The MindSumo Blog

Using challenges to help companies discover new ideas.

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Earn Money on MindSumo: 5 Tips to Win

Solving challenges on MindSumo is fun. Winning challenges on MindSumo is really fun! We want to make sure all of our student users have a great chance to win whether it’s the first time they’ve solved or the 100th. Follow these 5 tips to get better ratings and win points (cash) for your work!

1. Include Media

The core to a successful MindSumo submission is a unique and useful idea, but you also need to effectively communicate that idea.

Including an image, chart, diagram, mockup, or other visual can help challenge judges better understand your idea.

Including a video with your submission is great too (put a YouTube or Dropbox link at the top of the submission field). It can be a demonstration or just you on your webcam discussing your solution. Keep it short!

2. Organize Your Submission

Giant walls of texts are difficult and annoying to read. Separating your thoughts out into several paragraphs and easy-to-read bullet points is a great way to go. Separating those bullet points to match the numbered deliverable items (1,2,3,4) is even better!

Bolding key parts of your entry and italicizing persuasive points helps readers understand your tone.

This isn’t a college essay with a page count, communicate your ideas quickly and effectively, not with as many words as possible.

Putting all your info into a .PDF with images or a powerpoint, prezi, slideshare, or other presentation is what our most consistent winners do! (Be sure you submit text as well)

3. Cite Some Sources

Your own unique ideas that are based on speculation can be helpful to companies for sure, but backing them up with real statistics lets companies know you really did your research, and that your idea is based in current facts and trends.

4. Follow the Instructions

Almost every challenge has a set of numbered deliverables. Typically these are the exact items the host wants to make sure you address. Make sure you list your response to each one in your submission

Reading the introduction is going to get you into the headspace of where the challenge is coming from and better frame your solution.

Many challenges also have “things to consider” that will help you refine your idea once you come up with it.

5. Say Something Original and Valuable

The goal of most MindSumo challenges is to source new ideas! If you’re proposing a new scent for a shampoo, they’ve probably already considered apple. Maybe an apple-cranberry-kombucha shampoo with a corgi logo might catch that challenge host’s attention!

Another example: Companies know how to use social media. If you tell them to “promote idea X on Facebook”, you aren’t providing any valuable information for them. If you’re going to suggest social media promotion, make sure you include novel posts, suggest target markets, and make up new hashtags with explanations of why they’ll catch on!

It can be fun to quickly put together an idea to try and win a prize, but putting an extra 10 minutes of effort in to organize your thoughts, snag an image, and cite a source will make you much more likely to win $$$.

Please comment below with any tactics we forgot that helped you get a high rating from the host company!

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Rewards Are Changing

MindSumo is switching its rewards system from money to points as of July 1, 2016. This change should increase the prize pool for each challenge, allowing us to reward the top 50% of solvers, as opposed to 10% or less in the current structure.

Here is some more info about the upcoming changes:

We’re increasing prize pool per challenge by 60%

Points can be converted to money and cashed out at any time, with no threshold

Half of the submitters to each challenge will win some reward

Points will be the only reward mechanism on MindSumo and will be given proportionally based on the quality of ideas you submit to challenges.

These changes will affect your current reward balance.

Here's how:

Bonus rewards (like the signup or first solution bonuses) will be removed entirely on July 1. We are moving the funds from these bonuses to challenges, so the prize pools can increase.

If you've made referrals and have at least $5 in the referral rewards category, you can cash out now throughJune 30, 2016.

If you were chosen as a winner or honorable mention on a challenge, your rewards (minus bonuses) will be converted to points if you don't manually cash out before July 1, 2016.

For challenges already launched, the reward amounts will stay the same. For example, if the challenge lists 5 x $150 winners and 5 x $50 honorable mentions, the points awarded will match those values.

We're excited about this change and very confident it'll will result in a better experience for our student users. Feel free to reach out with any questions or feedback.

Rohan

CTO, MindSumo

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Do Interns Really Contribute Growth To Your Business?

Interns are young, fresh, and eager to learn. However, some employers are hesitant to put their trust in interns. They worry: are interns really effective? Can they help grow your business to some extent? When the situation is approached correctly, the answer is yes.

Principally, because they are excited to be part of a team and they are willing to work to impress.

Below, here’s our advice on how interns can contribute to your business, and some tips for smooth intern onboarding and management.

1. Interns want to expand their horizons.

Interns tend to be motivated and driven. They are a self-selected group who has gone beyond the responsibility of full-time student to look for more learning opportunities. What’s more, they recognize that the skills they learn with you can help them build their future careers.

Many interns enter the office with an “I can do it all” attitude. However, there are benefits to defining an intern’s sphere of influence in the office. Principally, doing so allows for less heavy-handed management, which saves time on your end.

At Appfluence, where I was hired as an intern via MindSumo, each intern handles one, specific initiative. This allows for less time spent onboarding, development of a specific skillset, and more time spent on the actual work.

2. If interns have a positive experience working with your business, they will be happy to tell others about it.

We always want our company or product to shed a good image in the limelight. When people spread good words, our business has the potential to grow. According to this article from Enterprise Nation:

“[Interns] can also become a walking recommendation for your business. If you’ve provided an interesting and valuable internship, then when the intern moves on they’ll be happy to tell people how great it was working for your business. Word-of-mouth recommendation is extremely powerful and it’s worth investing the time in making an internship genuinely worthwhile for this reason alone.”

Give your intern a happy experience, and they will make sure to spread the word.

Make sure to have a final conversation with your interns at the end of their stay with your company to smooth over any final details, and make sure everybody leaves the experience on a good note.

3. Interns are relatively inexpensive.

Interns are usually college students, who are happy to work for reasonable pay. The benefits on your part are that your intern will not be an employee (rather, they will most likely be an independent contractor), so you will not have to provide them benefits, insurance, etc.

Just take Barbara Weltman’s advice, and “keep in mind that even though you are offering training, you still must adhere to the Fair Labor Standards Act with respect to minimum wage and overtime rules (even for interns).”

4. Interns can lighten your tedious workload, so you can focus on more impactful work.  

President Eisenhower designed the Eisenhower Method of prioritization pictured below. Based on this methodology, he divided his workload into two categories: Critical and Urgent.

The third quadrant in the box, Not Critical, but Urgent, contains tasks that should be delegated to others. Think pesky paperwork and rescheduling meetings. While it is essential that the task gets done, it is not essential that you be the one to do it. These tasks do not demand your expertise, and should ideally be delegated to someone else on your staff.

Interns enjoy the responsibility of acting as the right-hand man (or woman) to a full-time employee, and this allows you to accomplish even more with the time that this saves you.

For interns working remotely, try a delegation tool like Priority Matrix to facilitate communication and keep visibility of what your interns are working on.

5. With proper training and stellar mentors, interns can rise to the top.

Take time with your intern, be clear about your expectations, answer questions, and give specific directions. While this might take some time out of your routine at the beginning, it will be beneficial in the long run because your intern will learn how things are done correctly.

If your internships have the potential to last more than a couple of months, the more you invest on the front end, the more you will gain in the long run.

Rather than simply assigning tasks, make sure to explain the logic behind the workflow, so that interns can grow into more independent employees that require less coaching. With this goal in mind, they are primed to become full-time employees after graduation.

6. You are making a difference in their lives.

Yes, that might sound cheesy, but you are.

It’s fair to say that along the way, each of us has learned from somebody who helped us become a better professional. When taking on interns, you help a young person acquire the skills that are necessary in the workplace and for their future jobs.

Along with training in your specific industry and role, consider offering tips into best practices such as a new resume layout or insight into how to write better follow-up emails to other potential employers.

7. You may find your next great employee!

Your intern may become an asset to your business as soon as they are fully trained on the job. Who is a better person to hire than somebody who has learned your company inside and out?

In conclusion

Some employers are skeptical to hire interns because they believe they are inexperienced; however, how does one get experience if nobody will give them a chance?

When hiring interns, remember: clearly define the initiatives that each intern will take on, invest in training each intern rather than simply delegating busy-work, and offer mentorship outside daily responsibilities.

In the long run, interns can help your company achieve success.

About the Author:

Danielle Levine is a content marketing assistant for Appfluence. Appfluence is the creator of Priority Matrix, a collaboration tool that allows teams to work together more efficiently. When Danielle isn’t reading up on the latest about productivity, she’s writing about it on the Appfluence, Productivity 101.

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Social Media Sharing Tips #5: Instagram Success

Despite being one of the newest social networks, Instagram is also one of the most popular with over 300 million monthly active users. Facebook use is in decline amongst younger demographics (new signups have decreased steadily for the last 3 years), and Twitter is also growing more slowly than ever before. Here’s some tips to get the most out of the photo-based platform:

Post web content: Instagram feeds can get clogged with selfies and poorly lit photos of your friends’ lunches. If you want to stand out, pull some text, make a meme, or repost a screencap from your exploration on the web. You can even imitate the likes of @TheFatJewish and post a screencap from Twitter, combining text and an image into an eye grabbing post.

“Link In my Bio”: Instagram is restrictive in that you cannot post links outside the app in the description of your photos and videos. The easiest way to get around this is to post a link in your bio on your Instagram profile page, and mention in your description that that there is a link to more content just one tap on your username away.

Try a video: It’s still a relatively new feature, but when you post a video to Instagram, you’re able to communicate much more than if you’re simply dropping a photo into your follower’s streams. If you’re promoting a product or an event, shoot a 10 second cut of yourself talking about it and post that to clearly communicate your goal to your audience.

Cross promote to Facebook: On Facebook, images get much more traction that posts that consist only of text. So if you’re posting to Instagram, share that post to your Facebook as well to get more likes and comments than if you had shared on Facebook separately.

Despite being a more closed social network, Instagram can still be a valuable tool to spread the word about things that live elsewhere on the web. If you have concerns about cluttering your profile with endorsements, just know you can go back into your profile and delete them later! If nothing else, an Instagram post can be a great way to supplement and highlight your efforts on other networks.

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Social Media Sharing Tips #4: Story Telling

It’s one thing to share on social media that you had a salad for lunch. It’s another to share that you bought the salad after meeting someone in line at the cafe that worked on the television show on the shirt you’re wearing. Crafting a compelling story behind a social media post can help you connect more directly with your audience and more clearly communicate any message than sharing something point blank. Here’s how to turn a pointless post into an awesome anecdote:

Create a narrative: Especially in cases where you’re promoting a product or service and not just sharing about your life, it’s always smart to bring things around to your subject indirectly. Highlight the context of where a product could be useful, and create a story around the product prevailing in that scenario.

Tie in friends: If you’re writing a story, it has to have compelling characters, so why not tag and include some of your social media contacts to bring them in on the fun? “Steve and I got lost and wound up using our #NewGPS...” is a lot more interesting than “Check out #NewGPS”. Bonus points for tying in a real life scenario you experienced with friends.

Use images: Posts with images to get more engagement. Tweets with images receive 18% more clicks, 89% more favorites and 150% more retweets. Whether you take a picture of yourself with a product, feature it as the entire image, or pull a stock photo from the web, you’re statistically set to get better traction.

When it comes right down to it, any sharing on social media is designed to educate, inform, and engage your audience. There’s no better way to accomplish this goal than by roping your audience in with compelling storytelling.

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Social Media Sharing Tips #3: Direct Outreach

When it comes to social media sharing, the first thing that comes to most people’s mind is posting a Facebook status or perhaps tweeting. However, not everything on social media has to be shouted out from a virtual rooftop. Often times a digital conversation via personal message can be the most effective way to make things happen online. The next time you’re trying to get traction for something you’re sharing, try using a direct message instead:

Why to use a direct message:

It’s Personal: When you post a status, it’s easy for your audience to breeze by it under the assumption that they are not the target audience. A personal message lets the recipient know that you meant to reach them specifically.

They’ll want to help: Your message recipient might not feel a need to help out or take the action you desired. When you reach out directly, they’ll know that you took the time to send them a message, and that

Example of a direct message:

How to write a great direct message:

Ask for more: Don’t be afraid to ask whoever you’re contacting to share with their friends as well. It can’t hurt to encourage people to share more!

Explain what you’re up to: If you’re part of the MindSumo influencer program or promoting for any cause, don’t be afraid to let people know why you’re messaging them. Giving context to your activity will help your message recipient understand and want to engage with your content.

Send a lot: When you have a good individual message, use copy and paste (don’t forget to switch out the person’s name!) to send it to as many friends as you can. Sending 20 messages should only take a few more minutes than posting one status or tweet, and is likely to have even better results.

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Social Media Sharing Tips #2: A Call To Action

It might sound a bit cheesy, but a solid “call to action” can be the difference between a post that engages it’s audience and one that gets scrolled past and forgotten immediately. So what is a call to action? It’s the response that you want your audience to take from a given post. Adding “please share to raise awareness” to a post about an important social issue might seem too obvious, but it’s a necessary evil of making things happen on the web. If you’re still doubting, read on:

Why you need a call to action:

People don’t know what you want them to do: Even if most of your audience knows what Kickstarter is, the 15% that doesn’t is the difference between an A+ and a B- post. Besides, your out of touch Aunt that overshares on Facebook won’t see the opportunity to repost your content if you don’t help her out!

People won’t do it unless you ask: The intended course of action relating to your post might be obvious, but that doesn’t mean people will follow through. If you’re making an ask in your post, let it be known! Otherwise you’ll be subject to the fickle attention spans of today’s digital audience. They’d rather scroll past your content to the next cat video.

Some potential calls to action:

Click

Buy

Share

Download

Like

Comment

Follow

Facebook knows that calls to action lead to better results. Here are the ones they suggest for ads:

How to write a great call to action:

Open with your call: Start your post with a “Check this out:” or “Take a second to look at this-”. If you begin with suggestions for how to engage with your content, people will look into your post primed with the idea to take a closer look at it.

Add urgency: Your readers should feel that your post is special amongst all the social noise out there. If you’re running a Kickstarter, then you’re almost out of your best rewards. If you’re selling tickets then you’re almost sold out. If you’re sharing tech, then it’s the hot new item the web can’t stop talking about.

Keep it brief: If you’re sharing a link, everything you want to share should be just a click away. Don’t over inform your readers with lengthy descriptions and explanations, pique their curiosity and then lead them to your call to action for more.

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Social Media Sharing Tips #1: Timing Your Posts

This will be the first in a weekly series of posts for MindSumo Influencers and anyone else that’s looking for tips and tricks to get the most out of their social media shares. Whether you’re promoting a product or just trying to catch more likes, check in each Wednesday afternoon for strategies to maximize the impact of your posts.

Have you ever asked yourself: “Why didn’t I get more likes on my new profile picture?” Well, it’s probably because you posted it at 11:00 PM on a Monday. You may have not realized it but the time of day that you post a new status, tweet, or picture changes how many people see it, how many likes it will garner, and the overall impact it will have on the digital world.

Read on for sharing tips from some of the most popular social networks:

Facebook

Thursday and Friday are your best time to post, because everyone is excited about the upcoming weekend and are starting to get tired of work.

The optimal time of day would be 1-4 PM in the time zone where most of your friends are. If you post at these times, you are likely to get a few likes initially, and then prominently displayed to users that are on their commute home or are bored at their desks.

Twitter

For Twitter, try to post at lunch time, and then again in the evening. You can catch people flicking through their feeds while they chow down (post at 12-1 PM local time), and then again after they finish their day (post at 5-6 PM local time).

Don’t worry about posting twice! People don’t always catch everything in their newsfeed, and you don’t want them to miss your message.

Instagram

Instagram has two periods of heated activity. After work when users can view photos of their friends at the beach without the added agony of being at a desk themselves, and before bed where people view their friends photos before they drift off and likely dream that they’re on their phones as well.

Post to Instagram at 5 PM to catch the after work crowd, or at midnight to capture those laying in bed in the light of their phone screens.

LinkedIn

Considering it’s the professional social network, it’s not a huge schocker to find out people are on their LinkedIn most often from 9-5.

Make sure that you post on a weekday, and try to do so at 12 PM to catch people scouring for new jobs on their lunch break.

Take a look at the infographic below for more stats, details, and reasoning as to why the timing of your post can be the difference between starting the next web-wide conversation, or talking to yourself in an empty digital room.

View the infographic and the article accompanying it in full here

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How to Add Projects to Your LinkedIn Profile

Adding projects (like MindSumo challenges) to your LinkedIn profile is a brilliant way to show employers that you take initiative and apply your skills outside the classroom. 

In this post you'll find the 5 easy steps to get that project onto your profile. While you're at it, consider adding it to your resume as well!

1. Add a Section to Your Profile

Go to "Edit Profile" and click on the "View More" button to see all the profile sections available. 

2. Select Projects 

Click on the Projects tile.

3. Enter a project Name and Date

For a MindSumo Challenge, we suggest writing the title and company in the Name field. E.g. "How would you improve sock elasticity? by Nike"

4. Add a URL to Your Project

This is hugely important because it gives potential employers and recruiters the opportunity to view your work! For a MindSumo Challenge, link directly to your solution.

5. Add a Description

Tell others what the project was about. Usually 2 sentences is plenty. Here's a sample - "Participated in a Nike project on MindSumo. Proposed a unique synthetic material to improve elasticity and reduce wear over long periods of time."

Any other pointers? Add them in the comments below!

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MindSumo Lands $50K Grand Prize at Close It Summit

Earns highest honors at Jobs Madness pitch competition

MindSumo, Inc. (https://www.mindsumo.com) was awarded the grand prize at Close It Summit (http://closeit.org/jobsmadness/) in Washington D.C. on October 28th, taking home $50,000. This capped off a six week journey, during which MindSumo competed with 36 innovative recruiting-based companies in three different stages of competition. Six finalists were chosen to present at the Summit conference.  These included: The Reset Foundation, HirePurpose, Treehouse, Akimbo, Enstitute, and MindSumo.

"It was an incredible experience to be surrounded by such inspiring entrepreneurs who are solving our country's employment problems", said Keaton Swett, President and Co-Founder of MindSumo. "I'm thrilled that our vision of bringing project-based hiring to students was one that resonated with the judges."  The Reset Foundation took home the 2nd place prize of $35,000, with HirePurpose rounding out the top three with $15,000.  

This milestone comes at a great time for MindSumo, as it reaches its third birthday and recently announced student users at over 900 universities across the United States. MindSumo plans to invest the prize money in efforts that will help expand its network of students and universities.  

About MindSumo

MindSumo helps students transition from college to the workforce. The company offers students real-world challenges and mentors to build their skills and network. MindSumo in turn uses this proprietary data to match students to relevant companies - reducing the candidate to hire ratio from 100:1 to approximately 30:1. MindSumo boasts over 150 clients and 50,000 students on the platform. For more information, visit www.mindsumo.com

About The Close It Summit

The Close It Summit is a national call to action for industry, education, workforce, government, youth innovators, foundations and social impact organizations actively engaged in creating new pathways from education to employment. Close It is focusing on four key issues critical to jobs and employability in the U.S. — youth employment, skills & credentials in high demand fields, increasing access and opportunity to curriculum and training (Skill Up) and the critical importance of employability (soft) skills. For more information, visit www.closeit.org

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Tackling a Challenge: Finding Correlated Securities

By: Tyler Beason

Recently, I completed a project that was a challenge posted on MindSumo. MindSumo is a site where companies can post challenges with rewards for students to compete to solve. The challenge was to find securities in the DJIA whose prices behaved similarly over a period of roughly 2 years (data set was provided). This problem of finding correlated securities was interesting, so I thought I'd share my solution here.

To be more specific about the challenge, we were asked to create 2 or more indices of securities from the Dow. The program had to output the lists, and there was sort of a subtle hint that there should be some visualization of data as a result as well. Top 5 solutions get $150 = I'm in.

My Solution

I decided to use Excel and VBA because, well, it's easier that way. The stock data was saved as .csv files in a single folder, so I just needed to open them and put everything I needed on one sheet - something I've done before. No reason to make this overly complicated, I'll stick to the Basics (get it? VBA...Basics...nevermind).

The stock data we received was essentially the usual output from Yahoo Finance, except that the company name was placed on the sheet as well (for easy access I suppose). I decided to only use the Adjusted Close prices, since the time period was long enough that accounting for dividends and/or splits was necessary. So, I created one sheet containing the adjusted close prices for each security. The frequency was daily, just to be clear.

Once I had the prices for each security, I calculated the daily return for each as well. We typically deal with returns in class, and many models use return rather than price, so this may have been strictly out of habit. I also calculated the trailing 30-day standard deviation of the prices. Each of these were calculated and placed on a separate worksheet. Ultimately, these things were a complete waste of time, and I wish I would have known in advance that they would be useless to me later on. After creating all of those extra sheets, it was time to begin to tackle the real problem - finding correlated securities. Most people would have reached for the standard correlation matrix first, but not I. It was (almost) immediately apparent to me what a rabbit-hole the correlation matrix would be, and how painful it would be to work with it. If you insisted on a minimum correlation between every stock, no stocks would ever be selected. Thus, I thought of a new way to approach the problem. Perhaps rather than looking at the correlation of every individual stock pairing, what if I could look at only 30? But how would I even go about doing that? Well, this is where a bit of luck was involved. Recall that the transitive property is "A = C and B = C implies A = B". So, two different quantities being equal to a third different quantity means that everything is equal. In this case, I would just need some independent reference point to compare correlations with. I decided to use the average price of the stocks in the index as this reference point. For each day, I sum up the prices of every security in the index and divide by the total number of securities in the index. After that, I took the correlation of this series with each series of security prices. Unfortunately, correlation doesn't have a transitive property in theory. However, as all of the correlations approach 1, the transitive property comes back into play because a correlation of 1 implies that they move together exactly. Luckily, stock prices move together quite frequently! There were quite a number of stocks that had correlations with the average security price that topped 0.9. In fact, over half of the stocks were over 0.9. There were ten stocks that had a correlation with the average security price of the index that was over 0.95, which I thought was truly astonishing. Since 0.95 is pretty close to one, I think it is safe to assume that these ten stocks will all be highly correlated with each other. With that discovery, the work for portfolio #1 was done! Regretfully, it took many hours to figure this out the first time. My moment of joy was quickly overrun with new ideas for my next portfolio (I needed a minimum of two, remember?). At this point in the process, I was lost. Daily return and rolling 30-day variance proved to have very little correlation when compared to prices. Eventually, I had to face the facts that I could not escape the correlation matrix. I would have to tackle it head-first...or maybe I wouldn't. A sort-of logical next step would be to look at the average correlations among the stocks. To do this, I created a full correlation matrix and each column. I subtracted 1 from each sum to exclude a stock's correlation with itself. I then divided the sum by N-1 to find the average correlation that stock has with the other stocks in the index. This was not as foolproof as the first method, but it seemed to work well enough; over half of the securities had average correlations of 0.75 or higher. I took the ten stocks with the highest average correlations to be portfolio #2. It was near this time that tragedy struck. Somehow, Microsoft screwed me over. I don't know how, but they should know that I have a very particular set of skills, and when I find them.....Long story short, my file got corrupted and I lost hours of work. I have a decent memory, so I was able to recreate everything that had been lost, and I was just thankful that I didn't lose everything. I will say that I had been saving frequently and that AutoRecover was absolutely zero help this time. Once I had recovered from the setbacks, I set out to find a third approach to the problem. I stepped back and tried to simplify my thinking, and I'm glad I did. I began to ask myself, "If I was just handed a chart of security prices, how would I identify those that behaved similarly?" That question got my mind out of the world of data-crunching long enough to see the third part of the solution - draw a line! To be more specific, securities that had similar trendlines would be securities that in some way "moved together". So, I use simple regression to find the line of best fit for each security, and I took the group of 10 that had the most similar slopes. Certainly not a slam dunk like the first method, but it does give some sort of answer to the question. To polish it off, I created a summary worksheet and also made charts for each index of 10 securities. As a teaser, here is the chart for index 1. It is pretty easy to see that the stocks make significant movements together. Chart of Index 1

The contest isn't over yet, so congrats if you found this and rip off my idea! Seriously though, I hope my ideas help somebody else tackle this problem in the future. I also hope that I win some money from this, especially after the technical frustrations it put me through (I'll update this post if I win). I'll probably end up doing some more MindSumo challenges once I get some extra time on my hands, and I will make sure to post about them as I complete them. If they are at all like this one, challenging but fun, I would recommend them to all students.

This piece was originally posted on http://financecore.blogspot.com/2014/10/finding-correlated-securities.html

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3 ways to brand yourself beyond your college major

By: Trent Hazy - CEO, MindSumo

The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) recently bragged about the increasing rate of graduating seniors visiting the college career center (49.8% in 2014).

You'd guess this would lead to better hiring outcomes for grads. Unfortunately, it didn't make much of a difference. The article explains:

The offer rate for those who used the career center improved modestly, increasing by 1.3 percent over those who did not use the career center

This tells me that college students really need to take matters into their own hands if they are going to maximize their chances of getting a job by graduation.

One topic career centers, parents, and professors rarely discuss is how to pitch yourself as more than just your major. Chances are, you selected your course of study as a freshman or sophomore, and the last thing you were thinking about was your career.

As a mentor on MindSumo, I've mentored dozens of college students. Here are a few tips I give them about how you can portray yourself as knowledgable in fields other than your major:

1. List Relevant Coursework

If you've taken classes related to a job you're applying to, list them on your resume! Even if it's an introductory class, showing your academic exposure to Accounting, Engineering, Marketing or other job-related skills can really boost your image as a relevant candidate. This section (often called Relevant Coursework) is usually at the top of your resume under the Education section, right under your degree.

This is an easy section to customize for specific jobs, just by adding a class or two that's extremely relevant. Don't shy away from one-unit seminars or independent study -- highlight any education you have related to the job at hand. And don't be afraid to add an explanation about what coursework you did in a class. For example, maybe you are applying to a job at a mobile tech company and you took Sociology 101 and wrote about how mobile devices influence online shopping decisions in your major research paper. Mention this! (i.e. "Sociology 101 -- focus on mobile technology")

2. Join and Lead Clubs & Groups

Recruiters love seeing your passions manifested in places beyond the classroom. If you're a History major interested in graphic design, join a campus organization in that field. If it doesn't exist, you can put your initiative on display and start the organization yourself! I see most students list groups and clubs on their resume under Activities & Interests (after Education and Experience). If you have had significant leadership positions in relevant clubs and activities, don't be scared to put this under "Experience" -- you want to emphasize your most compelling experience towards the top of your resume.

3. Tackle Independent Projects

Doing projects on your own is the closest you can get to internship experience without an official internship. This could include building a website, selling scarves, designing brochures/posters, running social media for your uncle's practice, shadowing a family friend, etc. I know how valuable this can be, since MindSumo helps students tackle projects (in addition to our mentor program). Research shows that a project or work sample can help increase recruiters' ability to predict your work performance by 40%.

At the end of the day, no matter how you brand yourself, remember that your major does not have to be a set of handcuffs forcing you into a specific line of work. Explore as much as possible, and use your experiences to show businesses you can make it in a field you care about.

~~~

This article was originally posted on LinkedIn here:: https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140818002715-69425134-3-ways-to-brand-yourself-beyond-your-college-major

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Choosing Your Major

Guest Blogger: Aileen Gutierrez, Student at Wuhan University

Even if you’re just beginning college, it’s never too early to start thinking about you major. I made this important decision in high school. During freshman year, my parents recommended that I choose either engineering or finance.  Despite my poor math skills, I found science more interesting; I could spend hours wondering why ice floats on water, or pondering how cells divide. I found these questions in nature particularly fascinating, so I picked engineering and began applying to universities.

(Skipping the gruesome details of the college admissions process) Wuhan University accepted me to study environmental engineering. In China, freshmen have one month of military training-- I used that month to get to know the city and take some classes, including an environmental engineering course.  I quickly began to doubt my decision; I noticed it took effort (and some reminding) to read up on the latest science news, but I enjoyed reading about economics or business unprompted. I was naturally interested in economics and business and, in the end, I switched my major.

In conclusion, here are some steps to help you choose your major:

1. Be realistic about your skills, and spend more time developing them (this doesn’t mean to give up on your areas of weakness. Instead, nurture what you already have).

2. Appreciate what you’re naturally interested in. You will spend a lot of time learning about your chosen major, so it should be something you want to do, not something that you have to force yourself into. By extension, don’t force yourself into a field you aren’t truly interested in.

3. Be strategic. Make a plan that includes your classes, your specialization within your major, and any skills you’d like to develop for a future career.

Remember-- Start thinking about your major early, but don’t be afraid to change your mind.

[mindsumo]

The Evolution of College Students

Guest Blogger: Monica Gomez

Previous generations may have been able to get away without a college education, but today’s statistics back up the claim that you are likely to earn more with a postsecondary education than with a high school diploma alone.

The following infographic from Carrington.edu shows that Americans value a college education, if the increased numbers of college students over the past few decades is any indication. As the infographic reports, the number of college students in the U.S. is now at record levels. In the 1960s, 1.3 million high school grads enrolled in college; by the 21st century, this number had reached 20.4 million students, reflecting over half of the country’s total high school graduates.

Other trends include the increase in the proportion of women who are attending college, with 45% of female high school graduates attending college in the 1960s, and 55% of them attending college in the 2000s. Interesting, the number of men attending college has fluctuated greatly in the last 50 years, and the percentage of male high school grads attending college is now 45%, compared to 57% in the 1960s.

The technological advances have been stunning. You may not remember the handheld calculator or audiocassettes of the 1960s, but your parents and grandparents were probably impressed by these pieces of technology when they first came about. BASIC computer language was another invention of the time, but college students may have graduated without ever working on a computer.

The introduction of word processing in the 1970s made many college students’ lives infinitely easier, as the ability to delete and edit your work may have saved them hours of frustration, unlike the typewriter. And the Walkman gave us a glimpse at our current on-the-go technology – for the first time; students were able to listen to music as they walked to and from class. The 1980s saw the Apple Macintosh and IBM PC, making the paper-writing process easier once again.

The World Wide Web revolutionized higher education, and since the 1990s and 2000s, college students have been able to attend classes remotely and avoid carrying heavy books. New technology includes smartphones and hybrid cars, but these too may quickly seem mundane. What new technology will be next to impress today’s college students?

Check out the infographic here!

[mindsumo]

4 Things to Help Freshmen Pick The Right Future

Guest Blogger: Pallavi Kalva - freshman at The Ohio State University studying computer science and engineering

1) High school courses contribute a lot towards your higher education. Start your first year of college with some credit hours in your bag. Whether it’s through earning AP credit or college credit in high school, this will one) save you money and two) give you time to explore majors. Instead of worrying about your general education courses, you can sit through classes to see what you want to pursue in.

2) Math/science or liberal arts? Majority of the major are divided into these two fields. Pick one and move forward with it. It’ll narrow your choices to something like engineering, business, pre-med vs, political science, education, communications. Anything pop out to you? If so, do your research! Not just about what your college offers for that specific major, but the types of internships/jobs you can get, the job demand, salary, locations, companies, etc.

3) Your advisor or counselor. Their job is to make sure you’re truly satisfied in the path you’re taking. If you’re confused, not sure, or worried, take the time to set an appointment with them and talk it out. Don’t feel obligated to solve everything by yourself, advisors will help you plan out exactly you need to do in order for you to succeed.

4) See what you excel in. The four years you’ve spent in high school should give you an idea of what you are good at. Clearly, if you’re good at something, it shows that you have an interest towards it. So whether it be math, science, history, or english, pick something you have a tight grip on and you’re happy studying.

[mindsumo]

How to Score Your Dream Summer Internship

Written by: Helen Fang (guest student blogger)

It’s February, and if you’re anything like me, it’s been pretty hard to think about summer internships when everything is still buried in a least a foot of snow. Except that so many of my friends already have their summers lined up...

Since this is my third year going through the process, and a lot of my experiences have been ones I’ve created for myself with companies that didn’t even have positions originally / had something different in mind for their intern, here’s what I’ve learned so far:

1. Figure out what you want

I know this is super broad and sometimes the hardest question to answer, but it helps to at least have some idea of what you’re looking for. You don’t have to have a specific internship in mind! Thinking about general areas can help a lot, too. For last summer, I started my search with literally the criteria of “I want to go somewhere far away and do something meaningful that’s EXCITING.”

I have friends who have narrowed it down by area of the world (ex: I’ve always wanted to go to Europe!), and friends who have targeted specific companies they wanted to work for. Anything goes -- just try and make some sort of list of what would be important to you.

For example: Do you want to go to a foreign country or stay in the USA? Do you want an internship or a study abroad program? Work for a big company or at a startup? Is there a particular area you’re passionate about (education -- technology -- environmental)? Is there a specific industry you want to work in (consulting -- nonprofit -- programming -- journalism)? Or even being able to figure out if there’s something you definitely don’t want to do.

And keep in mind - this isn’t a “set” list that you need to stick to - it’ll just give you somewhere to start, which is often the hardest part. It’ll probably change as you start applying places and talking to people, and that’s great. Staying open to a lot of different possibilities is often how you get the coolest and most rewarding experiences.

2. Use your obvious resources...

A great place to start your search is with your University’s career services. Most schools have some sort of database of summer internship opportunities, which can be a great place to start looking. You’ll definitely come upon some that sound exciting that you wouldn’t have thought of on your own.

You should also schedule an appointment with the career counselors at your undergraduate career services. They can be really helpful in helping you start your search, or even just helping you learn to navigate your school’s career website, and can often point you to things you missed. If you have specific interests, they will also probably be able to suggest people you can talk to or companies you can apply to. It’s literally their job to help you with this - so utilize them!

3. ...but don’t feel limited by them

Career services are only a starting point. There are a lot of places you can discover on your own, and oftentimes what you really want for your summer won’t necessarily be something that will be listed on your school’s career website...which brings me to my next point:

4. TALK TO PEOPLE

The people you know are your best resource. If you don’t take ANYTHING else away from this blog post, please remember this. Think about it. (I’m not talking about knowing the CEO of the company you want to work for). You’re surrounded by upperclassmen / friends / family / professors. Ask around, see what they’ve done with their summers. Chances are, even if they don’t have something that fits your interests, they know someone who’s done something cool with their summer in the area you’re interested in.

Something that really surprised me when I first started looking is that people want to help you. They will go out of their way to help you -- it’s exciting that you’re excited for your summer, it’s exciting that you’ve reached out to them, and they want to do everything they can. My school even has a database of alumni who work in different industries that are open to being contacted.

I was talking to someone about the possibility of taking an education internship in Kentucky for the summer, and at the end of our coffee chat it turned to conversation about our interests. I mentioned I loved soccer and he told me about a school in the area which had just started a soccer program and needed an assistant coach (I ended up getting to coach in the fall!!).

 5. Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want - they want you as much as you want them!

Last summer, I had committed to 6 weeks in London for study abroad, but found a fantastic nonprofit internship in a fishing village in Alaska after I had already decided on London! The dates were from July-August, but I contacted them and let them know how much I wanted to work there, and they were able to adjust the dates specifically for me - so I was able to spend half my summer (May-June) in Alaska and the other half in London.

I also had the chance last season to coach soccer at a high school, but it would mean having to quit my job at school and commit over 10 hours a week to coaching. I needed the income - so I talked to them about it, and they were able to give me a stipend for the season to partially offset my lost job.

And finally, I had read about a really cool running app (with over 300,000 users!) in PC Magazine, and saw that the owner had stated their greatest challenge was not having enough personnel at the time, I did some research and reached out to him to see if I could help, and ended up being able to blog for them during my summer in London!

6. And remember - the worst they can say is no

There will always be more opportunities and more chances out there, and even the people who say no might surprise you!

I interviewed for a position last summer and didn’t get it, but since it was in the same city in Alaska as I ended up working for, I gave a heads-up to the guy who interviewed me. He ended up meeting me once I got there to see what he could do to make sure I had a great summer outside of my internship. He ended up connecting me to the chance to volunteer at a summer music festival there, where I got free tickets to all the concerts and a private lesson from one of the world-famous cellists who was performing!

I hope these tips are helpful as you try to land YOUR perfect summer internship. 

Good luck!!

Helen Fang is currently a junior at Yale University “studying” Economics. Follow her on Twitter - @fang_helen.

[mindsumo]

Young and High-Strung

By Guest Blogger: Nick Fequiere

As a teenager or twenty-something year old, it often feels as if we have the weight of the world on our shoulders. We typically have to go to school, work a job or two, and still maintain relationships and household responsibilities. Believe me, I’ve been there. As a matter of fact, I’m still there. However, I never fail to comprehend the big picture. I understand that I’m going to school to do something I love (become a broadcaster and writer for ESPN, for those of you who were curious). I know far too many people who are paying thousands of dollars in tuition, not for their passion, but rather for a field that will offer more money or a course of study that their parents suggested.

What we all have to keep in mind is that no one can live our lives except us. Whether we make the right or wrong choices, we are usually the ones who have to reap the benefits or suffer the consequences. Some of us, me included, are working toward lofty goals in an effort to provide for our families. I don’t want that message to be misconstrued. Even though we are working toward helping and supporting our loved ones, the individual putting in the effort should come first the majority of the time. You have to appreciate yourself and the hard work you put into achieving your goals. You have to remember that you are making present sacrifices for future glory. You must never forget that, as Apollo Creed in Rocky III so aptly stated, “There is no tomorrow!”

Live, work, sweat, cry, and bleed like there is no tomorrow. Be aggressive. Be straightforward. As corny and naïve as it may sound, always aim for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars. Most importantly though, do not stress out. Maybe you missed an assignment or you failed a class, but you can’t change the past. Do not get me wrong; this isn’t to say that you should offer a half-hearted attempt at your education. In fact, my previous assertions state the exact opposite. I only mean that stressing often gets you nowhere; hard work and perseverance will take you farther than any amount of stress ever could.

However, I’d like to digress and return to my original point. Understand that life is far too short to worry so much about such a small portion of it. There are plenty of paths for you to take to achieve your goals, but all roads lead to Rome. Some take the traditional route and attend a four year university, while others enjoy a stint at junior college before transferring out. Others prefer to go to a trade school or a nursing school. While they may not be enrolled at the most prestigious of universities, at least they have structure and they know what they want; as opposed to the Liberal Studies major attending a state university and paying astronomically high prices for a general education.

It’s no wonder that students become so stressed when faced with the realities of failure within today’s educational system. A failing grade undoubtedly means hundreds of additional dollars spent on an already flawed process. Unfortunately, there are only so many options and we have to make the best of what we’ve got. Keep in mind that living in America, we have so many more opportunities than so many others around the world. Take advantage of every occasion, remain collected, and fight for your future like there’s no tomorrow.