seriously?

Here's a tip: If you're writing to busy people and asking for them to answer questions for your master's project, which is due five hours from the time of your email, you are already screwed.

just tell me your real name

Okay, this one is for college students and recent grads.

Someone along the way, someone gave you the idea that it's unprofessional to use anything but your full, given name, even if everyone in your life calls you something else. While this is sort of adorable, you should drop this idea.

It's disconcerting to go through the whole interview process with Katherine and hire her, only to discover on her second day of work that she's Katie. Or weirder, to discover that the William who I spent several weeks talking with, and who I now know as William, actually goes by his middle name, Peter.

There's nothing unprofessional about middle names, or about Katie, Jim, Liz, or whatever your nickname is. This isn't like school where you have to register with your full and complete birth name.  We're all adults here; just tell me what to call you and don't confuse me.

internships: stay where I am or seek out new experiences?

A reader writes:

I am currently awaiting the start my junior year at a D.C. university and was fortunate enough to spend my summer in Washington, D.C. I threw myself into 50 hours of work per week - with two part-time internships and a part-time job.

With the summer now in full swing, I have already started applying to some fall internship opportunities. However, my concern is jumping around too much. I'm at two rather "entry-level internships" (if that's even a phrase) and would love a more prestigious position before I graduate. On the other hand, I love my internship coordinators and both organizations where I currently intern. As a career guru, what would you recommend? Is it better to sit still at an internship you like (I'm also doing an independent study in the non-profit's specialty) or climb the internship latter and experience all you can in four years?

I think it depends on the details of your current internships. Do you feel like you're on an upward trajectory, where you're continuing to learn new things and develop yourself professionally? And if you stayed with them longer, do you think that would continue, or would you quickly hit a point where there wouldn't be much more change or growth?

In many jobs, it takes a significant amount of time to truly master the job before you hit a point of diminishing returns -- which is why I think people should stay in any remotely challenging job for at least a couple of years, at a minimum. But internships are different; they're designed to be short-term -- often just a few months -- and so they often don't ever really get all that challenging.

I think you should talk with the internship coordinators at each of your current internships. Tell them how much you love being there and express an interest in staying on longer, and ask if they'd be open to letting you take on new projects and responsibilities if you stayed, so that you'd continue to gain professionally. If they're open to that, you've got a strong argument for staying.

On the other hand, there's no real wrong answer here. If you want to go out and explore other places instead, you should feel good about doing that too. There's an advantage to being exposed to different workplaces, different office cultures, different management styles, and different work.

You pretty much have a win-win situation here: Either you stay where you are and get the experience of growing within an organization, or you take advantage of the fact that you can actually do a lot of internship-hopping without it looking bad, because that's expected with internships. And by the way, I looked at the resume you sent and it's excellent -- so you're in really good shape. I'd go with your gut. Good luck!

16-year-old seeks advice: jobless and losing hope

A reader writes:

I'm 16 and I have absolutely no job experience. I fear that along with my lack of experience, the economy being crap right now will entirely prevent me from getting a job. Am I truly hopeless? Another reason it may not be working out for me is that I started applying right after my birthday in May, right after other students had applied for their summer jobs. I'm going to start applying again a week or two before school starts again, when students will probably quit their summer jobs.

I go in the morning to turn in applications, which I've heard is when managers are still there in fast food stores. I dress nice and try to hand them in directly to the manager... but that doesn't seem to work at all.

I've been applying at various jobs in my city, ideal first jobs like fast food places, coffee joints... places that don't require a lot of experience. I haven't had one single call back from any place I've applied at. My friends and family tell me to call repeatedly... but I feel very odd doing that, and I'm sure it would be annoying.

I'm so sick of having to share a car with my mom (a result of having no money, of course)... I just don't know what to do. So my question is: What can I do to stand out to managers without being ostentatious and/or seeming like a stalker?

And another completely different question: Does having a GED really look horrible to employers? I'm getting one and starting at a local community college... it's not like I get bad grades, I just think high school's pointless.

Okay, I'm going to try not to gush, but I so want you to send me a resume when you're out of college. And I don't mean that in a condescending, cheek-pinching way; I mean it sincerely.

So. No one has any job experience at 16, because in most places you're not allowed to hold a paying job before 16. So you're not in any way behind the curve. And in a ton of ways, you're ahead of it. For instance, I'm pretty sure you're the only 16-year-old who's written to me, and probably the only one who's reading me or other career blogs. Which means you're picking up a ton of info and advice that your peers don't have, but even aside from that, it says something really important about who you are: You're someone who seeks out resources and knowledge, someone who's probably pretty resourceful, and I strongly suspect someone who's pretty smart. This may not be paying off in obvious ways for you right now, but oh let me tell you, it's going to pay off massively down the road.

You just need to survive your adolescence, and then it gets a lot better.

I don't think most employers care if you got a GED instead of doing it the traditional way, but they do care about what came after that -- meaning they do want to see a college degree, preferably from a four-year school. So think about transferring to a four-year college after you rack up some credits at your community college. It might be a pain in the ass, but it'll make things easier for you later.

Now, on to your main question. You're right that the economy is making it hard for everyone right now, and I like your idea about trying again toward the end of the summer, when there's likely to be some turnover in the types of jobs you're targeting. As for what's going to make you stand out to employers: Being professional, poised, personable, organized, reliable -- all those "soft skills" I talk about elsewhere on this site -- can move you to the top of the pack.

On the question of how much to call after applying, calling daily is too much. But it's fine to call a few days after turning in your application, and if you don't reach the manager herself, it's fine to call every few days until you do. (This runs counter to my advice for professional jobs, where that kind of thing comes across as too stalkerish, but in my experience, for some reason it's fine to do with retail, restaurants, etc. Different culture.)

You might also consider volunteering somewhere, even if it's just one afternoon a week, because it'll give you additional experience to put down on applications.

What other advice do people have?

an alternative for bored students/grads who can't find jobs

The New York Times had an article on Thursday about college students and recent grads who are finding that the work world is looking a bit different than they'd planned:

The well-paying summer jobs that in previous years seemed like a birthright have grown scarce, and pre-professional internships are disappearing as companies cut back across the board. Recession-strapped parents don’t always have the means or will to bankroll starter apartments or art tours of Tuscany.

So many college students and recent graduates are heading to where they least expected: back home, and facing an unfamiliar prospect: downtime, maybe too much of it. To a high-achieving generation whose schedules were once crammed with extracurricular activities meant to propel them into college, it feels like an empty summer — eerie, and a bit scary.

... Across the country, there are countless tales like that of Morgan Henderson, a student at the University of San Francisco, who, along with friends, planned a big road trip to Las Vegas this summer. With so few of the friends finding jobs, they downgraded plans to a road trip to Reno, then to no road trip at all. They’re spending time watching DVDs at one another’s houses.

Or Kathryn Estrada, a high school senior in Hialeah, Fla., who has no summer job after Circuit City, which employed her during the school year, went out of business. She is finding that even this early in the summer, attempts to while away the hours playing Scrabble and Cranium have grown stale. “We all just wish school would start so we would have something to do,” she said.

Um ... Has no one thought about volunteering? Instead of getting bored trying to pass the time with Scrabble and DVDs, you could help where it's needed (and for many nonprofits, it's needed now more than ever), plus give yourself something to put on your resume that's going to look a hell of a lot better than empty space.

I have to thank my mom here, who would never have let me sit around like this. Before my sister and I were old enough to have paying jobs, my mom required us to spend our summers volunteering -- and we did. I volunteered at the local library (where I enjoyed overhearing a parent tell her toddler son that he wasn't allowed to read Curious George books because he was a bad influence, something that amuses me to this day), at a vet clinic (where I discovered I was wrong about wanting to be a vet), and as a candy striper at a hospital (where I discovered I hated candy striping). I thought she was totally tyrannical and ridiculous to require this, especially since all my friends were spending their summers at the pool. But I have a work ethic now, something I definitely was not born with, plus I've continued to volunteer on-and-off ever since, and her being a hard-ass on this issue probably had something to do with that. If nothing else, it gave me a head start on understanding how the work world functioned, something most of my friends didn't get until a lot later.

(That said, for the record, I'm a big fan of lounging about unproductively when/if life allows you to, but (a) the people in this article are complaining about boredom, and (b) since they're facing a highly competitive job market, it wouldn't be a bad idea to do what they can to make themselves stronger candidates.)

how college students can prepare now to job search later

With recent college graduates pouring into a tight job market -- and only 19 percent finding work so far -- it's an unnerving time to be looking for a first job.

I receive all too many resumes from recent grads who have literally no work experience: nothing, not internships, not temp jobs, nothing at all. And since they're competing against candidates who do have experience, they're at an enormous disadvantage.

If you're still in school, there are actions you can take now to prepare you to have a leg up when you graduate. Over at U.S. News & World Report today, I explain how you can ensure you're not at the bottom of that pile of resumes when you graduate and start looking for work. Please check it out -- and maybe pass it along to current students you may know!