One of the strangest aspects of writing a daily roundup of career links around the web is that each day you are never quite sure the type, quality and quantity of links you are going to find. Some days are quite barren and some are quite bountiful. It's interesting reading my RSS Feed each day and relying almost exclusively on the mercy of what topics are being discussed to formulate that days topics.

This is has been one of the more challenging aspect for us all at ThinkTalk since starting the blog. None of us had blogged daily before, so a major concern was finding the motivation and the content available to come up with new topics each day. It certainly has been a learning process, and with the shear ubiquity of personal, professional, and corporate blogging that happens everyday, it may be something every student should try out, just to learn how to do it. One day this week, I promise to post all the helpful and relevant resources I have found to start blogging ...

But today is a bountiful day, and thus it is straight on to The Links ...

Keppie Careers Explains: The difficulties job seekers face in this market ... and how to overcome these hurdles. One interesting point briefly raised is the concept that we are now facing a "career jungle gym" as oppose to the traditional "career ladder." How have I never come across this idea? It makes perfect sense, with Gen Yers swinging from jobs in a more tangential (but upward) manner as oppose to simply moving directly upward withing the same company. This may be the best description yet of the new paradigm of a successful career path.

On The Job Offers: 10 tips for college students, from the professionals that will be hiring them. If you are graduating in the next few weeks, you want every advantage you can for finding a job. Well who better to offer you this advice than the very people who will be hiring you.

Bulls Eye Resumes Career Blog discusses: How the recession is changing the way companies hire. These are some very interesting out-of-the-box ways company hiring has been affected, beyond "they are, uhhh, hiring less." For example, more companies are hiring more contract and freelance positions. Companies don't have to fork over benefits for these positions, but freelancing and short term employment could be a good way for new grads to get a variety of different experiences in a relatively short time that can help give them a well-rounded resume for when this recession does end and hiring picks up (whenever that may be ...).

Alexandra Levit Reviews: Path 101, a service that is "all about helping candidates figure out where they want to go and how to get there. There are plenty of places to just find open jobs, but it's not as easy to figure out what you're looking for in the first place. Via personality tests, resume analysis, and industry profiles, Path 101 provides direction and career insight before you start the application process."

The New York Times Relays: The message of reading the fine print in a student loan. "The range of interest rates on fixed-rate loans was wide — 7 percent to 12 percent — and the larger lenders charged the highest rates. In the fine print of the promissory notes, he discovered that some lenders — Chase, PNC Financial and SunTrust Bank — can raise interest rates by two to three percentage points if a borrower is late with a single payment."

The New York Times Analyzes: Job-Search Networking. "While people have flocked to social networking Web sites like LinkedIn and Facebook, growing numbers of job seekers are building grass-roots offline communities, too, and sometimes use the Internet to arrange to meet people face-to-face." This is a great article, with some great ideas on how you can build up your off-line network to share contacts and leads.

Gradspot Details: How to get the most out of your summer internship. This is a very comprehensive list of maximizing this important career-shaping experience. Tips include arriving 15 minutes early, asking a lot of questions and eliminating the word "No" from your vocabulary.

"In the jungle gym at a park" courtesy of heiwa4126 via Flickr Creative Commons