My 80-year-old mother lives in a neighborhood most people would envy. It’s not fancy or desirable in a material sense, but it is rich in a sense of community. Her neighbors share home-baked bread and extra veggies from their gardens. They pet-sit for one another and chit-chat about their kids and grandkids. They borrow tools and shovel snow from one another’s sidewalks. It’s a beautiful thing. My family’s neighborhood, just a mile away, isn’t like that. We live on a busy street. We don’t even have sidewalk in front of our house. Several homes around us are rentals where college students stay for less than a year. In the decade we’ve been here, we’ve only met three neighbors total, one of whom has since moved away. We can’t have block parties because our road is an arterial. People can’t park on our street, so everyone parks behind their homes. There’s almost no natural opportunity to even see, much less talk to, most of our neighbors How do you meet your neighbors when there’s not a natural opening to do so? Photo credit: Canva The Anxiety I’ve relied on “our block is just different” to explain away the contrast between my mom’s neighborhood and ours. But in reality, someone at some point took the initiative to create that community where she lives. There was no reason we couldn’t do the same with our neighbors. So, why hadn’t we done it? Social anxiety. Simple as that. We’d have to physically go up and knock on our neighbors’ doors to meet them, and no one in my family felt comfortable doing that. We love people as a whole and want our neighborhood to feel like a community. But we would rather do almost anything than randomly knock on a stranger’s door and introduce ourselves. So, we sat in that conflicted space for years, feeling silly about wanting to know our neighbors but avoiding taking action out of fear. My fellow Americans, cheer the heck up and get to know your neighbors. I guarantee you will like them better once you do.(Better on average: Outliers do exist, but they are outliers.) https://t.co/287UBHFfRC— Bruce Ross (@530BruceRoss) March 5, 2026 The Decision Inspired by friends who had visited their closest 15 neighbors when they moved to a new neighborhood, we decided it was time to kiss our comfort zone goodbye. We made an ambitious plan: Instead of starting small with just one neighbor, we’d spend one afternoon visiting the 10 houses we could see from our front porch. And instead of just introducing ourselves, we’d invite them all to a brunch at our house the following Saturday morning. We made flyers with the brunch details and talked about what to say. We decided we’d just lay out how we’d been feeling: “Hi! We live in the house with the white fence over there. We’ve lived here for 10 years and hardly met any of our neighbors, and we’re feeling kind of silly about that. So we wanted to introduce ourselves and invite you to a neighborhood brunch at our house on Saturday. Super casual. Bring something if you want, but don’t feel like you need to. Would love it if you could come. Our phone number to RSVP is on the flyer. Let us know if you can make it.” We prayed for courage, gathered our wits, and set out with flyers in hand. (Those who don’t struggle with social anxiety may wonder what all the fuss is about. Let me put it this way: My family is not unsocial. We have lots of friends. But I would rather give a speech in front of 50,000 people than walk up and introduce myself to someone I don’t know. It’s hard to explain why that specific act is so difficult, but taking this step was a very big deal.) Someone has to take the initiative to reach out first. Photo credit: Canva The Response No one was home at the first two houses. At the third, we met a man and his wife in the yard. As soon as we said, “We’re your neighbors,” and pointed out our house, their faces lit up. They were so happy and grateful we were reaching out. We had a lovely chat, and they said they’d try to make it to the brunch. Of the remaining seven houses, three had people at home. One was a young family with a preschooler and twin newborns. Next was an older man who said he and his wife had lived there for 15 years. The last was a young mom with a two-month-old baby. Again, as soon as we told them we were going around to meet the neighbors, their faces lit up with beautiful expressions of recognition. Yes, we’ve been wanting that, too. Yes, thank you for going out of your way to come by. Yes, we’ll try to make it. Yes, yes, yes. We left flyers on the doors of people who didn’t answer and returned home, exhausted from the effort but invigorated by the response. The What-ifs As the Saturday brunch approached, the anxious what-ifs kicked in. What if no one comes to the brunch? What if people do come and it’s just weird? What if we run out of food? What if we unwittingly just invited a bunch of psychos into our home? Anxiety excels at two things: Making excuses not to act and forecasting catastrophy once you do. We knew this, thankfully, so we sat in the uncomfortable uncertainty of what might happen and hoped for the best. The day before, we received RSVPs by text from the first couple and a woman who’d found the flyer on her door. Okay, three new-to-us neighbors, two of whom we knew were easy to talk to. Totally doable, right? Sharing a meal is a great way to start getting to know people. Photo credit: Canva The Result About 30 minutes before brunch time, our doorbell rang. It was the husband of the mom with the two-month-old, who wanted to thank us for the invite. They had hoped to make it but couldn’t, but he at least wanted to come by and introduce himself. He and my husband chatted for a few minutes. Before he left, they had already talked about swapping tools. Those who had RSVP’d arrived shortly after 10:00 a.m., one with homemade bread in hand. As we were eating and chatting away about 30 minutes later, the doorbell rang again. A woman holding a plate of apple muffins introduced herself. She’d found the brunch invite on her front door, but accidentally texted the wrong number to RSVP. She apologized that she couldn’t stay, as she had company at her house, but she at least wanted to stop by and say hello. She came in for a few minutes to meet everyone, left the muffins, and returned to her house just across the street. It’s a small detail, but I happily noted that she brought the muffins over on a real plate. Now I get to return her plate to her, like a true neighbor. About an hour into brunch, the couple’s teen son showed up to join us. We were tickled to find out he’d been at a rehearsal for the same community concert our adult daughter was performing in the next day. We were already connected in ways we didn’t even know about. "… the fanciest neighborhood and the fanciest apartment aren't necessarily the best places to live. The place you're going to be happiest living is where you have an opportunity to get to know and meet your neighbors." https://t.co/UbPBhtGEam— Michael Kruse (@michaelkruse) March 28, 2026 The Takeaway Brunch lasted a couple of hours. It was leisurely, friendly, and wonderful to see how the conversations flowed. It was also a good reminder that people actually want this. People want to know their neighbors. They want community and connection. Even if we have our own established social networks outside of our immediate neighborhood, there’s something special about getting to know the people who live around us. I know some people already have this kind of neighborhood, which is great. And I know it all could have gone another way, too. Sometimes neighbors don’t get along, and in some neighborhoods, it might not make sense to do something like this. But most Americans don’t know any or only know some of our neighbors and we have a hard time trusting one another. A Pew Research survey found that most people say they would help their neighbors with various tasks, but far fewer believe their neighbors would do the same for them. Perhaps our perceptions of one another would be different if we actually knew each other. My family is thrilled with how meeting our neighbors went and excited to make opportunities to meet the ones we missed. It feels like a solid first step in building that sense of community my mom and her neighbors enjoy so much. My only regret is that we waited so long to make it happen. The post For 10 years, social anxiety kept us from meeting our neighbors. One afternoon changed everything. appeared first on Upworthy.

Wild horses maintain their hooves through constant, daily movement. They often travel 10 to 20+ miles across varied, abrasive terrain like rocky, sandy, or hard-packed ground. This natural lifestyle allows their hooves to wear down at roughly the same rate they grow, creating a self-trimming effect that keeps them short, thick, and tough. Their environment does the work a farrier would normally do, keeping their feet balanced and functional without the need for human intervention. Domestic horses, on the other hand,  live very different lives. Without that level of movement and terrain, their hooves continue growing without enough natural wear to keep them in check. As a result, they require trimming every six to eight weeks to stay healthy and comfortable. When that care is missed, the consequences build quickly. Overgrown hooves can crack, split, and throw off a horse’s entire posture, leading to strain on joints, ligaments, and tendons. This was the exact dire situation that a pony named Stella found herself in.  As Julia Cesario explained to The Dodo, Stella belonged to an elderly couple who had fallen on hard times and were struggling to care for their animals. Basic upkeep became difficult, and Stella’s condition steadily worsened. Her coat had gone unbrushed, but it was her hooves that told the most urgent story. They had grown so long they curled upward, striking her legs each time she tried to walk. Every step looked uncomfortable. She couldn’t tolerate being touched without reacting intensely, making it nearly impossible to help her in that state. “It broke my heart completely,” shared Cesario. She immediately set out to help. Cesario knew the process would be overwhelming for Stella, so she hired a farrier, who began by sedating her. Then came the careful, time-intensive work of removing the excess hoof. Using multiple tools, including a saw, the farrier slowly reshaped them to a manageable length. After two hours, Stella’s hooves were finally trimmed to a comfortable size. At first, the change was clearly a strange experience for Stella. She lifted her feet higher than necessary, as if expecting the old weight to still be there. But within minutes, she began to adjust, testing out her new range of motion, then moving with increasing confidence. Before long, she was trotting, even galloping, freely around the enclosure. Her coat was brushed, her mane neatly braided, and her presence lighter. All in all, she was a brand-new pony. “We all cried,” Cesario told The Dodo. “When we brought her back to her friends, she did laps and laps and laps as fast as she could.”  A new chapter Today, Stella no longer needs sedation for routine hoof care. She stands calmly during trims and even appears eager to see her regular farrier, affectionately referred to as her “nail guy.” @julia_cesario Stella has come such a long way in under a year. From having extremely overgrown hooves, being scared and aggressive, hard to catch and needing to be sedated to work on her feet… she finally trusts that we want whats best for her its the little wins #horse #rescue #rescuehorse #animalrescue #wholesome #happystory #happyending #minihorse #sanctuary #beforeandafter ♬ original sound – Lariexxx – i l a r i e Her transformation has resonated with people across the Internet, inspiring an outpouring of heartfelt reactions: “I LOVE this story! Watching her run as fast as she could afterward was so heartwarming.” “I felt like crying when I saw her running. You could tell how happy she was. It was so beautiful to watch. Thank you for giving her a wonderful life.” “My heart skipped a beat when I saw her register that her feet were different and free…Seeing her run around and play is priceless.” “This is what the internet is for.” Man caring for a horse. Photo credit: Canva When animals receive proper care, they thrive. Thankfully, Stella got the care she needed in time and is currently galloping into a far brighter future. The post Pony overjoyed after finally having severely overgrown hooves cut down to size appeared first on Upworthy.

Reading is hard. It wasn’t always, but now, it is. You know that feeling: you finally sit down with a book you’ve heard great things about—Song of Achilles, for example—and then it hits you. Your brain doesn’t work the same anymore. You’re no longer that wide-eyed child, eagerly tearing through books like they’re a bag of candy. Your brain has been trained to skim, scroll, and hop from one thing to the next. So, each night ends the same way. You reach for your phone, scroll mindlessly for forty-five minutes, and fall asleep while wondering where your curiosity disappeared off to. Don’t worry; this isn’t a moral failing. It’s inherently a wiring issue, a flaw in your current design. One that runs on, “What have I been training my brain to do all day?” The good news is that the same science that explains that smooth-brain instinct to reach for your phone can also help you reach for something more nourishing, like books. In his YouTube video, “How to Read More Books,” user Ali Abdaal outlines ten rules to gently retrain your mind to read again. We’ve outlined them below. Some context Over the last twenty years, the number of adults who read for pleasure has dwindled. It’s fallen by 40%. It’s reported that today, only about 16% of Americans even pick up a book on any given day. At the same time, we have never had more content at our fingertips. It’s ironic, isn’t it? We are constantly consuming words: emails, Instagram captions, text messages that are nothing more than veiled scams. Only now, words arrive in bite-sized formats and notifications instead of chapters. Why do you avoid reading? Let’s explore. Canva But the research also tells us this: just six minutes of reading can reduce stress by 68%. That’s more than music or a walk around the block. Reading quietly, even for a few minutes, can lower stress, sharpen memory, and improve emotional well-being. In other words, reading builds the kind of cognitive endurance that doomscrolling erodes. Som why do you keep avoiding it? Here’s a secret. Most people who “wish they read more” (a.k.a. all of us) do not lack interest. Nor willpower. Our brains have been trained to operate in overstimulation mode, always expecting novelty, speed, and interruptions. It’s a far cry from the stillness, focus, and flow that reading requires, certainly. These ten habits work because they help reduce the mental effort it takes to begin reading. They can feel almost like a gentle kind of magic, slowly making it easier and more comfortable to stay with a text just a little longer. Enjoy. Rule 1: Put the book where your brain is tired Place your book or e-reader on your nightstand tonight. Charge your phone in another room. That’s it! That’s the whole rule. Behavioral scientists call this micro-shift “choice architecture.” Developed by economists Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, this theory demonstrates that small, subtle changes to your physical environment can profoundly alter your behavior, with little to no impact on your freedom. It requires little conscious effort. You are making the easiest option also the most nourishing one. By bedtime, your brain is running on automatic habit mode. It reaches for whatever’s closest, most familiar. Over time, that tiny swap makes reading feel like the natural way to end the day. Your brain begins to associate printed words with rest and comfort, not effort. Your favorite reading app deserves prime digital real estate. Canva Rule 2: Make your home screen a little library The average person picks up their phone dozens, if not hundreds, of times per day. Phew. Each glance at your screen, every flash of artificial LED light, represents a mental crossroads. If the first thing your eyes land on is a social app, your fingers will go there before your conscious mind even checks in. However, if the first thing you see is your Kindle, your brain gets a different cue. Research refers to this instinct as “habit stacking” and “cue design.” The idea is to take something your brain already does (picking up your phone to scroll) and sneakily insert reading, gently redirecting the automatic cue. This way, each idle moment—waiting in line, commuting on public transit, a quiet moment in the morning—becomes a reading window. So, your favorite reading app deserves prime digital real estate—the middle of your home page—while distracting apps are buried away in a folder, two or three swipes away. Rule 3: Let audiobooks borrow your most boring moments Commuting. Washing dishes. Dusting the annoying decorative trim at the bottom of the walls. These moments are tedious, irksome. But they’re also perfect opportunities to treat your brains to the worlds of Tolkien, Woolf, and García Márquez. This represents habit stacking at its purest. The technique, pioneered by behavioral researcher BJ Fogg and popularized by James Clear’s Atomic Habits, exploits the brain’s existing neural pathways. Since the anchor habit (commuting, exercising) is already wired into daily routine, the desired behavior (listening to a book) simply rides in on the coattails of the existing habit. Plus, it’s a great way to devour literature: if you spend even half an hour a day listening to audiobooks, you can easily finish 15–20 books per year. Rule 4: Serve your brain a reading menu School taught us to be faithful, monogamous readers. One book at a time. Cover to cover, start to finish. And no switching. Too bad adult brains don’t work that way. The reality? Your energy shifts. Your focus changes. Some days, your mind craves ideas and changes. You want nothing more than to read about how basketball can help you succeed in life. Other times, you wish to get lost in the strange, bizarre universe depicted in Ottessa Moshfegh’s Lapvona. The tactic: keep two to five books going at once; give your brain choices. Perhaps a novel, like 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. A challenging work of nonfiction. A cozy audiobook, maybe one read by the actual author, like Ina Garten does in Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir. Plus, something short and fun for tired nights. Self-determination theory, a foundational framework in motivational psychology, highlights autonomy as the key driver of lasting engagement. Choice matters. Rule 5: You are allowed to quit We’ve all been there. It’s the book of the year. You see it stacked up in piles like a shrine to reading in every bookstore window you pass. Everyone can’t stop raving about this book. But you can’t bring yourself to read past the first fifty pages. Guilt creeps in. You don’t want to abandon this novel; you’ll seem like a quitter. The better option? Stop reading altogether. Notice the sunk cost fallacy at work: the deeply human, deeply imperfect belief that the more you’ve invested in something, the harder it is to walk away—even when walking away is clearly the right choice. Give yourself a break. Destroy the bias! Realign with your intrinsic motivation: the genuine desire to know what happens next. Rule 6: Start with what feels easy Hey, so I don’t know if you know this: not every book you read has to be Ulysses by James Joyce. Start with whatever books pique your interest, effortlessly. Genre fiction. Thrillers. Romance. Fantasy. Short stories. So-called “literary prestige” is what’s standing between you and your ultimate reading goals. The problem is this: if you start your reading life at the steepest part of the mountain, books start to feel like work. Flow theory, developed by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, suggests that the “optimal experience” happens when skill level and challenge level are perfectly synced. If the book’s too difficult, and it seems like every page requires a dictionary, anxiety strikes. Too easy? Boredom. So, take this as your invitation to read anything you love. You’re building the neural pathways and attention span that will eventually lead to Joyce’s epic later on. Welcome to the gamification of reading. Canva Rule 7: Let your progress be visible Reading is such a personal, private experience. That’s a beautiful thing. It can also make progress feel invisible, even to you. Tracking your reads with an account, like Goodreads, or in a notebook, changes that. Now, instead of “out of sight, out of mind,” you can see a list of titles. A little progress bar. A challenge you’re proud to celebrate. You’re gamifying the system, and wow, does it feel good. Psychologists have long noted that our minds do not like open loops, unfinished mental threads that your brain keeps revisiting because they feel incomplete or unresolved. It’s called the Zeigarnik effect, and it’s why checking off a bullet point on your to-do list feels so satisfying. Welcome to the gamification of reading: annual challenges, completion badges, public reviews, and community rankings leverage extrinsic rewards to supplement intrinsic motivation. Over time, your brain begins to associate reading with these tasty little rewards, and books start to feel smoother, lighter, and more enjoyable. Rule 8: It’s okay to go a little faster There is no moral virtue in reading slowly. Sure, it’s nice to sit with a sentence, to luxuriate in its prose as the language washes over you like a warm breeze. But for audiobooks, a slightly faster pace can actually improve your sense of momentum. Your mind will wander less frequently because it has to pay attention to keep up. Many find that listening at 1.25x or 1.5x speed (approximately 225–275 words per minute) is the sweet spot. This is because the average audiobook reader takes their time. They enunciate, sometimes frustratingly so, at 150–160 words per minute—well below the typical adult’s listening comprehension. But remember, there’s a delicate balance at play here. Do not jump to extremes. Play at the edges. Notice where you still feel present with the material. Let that be your guide. Rule 9: Remove the “should I buy this?” option Whenever someone recommends a book—in a conversation, on a podcast, in an article—and your brain goes, ‘Oh, that sounds good,” don’t think. Get your hands on it immediately. Buy it or download it on the spot. Think about it, how many times have you been told about an excellent book…then did nothing about it? Life moved on, and the recommendation evaporated. Lost to the tabs, shuffled to the “saved for later” cart. Decision fatigue, the progressive depletion of the brain’s capacity to make high-quality decisions after repeated choices, is real. By the end of the day, your brain is tired. Eliminating the decision about whether to buy a book removes friction at the exact moment you’re likely to balk. A fantastic book can lead to an entire new world: one good idea can shift a career, a relationship, and your connection to the universe. Rule 10: You are a reader. Think of yourself as one Stop calling yourself someone who “wants to read more” and start seeing yourself as a reader. You are a person for whom books are just a normal part of everyday life. When researchers study habits, they keep finding the same thing: the story you tell yourself about who you are matters more than sheer willpower. How someone sees themselves (“who I am”) is a very strong predictor of whether they will change their behavior or keep going. Reading works in this way. Once that story shifts, countless tiny decisions follow. If you believe you are a reader, reaching for a book in a spare moment feels natural. Suddenly, scrolling before bed feels off. A person who views themself as a reader will notice new ways to read: during a delay at the airport, a lunch break, or in the morning while drinking coffee; not because they’re forcing themselves to, but because that’s simply who they are. Take back your time. Canva Gently rewiring your reading life Right now, your brain might be trained for short bursts of attention, quick hits of novelty, and constantly switching between tabs. It’s tired, and that makes starting a new chapter feel even more daunting. But brains are pliable. They change in response to what we repeatedly do. Besides, this was never about hitting some impressive “books per year” quota. You’re taking back your time and filling it with an activity that’s actually nourishing. A book on the nightstand replacing a phone. A reading app on the home screen. A lovely audiobook playing through your headphones as you vacuum your apartment or walk around the block. Together, these small actions steadily send a message to your mind: reading is safe, familiar, and rewarding. Over time, that message becomes a feeling. And before you know it, you are not forcing yourself to read more. You are simply living like someone who already does. The post Want to read more books? Stop doing this one thing every night. appeared first on Upworthy.

A gas station clerk in Detroit is being hailed a hero after he risked his life confronting a suspected kidnapper who came into his store. It all began at around 7:00 a.m. on Monday, April 13, in Hamtramck, Michigan, when a 16-year-old girl was approached by the suspect at a bus stop while waiting for her ride to school. The suspect pointed a gun at her and demanded she get in his car. Thirty minutes after the abduction, the man took the girl into a gas station in nearby Detroit and forced her to buy him a pack of cigarettes. The gas station cashier thought the situation looked suspicious, a hunch that the girl confirmed. “When he asked her to pay for the cigarette, I said, ‘Stop. There’s something wrong.’ And she mouthed, like talked to me like with no sound, ‘Help,'” Abdulrahman Abohatem told WXYZ.  Abohatem put his life on the line to help the abducted girl Abohatem asked the girl to come around the counter and get behind him. He walked outside the bulletproof glass, told the suspect to leave the store, and followed him out just as the police rolled up to the gas station. “I see the police outside. I point to him—’That’s the guy,'” Abohatem recalled. The police were at the right place at the right time because they had been tracing the girl using her smartphone. After word spread of the abduction, a friend of the girl was able to track her location.  Gas station footage shows Abohatem following the suspect out of the store as the police pulled up to detain him. @CBSDetroit @cbsdetroit Hamtramck Police say it only took 30 minutes to find a kidnapping suspect and rescue a 16-year-old teen on Monday morning.They say the armed abduction happened while the teen was on their way to the bus stop just after 7:00 a.m.The lead detective said… pic.twitter.com/GWkVP45yss— CrimeInTheD ® (@CrimeInTheD) April 13, 2026 “One of her friends opened the location through one of the social media apps. I said, ‘Oh, I could see her location right now,'” Mohammed Alsanai, the principal at the girl’s school, Frontier International Academy, told ABC News. “As we show the police the location, informed the dispatch, and as she walked in and said she had the location, like the whole room froze, and we all look at each other like, ‘Here we go.'” Hamtramck police speak after student kidnapped at bus stop https://t.co/nZTZVxunYh— WXYZ Detroit (@wxyzdetroit) April 13, 2026 Amazing things can happen when people work together It’s incredible that the girl was saved just 30 minutes after being abducted by a group of quick-thinking people working together—although some of them didn’t know it). It was a great piece of teamwork from the girls’ friends, school administrators, the police, and a quick-thinking clerk who trusted his gut and took a big risk to do what was right. The suspect was armed, so he could have easily been shot for confronting the man. The entire situation is a great reminder that people of all ages and walks of life are willing to step up and do what’s right when someone’s life is on the line.  “It is very concerning because we’re talking about a child’s life here,” Hamtramck Police Chief Hussein Farhat said during an April 13 press conference. “It’s scary to [the victim’s family]. It’s scary to every parent who has children. So, we can only imagine what’s going through their head right now. Just want to make sure they know we’re there for them.” The post Quick-thinking gas station clerk stops kidnapping after victim mouths ‘help’ appeared first on Upworthy.

College students and recent graduates are entering a very difficult job market. For some, getting an interview can feel like an impossible feat, let alone getting a position. It’s not hopeless, though. In fact, career advisor Gorick Ng not only knows young college grads who have landed jobs, but also how they did it. Ng gave some solid advice and shared the things college students did that helped them successfully land a job shortly after earning their diploma. Here are the ways those grads got their careers started: 1. Start your career training while you’re still a student The earlier you’re on your career track, the better off you’ll be once you graduate. That said, it’s not too late to start, even if you’re a senior. Including extracurricular activities and volunteer work on your resume can help strengthen your candidacy as a new hire. While it can be great to include activities and titles relevant to the job itself (such as being president of the coding club for software development positions), other extracurricular activities can also be included if they demonstrate leadership and planning skills (such as being a tutor or leading a party planning committee). Listing the skills you’ve learned at internships and part-time positions helps you stand out as well. Speaking of which… 2. Know the timelines for the jobs and internships you want While the summer is typically when internships are available, many applications need to be submitted months in advance. Some are even available year-round. It’s best to do your research to understand the recruitment timelines for internships and student jobs. Applying for and getting these positions can boost your resume when you search for full-time work. Even if you don’t get the internship, the process of applying and interviewing can be good practice when you apply for a full-time position. It’s also an opportunity to become a familiar face and make connections. 3. Expand your network beyond your peers, and stay in touch While you’ll make connections with other people in your major who could help you, it’s very likely that you and your immediate peers are applying for the same pool of jobs. To get an edge or a job lead, it can be helpful to reach out and develop relationships beyond your current sphere. Become friends with older students who graduate in your chosen field. This can allow you to stay in touch with someone already in your industry who could get a job and possibly recommend you for a role once you’ve graduated. Creating and maintaining relationships with college professors or speakers in your field can also create opportunities later. Even approaching those who interviewed you for a position or internship you didn’t get can be a good connection, depending on how well the process went. While these relationships are professional in nature, it’s important to nurture them as genuine relationships, not transactions. Leading with curiosity about them, their professional lives, and the like will help you create long-lasting allies who have a connection to the field you want to be part of. They may also be willing to act as a reference on your behalf. 4. Submit your resume within 24 hours of a job posting Applying for a job is easier, which is a wonderful problem to have. With AI-based applications and one-button resume submissions, it has become more difficult for qualified applicants to be seen by recruiters. There is also the problem of ghost jobs clogging up job searches with positions that are either already filled or don’t exist. With this in mind, it’s best to submit a job application within 24 hours of a posting. This can ensure your resume is near the top of the stack. You can also ask your network if there are email newsletters to subscribe to within your chosen industry. This could alert you to positions before they’re posted online. If there is a specific company you wish to work for, check its website regularly. Applying through its official website usually gets your resume seen before applications through third-party postings. There are also some hacks for job search websites like LinkedIn. They can help you winnow down your search to job postings listed within an hour of posting. 5. Display competence, commitment, and compatibility Ng says that whether it’s a networking contact, recruiter, or potential employer, people want three “yeses” to the following questions: “Can this person do the job well?” “Is this person excited to be here?” “Do I get along with this person?” Ng sums this up by saying a college student needs to demonstrate the “3 Cs”: competence, commitment, and compatibility. By showing competence through a resume, commitment through conversation, and compatibility through the professional contacts you retain, you can show an employer that you know what you’re doing, are eager to demonstrate your abilities, and can be molded into what they need. The post Career expert says college students who are finding jobs are doing these 5 things appeared first on Upworthy.