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Almost anyone will tell you that being organized will increase your efficiency, reduce clutter and help you remember assignments and errands better. There are innumerable ways to organize your life, from writing out to do lists, carrying a day planner or having a blackberry or other mobile device with a lot of those features rolled into one. Since I am without a blackberry and often misplace my to do list before it’s completed I have decided to go with another option: iGoogle.

Since creating an iGoogle homepage for myself, I have found it much easier to keep track of my day-to-day affairs as well as plan for long-term events. Every day at work I fire up my laptop, open the Internet and my own personalized online workbook opens right up. My personal iGoogle configuration is pretty simple, containing a to do list, some news feeds, my Gmail inbox, a clock and a calendar. For me, that’s all I need to keep track of almost everything. One of the best parts of iGoogle though is its customizability.

You can include virtually anything on your homepage, from games and horoscopes, to news feeds and various planning widgets. Should your initial page get too crowded, you can create multiple tabs, just like in your Internet browser, and categorize your tabs according to content. I have the main page described above and then a tab dedicated to searching, with Google, Wikipedia and Weather search bars, as well as MapQuest and some other helpful tools.  The options are seemingly limitless and I find that iGoogle is a great way to keep myself organized and on task. Why not try it out for yourself and customize your own homepage?

Also as an additional social networking note, I’ve recently joined Twitter, so if you are already following Luke and were desperately waiting for your other favorite Internet author to join up – the wait is over! You can follow my tweet feed at:  www.twitter.com/ncleveland.

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A very important piece of finding a job, be it your first or not, is submitting a good resume. This simple document briefly sums up your qualifications and compactly and concisely tells a prospective employer what you can do. This is great, and still a very valid part of the equation in finding a job; but that equation is changing. While having a good resume will make sure you get past the first round of cuts, it won’t ensure you get hired.

More and more employers want to see some evidence of things you’ve done, in addition to what your GPA says you should be able to do. Articles like this one demonstrate that having a good academic track record is only a step in the right direction towards getting that lucrative job. You need to bolster your credentials by having some sort of portfolio or record of things that you have done. This poor guy has a 4.0 GPA in his master’s program and a 3.9 in his doctoral program and still relies on his mother for support. Odds are he is just letting his resume do the talking with no additional work to support it.

Depending on what you want to do for a job, any additional submissions you want to make with your resume will vary. If you want to be a financial analyst, show your employer your own portfolio or pick some stocks and track them for a 6-month period, providing analysis along the way. Submitting your personal blog about bird watching probably won’t be relevant here. If you want to be in digital media, graphics design or a similar field, why not have a personal website to display your work?

What if you don’t have a blog or a website to demonstrate the things you’ve been doing? Go register yourname.com, or yourname.org if it is still available and even if you have no real web-building experience, with a little persistence you can get the basics up there. Maybe your resume looks similar to 15 other candidates for a journalism job, but you’ve had a blog you’ve been operating for 3 years – show your employer!

Even if you don’t have a lot of experience on the web, or don’t think a blog would be relevant to your intended career, do something that shows initiative and passion. Spending a few hours on a Saturday afternoon setting up a personal website or beginning a stock tracking project could be all you need to separate yourself from the pack. Doesn’t that sound worth it?

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I recently read a very interesting piece in the March 17th issue of Newsweek entitled “Not Just for Tree Huggers” (I know, I’m way behind in my reading). It talked about the housing market and how although the market itself is down, green homes were still hot commodities.

While I am sure most recent grads aren’t looking to buy or build a home at this point in our lives, there was a lot of useful information in the article. It’s also good to know that being eco-friendly is becoming a more attractive option in housing construction, as it is a great way to reduce both costs and wasted resources long-term. When the time comes to start looking at potentially getting your own home, going green could be something to consider.

photo credit: taberandrew

Here were some of the highlights of the article that you can implement in your current housing situation, or ask your landlord to look into.

- Installing low-voltage lights, which use less energy their normal-volted counterparts. This type of lighting can be installed both inside and outside the building.
- Couple those low voltage fixtures with fluorescent light bulbs, which last longer up to 10 times longer and use 2/3 less energy than a standard incandescent bulb.
- Using a ceiling fan to circulate air throughout the house, especially in large common areas keeps your home cooler and can be a much cheaper replacement for using your A/C unit.
- Maximize the windows you have, and let in as much natural light as possible. Not only does it reduce your reliance on artificial lighting, it doesn’t make your house feel like a cavern anymore!
- Low-flow faucets – especially in the kitchen sink – utilize less water and still will get your dishes just as clean. As for going low-flow in the shower, if you haven’t seen this Seinfeld episode, well, tread carefully. I’ll stick to shorter, high-flow showers myself.
- Installing Energy Star appliances that are certified to use less energy.
- Recycling: This can be as simple as returning cans & bottles (for a cash refund where applicable) or restoring and renovating older furniture instead of buying new.
- Specialized windows that reflect heat, keeping the house warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.

Not all of these options are necessarily cheap, or ones you should be implementing yourselves – especially if you are renting – but all are relatively easy ways to save some money and energy in your home by increasing efficiency.

For those social-networking addicts among us, you can even use the “I Am Green” Facebook application to display to your friends how environmentally friendly (and money conscious!) you are.

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This is a guest post by Gene Leshinsky of www.boston-technical-recruiter.com

How many connections do you have on Facebook? Oh like 400… How many do you have on MySpace? Another 500… How about LinkedIn? Huh? What’s that?

LinkedIn is the most important networking tool every college student must have. Why? Because on no other social network will you encounter the number of professionals and hiring managers who are open to having conversations and networking with you.

Myspace has long been seen as the popular network and while networking for job opportunities is possible, you don’t always want your employer to see your profile. In fact, you most defiantly do not what that to happen. How about Facebook? Same story. It’s too personal, too college oriented. Networking and keeping in touch with college friends is nice, but where will that get you after graduation?

LinkedIn is a professional career fair with experts willing and ready to answer any question you may have, recruiters trying to access your college networks, and managers looking out for fresh talent.

You will not find a better pale to search for internships during school. Every single Fortune 500 company is represented on LinkedIn. So why do so few college student know about LinkedIn? Perhaps, because LinkedIn originated as a tightly knit professional network with little concern for the younger people.

Check your Facebook profile, but build your LinkedIn page, you will not regret it!

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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