Pssst. Here’s a hint: Internships.

According to an Internships.com survey conducted last week, 69% of companies polled have offered full-time jobs to their interns in 2012.

Essentially an internship serves as a “new interview” as the critical selection step for both students and employers.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

According to the Maynard Institute, a “well-placed source at the network” has revealed the big news. Details are unclear because the number of available internships and actual salary amounts haven’t been determined.

Perhaps other news outlets will begin paying their interns as well?

Keep in mind, according to the piece, ABC News and CNN pay their interns and CBS News and Fox News create arrangements for the college/university to provide course credit. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The broadcast journalism major told The New York Post while working for 92.3 FM’s digital media department she got to see Justin Bieber and will.i.am, but more importantly she got an experience to bolster her resume. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

With summer internships well underway, mediabistro.com gave the hardworking interns a chance to mingle and share a drink at last night’s Mediabistro Student and Intern party.

On top of meeting future co-workers in the media world, the students also got a chance to chat with  Alex Weprin, editor of TVNewser, and yours truly, editorial assistant and social media coordinator. Also present were Jessica Carlson, client services associate of the Job Board, education manager Amanda Pacitti and education assistant Sandra Reitman. Lots of advice and questions were swapped, but what was the biggest concern for the interns? Breaking into that first job.

Luckily for them, online marketing manager Caitlin McKinney hosted speed interviews for two openings at our own company: online marketing coordinator and events assistant. Nineteen hopefuls jumped into the interview with two to three minutes to prove themselves.

The rest of the students didn’t leave empty-handed. Each attendee received with a $50 discount to a year-long AvantGuild membership, and all had a chance to win a free Mediabistro class and a coffee with a mentor in the field of their choice.

Missed out last night? Then tune in to our free July 31 webcast on what it takes to jumpstart your career in media. Execs and editors from Travel + Leisure, Comedy Central and ABC Television will be online to help you discover the best ways to get your foot in the door.

In the meantime, check out more photos below of last night’s fun after the jump. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

As you gear up to turn that short-term gig into a full-time opportunity, for starters, Jacquelyn Smith writes on Forbes to “act the part.” This means abiding by the company dress code, hours, and overall behavior: “Never wear flip-flops, show cleavage or wear anything that’s ripped or torn.”

Next, you’ll need to take the bull by its horns. Meet with your manager to outline quantifiable goals and demonstrate a positive attitude no matter how menial the tasks may seem. Tom Busbach, former producer at Yahoo! told Forbes, “Not every task you’re going to do is something you’ll enjoy, but have the attitude that these are building blocks to your career. Once you show you can be trusted with small tasks, managers will give you more responsibility.”

As for the third way; make a name for yourself. Volunteer to work in other departments or on task forces that may not be relate to the job. Although it recently passed, one example is Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. By spreading your wings and networking with other folks, it’ll give you a better grasp of the company and ways to explore its numerous departments. Leverage your time there and ask new contacts out to lunch or coffee to get a better understanding of what they do. Plus, it’ll give them the opportunity to get to know you better. During the dialogue, be sure to express interest in working there so they may keep you in mind when opportunities arise.

Lastly, get feedback. Meet with your manager and keep track of your skills and projects to add them to your resume. Keep track of positive emails and notes; ask for recommendations and references. Specifically sit down with your manager and express your interest in working there. After all, he or she isn’t a mind reader! Even if there’s not an opportunity as soon as your internship has ended, be sure to stay in touch so your name is top of mind when full-time opportunities become available.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Lauren Berger, also known as the Intern Queen who landed 15 internships in four years, tells TIME there are several ways to make the most out of an internship. For starters, she says to know your rights. Considering a few companies have been sued over unpaid internships, you’ll need to know what’s legal and what’s not.

For instance, buzz words like “sales” or “commission” certainly raise red flags. If you’re an intern, you really shouldn’t work on projects that impact revenue.

Moving on, Berger emphasizes getting a mentor. How do you do this? Sounds pretty simple by asking the internship coordinator for permission to contact an executive internally. It’s essentially a quick meeting to simply ask the exec how he or she got started in the business, any mistakes they made early on, and how they would break in today if they were in the intern’s shoes.

The importance of the mentor is raised again as the internship comes to a close. Instead of asking point blank to have a job, the Intern Queen suggests asking for advice.

In the piece she explains, “I tell students to take the pressure off of thinking the internship will turn into a job. An internship doesn’t guarantee that you’ll work at the company afterwards. What you need to do is leverage your contacts and stay in touch with them.” Plus, an internship is a terrific way to get a referral and recommendation for future employment.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

According to the labor department, interns at a for-profit business who qualify as employees “typically must be paid at least the minimum wage and overtime compensation for hours worked over 40 in a workweek.” That means if your intern is slaving over a project until 2 a.m. at the office, you better be writing those checks.

Remember, the bottom line is that an unpaid intern’s experience should be focused on his education more so than his benefit to the company, so make sure he or she is picking up a valuable experience.

For more ways to keep your program legit and rewarding, read 7 Things That Are Ruining Your Company’s Internship Program.

This article is one of several mediabistro.com features exclusively available to AvantGuild subscribers. If you’re not a member yet, you can register for as little as $55 a year and get access to these articles, discounts on seminars and workshops, and more.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The recent news of the Atlantic Media Company‘s decision to not only pay their current interns, but retroactively pay those who interned in their first “academy” — a six-month, full-time, unpaid internship last fall — is not only fantastic on a personal level, but on a higher level, as well.

I was one of those interns, toiling away 10-12 hour days for six months, surviving off whatever I could garner bartending in the fratastic D.C. neighborhood of Adams Morgan on weekends. Did my friends and family think I was crazy to work for free? Of course, but I loved it and relished every opportunity offered to me while I was there.

Besides, I knew going into it that I was going to struggle, but from my experience as an editor at a magazine in New York and as an intern at various magazines before that — all of which were unpaid — struggle, I’ve learned, is a part of the business of journalism. It’s a creative field, it’s competitive and because of both, I’ve found that employers have the upper hand in every way possible. (I may come off as bitter, but it’s hard to swallow two title promotions in four years with no increase in income and a boss telling you to ask your parents for money.) So my decision to take an unpaid, full-time internship was conflicting, yes, but coming from a place where I was already struggling with the amount I was being paid, it was easier to justify the work without the monetary compensation when I could solidly say I loved what I was doing.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.