Freshman Seminar Fall 17 CMA

I attended Baruch Voices because I thought it would be nice to hear from the other freshmen and learn about their experiences and their monologues. It was really cool to hear the voices of other students. Many of them share the same struggles as I do in college, so it was kind of comforting hearing that. People were really creative with their monologues. I was like wow. For example, one person talked about their life and then at the end it was really just a SpongeBob episode and he just told it from his point of view. Some of them were also emotional. Someone spoke about being bullied in school for being muslim. He spoke about how racism affected him all the time. This was a great event and I’m glad I went. I just went to pass the time and to have something to write about but I’m glad I stayed.

I have taken a Focus-2 assessment and it was the first course of action I took, I decided to take a personality assessment I got in comparison to better confirm my thoughts on myself and or get to know new things about my self that I previously did not think was an asset of me. When I was taking the assessment I thought of how in my freshman seminar class that someone mentioned how it was similar to a BuzzFeed quiz, and it felt like one and so it made the website feel more comfortable to use. I also felt like while I was taking I was being asked many thought-provoking questions which I did not know how to fully answer because in some cases it was neither, or both and I knew that I had to choose one and so I kind of clicked which felt right.

However, after I finished the assessment of my personality I learned some things about me that I previously knew. But even though there were things that I knew there were a few that made me go “hmm” as a reaction because it was like, ‘interesting is this true’? But after taking this little assessment I enjoyed it because I am looking forward to this website because so far it seems easy to search through, and navigate around the website.  This was furthered by the fact that I am considering physician and the website said I am someone who wants to make a contribution to society and I feel like that is true, and so if being a physician does not work out I still would be willing to help out the society in some shape or form. Additionally, I am looking forward to continuing using this website because as I said it feels comfortable and I am curious to learn more about myself and what I am interested in

I set a goal for myself, before coming to Baruch, to obtain a business oriented Summer internship during the Summer of 2018. However, I felt like there was a lot of things I had yet to know about internships. Thus, I attended the Internship Seminar by the STARR Career and Development Center.

The workshop, run by Michael Kalish, was very informative. The topics covered were designed to help us find internships that we would enjoy. Michael did a great job of keeping the topics interesting and informative at the same time. This did not feel like a workshop that I was forced to attend, it felt like a class that I specifically chose to take.

During the workshop there were several new things that I learned about internships that I never would have thought existed. The zero credit internship course was the most interesting topic in my opinion. It applies to students who have less than 28 credits and a GPA of 3.0 or higher. Since a lot of students could not take credited internships due to a lack of credits, the zero credit internship course changes that. It also applies to me since I would have less than 28 credits and hopefully a GPA of 3.0+ when looking for Summer Internships.

Michael also made sure that we can capitalize on free workshops/fairs/programs etc. by telling us about important dates for workshops and showing us how to effectively use STARR search. In addition to STARR search, he also gave us plenty of other safe websites we can use to find internships for ourselves. I didn’t know that every student receives one mock interview per semester, which can be such a useful tool when prepping for a major interview.

Overall, attending this workshop made me realize that a lot of the resources and life skills we need to succeed can be found outside of the classrooms.

 

For the career blog post, I went to the Hillel Start-up Tech Fair with my friends. We listened to the panelists talk about their start-up companies and their experiences as an entrepreneur. The host asked them five questions and they spoke about their failures and what they learned from them.  All five gave a similar message which was to work and work.

I don’t remember much except SportsGuru, which is a place where people can give their commentary on sports. The founder of SportsGuru was incredibly successful in Israel before he decided to move to America and start over again. He said it was amazing to watch the first person use his site, to capture that first person, and for him to share it with his friends. There were envelopes hidden around the room which rewarded the person who found them with prizes including gift cards and an Amazon Echo.

 

Since the blog post date was coming up soon, my friends and I went to look at the STARR website and find any events that were going to happen. Good thing, the Marketing Career Expo was on the 17th of November. Going up to the 14th floor was confusing since the stairs outside of the classrooms ended, but we figured it out and made it there. Before we even went in, we already felt out of place by seeing upperclassmen dressed up somewhat business casually while we were in casual clothes. Inside the expo, there were many professionals and many more upperclassmen. Two professors came up to the front and presented a small presentation. We then had a set amount of time to talk to some professionals on what they do in their job and how was their experience getting into the field. Going to this event is not useful now but, if I attend other career expos in the future, I’ll know what to expect.

On Thursday, Nov. 16th, there was a Marketing Career Expo. I thought it would be a good opportunity to learn more about marketing because I have been somewhat interested in the field, but don’t really know a lot about it. At the expo, we were all seated at a table where there was a professional in the field of marketing that would answer questions and talk about their experiences. At the start of the expo, there was a presentation that explained the differences between marketing and advertising. I learned that advertising is just a component of marketing, and that marketing involves a lot planning and calculating the strategies for advertising. After the presentation, we were able to talk to the professionals at our tables. At my first table, we talked to someone from the company, GroupM. He is an associate director for the company and works on many ads that we see on the subway or in the media. He talked about what he does in the company and how they select interns. Next, we talked to someone from Horizon Media who works mainly on ads that we see on social media or on other websites. Overall, the expo was a good experience to learn more about marketing.

The Marketing Career Expo happened on Nov 17, getting there was a challenge for me and my friends because we had never been up to the 14th floor of the Newman Vertical Campus. I was really excited to get up there and was surprised that it looks so different from the floors below. I was worried that we won’t be able to get in because the line was quite long. When we got in, I immediately felt like I wasn’t supposed to be there because everybody else were really well dressed. They were either in a dress or in a suit, only a few of us wore everyday clothing. The video they showed us really grabbed my attention and it got me thinking about Marketing, a field I never thought of until I saw that video. I learned quite a few things from that Expo and was amazed by how serious yet light the meeting were. We talked to employees from different companies and it was definitely a pleasure hearing their experiences. I was a little disappointed because they are only looking for juniors and seniors to be interns and felt unprepared when everybody else from the same table handed in their resumes. Overall  it was a very pleasant experiences and I am really glad I went.