November 2017 – Freshman Seminar Fall 17 FRB

Writing Center

On Wednesday, I went to the writing center in the library for a 25 minute walk-in consultation for my creative non-fiction essay for my English class. I wanted to get help on expanding my story. I did a walk-in consultation instead of making an appointment online because all the appointments are booked up until almost finals week.

I tried to go on Monday but the line was extremely long and I couldn’t wait for it so I tried again on Wednesday and there was no line at all and I was the next person up. The lady that was helping me was very nice and smiled a lot. She read over my draft and fixed up some of my grammar issues. She thought what a lot of what I wrote was very funny and had a compelling intro and then asked me some questions on where I was planning on taking it. I realized then that I didn’t have a conclusion yet and she helped me write out an outline for things I can talk about and what to put as an ending note. I found the walk-in consultation very helpful even though it was short and I feel more confident in writing this essay.

I think that everyone should go to the library for a walk-in consultation for their essays. It’s very accessible at most times and great to have there especially since that all of the 1 hour appointments that you make online are filled up for basically the rest of the semester. The people there are really nice and helpful and there is basically no wait if you go at the right time.

Finance and Economic Society

A few weeks ago, I attended the Finance and Economic Society. This club was particularly interesting to me because I am planning to major in Finance myself. The people who held the meeting were very friendly and polite to everyone. They brought in pizza and drinks for everyone and served it before the presentation started.

The presentation focused mainly on the aspects of Finance major in Baruch and various career paths related to finance. Some of the things covered during the presentation were Hedge Funds and Prop Shops, Private Equity and Venture Capital, Portfolio Management, Market Analysis, Corporate Finance, and Stock Trading. Although some of those things seemed very confusing to me at first, the speaker explained everything very clearly and gave me an overall better understanding of Finance. The speakers also explained what kind of jobs are popular in the Finance industry. He then told us what kind of skills each position requires and what kind of work we will be doing. I found that particularly interesting and insightful, as it made me think and realize what kind of job will be truly interesting for me. After the presentation ended, I also started wondering whether Finance is the right major for me. Most of the jobs and positions explained in the presentation did not seem that intriguing or interesting to me. Something else that stuck with me from that meeting was when the speaker told us that you don’t necessarily need to major in Finance to get a job in the Finance field. Then he asked one of his fellow club leaders to tell a story of a girl who majored in Biology and ended up working for JPMorgan Chase Finance department. This made me question my choice of major even further and made me more interested in exploring other majors in Baruch.

Hack for Baruch

A few weeks ago, I attended the Hack for Baruch club. My friend invited me to go with her because we were both interested in learning coding. It seemed like a great opportunity for me to learn, so I went. The organizers of the club brought in pizza and drinks for everyone and served it before the presentation started. Everyone had to bring a computer or borrow one from the library to practice writing code together with the speaker.

The session I went to was an introduction to Java. Before starting the lesson, the speaker gave us a basic overview of the programming language and its application in business and other fields. Then he gave us instructions on how to download and setup the necessary software for his presentation. After everyone set up their software, it was time to start the lesson. We were following his instructions step by step to create certain basic commands in the web browser. At first, I didn’t understand anything about the language itself, and simply followed all his instruction. However, he also explained what each line of code meant and why it is important. This definitely helped me understand what I was doing and made me feel more comfortable with this new programming language. Everyone was free to ask any questions along the process if they didn’t understand something or had trouble executing the code. In the end of the session everyone got a chance to sign up for the newsletter and follow the club on Facebook to get updates about future meetings.

In addition to exploring the world of programming and learning Java, I also got to meet new friends at the club who are also interested in coding. Overall, I had a great experience at Hack for Baruch and I will definitely keep attending their future meetings!

Starr Career Development Center

Today, I walked into the Starr Career Development Center to review my Resume and get more information about their extensive services. I sat down with someone who word by word went over my entire resume with me. I thought I had perfected it, however, I learnt a big lesson today that what is perfect to you is not necessarily perfect to other people, an employer in particular. My advisor told me to stop thinking like the applicant rather think like the person who is going to hire you. I am going to go home tonight and i am going to make the changes i need to and then come back tomorrow to get it reviewed one more time.

The Starr Career Development Center also has a this unbelievable network. They can help you get internships and jobs through their office. I spoke to them about what i want to do and where i want to go and they help me figure out what job or internship would help me the best. We discussed how the workload in school can sometimes be overwhelming so we decided that toward the middle/end of next semester i would come back to their office and start looking for a summer plan.

I was very impressed by the people at Starr. They were extremely nice and friendly. They are ridiculously smart too. But what has me so start struck was the patience that they had for me. The person that went over my resume gave me her complete attention and she really wanted to see the best product of me. She was not just there to be there. She was there because she genuinely wants to see the student reach their highest level of potential. I don’t know if everyone one there is like that but my first experience was beyond pleasing and I can’t wait to go back.

AXA presentation

I went to axa presentation to learn more about the insurance industry. This was not a networking event but to expand my knowledge on insurance terms and changes in the industry.

Lots of this information provided is good to know not just for people following a career path in actuarial science or in the insurance industry but for people that want to know more about the life insurance and its policies.

Life insurance is an agreement between the policyholder and the insurance company. I believe this presentation even touched upon the current situation with Trump and his new changes to state taxes, insurance could get around that because the money put in life insurance is tax deferrable.

Popular phrase: Insurance is sold not bought.

Ideally one does not go out of their way to buy insurance and look at all the companies and compare their premiums. Insurance companies contact you to supply you with information as to why you should choose them. Wether its if they have more benefits, more protection, a different underwriting process to mitigate the risk of an individual, etc.

I also learned the teachnology adavancement in the industry sometimes used, to again, determine one’s risk. Some companies are giving out apple watches to look over your health over a certain period of time. Whether its how much your exercising, your heart rate, a combination of a lot of variables and if you meet a certain standard to determine your health eligibility you may even have your premiums cut in half. Theres a lot that comes with how much you are being charged and its good to know how and what companies do to figure out the risk of a certain kind of individual.

I do feel as if I learned a lot and I can’t wait for another insurance based presentation!

*This is me paying attention*

Ima miss fro lowkey.

Networking with IBM

On Thursday November 16th I attended Networking with IBM, the senior manager of IMB Blueberry discussed how networking was the reason she got a job. She explained to us what networking is and the benefits of it. Everyone that attended the event discussed their positive and negative experiences with networking. Everyday is a good opportunity for building authentic relationships. “For a college student, what is giving?” she asked us. It’s to begin with a mindset of helping others. You should have a genuine interest, that it’s not all about you. When in networking situations, you should always try to build an environment that’s comfortable to talk. Try to create a good relationship. Ask questions, How did you get to where you are today? What do you love or hate about your job? It’s good to share insights about their areas of interest. She discusses a book Give or Take by Adam Grant and how it was important to her because it discusses 2 different types of people, those who give and those who take. She talks about having a right mindset, and how you should network proactively. After her speech on what networking is, how it will help us in the future, and how it helped her, we were all spilt into little workshop groups. She brought along students, some who previously graduated Baruch, that discussed their experiences with Networking, and what they found that helped them. They encouraged us to write articles and blogs because it’s a way to put your name out there. One student shared that she wrote a blog on a certain product, and the company reached out to her. Writing blogs and articles is an easier way for people to find you. Beginning to build your networking skills involves being bold. You should get close with your professors and get familiar with campus career centers. I was paired with two guys named Andy and Eric and they talked about their experiences with their job and internships. I learned a lot from this event and am looking forward to future networking events. This image requires alt text, but the alt text is currently blank. Either add alt text or mark the image as decorative.

Student Life

A while ago I went to the Hack for Baruch general interest meeting. This was a meeting about the club here at Baruch. I was very excited to go because I am interested in coding and technology. I want to create video games in the future, and this club could enrich me! I found out about it through the calendar on the Baruch website. It was held on the 10th floor of the New Vertical Campus building. When I got there they had Domino’s pizza for us to eat which made me kind of upset since I just ate before I went up. I know that all the other clubs order pizza for their meetings, but I was surprised to see Domino’s, because usually it comes from the dollar store across the street! When the general interest meeting started we signed up for newsletters from the club so we could get updates on events and coding lessons. The people in the club each introduced themselves and showed us the type of stuff we would do if we joined the club through a powerpoint. After they finished the powerpoint they had us talk amongst ourselves but I didn’t really have much to say and neither did the person who I was talking to. I found the club interesting and they send me emails about workshops to learn about coding. I would love to go to one of those but I really don’t have time and I feel that if I went to one now I would be really behind the group. But I hope that one day I’ll be able to join the workshops and learn something new!

The Met

Recently, I went to go visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Just getting to the entrance of the Met was an experience itself. The building is on the edge of Central Park which is a beautiful scenery but the actual structure is gorgeous. This massive palace-like building made me feel so small. Anyway, I entered the museum and I got my ticket from the ticket booth. I paid one dollar because it is ‘pay what you want’ type of admission but i also was not comfortable giving nothing. I saw an escalator so I took it up to the second floor where I entered the one of European galleries. There were a lot of weird art pieces and a lot of cool art pieces. I always found more interest in sculptures, so, naturally I gravitated to those when I saw them. There was one painting, though, that really caught my eye. It was a scene of a harbor at sunset. There were ships docking and departing. Most painting I had seen up until then were either scenery paintings of nature or paintings of people. I felt like this one properly figured out a way to intertwine both of those concepts.

I walked though a few other galleries included the American Art wing. I have a love for American history so that exhibit was particularly interesting to me. To see the past of our country in tangible objects was an experience that felt so surreal. I thought it was cool that this area wasn’t just paintings. There was a room of just silver and ceramic art. There was a room that was a mock for a scene from history. They even have a room that’s just furniture. It was different and exciting. I took my sweet time walking out to take in the specialness of the place that I was. I was so blown away that I told myself I will come back to visit at least once a year if not more. I love it.

LinkedIn 101: Profile Development Workshop

Last Thursday, I attended a LinkedIn 101: Profile Development workshop hosted by the STARR Career Development Center with my friends. Like usual, we were told that they were experiencing technical difficulties, so it took a while to start.

They provided two handouts, which was a Profile Development CheckList (consisted of an in-depth breakdown of all the aspects of a LinkedIn profile, including suggestions of what to write) and a LinkedIn Summary Writing (included questions that would help guide you along the way of developing a successful profile).

In the beginning of the presentation, Gerald Tang introduced himself as the Marketing and Communications Manager, and told us that he was the one writing the STARR Search Highlights newsletter that we receive weekly. He then went into the different components of a LinkedIn profile. For the headshot, it’s necessary to make sure the picture is clear, professional looking, and waist height. We should also have a strong summary, public profile, and a customize URL. And for freshman like us, since we don’t have much job experiences yet, we can talk about clubs organizations, volunteer work, etc.

In comparison to a resumé, what makes LinkedIn unique is that it adds more to what you fit in an one page paper. In a LinkedIn profile, you can write in a more friendly and personal tone, use first person pronouns, have no length limit, as well as a section for media. In the media, you can display photos, portfolio, or maybe a really amazing powerpoint you have done. One point the speaker mentioned was that for personal work, don’t include the entire document. Instead, you may show two slides of a powerpoint, and if the employer is interested, you can add that to see more information, please contact me.

Another point the presenter emphasized was that what makes LinkedIn powerful is the third degree connection. You know Person A, who knows Person B, who connects you to Person C.

Overall, it was a very useful event in helping me develop my profile and expand my network via LinkedIn.

Mastering a Job Interview

Mastering a job interview is an important skill to have at hand. Job interviews are the most stressful part about applying to new jobs. Natalia and I attended this workshop to properly learn how to master a job interview. They discussed things like making sure that you have the proper attire and and know how to start a conversation. Proper attire is extremely crucial in an interview because that is the first impression the employer has on you. Maintaining good language, and preparing questions is also a vital aspect of the interviewing process. I’m glad i attended this workshop because attending interviews will be a big part of my future regarding my career. Interviews can always seem stressful, but attending this workshop I now feel confident, I feel more prepared and eager. I learned how to properly address the employer. I learned the different types of interviews, like through phone, web cam and in person. It was helpful knowing all the different ways to conduct myself during these interviews. I learned to maintain a good level of eye contact, and make sure I have a proper stance with the questions that are asked. These interview skills that I have gained through this workshop will come to my advantage in the near future when applying for internships and jobs. Researching the company you are going in to interview with will benefit you greatly when asked why you want to work for the company. Preparing questions to ask at the end of the interview will leave a good impression because it shows you want to learn more and are genuinely interested. Attending this one workshop has taught me skills that I will need for my future.