Suddenly it’s the time of year where schoolwork takes a slight back seat to the ever tiring process of searching for, and applying to internships.

As I am an incredibly superstitious person, (I blame being raised in a sports obsessed environment) I am not yet ready to say what I’ll be doing this summer.

But having had a few interviews in the last few weeks, for both spring and summer opportunities, and having helped many of my friends prepare for their interviews, including one this morning, I thought I’d share some articles that I’ve found tremendously helpful.

Over Winter Break my mother had me read the article, The First Rule of Brainstorming: Suspend Disbelief in The New York Times, and I’m glad she did.

The interview was conducted with Kon Leong, co-founder, president and chief executive of ZL Technologies, an e-mail and file archiving company. Something that stood out to me was that Mr. Leong said he asks,

“Outside the headlines, what were some of the most interesting things you’ve noted in the last couple of weeks, and tell me why, and what did you do about it?” That would reflect what you think is interesting, and that tells me a fair bit. If you can cite many disparate topics, that’s a step in the right direction.

I’ve always scanned the front page of The New York Times before interviews, (and I used to read the Questions For in the Magazine pretty religiously) but this advice had prompted me to start reading the paper more fully and as often as possible.

Forbes also has some great articles on the subject including: Six Tips for Talking About Your Biggest Weakness in a Job Interview, 10 Things to Do When You Don’t Hear Back After a Job Interview, and the informative but also daunting, 12 Tricky Interview Questions For Interns.

Another great resource is the Bi-College Career Development Office. In fact, I’m off to have them look over my resume right now!