I went to a career workshop last wednesday. It was the Ad Hoc Workshop that taught students that there are more options for you to chase your career in baruch than many would know. The Ad Hoc workshop showed us the Ad Hoc major, this is a major for those who have looked and couldn’t find a major that matches their wants. It is within the Weissman Arts and Sciences program. In order to make an Ad Hoc major you must combine different courses from two or more departments. These majors must be liberal arts. For example, i could be interested in both law and the internet and journalism so using Ad Hoc i could combine them into one major. Now there is a long process to do such things, you can find all the information buy checking the baruch website and searching in Ad Hoc. While baruch has countless opportunities for us to succeed some people can feel like nothing matches their passions and that’s where the Ad Hoc major comes into play. 

A few days ago a mentor from high school contacted me with an internship opportunity and told me to go for the interview. The position wasn’t much, but it was a chance to get a feel of a professional environment and see how things work. I had previous experience with interviews, so I knew some questions they would ask, like my strengths and weaknesses. My mentor helped go over my resume and modified some parts to make it better. The interview wasn’t too long, maybe 10 minutes or so. The interviewer was more interested in seeing how I reacted to situations in an office, like if there was a conflict between my coworkers and I. Also, they wanted to know more about my other interests or hobbies. This helped them see more of who I am as a person than on paper. Then, it was more of the basic questions like what my goals are and what I can bring to the office. They also gave me some curve balls with questions like what would I do if my weakness hindered the team’s success. Overall, the experience of going to an internship interview in an actual professional setting was much different than just at a part-time job. Since my mentor knew the person who interviewed me, they were able to give me some feedback on my resume as well. I felt this interview helped me figure out what areas I could improve during future interviews for a job or another internship opportunity.

The workshop I attended was the Ad Hoc workshop. I only went to it because I needed to get a career blog post in but I actually learned something interesting. It isn’t important in my case but it is useful information to share because some in the school might not know about this program. Essentially it is a program hosted through the Weissman school that allows you to create your own major using a bunch of different classes. For example, a persons who created music, was a personal trainer, and was interested in the marking aspect of the musical business was able to take a variety of classes to fit his various hobbies. If you feel like creating your own major that is tailored towards your interest you must submit an application to the Star Office with the reasoning on why it would be beneficial to you and i just thought this was a really cool program. Im on the road to finance so I wont really need it but I can see how some others in the school can seriously benefit from a program like this. Welp, thats my post. Sorry about the less than interesting picture. I just felt really  awkward taking pictures when everyone is so serious at a workshop like this. Thanks for reading

I have been looking for a job for a while now- specifically one in the financial field that I could add to my resume. After a long while of looking, I was open to almost anything that remotely had to do with business.

A stumbled upon a post on the Baruch Class of 2021 page. A girl said that her company was looking for students to fulfill their job openings for “financial representatives” and that no experience is required. As soon as I saw the post, I was eager to message her. After giving her my phone number, she told me her “manager” will contact me. This is when it started to feel weird… her manager called me and was very informal. He wanted to meet with me right away.

When we met, I immediately realized that this guy was not her manager; they are a couple that both work at the company together. He began to describe the job to me, which was a super long explanation- almost an hour and a half long. The job itself is built upon a pyramid scheme, which is probably why he was so eager to meet with me. I was fine with the method at first, but after speaking to my dad at home, I realized that the job is probably not a good fit for me.

During the interview, I had to pay for a background check, and they could not give me a refund for that. Despite the fact that I did not even start working with the company, I lost money by going to this “interview”. The interview was just an attempt to recruit me so that they could make more money. From this, I learned to research job positions more before agreeing to do an interview. Even though I researched it briefly, it seemed that the company flooded fake reviews on indeed.

Today I went to the Internship workshop in room 2-190. It was from 4:00 to 4:30. The workshop guy explained to us how to get an internship and how to act during an interview. At first, he gave us the definition of an internship. I learned that there are many types of internships. For example, paid unpaid, credit, and OCR internships. In a credit internship, you receive academic credits, but only if you are in one of the schools: Zicklin school of business, Weissman school of arts and sciences, and Marxe school of public and international affairs. According to the workshop guy, OCR internship for upcoming graduates and is the most competitive. OCR stands for on-campus recruitment. Different firms will come to Baruch and do interviews with certain students but a good GPA that is 3.5 is recommended. And then he talked briefly about how to make a resume and cover letter, how to effectively use Starr search. I am very informed.

As I decided my major, I felt the need to meet with someone who was working in the field. So, I met with Caroline who is an actuary for the United Nations Pension Fund.

Walking into the building, I felt nervous even though it wasn’t an interview, or any other event that could make a negative impact on my life. The building was like any other office building, it had turnstiles that could only be crossed with an ID card, and had more windows than it had walls. Her cabin was neatly organized and had a breathtaking view of midtown Manhattan.

Caroline’s attitude towards me made me comfortable almost instantly. She completely blindsided everyone else in the room and gave me her full attention. She told me what actuarial science is and what actuaries do. She did not use any complex terms, which made it easier for me to understand. She told me what a day at work was like for her and her staff. She also told me how she had to keep up with high school calculus  and college math almost everyday.

Around the end of the meeting, she invited me to dinner and made herself approachable. Overall, the meeting was educational and enjoyable for me.

July 20, 2006, is the day my world flipped upside down. It was the day I immigrated to the United States of America. Half of my life I lived in Uzbekistan. The night before my family and I immigrated, I remember family and friends at my house in Uzbekistan tearing up, saying their goodbyes and helping us pack. My parents did not sleep that night. My mother left her parents, friends, everything she cherished. My father left his mother, his brother, his sisters, his business just to take a chance on me and my brother. They left everything and took a chance on us. Disappointing them, so far, is probably my greatest fear. So, I must live boldly. I must constantly push myself and I must never settle.

My grandfather, Michael, was born in 1929 during the USSR in modern day Belarus. He was born into a poor working class family. Socialism was the law of the land and there was almost no chance of him finding a way out of poverty, all were equal but in this case all were equally poor. In 1941, Nazi Germany made its way to his town, capturing him, his parents, and his 5 siblings (3 brothers and 2 sisters). At the time of his capture my grandfather was 11, his younger siblings were all under 5 years old and his oldest sibling was his 17 year old sister named Lena. Each night, the guards made the rounds choosing people from the population to be shot and killed, trying to find the Jews within the town. His family was safe until one night, with no explanation, his oldest sister Lena was taken. She was ripped away from the family and never seen again. She was likely taken out into the plains and shot by the Nazis, killed at the age of 17. He and his family were transported and put to work in a concentration camp in a forest outside of a small city in Russia called Voronezh. He found it impossible to go on with his life without his older sister but during his time at the camp my grandfather made a vow that his sister’s death would not be forgotten. In 1943, the family was saved by the soviet army, at that time called the Red Army. Having gone through one of the most traumatic experiences imaginable he surprisingly had the motivation to make something of himself, to work hard and make his family proud. During the 1950s, he found his way in Kazakhstan, a largely empty country where the USSR encouraged volunteers to help create a thriving city. Here he successfully worked as a merchant selling everything and anything to anyone, until he had enough money to move to Ukraine to join the rest of his family. There in Ukraine his family built two beautiful homes. One was a wonderful home for him and his family while the other had a special purpose. The second home was named after his oldest sister Lena who was killed by the Nazis. The home was used as a shelter for anyone they thought could use it. Over the next 15 years, the house saw hundreds of faces; the needy, the sick, the prosecuted, all were taken care until they were back on their feet and ready to continue with their lives. Although my grandfather ended up moving to America, the house was still run by his siblings. Now it has turned into a farm where each weekend my cousins teach free courses in Law and Language. I shared this story today because I think it’s an excellent example of how hate can be turned into love, how no matter how bad life gets there is a purpose for everyone on this earth.

My monologue is about what I like about China.  I love China because I like Chinese food. Dumplings and fried rice are the best. But, I don’t like their toilets because my legs are not strong enough to squat. My favorite Chinese person is Yao Ming. He is an amazing basketball player and he is very tall. Yao Ming is the reason why I like to watch basketball games. Also, I like the Great Wall of China too. The first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, ordered the construction of the Great Wall to protect themselves from hostile nomads. But 400,000 laborers died because of him, but I still like Qin SHi Huang. Beijing is the capital of China, and the Great Wall is built there. Beijing also has the Forbidden City too. I like the Forbidden City because it is big and Chinese emperors lived there. But, America is way better than CHina because they have bacon egg and cheese. I am very lucky to be an American.

The party of the people, at least that’s what they say. You have their support, transgender or gay. If you disagree with their discourse you’re racist, fascist, or dumb, see you shouldn’t be surprised if your very own call you an uncle tom. But what’s wrong with not seeing eye to eye, word for word, verbatim. Liberals used to be about progression and equality, now their ideologies include privilege and a victim mentality. The truth is society isn’t against you, work hard and you’ll achieve whatever it is that you want to. And if you’re a liberal sorry if this offends you, but it’s entirely your fault that our president happens to be a cheeto. And just because this is about liberals doesn’t mean I don’t see what conservatives are doing too, see your stubbornness is part of the reason we can’t get alone, me and you. It’s time we stop seeing majority vs minority, because there is only one race : the human race. So why spend our life hating each other, when my brothers and sisters, we were made to love.