We have all seen how much our parents work a week...about 40+ hours a week. We have seen how they run their career and seen the time they devote to their job. I see it as a blueprint to how I would approach my career and work hours—hey, if it worked for my parents, it can work for me.

But, according to a report published by Yahoo! Finance there are economists who are suggesting for a 21-hour work week!

One of my least favorite questions that often surfaces in an interview addresses my verbal and written communication skills. While this question may seem cliché, effective communication is essential to practice, in any work place.

It can be jarring when grads quickly realize that a new set of communication skills to function in the "real world". While you may have gotten an "A" in biology despite sitting quietly in the back of the classroom, this will get you nowhere in the working world. You need to have a voice, and you need to know how to use it effectively.

Of all the interview questions, the ones that I dread most? The ones that address strengths and good qualities. This question has managed to manifest itself in some form in almost all of my interviews. Naturally, you might respond that you are self-motivated, trustworthy and hard-working. Funny that…so did everyone else.

It is your goal to set yourself apart from other candidates during the interview. So how do you answer a question truthfully without giving a generic response?

Simple: get specific.

A few days ago I had a lengthy conversation with my younger brother about how he is spending his free time this summer. He is a rising sophomore in college and has a part time job that keeps him busy for about half the week. On his days off my brother, Chris, always complains about having nothing to do. I finally recommended that he look into volunteer opportunities.

Working as a volunteer is a great way to help out an organization and community in need. Not only are you aiding people that need your help but it also can help you grow and learn some life lessons like working in a group atmosphere in order to accomplish a goal. Volunteering can also help you learn more about what you may want to do as a career. Helping out at day camps or maybe prepping packages for military troops deployed overseas can answer some questions you may have about your interests in future careers and the type of environment you would be in.

Working as a volunteer is also a great way to network and create relationships with people that you could then use as references on your resume. Volunteering is also great for your resume because it shows that you are an active member of society and that you enjoy working with other people as well as helping people in need.

If you have free time this summer you should seriously look into volunteering somewhere near you! Finding an organization to work with is incredibly easy. Just Google "volunteer work" and your city which will bring up a number of pages to choose from, and usually a home page for your area with a list of places and a description of what the work will entail.

"WM2006 Fan Fest Stuttgart - Volunteer" courtesy dheuer via Flickr Creative Commons

Even though these are the months that all college students live for, (no 9 am classes, no all nighters to finish that 15 page paper, and no professors emailing you about the number of absences in their class..) it is important to make sure that you use this time wisely and stay focused. This is especially true for rising seniors. There are a number of steps you should be taking in order to prepare yourself for your upcoming graduation. Although it seems like it is sooo far away, it will spring up faster than you can ever imagine. Here are a couple things that you should definitely accomplish this summer and within the first few weeks of your first senior year semester:

1. Check Out Your Tracking Sheet

Make sure that all of your classes are in order! Be sure that you are up to date on all of your courses and you are scheduled to take the remaining courses in the correct semester. Forgetting to check your tracking sheet at least once a semester is just begging for disaster. If you are unsure of something contact your advisor immediately! Which leads to my next To-Do.

2. Contact / Meet With Your Advisor

Whether or not there is something wrong with your tracking sheet, you should be meeting with your advisor on a regular basis. Advisors are there to help when YOU come and seek their council. Your college advisor is not meant to act like your parent away from home. You advisor will help when you ask for it but will not come chasing after you. Having a healthy relationship with your advisor will pay off in the end because once they know you better they will know how to best guide you, especially when it comes to searching for companies and places to apply to for your post-college career.

3. Join Extra Curricular Activities / Land an Internship

Joining a club or starting at an internship can be very beneficial in multiple ways. Being in these two social settings can help you meet new friends, network, and vamp up your resume. As much as you probably want to hang with your best friends and make plans for the weekend or catch the weekly marathon of your favorite show, MTV's The Hills or a weekend away from campus are not necessarily going to help you once college is finished. Of course it is great to spend time with your friends and relax, but this must be balanced out with activities that are actually going to benefit you in the future.

4. Update Your Resume

Be sure to maintain a regular upkeep of your resume along with your contacts list. It will be easier to make the changes gradually rather than the morning of your all important interview. Also, try to keep a printed resume on you at all times, you never know when a professor or advisor will ask if you would be interested in having them send your resume out to an important contact of theirs. Also, have friends or someone at your college's writing center read over your resume and contact list to make sure that everything is in order. The last thing a possible employer wants to see is a grammar mistake on a resume!

Just because these are your three months of freedom doesn't mean you should drop everything! Doing a little bit of work here and there throughout the summer can go a long way during the school year!

"Gold Coast Winter" courtesy Paull Young via Flickr Creative Commons

Happy Friday all! This post was written by one of our fabulous fall interns, Jillian Baronoff. She is a junior communication major concentrating in public relations at the University of Maryland and already has plenty of experience with hunting for and finding internships.

As the national unemployment rate climbs its way to 9.8 percent, college students may be wondering if moving back home with mom and dad may be the solution to their jobless woes after graduation.

The George Washington Hatchet featured a profile on one college senior who might be just that. If Ryan Hudnall isn't some kind of superhuman, then he's absolutely a master of time management. He is able to "juggle six classes, a 30-hour-a-week internship on Capitol Hill and his current position [as night manager] at Starbucks that he acquired over a year ago."

Hudnall says that enjoys his crazy schedule. Even though night shifts at the coffee shop are sleep-depriving, he likes the social interaction and the comic characters he meets. His double major and internship on the Hill will hopefully prepare him for a job where he can help people, something he's truly passionate about. So one lesson to learn from Hudnall about managing your time is: Love what you do. Well, that and stop sleeping...

[Hudnall] said he only gets about five hours of sleep each day, which is broken up into two naps that last two and a half hours each.

"Monday morning I have to be in my office by 9:30 a.m. So I'll get off at Starbucks, go home and sleep from 6:30 to 8:45 a.m. Get up, shower, go to the Hill and work on the Hill all day until about 5 [p.m.]," Hudnall said. "Then I go home, sleep, wake up at 9:30 p.m. and go back to Starbucks until six in the morning. Then on Tuesday, I wake up and I have six classes from 9:35 a.m. to eight at night. It just repeats."

That's dedication. NYU's student paper, Washington Square News, interviewed another successful over-achiever. Sophomore Ria Hill is a full-time student and published author. Her novel, The Song of the Siren, began as a bunch is disconnected scenes and characters, and after Hill decided to write them up as a book, it took her 2 years to finish 400 pages and the time-consuming editing process.

"I wrote most of the book late at night when I couldn't sleep or at lunch on loose leaf notebook paper," she said.

The question that comes to my mind is, "Are the long hours and lack of sleep really worth it?" For our latest ThinkTalk guest, the answer is definitely yes. Andrew Ross Sorkin is a financial reporter for the New York Times and author of Too Big to Fail, a study of the 2008 Wall Street crash.

During the interview, Sorkin modestly told Zack that his successful career at the NYT was due to luck, but I'm willing to bet it had more to do with hard work and persistence. Sorkin had an internship at the NYT in high school, and was assigned a story by an editor who didn't know he was just a student. Because he did a great job, Sorkin was offered a position at the paper and published 71 articles before he graduated from college. How's that for making great use of your time in school?

If you're looking for some more information on strategically managing your time, the video below has some good ideas and Penelope Trunk has good multitasking tips at her blog.  Don't forget to stay tuned for our interview with Sorkin next week!

Welcome to the Daily Roundup. Each day at the ThinkTalk Blog we will post some links that we find informative, interesting, or just plain funny. The goal is to let you know what else is going on out there, and ultimately help you with the development of your career.

Round Two of today's Daily Roundup is coming at you. It's a link parade!