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Alex writes for Internships.com, a destination site which helps students find college internships, prepare for work opportunities and discover their career interests.

You’ve probably got a lot on your plate now. Between college applications, midterms, extracurricular activities and — oh, yeah — trying to enjoy the end of high school, this fall is pulling you in a lot of different directions. But there’s one more thing you should keep in the back of your mind, even if you’re not ready to dive in just yet: Work experience may play even more of a role in landing your dream career than which college you attend.

Internships are a great way to fortify your resume and make connections at some industry-leading organizations, and with record unemployment levels among recent graduates, students are starting them earlier than ever to distinguish themselves from the pack.

So, what is an internship? Basically, it’s an arrangement in which an organization trains a student in its line of work. The intern takes away valuable resume-building experience, and the host is able to test out future talent. Internships can be paid or unpaid, but in many areas, the law mandates that unpaid internships must at least be redeemable for college credit.

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Filed under: Alex Braun • College Prep • Now Hiring • Outside the Classroom

If you love kids and want some extra cash, babysitting is perfect for you. However, babysitting can be a tough job to find, because there are often a plethora of other kids competing for a limited number of positions. The toughest place to cut through the clutter when you’re looking for a babysitting job is an online job site. So, to help you find that high school babysitting job you’re looking for, here are some good places to look for babysitting jobs that aren’t online:

1) Town Youth Commission

When you think about searching for babysitting jobs, I would guess Town Hall isn’t the first place you would think of looking. However, this can sometimes be the best source of babysitting openings. Most youth commissions will have a directory listing of local babysitters they provide to the members of the community with children. In fact, this is how I got my steadiest babysitting job in high school. This family wanted a high school boy to babysit for their two younger boys, they found my information at the youth commission, they called me, and I ended up babysitting for their kids for close to 3 years!

2) Parents & Babysitting Co-ops

Your parents will likely know people in the community with young children looking for babysitters, so use them as a resource to find parents in need of a babysitter. Also, many communities have babysitting co-ops set up where a group of families with kids will agree to babysit in return for the ability to use the co-op to find a babysitter when they need one. You may not have your own kids, but you could be a valuable asset to a babysitting co-op.

3) In Your Micro-Communities

“What does that mean?” you ask. It means if you belong to a church or a synagogue, these are great mini-communities to locate babysitting opportunities. Also, if you work as camp counselor or volunteer for a program with children, the parents will be even more likely to hire you as a babysitter given that they’ve seen how responsible you are and you probably have a relationship with their child already.

Are you a babysitter? How did you get your babysitting job? Post your story in the comments section below!

Filed under: Discus Dan • Now Hiring