Hi friends!
This week felt like it’s flashed in a blink of an eye but it’s also dragged on slower than molasses. Everyone is just very eager to get to the holidays and have a break, myself included. I had my calculus midterm on Tuesday but that feels like eons ago. Other than that this week hasn’t been too busy or work heavy. The scary thing is though, now the next time I have exams it’ll be finals. I’m already a few weeks into my final research project for biology and that final manuscript is due in just a few shorts weeks. Dance X isn’t excluded in this time hop either. We’re having our first tech rehearsal this Saturday and then when we get back from Thanksgiving we’re in the dress rehearsals and performance week. This semester is flying by!
On Tuesday night I went to a talk on “Navigating Personal Identity in the Workplace” as part of the Career Week and Friday I went to an “Interviewing Prep with Nike” meeting. I didn’t participate in the Career Week last year, but I figured it was a good time to get involved now. Going to the seminar on Tuesday was really interesting. There were three speakers who all talked about their personal stories in terms of finding a job where they were able to be themselves without compromising important pieces of their life. The Nike panel was very helpful. --short story time! Where I get to embarrass myself whoo!-- This past September I applied for a job and completely botched one the questions at the end. Typically I think I’m really good at doing interviews but the woman asked me, “why should I give you this job?” And alright. I literally HATE these types of questions because they want that humble brag and I’m really not good at that. Anyways, I ended up not getting the job. So… oh well. The woman who was leading it was a Nike rep and works as a Senior Design & Knit Innovation Recruiter. She was helpful and gave us tips as to what questions you should be prepared to answer and how to answer them, how to find jobs and make yourself stand out on your resume and interview. Career Week was really helpful and I’m glad I went to both of the talks I did. Career Week is hosted by the Career Center on campus and they had about 1-2 events each day each with specific topics. You can check out their website and the schedule from Career Week here.
I haven't really used many of the school's resources until this year. This sounds cheesy and cliché but my advice if you come here or just any school, take advantage of the different resources. That means, talk to your professors, go to office hours. Go to the career center, talk to your advisors. Heck even if you don't have questions, talk to these people and make connections. You can have the perfect record on paper with a great GPA and wonderful test scores. While don't get me wrong, that is important, in my opinion it's more important to make your time at school meaningful. One of Annie's big tips for finding jobs was to be confident, get out there and network. That can really be applied all over. I'm slightly a hypocrite for saying all this because I am painfully awkward and shy 95% of the time and it's really hard for me to put myself out there. But after you do, it helps so much. It's never too early to get experience and making those connections.
As always if you have any questions, I'm always available at ksaylor@lclark.edu
Cheers for now,
Kate