Tag Archives: career path

Identifying Areas of Strength and Motivation

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In general, I think we tend to think about what we like and don’t like in terms of subjects. But we often don’t consider why we like certain tasks and topics.  Why do we gravitate towards some activities over others?  I think a lot of it has to do with our strengths and what we are motivated by.  Sometimes it’s hard to talk about our strengths, I know it is for me.  But recognizing what you’re good at is important because it can help you find direction in your path or reaffirm your decision to embark on the path you’ve chosen.

Whenever I am talking with people, especially during introductions, I always like to ask first what they do, what their field of study is, or their favorite subject.  It’s a question that is usually easy for people to answer because the answer is something they feel confident in.  I then like to ask why they like what they do and I find the answer tends to elicit responses that reveal a lot about a person.  It reveals their strengths and intrinsic motivations.  Do they love creating tangible things or discovering fundamental truths about the world?  Do they like to create order in out of chaos or disrupt previous ways of thinking?

For example my answer to this question is first I am interested in film development and arts administration.  I am interested in this field because it blends things I love: the arts and creating exciting experiences for audiences.  I also like mentoring people and bringing talented people together to create big, wonderful things.  I love fostering others creativity and I am good at organizing large projects.  Knowing these things about myself helps me clarify and refine my career goals.  If you are lost or looking for direction, I would always suggesting going back to the things in life that make you really excited and then asking yourself why you like these things.  Finding a career that contains elements of activities that you really enjoy will help you love it day in and day out.

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Networking Adventure

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What a Saturday! Over the weekend I had the opportunity to go to three networking events!  They were all one right after the other but I was able to attend all three (somehow).  Two were on campus and one was in LA.  All were absolutely wonderful and insightful but I am going to focus on my trip to LA.  First, a little background…

Earlier this week I ran into several recruiters at the Harvey Mudd dining hall.  They were representatives from Universal Creative, the theme park attraction designers in the company.  They were advertising their panel and their flyer indicated opportunities for Theater majors!  Naturally curious, I attended the event that night.  They described their division of the company; they do everything from conceptualizing to implementation of new attractions and experiences at the Universal owned parks.  They hire a variety of engineers and artists to make these visions come to life and operate in efficient, safe ways.  I really enjoyed interacting with the representatives and hearing them speak.  I wasn’t sure where my interests and passion for creative management/organizing fit into their organization but I left my resume anyway.  A few days later I got an email inviting me to their learning center at Universal City Walk for a networking event.  Still unsure if I was really interested in this field, I decided to take the opportunity anyway.

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I usually feel very confident about networking but this event was unlike anything I had been to before.  It was far less casual than the networking events I had been to.  The conference room was divided into engineers and “creatives” (art/architecture/theater).  Upon speaking with the other candidates, I quickly realized how out of my depth I was.  Many were extremely passionate about theme park design, touting portfolios and chatting about other professional mixers they attended.  Not that they were unfriendly, but I felt out of place in an industry that I stumbled into less than a week before.  But the recruiters must have seen something in my resume, so I plowed ahead.  I had a lovely conversation with the intake representative, trying to be as honest as I could.  She guided me towards some areas of their organization where my skill sets might fit and I discovered that she was friends with one of my internship bosses.  Overall, I am still not sure if theme park design is right for me.  But I’m glad I took the opportunity to go outside my comfort zone.  Because although I felt destabilized in the moment, it gave me the confidence to know that I can work through any situation by just calming down and doing it!

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Majors, Careers, Trajectories

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I was recently speaking with a friend about majors and careers.  She was feeling a little down because she was worried that what she might end up doing won’t actually relate to her major.  She’s not sure that the typical path for her major is the one for her but at the same time she is not sure what she wants to do besides that.  Is the time that she is spending on this major going to be worth it?  After all, we’re spending quite a bit of money to be educated at Scripps.  No matter what kind of background you come from, there are still people back home that are counting on you to make the most of your time here.  People have hopes, dreams, and expectations for you.  And that can be a huge burden at times. 

When I first decided to be a Media Studies and Theater double major, I wondered if it would really be a good use of my time.  I didn’t know what I ultimately wanted to do after college.  I felt that I got a lot of strange looks from people for doing the “easy major”, and I wondered if I should have done something more intense like STEM or other social sciences.  Now people don’t question it as much because there is still a direct correlation to what I want to do after college.  I have come to terms and strongly believe that the arts isn’t necessarily easier, it just takes a different skill set.  And although the above is a gross oversimplification of the conversation I had with my friend it did make me think a lot about the pressures others put on us about majors and careers, but more importantly the pressures we put on ourselves. 

Because of my internship experiences this summer, I am extremely passionate about perusing a career in the arts and entertainment but it really made me remember that not everyone has found what they want their trajectory to be just yet.  And that’s ok.  Maybe it’s my mislaid optimism but for the sake of sanity I have to believe that every step on the journey is going to mean something.  You’re going to learn something from everything experience, good or bad.  Because even if you look back and maybe feel some time was “wasted” along the way, you might never have gotten to where you are now without that winding road.  Keep rocking, you’re awesome!

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Taking Initiative in your Internship

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So you want to stand out in your internship position? Well if you do you’re at the right place. Because who doesn’t want positive recognition? The classic advice is to take initiative. Seize opportunity. Much easier said than done, especially for some of my introverted friends out there (love you guys!). Coming into an internship or first job you may not know exactly what it is you want to ultimately do. So how do you target and find opportunities that will be helpful? I suppose the answer is, what’s the harm in trying? In perusing any opportunity that comes your way. The primrose path is rarely straight and you never know what will ultimately lead you to what you want to be doing. I came into my internship with an unclear idea of what I wanted to do, explored a ton, took on responsibilities, and now I can take that knowledge into the future. But I never would have had some of the most amazing experiences if I never took initiative.

The first few weeks in my internship were really spent learning what my place was and learning the basic expectations and responsibilities of my role. And it is of course imperative to perform the tasks you are given to the best of your ability. Make a name for yourself as someone reliable. Someone that will not only do what is required, but do it efficiently and with their brain turned on. How can you make the lives of those around you easier? People tend to remember little things. Things that don’t even require much effort on your part. Like if you are asked to gather and organize information, presenting it in an easy to read fashion. Once you have developed a name for yourself as a reliable worker and quick thinker, don’t be afraid to ask if you can help with anything.

For example, I was brought in as a Film/TV Development intern which mostly consisted of reading scripts and providing written feedback reports on them to executives. But there was also a Virtual Reality division of the company and I was dying to know more. Although I knew very little about VR at the time, IT LOOKED SO COOL! So I saw the team working on a project one day and asked if they needed any help. I didn’t know it at the time but I would end up learning so much about this emerging industry. But not only that, it furthered my reputation as someone who was invested in making the most out of my time. And that initiative will help you stand out in people’s minds in the future. Maybe those who have been working longer will have a better perspective on this, but from what I experienced, it is the little things that make you stand out.

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Coffee, Coffee, Coffee: Finding Warm Comfort During Finals

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Earlier this week, I found myself attempting to count sheep and invite sleep at 3:00am with no luck.  I was exhausted, but my eyes wouldn’t stay shut, and my brain simply wouldn’t turn off.  Finals and projects and papers and homework and assignment after assignment danced behind by closed eyelids.  As I continuously tried to slip into dreamland to prepare for my early morning internship, I found myself craving a good cup of coffee.  Strange, I thought, that I would be craving something to keep me awake as I was falling asleep.  After another few minutes of pondering, I realized that it wasn’t caffeine that I was craving, it was the comfort of a warm, familiar beverage at a time of stress and anxiety.  I eventually fell asleep and enjoyed my cup o’ joe in the morning.

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Continuing with this coffee theme, yesterday at my internship there were a variety of new faces and protocols coming at me from left and right.  I felt overwhelmed and stressed (likely brought on from dehydration, exhaustion, and a plethora of other factors that seem to plague me in these dark days), and I once again felt myself craving coffee, a comfy chair, and a warm blanket.  Like a ray of sun shining through my cloudy, anxious morning, I was then literally sent on an office coffee run for the first time in my intern career, and I won’t lie, my triple shot latte made me feel warm, fuzzy, and wired.

These types of comfort cravings have been happening a lot lately. I find myself thinking about warm places, blankets, and other aspects of comfort constantly. With finals just around the corner, and final projects and papers and everything in between popping up every hour, a little bit of comfort is all my body seems to want, need, and crave.  Because instilling in myself a sense of comfort can often come from something as simple as a cup of coffee or tea or a blanket, I’ve been really trying this finals season to give myself the security that I’ve been craving.

And with that, I reach my big point of this post. We spend so much of the semester and our academic year being uncomfortable.  Our ideas are constantly challenged, we are academically pushed, and we can even be socially strained at times. I do believe that we are all the stronger because of these things, but it doesn’t mean that we are invincible.  In a space where we are so stressed and overwhelmed, the small moments of undeluded comfort are things that we should take, cherish, and enjoy.  Self-care and mental and emotional health are so important always, but finals week is typically when they start to go down the drain.  As the lack of sleep and the heightened feelings of anxiety and stress kick in, we tend to go into survival mode, but survival mode needn’t be wholly terrible.  This finals week, I know that you’re already being challenged so much, but still I challenge you to find comfort in the little things. Find comfort in the things that make you happy, find comfort in the things that bring you joy, and take that comfort and turn it in to hard work and passion, and finish the semester on a high note.

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Here’s to a productive and proactive finals season, and I wish you all the best of luck.  Have a good cup of coffee under a blanket for me!