Spotlight on Careers

Posted in 10:30 AM
So I've been doing a ton of job searching this past week now that I've been feeling a little bit more motivated. After running tons of searches, each time slightly altering the search criteria, I realized that I don't actually know what type of job I might like. I mean, I know where I don't want to work and what jobs I don't want to do (refer to the 'Dunkin' Donuts' blog entry), but what do I want to do? When I first started this blog I named a number of career possibilities--journalist, editor, event planner, social activist, educator, non-profit work, to name a few. But what is it like to work in these career fields? What do these people actually do??

Enter "Spotlight on Careers." Despite it being recommended to me before, I'd never really spent much time on it. However, now that I'm trying to answer all the questions I raised above, I'm finding it more and more useful. The site is broken down into five "career categories." Within each category are a number of career profiles. These profiles are incredibly comprehensive. The profiles includes an overview of the career which consists of "popular careers," "key skills," "mean annual earnings," "current trends," and "types of employers." The profiles also give resources for graduate and professional schools in that area as well as list profiles of professionals in that field. 

This is definitely a site worth exploring, and finally I'm starting to get some clarity on all of these different career possibilities!
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Paid Internship?

Posted in 10:24 AM
BREAKTHROUGH! I was eating lunch in the pub yesterday when Carol stopped by my table to ask if I'd seen the new Times Inc. internship that Emily just posted on SAINTSLink. Times Inc.? Paid Internship? Summer 2009?  Suddenly I felt a rush of excitement, a feeling that I've been missing this whole time.

I hurried onto the computer, logged onto SAINTSLink and found my new project. The opportunity was given to SLU by alum David Dusek '93, Deputy Editor of Golf.com. Lucky for me, I had had the chance to eat dinner with David while he was here for Laurentians in Residence. And now I completely understand the importance of networking--it's all starting to click. This is the beauty of SAINTSLink, all of the jobs and internships posted are posted by companies interested in SLU students, and many times by SLU alumni, which gives us an edge over others applying for the positions.

So, time to email David for a little advice and help on the application. Also, I'm going to start searching for other paid internships for the summer. An internship might just be able to hold me over until I find a job. FINALLY I'm starting to feel a little a bit more excited about this whole job (internship?) search process. 
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Dunkin' Donuts Worker??

Posted in 10:23 AM
Yesterday I devoted two hours purely to job searching--which led to a meltdown that included me crossing my arms and proclaiming that I am unqualified for every position and have absolutely no chance at a future. The cause? Too much time spent searching on the  site CareerBuilder.com. I'd run a search for entry level positions in Philadelphia, PA only to come up with being able to work in the U.S. Army or Dunkin' Donuts. Thus, the child-like, irrational meltdown ensued.

Ok, so let's step back. After a pep talk from my dad, a reminder that I am not in fact destined to work at Dunkin' Donuts for the rest of my life and a few, much needed, deep breaths I got my head back in the game. I recently met with Sarah and promised her I would do several small tasks to make the big task (finding the job) less overwhelming. I worked on those and then pulled out a paper I received at the Gap Year program that had a very long list of websites of Gap Year opportunities. I started sifting through some of the sites, and wow there are a lot of neat programs out there. So, time to re-evaluate and start reminding myself that I am qualified for a number of jobs and I will find a job after Graduation. Positive thinking, deep breaths and time to devote many more hours to job searching. And NOT on generic websites like CareerBuilder.com, that only creates unnecessary panic.

Good starting places: SAINTSLink, LACN, Career Search & Vault.
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