Month: November 2017

Starr Search Focus 2

Posted on by a.sirotinsky

For this blog post, I decided to discuss my experience with the Focus 2 Career Interest Test. It presented me with all sorts of activities along with several different career options that I could consider as a major.  There were five categories: Work interests, personality, leisure activities, values, and skills.  The test also provided me with numerous career tools, which included: career planning readiness, self assessments, career exploration, take action plan, and career portfolio. While taking the test, it guided my through a reliable, intuitive career and education decision making model to help choose majors. It let me know what was being offered at the college that I attend and I was also able to explore several occupations and make informed career decisions. I was able to better understand how my interests . I feel like I was able to better identify where my skills can be applied along with what steps I can take to achieve goals as part of my career path.  Surprisingly, the jobs that they recommended that I look into had a lot to do with humanitarian studies, ones that require good communication skills, in other words I would have to be a “people person.” I was curious if this is the type of result I would get as it’s not too far from what I would to consider as a career goal. Occupational therapy, psychology, and a social worker was what popped up when the site gave me a list of job option or career choices I may want to consider or at least look into further to better understand what sort direction I will take in the future. All in all, this test was incredibly helpful especially since I am an undecided major. I hope I will try and pick classes that fit my abilities based on this test so I can find a passion and pursue it as a serious career option.

 

Focus2 Test

Posted on by s.reis

For the career development post, I decided to take the Focus2 Career Interest Test, where it prompted me with a series of activities or attributions associated with major areas of careers. I was tasked with rating these interests out of five stars based on my general interest or drive related to those topics. After taking the test, I was given the code EIS, which stands for Entrepreneurial, Investigative, and Social; entrepreneurial having to do with business ventures and related activities, Investigative has to do with everything that goes into investigating a topic, research, and conduct things like interviews, and Social involves interests in helping people more in person, as well as having a heavy emphasis in interacting with individuals. Entrepreneurial was where I scored the highest at 64, Investigative coming in at 62, and Social scoring at 44. The entrepreneurial sector did not come as a surprise to me as I have always been interested in such activities and the atmosphere surrounding the business world. I found it interesting that my Investigative score had been so close to my entrepreneurial score however, as I have never been one to be very excited at the thought of conducting extensive research on a topic. While I have had an interest in figuring out the cause and effects of certain real world events, I was still surprised by how close the two interest scores were. Social I felt was a bit of a surprise as I have never really done much volunteer work or any work in which it requires much personal interaction to help people. Overall I felt that the test was helpful in identifying what career interests are similar to my general interests. The questions however I felt could have been presented in a slightly more complex and in-depth way, rather than just a five-star rating system for general interest phrases.

Starr Search Focus 2

Posted on by m.rabinovich

For my blog post I went to the Starr career website. They offer lots of resources to help people get an idea of what careers could possibly fit them. Personally I’m already set and know what I want to do in my future but I thought it would be a great idea to seek out alternatives. My intended major is finance which is a very broad field. The quiz asked me a couple of personal questions about my work ethic. There were a few questions related to the work environment you see yourself working in but basically through these questions it determines what kind of a person you are when it comes to professions. After taking the focus 2 quiz, I found out that i’m a conventional, enterprising and investigative worker. This means that I have strong desire to figure out cause and effect problems as well as doing systematic work. My goal was to become a financial analyst. The results I got were mainly analytical jobs and that’s exactly what I was aiming for. Some of the jobs were: Credit analyst, budget analyst and employee benefits analyst. Also lots of the jobs were related to accounting so that could be something else worth considering. Now that I have seen my results there’s a lot too think about about for my career. These jobs all offer different income rates. It’s great that this system offers numerous jobs that fit an individual. I never knew that there were so many different analytical jobs out there related to finance, some of these options look very appealing to my skills. Starr career focus 2 gave me a better understanding of different job possibilities open for me. Its a great service Baruch offers and comes in handy to figure out which jobs interest you.

Starr Career Center Resume Workshop

Posted on by f.rafi

Yesterday, I attended a Starr Career Center Resume workshop. Before having my resume reviewed and carefully scrutinized, I personally thought it was thorough. However, development coach Michelle had pointed out there were a few flaws that would likely get my resume piled into the ‘disregard’ pile for hiring managers. Firstly, she mentioned that the font was quite disengaging, and it was hard to read at times. I used a smaller font in order to pack as much info in as I could. This was also another issue she mentioned: I included a lot of irrelevant information from high school. Some of this irrelevant information included some awards I won and other non-employment information. She pointed out that for professional career-oriented resumes, work experience should precede academia. Furthermore, I completely forgot to add the fact that I am bilingual, which is a great skill to have for prospective employees. While it is not a sole factor for employment, she mentioned that one’s marketability goes up with knowing a second language fluently, Bengali in my case. In addition, I lacked formal work experience- I was an intern at a non-profit, and I also included my experience with entrepreneurship. She advised that I look for other internships relevant to the field I’d like to pursue. Ultimately, my resume needed lots of improvement, and I honestly didn’t mind at all. I was glad that she pointed out these discrepancies. With my new and improved resume, the chance that my resume will get shredded up by a hiring manager has  decreased.

Walk-In Resume Review at STARR

Posted on by r.mohabir

On Thursday, November 16th, I attended a résumé review workshop. Once my reviewer was ready, she introduced herself to me. Her name was Michelle. We sat down in a room and I then handed her a copy of my résumé to read. She asked what year I was in at Baruch. I replied by saying I was a freshman. She was surprised to see that I did so many activities during high school. Michelle explained to me that my résumé and its content were very impressive. She said to me that there was no major changes needed to be made to my résumé. The only thing was to bring my award section above my extracurricular activities and to add my work experience, since I have not updated my résumé since I got my job.

After that, Michelle began to ask me questions about the MIT Enterprise Forum I attended in my freshman year of high school. I explained to her that it was an intensive one week summer program available to high school girls only. The goal of the program was to promote females to start their own businesses. Everyday, they would bring a successful, female entrepreneur to speak to us to give us advice and to motivate us. Aside from this, we worked on creating our own business plans in groups to later be presented and judged. My group created our business plan on a shoe with an interchangeable heel, which allowed women have the ability to change from high heels to flats without having to carry around extra pairs of shoes. Armed with our fantastic idea and our amazing presentation, we won the competition. Michelle told me that employers would definitely ask about that in an interview.

The next thing Michelle asked was about Global Glimpse. Global Glimpse was a program I participated in junior year of high school. The goal of the program is to give American students a glimpse of what life is outside of the United States while also helping us develop leadership skills. For two and a half weeks during my summer before senior year, I traveled to Ecuador with a group of students from several different schools throughout NYC and also from San Francisco. We were stripped from all our electronics, such as our phones, iPods, computers, and television, during our trip. We created meaningful friendships. We each had a day during the trip to be the “el lídre del día” (the leader of the day). We were in charge of waking everyone up in the morning, walking to get breakfast together, staying on track with the daily schedule, and much more. During the trip we also were broken up into a pairs to teach English to locals. With my little knowledge of Spanish, I was able to teach a classroom of children ages 10-15. My students fell in love with me and all the little games we played in class to put their knowledge to the test. I continued to explain my trip in Ecuador and the nonprofit organization my fellow Glimpsers and I helped. Michelle was amazed that I was able to participate in such a meaningful program, which distinguishes me from everyone else out there.

In all, I enjoyed my walk in visit at the STARR Career Development Center. I had an interesting conversation with my reviewer, Michelle, who gave me great advice.

Starr Career Center Resume Review Session

Posted on by r.muntaz

I figured I should start to utilize all of the resources that Baruch has to offer to its students. To start off with that journey, I paid a visit to the Starr Career Center Resume Review service offered on the second floor in the Starr office. It was quite easy and took no prior appointment-making, though you can make an appointment if you’d like. We simply had to walk in, input our emplid ID number into an iPad and wait for our name to be called. In my hand, I had my printed resume that was outdated because I had made it during my sophomore year of high school and haven’t looked at it since. My name was called and I was placed with a young man named Aliou who thoroughly went through my resume clearly, writing down all the changes I should make and explaining clearly what employers look for when they look at my resume. He asked me multiple questions regarding my experiences and helped me to seem more approachable when applying to jobs and internships in the future. At the end of the experience, he provided me with an rather thick and useful packet of information that I would need to aid me in rewriting my resume and that I will utilize for years to come.

I also expressed to Aliou that I am unsure of what major I am heading toward and was degree I am going to pursue and he kindly directed me toward the set of people at the career center who would aid me on figuring out just that. He provided me with information for an online survey I could take that would help me to figure out what my interests are and what I should do in the future.

Aliou recommended that I return to the resume review center after I rewrite my resume to review it for perfection which I am considering doing because the experience was quite enjoyable (and also free!)

Overall, I had a great experience at the Starr Resume Review center and I would highly encourage anyone to pay a visit to them whenever they have some free time. It can’t hurt, it only helps!

I appreciate this assignment because without it, I wouldn’t have made the effort to get my resume reviewed and now I feel eligible to apply for some new jobs!

LinkedIn Workshop

Posted on by a.traore

Earlier this this month went to a networking informational event hosted by clubs such as ‘Chit-Chat’. I found about this event through a friend who thought I would enjoy it.It took me a while before deciding to go because I didn’t think I would need it.The event focused on utilizing your LinkedIn profile in the possible manner so that you can land an internship.I assumed I already knew what I needed to know but I was terribly wrong . A LinkedIn professional discussed the effective methods he has learned throughout his career.In fact, his career revolves around LinkedIn and it involves helping others build an attractive LinkedIn profile. From the things I learned that day, I can see why his business was booming.This guy knew his stuff.I learned things  such as learning to contact Baruch Alumni and also knowing which position to target. Methods and ideas which seem simple enough but for some obscure reason I never really thought of doing that.The presenter also discussed the importance of follow up. There’s no point in getting a key contact if you don’t strive to build a connection as soon as possible.Earlier in the year I also experienced this fault . I would gain people’s contact info but never followed.It became so apparent that said contact would end up letting me know that I should have followed up.Of course I take full responsibility for my lack of foresight and  my novelty isn’t a valid excuse.Little factors like this can either compound into great success or a limiting factor for individuals.From this event I learned so much and truly regret not going to every business event during the school year.It really honed my awareness of things I should  be working on.I encourage each and every freshman to be more aware of the great opportunities which Baruch provides them.

Starr Career Center Resume/Cover Page Review

Posted on by d.maslowski

Before I went to get my resume and cover page reviewed I thought that they were solid. To my surprise the first thing that I learned is that while my resume was pretty good but that there was still room for improvement. I had no idea what more I could improve when the reviewer told me that I could build on it. At most I thought that maybe my resume had small formatting mistakes and that my cover page was too short. However, my formatting needed more work, I didn’t put experience, community service and education in the correct order. After going over my resume and writing down revisions that I should make, we moved on to my cover page which I thought was what i needed the most work on, but apparently it was good and didn’t really need any work, just that I should change it up based on the job that I apply to. I really liked that the review only took 20 minutes and that it was really informative giving good constructive criticism and the means to improve my resume and cover page. I’ll be going back again at a later date to get my new and improved resume reviewed. Right now I feel that my resume while good in terms of format is short but I hope to be adding to it over the next few years.

Makers Hub Pop Up Makerspace

Posted on by j.lin33

 

As my friends and I went into the Maker Hub Pop Up Makerspace event, we were surprised with how empty the room was; as it only consisted of three students on their laptops listening to an instructor teach them about 3D programming and another student in the back of the room talking about engineering to another instructor. Since we didn’t have our laptops with us, we weren’t able to fully follow what the instructor was teaching about 3D programming. We decided to sit in the back of the room, where an accumulation of various 3D printed toys were scattered on the table. As we explored what all the toys were, the 3D printer in the corner of the room caught my attention. It was being used to 3D print a yellow toothbrush which was programmed on Thinkercad.com to make the design. To make the designs, you’re able to use Thingiverse.com to choose from various default designs then alter to your liking. The process was really cool because on Thinkercad, you could choose from the shape and how hollow the design was to what color you wanted your design to be.

The 3D printer that was in the room was one of the cheaper versions in the 3D printing world, coming in at $3000 per machine. It used a plastic called PLA, which was very cheap compared to other 3D printers such as the ones that used liquid or powder to make 3D objects. You would first have to insert a roll of PLA plastic into the printer then plug in your USB that had your design in it to start the process of printing. The toothbrush that was being printed took around 2 hours to make, since it was a fairly simple design. The instructor also told us about the Google Cardboard, which was a cheaper version of a virtual reality device. The Google Cardboard consisted mainly of cardboard with the main component being the curved lense and a slot to insert your phone in. After we downloaded the Expeditions app, we were able to see the Taj Mahal, Great Wall of China, Northern Lights, and outer space. We also learned that some designs needed support material so it wouldn’t sag down due to gravity such as 3D printing a chair but for other designs, you could get away without using support materials by using itself to support it. You could also mass produce designs by first making a template then programming the printer to repeat its process until you got the amount you needed. This event was very informative and has furthered my love for creativeness.This image requires alt text, but the alt text is currently blank. Either add alt text or mark the image as decorative.

 

Starr Development Center

Posted on by r.wadolowski

On Wednesday, I was flowing through life without a care in the world when Keven and Mike called me over. They started interrogating me on weather or not I reserved a stop in the Starr Development seminar. Me being me, I had no idea what they were talking about, so Kevin explain to me that I have to go on the Baruch website and make a reservation because they are only once a week and I don’t go to the one that was taking place in ten minutes I wouldn’t be able to write the blog for Friday. I went on the website and the page to make reservations showed that it was full. But being the resilient man I am, I walked into the seminar… and no one cared that I didn’t have a reservation, so I claimed a seat.

During the seminar Adia was talking about all the components of a resume, the main thing that stood out to me is that people going through resumes only send an average of around 8 seconds skimming through them. This gave me laugh because I thought to myself that I could get a job position over some guy in Yale just because the other guy had a shitty format, and mine look properly structured. This seminar gave made me extremely optimistic because Adia mentioned that employers greatly appreciate job experience, and I’ve been work as long as I could walk it seems. The best part of the entire seminar was at the very end when Adia asked if anyone had any questions and the only person that responded was Kevin. He asked, with no context, “Can I take a picture with you?” A feeling of confusion and comfortableness flooded her face because normally they ask for a signature in their freshman seminar booklet, she wasn’t used to weird kids asking to take a photo with her in the middle of a silent classroom. Mike and I were laughing the entire time.

The experience was pretty cool overall, the main thing I need to do is format my resume in an appealing way and make what I did seem a lot more interesting and important then it actually is.

Example:

On Resume: Handled financial transactions quickly and accurately for a multi billion dollar corporation.

Reality: Was a cashier at McDonald.