CollegeReflections.com

Deciding what to direction to take your major and then your career can be daunting for everyone from incoming freshman to graduating seniors. Marty Nemko, writer for US News has released his Best Careers for 2008. This is an absolute must read for anyone of any age. Marty is a career coach in the Bay Area and has written over 500 articles at his website. Everyone from high school kids to someone middle aged in the workforce should consider checking out Marty’s no-nonsense articles on careers, education, and other topics.

Before getting onto this article you should consider reading Resumes I: Basic Formatting. This covers the essentials.

This is a link to a page of resumes of some young professionals. Their resumes have been prepared for the financial world and are formatted about as well as they can be formatted. You should be able to take virtually any of them as a great template for your resume.

When writing a resume there are a few important things to keep in mind. The most important thing is to understand who is going to be looking at your resume and the process they take to decide who to interview.

After reviewing a few friend’s resumes I was pretty surprised at some of the very basic mistakes I found. Here are a few very basic things to keep in mind when writing your resume.

1. White Paper
Never ever use anything besides white paper.

2. Black Ink
Never use a color besides white on your resume. Don’t highlight in yellow or put something in red. BLACK ONLY.

3. Spell Check!
Never send a resume out without a spell check.

4. Proofread

This is Part IV in our interview series. So far we have covered what to wear, background preparation, and common interview questions. Today we’ll cover some of the basic things you should always do in your interviews.

1. PRACTICE!

One of the most common mistakes that people make is that they should just wing the interview. If you read my last post on common interview questions, then you should have a notebook full of answers to these questions. Now you should be practicing these answers over and over. By yourself if necessary, but preferably with a friend. Try to find someone who you can go back and forth with. Making many of these answers autopilot will help with the nervousness. This leads me to my next point.

This is Part III in our Interview Series. We’ve previously talked about what to wear and background preparation. You should definitely check them out if you are getting read to interview.

Certain interview questions are universal across almost all industries and you should always have preconceived, practiced answers for these questions. While most interviews will always throw you a curveball or two, preparing for the basics will go a long way.

This is Part II in my interview series. If you haven’t read part I, you should make sure to give it a read.

Job Interviews: What To Wear

How do you prepare for an interview? This is a question recently posed to me by a friend. So I thought about the many interviews I have had this year and the mistakes I made and the things I did right.

A friend of mine had his first post-college job interview yesterday. He wasn’t sure what to wear so I thought I would put up a brief post on the attire you should wear to an interview.

For guys the answer is very simple to what to wear to an interview. You want to be clean and conservative. First, you should wear a suit. If you only own one then I guess that is the suit you’re wearing. If you have options or are considering buying a suit then your first choice should be navy. If you don’t own navy then black (preferably without pinstripe) and then I guess whatever is available. Navy is the typical office uniform. It is simple, conservative, and goes with everything.

Today I thought I would address a few of the issues that come to mind when choosing a college major. While your major does not necessarily determine exactly what you will do with your life, it certainly is a distinct indicator. While this article may not be helpful for the freshman that has wanted to be a vet since she was 5 or has a life-long passion for teaching, I believe that this may help the bulk of college freshman put some framework on their thoughts on choosing a major.
First I would like to note that there are 2 areas to choose between at your typical college: liberal arts and everything else. If you choose liberal arts then you are going to have a lot more time to find your exact major because there will be tons of prerequisites within the liberal arts college before you have to specialize. The second option of “everything else” includes all the fields that require a more distinct choice immediately. These would include engineering, pre-med, architecture or business. Also note that there is a lot of room to maneuver within these areas such as business (marketing, finance, accounting) or engineering (civil, electrical, bio-medical). I know when I began college I had an image in my head that you had two years of basics before you even had to begin figuring out what you want to do. While this may be true of the exact major (finance or electrical engineering) it is not true of the general area of study (business or engineering). Every semester I wasn’t taking classes in the business college put me behind.