Time to graduate, am I ready?

A few years ago, I was a freshman and now I am a senior. Time feels like it blew by so fast …

I literally cannot believe this is my last year of college and will be graduating next semester.

Before I know it I will be ready to enter the workforce or graduate school. Some of my friends that graduate in the spring have already started looking for jobs and had interviews. I haven’t started looking for jobs yet, but I have been building my resume, cover letter and LinkedIn account.

By senior year it is important to have these things done so you can start your job search right away.
My freshman and sophomore year, I was not worried about resume building, cover letters or personal portfolios. I thought college was all about having fun and partying, but as I got older I learned how important it is to use the resources that Bloomsburg University offer to the students.

The Center for Professional Development and Career Experience can help with cover letters, resumes, professional attire for events, and LinkedIn. They also hold several workshops for these topics. I recently attended a workshop at the Center for Professional Development in the Student Service Center where they looked over my resume and gave me pointers. I also talked with them briefly about graduate school and their thoughts of the MBA program at Bloom.

The Center for Professional Development and Career Experience also does mock interviews. I didn’t get a chance to do a mock interview, but I know it will be very helpful and can help build my interview skills and become more familiar with the type of questions they HR mangers ask.

As an upperclassman speaking, I wish I would have taken advantage of these opportunities when I was a freshman.

— Khalil Daniel, senior communication studies major #HuskyLife

Bring on the Break!

IT’S HERE! The break we have all been waiting for!

As students, we all know how stressful finals can be and the lack of sleep that might stem from those late-night, caffeinated, study sessions. It’s like Winter Break is the light at the end of the tunnel. I can hardly focus by the time I get to my last final exam, because I start thinking about all of the things I’m going to be able to do after I leave that classroom and honestly, my first thought is usually a nap.

Don’t get me wrong, break is a great time to catch up on sleep, but don’t snooze your entire Winter Break away. From a senior’s perspective, I’d like to share with you some of the ways I took advantage of Winter Break in the past, somethings I wish I had done, and a few tips for the best ways to utilize our Winter Break as we look forward to the spring semester.

Winter Break allows you only five weeks to de-stress, catch up, and plan for the Spring semester. With being so close to graduating, I am taking advantage of this Winter Break a little differently than I normally do. For some, Winter Break means the start of Winter Session, which I am currently enrolled in.

It’s a good time for students to take harder courses at a pace that helps them to better understand the material and for others it’s catch up or get a head time! I’m using this Winter Break to fill the rest of my GEPs and to complete my minor so that in the Spring, my course load won’t be so heavy. Studying, writing papers, doing projects, and taking exams won’t be the only thing I plan to do this Winter Break, though.

I am also using Winter Break to gain new skills that could benefit me in my future career (Oh, Hey Marketing and Communications Winter Internship!) and to better organize myself for post-grad life.

Fortunately, I have already contracted with a company for after graduation. This Winter Break I plan to stop into the office to deliver some cookies and to catch up with everyone in the office that I haven’t seen since my internship ended.

Seniors —yesterday was the day to start looking for internships and job opportunities for after graduation. Maybe even finish up those grad school applications and take the GREs. If you get some free time or your Netflix account starts getting old, hop on that career search grind.
Juniors — internships are a great way to get your foot in the door. That’s actually how I received my job opportunity. Special thanks to the Center for Professional Development and Career Experience because it was through their webpage that I found that internship and if you impress the employer, you might just get a job offer.
Sophomores’ and First Years’ — use this time to be proactive and start thinking about careers that interest you and academic specializations/concentrations that will set you apart in your major and ultimately, in your future job search. Someone once told me that you should pick something “hard” and work until you are good at it. It will make you very valuable to any company, especially if you can do that one thing no one else wants to do.

Academics aside, there is still plenty of time to spend with family and friends, enjoy yourself, and to maybe even do a little traveling. In the past, I also used Winter Break to make some extra cash to use for books, gas, and other expenses during the coming semester.

My roommate since freshman year, Mere, and I started what seems to be an annual tradition. Every January, a few of our BU friends get together and go to the Farm Show in Harrisburg. The two of us always try to squeeze in a ski trip and time to build gingerbread houses, too. It’s always enjoyable to spend time together outside of college. Some of my best college memories are from Winter Break. Maybe this year you could start a tradition with your friends.

The only thing I wish I could have taken advantage of in the past during Winter Break would be to take at least one course over the five week period. I think it would have definitely lightened up my semester course loads and would have kept me in my “school work” state of mind. Sometimes going back to college after break it is hard to get back on track and focusing the way you need to be. I think maybe one course over break would have kept me focused a little better.

In the short time we are away from campus, try to keep your goals in eyesight and to make memories that you’ll never forget. Live, laugh, and love. Spend time those around you and enjoy being at home. Make new goals for yourself and be proud when you achieve them. Try something you’ve never done; dare to make a difference somewhere. Catch those extra ‘Zzzs. These might be the same old things you’ve heard time and time, again, but the more I think about graduation, the more these tips make sense.

Enjoy your Winter Break. Happy Holidays and Have a Happy New Year. Thanks for reading!

— Jessica Shiptoski, senior accounting major, professional writing minor, fraud examination concentration #HuskyLife #WinterBreak #memories

Seeing my future come into focus

College is nothing like high school, I actually remember being there forever and wanting to leave. If I could, I would stay in college for at least a couple more years (and never get older of course).

High school is as static as it gets, not a whole lot changes. College is very dynamic, you never know what the next day has in store for you. You hear people tell you that time flies, but that doesn’t seem more true than anywhere but college.

This month is going to be full of adventure and opportunities for me. Today, the Career Development Center organized a career fair with a room full of different companies from UPS, Fastenal, and Crayola where you could walk around and network and hand out resumes to. Since I worked at Fastenal as a sales-trainee over the summer, I talked to the district manager about getting some hours over winter break. Not only was he excited for me to come back and work at the Milton location, but he also wanted me to work at the Bloomsburg Fastenal next semester.

This just shows you that you should always work your hardest and even if you need to leave a company for any reason, you should never burn any bridges with anyone. You never know when you might need a job in the future or a few hours to make some extra cash. Students from my Advanced Professional Sales class went to talk to UPS to thank them for funding some of our trip to Orlando, FL to the International Collegiate Sales Competition (ICSC). We talked about careers in sales and how much they love their jobs because they get paid to talk to people and create relationships. They also gave us some advice about interviewing and resume tips.

The ICSC was the most amazing experience I have encountered during my years here at Bloomsburg. The ICSC consisted of two competitions, one was the Tom James role play and the other was a Sales Management Case competition. I competed in the Sales Management Case competition, because soon I will be going to New Jersey for another sales competition.

We arrived in Florida on Thursday and immediately went to the opening ceremony and registration. At 7:30 p.m. that night, my partner and I were given our case where we had 18 hours to creating a presentation. We immediately went back to the hotel and plugged the flash drive that they gave us and stared terrified and immediately stressed at the 12 pages of information.

We were given a scenario of a real company that was fictitiously struggling and we had to come up with an idea to help them get back on their feet and present it to two people from companies that were sponsoring the event and the third person that was from the actual company the case was about. We researched and brainstormed and paced up and down all night and day to finish this presentation. 

We had to hand in our PowerPoint by 1 p.m. Friday. It was getting down to the wire, we were scrambling to get this presentation finished but we did. We had to present our ideas to the judges without any practice. We went in there and nailed it! Luckily, we got to see our judges later that day and talk to them about how they think we did. I got the most encouraging feedback I have ever received in my life. The feedback I got from the judges actually made me 110 percent sure that I was going in the right path for my future. The experience was something that I couldn’t have gotten anywhere else.

A total of six of us (including our professor) went to Orlando for this competition, Jordan Barnett and Amanda Leshko competed in the role play competition and Austin Schwarts was an alternate if anything had happened to any one of us. Even if you were an alternate coming to this competition, the companies that were at the career fair there wanted you. Students aren’t invited to these competitions “just because,” you are invited because you have a passion for sales and you are good at.

Dr. Favia picked a great group to go to the competition this year. Anthony Furjanic and I did not place in the top four out of the 21 schools that competed in the case competition but we definitely made an impression on people from industry. Jordan made it to the second round and also made a good impression on some of the judges. Amanda did an amazing job and made it to round three where she was in the top sixteen out of 84 students. We definitely put a good word out about Bloomsburg University because different companies introduced themselves to Dr. Favia and wanted to make connections with her and our University. Overall the trip was an amazing experience and we couldn’t have done it without Dr. Monica Favia, thank you!

Another opportunity I couldn’t have been able to have without Dr. Favia, is an interview with ADP. She encouraged us to talk to a recruiter from APD about a month and a half ago to get some information about the company to see if we would be interested in working there. After meeting with the recruiter, we emailed her our resumes and gained a brief phone interview and an in-office interview.

At ICSC, when we walked around the job fair, we pretty much had mini interviews with each company that we talked to. Some of them asked me questions that I was prepared for and others asked me some that I wasn’t so that helped me prepare for next week. Another way that helped teach me how to interview, were the Professional U sessions that the University organizes. They are extremely informative and you learn something new every time.

Along with my interview next week, I will be going to another sales competition in New Jersey where I will be participating in the role play competition. At this competition we will have to sell ADP in various scenarios in various rounds. This competition will also have a career fair where I can market myself to potential businesses around the US.

My second to last semester has most definitely flown by with the blink of an eye. The most I can do is to get out as much as possible from my experiences as I can and learn as much as I can before I get thrown out into the real world. My advice to you, is to take advantages of the opportunities that surround you every single day. Don’t put something off or push great opportunities to the side, you never know when you might get them again and when they do, they will be gone in a blink of an eye.

— Chelsea Underhill, senior marketing major #HuskyLife