Blog rundown: what to read and how your students can get started

February 24, 2011 at 4:24 pm | Posted in Advising interns, career center, Guest blogging opportunity, Internship portfolios, Social media | 3 Comments
Tags: Susan Sandberg

Susan Sandberg

As a career professional, you may already be involved in blogging. For example, Law Professor Blogs is a network of web logs designed to assist law professors in scholarship and teaching. The science-professor.blogspot.com also offers various weblogs. On Feb. 1, the topic was whether science professors would be receptive to the idea of a half-time postdoc. Your students may already be reading and writing blogs for fun. The next step is to introduce them to blogging as an excellent professional resource to advance their own careers.

• The Eternal Intern: This blog is the story of 3 interns and their escapades at fashion, art, and entertainment houses in New York, Paris, and Los Angeles. The Jan. 31 blog recommends that students know what’s going on in their targeted industry on a daily basis. The blog urges students, “Don’t be a slacker when it comes to current events.” Although you give your students the same advice, they may listen more closely to other students in an informal blog that entertains as well as informs.

• Eye of the Intern:  This blog is written by students, recent grads and employers.  It provides multiple perspectives on different internships from both student and employer points of view. As with all blogs, encourage students to add comments and join in conversation about a particular topic or post.

• Intern Like A Rockstar: This blog features regular posts from five media industry bloggers as well as guest posts providing advice and insights on careers and internships in music business, entertainment law, new media, and music technology and recording. The site was founded by a Music major who had multiple internships and wanted to share what she had learned to help prospective interns have a better experience. The site is dedicated to “empowering and inspiring future music industry leaders.”

• Writing blogs:  Students can gain blogging experience by posting blogs on issues that concern them. One such site is Global Action on Aging (GAA), a Non Governmental Organization based at the United Nations. GAA seeks short term writers to contribute to a blog about the human rights of older persons. For further information on GAA’s work and blogging opportunities, visit its website at www.globalaging.org and its blog http://www.globalaging.blogspot.com.

• Creating blogs:  Your students may want to contribute a blog to an organization or start their own blogs but don’t know how to create one.  Google offers a blogger service where you can create a blog for free. Customizable templates and layouts help with the design. To learn more, students can explore blogs of note, take a quick tour, watch a video tutorial or read Blogger Buzz for the latest new developments on blogging.

• BlogSpot versus WordPress:  Encourage your students to check out these two primary blog sites to decide which would be the better choice. WordPress lends bloggers a more professional feel to their sites. WordPress may require a basic working knowledge of web design and html, but if the blogger is a quick learner, these skills should not take long to acquire.  BlogSpot is more straightforward and has a greater ease of use. If the blogger desires the use of widgets, flash, or java, BlogSpot may be the better choice.

If your students are looking to start their own blog, advise them to decide who is the audience and what is the desired response to their blog, so they can maximize the results, whether it’s for an internship, a job, or a platform to discuss their career interests.  Blogging is the perfect way to network professionally as well as socially.

This post is by Susan Sandberg, a gourmet cook, novel writer, and former university professor.  See more about Susan and the rest of our bloggers here.