Keep Connected

MySpace and Facebook were both originally meant to be a useful tool to keep people connected after they go off to college or move away. However, after it became more widespread, people started using it mainly to share pictures and simply say hi even though they might see each other every day. If people wouldn't abuse the purposes of Facebook through applications and "friending" everyone they know, it could still be a useful tool. However, teens seem to eat up the idea of the social network, so it is not going to change any time soon.


LinkedIn sounds like it is aimed at an older segment of the population rather than college kids. However, JobCorps is something similar but closer to home. JobCorps is a great way for AU students to find jobs in the area. I posted my resume on it and got many emails asking me to babysit. The greatest was when people contacted me. My resume did the work for me. I was contacted by Norah O'Donnell and Geoff Tracy. Mrs. O'Donnell is an anchor for NBC news and used to be the chief Washington correspondent for NBC and Geoff Tracy is the owner of Chef Geoffs and Lia's. I now babysit for their twins. Although it is only a baby sitting job, it's a great connection as well.



Connections can never be underestimated. Last semester, I had to take a cab back from the Dulles Airport and happened to share a cab with a woman who was a DG in college. She paid for almost the entire seventy dollar cab ride and gave me her card and told me to call if I ever needed anything. Also, the other weekend I was in the DFW Airport and I met a man who ended up being in charge of the IT department of his company. After talking to him about his job while waiting for our flight, he gave me his business card and told me to call him when I graduate and he would give me a job.



As long as social networks are not abused, they can be very useful. Too many connections are too hard to keep track of while too few connections do not help you in finding jobs. If you learn how to use networks correctly, they can help enormously. A network that I think would gain a lot of business is one that is somewhere in between LinkedIn and JobCorps. A network designed for undergraduate and graduate students for internship would be very beneficial. We wouldn't have to go through the Career Center and all their confusing steps to get an internship only in the DC area. It would be a unified way to find internships all over the country. If there is already one out there I would love to find out about it.