Reading List, Sept. 19

A weekly roundup of job-hunting tips, career advice and interesting articles relevant to the magazine industry and being an editor.


• "10 Good Things To Do While Between Jobs" by Blessy Vaidian on JobMob. If you're looking for work, do more than just send out resumés and mope around the house: network, volunteer or learn something new.

• "5 Tips for Hiring Startup Interns" by Kwame Kuadey on the Young Entrepreneur Council. Although aimed at start-up companies, this piece offers a basic guide suitable for any company that hires interns. Tips 4 and 5 are particularly important: set expectations upfront, and consider interns as potential candidates for future staff positions.

• Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, by Keith Houston. I highly recommend this fascinating blog, which tells the surprisingly intriguing stories of punctuation marks, their use and their histories. Trust me, it's not as dry as it sounds.

A Wordle (word cloud) of the most commonly used words on Dream Job TK.

• Wordle. If you need an inexpensive (read free) illustration for an article, try out this cool toy created by Jonathan Feinberg (yes, the rights allow for commercial usage). Enter the article text and this tool will create a word cloud that you can customize by colour, font and layout. Also a handy tool for seeing if any words have been overused in a story.

• The Fantastic Man editorial offices on Where They Create by Paul Barbera. Photographs of the magazine's editorial offices in Amsterdam. Also on the site: the offices of interior design magazine Frame in Amsterdam, Monster Children magazine in Sydney, and Sneaker Freaker magazine in Melbourne. (via magCulture)