10 Essential Social Media Tips for College Students Heading Back-to-School - CareerEnlightenment.com

The interviewer said that nothing shows work-ethic more than when a student spends their summer earning their own money rather than spending their parent’s money. So don’t undervalue what you’ve done this summer. Record your work experience in your LinkedIn profile. Also try adding some of these new elements to your profile:  The New LinkedIn Profile Improvement Tool6.  Get Summer Job Recommendations Before Your Boss Forgets Who You AreNot only will you forget the details of your job once school starts, but your boss will probably forget about how much they liked you. With online job seeking, one of the most powerful elements you bring to the table is what other people think about you. In years past, this used to be a very formal process. You’d have to request a letter of recommendation from your boss. Then they’d ask you to write it and they’d sign it. These days, all you need is a few short paragraphs on your LinkedIn profile. These notes from past managers will be ass ets that will serve you well once you start your career search.7.  Use Mint to Budget Your Expenses So You Don’t Use Credit CardsEver ask yourself why credit card companies promote their plastic so relentlessly on your campus? It’s because they know many students will use their cards and not pay back the debt for years. Then they can charge you fees and interest, while they fly in their private jets. Stop funding private jets (unless it’s yours). Use an easy and free budgeting tool to make sure you don’t overspend this semester. Mint.com is a free financial management website that aggregates your bank accounts and credit cards into one place.  Learn  how to budget with Mint here.8.  Google yourself to See Your Online ReputationGo ahead. I dare you. Our generation has the unique advantage of being online from an early age. This means you’ve been building an online reputation whether you know it or not. Once your online reputation gets a blemish, it’s rather hard to fix . Use a tool called  BrandYourself.com  to grade your online reputation and get some free tips for improving it.9.  Manage Your Schedule with Google Calendar featuresI haven’t use a paper planner in years. I know some people love them. But when you have all of your classes, clubs and meetings in one Google Calendar, your schedule is everywhere you need it to be: on your phone and computer. You don’t have to shade out three months of classes, only to find out after a week that you don’t like your professor and will not take that class after all. Changing a calendar event is simply a matter of deleting, not erasing. You can even put an inspiring photo of yourself at the beach as the backdrop to help ease some of that mid-semester stress. If your school hasn’t switched to the Google platform, use your Gmail account.  Learn how to get organized with Google Calendar here.10.  Use RateMyProfessor.com to Make Sure You Get a Good Class  My $100,000 life lesson was, your education is only as good as the professors who teach your classes. I don’t care what university you go it, if your professor is tired, burnt out or just plain uninspired; your semester will be hell. I’ve been to community college classes with the most enthusiastic professors I’d ever seen. I’ve been to Ivy League classes with a washed up professor who could put coffee to sleep. After you register for the class because you think the title is interesting, head on over to  RateMyProfessor.com  to make sure the professor can deliver.