Want to learn secrets from successful mompreneurs? Check out an article in U.S. 1, in which the mompreneurs on JobTalk’s previous Mompreneurs Panel were featured.

Read helpful tips from Lindsay Olson’s article, “States with High Unemployment Are Turning to Freelance Work,” on using freelance work to make money if you’re unemployed.

If you’ve never seen much value in reading poetry, John Coleman will change your mind. His article, “The Benefits of Poetry for Professionals” is featured on the HBR Blog Network.

Here’s a Q & A with Cathie Black from The Daily Muse. This interview features career advice about management, so if you’re new to that arena, you should check it out.

Aspiring tech entrepreneurs: read this article from Pando Daily, “So Does This Mean no More Tech Rock Stars?” And after that, read Fred Wilson’s explanation of what’s changed about the consumer Internet.

To win the Princeton Pitch competition, you have to explain the value of your idea, the market for it, and the business plan – all in 60 seconds. And if you could do all of that, you still have to have the best idea.

Princeton Pitch, a program of The Princeton Entrepreneurship Club, held its third annual event in Dodds Auditorium last night. Thirty-three aspiring entrepreneurs pitched their plans, some just mere ideas, and some already in execution to standing room only in homes of winning first prize of 1K. A panel of six (mainly VCs) judged the competition.

Participants registered to compete in one of two tracks, the entrepreneurship or social entrepreneurship track. The 11^th Hour Tutors, an online platform that connects gives students to crowd sourced “micro-tutors” founded by two Princeton seniors, took first place in the entrepreneurship track. In the social entrepreneurship track, Magnet, which utilizes rewards to encourage academic achievement, won.

Tierney Kuhn and Kanika Pasricha

The women behind 11^th Hour Tutors, Tierney Kuhn and Kanika Pasricha met during freshman year in an integrated science course when they spent hours together working on problem sets. Kuhn and Pasricha started working on 11^th Hour Tutors in May, viewing it as a side project to pursue while they interned at Microsoft and Deutsche Bank (respectively). The pair collaborated throughout the summer despite their distance – Kuhn was in Washington and Pasricha was in NYC – utilizing Skype and sending lots of text messages to one another.

Kuhn, a computer science major, had an “aha!” moment when she was working through, or trying to work through, a few difficult problems one night for a challenging computer science course she was enrolled in. “I didn’t need help with everything. But there were just a few problems that I wished someone could walk me through,” said Kuhn. That’s when the idea to create a platform that connected students with others who could help them rooted itself in her mind.

It was Computer Science 448: Innovating Across Technology, Business & Markets, which Kuhn also took, that sparked Pasricha’s interest in entrepreneurship. In that class, she developed a love of solving problems and became fascinated by crowdsourcing.

Currently, 11^th Hour Tutor is in alpha. Kuhn said, “Our plan is to go to Hack Week so we can get the bugs out of our system with the goal of going into beta.” But the two weren’t making promises about it. In fact, when I asked them if they planned on taking their idea into full startup mode, they said most likely not, at least not right away.

“I want to work in my industry,” Pasricha said, who’s an electrical engineering major, “because there’s still a lot I can learn from working in it.”

Kuhn shares the same sentiment and wants to return to Microsoft for a job when she graduates. “I learned so much from a three-month internship from working there, imagine what I can learn in three years?”

It’s precisely this attitude – one of humility and hard work – that sets Kuhn and Pasricha apart from many other aspiring entrepreneurs. Instead of dreaming up their own rise to tech stardom upon graduating from college, they’re willing to admit that they’ll be better prepared for entrepreneurship if they get more experience before going into startup-land full force. That is, if indeed, they decide to go down that path.

In fact, Kuhn and Pasricha, as winners of Princeton Pitch 2012, already stand apart from their peers. Their plan was one of the only ideas presented in the entrepreneurship track that had a realistic business plan. That plan was that people would pay a modest fee to use the platform – especially when they’re up late at night and need to find someone who else is awake that can help them. Certainly college students would pay ten dollars for one month’s subscription to be able to get help anytime they want it, anywhere they are. If so many students are spending that same amount of money daily on their venti latte and muffin from Starbucks, what’s another ten bucks for help on your own terms?

I asked Kuhn and Patricha how they came to develop an idea with a solid business plan when the majority of their peers – the other pitchers – completely blundered. They said, “We were taught from JP Singh in Comp Sci 448 that you have to create a product that has value, that people would actually want.” Looking around the room, I motioned to their fellow pitchers, and said, “Sounds like they need to take that class too.”

“A lot of them did,” they said.

So to all future Princeton Pitch participants, take Dr. JP Singh’s course to heart, and you just might come up with an idea good enough to win next year’s Princeton Pitch.

P.S. As to why I didn’t interview Magnet, chalk it up to repulsion. Yes, I should have gotten their story because they had a good pitch – or at least the winning social entrepreneur pitch. But, having taught high school in an urban school district, I immediately knew that their idea will fail. What causes academic failure is a complex set of issues that no rewards system will ever begin to address. If that were the case, the departments of education in every state would have the problem solved by now.

Vernon, who owns the children’s clothing store Luxaby Baby & Child, located in downtown Princeton, joined Mompreneurs Mimi Omicienski and Hilary Morris to speak on JobTalk’s Mompreneurs Panel this past Monday. Omicienski is the Founder of Princeton Tour Company and Morris is the Founder of Hilary Morris Public Relations.

Tips from Mompreneurs to Aspiring Mompreneurs

1. Talk to people. Find people who are doing the kind of work you want to do. Tell them what you are doing and ask for feedback and advice. All 3 mompreneurs added that most of the time established professionals like helping others—it’s their way of giving back—so don’t be afraid to ask.

2. It’s okay if you’re not supermom. Your kids will still love you. And as your kids get older, you may be able to find a way to include them in what you’re doing. Besides that, your kids will benefit from seeing their mom pursuing her goals because it shows them what’s possible.

3. Keep an ongoing dialogue with your spouse. Most moms worry about how their kids will handle having less attention from them. But the relationship that often changes the most is between the new mompreneur and her husband. To deal with the changing dynamics of your relationship, always communicate. You may even try to carve out specific times, even if it’s just once a month, to spend together.

4. Volunteer. If you’re planning on doing something in the communications field, for example, volunteering is an excellent way to get experience and references.

5. Strategize. You may be head over heals for your business idea, but you need to temper your zeal so you can come up with a sound plan.

6. Hire a good lawyer. Forgo spending a lot of money on designing a beautiful website and put your money into a good lawyer.

7. Buy a domain name. If you have an idea, but don’t know what to do first, start with buying your domain name.

8. Seek feedback on your business plan. Often you can do this for free if you have a chapter of SCORE near you. If you don’t have a local SCORE, find an organization in your area that helps small businesses.

9. Create a business card. Buy a high-quality cardstock for your business card. Keep it simple by sticking with black and white—color gets expensive. Go to networking events and tell people what you are doing. If it’s 6 months later and your plans don’t work out, tell people you’re on to plan B!

You’ve heard that when you go on interviews you should ask your potential employer questions. But you have no clue what you’re supposed to ask. Let this list, “31 Top Job Interview Questions You should Ask” from Career Expert Hannah Morgan be your guide.

Job seekers, your mantra should be, “I will differentiate myself.” And over on the Fresh Transition’s blog, Jonathan Kreindler gives you the scoop on how to do it. Hint: it starts with letting go of conventional approaches to your job search.

Need a little inspiration? Check out The Daily’s Muse’s interview with Debbi Fields, Founder of Mrs. Fields Cookies.

Recently, I reached out to some college students that I know and asked them to write about how they chose their majors. The following is post by Tanaz Ahmed, a freshman at University of Michigan.

Whenever I tell people that I plan on majoring in English there is often an unspoken, sometimes even spoken, sentiment that I’m pursuing something that isn’t “job-worthy.” Most (my parents included) just want to know, why English? There are hundreds of “practical” majors out there such as engineering or business and yet I insist on pursuing English. Here’s why: I love the subject and studying it will help me develop essential skills needed for the job market.

As an ESL student in elementary school, my teachers encouraged me to read as much as possible. The unlimited access to classroom libraries sparked my voracious appetite for reading and sparked a desire to write stories and poems. I spent language arts classes in fourth and fifth grade penning odes to food and stories with talking rabbits. My love for reading, writing and discussing all things literature-related has grown as the years have gone by. I want to spend my years at my university pursuing my passion and not something other people think I should pursue.

“Following your passion’s great, but it isn’t going to get you a job,” is what I’m normally told. Contrary to popular belief, not all English majors end up as jobless adults living in their parents’ basement. They don’t all end up as teachers either. They can find success in many different careers. They can be writers, journalists, lawyers, publicists, copywriters, editors, researchers, and much more. This is because studying English equips you with a variety of skills ranging from interpersonal to problem-solving skills.

It’s no secret that writing is one of the foundations of communication, which means that regardless of your occupation you have to be able to communicate your written ideas effectively. The great thing about studying English is that we practice written communication—over and over and over again.

But there’s more. Analyzing the nuances present in a piece of literature sharpens your critical thinking skills. We English majors must become adept in uncovering themes and processing complex ideas. We learn how to identify and examine syntactical, rhetorical, and thematic patterns in literature. Being able to analyze and fully understand the information given to you is an asset in all jobs.

Reading a multitude of texts introduces me—the English major—to various cultures, values, traditions and histories. Each text is told from different perspectives. In a relatively small amount of time, I’m able to learn a lot about a multitude of experiences of others on Earth. Short of actually traveling around the whole world, (or going back in a time machine), nothing else can give someone such a comprehensive understanding of his or her environment. This kind of knowledge and awareness is not only important at work but in all other aspects of someone’s life.

English is a fascinating subject and one that allows me to hone my ability to communicate, critically think, and better understand the world around me. So, why not English?

Today’s Weekly Roundup starts with a must read article in the WSJ, “Must-Have Job Skills in 2013.” Number 2 on the list? Personal branding. If you aren’t leaving your personal-brand thumbprint on the Web, it’s time to get moving!

If you think your chances of making big money with an app are high, you’re fooling yourself. Turns out that you have the same chances of making a million from an app as gold miners had panning for gold. Read the full article, “As Boom Lures App Creators, Tough Part Is Making a Living.”

Whether you’re new to LinkedIn or have been on it for a while, there’s many ways you can boost your career using the tool that you may not know about, and Hanna Morgan tells you what they are. Check out Morgan’s article, “8 Ways to Amp up Your Career Using LinkedIn.”

Parents, college-bound teens, and well, everyone who’s interested in all-stuff-careers, read on. Five recent college grads, (who all went to the same high ranking school district in New Jersey), share what they’re doing post undergraduate degree, whether or not college prepared them to enter the workforce and more.

Name: Jonathan Birnbaum

College Major: BFA in Acting

College: New York University, Tisch School of the Arts

Internships: None

Work experience during college: waiting tables

What he’s doing now: working at a restaurant in Long Island City, auditioning for shows, and freelancing

What he says he would have done differently in college: I would have prepared myself better for the business side of acting.

On whether or not college prepared him for the career world: No. There had to be more economic preparation. Art is art, but there is a business to it, which I never learned in school.

Name: Priya Ramakrishnan

College Majors: Public Health and Visual Arts

College: Rutgers University

Internships: graphic design intern for Penguin Group, Robert Wood Johnson AIDS program

Work experience during college: worked in college as a graphic artist for Rutgers University Relations, Creative Services & Trademark Licensing

What she’s doing now: waitressing while she looks for full time opportunities related to my majors and freelancing

What she says she would have done differently in college: I’d Change my major. I would have studied computer science and visual arts; I think it would have been a better artistic combination, and the job market is much bigger for those types of specialized skills.

On whether or not college prepared her for the career world: Not entirely. I think it gave me a good foundation to perform well, have a specialty and be an expert in something. However, I think acquiring a job is about having good communications skills, understanding the workplace, knowing how to network well. It’s tacit little things you have to pick up on your own. Also, sometimes, I think it’s just a matter of timing and luck.

Name: Jane Wilburt

Major: Government and Politics

College: University of Maryland College Park

Internships: policy and external relations intern for Women for Women International, a nonprofit based in DC that serves women survivors of war during summer 2011

Work experience during college: worked at the University of Maryland’s dining hall, serving ice cream and making sandwiches during freshman and sophomore year; worked as a community assistant for resident hall during junior year; worked part-time for Women for Women International as their communications and outreach assistant until I graduating with undergraduate degree in May

What she’s doing now: finishing up Master’s degree in Public Policy with specializations in international development and nonprofit management graduate school at the University of Maryland; working as a graduate administrative assistant for the College of Education’s
Educational Technology Services; vice president of the Graduate Women in Public Policy group

What she says she would have done differently in college: I would have pursued a major with a clearer vocational track. While my undergraduate political science classes were interesting and enjoyable, I didn’t gain any practical skills and didn’t leave those classes with a clear sense of what career that I wanted to pursue. If I could do it all over again, I probably would have been a business major. Fortunately, my graduate-level courses have provided me with a lot of job-specific training and skill development.

On whether or not college prepared her for the career world: My undergraduate classes did not prepare me for the process of acquiring a job. My school/department stressed the importance of internships for political science majors, but offered little help with the search/application processes. On the other hand, my graduate school professors and advisors are much more willing to offer help with the job search. I think it is because it is a much smaller school (200 vs. 4500 students), so they have more time to meet one-on-one, give advice on potential career tracks, and connect students with potential employers. It has been really helpful.

Name: Dillon Levy

Major: Business Administration with a concentration in marketing and a minor in theatre

College: George Washington University

Internships: Eric Finn Custom Clothiers, merchandising internship; Tungsten Property, real estate sales internship

Work experience in college: Technology Support Organization at the George Washington university, (1 year); Watassa Management (1 year); Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, Office of Technology Services (6 months)

What he’s doing now:
 working in the customer service department of a wine retailer

What he says he would have done differently in college: I would have tried to decide on a career path earlier and then try to get relevant internship experience to back it up

On whether or not college prepared him for the career world: Yes. I feel as if I’ve had many experiences in college that I can bring up in an interview. I also feel that as a business major we learned tactics for acquiring jobs from day one.

Name: Joseph Frank

Major: Mechanical Engineering with an emphasis on energy and sustainability

College: Northwestern University

Internships: studied intelligent structural health management(ISHM) and the end sophomore year to develop “nervous systems” for structures that could detect problems automatically without the need for repeated checks, much like the brain does

Work experience during college: mail clerk at college; residential assistant; ran technical support for the technology in the lecture rooms for professors in the Academic Research and Technologies department at Northwestern

What he’s doing now:
 part of the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professional, which is funded by the Fulbright-Hayes Act and sends a group for 75 young professionals to Germany for a year of cultural exchange; spent the last month learning German and getting to know German culture; applying for a five-month internship.

What he says he would have done differently in college: I probably wouldn’t have done anything different. I realize, now that my brother goes to my school, how everyone’s college experience is different. He’s getting into the Greek scene, which is something that I never really got into. He’s having an awesome time and meeting new people.

My first two years at school were filled with semi-regret for not having tried out the Greek life, and I thought that I was missing out. My last two years, in contrast, were filled with passion for my field of study, meeting new people, and joining student organizations. I want to say that I wish that I had gotten involved in curricular activities sooner, but I have to be honest and think about how much I changed in those first two years of college. I had an amazing time in college and it was by far the best four years of my life (in retrospect of course) so I don’t think I would change anything about it.

On whether or not college prepared him for the career world: This is an interesting question just because I want to say yes so badly. Overall, however, I think that answer might be a no. I want to say yes just because I know there are a lot of resources that I haven’t tapped into. My school has a great alumni network and a dedicated career-services office that I just never bothered going to.

I took a non-credit class on resume and cover-letter writing and took a lot of classes in entrepreneurship (which is kind of like interview practice), but I didn’t really seek out help when I probably should have. I think this result is more a product of my wanting to do things on my own and making sure that I have all my questions written out before heading over to the career-services office.

I also don’t take the job acquisition process very seriously at this point. I’m young and I still don’t know what exactly I want. I am just looking for new and cool experiences and have been rolling around with the hope that I’ll come across the perfect fit for myself. I’m sure that reality will strike the second my scholarship runs out and I am broke and sleeping on my sister’s floor, but for now I’m not panicking… that much.

(To protect identities, names have been changed, but all the other information is factual.) Special thanks to Amita Maram, who helped me with this article.

Even if you screw up an interview, there is still a chance you can get the job. At the very least, you can take your botched interview and use it as an opportunity to improve. Forbes Contributor Kristi Hedges tell you “How to Come Back Stronger After You Bomb and Interview.” It can be done!

Here’s an idea for the insanely goal-oriented to mull over. Writer Oliver Burkeman argues that goal setting can “do more harm than good.” Check out his article, “Why Setting Goals Could Wreck Your Life” on Fast Company

That career trends are changing is a no brainer. But can you imagine a career-scape where employers advertise jobs that include the qualities they want in a new hire along with the professional experience they want their candidates to have? Imagine no more. It’s happening and Chana Schoenberger tells us about it in, “Help Wanted… but in a Whole New Way,” in the WSJ.

Hiring manager newbies take note! There are some things that you might do that are ruining your chances of acquiring talent. Read about it on The Daily Muse.

Searching for a job? Jacob Share, founder of JobMob, put together of list of 13 search apps for Windows 8.

If you’ve ever tried to google the phrases “online degrees” or “online certificates” you have most likely encountered a degree aggregator such as OnlineClasses.net, eLearners.com, Online Certificate Programs, or DegreeSearch.org. They’re all the same, really. They present as if they are going to search the Net for all possibilities, but that’s not the case at all; they search their own databases that are filled with information from their partnership schools.Take DegreeSearch.org. They have a tab on their homepage that allows users to search for online degrees. The catch is that you, the user, will only find information about online degrees from the schools they work with, which not surprisingly are almost all for-profit colleges, with the exception of USC’s School of Education and School of Social Work and Georgetown’s School of Nursing and Health Studies.

What’s worse, these aggregators want your email and phone number. And once they get it, they’ll keep emailing and calling you. After testing an online aggregator and sharing my email and phone number, I was bombarded with emails and calls from Walden University.

Notice that you have to fill in your phone number, email and home address to get to the next page.

While you might not rule out going to a for-profit college, surely you want to see all your options, not just those from places like University of Phoenix and Walden University. (If you’re wondering which colleges are for profit, here’s a list.)

Of course, you may be one of those people who completely rules out going to for-profit colleges because you don’t trust their academic rigor or you’re just not okay with their ridiculously high tuition and questionable recruiting practices. And if you have no idea what some of the problems are with for-profit colleges, you should refer to Senator Tom Harkin’s two-year investigation on the for-profit education industry that he disclosed this past July.

Your feelings about for-profit colleges aside, if you want to find high-quality online-degree or certificate programs, you’re better off googling specific areas of study rather than using an aggregator. For example, if you’re looking to do an MBA online, google “MBA online” or “online MBA degrees.” Even then, your search will include aggregators; eLearners.com shows up sixth if you google “online MBA degrees.” But, you’ll also see that Penn State, Drexel, and Northeastern show up in the results, which are all reputable universities.