’s time.

Benefits:

I think the biggest benefit of starting a blog in college is the ability to use it as a resource when it comes time to apply for a job. If you work hard at your blog, you’re proud of it, and it is well crafted and well written than it is certainly something you can put on your resume or mention in an interview. A potential employer is able to check out your site, see instantly how hard you work at something you’re clearly passionate about and the ability you have to write and communicate well. Plus, while “blogging” is certainly a common part of the lexicon in today’s world, there is still a certainly mystique to having one (especially one that is at all successful) and an employer who is reading hundreds of resumes and interviewing dozens of people is likely to at least remember the author of that cool blog he/she checked out. And that alone puts you ahead of the game.

I would recommend blogging about any (appropriate) topic you’re passionate about for sure, but if you can match your blog to the industry you’re looking to enter and have it serve as a go-to resource for that industry, than you might as well pick your cubical decorations now because you’re golden.

And of course in the mean time, you may be able to earn a little money from your blog. While it probably won’t be a lot, if you work at it a bit, you’ll be able to at least cover the cost of web hosting and maybe have a little left over for beer money.

Plus, and most importantly, blogging is fun. researching is fun, writing is fun, networking is fun, designing your blog is fun. But, not only are all of these things fun, but they all come in handy when you’re looking for a job!

Drawbacks:

While blogging is definitely lots of fun and it could be very beneficial to landing you a job, it’s tough and time consuming. Posting worthwhile posts daily is tough, it’s hard work and it takes a long time. Thus, time management is crucial - you’ll still need to get your schoolwork done and, if you’re going to be a senior, than you want to enjoy your senior year as much as possible and you don’t want blogging to get in the way of that.

And, as I mentioned, it’s certainly possible to make money blogging but unless you put an enormous amount of time into it (or get really, really lucky) chances are you won’t be making much. I certainly wouldn’t rely on it as your sole source of income during the school year, unless you want to completely cut out pizza and beer (and who wants to do that?!).

Resources:

If you’re new to blogging, I would definitely recommend reading problogger.net, it’s a great resource for every aspect of blogging, for beginners and seasoned bloggers alike. As a platform I would recommend WordPress above all the others and, if you’re going to shell out the money for paid hosting (which I always recommend) over using a free service like blogger.com or LiveJournal or something, I’ve had very good experiences with both BlueHost and WebHostingPad. Good Luck!

photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Just a quick head’s up that the plugin I was using for the anti-spam word in the comment form has apparently not been working for a few days (hence your inability to post comments here). Well, not to fear - it’s been fixed. So comment away!

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This is a guest post by Bill Allred, VP of Sales & Marketing at HireVue.

Modern employers must be concerned with risk exposure in their hiring practices. Technology advancements provide efficiency, but does technology also increase litigation risk? Employers must answer this important question, and below you will find a starting point to your research. So, are video interviews discriminatory?

In 2006 the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) published the Internet Applicant Rule (IAR). The IAR defines the procedures that federal contractors must adhere to regarding applicant tracking in the information age. Although the IAR was written specifically for federal contractors, its standards are viewed as heuristics for all employers that seek to maintain anti-discriminatory practices. With particular focus on the video interview, this article will examine three parts of the IAR:

1. The IAR applies to any candidate who “submits an expression of interest in employment through the Internet or related electronic data technologies.” Specifically, the OFCCP lists the following “electronic data technologies”:

a. Electronic mail/email

b. Resume databases

c. Job banks

d. Electronic scanning technology

e. Applicant tracking systems/Applicant service providers

f. Applicant screeners

Although not named specifically, employers should assume that video interviews meet the definition of an electronic data technology in the eyes of the OFCCP (see footnote 1). Based on the assumption that applicants who perform video interviews do fall under the definition of the Internet Applicant Rule, what other sections of the IAR are relevant?

2. “The person’s application or resume shows that he or she has the basic qualifications for the position in question.” It continues, “The contractor considers the individual for employment in a particular position”. It’s important to note that the term “considers” is interpreted as “assesses the substantive information provided in the expression of interest with respect to any qualifications involved with a particular position.” The main difference between video interviews and the electronic data technologies named above – email, job banks, and resume databases – is that prior to a video interview, an initial resume screen has already been completed (see footnote 2). Only qualified applicants are invited to respond to a video interview, which asks the applicant about job related skills. Video interviews differ from video resumes on this point. In the case of a video resume, the candidate has not yet been screened for job-related qualifications, nor has the employer “considered” the candidate. Employers would be wise to carefully consider to risks of video resumes.

3. The Internet Applicant Rule “prescribes the records contractors must maintain about hiring done through use of the Internet or related electronic data technologies; for companies with fewer than 150 employees or a contract of at least $150,000, the record retention period is one year. Contractors with at least 150 employees and a contract of $150,000 are required to maintain the records for a period of two years.” It is recommended that employers ensure adequate archival from their video interview vendor.

In summary, video interviews comply with OFCCP requirements under the Internet Applicant Rule. When considering the legality of video interviews, the key points to remember are:

1. Conduct the video interview after considering the applicant’s job-related qualifications

2. Ensure the same equipment, process, and opportunity to similarly situated job seekers

3. Add transparency by archiving each video interview for two years

(1) In the FAQ of IAR, the OFCCP indicates that it will evaluate any technology employed in the recruitment process for the electronic transfer of data, and classify such technology as an “electronic data technology”.

(2) Regarding this detail the OFCCP explains, “The Internet Applicant rule does not specify how or when in the selection process a contractor may screen for a job seeker’s interest in the specific position, keeping in mind that the interest screens should be facially neutral and consistently and uniformly applied to similarly situated job seekers.” With regards to video interviews, “interest” is indicated when a candidate submits an application or resume, which are “facially neutral” media. After the indication of interest and “consideration” by the employer, recruitment tools that are not facially neutral – face-to-face interviews, video interviews, etc. – are appropriate to use.

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

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Just a quick head’s up: if you have Sallie Mae federal student loans, you may want to get in contact with Sallie and make sure that they didn’t report your account delinquent to the credit bureaus. Apparently the enormous student loan lender accidentally reported 10 million borrowers as being delinquent (they weren’t).

Some borrowers reported that their credit score dropped by as much as 100 points. While Sallie maintains that the mistake only affected borrowers who have graduated payment plans, it may be worth getting in touch with them even if you have a different repayment plan. Sallie Mae intends to fix the problem by the end of the week, and it’s possible that Experian — the national credit reporting agency — could have updated information in their system within ten days. But, if you’re concerned about your credit score, remember that you’re entitled to one free credit report a year.

If you’re one of the 10 million affected, good luck!

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One of the classic debates that many soon-to-be college graduates face is the decision to either continue with their education by moving directly on to graduate school, or to immediately join the workforce and worry about professional degrees after gaining some experience. It is a question, not unlike many other important choices we face, that doesn’t have one right answer and what’s good for one person may not be for another.

Recently, I was sent an article posted on FastWeb.com that discusses both sides of this issue, and thought I would share some of the advice with all of you as well as my own experience.

The article was written by Peter Vogt of Monster.com (where it originally appeared) and it chronicles the choices of two different women, Laurie Duffy and Carolyn Kaufman, who each made different decisions after graduation. Duffy decided to go straight to graduate school, while Kaufman spent some time in the workforce getting experience before she pursued a graduate degree.

“Graduate school is difficult and very much not the traditional college experience,” says Duffy, now an assistant account executive for the Winston-Salem, North Carolina, office of PR firm Mullen. The workload alone leaves little time for relationships or a career, she says. “So I chose to get my master’s right away, before I had a job I loved and couldn’t leave, or before I had a family to take care of.”

Duffy’s experience illustrates one of the most common arguments for pursuing graduate school sooner versus later. Other commitments can get into the way of furthering your education. And particularly once you start a family, it can be difficult to fit grad school into your life, says Nancy Stamp, dean of the graduate school at Binghamton University.

As you can see, there are some solid arguments for heading straight into graduate school so work or family obligations don’t sidetrack you. Additionally you are able to relocate easier if the school you want to attend doesn’t happen to be nearby to where you went to undergrad. However, there are numerous reasons why many people head straight into the workforce, like I did, and Ms. Kaufman outlines some of them in the article.

[Kaufman] intended to go to graduate school immediately after finishing her undergraduate degree in English and psychology in 1995 but put it off, because she couldn’t decide where to go.

“That was the best thing that could have happened,” says Kaufman, who teaches psychology full-time at Columbus State Community College and part-time at Otterbein College. “Developing my confidence and sense of competence, learning new skills and contemplating whether I really wanted to go back or continue what I was doing…was priceless and has helped me make better decisions after graduate school.”

My main reason for not going straight into graduate school was similar, in that I didn’t know what I wanted to do for a career so it didn’t make sense to me to spend more time and money on a degree I may not even use. I wanted to get some experience, try some different things out and see what interested me enough to pursue further. As career expert Anna Ivey, author of The Ivey Guide to Law School Admissions, says: “Grad school isn’t going anywhere. Take some time to figure out who you are outside of school.”

No matter which way you decide to go, make sure you are doing it for the right reasons and that you will be happy with your decision a few years down the road. If you are likely to have trouble getting back into the swing of things academically after a hiatus, maybe you should plow right on through to grad school. If you are unsure of what you want to do, or need more experience to fully flesh out your interests then perhaps getting your feet wet in the workforce is the right move for you. Either way, good luck to you all.

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There isn’t a driver in America right now who doesn’t cringe a little every time they drive up to the pump, I don’t care what you drive. So, in this world of daily rising fuel costs, tracking your gas consumption is a necessity if you want to ever see any relief from the pain. Enter FuelFrog, a new web application that launched last week, which aims to make tracking your gas mileage and consumption easier and thus (hopefully) eventually lower your bills.

FuelFrog is hugely simple, and incredibly useful which tons of potential. After each fill up, users enter their miles traveled since the last fill, the price paid, and the amount of gasoline in gallons. Then, over time, FuelFrog will track and graph your fuel consumption data so you can do things like identify trends in gas prices in your area, see how fuel efficient your car is, how much you’re driving, and how much you’re spending. Second Pixel (FuelFrog’s parent company) co-founder David Rasch said in a press release,

“We’re paying more attention to our impact on the environment today than we ever have before and FuelFrog is making it easier to track fuel consumption and the impact, not only on our wallets, but on the environment”.

Information can be entered via the web, or via Twitter (and, if you’re a Twitter user, go ahead and follow me here and Nate here), which means that you can log your fuel data immediately after filling up via your mobile phone.

For what its worth, FuelFrog also plans to give users access to aggregated data from other users, allowing you to compare your vehicle’s fuel consumption against another make and model, for instance, or your city’s average gas prices to those in another area.

Click here to check out FuelFrog for yourself.

Source: “FuelFrog: Track Your Gas Mileage” [ReadWriteWeb]

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Unfortunately, I’m a bit of a sucker for the work done by the folks at icanhascheezburger.com (the source of the picture above) and this one was just too fitting not to share. Enjoy!

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