Editor, revised

I remember walking in my grad school commencement a couple years back. Like most fellow graduates, I was smiling. Unlike quite a few fellow graduates, I was smiling about the achievement AND the fact that I’d already lined up a job.

This week, my former adviser Daryl Moen noted in an email to his listserv of Missouri J School grads that he’s noticed more anxiety among graduating seniors/grad students and fewer of them heading into a full-time job right away. This shouldn’t be surprising if you’re following the industry news.

Fortunately, there are some good collections of advice floating around out there. And they’re not limited to how to get a job. If you’ve got a minute between writing cover letters and updating your resume, check these out.

• Journerdism: “Make organization and the elimination of clutter (especially information clutter) a life long process. Twitter is neat, but addicting and dangerous. We lost a lot of good men in the war to Twitter.”
• Innovation in College Media: “Look beyond what job you’ll be doing and take a look at the snapshot portrait that’s being developed right now about the profession.”
• Online Journalism Blog: “As you do your job, as you walk the streets, as you read the newspapers and browse the messageboards, keep your news sense about you: is something happening that is newsworthy?”
• JournalismJobs.com: Besides publishing tons of help-wanted ads, this site has some good career articles.
• My previous post, while a little tongue in cheek and not about getting a job, offers 15 observations I’ve gained in 24 months in the field. “Somewhere, somehow, there is a perfect nexus of efficiency and quality, and it takes more than two years to find it.”

This morning I tried to catch up with my RSS feeds, my daily review of which fell apart during a particularly hectic week at work. It took me an hour to scan about 200 posts from the blogs and rss feeds that I’ve categorized as “new media” in Google Reader. That included reading in full those items that particularly caught my attention and visiting links that compelled me.

Now my rss reader tells me I only have 231 unread items. But what have I gotten for my effort besides that smaller number? A headache, and the feeling that I’ve been cramming for tests in about five different subjects the day before the exams. I’d have a hard time articulating just what I’ve “learned,” but I know it covered topics such as video production, the dire straits of the newspaper industry, citizen journalism, online April Fools gags, online publishing trends and several conferences related to this kind of stuff.

I would love to read a tutorial that goes beyond an explanation of using rss, such as embedded in my previous post about Common Craft, and learn expert blog readers’ tips for managing all this information and putting it to use. I think I saw one on a feed a few weeks ago, but, befitting my problem, I’m not sure where it went.

I love that there’s so many ideas and so much information bouncing around on the Internet. I just don’t want to use all of my free time trying to stay up with it. If you’ve got a suggestion, please leave it below.

For the third time in almost as many days, I’ve woken up to snow. The water-cooler talk about when winter will finally leave continues. (Answer: Not soon enough, and kicking and screaming then). I’m feeling an energy deficit; the falling snow has put me in a bunker mentality. So a perfect day to play around on the Internet. Here’s a sampling of where I’ve been wandering worth checking out.

Mastering multimedia: My boss and video mentor Colin Mulvany comments on the cultural shift at work in our newsroom. I get a mention. This is an inspiring read for anybody looking to build a video team.

Journerdism: Will Sullivan is hosting the Carnival of Journalism this month. This is a good place to get a taste of what journalism bloggers are talking about.

College Media Innovation: The tips here are just as valuable for working journalists as aspiring ones. On my list today: start building my “brand.”

New Yorker: Eric Alterman sizes up the uneasy and essential alliance newspapers have with the Web. Oh, and he basically rings the bell for the funeral of print journalism as we know it.

Secrets of Self-taught Web Developers: I confess: When it comes to learning web development, I’ve been dragging ass even though I realize it could turn out to be an essential tool for staying employable. Eric Hebert offers this list of resources perfect for people like me, and he presents it with the pitch-perfect voice of the sage, reassuring adviser.