Amy Lindgren

It’s feeling like a tough job market for new college graduates, whether they’re holding a two-year or four-year degree, is getting tougher. With some employers delaying their hiring and others conducting layoffs, it’s not a great time to have a degree but limited experience in one’s new field.

Most new grads have tried multiple job search strategies, with perhaps varying levels of success. That’s a good start, but the tougher the market, the longer these steps can take to pay off.

If you’ve recently graduated, you still need to do something worthwhile even if job search is going slowly.

With that in mind, here’s a baker’s dozen of productive things to consider for this awkward space between graduation and the start of the career you’re pursuing.

Note that these ideas are intended as companions to an ongoing job search. In most cases, you wouldn’t be shutting down your process so much as streamlining your efforts to make room for something else.

• 1. Take on a gig job. Driving for Uber or delivering for DoorDash may not feel ultra-productive but it can provide cash flow and the opportunity to meet people.

• 2. Work for a temporary agency. In years past, temping had been a rite of passage for unemployed new graduates. It’s also a not-uncommon pathway to permanent employment, even when the initial job is unrelated to your career goal.

• 3. Take lower-level or unrelated jobs. Don’t let pride keep you from a retail or hospitality job (presuming those aren’t in your career path). Work is work, and you’ll benefit from both the income and the schedule.

• 4. Ask past employers for interim work. Returning to former employers can pay off faster than forging new connections, since they already know you can do the job.

• 5. Take or create a volunteer job. Here’s where you can better control the content of the work itself, even if you’re sacrificing pay to do it. Consider your career-related skills, then look for nonprofits or startups that could benefit from them.

• 6. Craft an internship. This is another version of the self-crafted volunteer gig. In this case, you’re asking an employer in your field to take you on for a specific period of time — perhaps 4-8 weeks — where you would simultaneously learn and contribute to their team. It can be a tough sell, but easier if you have contacts.

• 7. Start a business. Sometimes the quickest path to employment is to hire yourself. Despite the temptation to offer services in your chosen field, remember the goal is to move forward on something quickly. Consider instead tried-and-true options such as lawn care or house cleaning for neighbors and family friends.

• 8. Take in-person courses to build hands-on skills. Pivoting to training options, consider which hands-on skills you could benefit from learning. Anything from nursing assistant to line cooking to low-voltage wiring or computer repair could become a fallback source of income.

• 9. Earn an online certificate. Hewing closer to your career path, consider certificates that will matter in your field — perhaps data analytics, project management or employee coaching, for example.

• 10. Write about issues in your field. If you have ideas or even questions about topics in your career area, putting them together on Substack, LinkedIn or another platform could help you grow your expertise (and possibly make contacts as well).

• 11. Coach or tutor kids in your community. It may not fit into your career plans, but community involvement will always score points with future employers. It can also be a rich source of contacts, depending on the program.

• 12. Sign up for an immersive experience. AmeriCorps, Peace Corps, fire service work — these can turn into a job search pause, but sometimes that’s just what you need when the market isn’t cooperating.

• 13. Earn the next degree. That’s a standby, but it may not be bad advice. Depending on how far you were already intending to go in terms of education or training, adding the next level now can shelter you somewhat during a rocky market. Just don’t do it for the wrong reasons — a tight market doesn’t mean an impossible one. If you’re going to take this leap, it should be part of a larger plan.

Okay, that’s a starter list, but it covers a lot of territory for things new graduates can do while riding out a difficult job market. Come back next week for a closer look at how a stripped-down job search can pair effectively with these “non-career” pursuits.

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Amy Lindgren owns a career consulting firm in St. Paul. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecareerservice.com.

By JESSICA DAMIANO

I hate to break it to you, but just like your calendar can’t tell you the best time to harvest, it won’t provide you the perfect date to attack the pests waging war on your plants.

Timing effective pest control is all about understanding how the weather affects insect life cycles.

We know that most plants and insects emerge in spring, advance through summer, and, in cold regions, go dormant over winter. But beyond those general seasonal cycles, there’s no way to predict precisely when, for example, seeds will sprout, garlic will be ready for harvest or pests will be at their most vulnerable.

Those developmental stages vary from year to year because they’re dependent on the weather.

That’s where growing degree days come in.

GDD is a cumulative system used to determine exactly when plants and insects will reach certain stages of maturity. And with so much variability — with different pests having different life stages that are vulnerable (or resistant) to different control methods at different times — it’s a helpful tool for gardeners.

The system, introduced by the French entomologist René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur in 1735, is a measurement of heat accumulation that accurately predicts when seeds will germinate, crops will mature and specific pest populations will hatch and reach advancing stages of maturity.

The progression of an insect’s life cycle, like much of the natural world’s biological activity, is dictated by environmental factors like temperature. And because not every life stage will succumb to treatment, weather is the only thing that can truly accurately inform the timing of many control methods.

Here’s how it works

The average daily temperature is typically recorded on March 1, and for each degree over 50 degrees Fahrenheit, one point is assigned. Then, every day throughout the remainder of the season, the number of degrees over 50 is added to a running tally. If the temperature is exactly at or below 50 degrees, the day is assigned a score of zero.

Let’s say the temperature was 53 degrees on March 1; the GDD on that day would be 3. If it was 60 on March 2, the GDD would be 3 plus 10, or 13. If the temperature was 49 on March 3, that would add nothing, and the accumulated growing degree days would remain at 13. The tally continues to grow through a regionally specific date in the fall.

Seems complicated? The good news is you don’t have to crunch the numbers yourself.

Your local cooperative extension office likely tailors and tracks this information for your region, and many post the GDD, as well as pest- and plant-specific GDD guidelines, on their websites. In addition, the agricultural company Syngenta offers a handy tool among its GreenCast online resources that quickly generates the GDD for your zip code.

What does this mean for your garden?

As an example, Colorado potato beetle eggs and pupae are not susceptible to pesticides, so attempting control during those stages would be pointless. But their larvae are vulnerable to the natural biological control Bt from the time they emerge until they reach ¼ inch in length. Rather than heading out into the garden with a ruler — or spraying every day and hoping for the best — you can time the application for between 65 and 185 GDD.

Similarly, the first generation of euonymus scale insects are most vulnerable to Neem oil and horticultural oil treatments between 400 and 575 GDD.

And for pre-emergent crabgrass controls, like corn gluten meal, to be effective, they should be applied just before 200 GDD. That’s why I recommend a treatment window that coincides with the time between when the first forsythia blooms and the last of the lilacs fade: It’s a visual cue tied to nature’s reaction to temperature.

Depending on the variety, most tomatoes, which love the heat, are ripe for the picking between 1,000 and 2,000 GDD. But, for the record, my tomatoes always let me know when they’re ready.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

For more AP gardening stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/gardening.

The Wild on Friday released the game schedule for this year’s Hockey Day Minnesota festivities in Hastings, including an outdoor game between the AHL teams for Minnesota and the Nashville Predators.

The 20th iteration of Hockey Day will be played at United Heroes League’s outdoor rink in Hastings with a weekend schedule beginning Jan. 23 with a 5 p.m. puck drop between the Iowa Wild and Milwaukee Admirals.

Saturday’s schedule includes three high school outdoor games, as well as the Wild’s 8 p.m. game against defending NHL champion Florida at Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul.

Hockey Day Minnesota

All games at United Heroes League outdoor rink, Hastings except where noted:

Friday, Jan. 23

Iowa Wild vs. Milwaukee Admirals, 5 p.m.

Saturday, Jan. 24

Hastings vs. Park Cottage Grove girls, TBA

Hastings vs. East Ridge boys, TBA

Rock Ridge vs. St. Thomas Academy boys, TBA

Minnesota Wild vs. Florida Panthers, Grand Casino Arena, 8 p.m.

— Staff report

By RACHEL S. HUNT

How much has social media changed the way we talk and behave?

That’s the question linguist and content creator Adam Aleksic sets out to answer in his debut book “Algospeak.”

If you already know what words like “yeet,” “rizz,” “brainrot” or “blackpilled” mean, some of this information might not come as a surprise to you. Still, Aleksic’s analysis reaffirms how this language came about and why it continues to proliferate. For those unfamiliar, it acts as an accessible entry point into social media slang and its evolution.

“Algospeak” touches on a wide array of topics, including in-groups and out-groups, censorship, language appropriation, extremism online, microtrends, clickbait and generational divides. The chapters build on each other with a textbook-level attention to vocabulary.

This book serves as a sobering reality check on how social media is affecting not just our speech, but our entire identities.

This book cover image released by Knopf shows “Algospeak: How Social Media is Transforming the Future of Language” by Adam Aleksic. (Knopf via AP)

“Social media creates new identities in order to commodify them,” Aleksic writes in a chapter about microtrends and micro-labels. “Your decisions are now curated for you under the guise of personalization, while in reality they’re engineered to make platforms as much money as possible.”

As a self-proclaimed “etymology nerd,” Aleksic leans heavily into his experience as a content creator, providing a crash course into social media history and how to game the ever-changing and opaque “algorithm.” His tone is academic, yet approachable, and he’s bold but pragmatic in his assertions, exploring counterarguments sufficiently.

He identifies the transient nature of language and the algorithm immediately, since the cultural references in “Algospeak” risk expiring quickly as trends change and social media platforms shift — but that’s the point.

“‘The algorithm’ is here to stay. This is why I think it’s absolutely worth talking about even the most fleeting words,” Aleksic writes.

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Aleksic’s writing feels personable and knowledgeable as he translates his online presence offline, and in doing so, demonstrates his own claims about parasocial relationships and owning one’s audience. Keeping up with the algorithmic cycle is portrayed as exhausting, but as a necessary evil for influencers supporting their livelihoods through social media.

“Algospeak” is a fascinating blend of etymology, psychology, cultural analysis and first-person perspective. The book acts as both a snapshot of our current, social media-imbued society and as an intellectual foundation for language developments to come.

Aleksic leaves his reader with questions about the threats and opportunities that stem from social media developments, but undeniably one principle is true: social media has breached containment and is influencing not only the way we talk, but the way we live.

“Algorithms are the culprits, influencers are the accomplices, language is the weapon, and you, dear reader, are the victim,” he writes.