This is a question we’ve been getting a lot lately at our professional resume service. I suppose it’s a sign of the times. It’s almost impossible to imagine a world without social networking. Facebook is so much a part of our everyday lives that it’s almost natural that job seekers – young professionals especially – feel like it’s a natural thing to put a link to their Facebook page on their resume.

But is this a good idea? Is it something you should actually consider doing?

I hate to hedge here, but my answer is: probably not.

My logic goes like this: for the vast majority of us, Facebook is a personal thing. It reflects our personal lives. So Facebook doesn’t reflect our professional lives, nor should it. You’ve all heard the horror stories about people getting fired because of something that was posted on their Facebook page. Even if you don’t face something that drastic, I still think you should keep a bit of a distance between your Facebook life and your professional life. Your Facebook page probably doesn’t belong on your resume. The hiring manager doesn’t care about your vacation photos, even if everyone is fully clothed in them.

Now, I know you can do all sorts of things to customize your public Facebook profile. If you’re a wizard who can outsmart Mark Zuckerberg’s constant tweaking of the privacy controls, in theory you could have a public Facebook profile that is all propriety and professionalism. But even if you do do this, I still say your Facebook profile is not professional enough to go on your resume. Facebook is just not assumed to be in, or appropriate for, the professional realm. So you run the risk of coming off like a naive kid if you put your Facebook link in at the top of your resume along with your email address and cell phone number.

But what about Twitter? Well, Twitter is a slightly different story. Twitter is used for personal stuff, but more often, it’s used for personal, professional branding. Building and cultivating an audience.

I’ve even recently made the case that Twitter handles are the new business cards.

So if you’re one of those life 2.0 people who has a Twitter account and you use it specifically as your professional face to create a brand, then yes, I think you should put @yourtwittername on your resume.

One final word on all of this. It should be obvious, but there’s a great service that from day one was designed to be the place you went to do professional social networking: LinkedIn. Your linked in profile can be like your professional Facebook profile. If you haven’t set up a LinkedIn profile, do it now, and add THAT link to your resume!

Related posts:

1. Your Facebook Resume
2. Busting The One Page Resume Myth
3. Twitter Accounts Are The New Business Cards

For new job seekers, those who are looking for their first job, realize that nearly everyone has been where you are. Everyone who has ever held a job, had to find that first one.

A couple of the pitfalls of finding that first job include wondering what skills you can bring to the table and having confidence in looking for, finding, applying, and interviewing for a job. Everyone gets nervous, no matter what level of job you are seeking. So realize that this is completely normal.

So, regarding your skills, you need to consider anything you have done currently or in the past. Did you say…ever do volunteer work at a function? What did you do when you volunteered? Did you say… take any extra- curricular topics in school, for instance, working on the school newspaper? If so, what did you do or learn? If you were on the newspaper, maybe you did interviews, editing, researching and the like. These could be valuable and marketable skills!

Did you do any long-term work for a relative or neighbor? For instance, did you spend a summer helping out in your grandmother’s store, even if you didn’t get paid? Did you work in the neighborhood’s community garden all summer and possibly learn about sprinkler repair, landscaping, or something that a hardware store or landscaping company may appreciate?

The point is, don’t sell yourself short. You may have more skills than you realize. Then, when you go to fill out an application or do an interview, remember you have these skills. They will help to give you confidence that you do bring something to the table.

What about the interview? Many sites on the web have sample questions and suggested answers. Practice them with a friend or relative. If you are in the interview, and feeling nervous, take a breath before answering to give yourself a moment.

Two more quick tips. One, keep your resume and cover letter tailored to the job you are trying for. Remember not to skimp on the skills or assume that just because you are trying for a job that the prospective employer knows your background. Tell them each time.

Second, look at every opportunity to fill out an application or do an interview as a learning experience. You may get the first opportunity you try for or you may not. You might feel disappointed and that’s fine but don’t let it keep you from moving forward to the next opportunity.

This is a guest post. About the author:

Related posts:

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2. How To: Job Fairs And How To Find A Job Therein
3. Filling Out Paper Job Applications: Unwritten Etiquette Rules for Requesting and Submitting

ACTUAL “CASE HISTORY”: Many of our friends, clients and colleagues have recently shared with us stories of recent college and grad school graduates unable to find jobs. Some grads who had job offers in hand have now had those job offers deferred, or even rescinded. It’s not surprising, given the state of our economy. But it remains disturbing to see so many educated, eager and hopeful folks facing difficulty getting started in life.

What should a recent grad do? Are there many steps that an unemployed graduate can take to help him or herself? Are there any helpful hints anyone can offer them?

For many years we have counseled and represented employees seeking new employment. Over that time we have developed a seven-step method we teach our clients, and others at our seminars, to help them negotiate and “navigate” employment matters. We call that method the Quality Vs. Power Method™ (or QVP™ for short.) While the overall seven-step QVP Method™ was not intended to be used by first-time job seekers, it’s first step holds the key, we believe, to what grads without jobs should do.

What is that first step? It is to assess, and build, your “Unique Human Capital” (or “UHC” for short.) A person’s Unique Human Capital is that set of attributes that make that person valuable to an employer, and uniquely so. Your UHC might be: (a) your ability to speak Mandarin Chinese; (b) your intimate knowledge of what drives the wholesale market for sugar; (c) the fact that the CEO of the company’s biggest client was your best buddy from summer camp; (d) your natural ability as a saleswoman; (e) your fame as an organic chemist. It’s something (or somethings) about you that make you stand out as a source of “value” to your interviewer.

We always counsel job seekers to consider what their “Unique Human Capital” is, and to develop, broaden and enhance it, in whatever way possible. We suggest they put together a list of their special knowledge, abilities, experiences, relations, fame, connections, resources and other attributes that make them special, unique, different and, most importantly, valuable, which means desirable and “hirable” to prospective employers. And that they continually reassess, develop, broaden and enhance their UHC. For those who have time on their hands – such as grads without jobs – now is a perfect time to do just that.

LESSON TO LEARN: Developing your Unique Human Capital, or UHC, is what is more likely than anything else in your life right now to get you a job. It’s UHC that will get your toe in the door, your resume read, your name remembered. Once you’re noticed, then it’s UHC that will get you contacted, and then the interview, the job, and the higher compensation.

Now is the time to enhance and create UHC, to add to your resume, to make your resume “special,” to make your resume “float” to the top of the pile, and to be that much more attractive to prospective employers, all while you are still without a job.

As an employer for many years, I review the resume of each candidate for employment, and say to myself, “What about this resume makes this candidate potentially valuable to me?” There are many things, but the most common are: experience, expertise and practical knowledge, all of which can be conveyed in a resume. Perhaps more than anyone, a grad without a job should spend at least some of his or her time gaining experience, expertise, understanding, familiarity with language, practical knowledge and – yes – even some of the “tricks” of the trade. This is what will get him or her a first job.

So, you ask, how does a recent graduate get experience, expertise and practical knowledge – and build an enhanced resume, without a job? In lots of ways; read on:

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Recent Grad Without a Job? Here are ten of the many ways you can help yourself get that job you so desperately want:

1. Watch “the Pros”: Want to be a trial lawyer? Go watch a few trials. Want to be fashion designer? Attend a few fashion shows. Want to be a television producer? Get tickets to watch the taping of a few television shows. Want to be a publisher? Attend a book signing. Go get “your hands dirty.” Want to be an economist? See if you can find any panel discussions, or legislative hearings to attend. You can learn an awful lot by simply observing, especially observing the “pros.” Your role models are just that: to be “modeled” From them you can learn, at the very least, how to “talk the talk.” Attendance at such functions means familiarity with how things work in “the real world.” That is valuable to employers, and will make your resume “different.”

2. Meet “the Pros”: Sure, this sounds bold and brash, but there is nothing wrong with expressing to a person that you admire that person and aspire to be what they have become. When you attend a trial, don’t be frightened to do just that with a trial attorney during an extended break, if the circumstances seem right. Alternatively, you may write to her, and express your admiration, and ask if she might have ten minutes to talk with you. There’s no law against writing to a CEO and asking him to give you ten minutes of his time to answer a few questions you have; he might just remember that he was once young and unemployed, himself. Putting “Met one-on-one with leaders in the industry” on your resume is a sure “mouth-dropper” to a resume-reader, and a sure conversation-starter in an interview.

3. Seek an Internship: Many, many years ago, the way people trained as craftsmen was to serve as an apprentice. To this day, we see the vestiges of that system among our electricians and plumbers, as examples. Today’s equivalent is the internship, which is growing by leaps and bounds in popularity. Many, many businesses offer internship opportunities which usually pay nothing or a minor stipend, but are worth their weight in gold for the exposure and experience they offer. Even if a company or organization does not have a formal policy regarding internships, don’t be afraid to request an informal internship in which you are, in effect, “the assistant’s assistant.” It is still possible to rise from the mailroom to the board room.

4. Volunteer to Gain Experience: Many charitable organizations assist those less fortunate in the same ways that businesses serve their customers and clients. Just as law firms give legal services to law clients, legal aide clinics give free legal advice and assistance to the poor and homeless. Likewise, just as luxury fashion houses assist their well-heeled customers look good, so do certain charities help the chronically unemployed find the right clothing to attend interviews. Many organizations help the homeless find new homes, just as real estate agents help the more affluent find apartments. You get the drift: You can “cut your teeth” on someone else’s watch and give your resulting experience to a new employer. Experiences that are readily available to you today spell “experienced” to a prospective employer who may view your resume tomorrow.

5. Join and Participate at Trade Associations: It can only help you – and your resume – to join, attend and participate in the American Nurses Organization, the Economist’s Club of Los Angeles, the American Title Insurance Association, the Illinois Society of Security Analysts, or the trade association you hope to one day lead. You can network, “learn the language,” gather interesting points and meet interesting people, and even possibly serve on a committee, all of which may be seen as valuable to a prospective employer. These indicate, too, that you are genuinely interested, if not impassioned, by your chosen field.

6. Attend Hearings, Conferences and Committee Meetings: Two young grads I know traveled to Washington, D.C. to observe Congressional Committee Hearings about conflicts of interest in executive compensation. Both sought jobs in related fields: one in Executive Recruitment; the other in Human Resources Consulting. In their resumes and in their cover letters, both highlighted what they had learned, who they had met, and what they thought the future would bring regarding regulatory oversight of executive bonuses. Both wrote summaries of the proposed regulations being discussed in Congress, and attached them to their resumes. Both got jobs. Coincidence? I think not.

7. Seek a Mentor: Though surely “outside the box,” I have heard of young grads without jobs asking senior executives or retired professionals, if they might be so kind as to offer “counsel” to someone just starting out. I think it’s a great idea, no matter how minimal the chances might be. If you’re out of school, and not yet employed, what better thing could you do? If you have the boldness and chutzpah to do just that, you might make the most important introduction of your life.

8. Join a Job Search Group: One of the up-and-coming ways to search for employment is by joining a job search group. These groups meet on a regular basis, often with an experienced group leader, and share tips, advice and support. One of the true leaders in this field is the national organization The Five O’Clock Club. It is also a way to network, gain insight on resume-writing and job search, and gain practical job-hunting skills that will serve you for a lifetime.

9. Read and Write: Yes, I know: you’ve been reading and writing now for years. What I mean by “read and write” is to subscribe to blogs, journals, magazines and newsletters in your chosen field, and consider writing an insightful article, and submitting it for publication. Having an article or note published, especially in a respected journal or newsletter, is a definite “good” on your resume, and something to attach to your resume, as well. Publishing has always been a way to get ahead, and to stand out from the crowd, and always will be.

10. Take a “Course”: Sure, you’ve just taken 100 courses; who wants to take another one now? Though more education may be the farthest thing from your mind, a specialized course, giving you a specialized skill, that would make you different than “the rest,” may be a key thing to do. Being the only person in the organization who can program, manipulate or even understand the software that is used throughout the industry might make you the “star” employee of the firm, once you’ve been hired. What course should you take? Ask around, be creative, assess your potential employers’ needs. That’s where value starts.

These “Ten Ideas for Grads Without Jobs” work. They will enhance your resume, increase your chances of landing a job, and make you more likely to keep that job, too. What better way to use the time you have right now? Each of these ideas serves to enhance your value to an employer, enhance the visibility of your resume, and enhance your “voice” at an interview. And they’re sure to keep you busy and “looking upward,” as well.

Negotiation of work and career issues requires that you think “out of the box,” and avoid discouragement, especially at the beginning of your career. These ten ideas are yours, to start the process. Now it’s up to you.

Always be proactive. Always be creative. Always be persistent. Always be vigilant. And always do what you can to achieve for yourself, your family, and your career. Take all available steps to increase and secure employment “rewards” and eliminate or reduce employment “risks.” That’s what our Quality Vs. Power™ Method is all about.

This is a guest post. About the author:

Alan L. Sklover, Founding Member of Sklover & Donath, LLC and Founder of Sklover Working Wisdom, empowers employees worldwide to stand up for themselves at work. From his offices in New York City’s Rockefeller Center, Alan has devoted his 28 years of professional life to counseling and representing employees worldwide on how to negotiate and navigate for job security and career success. Mr. Sklover’s practice concentration is in the negotiation of senior executive employment, compensation and severance agreements, and in counseling senior executives in career navigation. Learn the trade secrets and ‘uncommon common sense’ of Attorney Alan L. Sklover, the leading authority on “Negotiating for Yourself at Work™” at http://skloverworkingwisdom.com.

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This is from an Ask Brian Question.

Send in your own Ask Brian Question here.

My name is XXXX, and Im 24 years old. Ever since last year i have been applying for different jobs in the field of fashion, I used to work and still do as a Fashion Stylist, which means I do a lot of shoots for tv and print ads etc. I finished my diploma course in Fashion Design last year and i thought i should leave the world of fashion styling behind because it was very difficult to find shoots on your own if you did not know the right people. But i found some young entrepreneurs like me and although work is slow I do have faith it will happen and also i have been very interested in Fashion design which goes hand in hand with styling. ok so here is my question,

A month back I had gone for an interview for the position of Junior Merchandiser, this has nothing to do with designing or creativity, it just a “cut-copy-paste” kind of job. I was very interested because i was desperate to find something to do. anything. but then i started my own label in the desperation and my clothes actually got a decent response. i.e from my friends i havent yet gone out into the market. so should i take a 9 to 7 job, which will barely pay my bills, cuz what i will make ina month is how much i make on a shoot in one day, but this job is now and i have just started networking, or should i have faith in myself and continue with fashion design and styling. please help. very confused.

Short answer for your specific situation:

You say you’ve gotten a response from your friends (great) but nothing yet from the market. Well, give it a go in the market. If you get a response there, then it might be worth going for your dream.

I always think you should go for your dream when you’re young, cause you have plenty of time later to fix mistakes and make up for lost time in the “real world” of 9 to 7 jobs.

But I also think: what is stopping you from doing both? Why not take this barely-pays-your-bills job now, and work on your dream around the edges? TONS of people take lesser jobs as they work on their dreams. Your lesser job is at least in the same field! You’re not, for example, waiting tables while you wait to “make it” on Broadway.

I have much more on this topic of choosing between job offers here.

And if you need a Fashion Industry resume, you know where to go.

Related posts:

1. How To Choose Between Two Job Offers
2. My Readers Iz Smarter Than I – Interview Fashion Edition
3. A Bad Job Market Means Position Yourself For The Future

If you have career or job search question you would like answered on this blog, click here to Ask Brian.

Reader Molly asks:

I am a college senior looking for an entry-level position in New York and some of the listings ask for salary requirements or salary history. My job experience consists of on campus work, unpaid internships (or stipends) and a paying job on the side in summers. In short, no annual salary. I know advice says don’t give a number up front because you will either screw yourself out of possible higher pay or set the bar so high they don’t bother reading your app. What do I do in this situation? Intuition says to ignore it all together but I do not want to imply I can’t follow directions! Your answer would be greatly appreciated.

Brian answers after the jump:

Brian Sayz:

You’ve got it exactly right. You don’t want to state a salary.

Most open positions… they have a specific budget for the position. If you’re dumb enough to volunteer a lower salary… well then, congratulations, you’ve just given them a bargain and screwed yourself out of what you probably could have gotten.

Conversely, if you’re competing with 200 other applicants, a quick way for the employer to weed you out of consideration is if you show yourself to be too expensive.

The common rule of thumb is to avoid being the first one to suggest a salary at all costs.

If they demand a salary history, that’s one thing. Go ahead and give it to them. Your resume probably shows very clearly that you’re a young professional, and, until recently, a student. So, list your piddly little minimum wage jobs.

They’ll understand.

Or, use the phrase: “Previous work experience limited to part time positions to finance my education.”

If they demand salary requirements, that’s something else entirely.

Let me introduce you to two magical phrases:

“My salary requirements are fully negotiable.”

And…

“Salary is negotiable, dependent upon the responsibilities of the position.”

These are your best answers on a resume and in a job interview.

You haven’t ducked the question at all, and you’ve thrown the ball back in their court. The onus is on them now to bring in some solid numbers.

Remember what I’ve said many times about interviews: it’s a negotiation. You’re offering your labor or services to them. You are a free agent. It’s perfectly reasonable to expect THEM to name the price they’re willing to pay for your efforts.

Finally, there’s one other avenue you might take: do some research.

If you can get a general idea of what the position pays normally… or, even better… if you can get an idea of what this company has generally paid for this position, then propose a number right in the ballpark of past history.

Don’t try to lowball or highball… just suggest a salary right in line of what you believe is traditional. You can always negotiate from there.

Obviously, this strategy works best if you’re confident of in your information.

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One of my pet peeves is how middle class people can never get ahead.

You go $60,000 in debt just to get a degree for a career that is supposed to make you self sufficient.

Then you spend 20 years pay off that school debt.

Then (if you’re lucky) as soon as you pay off the debt, you go $100,000 in debt for your kids to go to school and start the cycle all over again.

They keep us in debt all our lives. That’s how they keep us down.

WiseBread has a nice little list of the career fields that tend to make student loan forgiveness a part of their overall compensation package.

These jobs tend to be in do-gooder and service areas like social work and the military.

Then there’s AmeriCorps and teaching in general. They don’t mention it, but there are a whole series of Teach For America like programs out there for teachers…

Teaching – There are many arguments as to whether teachers get paid enough these days. If you could add in up to $17,500 in student loan forgiveness, however, it can make this high-demand career more appealing. Teachers that work in designated “low income” school districts for a minimum of five years can see some of that college debt wiped away. More debt forgiveness is offered to those teachers with an emphasis in math, science, and special education. (Full details found on the student aid government website.)

7 Great Jobs that Offer College Loan Forgiveness (WiseBread)

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Interest rates are coming down again. Maybe it’s time to refinance your outstanding college debt?

BusinessWeek says wait until July. Why?

Interest rates for student loans are going to be reset on July 1. This reset could be as much as 3 percentage points lower (not basis points, percentage points). This could add up to be the largest single decrease in education loan interest rates in history.

Federal student loans come in two types: Stafford and PLUS loans. Loans of both types made before July, 2006, have variable rates ranging from 6.62% for students in school (or those within a six-month grace period upon graduation) to 7.22% for students who have started paying off a loan.

A Stafford borrower who is repaying a loan and waits until the rates reset should shave at least 2.375 percentage points from current loans. A PLUS loan borrower should see a decrease of at least 3.125 percentage points. Although a wave of refinancing took place in July, 2005, when rates hit 2.88%, there are students who didn’t lock in the lower rate. The typical graduate student, who has an estimated $50,000 in debt, could shave almost $75 from monthly payments and save some $9,000 by consolidating this summer.

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Continuing our discussion of younger professionals in the workforce this week, CNN mentions a study outlining the career priorities of recent grads. They claim that young women are more likely to choose their careers over love, while college-aged young men are more likely to put relationships first.

When it comes to work versus romance, the stereotype has been that men put a premium on career goals while women focus more on family and friends. Not so, according to a study published recently in the scientific journal “Gender Issues.”

Researchers asked 237 undergraduates to rate the importance of goals such as financial success, career, education and contribution to society, as well as goals such as romantic relationships, marriage, children and friendship.

While 51 percent of the women prioritized romantic relationships over achievement goals, more than 61 percent of men did the same.

That sounds about right to me.

Young women are very career-focused these days. This fits with the trends we’ve been reading about recently concerning women electing to start families later in life. Amongst the 20-somethings I know in my personal life, none of them are parents yet, and only a handful are even married.

Still, I think the story confuses what the real motivation is here. The one anecdote they highlight in the story has to do with a young woman who is smart enough to realize that her college relationship might not last long term and is rightly putting more of a focus on building her career. In other words, she’s just well thought out. I think both young men and young women today are more willing to give priority to their personal lives and personal happiness than men and women of previous generations were. But they also have a very clear idea of what they want from their lives and they have planned things out accordingly. What gets sacrificed now, might take priority later. They’re just sticking with their game plan. The twenties are for personal growth, career establishment and sampling different relationships. The thirties are for settling down, finding a relationship that can work long term, making a home and maybe having kids (if at all).

The fact that young people are not willing to risk letting a youthful but possibly ill-conceived emotional relationship derail their life plans and career path just makes sense. Maybe this generation is smarter about those sorts of things.

Still, the idea that women are more focused in this regard than men are, is interesting.

What do you think accounts for that?

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Career blogging Godmother Penelope Trunk has an interesting post up about Barack Obama’s Iowa victory and what it tells us about the workplace. A lot of it I agree with:

This is a metaphor for the workplace. The young people have, effectively, shifted the balance of power to themselves, and the older people squabble between each other, as if their power structures still matter.

… but some of it I don’t.

When Gen-Xers were this age, we were so overwhelmed with trying to earn a living that voting was the last thing on our minds. And when baby boomers were this age, they were protesting, and dodging the draft, and disrupting the establishment. So in a way, it’s remarkable how engaged, optimistic, and rule-abiding Millennials are during their twenties.

But as a group, Gen Y is fundamentally conservative, so it’s not surprising that they come out and vote in droves. Voting is a way for people who color-within-the-lines to instigate change. Voting is a fundamentally conservative way to tell the establishment to get out of the way.

Fair disclosure, I’m not an Obama supporter at this time, but I am on the borderline between Gen X and Gen Y (I turn 30 next month) so I think I have a decent perspective on both “camps” so to speak. Additionally, my own career history fits with the entrepreneurial spirit and DIY ethic that Penelope speaks to.

But where Penelope sees young professionals today as fundamentally conservative, I beg to differ. It’s not that I disagree with her completely; more-so, I that I think she misses some of the ways in which this new generation of workers is one of the more disruptive we’ve ever seen.

I agree that younger workers are not to-the-barracades, first-we-kill-all-the-lawyers revolutionaries. But they are very much change agents. They’re not radicals in the political sense where they want to break all the rules and then remake everything in their own image. But they do very much come to the workforce with their own ideas, their own way of doing things, and their own set of values and rules… and you ignore these at your peril.

There have been several articles, mostly overblown I think, where the “adults” fret over the work habits and expectations of “these kids today.” Penelope herself has been quite astute in the past in pointing out how Gen Y workers have a different perspective on office and career politics.

And the point is, this yearning for change amongst the younger generation is quite disruptive, even if it’s not “radical.”

Just ask the record companies. Or any media company, really. Gen Y wants things how they want it, when they want it, and if you can’t deliver, you just seem outdated or addled. And the penchant for go-your-own-way career paths and fearless entrepreneurship that Penelope rightly detects is nothing if not disruptive. What is Web 2.0 (a movement very much Gen-Y led) but a methodical disruption of industry after industry?

This is a good thing. A positive thing. Capitalism thrives on disruption. Creative destruction and all that. And because Generation Y has this disruptive gene in spades, that is something that I think should be recognized and applauded. It’s part of what makes this younger workforce so dynamic and inventive.

Yes, it’s coloring in the lines, as Penelope says… not throwing the rule book out the window. But it is very much re-writing the rulebook to conform more to a networked, wired, multi-tasking worldview that is faster, more efficient and to me, more exciting.

After all, Obama has done nothing if not paint himself as the change candidate. But change in a newer way… not throw out the old system change… but find a new way of doing things change, through consensus and changing the paradigm of politics as usual. This is why Obama speaks to Gen Y, more so than other candidates. I would argue that far from being conservative, Generation Y is progressive… progressive in the sense of fin de siècle, Teddy Roosevelt-era progressives. Like the generation a century ago, this is a wealthy, dynamic, privileged generation, but with a strong sense of noblesse oblige and the feeling that there’s gotta be a better way to do things. Some of the old ways of doing things don’t work for them anymore, but they’re certain they can find a better way if they just put their minds to it. Fin de millénnaire, maybe.

As an aside: I also agree with Penelope’s point about the gender divide being not as divisive in the corporate world as it once was… at least to the younger set. But I defer to others on this, due to lack of qualifications.

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Quick, what’s the hot new trend in internships? According to Newsweek, it’s paying thousands of dollars to “internship placement services” to help you get your foot in the door.

How much would you pay for a career-making internship? $500? $2,000? Try $6,000. That’s what a growing number of students are paying to secure coveted summer spots with Smith Barney, Merrill Lynch, Tommy Hilfiger and America’s other leading companies. (…) Meritocracy isn’t dead, but it may be losing out to a handful of internship placement services that promise career-enhancing opportunities-for a price.

I beg to differ. If meritocracy isn’t dead, it’s certainly clutching it’s chest and gasping for air.

So let me get this straight. If you want a decent upper middle class career these days, you gotta shell out tens of thousands for private schooling, thousands for test prep and study courses… hundreds of thousands in tuition to a decent college, hundreds of thousands more in student loan interest payments… and now you have to pay to work for free?

Does it ever seem like we spend all our money to have a chance to make money… only to spend that money paying off the debts incurred at the beginning of the process? And then we have to do the same all over again for our kids.

You know where this is going to end up, don’t you? Eventually the companies will cut out the middleman. Is it so important to you to intern at Merrill Lynch or Google? Can’t start a career without our connections? Pay us to work for us, then. Pay us for the chance to impress us.

Still, for all my (obvious) bitterness and cynicism… an internship placement service is probably worth it for a lot of people. If the world we live in demands that you pay to play, then you’d be foolish not to. Like the “right” alma matter, the right internship can be a key stepping stone to a career. If you can increase your odds, then it’s money well spent.

As much as it pains me to say that. What do you think?

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1. Your Job Search Budget
2. Crack Dealers Employed, So Don’t Expect Workers Comp.
3. Internships Are About The Connections- With Other Interns