Success in today’s marketplace often means the creative use of social media and a lot of personal initiative.

The College Fix reports on one young American who has both, and which highlights the ever increasing role of summer internships for future career success.

You have to admire this student’s drive and creativity:

Villanova University sophomore Nicolette Weinbaum proved landing a competitive internship after freshman year of college is more than possible…

The LinkedIn ad — that’s what helped separate Weinbaum from the thousands of other applicants fighting for an internship. Traditionally used by businesses to advertise their resources on prominent LinkedIn pages, Weinbaum used the self-service tool to target alumni of the great Nova Nation working in her particular field of interest. The process took Weinbaum two minutes and $200 to complete, but she didn’t stop there. She then linked the ad to a post on her website listing the six reasons someone should hire her.

Two weeks into her campaign, the e-mails started pouring in…

While this student’s drive is impressive, this story is also an indication of just how maddening the hunt for employment can be for young college students these days, with the job market still languishing from the recession.

It’s also an example of how summer internships (frequently unpaid positions) have become seemingly mandatory for young people seeking to enter the professional world. That’s an issue that has become increasingly controversial of late, a federal court ruled that in some cases unpaid internships constitute a violation of minimum wage laws if they do not have any substantive educational value.