Tag Archives: career advice

Sell Your Passion

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Ok, so it is already April.  How did that happen?  For those of you who are still waiting to hear back from internships, and are still applying to internships, like me, it can be a little stressful to know that summer is less than two months away.

At this point it is important to keep in mind what you want to be doing.  Sometimes I feel the need to apply to any opportunity that pops up on my radar because I feel desperate for an internship.  After spring break I started to feel like I was not good enough for the internships I was applying to, which is not a fun feeling.  I did not see the problem in this until I had a chat with Nick Moore, the executive producer of The Black Panther.  Yeah, you could say I’m pretty cool.

Just kidding, this was a meet and greet set up by the best advisor ever (shout out), professor Vanessa Tyson, who is old friends with Mr. Moore.  I was lucky enough to attend and get to hear him answer questions on the process of movie production and also give general career advice.  As someone who wants to produce movies of her own, it was inspiring to see someone so successful talk about staying committed to his career.  Mr. Moore told us to “give it seven years.”  In other words, stay committed for seven years, despite whatever obstacles you may face that make you want to quit, and you will find success.

Hearing this gave me a boost of confidence; everyone faces obstacles, but just because I am not hearing back from the internships I want does not mean I have to stop applying to internships that really interest me.  Feeling passionate about the industry of the company you are asking to hire you is, in my opinion, very important.  Passion can show through in cover letters, which are a great place to express your interest.  During the days following my meet and greet with Mr. Moore, I applied to two internships in the media industry.  I made sure to use the cover letter guide provided by Career Services at Scripps.  The Career Services Guide offers cover letter prompts, samples, and a checklist of things to include.

I normally try to emphasize my passion for the company or position that I am applying to when I talk about the position or company itself, normally in the first paragraph.  Doing your research is a great way to show you care about the work you would be doing for them, and offering personal examples or experiences that go along with the company’s message can be a great way to make your letter pop in the eyes of the hiring manager.

We all get discouraged every once and a while during the job application process.  Thinking about the fact that there are one hundred other people with the same amount of experience as you, applying for the same position as you are, can be daunting.  Just remember that selling yourself is not limited to just your experience or skills.  While these are important, it is also important to sell your passion!

If you are still searching for an internship but are not hearing back from any of your dream jobs, do not be discouraged.  Continue to seek out positions that interest you.  If you are passionate about what you want to do, then don’t give up on it.  According to Nick Moore, if you stick with your desired career path, even during the low points, success will follow.  And Nick Moore is a pretty cool guy, so I took his advice to heart.

My Future Career Probably Doesn’t Exist Yet

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This past Thursday, I attended a “Women in Tech” panel at the CMC Athenaeum, featuring three CMC alumnae. I really enjoyed hearing about each of their experiences while at CMC, and working at startups and major corporations, such as Kaiser and General Mills. I learned about the fast-paced and sometimes chaotic startup world and the most valuable college classes they had each taken in college. Each woman was very passionate about her career, and provided candid advice to the audience about regrets, experiences, and achievements.  One of the students in the audience asked “What is the best piece of career advice you’ve received?” The women all provided valuable advice, yet one comment really stuck with me. “Your future job may not even exist yet”, one panelist said.

I found this advice to be simultaneously comforting and terrifying. Just as I struggle to determine my major, I am also hesitant to declare one single career path, as I do not have the skills nor information to make either of these major decisions just yet. I have many future internships to complete and many classes to take that will help me make these decisions. So, what’s the rush in being certain of my future now? It is comforting to know that my future career may not even exist, because it relieves me from the pressure of defining it and sharing it with the world right now.

At the same time, the thought that my future career may not even exist yet is more than slightly terrifying. From the day students enter kindergarten, they are asked “What are you going to be when you grow up?” This question programs students from the very beginning to be forward-thinking and certain in their decisions. Most young students will say doctor, baseball player, or actress based on what their parents have told them they should aspire to be or what they have seen on television. I’m pretty sure that in kindergarten, I said that I am going to be a businesswoman because my five-year old self knew that my mom was some sort of businesswoman. Little did I know that there are thousands of careers within the field of business. Because our society seems to expect certainty from us, it is difficult to accept the ambiguity of my future career. Yet even while I create as much structure and certainty as I can in my everyday life through my weekly planner and  Google Calendar, I also recognize that it is ok to not have everything planned out.

The worlds of business and technology are constantly changing, and many of these changes, like the advent of artificial intelligence, will not only change how we work but how we live. Who knows, a life-changing piece of technology could come out this week! Like that panelist said, I encourage more students, no matter how young or old, to not feel pressure to define their future career, and instead accept, and maybe even embrace, the uncertainty of the process. The next time someone asks me what I’m going to do with my career, I just might respond with “how could I know? My career doesn’t even exist yet”.

Family Weekend Musings and Advice from my Role Models

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A few weekends ago, my mom and her friend from college came to visit for Family Weekend. We had the most amazing time, filled with hiking, delicious food, deep, meaningful conversations, SNL, and lots of silly mom jokes. While the weekend was certainly comprised of mostly fun and games, we also spent some time talking about my future plans pertaining to careers, majors, and study-abroad programs.

These topics mostly came up on our last full day together, when my mom Jane, her friend Lauren and I stopped at one of my favorite spots in town—Last Drop Cafe—in the Village, to pick up some caffeinated drinks and sandwiches to have a little picnic on the Pomona lawn. I had introduced myself to the owner, who was making our drinks, because I had remembered him from a presentation he gave to the Motley Coffeehouse employees (his cafe supplies a lot of our baked goods). He was really friendly and talked to the three of us for a few minutes. After we got our food and were on our way to campus, I mentioned how amazing it was that he seemed to love his job and get genuine joy out of making people happy, one latte and cookie at a time. This conversation soon morphed into musings related to careers in general, and Lauren and my mom were both curious and eager to discuss my future plans.

Since Lauren seemed to have a lot of experience surrounding careers and life in general, I asked for her opinion on what she pictured me doing down the road. I know what I don’t want to do, but when I try to solidify what it is I do want to do, things get a bit muddier.

The previous night, Lauren had shared the entire story of how she ended up becoming a physician’s assistant, along with all of the bumps and divots that got her there. It wasn’t her initial plan at all, but it ended up being a dream that she decided to pursue. She also elaborated on her two kids’ decisions pertaining to majors and jobs. It was really reassuring to hear that people arrive at their careers and goals through all sorts of different paths, that most trajectories are not entirely linear, and that not all people go into college having a “plan.”

Lauren, being the insightful and kind soul that she is, ended up telling me what kind of careers she pictured me doing and why. She provided some really interesting points and justifications that would have never occurred to me. Ultimately, we all have to make our own decisions regarding career choices, but I found it really useful and comforting to obtain advice from a wise and experienced outside source who could assess my strengths and weaknesses more objectively than a family member could. While my mom arguably knows me better than anyone else (even better than myself sometimes,) she can be biased in the sense that she knows I get anxious about my future easily, so her advice is always in the realm of telling me to “worry less,” or “not think about it.” She constantly reassures me that it will “all work out.” While this sort of advice works well for me, I also need the kind of advice provided by Lauren, which can help push me along and ensure that I am taking steps towards whatever goals I have.

Moreover, one of the most important things I gained from my conversion with Lauren was how I need to find a balance between practicality and passion. She stressed the importance of planning ahead, and making sure the decisions I make regarding my major, internships, study-abroad, etc. are rooted in some form of logic and practicality. In other words, she wants to make sure that I have thoroughly considered all of my options and how it will all fit together to get me in a place I want to be.

Overall, I am so lucky that I have strong role-models that have helped guide me in all facets of my life. I hope to continue to learn from others who are older, more experienced, and more insightful than I am. It’s reassuring to realize that I don’t need to figure it all out on my own, and I can always ask for help and guidance. For anyone else out there who feels confused and indecisive, I recommend finding some positive older role-models who can be a source of guidance and support.

T-shirts always convey the truest statements. Source: http://www.inourhands.com/skills-building/positive-role-model/

T-shirts always contain the truest statements.
Source: http://www.inourhands.com/skills-building/positive-role-model/

 

The Big Picture

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When I came to Scripps College, I had a vague understanding of what I wanted to study [politics]. Some people have a clear path [pre-Med, pre-Law] and I think I took my friends’ steadfast career intuition a little too seriously my freshman and sophomore year. While most people at age 18, especially those who choose to attend a well-rounded, liberal arts college, do not know exactly what professional field they want to pursue, I felt like I was the only one who did not have a concrete plan of action. If you’re feeling like this as an underclassman – DON’T! Screen Shot 2015-06-26 at 3.11.47 PM

During my hiatus on “finding the perfect career and major”, I invested hours in trying to discover my perfect career and major. I became obsessed with personality quizzes that claimed to find your one-true job. I pestered all my upperclassmen friends with questions on how to pick a major/career. I looked at CEOs and world leaders’ Wikipedia pages to find their majors and previous jobs. I went to a ton of CP&R career-info sessions [even one on the CIA!]. I looked everywhere to find answers to these questions when in fact, they don’t have always have concentrate answers.

Yes, by sophomore year students have to declare a major. But your major by no means determines your career. So while majors are not the-end-all-be-all, still you should not make this important decision based solely on an online quiz, or what your friend thinks they see you doing. If anything, these quizzes and friends will reinstate the qualities and personality traits you already know you have. So take outside viewpoints into consideration, but really think about what classes excite you and what classwork interested you the most. I chose Public Policy Analysis because the most interesting class discussions surrounded public policies. I found that all my papers [in CORE, Economics, even Spanish] focused on how social and economic policies affected people. When looking through the course catalog for the upcoming year, the classes that sparked my interest the most were all in the Public Policy Analysis Department.

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In regards to a career, my extensive research showed me that there is absolutely no way I can formulate a definite career path at age 20. Careers take twists and turns, hit bumps, and are fast-tracked. My internship experience has told me a lot more about what type of career I want than quizzes or friends’ opinions. I enjoyed the exciting pace of legislative work, and how it was always tied in to relevant events. I also enjoyed working in all-women environments, which I have been able to do for the past two summers [and at Scripps]. I also learned that it’s good to have long-term goals, but it might be more practical to have short-term goals [i.e. where do I want to be right after college, not where do I want to be before I retire]. So if you’re unsure the answers to life’s “big” questions, do. not. panic. By focusing on what I’m interested in at the moment [public policy, women’s rights, labor economics] and beginning to formulate short-term plans [researching graduate schools] I do not feel overwhelmed, but I do feel productive!

Career Building Tips from a Sophomore

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At the start of my first year, I knew very little about career planning. As a sophomore, I continue to learn from my mistakes and work on my patience as I wait to hear back about summer internships. I’ve much left to learn, but luckily, I’ve still got another two years.

Read on below for some personal tips that have helped me along this journey.

1. Cover Letter- The missing ingredient in most cover letters, including very many of my own, is a lack of genuine passion and delight. When a potential employer reads your cover letter, they should feel just how ardently you want the position. Convince your reader that you’re not writing the cover letter because it’s required. Rather, you’re writing it because your enthusiasm knows no bounds– You want the whole world to know how great a writer/scientist/athlete you are!

2. Tailored Resumes- At the start of my first year at Scripps, I had one basic resume from my senior year of high school. The formatting was completely incorrect, and lacked a header as well as any description whatsoever. Since then, I have created almost 10 different versions of a resume, and gone in to CP&R for revisions countless times. Some categories include, but are not limited to: art, journalism, business, and leadership. As your career interests change over time, you will find yourself with increasingly different versions of your resume.

3. Editing Cover Letters and Resumes- CP&R provides friendly and knowledgeable advice and feedback, but it always helps to get a second opinion. Exchange cover letters and resumes with friends and/ or family members for review. Email them to each other in Word doc form so they can insert comments in the right margin. Remember to give back in turn by offering your help as well.

4. Prioritize Choices- Much like applying to colleges, you won’t be able to apply for every single internship and/or job opportunity out there. You’ll have to factor in time, money, transportation, skill level, and more. Be realistic and avoid options to which you won’t be able to accept if offered.

5. Give Yourself a Break- Working on resumes, cover letters, and other application materials can be both time-consuming and boring. Give yourself breaks in-between, and try not to take rejections too personally. It’s common not to hear back from companies, and sometimes, you’ll hear back when you’re least expecting it.

How do you handle your career aspirations? Have any tips to share with us? Comment below.