Last week, I went to a Career Workshop hosted by the South Asian Student Association (SASA). The workshop consisted of a Resume writing workshop, taking headshots as well as successfully using a LinkedIn profile.
The first thing I learned was that my resume was sub-par in comparison to others. I was lucky enough to recieve help from a fellow SASA member, Lav Patel. Patel was able to provide me with various pointers on how to improve my resume. Most of the advices were pretty simple, but often overlooked. He informed that for every bullet point you have, it should start with “aggressive” verbs, meaning verbs that grab the employers attention, as well as include some sort of number in the bullet point. For example, instead of saying, “Helped kids with homework at my local library,” something more impactful would be, “Assisted students of grades 5th-12th with math,science and english asssignments at my local library.”
Also, using lines to separate sections in your resume looks more professional than white space, as well as it “fills up” your resume, for lack of better words. Something that is often forgotten is that your personal information should be the biggest font size than anything else on the paper. Overall it is the minute details that can make the difference of you becoming a potential employee at a multi-million dollar company, or the guy they will “call in a few days.” I was surprised that this workshop took no longer than 15 minutes, but in those 15 minutes I learned some valuable information that will help me out in the long run. I can not wait to attend my next Career Workshop.
Baruch held its annual Study Abroad Fair on September 14th. I have always entertained the idea of studying in another country.There is a plethora of opportunities to grow as an individual. Think about it, by studying abroad we are pushed out of our comfort zone. We have to experience a new culture and language. As young men and women, we are able to experience diversity firsthand. Furthermore, this allows us to appreciate difference, as a good thing. A completely new environment, new education system. As I made my way to each college info desk. The students who were explaining about the colleges, were actually students there. They just so happen to be studying abroad at Baruch for a semester. This was great because their experiences are very genuine. They told us what they did for school as well as their social life. For the most part, every student would rather talk about the social life than academics. They always mentioned how there is parties everyday. There is a variety of nightclubs that are very easy on a student’s wallet. The most interesting thing that various students pointed out about their college is that there courses are relatively easy. Easy in the sense that attendance is not mandatory. The grade for the course is based on the midterm and final. Homework is pretty much non-existent. In order to help the students studying abroad from America, the college would offer courses in English making the assimilation process, much easier. Henceforth, I am very excited of the idea to study abroad. The decision to pick a city is difficult, since the options are endless. The good thing is that I still have some time to make a decision.