Category Archives: Life

5 Tips on Creating Your Personal Brand

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Branding yourself isn’t just for people already in, or pursuing, a career in marketing. Whether you realize it or not, you are marketing your personal brand every single day to everyone you meet or encounter in your classes and even at work. The personal branding process starts with who you want to be as a person, which can be whoever you want I might add! So take a step back, look at what you really want out of life and start building ypersonal brand imageour personal brand with this foundation. Here are five steps to help you begin thinking about and creating your very own personal brand:

1.)    Define who you want to be as a person, know what you want out of life!

2.)    Identify your personal skills and ownable attributes (the ones you have now or the ones you want to acquire over time).

3.)    Make sure you can excel at each of those skills and attributes.

4.)    Determine whether you can use them to differentiate yourself from others.

5.)    Consider if these skills will bring you success and happiness over the course of your life (the most important part).

Once you have some of these things in mind, begin to think of all the areas in your life that you want success. Of course this would include your career but also think about your social life, relationships, children, and so on. Remember that your personal brand should be aspirational, so what you want out of life, not necessarily where you are right now. This is just a start but it should guide down the right path for personal branding success!

 

posted by Carly Larson, Career Assistant

Global Internships

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Here at Career Services, we definitely encourage students to complete at least one internship befglobal internships imageore they graduate. But what if you’re interested in study abroad as well? Of course, you could always do a study abroad and an internship at different times, but another great option is to do an internship abroad! OSU’s Study Abroad office works with a program called IE3 Global Internships that aims to place students in an internship position in another country. Students can also receive academic credit for their internship. For more information check out this link: http://ie3global.ous.edu/campus/osu/

Read a firsthand account of a student’s experience in an IE3 internship. Ben Spearing recently returned from an internship in Namibia, where he was working at the Cheetah Conservation Fund, and you can read about it at his blog http://benspearing1.blogspot.com/

 

Note:  This post is linked to a external blog and the content for the post approved by Oregon State University Career Services. We are not responsible for the content on the guest blogger’s personal website and do not endorse their site. 

 

posted by Deirdre Newton, Career Assistant

How an Internship Led Me to a Career

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Internships are such an important step on a college student’s path to a career. As a student, you are generally not qualified to attain work experience in a field that you are considering going into. As a result, students often obtain work experience in the job market that is not relevant to their field of interest. This isn’t to say that this kind of wRebecca image for Jan 2014 blogork experience will not have value, but it is hard to convince someone that you are capable of being an event planner, when your only experience has been as a cashier. Internships, on the other hand can often provide hands on experience in an area that you hope to work in someday. This not only provides you with relevant experience and skills, but also lets you discover whether or not you would actually like the job.

While I was an undergraduate student, I sought out any opportunity that I could to inexpensively travel abroad. As a result, I ended up learning about an internship program called Camp Adventure Child and Youth Services. What drew me to this program was the fact that they paid for your flight to a foreign country and provided you with free housing and a living stipend. Basically free travel? Tell me more! There was a catch, however. In exchange for my free trip around the world, I would need to provide services to the children of U.S. Military members for forty hours a week. The internship was seeking students who were interested in working with children as a career. I thought to myself, “I like kids. I can do that for a free trip to Europe.” Did I have any real experience working with kids, you may be wondering? The answer was no.

Luckily, I ended up being placed as an aquatics counselor and taught swim lessons to preschoolers for the summer, which I really enjoyed. I later did a very short break camp as a Day Camp counselor and realized that I would NOT have survived for a whole summer in that position. I was also lucky that I had chosen a program that provided a lot of training prior to my summer internship. I had a great summer in Japan my first year and went back for a second year in Italy, as well as the short break camp in Hawaii. I loved getting to travel with the program, but I realized that I was officially not interested in working with kids as a career.

When I graduated from college, I wasn’t really sure what to do with my degree. But Camp Adventure asked me to work for them as a trainer for their summer program. I had become a leader during training throughout my time working for them and enjoyed doing it. So I took the part time position. I soon began to realize that although I didn’t love working with children, I did love working with college students. I was so excited to prepare them for their summer internships and see them come back as newly competent individuals and leaders. I realized that if I could make that a full-time career, I would. So I started looking into the field of College Student Affairs and realized that it was a perfect fit for me. I already had experience working with college students through Camp Adventure and I felt confident that my resume matched what a university employer would be looking for.

I am now on a path with a certain destination. I am currently in graduate school pursuing a degree in College Student Services and Administration. Interning for Camp Adventure ideally would have helped me gain a job working with children. Thus, when I first graduated I felt like my internship had been a frivolous waste of time. Why did I spend so much time working with kids, when that is not even what I want to do? Why didn’t I pursue other internships? Maybe I should have. But I think why I continued to work for Camp Adventure was because of the training process. Every year I was drawn back in by the prospect of working with new interns (besides free trips to Italy). In the end, it was a perfect transition into my current career path.

I encourage students to explore internships and to find something that you enjoy doing. You may not realize the value in an experience until much later down the road. Sometimes that value might simply be discovering what kind of work you do and do not like doing, but it’s better to find out sooner rather than later.

posted by Rebecca Schaffeld, Graduate Assistant with Career Services

Find Your Way with the Career Trail

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career trail one

College is the time to develop the  skills you need and Career Trail  is here to help!  Take advantage of the Career Trail Prep by Step program.   I am excited to be part of Career Services’ Initiative to reach out to OSU students both on and off campus by offering  a new way to engage students in career preparation and develop their skills! Student success is the focus!

Career Trail is our new online career development self-directed and interactive program to reach students and alumni 24 hours per day, making accessibility for all at their fingertips.  Career Trail engages faculty and staff by providing a resource including curriculum/assignments that can be used individually or in a classroom setting.  Career Trail engages users with diverse levels of experience.

One of the  aspects of the “Career Trail Prep by Step” program that I am excited about is how a student or alumni can quickly review the steps and determine where they are at in the career preparation process and find the step they are ready to engage in.  career trail two

  • The Career Preparation process begins with getting to Know Yourself, your strengths, values, interests, and personality.  What a great way to start!
  • Know the World of Work is the next step where you can learn about majors, what you can do with your major, and learn about jobs that excite you!
  • Next it is off to Develop Tools and Skills that will prepare you for a job.  Here you learn about building a stand-out resume and developing stellar interviewing skills.
  • Next you Learn How to Connect.  Connecting with others through your network, expanding your network through informational interviewing and using professional social media like LinkedIn can help you learn about opportunities and be ready to act on opportunities when they present.
  • You can even learn how to develop a professional website or blog under Now Keep Going!

career trail three

Link to Career Trail:  http://oregonstate.edu/career/trail

For more help or information visit us at Career Services|B008 Kerr Administration Building | 541-737-4085 | career.services@oregonstate.edu

 

Carolyn Killefer serves as an OSU Career Counselor with over 20 years of professional counseling experience in academic, community, private practice, and industry settings with a commitment to helping others reach their personal goals.

TED Talk with Dan Pallotta: The way we think about charity is dead wrong.

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Hello Beavers and Beyond,

Here is a little video for thought as we quickly progress into a new year. Tell us what you think about these ideas on social innovation and changing a major paradigm in U.S. culture.

Enjoy and Happy New Year!

 

 posted by Malia Arenth, Career Counselor

 

* This video was done for TED Talk and does not reflect the opinion or stance of any one person within or the Career Services department as a whole.

The Opportunity in Every Opportunity

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There is so much information out there about how to find an internship that’s right for you, one that relates to your field of study, or one that will boost your experiences. We’ve covered topics such as:

But the topics hardly ever discussed are those such as: “what to do with your experience after the internship” or “how to hone in on the various skills and lessons you learned from your experience,” even if the experience wasn’t what you expected it to be.

I’ve done two internships during my time at Oregon State, and one the sumblog pic erica 11 29 2013mer following my junior year of high school. I know you must be thinking, “Wow, this girl started early!” But, with my indecisiveness on what to major in, I had to start early.

See, the important thing to understand about internships is that, while you may be able to earn college credits for them, they above all serve as important tools in your career development. For example, the first internship I did following my junior year of high school was through a class at The Art Institute of San Diego. At the time, head over heels for art and computers, I was interested in Computer Animation. Attending a small, private high school, I had no access to Computer Animation classes or an opportunity to experience with the subject. In doing research, I was able to find a Computer Animation summer class offered by The Art Institute, and found it the perfect opportunity to explore the subject. This experience assisted me in exploring computer animation as a potential career, developing hands-on computer animation skills, and networking with top computer animators in the country (my teacher drew Pink Panther and Spongebob)! What this experience also taught me was that Computer Animation wasn’t the right industry for me. The tedious drawing of each and every movement and shift was something I didn’t have the patience for. While some might deem this an unsuccessful internship experience, I ended up learning a lot about myself, including the types of jobs I saw myself a part of in the future. I couldn’t see myself sitting at a drawing board or computer all day; I wanted to be more engaged with others and I decided a job that allowed me to work with people would be one I would succeed most in.

My second internship experience brought similar results. Still unsure of what I wanted to major in, I continued to take opportunities to assist me in figuring it out. As an IT and Investigations Intern at the Santa Barbara District Attorney’s Office, I was able to further develop my IT skills, as well as explore Law Enforcement as a potential path. This experience was beneficial, as I was able to note Law Enforcement as a potential degree path and add numerous skills to my resume. I was able to, again, increase my computer skills, gaining knowledge in databases, as well as serve as a right-hand to attorney’s, first-handedly gaining insight on what being an attorney entails.

My third, and most recent, internship was with the Disney College Program. This experience, much different from the two mentioned previously, brought back my desire to work with people. While my second internship sparked my interest in Law Enforcement, the Disney College Program sparked my interest in the Tourism and Hospitality industry. I was working in the Florida summer (so hot!) in outdoor foods, which I knew I didn’t want to do for a career. While the job itself wasn’t interesting to me, I was able to note various aspects of the job that I enjoyed, such as my love for providing exceptional customer service. I realized that I enjoyed the District Attorney’s Office internship because I was serving the attorney’s; I was assisting them in their court cases by printing photos, recording testimonies, listening to and editing testimony transcripts, and other relevant tasks. Assisting guests at The Walt Disney World Resort helped me recognize my natural passion for customer service and the importance of customer service as an element of my future career.

The point here is, that if an internship opportunity arises and sparks your interest, I encourage you to go for it! You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Even experiences that show you what you don’t want to do, will surprise you in ways you never thought, many times teaching you a little more about yourself. The cool thing about internships is that they exist to help you learn. An internship is defined as any official or formal program to provide practical experience for beginners in an occupation or profession. From this definition, it is important to keep in mind that an internship provides ‘practical experience’. You may be interested in the study of a particular field or subject, but it is equally important to gain experience working hands-on in that field, in order to confirm it is right for you. So I encourage you to take advantage of the many internships that are out there, because there is ALWAYS opportunity in EVERY opportunity! And for those of you that have participated in internships you thought were a waste of time, you completely disliked, or weren’t what you expected, I encourage you to look back at those experiences and make note of the things you did learn from them.

 

 posted by Erica Evans, Career Assistant

 

Let Your Passion Lead

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I wrote this after watching Larry Smith from the University of Waterloo give a TEDx TALK on “why you will fail to have a great career” , an interesting video to me  especially because I work in the Career Services department. I hope that you will take the time to watch the video that inspired me to write this blog post.

I am writing you today because…

  • I want you to reach your fullest potential.
  • I want you to find your true passions, those that go deeper beyond mere interests..
  • I want you to influence the world in positive ways and become a person whom you admire.

One of my favorite quotes is “I am Human. Nothing Human can be alien to me.” – Terence.  This quote means to me that if a human being dares to change the world, dares to be a doctor, dares to be Martin Luther King, or dares to be the person they admire, it means so can you, because you are human being also.

Reaching your fullest potential is hard and maintaining it is even harder. We all have looked at someone close to our heart and felt a sense of sadness because they are not being the great human being that they could be. I personally have watched a friend of mine who has a vast amount of potential constantly veer away from becoming the amazing woman she could become. I notice though that we are constantly assessing our friends and family trying to help them reach their fullest potential, but what are we doing for ourselves? It is time to practice what you preach. So here is a self test that is currently working well for me in my life to ensure I reach my fullest potential and self-actualization.

Do a self-assessment of the person you are and the person you are becoming. A good way to see if you are in line with becoming the better and greater you is to see if you are in line with your life purpose. If you don’t have a life purpose, take the time to write one now and do a check in with yourself to make certain you are choosing the right career, the right mate, and the right friends. If you realize you are not, then it is time to make changes. Below is my life purpose:

“My life purpose is to nurture my community and the people that surround me. I wish to become a person in leadership where I will empower, educate, and embrace new ways of thought that will lead to overall success in my life and that of my team’s. I want to make people feel worthy of my time and attention. When I leave the room I want to people to have many good things to say about me instead of bad.  I want to mentor my future kids to be successful, active members of society that do good for the world and their local communities. I want to be an example, leader, husband, father, family member, and mentor. By doing these things in my life it will help me feel fulfilled, thankful, happy, and healthy”.

By assessing what your life purpose is,  I hope that you choose a career path that supports your values and goals. Finding passion in the career you choose that is also in line with your life purpose is going to be difficult but finding this out earlier rather than later will save you lots of money, time, and energy. We all have interests and sometimes our parents tell us what our interests are. This can lead to us choosing a career path that we are not totally in love with. I met a woman recently who found out she hated accounting and now has a bachelors degree in a field she hates. She is now pursuing sales and that is her real passion. We may end up in a career that makes us feel miserable and at that time it may feel it is too late to make the switch. But it is never too late to discover your passion. Everyone in your life will respect you more if you do this for yourself.

Now hopefully you are running full force for your full potential. Your passion is driving you there. So now what are you going to do for humanity? When you leave a room, do the people you’ve affected have more good things to say about you than bad? I love to give back, it makes me feel so good. Part of that comes from my job. But what else are you going to do? What imprint on the world will you leave? How will what you do for others affect the generations that come after you? Doing something for the greater good  will make you feel full. Be grateful that you are here and you still have the opportunity to do something .This will also get you connected with bright, enthusiastic people who share the same passion as you.

In conclusion, be the person who you admire, be the person I would admire. Go for the career that will bring the greatest passion into your life. I cannot wait to read about all the great things you are doing!

 

What do you think about the video? What is your passion? Please comment and share!

 

Posted by Zack Sperow, Career Services Assistant and Human

Curiosity and the Cat: Being a Lifelong Learner

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When I was five years old, I took cat testicles to my kindergarten classroom for Show-and-Tell (remember Show-and-Tell, version 1.0?? Now it’s called “Facebook”). I brought them in an orange Tupperware that my parents happily supplied, and in some solution that kept them in their (almost) original shape and form. Looking back now, I can clearly see the giant thought bubbles popping out of my beloved kindergarten teacher’s head as I confidently shared the story and knowledge I had regarding said testicles (removed from my big gray cat at home, on the piano bench, by our family veterinarian). The thought bubbles screamed, mostly unintelligible, with a few question marks here and there, but bless her head—she let me share. And she let the other kids ask questions. And she defended me (and her choice) to any other parents who may have questioned why their kid came directly home and asked about feline balls. And thus, curiosity and an insatiable thirst for knowledge was protected, nurtured and encouraged to grow.

Growing up on a farm, I had the magnitude and minutiae of the world at my fingertips. Birth and death and everything in between surrounded me and I was encouraged to ask questions about all of it. When a teachers’ strike closed down my elementary school for three weeks one winter, my mother carried on with lessons at home, based in the constantly changing flow of activity on the farm: weighing chicks, counting elements in pond samples and writing about observations in the fields and trees. There was always space for learning, space for expansion, space to be awed by even the most mundane.

As I’ve grown up and moved through an undergraduate program in English, several jobs that held various levels of inspiration, travel and study abroad, a Master’s degree in counseling and the most recent expansion into being a parent and professional in higher education, I’ve learned that the space to be curious is not confined to the lucky and charmed experiences in my childhood. Sometimes, curiosity is met with fear by others: skepticism, sarcasm, even avoidance and hatred, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t the most crucial of necessities in so many ways. To be a lifelong learner—someone who is active and engaged in seeking out new knowledge and experiences and sharing those with his or her community and world, is to be a contributor and uniquely influential. It allows for adaptability and the ability to adjust when the currents change. It allows for one person to recognize another person’s passion and uniqueness and to step in to help those grow—either by asking the right questions, saying the right thing, or by simply stepping back and letting a kid share with the world what she finds to be most fascinating.

As a person currently involved in higher education, I recognize the emphasis placed on managing a schedule and meeting structured expectations, in class, work, sports, clubs, and beyond. The expectations are important—focus on grades, achievements, and meeting or exceeding standards in your education and career. But don’t forget, in your pursuit of answering all the necessary questions, to ask some questions of your own. Be curious, even about the day-to-day, and share what you learn so others can be excited with you. In fact, in recent research on career “success”, as published in Perspectives of Psychological Sciences,  it was found that curiosity (along with conscientiousness) is a much better predictor of success and achievement in academics and career than your level of intelligence! So, learn simply for the sake of learning, and you will be surprised at how far you might go.

Oh, and if your kid ever wants to take testicles to school, my advice to you is: let her. Just make sure you know which Tupperware she used before packing lunch the next day . . .

Posted by Malia Arenth, Career Services Career Counselor

Academics, Career and Life: Putting It All Together

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lifeIt’s your first year of school. Or your fifth.  The academic year begins after you’re fresh off of a summer of interning, vacationing, working or continuing education in a myriad of ways. Campus explodes with returning staff and students, skateboarders, bikers and pedestrians vying for space, and you step into another new schedule. Between the 15 credits you’re taking, you’re handed an armload of other expectations: make friends, keep friends, find a job on campus or close enough to bike, do EVERYTHING social that comes your way, join a club or three, meet with your advisor, take weekend trips, call your mother, study abroad, and keep your grades up. Oh, and work out. Students who are also parents, older than 25, first generation or otherwise considered “non-traditional” typically face even more demands for a successful blending of academics and everything else. It sometimes seems that everyone on campus is under pressure to do everything, be everything and be GOOD at everything, regardless of the personal toll.

Blending career with the rest of your life outside of school doesn’t get any easier, but the climate around what constitutes a “successful” career is changing.  Currently, the United States is dismal in terms of providing support and resources for the easy integration of work and life: we as a nation rank 28th, only 9 from the bottom, of advanced countries in terms of successful work/life integration. Conversations, though, in the past few years have shifted significantly toward figuring out how to redefine success in life, including career, and I do believe we will get better as a nation in taking care of each other.

While greater governmental and policy change is needed to implement support at a larger scale in the work/life integration, it is up to us now to manage our own balance. During school is a good time to practice. Here are a few tips on how to get started:

1.      Know yourself.

No other person will be able to tell you what is best for your life. You must do this work on your own. Take each day as an opportunity to learn about who you are, what you prioritize and how you see the best version of yourself in your community. Are you exhilarated by good grades? Does the happy exhaustion of a long trail run outweigh the extra hour of time spent talking on the phone with a friend? Is quiet time something that allows you to do well in other areas and, if so, how are you scheduling quiet time into your days? Unless you know where you are starting from, it is going to be extremely challenging to define where you’d like to be, and much easier to take on everything without intention and forethought.

2.      Redefine what is valuable.

The world will attempt to define this for you on a daily basis. At any turn, it is easy to allow another person or entity to tell you what holds the most value in your life. If this is a system that works for you, go with it. But if not, take a step back and analyze it for yourself.

3.      Welcome reality.

If you consider yourself on a budget of sorts, you may be able to better welcome and adhere to reality. With a strict budget, there is only so much money to spend. The same goes for your personal energy and engagement: once you’re tapped out, it is hard to refill and start over. Figure out ahead of time what your require in order to be the student you want to be: study groups, tutoring, time alone, breaks, staying busy, etc.  If you are a parent, an employee, a friend, a partner, decide what of your personal energy is required to be the kind of (insert role here) you want to be, and then stick to your budget. Set boundaries respectfully, with yourself and others and practice enforcing them.

4.      Adjust.

Work on your flexibility and forgiveness, with yourself and others. Recognize that it is easy for other people to place demands on you because it is their job to do so: your employers need your time and energy, your professors need your time and energy, your family needs your time and energy, your friends need your time and energy and all of this is okay. When you create expectations for yourself and others that are rigid and resentful, the stress will only increase. When you aren’t good at something, adjust. When a schedule changes that is out of your control, adjust. When life doesn’t happen exactly as it was supposed to, adjust. And then, when you figure out how to do that easily, write down a how-to and send it my way . .

5. Sleep.

Often for people, physical/mental health and sleep are the first things to go when life balance is out of sorts. Recognize now that none of the above practices are going to be possible for you if you are an exhausted, sick and emotional wreck 24/7. Be stingy with your time for rest.

Oh, and work out.

Thoughts on what helps you achieve balance and wellness in your own life? Please comment!

Conversations/resources/articles on this topic:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ronashkenas/2012/10/19/forget-work-life-balance-its-time-for-work-life-blend/

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/03/a_key_to_us_competitiveness_wo.html

http://www.iwpr.org/initiatives/work-family

Posted by Malia Arenth, Career Services Counselor