Athletes at Creighton University compete at the division one level in the Missouri Valley Conference; the men's basketball team has made the NCAA tournament seven of the last nine years. There are nine residence halls for students who want to live on campus, which provide them with great access to classes. CU offers 180 student organizations such as service clubs, Greek life, and even an ice cream club. In addition, students have internship opportunities with companies like Nike, Microsoft, and XM.

So, if you're looking to start your college career in a school with strong academic programs and terrific post graduate advancement, all in a vibrant metro area with great arts and an entertainment scene, then watch a college video tour of Creighton University, http://www.youniversitytv.com/creighton.html, and learn more today.

Cornell University has 36 varsity athletic teams (18 for men and 18 for women), including a crew team. There are over 800 student clubs and organizations on campus, as well as a university press. About 30% of students are involved in Greek life, while others are a part of interest groups like the Vegeterian Club or the I Heart Meat Club. In addition, the school has a full working dairy that is used to make Cornell ice cream. Currently, Cornell is half way done on a mission to obtain one billion dollars for cancer and disease research at its Weill Cornell Medical College. Overall, the university is on a campaign to raise four billion dollars, and is already one-third of the way there.

So, if you're open to meeting new people and exploring opportunities for your future, then check out a college video tour of Cornell University, http://www.youniversitytv.com/cornell.html, and learn more today.

In addition, the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies - Columbia Engineering, Jack McGourty, believes that while students need technical courses, they also need a strong liberal arts background to be technologically adept and socially engaged, as a foundation of their education at CU. Students can study around 40 languages, find nearly a dozen programs in the arts, and prepare for professional and/or graduate school, while attending the university. There are 1,410 full-time and 400 part-time faculty members at Columbia University, with most of them having their PhDs or terminal degrees in their respective fields. A total of six Nobel laureates have either attended or taught at CU.

Columbia University has 31 sports teams that compete at the NCAA division one level; the school has won nine Ivy League championships. About 95% of CU students live on campus, and there are almost 500 clubs and organizations, including music and theater groups. These also include a wide range of multicultural, political, and community service organizations.

So, if you're looking for a school that provides a strong liberal arts education and an opportunity to be challenged, then watch a college video tour of Columbia University, http://www.youniversitytv.com/columbia_university.html, and learn more today.

Building your personal brand is one thing but if no one can find it your efforts have been fruitless. While many people go about the right steps to build a personal brand they overlook what they need to do so that search engines can easily find and crawl their content.

Let's start off with what Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is: the process of taking content that you produce and make it search engine friendly so that search engines like Google and Yahoo can crawl and index.

So what makes search engine friendly content? The answer is: content that you yourself would like to read or content that will benefit other people. Search engines are not interested in indexing content that is written to fit their needs because they too are businesses. They want to give their customers (web users) the best content that they can find.

Use Google's Keyword Tool. Google has a great tool to help you figure out what keywords other people are competing for. You should tailor your content to be for a specific keyword. To help you figure out what keywords are obtainable use the keyword tool where you can track competition.
Have good title. Search engines put a lot of weight on the title of your article because they assume that your title is a good representation of your content. Witty titles are not as effective online as they can mislead users and search engines.
Use the keyword phrase as you see it. If you are competing for the keyword phrase "How to write a bio" you need to make sure that you use that phrase exactly as you see it.
Keep new content coming. Search engines like to see sites that are regularly publishing new content because it shows that the site owners are invested and are putting more time into the site. This will take some time on your part but will yield more readers in the long run.
Track your progress. Use a tool such as Google Analytics (FREE!) that will help you track the number of hits that you get to your site on a daily basis. If you don't track it then you will not be able to determine how your efforts are going.

Always keep in mind that SEO is not an overnight process. As you build your personal brand it will take time. Many experts say that you should not expect to see any of your efforts have an effect for 3-6 months. After that you will start to see it pick up.

Keep at it and don't give up. Building a personal brand through search engine optimization is important and is a big step in increasing the visibility of your brand.

Article by, RJ Sherman and courtesy of Brand-Yourself.com for actionable tips to put you in a position of power in the job market

As you continually work to improve your personal brand, you are going to consider many social media tools to utilize. Along this journey, I am sure that Twitter will be one of them. The reason that Twitter is such a good outlet for you is that Twitter is a means to express both your professional and personal sides. The professional and personal mixture, of course, being your own unique personal brand.

The problem begins when your personal brand sways more heavily one way over the other. This is most concerning when the personal emphasis is the heavier of the two.

As Mack Collier tweeted, "Getting on Twitter is NOT a strategy, Twitter is a tactic to execute a social media strategy". Such a wise statement.

Twitter is a tool for you to continually work to create and expand upon your personal brand. Any social networking tool is not a strategy, but instead is a tool (and this cannot be forgotten). Twitter is searchable by Bing and now by Google which further exposes you and your personal branding message.

There are two opposing tactics at play in this example.

1. Katy's personality is coming through, which is not necessarily a bad thing to happen. This allows her followers to better know her and be able to engage with her on a variety of topics. However, by taking her message further away from the SEO space, Katy's personal brand begins to falter in terms of having a consistent message.
2. Because Katy's tweets are not as consistent as when she started, then the results that appear in a Bing or Google search will not necessarily produce the SEO-based results that she desires. By keeping SEO as the major theme and sprinkling other topics in on an as needed basis, Katy will continue to increase her personal brand in the SEO space and potentially position her as a leader in the field.As with any personal brand message and social media strategy, you must have a clear picture as to what you would like to convey as your personal brand as well as the selected tools to help create your brand. This means working to communicate a clear and consistent message of you.

So, to answer the question: "is Twitter a good tool for your personal brand?" Yes it is a valuable tool. However, it is only a good tool if you use it in a manner that supports your personal brand and does not dilute the message you are working to communicate.

Make a Twitter plan and execute the strategy. Your personal brand relies on it!

Article by, Keith McIlvaine and courtesy of Brand-Yourself.com for actionable tips to put you in a position of power in the job market

-- Submitted by C. A. from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States through the CollegeRecruiter.com Career Blog Application on Facebook.com.

Why is this question so important?

Because out of the 36 people who responded to my recent query, 23 of them felt that it's better to be likable than nice because nice people are often viewed as being either weak or insincere.

Performance coach and author of Power Speaking: The Art of the Exceptional Public Speaker, Achim Nowak, believes that likable people are positive while nice people are "overly concerned, consciously or not, with being liked." For him, being nice is a mark of insincerity.

Physical therapist and president of Waterfalls Day Spa, Sara Daly, and speech language pathologist and vice-president of Waterfalls Day Spa, Laurie Webb, agree with Colby that nice people are generally weak.

In business, people don't expect you to be nice," Daly and Webb believe. "Likable has a level of respect to it ... it is okay to disagree at times in business ... you are still likable, but you may not be nice."

For Melinda Mallari of Precision Market Services, likable people are people who others find it enjoyable to be around. As she sees it, it's easier to forgive the imperfections of likable people. She went on to say that she finds certain kinds of nice people - those who have a condenscending or self-righteous air - distasteful. "You can appreciate how nice they act, but not necessarily want to be around them," she concluded.

Only six of the query respondants thought it was better to be nice than likable. The remaining seven didn't have a specific preference.

Vera Newhouse of Edelman was among those who feel it's better to be nice than likable in the workplace. "I think the difference between being likable and being nice is that a nice person is more genuine and loyal. They exhibit qualities of being an employee who cares and who will work well in a team environment," she explained. With someone who is likable, Newhouse said, "You like an aspect of the person's personality but not everything about the person."

Author of Nice Girls Can Finish First, Daylle Deanna Schwartz, offered this unique perspective, suggesting that it's okay to be likable and nice simultaneously. "People should always be a healthy version of nice at work, which means being courteous and respectful to all, but also letting people know that you respect yourself and expect to be taken seriously," she asserted. "People can nicely stand up for themselves and get their point across in ways people will listen to, all with a smile and positive attitude."

When trying to decide how to stand out during their job searches, it's a good idea for college students and recent graduates to focus more on being sincere than on trying to be what others say they should be. Whether it's in their nature to be nice or likable, as long as they come across as genuine - and, of course, qualified - they'll probably get the jobs they desire.

You've written your resume, and sent it out to what seems like hundreds of companies without any success. Perhaps it's time to look at one of the most important, and yet often neglected, parts of the resume - your career objective. If done correctly, this will show potential employers at a glance that you are serious about the job in question and know what you want to do. A poorly executed objective, however, may disqualify you from the position altogether.

1. Be pithy. Generally, an objective should be limited to a sentence or two. It's all about saying as much as needed in as small a space as possible. Remember, this is only the first thing that a potential employer sees, and the goal is to write so that he or she wants to continue reading the rest of your resume.
2. Begin with 'To' not 'I.' The career objective on your resume should tell what you can do for the company, and not what you expect to get from the company. When you're competing with hundreds of other applicants, the employer's focus is on which one of you can benefit them the most. Here is an example of a quality resume objective: "To work for a small graphics company using my graphic design, layout, and drafting skills." This shows what you can do for them instead of saying, "I want to work for a small graphics company to improve my graphic design and layout skills."
3. Convey facts. Words such as challenging, useful, educational, helpful, etc. mean different things to each person, and therefore do not convey specific messages to a possible employer. Instead, explain how you want to use your English degree and editing skills to work for a book publisher.
4. Use action verbs. It is tempting to try to stand out with your objective by starting it with something other than 'to' such as: my goal is, I hope to, my plan is, etc. Not only does this show employers that you are more concerned with helping yourself than with helping his or her company, but the passive voice makes the sentence wordy and weak. Phrases such as to work, to promote, and to advance show that you know what your career goal is and how you can help your prospective employer.
5. Decide how specific you need to be. This is by far the trickiest part of writing a career objective for your resume. If you know exactly what job you want within a company and understand what type of skills that job requires, then your objective can be written like this, "To work as an office production assistant with a small film company specializing in television using my clerical skills and Communications degree." Unless you understand what the job requires and have specific skills, however, you will probably want to write something a bit broader such as "To work in an advertising agency using my experience in graphic design, layout, and copywriting." This does not mention what position you seek, but includes a varied list of qualifications that would make you an attractive candidate to work in graphics or ad copy.
6. Use what experience you have. If you're a recent college graduate, you may not have many practical, real world skills that you can list in your objective. Don't worry. Consider what you were good at in college (editing, researching, memorizing facts) and re-word it for a corporate environment. If you were good at gathering data for essays then you have skills as a researcher. Similarly, if you have a photographic memory then that can be a marketable quality.

Since you have such a short space to make a good impression, be careful in selecting the skills to list. Choose ones that will be the most advantageous to each individual company. You may have to re-write your objective several times for different jobs, but a well-written objective will help put you ahead of your competition.

Bethany Stringer is a graduate of Texas A&M University (class of '08) and has her B.A. in English Literature with minors in History and Psychology. Writing her first story at the age of 5 (with help from Mom), Bethany still enjoys writing and researching about everything from business and history to travel and fiction. Enamored with languages, she plans to teach English in Russia in 2010 as a CELTA certified teacher. She owned her own business working horses when she was 17, and still loves riding her horse Romeo. Always appreciating a challenge, she loves sea kayaking and prefers Rachmaninov to Bach.

Article courtesy of Brand-Yourself.com for actionable tips to put you in a position of power in the job market

Athletes at Colorado State University - Pueblo compete in the NCAA double division two Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference in 15 sports. Depending on certain criteria, some freshmen are required to live on campus, and obtain a campus meal plan. CSU Pueblo offers more than 70 clubs and organizations, including outdoor adventures at the intramural league, and events like video game tournaments, dodgeball, and even checkers. Some students who are in CSU Pueblo's exercise science program have completed internships at the Olympic Training Center, not far from campus.

So, if you're looking for a place that reminds you of the comforts of home, with great academics and bundles of outdoor activities, then watch a college video tour of Colorado State University - Pueblo, http://www.youniversitytv.com/colorado_state_university_pueblo.html, and learn more today.

Colorado Denver University offers fully furnished apartment-style housing for around 700 students at Campus Village. Students can participate in 60 clubs and organizations, as well as other activities like ski trips, film festivals, and poetry readings. UCD also has a unique program, which focuses on recording arts and the music business.

So, if you're looking for a great college experience on an environmentally conscious campus in a progressive city, offering lots of great activities and beautiful scenery, then check out a college video tour of Colorado Denver University, http://www.youniversitytv.com/colorado_denver_university.html, and learn more today.

-- Submitted by M. K. from Irvine, California, United States through the CollegeRecruiter.com Career Blog Application on Facebook.com.

-- Submitted by A. T. from Oakland, California, United States through the CollegeRecruiter.com Career Blog Application on Facebook.com.

1. How did you get started with social media?

Back in 2003/4 I was starting to see the rise of blogs, and contemplating from the outside how they might affect my work (as a marketing manager at a small research company at the time). I ended up leaving and getting back into PR agency life before I could act on it, other than a tentative start at my own blog in early 2005.

Very first impressions? I don't need to know what my friends are doing at every given moment- this was October 2006. In Late February 2007, I started to see some of these friends get some real utility out of twitter (see this post for a very brief description)

I finally gave in on on March 1, and still was skeptical of the noise, and wrote this post but followed only a week later with this one.

3. How did you create a job opportunity through Twitter?

What I did to create opportunity was to network with other PR people. One of those was SHIFT Communications principal Todd Defren. We were actually direct-messaging back and forth about some industry questions we had for each other (I would often come and comment on his blog, even though we were technically competitors), and at one point he flat out asked me if I would consider putting myself up for a position that was opening.

4. What is your current job, and do you use Twitter for it?

I am an Account Director at SHIFT Communications, overseeing an account team and working with clients at the program strategy level. I do use twitter- I'll promote news for clients and the agency on my own account (with disclosure), but more importantly advise clients on their own use of twitter (among other tools).

5. Now that you're a Twitter success story, what would you recommend our readers do to follow in your footsteps?

Find people to network with - people who are in your industry as well as people in your clients' industries. The conversations you start and take part in will enhance your standing as an engaged careerist, and a plugged in worker.

Conclusion

Doug notes, "If people you need or want to reach on Twitter aren't on Twitter, go where they are - that's most important." That could be LinkedIn, blogs, Facebook, or anywhere else they're active online.

Doug's story is an inspiration to job seekers everywhere, demonstrating that you can get a job through social media if you use it properly. There is a lot of clutter and noise on the web, so make sure you connect with the right people and turn that connection into something real.

If you know anyone else who has had success via social media to get a job, let us know so that we can feature them!

Article by, Trace Cohen and courtesy of Brand-Yourself.com for actionable tips to put you in a position of power in the job market

It is important to realize the position of the person across the table from you when you are in an interview. The potential employer is looking to find insight into how you act on your feet, how well you can think through problems and all in all how well you would work within the company.

After that initial realization of everyone's expectations here are 5 tips to help you figure out how to interview well.

1. Don't launch into your answers. Take a few moments to collect your thoughts then give a good answer rather than a fast answer.
2. Practice practice practice. I cannot emphasize how important it is to get comfortable being asked questions and having to respond. You do not want the interview to be the place you are being asked your first questions on the spot.
3. Know your strengths. It is important to show off in the interview what you are good at. This helps you control the conversation a bit more and makes sure that you cover the important topics.
4. Stay calm. No matter what happens it is important that you stay calm. You are in a tough position, you want to stay relaxed and roll with the punches.
5. Know your employer. This is probably one of the most important aspects of how to interview well. You need to know something about your employer. If you can't do the research up front they will think you don't care. It should only take 15 minutes on the web to discover some important news.

Interviewing well is not something that is going to come easy. It is important that you figure out how to interview well early on so that you do not miss job opportunities.

Article by, RJ Sherman and courtesy of Brand-Yourself.com for actionable tips to put you in a position of power in the job market

Athletes at the College of Mount Saint Vincent compete in division three athletics, and the school has seven men's teams and eight women's teams. Many students live in the new or recently renovated five residence halls on campus, which feature traditional and suite style rooms. CMSV also has its own student run television and radio station, along with volunteer services and campus ministry for students.

So, if you're interested in getting a taste of what you're about to commit to before you even earn your degree, by taking advantage of internship opportunities, then watch a college video tour of the College of Mount Saint Vincent, http://www.youniversitytv.com/college_mount_st_vincent.html, and learn more today.