In freshman seminar last week, I became aware that there was a career fair the upcoming Friday fro 12-4. I usually work all day on Fridays, but I have a lunch break from 12:30-1:30, so I decided to go then. When 12:30 came around on Friday, I rushed to the 4/5 stop at Wall street to take the next uptown train. When I arrived to Baruch, I quickly walk down the two flights os stairs and arrived at the fair! I knew I did not have much time to waste, so I was moving as fast as possible. Getting into the fair was not as easy as I thought it was going to be. I first had to go to the sign in desk to sign in and supposedly give my resume. Unfortunately, I was not aware that I was supposed to bring my resume, but luckily they let me past and told me to bring it next time. Even if I did, I was not there to seriously look for a job anyway. I remember someone saying that you had to wear formal attire to the event, and I thought that the nice slacks, dress shirt, and dress shoes that I wear everyday to work would be adequate. Apparently not. They would not even let me into the door until I gave them my CUNY card to rent out a suit jacket. Remind you, I’m still in a rush to get back to work and wanted to actually have some time in the event to look around and possibly talk to employers. I find a jacket in my size and that matches my pants and rush away as some lady is asking me if I also wanted a tie. Finally, I was in! Not long after I entered, I started to notice a trend. Every table I went to was for an accounting firm! I went up to this one table with a prize wheel and confirmed my hypothesis. The whole event was for accountants. Considering I’m a real estate major, there was nothing for me to do there, so I spun the prize wheel, got a free highlighter, and went back to work.
Month: September 2017
FES Club Meeting
On September 7th, I went to check out the Finance and Economics Society at Baruch. During the beginning of the meeting, the executive board discussed their goals as a club and what we could expect if we joined. The board gave off a professional impression, clearly explaining what the club was all about. They talked about their different programs such as their mentorship program which is targeted towards freshmen and sophomores. In their mentorship program, they assign mentors to smaller groups of members in the program in order to teach them about the finance world and help members decide what they want to do as a career in the finance world. Some of the members on the board also claimed that they learned more from the mentorship program than they did in some of their classes. I plan on joining the program. While I am interested in finance, I have uncertainty on what I would like to do as a career. My hope is that the Finance and Economics Society will help alleviate some of that uncertainty. Also, the networking in the society is an added bonus.
Additionally, the meeting also consisted of a team building exercise. The goal was to form a group of ten and build a tower out of spaghetti noodles and masking tape strong enough to support a marshmallow. The team with the tallest tower would win. While the event seemed to digress from the purpose of the meeting, it was a great way to get to know some of the other people who were also interested in the club. While I formed a group with people I didn’t know, we were all able to put in a little input and work together to create a tower. Moreover, the exercise gave off the impression that the club was a close knit group of people who were not solely interested in work of the club, but also interested in forming relations with other members.
Joining a club at Baruch
On Thursday September 7th, I walked in on some of the clubs set up in booths encouraging people to sign up. I just happened to come across a booth for the school newspaper called The Ticker. I thought that this would be something good for me to join because of my love of current events and writing. I spoke with two girls and signed up for an email list using a google form. In this form I put what I what be interested in doing be it editing or contributing to articles or pictures. I found it really easy and I even had the choice between what types of articles I would write. There where categories such as science, the arts, opinion etc. The possibilities were really endless and I found that comforting. I didn’t have to feel stuck doing one particular thing all the time or feeling that I had a small selection of topics that I could talk about. The girls there were really nice and seemed really interested in getting others to participate in writing for the newspaper. They clearly explained to me what the newspaper was about and how to actually contribute. I thought that was pretty cool and I look forward to learning more in the emails that I will receive and the different things I could choose to write about in articles. They even gave me a wristband and a lanyard. I look forward to receiving emails and possibly working on articles for the school. I had no idea that it would be this easy to join a student program in the school. However, in the future I would like to join a club that allowed me to meet up and be social with others. I am excited to see the rest of the clubs this month on the 28th.
Traders
I attended the first Baruch Traders Club seminar on Friday September 1st. I arrived exactly at 12:15 at the Wasserman trading floor, and about all the computers had already been occupied. Luckily for me, I was able to get a seat with a computer, the last one. The seminar began by explaining the software used for trading, (Rotman Interactive Trader), and what to expect from the club. I learned that no prior knowledge was needed, and some of us undergraduates may even qualify for the competitive team. As Professor Jarrod Pickens took the floor, he began a trading simulator where everyone in the room took part in, which was quite hectic at first, since the software was fairly new to me. Five minutes past and the simulation was done, and the results were posted on the projector. I saw some profits of about +200,000, and others on the opposite end; I barely got about +5,000. It was then that I realized that it would take more than just luck to get better at trading. Then, a member of the team spoke about his recent competition that landed them 1st place. He explained that he had no knowledge about trading before the club, but with the help of it he was able to get better and successfully join the team. I also have very little experience on trading, but knowing Baruch’s Trader Club is here allows me to have the opportunity to learn and grow as a better trader. Working with other students and learning from each others mistakes can help better us all. I am interested in the upcoming in-house competitions to feel the environment and get an idea of how it works. I am eager to attend the rest of the meetings, learn, as well as have fun with other students.
Blog Post #1 – Student Life
Last week, on September 7th, I attended a general interest meeting for the business frat Beta Alpha Psi. When I first heard about the meeting, I was unsure what to expect, as I knew nothing about business frats. I had no intention of joining any frats, but ended up tagging along to some of my friends that were going to the meeting. I was slightly nervous during the elevator ride up. I was planning sitting through the meeting just to get my assignment over with, slightly irritated that I was wasting my precious time between classes going to a meeting instead of doing something more meaningful with my time. When I went to the meeting, I was taken aback. The meeting was very well organized, and the members were very professional and informative. It lasted for around an hour. Food was given out to all of the interested students as well. I expected to be bored throughout the entire meeting, but I was impressed by how the members of Beta Alpha Psi were so passionate about the frat. Even though Beta Alpha Psi is a business frat, they host social events on top of business-related events. The members were all very friendly and I learned a lot about how a joining a business frat can help me prepare for the future. Many of the frat members interned for well known companies, such as JP Morgan & Goldman Sachs. Members of Beta Alpha Psi treat each other like a second family, they help each other prepare for business-related things like career interviews, and even school problems, such as homework. Although I’m not interested in applying for the frat or going to any future meetings, going to this event was definitely a great experience. Learning more about what a business frat is really about is something I don’t regret!
Blog Post #1- Student Life
Last Thursday, I went to Baruch’s Muslim Student Association general interest meeting which took place in the NVC room 12-155. Despite what former Baruch or current Baruch students that were older than me said, such as the MSA is not a good place to learn or is unorganized i still wanted to check it out. To my surprise it was very organized, the President of the club even made a presentation as did the presidents of the other two clubs that were present too; Women in Islam and the Muslim Business Association.There was even free food! Every person in the room. there had to be around 50 people got a plate of shrimp fried rice, soda, and a serving of fruit.A pamphlet was given with the staff of each of the clubs, events in the future, and the overall mission to serve the best interest of the Muslim community at Baruch.Personally, I really enjoyed the event especially when the president was telling us that they have an event every year called: An Evening of Speed Networking. At this event there are numerous representatives from big name companies who are looking for people to potentially hire or just give advice to.Companies such as IBM will have representatives that speak to each student individually.I will try to attend the most events i can, most likely four out of eight of them because half of them are on Tuesdays but I have freshman seminar.Overall, the people were very friendly too and it was nice to see a couple of other freshman there even though the majority were upperclassmen.Also they mentioned that room NVC 3-227 is the prayer room so that was nice to know too.Even though i already knew this i feel like the majority of Muslims at Baruch are unaware of this so it was good that it was mentioned.This room is a great place to go to, I usually sit here for the most part of my breaks.It is a quiet place and a nice escape from the hustle and bustle of Baruch.The room 3-227 is especially nice to go to on Thursdays, when the music from the club fair can be heard all throughout the college. I look forward to going to more events from the Baruch MSA, and i think it was a great decision to go despite what others may have said.
Brooklyn Museum – Carl
This weekend, I went to the Brooklyn museum for the Freshman Seminar assignment. I do not really like museums, but I thought the Brooklyn Museum was one of the best options. Also, it was 20 minutes walking distance from my house so it was the easiest to go to. Getting there was an easy walk and the weather was nice that day. The day before, I realized that its going to be my first time and I did not want to go alone, so I asked a couple of other freshman if they wanted to come. A couple of them agreed and we decided to meet up in front of the staircase. I arrived a lot earlier than everyone even if I was barely on time because of my short commute while there had to take the train. I’m not a museum type of guy so I didn’t really expect much from it. I was able to explore the whole museum in about 30 to 40 minutes. Although it looks really big outside, it really is not. The second floor was closed due to maintenace so that’s the only thing I did not get to see that. At first, it was a little cool, but the hype died down after 5 minutes. Things started t get kind of repetitive and I realized that I put my hopes too high. I felt like there were too many written things and videos and not enough visuals. A good thing was that there were not too many people so it was pretty easy to move around. Other than that, the museum was filled with a lot of ancient Egyptian artifacts which I didn’t like much. Two things I did like were a painting of a bald eagle and a bicycle from the 1970s. Overall the trip to the museum was alright, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to again.
Student Life: Join a student club or organization
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bxs5C-bCTZQ2X1hoQzRKUlZQWTg
On Thursday, a couple of friends and I went decided to go to the Model UN meeting. When we arrived, they decided to start the meeting off which icebreakers. Everyone was divided into for groups. We were given a series of questions, like make a line from shortest to tallest and line up in the order of birthdays. It was really fun, everyone enjoyed themselves and we also got the chance to learn little details about the people in the club. After the icebreakers we done, we sat down to discuss the purpose of the club and the amount of commitment. Honestly, I did not really know what the United Nations was really about. Representatives from each country gathered at an event and discuss world peace, but at these events, all the representatives from each country come together to create new resolutions every year. Hearing all the requirements for the club, I was a little iffy about joining it. The club leaders explained that they do a lot of traveling and they miss a couple of instructional school days. Then one of the club leaders asked a question that really made me think. He asked, “Would you rather want to be in a class with the same people you have been seeing through out the same semester, or would you rather skip a couple of classes to go to an United Nations convention and meet about 5,000 new people and see faces you might now ever see again?” Towards the end of the meeting, I began to ask myself was this club really for me? I do not think I would be able to commit to that amount of time, especially because the club meetings are during Tuesday club hours and I have a class during that time. Throughout the upcoming weeks, I plan to look for a club that fits my interests and my schedule.