Category Archives: Education
Wishful Wednesdays
I’ve been on cloud nine ever since yesterday afternoon at work. I was sitting at my desk working on numerous spreadsheets and project data analysis, as per usual, when I noticed an email notification pop up in Outlook. I briefly saw the email address of the sender and realized that it was from the admissions director for a Master’s program I had applied to. Let me tell you, there’s nothing like fear and anxiety to completely break your concentration. My heart started beating rapidly and I literally thought it was going to burst out of my chest.
After taking a deep breath, I finally had the nerve to open the email. This was it. The moment I had been waiting for for a solid month and a half. I scanned the email for the word “accepted”, and there it was on the second line. I let out a sigh of relief, sat back and smiled, then reread the email just to be sure. Yep, there it was:
Hello Kristen,
This email is to confirm that you have been accepted into the MID Program. Congratulations!
You are an excellent candidate for the program; the directors were very impressed with how much you have accomplished at such a young age! You should be receiving your welcome packet within a week or so. I am looking forward to working together.
Talk about a Merry Christmas to me, a couple weeks early! In a previous post, I had mentioned that I’d been accepted into The University of St. Thomas and planned to pursue a Master of Business Administration degree (MBA). Surely enough, those plans have changed. I am proud to say that I will be attending Texas A&M University’s Master of Industrial Distribution (MID) program beginning in Fall 2013. Aggie Class of 2015, I’m comin’ for ya! Whoop!
For this Wishful Wednesday, I already got my wish. But as always, my excitement took over and I started making a list of things I wanted with my new school’s logo (nerd status). I may or may not have already bought an Aggie blanket. Yeah, that definitely happened.
Here’s what I’ve come up with:
Texas A&M Aggies Ladies Maroon Team Player Racerback Tank Dress - $25.46
Texas A&M Aggies Women’s Heather Adidas Original Shirt – $20.39
Texas A&M Aggies Black Arch Crewneck Sweatshirt – $27.99
Texas A&M Aggies Charcoal Huddle Up Hooded Sweatshirt – $44.99
Texas A&M Aggies Pillow Pet – $22.74
Five Tips for Standing Out in Your First Job
Adapted from Monster, Alexandra Levit hits some key points. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Hopefully, this isn’t news to recent college graduates, but the workplace is more competitive than ever. If you have a job already, congratulations — you’ve made it over the first hurdle. Now it’s time to make sure you can stay put through this economic crisis and beyond.
Here are five essential tips gleaned from working with HR staff, managers and twenty-something employees in hundreds of organizations.
1. Be the One Everyone Wants to Work With
Members of Generation Y, or those born roughly between 1978 and 1993, unfortunately, have a reputation of showing up to work with a sense of entitlement. Combat this perception by showing that you’re willing to pay your dues and learn from any assignment, owning your career progression and being a “can-do” person. If you encounter roadblocks, marshal your resources to get around them rather than letting a project languish.
2. Surpass Your Boss’s Expectations
Find out what the boss wants from you first, and then brainstorm ways to go above and beyond the call of duty. You can also establish a good rapport by making your new boss feel needed. Show that you are ready and willing to be guided, and bond over the fact that he has some years on you. Understand the value of self-sufficiency, and approach your boss with a problem or complaint only if you’ve explored all options for resolving it yourself.
3. Carve a Niche for Yourself Through Innovation
Ask yourself what your company or department needs, and think about how you can use your unique set of skills and talents to provide it. So what if you’re hardly a Renaissance man or woman? You’re still new blood. Can you offer a fresh perspective on a vexing problem that has been plaguing your managers for months? Can you find a way to do something faster and more efficiently?
4. Take the Extra Step to Help Someone
Beach-ball management, or bouncing a request over to a colleague because it’s not your responsibility to handle it, is all too common in the professional world. If someone asks you a question and you don’t know the answer, make it your business to find it. By doing whatever you can to ensure your department or organization is perceived in a positive light, you will add value and stand out as a team player.
5. Subtly Promote Your Achievements
If you want people to take notice of you, you must make your accomplishments visible. How do you share your contributions without being perceived as arrogant or boastful? The key is enthusiasm. If you emphasize your passion when describing an achievement, people will think you’re just excited about it. An excited person appears earnest, and it’s hard to be critical of someone who’s earnest.
Of course, these suggestions aren’t limited to new college grads. If you’ve been out of school two years or 20, the tips might well be worthwhile in hanging onto your job through the downturn.
{Alexandra Levit, a nationally recognized business and workplace expert, is the author of the They Don’t Teach Corporate in College: A Twenty-Something’s Guide to the Business World.}
Use your head, in all aspects
Here is one of the many reasons why using your head is most important. Unless you want to be in debt forever and never expand your earning potential, I advise you think before you leap into one of these career fields.
No degree guarantees that a college graduate will earn more over a lifetime than a high school student. Worse still, there are many degrees where the average high school graduate will likely out-earn a college graduate.
If you’ve ever wanted to know the two main reasons why Americans decide not to go to college, the St. Louis Fed presented two convincing explanations. The more frightening of the two scenarios showed that, for students paying their own tuition, most will need a starting salary of $40,000 or better to overcome lifetime earnings of high school graduates.
How can it be that someone with a $40,000 starting salary can’t out-earn the average high school graduate? The reason is two-fold. Most college students forgo income while attending college. Also, given the average annual tuition of $25,000, a student paying his own way is facing a $100,000 college bill. Add the loss of income and the six-digit education tab, and graduates start their professional lives in a large financial hole.
If a starting salary of $40,000 is what it takes to overcome the high costs of going to college, you will want to know what degrees aren’t averaging the benchmark income. Georgetown pulled together statistics on average starting salary for many popular degrees. Below are five degrees with average starting salaries that may not be worth paying the costs for college.
Social Work
It’s great that you want to go to work every day and help others, but keep in mind that the average high school graduate will likely earn more money in his lifetime. Social work has an average starting salary of $30,000. Even those with experience can expect to find jobs at only $40,000.
Elementary Teachers
Recent college graduates have an unemployment rate of 4.8 percent. However, paying back your college loans might be a serious challenge. The average starting salary is only $33,000, and it’s not much better when you get experience. The average salary of an experienced teacher is $40,000.
Drama and Theater Arts
The riches and glamour of movie stars is not the reality of most college graduates with a drama and theater arts degree. Recent graduates can expect and average salary of $26,000 and an unemployment rate of 7.8 percent. With experience, however, majors can boost their salary to $45,000.
Family and Consumer Studies
Remember taking home economics in grade school? Family and consumer studies is a broad degree that explores how families interact in society, and home economics is one of the areas of study. While the degree might be practical, it only pays $30,000 per year for a college graduate and $43,000 for those with experience.
Anthropology and Archaeology
According to Georgetown’s statistics, it doesn’t pay well starting out as Indiana Jones. New graduates from degrees in anthropology and archaeology start earning at around $28,000. While starting salary is low, after a few years of experience, graduates in this field can earn up to $47,000. Unemployment for recent grads is very high at 10.5 percent.
So, should you avoid these degrees? Before you go changing your major, you need to understand that the starting salaries are based on averages. I’ve already discussed how misleading statistical decision-making can be. What this list should get you thinking about is this: Are you weighing the costs and the benefits before selecting a college? And are you looking at tuition and income specifically?
The main culprit driving the Fed research was paying a $100,000 tuition bill. That means that if you explore ways to lower college costs, any college degree could be a good investment. Perhaps it’s going to mean AP classes, a state school, or working hard to obtain scholarships. The point is that no college degree guarantees greater wealth and some degrees are riskier than others. If you want to increase your chances of your college degree increasing your earning potential, you need to think about the costs that go into obtaining a diploma and how you can minimize them.
Source: Yahoo News
Top Five Areas of Study for Bachelor’s Degrees
I was perusing some Yahoo articles and came across one I wanted to share. We all know a college education can dry up your bank account. It’s important to make sure your educational investment has the
potential to pay you back. So really, what is your education’s potential value?
“The rule of thumb is that someone with a bachelor’s degree makes about a million dollars more over their career than someone who doesn’t,” says Cheri Butler, associate director of the career center at the University of Texas at Arlington.
In fact, according to a 2011 Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce report titled “The College Payoff: Education, Occupations, and Lifetime Earnings,” a worker with a bachelor’s degree generally earns an average of $2.3 million over a lifetime – a significant amount more when compared to someone with only a high school diploma, who generally earns an average of $1.3 million over a lifetime.
Since the possibility of earning an extra million bucks sounds pretty nice, the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ (NACE) April 2012 “Salary Survey” report to pinpoint five bachelor’s degree level areas of study that are among the highest paying for college graduates.
In no particular order, here are the top 5 areas of study to consider for those pursuing Bachelor’s Degrees.
Area of Study #1 – Business
Overall Median Starting Salary: $47,748*
From selling newly developed products to marketing time-tested products in new ways, business people are always looking for a competitive edge when it comes to winning over consumers. So, if you have a competitive spirit, earning a bachelor’s degree in the business field could offer a potential return on investment.
For one thing, the numbers appear to be adding up just right for graduates with a bachelor’s in economics. With the median starting salary for 2012 economics grads at $54,800 (up 5.6 percent from 2011), it’s one of the top-paying majors in the business sector, according to NACE’s “Salary Survey.”
Starting Salaries for various Business Majors include:
- Finance: $49,700
- Accounting: $47,800
- International Business: $31,200
Potential Value: “In business, you have to take in a lot of information, digest it, and make sound decisions,” says Butler, who adds that business majors get value from being taught how to identify “the next big thing.”
“But it’s not just in business; it’s in economics and finance, too. A finance program shows you how to make predictions and forecasts and how to make sense out of them.”
Area of Study # 2: Communications
Overall Median Starting Salary: $40,022*
Whether you aspire to write a popular blog or head up the corporate communications division at a Fortune 500 company, being able to successfully deliver ideas to an audience is crucial.
During a bachelor’s in communications program, you might learn how to communicate in various mediums, which is likely a valuable skill in today’s high-tech, information-driven world, says Paul Timmins, career services director in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota.
How valuable? The $40,022 overall median starting salary for 2012 communications grads represented a 3.8 percent increase from 2011, according to the “Salary Survey.”
Starting Salaries for various Communications Majors include:
- Advertising: $44,700
- Communications: $39,400
- Journalism: $37,500
Potential Value: “Communications is one of the top skills that we hear employers want,” says Timmins. “They might need you to communicate in a variety of ways, in a small group, one-on-one, large-group setting, or in writing. It’s a skill that can be applied in a lot of different places, such as sales, customer service, top management, writing, journalism, public relations, or advertising fields.”
Area of Study #3: Computer Science
Overall Median Starting Salary: $56,383*
Home computers have been on the market for a number of years, and new gadgets like smartphones and tablets continue to introduce new technologies. That begs the question, who’s behind all these technological advances? Tech-savvy people, that’s who.
Perhaps that’s the reason the NACE survey found starting salaries for graduates in the computer science field increased by 2.4 percent in the past year. That translates to a median starting salary increasing from $55,087 for 2011 graduates to $56,383 for 2012 graduates.
The “Salary Survey” also reports that employers in the information sector – the collection of businesses that produce and distribute information and develop the products that transmit and process data, such as software publishers – had the highest number of new graduate applicants, with starting salary offers of $64,400.
Starting Salaries for various Computer Science Majors include:
- Computer Science: $58,300
- Information Sciences and Systems: $52,000
Potential Value: “Do you know an organization that doesn’t have a computer system? I don’t,” Butler says. “They are a fact of life, and we need people who can keep them running and make the most of those important tools. Your company is dead in the water if it doesn’t use computer technology.”
Area of Study #4: Health Sciences
Overall Median Starting Salary: $43,477*
Ever been interested in working in a hospital setting as a nurse? Want to learn what it takes to keep a body going strong into its twilight years? If so, a bachelor’s degree in one of the health sciences could be the vehicle that helps drive you to your destination of helping others.
And check this out: the median starting salary for all health sciences graduates was almost unchanged, with a noteworthy salary of $43,477 in 2012 – less than a one percent change from the previous year, which was at $43,802, according to the “Salary Survey.”
Starting Salaries for various Health Science Majors include:
- Nursing: $48,400
- Health and Related Sciences: $36,400
Potential Value: Butler says health sciences majors could see added value in their degrees because health care workers are in great demand as the baby boom population ages.
“We are healthier and living longer, so we need assistance in maintaining a livable lifestyle,” Butler says. “The 79 million boomers need a lot of infrastructure to take care of them, so there are jobs in the health care field. It’s supply and demand in my opinion.”
Area of Study #5: Engingeering
Overall Median Starting Salary: $58,581*
Do you have natural problem-solving skills that you’d like to use on a professional level? By earning a bachelor’s degree in engineering, you might be able to hone those skills, and even get some potential value from your education.
How so? Consider this: The “Salary Survey” found that engineering grads hold the bragging rights for being the highest paid of all disciplines that NACE evaluated. Engineering grads who majored in computer engineering, for example, had a median starting salary of $67,800 in 2012.
Starting Salaries for various Engineering Majors include:
- Aerospace/Aeronautical/Astronautical Engineering: $64,200
- Civil Engineering: $55,300
- Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering: $41,800
Potential Value: Butler credits the creative aspects of the engineering field for providing value to this degree. “Engineers are the ones who create new things,” Butler says. “Next year, we will be using technology that hasn’t been invented yet, and engineering is at the core of that.”
*Overall median starting salary figures for 2012 are taken from the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ April 2012 “Salary Survey: Starting Salaries for New College Graduates.” NACE Salary Survey data is produced through data taken from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau, and a master data set developed by Job Search Intelligence.
Full article at Yahoo Education
Preparation is key
For those who are starting a similar journey into graduate school, I hope you find this post helpful. I know not every school requires an interview for admission, but I’m sure you understand my need to prepare for those that do. Especially when it’s a university right up there with the Ivy Leaguers…
Potential Interview Questions
Tell me about yourself.
What are your strengths and weaknesses?
Why did you choose your current career?
What do you know about our program? Why did you choose to apply to our program?
In what ways has your previous experience prepared you for graduate study in our program?
What do you believe the greatest challenge will be if you are accepted into this program?
In college, what courses did you enjoy the most? The least? Why?
What was the purpose of a research project you participated in and what was your role?
How would your professors describe you?
What are your hobbies?
Describe your greatest accomplishment.
What are your career goals? How will this program help you achieve your goals?
How do you intend to finance your education?
What skills do you bring to the program?
Why should we take you and not someone else?
Questions to ask your interviewer
What types of financial aid are offered and what criteria are used for choosing recipients?
Are there any scholarships or fellowships available? How do I apply?
Where are recent alumni employed?
How are mentoring and advising relationsips established? Are advisors assigned or chosen?
What characteristics are specific to this program and distinguish it from its competitors?
You better believe I typed up answers to each one of these and have been practicing them since last Friday. Wish me luck!
MBA & The Bigger Picture
After many months of studying for the GMAT & GRE, countless hours writing graduate school application essays, and obtaining the necessary documents for the application process, I finally did it. Submission of my MBA applications. Every application was submitted in its entirety by May 12, 2012. I didn’t think I’d start hearing back for awhile, but boy was I wrong.
Two days ago, I received an email from Rice University’s Admissions Board. They requested a formal campus interview with me starting as early as next week. Of course I agreed to this request, but the excitement didn’t fully register until five minutes after I’d sent my response. I became even more excited as I searched their website and stumbled across the snippet below. Interviews are mandatory, but not all applicants will receive an invitation to interview.
My father always says that getting the interview is the hardest part. It feels incredible to say that I officially have one foot through the door.
For the rest of that day, I felt as though I were walking on clouds. I never thought that Rice University would be an available opportunity for me, but this just goes to show that anything truly is possible. Today and tomorrow will be solely dedicated to researching potential interview questions for graduate school. It’s funny to think that this blog was born through my endless research of preparing for job interviews and accelerating careers; now I’m researching for school. Even more proof that everything really does come full circle.
Lacking Posts, Melting Brain
I apologize for the lack of posts lately. After working for 8+ hours every weekday and studying for 3-4 additional hours, the last thing I want to do is sit in front my computer and read/process more information.
I hope to have something exciting to write about next week. The universe is throwing good things my way, at least I hope it is.
Fingers crossed.
College Grad applies to Grad School
It’s been decided. After giving myself a kick in the rear, I realized I needed to get my little caboose movin’. I asked myself, “What is the next step for me at this point in time?” The answer was simple. Graduate School.
I had started applications last year and luckily had quite a few of them saved. Of course I hadn’t written any of the essays. I spent my Saturday evening composing 5 of them. How thrilling. I set a schedule for studying for the GRE & the GMAT. While people recommend only taking the GMAT, I know myself and know I will do better on the GRE. After all, two scores are better than one, right?
This month of April, I will lock myself into hermit mode. Study, study, study is my motto. I think it’ll all pay off in the end- I’m applying to 5 different schools as it is (more on that later). I’ll continue to post as this new journey continues. I have a feeling I’m in for one heck of a ride.
Post College Blues Part Two
The Turbulent Twenties. Isn’t this the stage a lot of us currently find ourselves in? Maybe you just recently graduated and have no idea what I’m talking about. Or maybe, you graduated over a year ago and understand precisely what this stage is. It’s a stage of confusion in your self-identity; a stage of wondering how to separate and individuate your college identity from this newfound, ever-changing professional identity.
I’ve tweeted and posted on Facebook mentions of a book I am currently reading. To be quite honest, this book has been my guiding light and salvation as of late. This masterpiece is called The Turbulent Twenties Survival Guide by Marcos R. Salazar.
Although I am only through the first section, I figured I’d post about it anyways. As I continue reading, I’ll post more ideas and thoughts I deem noteworthy.
Chapter One focuses mainly on one seemingly simple, yet complex question: Who are you after college? For the most part, we’ve found ourselves facing the reality that our view of ourselves, the world, and our place in it has been circumscribed by college and we’re now inadequate to cope with many of the challenges we’ll face. Soon after entering the working world, we quickly realize that who we were in school and who we were in class is often inapplicable in an environment that does not revolve around studying, writing papers, or taking exams. It is this lack of preparation that is making it so difficult for twenty-somethings to separate and individuate into our new post-college lives.
It is very clear that colleges are not fully preparing students for the new challenges of the twenty-first century. The result is a generation of young people who feel a sense of helplessness because our vision of self cannot effectively cope with the new matrix we’ve just entered into. (Amen.)
One critical aspect in determining our vision of self is that we are what we think. What can prevent us from accomplishing all of our goals is the idea that what we desire out of life is outside who we think we are and what we believe we’re capable of. If we think we’re not good enough to do something or that somehow we aren’t meant to be happy or successful, we will circumscribe who we are and continually prevent ourselves from achieving all the important desires we have during this period of life. This is especially easy to do after graduation because our confidence in what we are capable of can become seriously weakened.
This is why it is so important to separate from our old student identities, even if we are not fully prepared for our new lives, so that we don’t continue to have a vision of self that will limit us in accomplishing all that we want during our twenties.
The first step is building self-esteem.
1) Self-Efficacy is confidence in who you are. When you have confidence in your capacity to think and act effectively, you trust in your ability to create and achieve what you desire out of life, and persevere with grace under pressure in the process.
2) Self-Respect is your right as an individual. Giving up your goals and sacrificing who you are is the easiest thing in the world to do because, in reality, it takes a tremendous amount of strength, courage, and self-respect to honor your desires, to formulate independent judgments, to remain true to them, and to fight for your goals and passions when everyone else is telling you to be “practical” and stop dreaming.
3) Self-Respect is the foundation of respect for others.
The second step is developing a solid sense of self. You can find my previous post about that here. If you don’t click that link, this post will seem incomplete. Trust me.
The third step is accepting yourself. This starts with acknowledging the reality of who you are at this moment. If you admit to yourself, “I don’t know who I am”, it doesn’t mean you are saying, “I don’t know who I am, and that is okay with me.” What it means is, “I don’t know who I am, and I know it. I may not like it. In fact, sometimes it makes me feel weak, but right now I am putting my judgments and feelings aside and just facing the facts.” By accepting the reality of who you are and what you are thinking and feeling, you will begin to develop a stronger vision of self.
Remember, you have the power to say “This is who I really am at this moment. I may not like it, but I am not denying it either. I accept who I truly am right now.”
Learning to follow and integrate these types of psychological principles int your life is not an overnight process. It’s something that should be seen as a lifelong journey that requires ongoing commitment to self-examination and developing a better sense of who you are. By strengthening your self-esteem, you will begin facing postcollege life with greater confidence and optimism, and expand your capacity for happiness and fulfillment.
The next post in this series will discuss using the knowledge of who you are as a springboard for developing who you want to become during your twenties.
Fall back
I must say, even though I’ve gone through daylight savings twice before, it still seems equally as confusing. It’s only 9pm, but my body is telling me it’s 10. Don’t get me wrong, the extra hour is nice. But I know I’ll be feeling all sorts of jet-lagged this coming week.
Last week wasn’t the best of weeks. It was very hectic and completely exhausting. I fortunately had the chance to partake in a fun and life-changing activity. Junior Achievement.
For those that have known me since 2nd grade, it was pretty apparent how much I loved (and still love) school. I had amazing teachers from elementary classes to college courses, and for the longest time, I really had my sights set on being a teacher.
But of course, as time passed, many things changed and I was brought down a different path during college. Good ol’ supply chain. To this day, I still believe I’d truly enjoy decorating classrooms and being around 3rd graders all day every day. There’s something so incredible just being around a child’s energy. The innocence and pure happiness make me nostalgic. How I wish my cares & troubles in the world could be as simple as a 3rd grader’s.
Luckily, I was presented with an opportunity to teach 4th graders for the rest of the year. Obviously I jumped on this opportunity- who wouldn’t? Even though it’s only 5 sessions (and I’ve already got one down), I am completely confident it will make the remainder of 2011 overly pleasant.
My class is one of about 24 students. The classroom is lovely and much more advanced than when I was an elementary tot. Thank you, technology. I’m slowly learning that kids are much more “in tune” to things that I definitely wouldn’t have kept tabs on as a youngin’. Instead of giving examples like Barbie Dolls and Tonka trucks, they were much more interested to talk about iPhones and the Kardashian sisters. My my, how times have changed.
Either way, it feels good to be a kid again.
