I can’t believe how long it has been since I have written a blog. I don’t think I have ever gone this long without writing something. Between work keeping me busy, trying to stay calm during the holiday season, avoiding traffic on the roads and keeping in touch with people it’s been very hard to manage my time. A lot of things happening all at once can keep you on your toes but I sure hope that you can dance on your toes at the same time to keep everything moving smoothly!
Something funny happened last week. I was doing some work and I decided to take a small break. I picked up the newspaper and I was reading it just like any other day. I got to the Local section of The Record, I flip the page and there is my face! Right in the middle of the page, about quarter of the page was my face on a Berkeley College ad. First I stared at it for a while with a shocked look on my face and then I busted out laughing. This was so unexpected that I couldn’t hold in the laughter and surprise. The ad was for an Open House that Berkeley was holding at the Garret Mountain campus on the 13th of December. I didn’t expect this because the picture they took was a totally different picture and it was pasted into the ad. Lucky for me it was a good picture!
I was going through my Facebook the other day and I noticed that Amy Young, the Student Development Director added some new pictures to the Berkeley Facebook on her page. The pictures were of her and Amisha donating hair to Locks of Love! I was so shocked and proud that they cut off the beautiful long hair for such a good cause. Even thought I cannot donate my hair because I dye it, I don’t think I would have the guts to cut off so much of my hair all at once. It’s too drastic of a change for me all at once. I am so proud of them for doing it though!
Every time I come back to the Berkeley website I see something new, or some type of change that was made to the website. It’s great how much the college is upgrading things. If you are an Alumni you have different Blackboard capabilities that are much more restricting than a student’s Blackboard. You can only basically use Career Services, E-mail, Community, and view your personal information. I wish I could view the announcement page so that I could see what is going on at the campus, what events are running and other things. I always like to keep in touch but without seeing the announcements I can’t really see what’s going on. Many times they have plays or BBQ’s that I don’t know happen because I can’t see it anymore. I hope that’s an update that can be made one day. I know some other Alumni who would like to still keep in touch with what’s going on at the campus.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
The weekend has come and gone and it’s time to go back to work. Berkeley students are slowly getting ready for finals and the end of the fall quarter already. Talking to students makes me feel like I’m still in school which feels great. I remember quarters flew by so quickly so you really needed to enjoy them while you could. Having quarters instead of semester’s makes your whole college career feel like it’s going by quicker. Sometimes you felt like you blink and it’s gone!
I saw that Berkeley had a great event going on a few weeks back! The event was called the Multicultural Festival and it was created so that students can appreciate and learn about the different cultures on the campus. This event has been being planned since before I graduated. I am so happy to see it come together and finally happen at the campus. Check out the pictures!
I saw that Berkeley had a great event going on a few weeks back! The event was called the Multicultural Festival and it was created so that students can appreciate and learn about the different cultures on the campus. This event has been being planned since before I graduated. I am so happy to see it come together and finally happen at the campus. Check out the pictures!
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Cultures
As a student at Berkeley something you will notice among the student body is the large diversity of students that attend the campus. You will see students from all over the world who speak different languages and have different cultural traditions. It’s important that you embrace this variety of people because recently I have learned how important cultural differences are in people.
Being in charge of hiring people you have to be very aware different cultural norms and be very open minded to difference traditions. This past week I came across a woman named Abby who had an excellent resume and was a very nice person. I am looking to hire people who can speak different languages so that I can diversify my market and work with different ethnic groups. She is Greek and speaks Greek fluently. When I was interviewing her I was surprised to find out that she refuses to work with other Greeks. This got me very curious about the culture and I asked her why. Apparently Greeks always refuse to work with different Greeks because they do not trust each other. They don’t mind having Greek friends, or associating with other Greeks but working with other Greeks is apparently out of the question.
I found this to be very fascinating because being at Berkeley exposed me to many different cultures but now I get to experience these things in real life. Berkeley offers many classes on cultures that I have taken, but there is something about experiencing these situations in real life that makes them much more interesting. I was prepared by my previous classes that many people have different values and cultural norms which helped me understand her. Someone who does not have this kind of training could react negatively to her approach to the interview, but because she saw that I valued her cultural view she was much more comfortable working with me.
Sometimes you sit in class and wonder “When will I ever use this?” Some things that I have learned I never thought I’d have to use but is now helpful to me. Never take what you learn for granted because you just never know when you will need it!
Being in charge of hiring people you have to be very aware different cultural norms and be very open minded to difference traditions. This past week I came across a woman named Abby who had an excellent resume and was a very nice person. I am looking to hire people who can speak different languages so that I can diversify my market and work with different ethnic groups. She is Greek and speaks Greek fluently. When I was interviewing her I was surprised to find out that she refuses to work with other Greeks. This got me very curious about the culture and I asked her why. Apparently Greeks always refuse to work with different Greeks because they do not trust each other. They don’t mind having Greek friends, or associating with other Greeks but working with other Greeks is apparently out of the question.
I found this to be very fascinating because being at Berkeley exposed me to many different cultures but now I get to experience these things in real life. Berkeley offers many classes on cultures that I have taken, but there is something about experiencing these situations in real life that makes them much more interesting. I was prepared by my previous classes that many people have different values and cultural norms which helped me understand her. Someone who does not have this kind of training could react negatively to her approach to the interview, but because she saw that I valued her cultural view she was much more comfortable working with me.
Sometimes you sit in class and wonder “When will I ever use this?” Some things that I have learned I never thought I’d have to use but is now helpful to me. Never take what you learn for granted because you just never know when you will need it!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Networking
When you start working you end up having responsibilities that you have never had before. Working after graduating college is much different than working while you are in college. When you are in college you know that school is your number one priority and work is just a side thing. When you no longer have that school to focus on you come to realize that work is all you have going for you at this time.
The number one thing in the work force is who you know. This is something people repeat to you all the time but you don’t realize the importance of it until you are actually out and working in the field. When I was in school people always told me it’s important to make connections with people and network but I never understood why. I knew it had some importance because it’s always good to know people, but not to this extent. When I work with people now, I always try to make a long lasting relationship because you never know who you may need in the future. It’s always important to treat people with respect and treat them the way that you want to be treated.
One example of this was when I went to the career fair. There were many companies that were there and talked to some students when a student came up to them. What I did is I walked around and talked to students myself instead. I asked them how they were doing, what they thought of the fair, I introduced myself and I’m sure that I left a much more lasting impression on them than other companies. Now that many companies are laying people off the companies that are hiring act as if they are doing you a favor. Many times I feel they tend to forget that they need mutual respect in order to have a good working relationship with an employee. When a company respects the employee they build a much better relationships and the employee tends to be much more productive. When I look for people to hire I try to make sure I treat them with respect and make it known that they are valuable. Many companies treat their employees like an expense but I try to make them feel like an asset to the company.
Meeting new people is very important to me right now because I am trying to create new connections. Yesterday I decided to join a gym, SPA 23, so that I can take classes and network with people. There is a very broad range of people who attend SPA 23 which will give me the opportunity to make connections with various people. You have to be creative in meeting people and I am happy that I made the decision to join the club. They have really cool classes that you can take for free such as yoga, Pilates, kickboxing etc. I am very excited!
The number one thing in the work force is who you know. This is something people repeat to you all the time but you don’t realize the importance of it until you are actually out and working in the field. When I was in school people always told me it’s important to make connections with people and network but I never understood why. I knew it had some importance because it’s always good to know people, but not to this extent. When I work with people now, I always try to make a long lasting relationship because you never know who you may need in the future. It’s always important to treat people with respect and treat them the way that you want to be treated.
One example of this was when I went to the career fair. There were many companies that were there and talked to some students when a student came up to them. What I did is I walked around and talked to students myself instead. I asked them how they were doing, what they thought of the fair, I introduced myself and I’m sure that I left a much more lasting impression on them than other companies. Now that many companies are laying people off the companies that are hiring act as if they are doing you a favor. Many times I feel they tend to forget that they need mutual respect in order to have a good working relationship with an employee. When a company respects the employee they build a much better relationships and the employee tends to be much more productive. When I look for people to hire I try to make sure I treat them with respect and make it known that they are valuable. Many companies treat their employees like an expense but I try to make them feel like an asset to the company.
Meeting new people is very important to me right now because I am trying to create new connections. Yesterday I decided to join a gym, SPA 23, so that I can take classes and network with people. There is a very broad range of people who attend SPA 23 which will give me the opportunity to make connections with various people. You have to be creative in meeting people and I am happy that I made the decision to join the club. They have really cool classes that you can take for free such as yoga, Pilates, kickboxing etc. I am very excited!
Monday, November 10, 2008
Career Day
Wow, talk about not blogging in a long time! I have been so preoccupied with many different things that I just haven’t had the time to sit down and think of something to write about. I really love what I do but boy, it keeps me busy.
Last Friday was Berkeley’s Career Day. Even thought I was not looking for a job, I decided to still attend and network with current and graduated students as well as the different companies that were there. I wanted to have a table set up at the Career Day for my company but I spoke to a woman named Barbara and she told me that they already had enough of companies in my field attending. At first I was bummed to find that out but then I thought that this will just be a great opportunity for me to talk to people.
Many times Career Fairs are frustrating because some companies do not give you much information. Often they tell you to go to their website and look at what positions they have available. When this happens to me I get very frustrated because I didn’t come all the way to the career fair just to be told to go online. If I wanted to just go online I would have saved gas and just gone online. Berkeley Career Day was great. The companies there were friendly and some of them even did interviews on the spot. They had rooms and tables set up just for interviews. They even had group interviews.
Since I did not have a table I walked around and talked to people. When the economy went down the demand for our managers and trainers went up very high and we are currently looking to put a new management team together. Most companies are laying people off but our company is hiring! This makes me so excited. I walked around, asked students what they thought of the fair, and told them about the opportunity that my company is offering. They seemed very excited and I already invited some of them for an interview tomorrow.
It was really nice going back to a school activity and talking to people I know. I ran into many Career Counselors and people who work in Student Development. I talked to them how glad I am that I finally graduated and how well I was doing. I wish I could have seen Dean Hughes because I have worked with him so much but maybe next time!
Last Friday was Berkeley’s Career Day. Even thought I was not looking for a job, I decided to still attend and network with current and graduated students as well as the different companies that were there. I wanted to have a table set up at the Career Day for my company but I spoke to a woman named Barbara and she told me that they already had enough of companies in my field attending. At first I was bummed to find that out but then I thought that this will just be a great opportunity for me to talk to people.
Many times Career Fairs are frustrating because some companies do not give you much information. Often they tell you to go to their website and look at what positions they have available. When this happens to me I get very frustrated because I didn’t come all the way to the career fair just to be told to go online. If I wanted to just go online I would have saved gas and just gone online. Berkeley Career Day was great. The companies there were friendly and some of them even did interviews on the spot. They had rooms and tables set up just for interviews. They even had group interviews.
Since I did not have a table I walked around and talked to people. When the economy went down the demand for our managers and trainers went up very high and we are currently looking to put a new management team together. Most companies are laying people off but our company is hiring! This makes me so excited. I walked around, asked students what they thought of the fair, and told them about the opportunity that my company is offering. They seemed very excited and I already invited some of them for an interview tomorrow.
It was really nice going back to a school activity and talking to people I know. I ran into many Career Counselors and people who work in Student Development. I talked to them how glad I am that I finally graduated and how well I was doing. I wish I could have seen Dean Hughes because I have worked with him so much but maybe next time!
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Activitites
For many people graduating college means never being involved with their school again. People graduate, move away, and don’t really care to stay involved. In other cases there are situations where people do want to stay involved but their college does not offer any opportunities for them to get involved. I have only been a graduate for a little over a month, but I was already offered opportunities to attend and participate.
Next week Berkeley is having a career convention for graduates. During this time people can attend, see other graduates, explore careers available and talk to different vendors. This will be held during the activity period at the Garret Mountain campus. I am very excited to see everyone at Berkeley. I miss everyone at the Student Development department as well as everyone that I have worked with.
Another exciting activity that’s coming up is Career Day. Career Day is a modified Career Fair where instead of trying to find a job, students are there to learn about jobs, interview practices, find out what employers are looking for and maybe they will get lucky and find a job. Many people have misconceptions about job fairs thinking that you go there to find a job. Sometimes this does happen but Career Fairs are there mostly for networking opportunities. You meet employers and make possible connections with people that may be useful to you.
I am really excited about this Career Day because I am not only trying to go there as a graduate but as an employer as well. I got an e-mail from Mr. Wood, who is in charge of Alumni relations that this event will be going on and if you are an employer you can also have a table. I have e-mailed him last week and once this week but I have not yet received anything back yet. I will try to call him today or tomorrow to see if I can get a hold of him through the phone. My company is currently looking to put together a new management team and we are looking for well rounded people with a strong business mind and someone who likes working with people. This Career Day event would be a perfect place to start my search.
I also need to call Berkeley to find out about my diploma. It has been over a month since I have graduated, but I haven’t heard anything from the school yet. I knew that it was going to take a while because they need to confirm that you have completed all the requirements, but I’m not sure as to how much longer this will take. I did receive a great letter from one of my loan company though! It said that because I have achieved above a 3.5 GPA I do not have to pay off my loan! How great is that? That must have been the best letter that I have received all month. It pays off to pay attention and do well in school. It saved me about $4,000.
Next week Berkeley is having a career convention for graduates. During this time people can attend, see other graduates, explore careers available and talk to different vendors. This will be held during the activity period at the Garret Mountain campus. I am very excited to see everyone at Berkeley. I miss everyone at the Student Development department as well as everyone that I have worked with.
Another exciting activity that’s coming up is Career Day. Career Day is a modified Career Fair where instead of trying to find a job, students are there to learn about jobs, interview practices, find out what employers are looking for and maybe they will get lucky and find a job. Many people have misconceptions about job fairs thinking that you go there to find a job. Sometimes this does happen but Career Fairs are there mostly for networking opportunities. You meet employers and make possible connections with people that may be useful to you.
I am really excited about this Career Day because I am not only trying to go there as a graduate but as an employer as well. I got an e-mail from Mr. Wood, who is in charge of Alumni relations that this event will be going on and if you are an employer you can also have a table. I have e-mailed him last week and once this week but I have not yet received anything back yet. I will try to call him today or tomorrow to see if I can get a hold of him through the phone. My company is currently looking to put together a new management team and we are looking for well rounded people with a strong business mind and someone who likes working with people. This Career Day event would be a perfect place to start my search.
I also need to call Berkeley to find out about my diploma. It has been over a month since I have graduated, but I haven’t heard anything from the school yet. I knew that it was going to take a while because they need to confirm that you have completed all the requirements, but I’m not sure as to how much longer this will take. I did receive a great letter from one of my loan company though! It said that because I have achieved above a 3.5 GPA I do not have to pay off my loan! How great is that? That must have been the best letter that I have received all month. It pays off to pay attention and do well in school. It saved me about $4,000.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Interviews
As I wrote in my last blog you go through a lot of changes during college but you go through more changes even after college. Some change is voluntary and some change in inevitable because you have to adjust to the change of environment around you. You get to meet many different people and you notice the different types of qualities in people.
Being in a position in my new job where I hire people on a weekly basis I get to see many different faces and personalities. Being exposed to so many different people you get to compare them to one another and pick out people you like versus people who would not fit in with your company. The thing that I pay attention to the most is people’s interview skills and how they can maintain a conversation. Let me tell you, it is amazing what you come across!
Some people that I interview I would never even guess they graduated from college. They are sloppy, no manners, thinks their doing you a favor and just act ridicules. In my opinion this not only makes them look bad but also the college that they graduated from. Coming from Berkeley I have a full understanding of the interview process, the possible questions that may be asked and I know to prepare for an interview and not just show up. Berkeley not only taught me how to interview but they also were there for me to do mock interviews if I needed it. They would role play with me and ask me questions an employer would so that I wouldn’t be so nervous.
Some of the things I see is people coming to an interview in sneakers, not groomed, don’t know how to answer questions or don’t even bother brining in a resume. Once I asked a girl a question and she sat in front of me for at least a minute unable to tell me 3 positive qualities about herself. I remember in Placement Seminar we had to write out all the good and bad qualities about ourselves and how to make the negative stuff sound good. For example, when you want to say that you like having your way, of course you wouldn’t say that. Instead you say that you are persistent and you like to get your idea across.
I am so happy that Berkeley was able to provide me with out of college experience in college. Watching some people today makes me feel very good about my skills and I can feel confident that I stand out when I go into an interview. The best part is that even though I have already graduated I can always go back and practice with a counselor. They will even edit my resume for me if I need it. How cool is that???
Being in a position in my new job where I hire people on a weekly basis I get to see many different faces and personalities. Being exposed to so many different people you get to compare them to one another and pick out people you like versus people who would not fit in with your company. The thing that I pay attention to the most is people’s interview skills and how they can maintain a conversation. Let me tell you, it is amazing what you come across!
Some people that I interview I would never even guess they graduated from college. They are sloppy, no manners, thinks their doing you a favor and just act ridicules. In my opinion this not only makes them look bad but also the college that they graduated from. Coming from Berkeley I have a full understanding of the interview process, the possible questions that may be asked and I know to prepare for an interview and not just show up. Berkeley not only taught me how to interview but they also were there for me to do mock interviews if I needed it. They would role play with me and ask me questions an employer would so that I wouldn’t be so nervous.
Some of the things I see is people coming to an interview in sneakers, not groomed, don’t know how to answer questions or don’t even bother brining in a resume. Once I asked a girl a question and she sat in front of me for at least a minute unable to tell me 3 positive qualities about herself. I remember in Placement Seminar we had to write out all the good and bad qualities about ourselves and how to make the negative stuff sound good. For example, when you want to say that you like having your way, of course you wouldn’t say that. Instead you say that you are persistent and you like to get your idea across.
I am so happy that Berkeley was able to provide me with out of college experience in college. Watching some people today makes me feel very good about my skills and I can feel confident that I stand out when I go into an interview. The best part is that even though I have already graduated I can always go back and practice with a counselor. They will even edit my resume for me if I need it. How cool is that???
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