Lynne Kiesling on her Knowledge Problem blog on the “Whales, Electricity and Sustainability“, the Justice Department’s action on the ATT/T-Mobile merger, and how we should respond to 9/11.

According to a recent Vault article Are Interns Killing the Job Market?, the decline in employment numbers in the last month may not be dues to a more dismal outlook on the economy. There is a seasonal element to the hiring and firing process. In addition to low new employment figures, the number of temporary workers has declined significantly by around 10%. This is likely to be correlated with the vast inflow of interns into the market. Because interns that are unpaid are not counted in employment figures.

By definition, interns tend to be unpaid because they are working to gain the work experience. Thus the inflow of interns squeezing out the cost of hiring temporary workers means that the outlook should not be interpreted by numbers alone. Although temporary workers tend to be a sign of permanent hiring, but interns also are a great indicator of future employment. But they are often not counted.

In this job market, most college students are working unpaid internships. The paid are the few grails that we seek but sometimes working unpaid might lead us to jobs we like the most. This summer, I am working as a paid research assistant in Finance research and also as an unpaid intern at a boutique investment bank. Although I can add to my bank account with my research job, the investment bank job is the one that I can learn the most from. Because the jobs we want often tend to be the most competitive or in the spotlight jobs, sacrificing pay means that the experience and the joy of working there is our reward. This morning, I met 2 of my high school friends on the metra and a college friend while walking. All of them are working unpaid jobs. The English Major is working at a non-profit organization focused on improving literacy. The Political Science major is working at a government regulatory and tax department. The Pre-Med biology major is working at a laboratory in Feinberg. My point is, that sometimes, the jobs that will help you the most are unpaid. And it is those jobs that we will likely go back to after graduation. This ties back to the earlier point because if most interns are working unpaid in jobs they are passionate about, the economic indicators on employment are missing a major factor on the reality of job entry.

In another article, Searching for The Perfect Job With a Side of Conscience, Stacy McCoy was searching for the perfect job that was for-profit (didn’t have to live on cups of noodles) and had a CSR (corporate social responsibility) aspect to it. She had a hard time finding a job that she wanted and proceeded to found a company called Give to Get Jobs that focuses on providing a job between job seekers and companies that fit into this fold of for-profit and non-profit niche. Sometimes dream jobs can’t always be found, that’s why you might have to tap into your entrepreneurial side and create it. For information on market frictions and the difficulties of finding jobs, see Nobel Prize winning economist Dale Mortensen speak on the subject here.

Apple dominates the tablet industry with its iPad devices. Latecomers used to watch in grimace as the laughingstock idea of a smaller computer, larger iphone develops into the next big thing that Fortune 500 companies are experimenting with as part of essential corporate technology. Indeed, Apple and Jobs have proven everyone wrong.

Apple is soon to come out with a new iPad2.0 version that will feature a new design as well as video camera on its iPad. No big surprise; it’s been expected for a while. More info can be found at: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/apple-expected-to-extend-lead-with-new-ipad-2011-03-01?dist=afterbell

But, latecomers to the game are not to be overlooked. South Korean electronic giant Samsung has pushed out the Galaxy tablets that are lighter than the iPad, acts as a phone, has front & rear facing cameras and has more Ram available despite being smaller. More comparisons at: http://www.pcworld.com/article/204779/samsung_galaxy_tab_vs_the_ipad_compare_for_yourself.html (click on the chart/picture).

What’s even more amazing is Motorola’s Xoom. This tablet has a larger screen, higher resolution, front camera and a rear facing 5megapixel HD video capable camera, very very business/user friendly multitasking capabilities, less annoying notifications, Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system with upgrade capabilities, dual core chip, and 1GHz Nvidia chip. There’s already buzz flying around: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/02/04/why-android-honeycomb-should-have-apple-scared/.

Apple will continue to dominate the tablet industry for now as Samsung and Motorola fight for small pieces of the market share. But the latecomers are hungry and feature more functionality as opposed to Apple’s simplicity. Who knows, but I’m betting the competition on the block will drive down some of Apple’s market shares.

Comparison pics are also all over the web: http://usingapple.com/img/HP_TouchPad_vs_iPad_vs_Xoom_vs_PlayBook-20110211-193635.jpg

Each winter, flocks of young men and women in charcoal suits and starched shirts will flock toward the meccas of internships and career fairs. The search for the holy grail has each person on their toes, from prepping their game day outfit, to 30 corrections to the resume the week before, to the incessant Careercat search. Just how much does these internships factor into your careers and what can you do to prepare yourself? I will attempt to answer some of these issues with some of my own experience.

Preparation: Preparation is the key to success in everything you do. The typical path to a good internship is as follows: Freshmen year: get good grades, get some leadership experience related to your career. Sophomore Year: get better grades, stare at Careercat for everything that comes your way, and apply to all of them; get an internship experience to leverage next year. Junior Year: network, network, network, and study up on all technicals for interviews, and apply to many places. Do Chicago Field Studies if possible in the fall. Senior Year: find jobs, kill interviews, and land offers.

GPA: It matters. Depending on what industry/career field you’re looking at, the requirement is different. Your GPA must be at least 3.0 for any decent job/internship. For a slightly better job, 3.2 is the mark. For a competitive job in areas like Consulting or Investment Banking, don’t apply unless it’s at least 3.5 because the informal one will be much higher. That being said, there are always exceptions and ways to overcome this.

Work Experience: Crucial. Try to get some work experience early on, say sophomore year. You don’t have to aim for the moon this early on, but try to get something that you can leverage into better internships next year. For whatever career path you follow, research into the field and what kind of experience they look for. Based on that, target and filter out places you want to work. Apply through careercat but also go beyond that. Where do your family and friends work that you might want to intern at? What firms do you want to work at? And if they don’t have a hiring procedure, cold call them and sell yourself with a 30 second pitch.

Networking: Very Important. The difference between knowing somebody well at a company while applying vs not is the difference between the sky and the ground. Remember the saying, it’s not about what you know, it’s about who you know. There’s tons of people out there with skills similar to yours, so why should they pick you? Either because you’re extremely attractive candidate or because they know you and like you. Get creative with this: go to career fairs, talk to family/friends, network with seniors on campus, alumni database, cold emailing/calling, referrals, go where they go (caddy at their golf clubs, join similar gyms as them).

Resumes/Cover Letters: Get these things looked over by at least 5 different people. Use templates to start off with but change and tweek it as time goes on. For different industries, prepare different versions of your resume targeting them specifically. For cover letters, have a template ready and change it for specific companies while adding a personal touch about their company or why you became interested specifically.

Chicago Field Studies: Do it if you can afford it. It’s a great way to gain a work experience otherwise blocked off by highly insurmountable barriers. But if you are doing well in other respects and can’t dish out the time or money, go for other alternatives.

Career Path & Majors: Don’t go for the fields everybody’s going for. Research different industries, talk to people, and see if the area interests you. Otherwise don’t waste your life at college preparing for something you’ll regret the rest of your life. Mainstream is not the way to go because if you are passionate about something, by all means go for it, because you’ll likely end up more successful than the typical careers people go into. Passion about your work will go a much longer way to make your life more enjoyable. In addition, take classes that interest you because life is short and spending your time meaningfully is different from spending it practically & boringly or spending it with pleasure but wasted.

I know I wrote this with a lot of personal bias and in a really brisk matter, but I wanted to get the message across. I’ve made some of these mistakes myself and I hope you don’t tread down the same path. Leave comments if you want to hear about other areas.