…to advance your career! Sure, taking a break from studying is a good thing. But you should not be taking a break from developing your career skills. Why? The name of the game – for the rest of your life, BTW – is always getting better. May not be a big thing, but adding a few more skills or new ideas to your career tool chest makes you all the stronger.

So here are a few ideas to try this summer:

1. Fool around. As in, if you want to get into broadcast, shoot your own videos, start a podcast. If you want to go into writing, duh, write! Nobody ever has to see your work, but still do it. Push yourself to try something new, and see what happens. And if the work is good…consider freelancing it!
2. Stay on point with social media. Having a good time with friends and friend is wonderful. But, are you thinking before you are posting to social media? Would that photo you just put up be something to give an employer/internship place pause about your maturity level? Always think before sharing.
3. Start an idea list. Get in the habit of writing down things that strike you as possibilities for future story, show, podcast, photo ideas. They may not be do-able right now, but having a good list of ideas for the future can pay dividends. The best sports journalists never run of out of ideas.
4. Read. Watch. Listen. Study the game. Know who is doing what, what makes them good/not-so good, and learn.
5. Dream. Think about your future and what YOU want out of it. If you want to live in a certain place, start learning about the media/team outlets there. If you want to work for a certain outlet, start knowing their practices. And if you have no clue…it’s OK! Start the process of thinking about who you want to be after MSU!

And keep checking our internship/job boards all summer…we will be posting regularly!