Monday, February 25, 2013

Decisions and Milestones

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Hey students,
As a sophomore, I feel as though I have reached a fork in the road with my academic career. Many other students like me probably also feel this. As with any major, there comes a time to decide what you want to do with that degree and what field you want to enter. After all, I am deciding what I want to study and do the rest of my life at nineteen…and I seriously hope I’m making the right decision so far. With that huge responsibility, comes a lot of indecisiveness.
There are a lot of questions I have, such as do I want to make money and get a job straight out of school? Do I want to apply for graduate school? Or my nightmare: take a few years off before applying to graduate school to work and make some money, but not be able to find a job, and have to move back in with my parents and work at Starbucks or something to pay off my ridiculous private school debt.
In two and half years, we will (us sophomores at least) have to make some big decisions that, to me seem too far away. I wish someone told me my freshman year to start buckling down a little more and at least apply for a few internships or something. As a whole, the attitude of freshman year was a blend of feeling grateful you were done with high school, and embodying the ‘let’s get wasted’ persona because it was expected of us from each other on some level socially. Maybe you didn’t drink at all, but either way, freshman year was about making friends and getting adjusted to the college experience. It wouldn’t have hurt to be a little more proactive in exploring career options, or post USF options in general though.
For me, all I wanted in coming to college was to have the chance to be more than the cashier at the local grocery store in my hometown (not kidding, that was one of my first actual jobs). I just hope that at the end of these two and half years I will have a better idea of what that will look like and start trying to be as prepared for graduation as possible.
I know I do have some control over what will happen after the next two and half years. There are internships, more job experience, and research opportunities I can shoot for. People have been telling me that as a sophomore, asking these questions now is probably better than to start wondering about all this your Junior year, or even your Senior year. It’s better to be proactive and start applying for internships or whatever else now, and learning from that experience, than it is to be applying for your first internship your senior year. Procrastination, while it has gotten the better of me most nights I do homework, won’t do me much good on my four year track to the “real world”. 
Thanks for reading,

Elaine Ortega

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Final Part 3: Long Story Short...

Clearly, it's taking me way longer than it should to finish all the parts of my story... I think it's senioritis... -_- so I'll try to sum it up succinctly and make the long story short.

After I met the recruiters at the Fall Career Fair and they asked me to send in my resume, I was extremely hesitant to follow through for many reasons: one was because I was in the process of waiting to hear back from another internship; other reasons simply included that I did not make time for it (in other words, I procrastinated).
But that Friday, bored at work in the office, I applied on their website and submitted my resume (literally 3 days after I was asked).... and.... with no cover letter.... *Disclaimer: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!* - you should ALWAYS send a cover letter even if they don't ask for one and try to do so in a timely manner. 3 days is pushing it. It may have worked for me but it will not work for everyone especially when planned happenstance is not involved.

So they receive my resume and I guess they liked what they saw, because on Monday I received a call from their Headquarters. Little did I know this was the screening call/the first interview.
*Advice: ALWAYS be ready and on your toes when speaking to any representative of the company over the phone. You probably won't be able to tell it's the first rounds of interviews.

By the end of our conversation, I was invited to a mixer/group interview a few weeks later. Totally unexpected.

The day of the group interview came around and had it not been for a follow up call I received that same day from the same rep whom I had been keeping in contact, I would not have gone to the interview. I was feeling extremely lazy and simply "not feeling it" anymore. All I have to say is: *Advice: Please be sure to follow through with any scheduled calls or interviews with a prospective employer.

Suffice it to say, the road to landing the internship was filled with planned happenstance. After leaving the group interview/mixer I was pretty sure I wan't going to get the job buuuuut I was offered the internship (the next day) and 2 months in, I am absolutely loving every part of it!

I am happy and comfortable with where I am and in the end, that's the most important thing. :)


Hang in there gang,
Rosie

Career Fair


Students!
Follow the Green & Gold Road to jobs and internships at the 25th annual Career & Internship Fair next Friday, March 1, 2013 from 11:00am-3:00pm in the McLaren Complex. Many companies and organizations will be here including Kaiser Permanente, AT&T, Oracle, WellsFargo Bank, Kiva, Peace Corps, Square, Flixter/Rotten Tomatoes, Apple Retail, First Republic Bank and more!

For a complete list of exhibitors, just click HERE or copy/paste the web link below:
https://usfca-csm.symplicity.com/events/students.php?mode=list&cf=2013CareerFair

MORE CAREER FAIR WEEK EVENTS!
The week will be packed with events to help you impress the employers attending the Fair. Here's a list of our upcoming activities:

RESUME REVIEW DAYS!
Get your resume reviewed by a real-world recruiter BEFORE the March 1st Career & Internship Fair. We have recruiters visiting on the 3 days from 12:00-1:30pm, UC 1st Floor (in front of USF Bookstore). See who's coming and get your resume reviewed:

February 26, 2013
Gary Russ (Management Consultant) * Advantis Global (IT Consulting Firm) * Novogradac (Accounting Firm)

February 27, 2013:
Omni Hotels * KGO-TV * Scherer Smith & Kenny (Law Firm)

February 28, 2013
Enterprise Rent-A-Car * Japanese Community Youth Council (Nonprofit Agency) * Indeed.com (Jobs Web Site)

CAREER FAIR PREP WORKSHOP
February 27, 2013
5:30 - 7:00pm
Maier Room Fromm Hall
Meet a panel of experienced recruiters and get tips on how to make a great impression at the March 1st Career & Internship Fair!

WICKED RESUME CONTEST
Due Date: 3:00pm, February 28, 2013
Enter the Wicked Resume Contest for a chance to win a Kindle or Skullcandy Headphones! You don't have to be present to win. It's easy to enter:
Submit your resume to USF Career Services Center, UC 5th Floor, OR email it to careerservices@usfca.edu and write "Wicked Resume Contest Entry" in the Subject Line by 3:00pm on Thursday, February 28th.

Questions? Contact USF Career Services at 415-422-6216careerservices@usfca.edu, or stop by UC 5th Floor. 

USF accommodates individuals with disabilties. If you need a disability-related accommodation or wheelchair access information, please contact Elizabeth McMurtry, USF Career Services Center at 415-422-2165 orealand@usfca.edu. Requests should be made by 2/18/13.


-Nate

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Welcome Back!


Welcome back everyone! I hope you enjoyed winter break but set some time aside to do some career searching and informational interviews. This break I got a chance to talk to a few people regarding careers and grad schools. One person in particular was David. He is Executive Vice President at Bank of Hawaii and has worked in many different industries, located in places including California, New York and Hawaii. Through talking with him he gave me a lot of insight on career paths and grad school options. But most important he gave me two things that that stood out in my mind. 

1. Make sure your decisions align with your life. 
- This sounds like the normal thing to do but when you think about it most people do not. David stated that your decisions should align with your career goals, life, family, friends, wants, needs, happiness and even religion. He also believes that your first real boss after your undergraduate degree is going to make the largest impact on you, good or bad. 

2. Write your goals down. 
- This is another thing most people think they do, but most cases not true. People have goals in their mind but never write them down. David stated that when you write it down the “magic happens,” he believes you should keep these goals in your wallet and once a year reflect on them, than set new ones for the following year. 

After meeting with David, I took his advice to heart. I wrote my goals down and looked at what the future may have in store for me. I also started to prepare for the decisions I will have to make, to be happy.

So if you did or did not get a chance to do some informational interviews this winter break take the time this semester to reach out to a few people that may interest you. Although your education is important now your network is important for your future. 


Questions regarding informational interviews stop by our office on the UC 5floor for drop in hours. 

Aloha, 
Nate

Monday, February 11, 2013

Major Indecision Part I


     One of the first things you get asked meeting new people as a college student is "What's your major?". I had grown to despise this question because my answer was always "undeclared" and I felt like being undeclared made people take me less seriously. At first it was fine. I was a freshman and being undeclared was pretty common but as time went on I felt more and more anxious about not having a major. Everyone I knew had at least some idea of what they were going to do in the future. I, on the other hand, only knew that I did not want to work in math or science.

      I met with Ellen Kelly Daley, one of the counselors at our office and she helped me narrow things down by giving me the iStartStrong test and other exercises to help me decide my major. One exercise she suggested was going through the required classes of my top choices and rating them by interest. This exercise helped me realize I definitely didn't want to become a business major. Ellen also had me look carefully at my iStartStrong results to determine my top interests. There were great resources on what people from different majors are currently doing and what their salaries are. I found that the majors that were most interesting to me were International Studies, Media Studies, Communications, Sociology, Politics and Psychology.
     
       I had finished the easier part, narrowing it down to a few majors but I still had six different majors that were all equally desirable to me. All that was left to do was to make the hard decision but I was having a really hard time doing that because I didn't know what the classes were like for these different majors. I asked people's opinions of what I should do but they all said pretty much the same thing, that I needed to decide that for myself and that I should go with the major I felt most passionate about.

Stay tuned for part II next week!
Rosie
rosie

Rosie is an outgoing Junior Psychology major who has worked in the office since her Freshman year. She wears multiple hats including president of her sorority Lambda Theta Nu Sorority, Inc. and Vice President of Internal Affairs for Greek Council. As a very involved student leader she is a great resource for all things USF
Nathan
rosie

Nathan hails from the tropical state of Hawaii. When he is not in his business suit for his business classes, he is just "chilling" and bringing the Aloha Spirit to the office. He has worked for the Career Services Center for three years and has extensive experience with other internships including his most upcoming internship with Bank of Hawaii in summer 2012