OneDayOneJob.com and OneDayOneInternship.com founder Willy Franzen has launched an online course ($152) to help college students with their job search. It looks amazing and his team is not paying me to write this. I just wanted to throw it out there because I believe this will genuinely help with your job/internships search. Here is a link to the site: http://www.foundyourcareer.com/enroll/. Check it out.

I decided to write a press release today for the new GrouperEye.com launch. The body of the press release was fairly easy to write. I threw in some quotes (from myself, which seemed a bit awkward) while describing what we are trying to do here at GrouperEye.

Stumped, I pondered here in front of my laptop for at least 15 minutes trying to come up with a ”catchy” headline. I even googled “how to write a great headline.” A blog called CopyBlogger popped up in my google results and their article had some cool ideas about headlines: (1) you should spend half of the entire time it takes to write a piece of persuasive content on the headline, (2) on average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest, (3) David Ogilvy rewrote this famous headline for an automobile advertisement 104 times: “At 60 miles an hour, the only thing you hear in the new Rolls Royce is the ticking of the dashboard clock …”

This headline process has made me wonder: what if you could choose only one headline? What would your headline be? What headline would you chose for your job? What headline would you choose for your internship posting? What headline would you chose for your life? Think long and hard!

Our press release and headline:
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High GPA, Who Cares? Ideas Win Now.

GrouperEye.com Matches Motivated Students With First Jobs

Life just got easier for students seeking outlets for their original idea. GrouperEye.com has launched an online service that facilitates real-time case competitions. The company’s goal is to match remarkable students with remarkable organizations.

“The line of continuity, from student, to graduate, to first job offer has been broken, “says GrouperEye.com founder Ted Williams.”Nowadays, it seems students can only find respectable jobs in one of two ways. Either they have close to a 4.0 GPA and apply to well-known companies or they have connections that help them get their foot in the door. Most of us just settle. Settle for what is easy. Settle for what is comfortable. Settle because we don’t know what else to do. Well, not any-more.”

How does GrouperEye work? Companies post a case. This case may be a real time problem or opportunity that they are experiencing. For example, a newspaper could post “What should our online version look like?” An amusement park could post “What should our next ride be like?” A restaurant could post “How can we sell more appetizers on Thursdays?” Students then compete to come up with the best solution to submit to the company. After the submission deadline, company representatives evaluate solutions and choose a winner. This winner receives a $100 prize and any additional offering by the company.
 
Students receive cash, experience, a boost to their portfolio, and the chance to get noticed for a job opportunity. Companies gain access to hungry young talent, a free employee screening mechanism, a pool of original ideas, and generate goodwill buzz. Educators receive real business opportunities to teach from, student placement, and the chance to compete.
 
Since its launch in January of 2009, GrouperEye.com, a D.C.-based startup, has landed two of the coolest companies in D.C. as clients: multimedia financial services company, The Motley Fool, and organic beverage company, Honest Tea. The site also has registered students from some of the top universities in the country including Harvard, Duke, UVA, UNC, Emory, UT, UF, Georgetown, Cornell, and many more.
 
“We care about delivering remarkably talented students to companies that love them,” says Mr. Williams. “We care about creating opportunities for those students that with the best ideas. We care about transforming the whole system. It is time for a revolution and we want to lead it.”
 
GrouperEye is based on three simple principles. (1) Young people are valuable to organizations. (2) The system for young people finding meaningful work is broken. (3) The solution is for organizations to meet, talk, and collaborate with young people earlier, more often, and in creative ways. Learn more at http://www.GrouperEye.com. Ideas have never been sweeter.

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If the Wall Street Journal is reading this blog, permission granted to run with an article!

Internship cover letters have the principles of a regular cover letter, but they should involve more risk taking. Since an employer knows that the internship position is temporary, they will be more likely to chose a candidate they find interesting and take a chance on them. Creativity as it relates to passion is extremely important in internship cover letters. That said, here are the GrouperEye tips for a remarkable internship cover letter.

1. Tell a story. My internship cover letter to Google was a story about how I asked my middle school girlfriend to date me. The best way to tell a story is to focus on a single example and then tie that into your internship pitch. The point of my internship cover letter story is that “I fumbled like an idiot asking this girl to date me, but it was then that I learned: there is never a perfect way to do something, you just have to follow your heart.” Google flew me out for an interview two weeks later.

2. Get weird. Be different with your internship cover letter.  One of the best internship cover letter stories that I have heard is a girl who wrote her cover letter on a shoe. With things like “I will put my sole into it,” “I will lace up the competition,” “I am not afraid to get my foot in the door.” She got the internship with MTV.

3. Show passion. If you use a company’s product, tell them about it in your internship cover letter. I had a friend who drank Snapple like it was his job. He wrote an internship cover letter about his passion for Snapple and how he drinks them all day long. Students who like the product/service are attractive to employers. They want to make sure that this isn’t just a resume item.

4. Be short. No HR person is going to read a whole page from a perspective intern. That’s just reality. *Unless it’s remarkable and starts off with a bang.

5. Use Humor. The people who read internship cover letters aren’t robots. They go to parties, drink beer, watch movies, and tell funny stories. These HR people get so many careful, boring, safe cover letters that this will make you stand out. I had a good buddy that sent an online finacial company the “Top Ten Reason To Hire Me” and it was hilarious. If you can manage to mix humor with a meaningful message, you will win.

6. Don’t send a form letter. Ever. Unless you have a 4.0 from Harvard, you are worthless to an HR department. They just have to many options to chose somebody who cares this little.

7. Tell them what you are going to do. My buddy ran a startup with little money to spare and was not hiring. A student then sent him an internship cover letter that read: “I can get you 3 business to use your service, 100 individual accounts, 3 PR pieces and 20+ links. If I don’t, no need to pay me.” My buddy was floored and the student was hired the next day.

GrouperEye.com

FleetingLook founders Lucie and Ramsey were very impressed with all the submissions. It was too difficult for them to chose a single sumbission, so they chose two winners.

FleetingLook Case Winners: Thomas Wunderlich (Wake Forest) & Chris Ziembko (Washington and Lee).

Feedback from Ramsey and Lucie on each student’s submission: “We love Chris’s ideas on breaking down the site to college sections (filtering), banner ad, waitress/bartender reps, and post functionality (pictures and deletion). Thomas has great ideas about interface design, navigation link details, and city focus.” Congratulations.

Thomas and Chris both recieved cash prizes and will continue their relationship with FleetingLook.

A recent careerbuilder.com article highlighted the challenges graduates face: “Josh graduated from the University of Wisconsin in December. ‘I’ve been applying for jobs for four to five months. I’ve probably applied for 300 to 400 positions and I spend six hours a day online applying and handing out my resume. It’s tough. I make a little money on the side, but finding a full-time job is very hard for a college student,’ he said.”

Are you kidding me Josh! Really? This strategy is lacking, shortsighted, and clearly doesn’t produce results.

As an employer, why on earth would you hire Josh? He has submitted over 300 applications! – Do you really want to hire somebody who uses this approach? I don’t. I covet that person who has a passion for my business by spending his/her time creating value, not spamming his/her resume.

There are going to be a lot more “Joshs” as we continue to experience these tough economic times. Jobs are scarce these days. Many people will have more time on their hands because they may be forced to work only part time. We all know the economy stinks and places aren’t hiring. There is no need to discuss this. The question now becomes: What will you do with more time?

Will you send out your resume to 400 places trying to just get something, anything?
Or, will you become valuable?

How do you become valuable so that when the job market turns around, you are the more attractive candidate? Here is how: (1) start something or (2) learn something. It has never been easier.

Let’s take my friend Cindy as an example. She wants to be a food writer or open a restaurant one day. Places aren’t hiring now. What should she do? Send out 500 resumes to newspapers or restaurants? no, instead, how about this:
1. Start a blog and interview a different chef every week (free).
2. Create a cooking show and put the videos on a YouTube channel (free).
3. Start an email newsletter highlighting restaurant reviews (free).
4. Create a social network about local food on ning.com (free).
5. Start a catering business that cooks one meal a week for busy families (profitable).
6. Go buy Rosetta Stone and learn Spanish ($100).

“But this takes too long. I’m not sure I can do it. I don’t have the resources to get this done. I’m not creative enough. This is too hard.”

Then tell me, why exactly would anyone hire you?

A new study was just published. Below are the most interesting facts and my take on them.

1.)  Job boards (monster, careerbuilder, craigslist, hotjobs, etc.) account for 12.8% of external hires.
2.)  90% of companies have contracts with Monster and 8o% have contracts with CareerBuilder.
3.)  Employee referrels is the largest source of external hires, 27.3%

My Conclusions…..
1.)  Job boards are largely a waste of time. Companies spend a majority of their recruiting budget on this tool, yet it accounts for a small percentage of hires. Spending $400 to post a position on Monster doesn’t make sense when 3% of hires come from Monster. This is so backwards it is almost ludicrous.
2. ) Employee referrals are extremly important. Knowing somebody within a company is key and a job candidate should take heed. Jobvite.com is going to win. I wish I could buy some pre-IPO stock in this company.
3.) Nothing beats having a reputation that proceeds you.