Here are a couple of valuable tips for planning your career:
The first tip is, “Do what you like and the money will follow.” If you work at something you like, you will be good at it, and the best people usually rise to the top. Don’t do something just for the money unless you do not have any better options.
Second, in the United States, it is becoming common for a person to have more than one career in a lifetime. Doctors and attorneys tend to stay in the same field of work, but engineers, computer scientists, and entrepreneurs may change the type of work they do as many as five times in a lifetime.
Third, “When in doubt aim high.” If you are torn between becoming a doctor or an engineer, aim for the highest paid career that also has the most demanding educational requirements. If you try the hardest first, and decide it’s too tough, or you just don’t like it, at least you will have tried it. It’s easy to move to a field with lower educational requirements. It’s almost impossible to move up once you’ve started.
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Posted in Talent and Career
Think about all of your college experience, including classes and extracurricular activities. What did you do in your class that helps to qualify you for the job of your dreams?
Consider first your classes. Many lucky students undertake activities in classes that are every bit as valid for providing experience as paid jobs. Such activities include:
- Class projects
- Research papers and projects
- Group projects
- Hands-on assignments and “real-world” experiences
- Laboratory experience
- Presentations
- Study-abroad programs
- Simulations
Look, for example, at your school’s special programs and relevant, hands-on projects you’ve done in classes. Stetson University, where we teach, has an unusual program in the finance department in which students invest actual money in a stock portfolio. Such a program provides an excellent way to make the most of your college experience in your cover letter, as in this example:
Currently, I am involved in a unique program at Stetson that sets me apart from other recent graduates who apply to your firm. For the past year, I have been part of the Roland George Investment Program, the only undergraduate program in the Southeastern United States that allows students to invest real money in the stock and bond markets. The Roland George Program has allowed me to gain practical experience in portfolio management and has enhanced my communication and teamwork skills. I have also fine-tuned my research techniques to make the best stock and bond selections.
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Posted in Talent and Career
Job interviewing can be an unnerving experience, but if you know how to handle some of the stickiest situations encountered in interviewing, you can be that much more confident. Here are 10 of the stickiest.
1. The Bad Interviewer. Not every professional who conducts job interviews with candidates knows how to conduct an interview effectively. In fact some are downright lousy at it. A bad interviewer might be unfocused, disinterested, unprepared. He or she might dominate the interview by doing all the talking or might ask inappropriate and illegal questions.
The unfocused, unprepared interviewer probably hasn’t read your resume and maybe can’t even find a copy. This hapless soul doesn’t even know what to ask you. Be sure to offer this disorganized interviewer a copy of your resume while asking, “May I take you through some highlights of my career?”
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Posted in Talent and Career
For many students there is nothing more nerve-racking, stomach-churning, and downright intimidating than college interviews. The other components of college applications–application forms, essays, transcripts, and recommendation letters–are evaluated in the private offices of admissions officers. However, college interviews put you face to face with an actual person.
Many colleges require interviews with an admissions officer or alumnus. They use interviews as a way to get to know you beyond the dry facts of your application and to let you ask questions about the school.
The Most Commonly Asked Questions
The secret to doing well on interviews is to practice. Do a mock interview with your parents or teachers. This may sound strange, but once you hear how much better you answer the same question the second time around you will understand.
To give you an idea of what kind of questions you will be asked we have compiled a list of the most commonly asked interview questions. Try to develop answers to these questions for yourself and use them in your mock interviews.
- Why do you want to attend X university?
- What is your strongest/weakest point?
- What have you done to prepare for college?
- What has been your greatest experience in high school?
- What do you want to do in the future?
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Posted in Talent and Career
Interviews with an admissions
For many students there is nothing more nerve-racking, stomach-churning, and downright intimidating than college interviews. The other components of college applications–application forms, essays, transcripts, and recommendation letters–are evaluated in the private offices of admissions officers. However, college interviews put you face to face with an actual person.
Many colleges require interviews with an admissions officer or alumnus. They use interviews as a way to get to know you beyond the dry facts of your application and to let you ask questions about the school.
The Most Commonly Asked Questions
The secret to doing well on interviews is to practice. Do a mock interview with your parents or teachers. This may sound strange, but once you hear how much better you answer the same question the second time around you will understand.
To give you an idea of what kind of questions you will be asked we have compiled a list of the most commonly asked interview questions. Try to develop answers to these questions for yourself and use them in your mock interviews.
Posted in Talent and Career