Category Archives: Olivia

How Networking Can Lead to (FREE) Cookies

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For me, the completion of any laborious task always is accompanied by a massive exhale that I feel through my whole body. It’s an exhale that portrays not a sense of relief, but rather a sense of “I did my best and whatever happens now is out of my hands.” This past Friday, I completed my internship with Books & Such Literary Agency. I had an amazing four months with their agency and I especially loved getting to know my boss Janet. She is such an incredible mentor and I know that my relationship with her will only continue to grow.

That being said, after concluding the final presentation on the business behind writing and what it means to be an authorpreneur, I stood there, just waiting for my exhale to come…and then I stood there some more…and a bit more…

Nothing. Nada. No exhale.

This may not seem weird to anyone except for me, except for the fact it always happens naturally. I mean, yeah, I could have forced an exhale out but that’s not the same! That was cheating! So there I stood, very confused as to what this all meant.

After some thinking, I realized that the reason there was no exhale was because I am so sad to see the end of this project. I learned aspects of every career path I am interested in: publishing, marketing, editing, writing, publicity, sales, etc. How many people can say that their internship taught them the basics behind each department of their desired job?

As soon as I realized this, I knew I needed to send similar words to Janet. I wanted her to know how much this internship positively impacted me and how I have grown because of her generosity.

However, this email has more than one effect: Not only does it express my gratitude to Janet, but it also establishes a lasting relationship. (Yay Networking!) One of my favorite parts of the interviews I conducted with the graduates this summer was reaching out to them just last month and updating them on the project. They had all expressed during their interviews how ecstatic they were to learn more and how much they wanted me to keep in touch. I didn’t really understand the extent to which these emails were building relationships. However, now looking back, I can see that I now have 13 women I can reach out to if I ever want to learn more about a specific career field or maybe even if I am interested in an internship at their company. One woman wants her daughter to come tour Scripps with me; another wants me to test her homemade chocolate chip cookies (okay… maybe I suggested this task…). I built relationships that go beyond the interview—ones’ that edge into every day life and are built upon more than just a work-related foundation.

My relationships with these women and Janet will have nothing but a positive impact upon my future and me—and look how easy it was to establish them. I encourage all of you to use networking to your advantage—no matter how simple or how unserious the connection may seem. Anyone can be a connection and you never know whom he or she knows. Your mailman? He could be best friends with Taylor Swift’s manager…and excuse me? Who wouldn’t want an internship with them? (If your mailman is TSwift’s manager’s best friend, please give me their name and email address now. Please and thank you.) Emailing is your best friend, and luckily CP&R is there to help you construct those emails that seem so scary at first. Don’t be afraid to go for what you want. Reach out for your desires instead of letting them pass you by because you think the connection is not “sophisticated” enough. You never know…you could get some cookies out of it 😉

What was the strangest connection you ever made that led you to a new opportunity? Did you have to take a leap to make this connection? If yes, tell us about it and tell us about how it felt!

Current Job Title: Professional Thanksgiving Food Eater

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Dear People Who Are Reading My Post,

I cannot begin to express how excited I am! Halloween is near, fall is upon us, and Thanksgiving food is right around the corner J. After a relaxing fall break, I am so ready to enjoy the next few weeks (Halloween!! SCAMfest!! Ahh!!) and then head home for a gigantic Thanksgiving dinner—one that I have been tasked with cooking/baking all the food, except for the turkey!

But do you know what makes me able to enjoy our breaks more? CP&R! Honestly! I promise I’m not just saying that as one of their employees! A few posts back I mentioned how a resume is crucial for any job-hunt. CP&R makes it easy for any of us to create that perfect resume, as they take the time to sit with you individually (in my case, over and over again…oops) until you get it right. And honestly, getting that weight lifted off your shoulder can feel so great. I know that it allows me to go home and truly enjoy my vacation with one less worry on my mind… something from which all of us college students could benefit.

One of the women I interviewed, Charlotte, an English major who graduated in 2003, mentioned how she wishes she “had taken more time to learn how to build a resume effectively.” She feels as if she didn’t take enough advantage of the resources right at her fingertips. In the long run, she knows she would have had a more productive job hunt if she had done so. I honestly felt very relieved when she mentioned this. I went into the CP&R office about four times last semester to try and build a comprehensive burrito resume and also a smaller, yet just as effective, targeted resume. And, to tell the complete truth, I didn’t really realize until these meetings how much experience I had. I think Charlotte’s wish is completely justifiable—without my many meetings, I wouldn’t have realized the potential hidden underneath all those random high school positions I held. I wouldn’t have put them on my resume, and who knows? Maybe I wouldn’t have gotten my incredible internship. Maybe Janet wouldn’t have seen the qualities within me that she thought to be important for the position.

While Charlotte was quick to recognize the lack of time she had spent in the resume department, she was also quick to point out a certain strength of hers. “The one thing people who have hired me have always said is ‘we really like your cover letter!’ and I’m always like ‘oh yea! English!’” Her English major has come in handy in ways she may not have necessarily expected it to. So don’t worry humanities majors! Worse comes to worse, at least we will have rocking cover letters 😉 As soon as she said this, I realized the verity in her statement. As an English major, I know I have learned to write with a specific audience in mind in a concise fashion. That definitely fits the concept behind a cover letter. But even though I may have learned to write in that specific way, you can bet your favorite Motley drink that I spent just as much time in the CP&R office reviewing cover letters as I did for resumes.

Basically, Charlotte made me really realize how lucky we are to have such an incredible resource here at Scripps. Here is a whole staff dedicated to helping you discover your passion, helping you pursue it, and helping you achieve it. So why wouldn’t someone want to take advantage of this? After all, don’t you want to go home this Thanksgiving and be able to focus 100% on eating as much food as possible versus focusing on what your resume should look like? Unless, of course, your resume is made up of your food eating skills…in that case, I expect you to tell me what job you are applying for with this resume, and you can bet that I will be submitting my own resume not too far after yours 😉

            So what do you guys think? How has CP&R helped you in the past? Were any of you scared before your first meeting at the office? How did you feel afterwards? And the most important question of all: What is your FAVORITE Thanksgiving food??

The Benefit of (the Many) College Expectations

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Hi everyone! I wanted to start today’s post by thanking not only CP&R for the incredible Life After Scripps week, but also all of you that attended the events. I know that I was so pleased with the turn out at the Create Your Own Adventure seminar, and I hope that for those of you who attended, you learned something new and beneficial! Just a reminder that October 22nd and 23rd are the dates of the next two seminars. While the one last week was more informational, these next two are very interactive and fun!

I also really want to encourage you all to take advantage of the incredible opportunities Scripps provides. With the creation of every event, club, speaker, class, etc. comes the intent to benefit the student in some way. One of the women I interviewed, Clara, spoke to this point. While she was a busy student, she made sure to take advantage of all the opportunities she could, whether it was an extra class, joining a club, or going to a speaker event. The amount of activities she put on her plate “prepared me when I went to get my masters, because I was on it…I went into a very intense program, but I was actually prepared for the workload itself.”

Clara now teaches at a high school. However, not only does she teach English, she also is the dance teacher, a spin class teacher, one of the main program coordinators for the school, and is the faculty member that always volunteers to take on that extra assignment. While some people may look at her like she’s crazy, this is nothing new for her. Taking on all these tasks not only gives her something to do, but also provides more income.

I know for me that this semester I have been quite a bit overwhelmed with the amount I put on myself. Not only am I a blogger for Beyond the Elms, but also I still am maintaining my internship, I am a BOT student representative, the music director of Ninth Street Hooligans, and I am taking five academic classes. I also know I chose to do all of these activities for a reason: I wanted to blog for Beyond the Elms because I wanted more writing experience. I knew I wanted an internship this summer and I knew that the one I ended up with was going to be an incredible experience, even if it did go into the school year. I really care for Scripps and wanted to be more involved in its potential to grow, so BOT immediately caught my eye. And as for the class load…I wanted to finish all my GEs this year and also wanted to get a head start on my major.

I also know that I have learned a lot of skills from taking on this many activities that will benefit me later, whether it be I decide to go to graduate school or look for a career. I am learning how to make a (very intense) schedule and stick to it in order to get what I need to do done. I am also learning how to figure out what my personal priorities are and how sometimes making tough decisions is necessary. For example, until recently I was a member of the Chamber Choir. However, because of the amount of work I have taken on, I knew it was necessary for me to drop. I have been singing in choir since I was four years old, so this was not an easy decision. Honestly, I still am a little bit upset with myself, but I know I made the right decision.

As college students, a lot is expected of us. We are supposed to take classes, stay healthy, make friends, all while keeping in mind where we want to be after our four years at Scripps. However, I don’t think any of us should take this for granted. While it may seem overwhelming and stressful, we are learning to challenge ourselves in so many different ways. With every new assignment, we learn to balance and schedule—two very important skills that will go a long way no matter where you end up after Scripps.

Have any of you ever felt overwhelmed by what college expectations are placed on you? If yes, how did you deal with that stress? Have you ever thought about whether these expectations have benefited you?

How Making Toast Could Be Your Work “Superpower”

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Hello my lovely Scripps students and happy, happy Life After Scripps Week! For those of you that have no clue what I am talking about, I highly encourage you to check in with CP&R this week because they have put together a wonderful program filled with opportunities every day to help you strengthen your future’s possibilities. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but make sure to check out the Create Your Own Career Adventure this Thursday from 12:00-1:30 in Humanities 204! If you have enjoyed receiving advice from the many Scripps graduates through this blog, this is your chance to get even more advice. Not only that, but a little birdie told me there would be pizza and baked goods…

Now, let’s get down to business (to defeat *dun dun* the Huns…). Today, I am going to focus ’74 Scripps alumna Carolyn’s advice. Carolyn, a history major, currently has an amazing legal position at a very well known movie production company. During her time at college, she excelled in history class. This was not something she took for granted; rather she used it to her advantage.

“Everybody is going to be good at one or more things and the things you are naturally accomplished at, you tend to not value as much yourself…People make the mistake of not going with their talents because they assume they’re easy for everyone else, too.”

At first glance, her advice seems simple enough: hone in on what you’re good at and then go with it. Simple, right?

Wrong!

In today’s day and age, it’s very easy to get caught up thinking everyone has the same basic skill set. We assume everyone knows how to use Facebook. We assume everyone knows how to cook pasta. We assume everybody knows 2+2=4 and not 5… (Well, hopefully everybody at our age knows this). But just because we assume these are skills everyone possesses, doesn’t mean that they do.

Self reflect for a minute to the very basic level of all basic levels (think pumpkin spice latte level). What is something that comes naturally to you? I don’t mean advanced algebra or biology (even though those are very important and cool!), I mean something you do all the time without even thinking about it.

For me, I’m really good at constructing emails. However, I never really knew that this was an important skill until I got to my senior year of high school and had to start emailing college professors and representatives. I assumed it was basic nature for everyone in our day and age how to write a good email. Then, when I got to college, my roommate would complain about how hard it was to construct emails or texts. A lot of the time, I found myself instructing her what to say and she would be very grateful. I was so surprised—I thought that it was something everybody knew how to do.

Now, let’s dig further into this skill. What does an email or text entail? I would say it is the concise construction of words and phrases based around your targeted audience, all while keeping in mind what you hope to receive from your outreach. Looking into each part of that, I want to demonstrate how an easily overlooked skill can be crucial to a resume, job interview, etc. My ability to concisely construct words and phrases can help me not only build a resume that fully demonstrates my skills in an orderly structure, but it can also help me in a career. I can put those skills towards presentations for co-workers, using only a brief amount of time to make sure they stay interested. If I go into editing, I will be able to better communicate with my clients so they understand my comments and can increase their book’s potential.

Next, let’s look at targeting your audience. This is a skill that can be put towards anything. When I’m interviewing for jobs, I will have a good understanding of what the company is looking for and how I can best present myself in a way that is attractive to them (while staying true to myself). I will also be able to help with marketing at a book publishing company, knowing what book cover, for example, would be more captivating to the audience.

Finally, I think it is incredibly important to keep in mind your goal. When I make that presentation to my coworkers, I need to have an endpoint in mind. My presentation will have to be geared to convince them of my awesome idea. When I’m interviewing, I will need to remember that I want to be a member of the company in order to get their attention.

I really encourage all of you to take Carolyn’s advice. Take ten minutes and write down everything you are good at, and really try to focus on things that you think may be basic, everyday actions. Next, think about what that skill does for you and how you can put it towards your future goals. Who knows? You’re ability to toast bread to the perfect consistency every single time may be what your dream company is really looking for.

P.S. I would love to know what you guys discover about yourself! Please comment below if you have anything to share J

Naiveté: Your New BFF (Besides a Motley Drink)

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Take a second and imagine the layout of Seal Court. Does the collection of offices and stores (is the Motley a “store”…?) seem kind of random to anyone else? I always thought it did, until now. Think about it. From the second you enter Scripps, two things become more important than anything else: 1. Caffeine and 2. The CP&R Career Services Guide. No joke. When I found out that the new 2015-16 Career Services Guides were in, I ran to CP&R and grabbed one for dear life. And maybe I stopped by the Motley to get a tea. Maybe.

 

There’s no doubt that a good resume is your best friend. During the hiring process, your experience (in addition to all of your amazing personalities!) is what probably will determine your fit for a company. I completely believe in resumes and in the importance of experience (this is not a CP&R ad, I promise), but Rose, an English major who graduated in 1999, brought to my attention the importance of being inexperienced.

“You have to let yourself be inexperienced when you start a job. You can’t be the expert. Be in that learning stage,” she told me as my brain called into question everything I had ever heard before on the topic. Isn’t the reason a company hired you because they think you have good experience/potential for the position? Why do I even bother working at all if they want someone inexperienced!

But the more I thought on her comment, the more I realized she was right. She wasn’t critiquing an extensive resume, rather how you approach a new position. I think many people go into new jobs feeling like they have to be perfect at everything—they believe they were hired because they were “ready” to fulfill endless amounts of tasks. And this may very well be true. But it’s also true that you won’t know the routines of the office when you first enter. You won’t know where the kitchen is, you won’t know if your boss likes his coffee with one or two sugars, you won’t know the best way to address the incredibly successful woman who works two doors down. And those are just the social aspects. Rose is right: you can’t be afraid to ask questions, to find out information, and to absorb the culture that you are entering for the first time. “The willingness to learn and the willingness to apply yourself to learn” is all you can give your boss at the start. Your 100% dedication to learning the ropes will go a long way. You will not only understand the nature of the space better, but you will also maintain potential to grow. You will learn how to fully contribute in the way that will best reflect yourself in the office’s light.

When I walked into my internship this summer, I honestly didn’t know what to expect. Yes, I worked from home, so I didn’t technically have to deal with many of the social aspects, but I honestly thought I could predict how these interviews were going to go. I was so afraid to come across as naïve during these interviews. I spent days planning questions and bullet points on how to get from different possible answers to a new question, planning for the absolute worst. I was shocked when I walked away from my first interview. Not only did my paper not help me, but also I didn’t have to worry about naïveté. My inexperience prompted me to ask the necessary questions. After all, the seminar series is for humanities students just like me. These interviews are so we can hear stories of what life after Scripps is like.

Rose’s advice may have been shocking at first, but I really do believe the capability to let yourself be inexperienced is very important. You will find yourself asking questions that are pertinent for your success in the workplace, questions that your boss will probably be delighted to know intrigue you. And, of course, with time, your inexperience will fade away, but hopefully your desire to improve and willingness to learn will stay, because you can always keep improving.