Freshman Seminar Fall 17 LC10

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Dining Etiquette Workshop-Krystal Bu

On October 26th, I attended a workshop called Dining Etiquette.Basically, it teaches us the “Table Manner” in serious dining situation such as the interview when you try to get a job from your employer. I actually enjoyed being there and left with a lot of knowledge in hand. I attended this workshop because dining interview is a really common way when people pursue a job. So, it will somehow helpful to me when I am in that situation in the future. In this workshop, we basically learned what to do and what not to do in this format of interviews. First of all, we entered into the same room we had lunch on orientation day. It was kind of like a buffet we can pick whatever we want and go back to our seat. Something different is that most of us were dressed up and kept quiet to stimulate that “interview”. While we eating, the guest speaker starts off her speech by teaching us the different ways to place forks, knives and napkins. She also mentioned that use spoon outwardly when you having soup, don’t order any alcohol even though your employer asks so, ladies can’t take off their blazers but males can choose either take off or not however need to stick to one option, fold napkin into proper size and place it on your laps before eating, and do not order foods that are limited in the restaurant and really expensive. Also, when you accidentally eat something you shouldn’t and want to split it out, do not split it into napkins but on your fork and quietly place it on one side of your plate without gathering attention from others. All of these are important because they are the test your employer gives you. They want you to show your manner that’s the thing you represent yourself and probably his company. So please be careful in these kind of situation because it’s not like a dinner you go out with your friends and family on Saturday night. Overall,I found it’s really helpful because it reminds me that I actually should have the habit to eat formally from now on.

Workshop: Let’s Get Starrted Week 2

I went to the second workshop of Let’s Get Starrted. Since I didn’t go to the first meeting, I thought that I would be lost during this workshop but the assistant director of the Starr Career Development center made everything very easy to understand for those they went for the first time and the information was very helpful, especially for those that may have trouble figuring out what they want to major in. We went over the Strong Interest Inventory Profile that the students have taken during the first workshop, but since I didn’t go to the first workshop, I got a sample profile instead. She even gave handouts that would help us figure out what kind of jobs occupations would suit us based on our personality, skills, and interests. For example, if your general occupational theme is conventional that means that you prefer to work with data and carry out detailed instructions or plan. Based on the general occupational theme, a possible occupation could be an accountant, actuary, financial manager, etc. The profile is kind of like the Focus 2 Assessment except it seems to be more detailed and the workshop itself was very helpful to me as I am unsure of what I want to major in anymore and might consider changing my intended major.

Dining Etiquette Workshop

For the last blog, I went to a Starr Career Development Center Workshop with two of my friends. In this dining etiquette workshop, I learned the proper table manners that need to be follow during an interview. Typically, after the first round of interview, you will be contact for a formal food interview. In this interview, your’re expected to act a certain way to make a good impression. First, we were served food. I expected a full course meal but maybe my expectation is too high. We were served a buffet style of food but they ran out of pasta before we gotten our food, that’s kinda sad. At a formal dinner, the table was set up with multiple spoons and forks. Each course have its own utensils and we started with utensils on the outside and work your way in as the meal goes on. Keep in note that water is always place on the right. After you sat down, you should place the napkin on your lap and if you want to leave to use the restroom, place the napkin on right of your plate. In such interview, she suggests not bringing a bag, if you brought on, don’t hang it on your chair but to put it behind your back. However, the way I was taught was different from what the speaker said. I was told to place your bag on the floor to your left. Perhaps there’re different ways. She also mentioned that when ordering, we shouldn’t order neither the most expensive dish nor the cheapest dish. We order something that’s medium priced. In addition, males can either keep their blazers on or off but females must keep it on. Most importantly, don’t order any alcohol even if the employer asks you to because you don’t want to get drunk make a fool out of yourself. Also, the host should always pay. Overall, this workshop was informative and helpful for me in the future if I were to go to a formal food interview. Not only so, it will also be useful if I go eat at restaurants that require formal attire. 

Dining Etiquette Workshop – Sabrina Chen

For the career event, I attended a Dining Etiquette Workshop for learning the proper manners and expectations of a formal food interview. I went with 2 of my friends for company and we all seemed to enjoy the event and also take away much knowledge and wisdom of this particular situation of a dining interview. Most of the time, people have to encounter interviews over food with their proposed employers. In this workshop, we learned what to do and what not to do during this formal meeting in a restaurant. We entered in a room with a buffet style speech. First, we were served food and we brought back our plates, while the guest speaker, spoke about the manners and expectations. She mentioned the different types of forks, knives and spoons that were placed, and that there is a certain order of eating, by using each utensil from the outside in. Then, she also mentioned that we should only order something from the menu that is medium priced or match the same price of the employer so that the respect is that you’re not taking advantage of their money. Also, her tip with clothing is that males should either take their blazer off or leave it on, but stick to one option. However, ladies shall not remove their blazers. We also cannot order any alcohol, even if the employer asks, because it is a test, since the interview is formal, and not casual enough to have alcohol with it. Lastly, her opinion with money is that the interviewee, or us, would never request to take the bill, or leave a tip. It is the employer’s job to do that. Overall, I think this event allowed me to be more knowledgeable not only for the interview, but also in general when I’m eating out at a formal place or meeting. 

Interview with a CPA

My future career goal is to become a Certified Public Accountant. To help me to better understand the exact day to day life as a Certified Public Accountant, I decided to interview one. I interviewed Michael DiNoto, a Senior Associate in KPMG’s Metro Audit Practice. KPMG is a big accounting company and one of the Big Four auditors. I thought I could get some real insight into what I may be doing in the future by interviewing Michael DiNoto. First I thought it would be helpful to find out some background information about him. I asked him where he went to college and what his major was. He had went to Baruch and obviously his major was Accounting. He has received a BS in Accounting and MS in Taxation from Baruch. He has been licensed as a CPA in NY. I had also asked him what influenced his decision to go to Baruch and become a CPA. He told me he knew he wanted to go into business at a young age, and that in his junior year of high school he decided to become an accountant. While he was researching business schools with a good reputation for Accounting majors, he found Baruch. He thought there was no better option because it is perfect for him major, has a reasonable tuition, and would be a great way to get used to the city by the time he got a job there. One of the most interesting things he told me was the amazing internship he had gotten through Baruch. I always though internships offered little to no salary but he informed me that his internship with KPMG paid him over $50,000 a year. He also told me that his mother was an Accountant as well but she retired quite some time ago. Michael said she was a big influence in his decision to become an Accountant. I asked him what he did day-to-day as a CPA. He told me that he usually goes to the client site with a team from his firm, and brings his laptop. Then he usually stays there for a week sometimes longer and goes through all of their financial statement accounts and performs testing to make sure their financial statement accounts are correct. Then he and his team have meetings with different departments and with the controller or chief financial officer to understand their business better and to get all of the supporting documentation they need from them. I asked if there are any major perks of being a CPA and he said the best part is being able to travel. Being a CPA, he’s traveled for work many times. But he also gets 5weeks vacation every year and this allows him to travel wherever he wants to as well. He says that being a CPA is very stressful at times, but he does not regret his job choice and feels very lucky to be working for such a great company as KPMG. I found this interview to be very helpful and gave me great insight into my future career choice.

Internship Seminar

On October 30th, 2017, I went to the Internship Seminar held by Michael Kalish, which is a career development workshop. I participated this workshop to help advance my goals in my career because internships look well on resumes and allows me to gain experience.

I learned that there are unpaid, paid, credit, and zero-credit internships. Paid internships usually involve businesses and profit companies are required to pay or give credit. Credits must be approved by professors and related to your major. Unpaid internships are generally volunteer work for nonprofit organizations, while paid internships are to be paid minimum wage. Zero-credit internships are on the transcript and you need at least twenty-eight credits, 3.0 GPA, and must be accepted to one of the three schools. Also, they are treated like a class since they have a syllabus, orientation, final, etc. To apply for internships, you can go to STARR search, the SCDC bulletin boards, fairs, and through networking.

I learned that once you get an internship ask questions, be dependable, have enthusiasm, follow regulations, take initiative to learn by asking people, make a journal, and network/keep in touch. Keeping in touch would people would allow them to remember you and they can give a good review or recommendation on future jobs/another internship. Furthermore, a journal will help you remember and add what projects you completed onto your resume. Taking initiative is actively asking questions and reporting whenever you finish a task and awaiting another one. This will show that you really want to learn and is enthusiastic about your internships, but also asking questions is important.

Additional resources that were suggested were the Mock Interview Module – to test and record your interview skills, Vault – to research companies, Focus-2 test– for personality and job assessment, and STARR search – for postings for internships and workshops.

Cooper Hewitt Museum

The Cooper Hewitt Museum is located at 2 E 91st St, New York, NY 10128. I highly recommend stopping by to check it out if you’re ever near central park.

I heard about this museum about two summers ago and after seeing many popular Instagram posts from the museum, I decided to check it out with my friends. There are many different types of exhibits at this museum, you can find exhibits that regard fashion, architecture and structures, paintings, history, and the list goes on. What really makes the experience at this museum a bit better than other museums is that there are a lot of interactive and immersive activities present. To start off, once you get your ticket, they also provide you with a pen that u can use to save any piece of work that you want to remember and it goes onto your personal account. You can look back at these memories by checking in your code that you got with your ticket. The pens are also used to work the touch screen tables where you can make virtual objects. Of course you can’t keep these pens so they will have to be returned at the end of your visit.

What I was most excited about was visiting the immersion room. It was probably the coolest thing I’ve seen at a museum. In this room, it’s basically blank walls where you can project pre-made pictures or your own creation by drawing on the touch screen tables. It’s very free and you can basically draw anything. In my case my friends drew a banana and I was really satisfied with how the results came out. Another part of the museum that I liked was the garden outside. There are seats and benches and grass and even a ping pong table. Sadly you need to bring your own paddles and ball so we couldn’t play. There are also these spinning chairs that are really innovative and mind blowing. You can also buy these chairs for $721. (: I would definitely recommend coming when the weather is nice because the garden is a really great place to just relax and maybe take pictures or have a picnic.

New Yorker Festival 2017: Seth Meyers and Jerry Seinfeld

When an email included a list of guests that would appear in the New Yorker Festival this year arrived at my inbox, I knew I was going.

Since the launch of the festival in 1999, the event has been attracting celebrity in all kinds of business — politics, art, entertainment alike. Plenty of familiar names: Larry David, Malcolm Gladwell, Marc Maron, and many more. New Yorker is one of the few magazines that has utilized live event, attracting major brands as sponsors, as main revenue source.

This year, many celerities were scheduled to make appearances: Preet Bharara, the Southern District Attorney of New York for 9 years until fired by President Trump; James Clapper Jr., the director of National Intelligence under President Obama from 2010-2017; Al Franken, the Juniro Senator from Minnesota, who was also in the original cast of Saturday Night Live.

The tickets were expectedly expensive, so I could only choose a select few events to attend. Starting with New Yorker staff writer Ariel Levy’s conversation with Seth Meyers, the host of Late Night with Seth Meyers on NBC. Having served as head writer of Saturday Night Live and the anchor of Weekend Update, a recurring segment since the beginning of the program in 1975, Meyers has proved himself to be an incredible entertainer on late-night television. During the conversation, Meyers explained the rationale as to why his program stood out comparing to other late-night talk shows.

Although being of a similar theme comparing to Stephen Colbert’s monologues and Samantha Bee’s Full Frontal, the segment “a Closer Look” dissects the daily news surrounding the political realm in a deeper fashion; “Jokes Seth Can’t Tell,” a segment that usually Meyers presents with Amber Ruffin, a female African American writer, and Jenny Hagel, a staff writer for Late Night who also happens to be homosexual, is among the one of the most innovative and comedic segments in late-night television. Diversity has always been a issue in show business, being the host of the show, bringing in writers of different ethnicities and races to make on-camera appearances just makes the show more refreshing than many other shows; Meyers’ program comprises many elements of political and social issues long before the presidential election last year, he expressed the need to change his tones when political figures within the administration, evidenced by his interview with Kellyanne Conway earlier this year. “It’s show business at the end of the day,” Meyers said. “You don’t want to distance yourself from the prominent figures in Washington. Although that interview (with Conway) definitely put off a lot of people in the administration.”

An hour later in the same theater, legendary comic Jerry Seinfeld had a conversation with New Yorker editor David Remnick. Different from many other comics nowadays, Seinfeld rarely curses in his performances on stage. He discussed the intensity he experienced when he and Larry David served as the executive producers of the show, including NBC frowned upon their innovative ideas, the intense writing involved in the process of creating each episodes, and the pressure to shoot a perfect finale.

Two of the events I attended in the festival were truly telling how difficult it could be in show business. Every person has different experience, but the same thing that everyone that made it in show business was that they wanted it hard enough.

Visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art

It was difficult to find time to do anything else besides going to school and work but when the question of what museum would I visit for this blog post came up, the answer was clear. Of course I would make a visit to the MET! Now I must say, I did have doubts. The MoMA is right across the street, but it just didn’t feel right to write about any other museum given one post on this topic. After all, it was my essay on my love for the arts and the MET that earned me a spot into my dream college and served as a means to pay for the school I currently attend.

Of course I needed a photographer, so when I found out my mother had never been to the MET, I dragged her with me. And so it was decided. Before work on Friday, I would go to the MET.

Collection of photos taken at the museum:

One of my favorite exhibits was Cristobal de Villalpando’s collection of oil paintings.

 so beautiful!

 

oh.. and ran into a painter while roaming around.

Unfortunately, I had to speed through the museum this time around because I only had an hour before I had to clock in, but as always, it made my day a lot more enjoyable.

On my way back to the train station, I passed by the St. Ignatus Loyola school and saw so many adorable little elementary school kids during recess. GAHHH SO CUTEE~

Since I would not be able to go on break till 7/8, I figured I would grab lunch before starting work so I took my mother to Chipotle with me and she had it for the first time.

hehe She Loved it!! (:

Sleep deprived and not ready to work tomorrow morning, I look back on my day and I must say, going to the MET was totally worth it & for those of you who have never gone, I advise you, DO IT! You won’t regret it!

Museum at FIT – Vicky Lin

We went to the Museum at FIT as a group. Our journey started from Baruch College and we took a walk to the museum. As we arrived, the building seems relatively huge, so I thought that there will be a lot to see. We took pamphlets and entered the showcase. However, after we explored the museum, we found the exhibit rather small. There was a really cool dress that resembled a splash of liquid. At first I thought it was just an display of something people deemed as artistic, but when I came to realize that it was a dress, my views changed. It is unique and creative; the way the dress is structured and how it the idea of a splash was put into clothing. The material was shiny, so I assume that it is made of plastic.

The exhibits at the museum really demonstrated how much time and thought the designers put into those clothing. Their ideas were not limited, but were also inspired by the world around us.

Overall, the experience was nice, it was nice to spend some time with my fellow peers. We had a great trip and spent some time together for lunch.