Major Decisions: Discovering Your Path at Michigan

July 16, 2012

“Is there a ‘test’ I can take to help prepare me for my future Michigan experience?”

a signpost pointing to various cities

The Career Center Presents:

Major Decisions: Discovering Your Path at Michigan 

Take the Strong Interest Inventory® Career Assessment TODAY and explore your future opportunities through learning about YOU!

The Strong Interest Inventory® (SII) is a widely respected career interest inventory designed to help people find a fit between their personalities and work. It compares your interests and preferences to the interests of people who have been happy and satisfied in their careers. The results from the SII identify careers that best fit a person’s interests.

The SII results will be used to guide meaningful conversation, providing a space for students to engage in intentional reflection and learn effective decision making strategies geared towards academic and career related choices. Within this 1.5 hour session, we will help you identify majors, student organizations, and activities at Michigan that will help in the exploration of your personal interests and career possibilities.

Session will include:

  • Career Assessment Test and Group Interpretation
  • Reflection Exercises With Fellow Prospective Students
  • Valuable Career and Concentration Resources
  • Ongoing Support Through a Career Coach and the Career Center

Session cost: $20.00

**This program is not part of orientation and should not be scheduled while students are attending mandatory orientation sessions**

Dates are from August 27 to August 31 2012.

Visit http://tinyurl.com/careercenter-major-decisions to register.

Photo Credit: will ockenden / CC BY 2.0

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Posted by Scott Tsuchiyama

Make the most of your summer internship!

June 18, 2012
Sign reading: "Hello, I am a new intern"

Hello, intern!

It seems like the last day of classes is long gone, and you may have already started work at a summer internship. Here’s a list of three great ways you can make the most out of this experience, so that you come away with more than just money (or college credit) and a few more lines on your resume:

Take Initiative. Some companies have well-established internship programs that are packed full of responsibilities and activities for their interns, but many internships aren’t quite as laid-out. If your role as an intern doesn’t define how to spend all of your time while you’re at work, use that opportunity to go above-and-beyond what your supervisor has planned for you. This doesn’t mean simply asking “what else can I do?” but actually identifying an area in which you can contribute, and running a plan past your supervisor. This is a sure-fire way to get yourself noticed, and it shows that you’re not just there to meet expectations.

Network. The value of networking doesn’t just go away now that you have your internship. Remember, this could be an audition for a full-time position, and the more people you have in your corner, the better your chances of snagging that offer will be. One of our former peer advisors, Dhruv, really took advantage of this strategy, and made sure to have lunch with different people from his office as often as possible. He was able to ask questions about the organization, questions about each person’s role within the company, and to discuss some of the projects he was working on. He ended up with a full-time offer after his internship, in part because in addition to doing an excellent job, many people beyond his immediate supervisor were able to see what an excellent job he was doing. He definitely stood out among all the other interns.

Evaluate the Company/Industry. I mentioned that internships are like auditions for full-time jobs, but this is also the organization’s time to show you what they’re all about. Make sure you use this summer to figure out what you like (and dislike!) about the organization, so that you can make a better decision about full-time offers later on. For instance, if you find that it’s frustrating working in a huge, hierarchical organization as an intern, that will help you focus your full-time search on smaller companies, with a more flat organizational structure.

If you need some career coaching this summer, don’t fret — The Career Center is open 8-5p every weekday, and you can make an appointment to stop and see us.

Photo credit: adpowers on Flickr.

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Posted by Scott Tsuchiyama

Senior Struggles: what is a gap year and why is it worth my time?

March 14, 2012

A gap year can offer you an open road to opportunity

Follow each week as we present step-by-step suggestions to achieve post-college success with less senior year stress.

What is a gap year?

For most students, a gap year consists of temporarily working, interning or volunteering in between college graduation and graduate school. Career advisers and employers agree that taking some time off from school can lead to valuable life experiences. According to experiential learning coordinator Geni Harclerode, “I’ve never met a student who regretted taking a gap year before beginning grad school.”

There are plenty of benefits to be gained from the experience, however, Harclerode also emphasizes that it’s important to be honest with yourself about the real reason you want to take some time off. A gap year should not be used as a buffer from the “real world” — it should be used as a time to make one-self more prepared for the “real world.” After all, if you’re thinking of taking a year off because you don’t want to go through the agony of the job search, you have to realize that the search will be waiting for you after that year, and that opportunities don’t tend to come through osmosis, you have to chase them.

What can I gain from taking a gap year?

1. Potential to explore career options- some of us didn’t know exactly what we wanted to do when we got to college and some of us still don’t know what we want to do with our lives when we finish college. The best way to solve this issue? Try something! You’ll either like it or not, and you can move on with that knowledge.

2. Opportunity to hone leadership skills- Many programs such as Teach for America and City Year offer a chance to practice real-life leadership skills, the benefits of which will last far beyond the 2-year commitment period.

3. A chance to “give back”- giving back is a great feeling and you probably won’t ever have the opportunity to devote an entire year (or two) doing it once you’ve settled down.

4. Time to travel or try something different before getting tied down- a gap year can be a great time to simply diversify yourself, to try something new and different and to become a more interesting person. You’ll have plenty of cocktail party stories to tell for the rest of your life if you spend two years in Malawi working for the Peace Corps or teaching in a disadvantaged school in Detroit.

5. Opportunity to beef up the resume and gain experience that you might not have had time for in college- many of us didn’t join as many clubs as we would have liked or participate in as many extracurricular activities. For some it was because we had too much home work, for others, there were just too many um, social events to go to. A gap year is your chance to do all the admirable things you didn’t have time to do in college. Work for a presidential campaign, volunteer in Detroit or work for a non-profit, it’s never too late to become an over-achiever.

What if I’m making the wrong decision?

Ultimately you need to be honest with yourself about your true motives for taking time off from school. Are you doing it because you’re anxious about taking the next step in your education or career? Or, have you weighed the benefits and risks and determined that taking some time to explore something different is a valuable way to spend the year?

Photo credit: noizephotography / CC BY 2.0

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Posted by Nell Gable

Freshman Friday: Finding a summer job or internship

February 10, 2012

Every Friday, we’ll be highlighting some helpful information specifically for first-year students. Today we’re focusing on summer jobs and internships. You can view all the previous Freshman Friday posts here.

Many first year students who come into our office have one very clear goal: securing an internship. Having that goal is a great first step, but it’s also important to be clear about the why, what, where and how of the internship search. Without this clarity, finding a meaningful summer experience can be very challenging. Fortunately, if you’re struggling with these things, you’ve come to the right place! If you need help finding a summer job or internship, here’s a few things you can expect to find at The Career Center:

Developing your Story

Our career coaches begin by talking with students about their “story” — their likes, dislikes, values, interests, and passions. We might ask what classes you’re enjoying or what majors you’re considering. We might explore your involvement in campus organizations, roles you’ve taken on, personality traits you feel proud of, or skills you have developed in your first year at Michigan. Reflecting and building on your story helps you to make better choices about industries or organizations you might want to explore. This also aids in defining your goals and purpose for engaging in a summer job or internship.

Assessing fit

To learn about available opportunities, you can tap into our online posting system, Career Center Connector or the many other internship resources linked from our website. You may be faced with first time decisions about the experience you’re seeking, such as organization size, office culture, location preference, etc. We stress the importance of vetting options carefully before committing. One of our previous posts offers some tips and strategies when evaluating options to help you make informed choices about your summer break.

One summer… lots of ways to make it count!

At The Career Center we believe strongly in the value of experiential learning, and encourage students to understand that this experience can take many different forms. This is especially true for freshman since internships can be extremely competitive, with some open to upper class students only. So rather than emphasizing the prestige of an organization or the job title, you should focus on finding avenues that best help you explore. Some students may spend their whole summer with one organization, but others find ample learning opportunities through job shadowing, volunteering, informational interviewing, a part-time job, or a combination of these avenues. Ultimately, students who pursue opportunities with intention have the most meaningful summer experiences.

Putting the pieces together

One of the greatest benefits of a meaningful summer experience is not just the “doing” but the exposure it gives you to help in making more informed choices, in and out of the classroom, when you return to campus. As you experience your first summer as a college student, be sure to reflect (with family, friends, or us) about what you’re enjoying about your summer, and perhaps what you also find challenging. These conversations are a great foundation for a successful sophomore year!

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Posted by genih

“I’ve read too many books to believe what I’m told.”

February 7, 2012

By Neil Tambe – BA 2009 Organizational Studies, Political Science

This was originally posted on January 12, 2012 on the LSA Young Alumni blog, which was created to link College of LSA Young Alumni with the College and vice versa. The authors are all members of the Dean’s Young Alumni Council for the College of LSA. There’s some great discussion around this post in the comments of that blog — check it out!

One of my favorite sentences in all of prose comes from a Slam Poem spit by Suheir Hammad (viewer beware – it’s political and has some profanity), “I’ve read too many books to believe what I’m told”. To me, this is the essence of the liberal arts education – it teaches you how to not believe what you’re told and to question instead.

My liberal arts education was riddled with literature from many different areas of human understanding – philosophy, politics, physics, organizational theory (and more) – and it was really fun at the time. What I didn’t realize during my time as an undergrad, however, was that it was intense training to deeply question darn near everything. Our professors pushed us in the classroom to deepen our understanding of coursework, beyond what was on the page. We were encouraged to challenge ideas and then express our own.

We were specifically encouraged NOT to do exactly what has been done before. We were taught to ambitiously and confidently discern the truth, the beauty or essence of an idea. We were not taught a methodology to follow; we were rather groomed to create our own frameworks for understanding something new. We thought – and then we did something about it.

I think that’s valuable. The way I see it, there’s a lot that’s amiss about the world these days. Following the “best practices” of the world today will only get us to the best the world currently has to offer. In many cases, I don’t think that’s ambitious enough to safeguard the well-being of humanity in the short or long term (think: health and disease, poverty, ethno-communal violence, etc.). If it were ambitious enough, we would’ve probably already solved the world’s most compelling problems. We obviously haven’t.

The wonderful irony is that you don’t have to take my word for it, even though by posting this I am trying to convince you that the liberal arts are well worth supporting. If you’re a liberal arts graduate, like myself, you’ve read too many books to believe what you’re told.

Neil is an executive member of the LSA Dean’s Young Alumni Council

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Posted by Scott Tsuchiyama

Freshman Friday: Advice from Alumni

February 3, 2012

Every Friday, we’ll be highlighting some helpful information specifically for first-year students. Today we focus on getting advice from Michigan grads, in the form of alumni profiles. You can view all the previous Freshman Friday posts here.

I wish that I knew what I know now

When I was younger

- Ooh La La, Faces

It’s a common theme in music for a reason — we’re often left feeling as though our younger selves could’ve benefitted from the sage advice we could provide right now, if only it were possible. Since time travel isn’t an option, the next best thing is to seek out advice from those who have walked a similar path before you. Lucky for us, UofM has one of the largest living alumni bodies in the world.

We’re always looking for recent graduates to provide advice to current students, and we catalog that advice in our alumni profiles. The profiles cut across a ton of different industries and majors, and provide great advice on how to make the most of your time here at Michigan. Did you know that a couple other departments here at the university also have some great alumni profiles?

Communication Studies
Take a look at the Communication Studies blog, particularly their ongoing ‘Alumni Guest Blogger‘ series. The past few weeks have featured UM alumni working at CNN, Radio Disney, and Google!

English
The English Department has an entire section of their website, entitled “What can I do with a degree in English?” Quite a lot, it turns out! The nearly 40 profiles represent industries like writing/publishing, teaching, medicine, law, communications, and consulting.

Psychology
The Psychology Department has its own page of alumni profiles, featuring Michigan Psychology grads involved in health, education, research, marketing, and more!

We’re probably missing some, so please let us know in the comments if there are any other great collections of Michigan alumni advice!

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Posted by Scott Tsuchiyama

Freshman Friday: What Employers Want

January 27, 2012

Every Friday, we’ll be highlighting some helpful information specifically for first-year students. Today we consider the valuable transferable skills you’re learning in the classroom. You can view all the previous Freshman Friday posts here.

Yesterday’s University Record featured a video of students in LSA’s “Art in Public Spaces/Big Paintings” course talking about their experience. I was struck by the way that the students in the video were able to easily articulate the valuable lessons and skills that they learned in the course, regardless of whether they planned to pursue a degree or eventual career in art.

Whether you’ve selected your major or are still exploring your options, be sure to consider the different ways that your current and future courses contribute toward your eventual career. In some cases, you might be learning skills that are obviously transferable into a work setting, such as ENGLISH 229 – Professional Writing. But in other cases, like the Art in Public Spaces course listed above, the transferable skills may not be as obvious at first glance (but can be just as valuable!). As you’re thinking about your courses this semester, and eventually make up your schedule for the fall and beyond, consider courses with the following components (based on important skills that employers want to see in students/recent grads):

Group Projects
“Ability to work in a team structure,” and “ability to verbally communicate with persons inside and outside the organization” are two skills employers love to see. Working with other students on a group project in class will help you better develop those skills, and provide some concrete examples of when you’ve been required to work with others toward a common goal.

Persuasive/Argumentative Writing
Being able to craft a strong and well-reasoned argument is important in many fields, and employers list “ability to create and/or edit written reports” and “ability to sell or influence others” as two more key skills. You can do yourself a favor by learning and improving that skill through your coursework, so that you’ll be ready the first time you’re required to write a convincing proposal at your internship or job.

Data Analysis/Problem Solving
Particularly in leadership roles, being able to sift through lots of information to pick out the most important pieces is an invaluable skill. Decision-making in the real world is rarely black-and-white, so you’ll often be forced to analyze a problem for which there is incomplete data, more information than is necessary, or for which there’s no perfect solution. The “ability to analyze quantitative data” and “ability to make decisions and solve problems” are high on employers’ wish lists for a reason. Any courses that involve problem solving, quantitative reasoning, and data analysis will help you feel more comfortable with this.

If you need some help thinking about the career-related skills you’re developing through your coursework, take a look at our Career Guides for many of the LS&A majors. It’s also a great conversation to have with one of our career coaches, or with your academic advisor.

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Posted by Scott Tsuchiyama

Senior Struggles: Kelly Cutrone on building your personal brand

January 25, 2012

Follow each week as we present step-by-step suggestions to achieve post-college success with less senior year stress.

It’s Senior year, and by now you should have had sufficient time to do some soul searching, find yourself, and attempt to uncover just who it is you really are. OK maybe you’re still working on it, but chances are, you’re much more confident and ready to take on the real-world than you were 3 years ago.

As graduation approaches, many recent college grads seek jobs that involve marketing and maintaining a company brand. Part of that includes having a clear understanding of what that brand represents, and ensuring that it never strays from that ideal. But how often do we consider our own “personal brand”? Kelly Cutrone is a fashion publicist and owner of People’s Revolution. You may have seen her on reality shows like The Hills and The City. She is known for being brutally honest and wildly successful at what she does, so her advice is golden for those seeking a career in publicity, fashion, marketing — as well as anyone trying to figure out their life in general.

Kelly emphasizes the idea that “normal gets you nowhere,” and that “personal branding is about figuring out who you are and what turns you on and then monetizing it.” Her book If you Have to Cry, Go Outside is certainly worth a read (and perhaps several re-reads), but here are some of her highlights on building and promoting a personal brand as a means to obtaining a dream career.

  • What makes you different from the next recent-grad in desperate need of a job? Kelly says: “All celebrated brands have a point of differentiation…it’s time to figure out what you are selling and how you are going to make people want to buy it.”
  • Don’t be cynical, “follow your dreams” is good advice. Kelly says: “If you don’t know exactly what fits in your life and what doesn’t, the best way to figure it out is to follow your inner voice away from what feels wrong and toward what feels right.” However, she encourages you to focus, eventually. “When you find something that feels right, concentrate on refining your skills and educating yourself about your chosen field.”
  • Be consistent and honest with yourself when cultivating your personal brand. Kelly says: “If you sell yourself as a creative wellspring of ideas, well, you’d better believe your boss is going to want to hear them regularly. Good brands are authentic, focused and consistent.”
  • Once you’ve honed in on your brand, align yourself with larger, similar representations of that brand. Kelly says: “Once you have identified the people who do what you want to do at the highest possible level, start contacting them.”
  • And when it comes to reaching out to people in the industry you’d like to become a part of, once again, normal gets you nowhere. We’ve all become accustomed to a certain bland format for resume and cover-letter writing, so why not mix it up and try something different? Kelly says: “Successful candidates in my office speak in their own voices–with excellent grammar, of course.”
  • But most importantly don’t give up. Kelly says: “The people who succeed are often not just the people with the best-articulated brands; they’re the people who respond to rejection by brushing themselves off and moving on, again and again.”

Kelly Cutrone’s book, If you Have to Cry Go Outside is empowering for everyone looking to obtain their dream career, not just people interested in fashion. Check it out!

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Posted by Nell Gable

Freshman Friday: The Value of Liberal Arts

January 20, 2012

Every Friday, we’ll be highlighting some helpful information specifically for first-year students. Today we focus on the power of combining liberal arts with your passion. You can view all the previous Freshman Friday posts here.

The intersection of liberal arts and technology

Yesterday, Apple announced a couple education initiatives aimed at increasing the use of ebooks in the classroom through iBooks 2 for iPad. I’m reminded of the announcement of the first iPad, back in 2010, where Steve Jobs said of Apple: “We’ve always tried to be at the intersection of technology and liberal arts, to be able to get the best of both…it’s the combination of these two things that I think has let us make the kind of creative products like the iPad.”

This post isn’t about Apple, or their iBooks 2 announcement. But it is about that idea of combining liberal arts with something else, and how powerful that combination can be. We’ve seen some talk recently that seems to devalue the liberal arts — notably, Florida Gov. Rick Scott slamming anthropology as an inefficient use of higher education budgets. What’s lost in that argument is the fact that the goal of a liberal arts curriculum isn’t to be a training program for a specific job. There may not be an overabundance of anthropologist (or historian, or philosopher, etc.) job postings out on the market, but most liberal arts grads aren’t looking for those jobs anyway. They set themselves apart from the pack by taking the skills and knowledge they’ve gained through their academic background and applying it to jobs in hundreds of different fields.

Let’s take that anthropology major as an example. In her coursework, she’s studying things like the organization of social groups, the human significance of language, and the origins of genetic diversity. Take that background and a marketing internship or two, and you’d have a pretty fantastic market research analyst. Add in some programming knowledge instead, and you have someone who could design the next great social networking tool. Or, add in an undergraduate career of volunteering at museums, and you have someone well-suited to help develop strong and meaningful museum education efforts. Any of those three paths offers an attractive background to employers, and the broad skills and abilities that are developed in a liberal arts curriculum are what set them apart. You’re preparing yourself for your entire career — not just your first job — and the ability to problem solve, think critically, and the ability to “learn how to learn” can serve you well in just about anything.

As you consider your academic options, think a bit more like Steve Jobs. Start to develop your passions, interests, and career goals, and consider the ways that your liberal arts education will intersect with and support them. And for some great examples of UM grads who have done exactly that, take a look at our recent graduate Alumni Profiles!

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Posted by Scott Tsuchiyama

Freshman Friday: Winter Break Checklist

December 16, 2011

Every Friday, we’ll be highlighting some helpful information specifically for first-year students. Today we’re giving you something to do over Winter Break — don’t worry, it won’t take too much time! You can view all the previous Freshman Friday posts here.

Your Winter Break checklist should also include catching up on sleep

Winter Break is a time for relaxation, and you certainly deserve it after completing your first semester here at Michigan. Because of that, we’re giving you a Winter Break checklist that contains only one item: talk to people!

Sounds easy, right? Let me clarify. We’re not looking for you to just talk to people, but to learn a few things that will help you down the road as you further explore your career interests. Over break, try connecting with 1-3 people (friends, family, neighbors, etc.) and ask them some questions:

  • How did you discover your career path?
  • What do you enjoy most about your work? Why?
  • What are some things you did in order to prepare for that career?

If you share similar interests, the answers to these questions will be directly useful. But even if you’re not interested in that path, this exercise accomplishes two things. First, hearing about others’ career development can give you ideas about your own process, even if you’re talking about two different types of industries or jobs. And second, asking these sorts of questions is great practice for future informational interviews with people who do work in your anticipated career.

All of us at The Career Center hope you have a great Winter Break, and we look forward to seeing you in-person and right here on this blog at the start of next semester!

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Posted by Scott Tsuchiyama

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