I was catching up on my RSS feeds over the weekend and came across a great post by Jason over at 37signals’ Signal vs. Noise blog, entitled “Sell Your By-products.”

The software and web industry can learn a lot from the lumber industry, the oil business, and corn and soybean farmers. They take waste and turn it into hefty profits.

It goes on to explain ways that software people can take the by-product of whatever it is they’re already doing (writing code, blogging, etc.), and use it to their advantage. I’ve been thinking about this over the past couple days, and I’ve come up with a few ways that students can take this same approach to add value to their job or internship search:

Class Projects. Portfolios aren’t just for artists. If you’re assigned a project, make sure you save the final product and put it up someplace for a potential employer to see. Tangible examples of your work will mean a lot more than a few lines on a resume. Try a free option like Google Sites to create an online portfolio with your best work. If you can’t create a full-fledged portfolio online, try using either the Slideshare, Google Presentations, or Box.net application to add it to your LinkedIn profile.

On-Campus Networking. Networking is extremely important to a job or internship search, but don’t focus only on networking with people off campus. If you’re involved in a student organization or take courses with lots of group work, there’s a good chance you meet with *tons* of fellow students over the course of the year at mixers, to organize joint events, or work on a project. Make sure you treat this sort of encounter as a professional networking opportunity, as well as a social/academic opportunity. You never know which one of those people could be in a position to help you out down the road!

Facebook. You know you’re on it anyway, so why not use Facebook for more than just procrastination? Keep track of where recently graduated friends are working or interning, and stay in touch with them. You could also make use of status updates to let people in your network know what sort of job or internship you’re looking for — you’d be surprised about who might be able to help you out.

What are some ways that you’ve turned your on-campus ‘waste’ into a value add?