Freshman Seminar Fall 17 LC05

After several Baruch students and staff talked about the importance of getting started with your career planning early. Therefore, I decided to start working on my resume. Despite having work experience, I never made a resume before, so I looked into various resources to help me. The greatest help was my older brother who is a junior at Baruch, and was in the same boat as I am in now. He explained the major things I would want to include in my resume, how to format it, and things to avoid. Thanks to his help, I was able to create a professional looking resume which lists all of my skills, previous work experience, education, and other qualities.

However, having a resume is just the first step. Over the next summer I would like to intern in a finance related field, and after creating my resume, I realized I did not have enough experience or skills to be seriously considered for a position. Therefore, I made it a goal to go to several events and gain knowledge which will demonstrate to companies that I am serious about the opportunities they offer, and have the qualifications needed. The resume was just the beginning, after that, you still need to sell yourself to employers, and that is what I am focusing on now.

Since my last blog was about something career related, this blog is going to be about my academics. Before our scheduled block advisement session, I had a pre-advisement session to help schedule my classes for the following semesters. The advisor I met with was very helpful and understanding. She knew that I was a freshman, so she took her time explaining the process of choosing classes. My friend always talked to me about her recitation class and I didn’t know what that was, but during the advisement I learned about recitation, prerequisites, and co-requisites, and Zicklin requirements. She gave me advice and suggestions that I found very useful. Our session was only supposed to be 15 minutes long, but she didn’t rush me when we went a few minutes over. Although I left a little confused on what I had to do, I still learned a lot.

I also went to a SACC tutoring workshop to review before my first math test. It was my first time there, so a woman at the front desk gave me a flier that had instructions on how to sign up for the workshop online. I signed up after school, the day before the test, before my practice. The workshop started at 6pm, but I came late because practice ended later than usual. I walked in and there were fewer students than I expected. I didn’t stay for the whole time. I only stayed for a little bit because I felt like I got it. Would I go again? I would if I really didn’t understand something. I ended up doing pretty well on my exam. SACC can be for everyone. If you don’t think that you need to be tutored because you are good in that subject, then you can apply to be a tutor and help others.

So when it comes to “career,” I feel like I’m completely lost. I don’t have a great idea of what I want to be in a couple of years. I don’t have a resume, nor do I really have any internship experience. So that means I have a LOT of work to do in the next few years. What I can do for a start is sign up for STARR and set up an appointment for a meeting, which I have done already. I’m probably going to ask about how to start up myself and make it easier for myself to make money in the future. To be honest, its actually pretty scary and frightening to think about as of right now, but similar to a project or a test, it will come up and I’d have to deal with it sooner or later

Another thing I’d like to talk about is how horrible the class selection system is for a freshman. Seeing my classmates get nice classes, while I two days later, pick from the scraps, I don’t think it’s really fair. There’s nothing I can do but to accept it and just stay optimistic. Hey, if the classes are crazy hard, I guess I would be used to it by the time everyone has hard classes. I’d be more prepared for those hard classes. If my GPA is in danger, I’ll just work harder and probably get rid of my social life and focus on school. Anything it takes right?

 

So last week, I went to the Starr Career Development Center. It was really informative. I started off just walking in that hall and reading some of the posters and information that they had on their bulletin board. These posters and things talked about how there are several opportunities for us Baruch Students. Starr is out there to help us and they want to hire us! As I passed by the room, somebody asked, “Hi, can I help you?” and I said, “Yes, I would like to know what Starr has to offer.” Even though I had read everything outside in the hallway, I felt that I had the opportunity to hear it from someone else. She told me how we can search in the database to look for a suitable job. She also told me how they help us with resumes. But what really stood out to me was how much they help us with our interviews. Not only do they give us tips on how to present ourselves, they even help us out with what to wear! They have suits and other business attire that we can rent. They even help us with our etiquette and manners if we are going to have an interview for lunch/dinner. She advised me on some things and even told me to book an appointment with them soon to help me out with my resume. I am looking forward to that.

One thing I did in terms of an “career event” was I went to the undergrad office for the Zicklin school of Business to make sure what are the required classes I need for my major. The lady that I spoke to there was very nice and told me what classes I need to take and then showed me a wall where there were sheets of paper of all the majors they provide in Zicklin and on those sheets contained all the classes you need in order to satisfy the requirements. I also went to the psychology department because I wanted to minor in psychology, I asked what was the process of having a liberal arts minor in psychology, she handed me a sheet of paper that can I can declare my minor as psychology. She also handed me a piece of paper of the list of required courses I need to take, and I can choose 3. They were very informative and helpful with my choices of my intended major for my career.

I didn’t go to a career event this week, because I forgot about this blog till last minute. Instead I am going to talk about my journey on how I finish my next semester schedule. The process of making my whole schedule was new to me, and I heard it was a horrible and annoying process. I do agree because being a freshman, you are the last to be considered to make your own program and by the time of your registration all your first choices are gone. But, ratemyprofessor.com was my bestfriend, because I can see how “good” the teacher was in the classes. Even though I had one of the “earlier” registration times, by 12:00 last Tuesday, some of my classes were already filled, but happily I still had a schedule that I wanted.

Last… I want to say Thursday? Well, the date doesn’t really matter – anyway, I hopped on down to the gameroom on the 3rd floor (mostly after Michelle’s sparkling recommendation in Comms). Unfortunately, I made a few mistakes in doing so – I didn’t have much time to spend there, and I stopped in when it was already pretty packed. The whole floor it’s on is painted in various bright colors that I’m sure are meant to look cheery and casual, but were honesty just kind of gaudy and depressing. As soon as I closed my eyes, though, the place gave off a much more favorable impression – there was the usual chatter that any significant crowd generates, the constant clattering that foosball tables in use tend to cause, and the clicking and occasional yelling of the ping-pong matches. Layered on that, there was a speaker somewhere playing what I assume was the school radio station – when I came in, they were talking about the past week’s NFL scores, so I didn’t pay too much attention to be quite honest, but I didn’t notice any issues in the sound quality, mic-based or otherwise, so I’ll probably check it out some time. Anyway – there was a really friendly aura throughout the whole place, so I relaxed there for a while. Didn’t talk to anyone, because, well, because. I never got the chance to play pool or anything either, as far as I could see all the tables were full up – it was a really nice place to just bask in the vibes, though. I think I’d go again, but probably some other time of day – I’d love to get in a good game of pool. I’m not really a foosball or ping-pong kind of guy, but I’m not opposed to giving at a shot, either. Over all, I’m not sure it’s my thing, but it’s a really nice space that I think contributes a lot in the way of stress relief for the student body (theoretically and anecdotally), and I’m really happy that it’s here as a resource.

Two long months of college

Eight weeks of feeling stuck

Although Ive gained new knowledge

I’ve never had this much bad luck

 

On my very first day here,

I thought it would be lit.

But my days began to disappear

Study, work, sleep, and submit.

 

Everyday at 2 o’clock

A text from my friends I would get

“Meet us at the block

In the plaza, try not to forget!”

 

Standing around in a circle became really boring,

It wasn’t any fun until we started exploring

First floor was a bummer, second floor nothing,

But then music from the third floor had all my friends bumping.

 

Off the escalator and into the hallway we went,

Entering an orange room filled with students that spent

Most of their mornings and afternoons playing pool,

Finally creating a good reason to come to school.

 

At first it was awkward showing up there everyday,

But then we grew closer and had a reason to stay.

My squad of 10 had entered the world

Of the game room being the reason we twirled.

 

Everyday at 2 o’clock

A text from my friends I would get

“Meet us in the game room,

Try not to forget!”

In order to get involved in student life, David, Isaac and I all decided to visit the game room. It was my first time visiting there and my first impressions were alright. I noticed how colorful and lively the room was first thing. The walls were painted vibrant colors and there was music playing in the background which added to the “fun” vibe in the room. Although the music was horrible and I couldn’t stand it, David and Isaac convinced me to stay and we all ended up playing all three of the games they had there: ping pong, pool, and foosball. Personally, I thought pool was the most enjoyable. We ended up getting to play on it even though it’s usually a hassle to get a game. Me and David played against each other and I ended up beating him after we started off with only David and Isaac playing while I was talking to some people I had just met. After they both finished their game I played the winner which ended up being David. After beating David, I got to stay on and play against some random person who was a close match. After playing two games of this I then decided to go visit Isaac who was playing foosball.
Although this game room does not compare to other college’s game rooms, David, Isaac and I still had a great time. I think this experience just goes to show that you don’t need the best equipment or the biggest room to have fun. We still had a good time with the other students in the room and spent the time well.
Overall, this was one of those things at Baruch I found to be exciting and kind of fun for the first time but I probably won’t be spending my free time in the game room normally.