Take a day for you!

Thanksgiving Break is only a few weeks away. Thank goodness! It’s an opportunity to sit back, relax, and enjoy the lack of school related stress for about a week. But the thing is, only one day of your break is allotted to spending time with family and devouring some turkey related goodness; the rest of the break is up in the air, and for most of you that means a number of things. But for me, I’ll be taking that time to prepare for my future.

I consider myself lucky. I know where I’d like to live, what I’d like to do, and more or less how I’d like to go about doing it. I know that for most of you this might not be the case, yet. So I encourage you all to do what I’m going to do, and that is take a day and plan ahead. I like to call it a ‘future day,’which I realize is fairly cheesy, but that’s exactly what it is. For example, I know that I’d like to do graphic design for a firm, but which firm? On my future day, I’m going to research some different firms in the area, and once I have a few that I’m interested in, perhaps I’ll go for a drive and see if any of them would be willing to give me a tour. It’s important that we who are graduating next semester start doing our research now, because if we start looking in May the opportunities we seek may be out of reach.

What I’m getting at is this; now is the time to begin planning. I don’t care what year you are; freshman, senior, or otherwise. Graduation day is too late to start planning for your life. So do it now, when you’re free, and I guarantee that your future will turn out a lot more like you’d planned.

Have an excellent and safe break. If you do start to make plans, decisions, or even just start coming up with ideas, we’d love to hear about them. 

The Corner Office

On a typical day at work, I work out of room 106 in the Riverside building. Room 106 doesn’t have any windows and smells sort of plasticky because it’s where we store our promotional products. It’s a ton of fun. Occasionally, I’ll have the opportunity to sit in Room 110, which is bigger, doesn’t smell of plastic, and has windows, which is quite refreshing. But there was one not so typical day that I had recently during which I had an experience that I found quite exhilarating, and I’d like to share it with you. There are some quite lovely offices in the Riverside building. I’ve been in quite a few of them, for meetings and the like. These are the top-tier offices; I’m talking overlooking the river, memory foam faux-leather office chair, big L-shaped desk, a bookshelf (with books on it!) and so on. A really pleasant place to spend your work day. Many people work their entire lives and never get to call an office like that theirs. But for one day, I got to work out of one.

I won’t say whose office it was, but to say the least it was beautiful. That morning I came in, and there were interviews going on in Room 110 and 106. Some of the staff members were out of the office for the day, so my boss says to me to go ahead and take one of their offices for the day. Take your pick. Of course, I selected the biggest, roomiest, book-filled-iest office of them all and got settled. And as I continued to work through the day, I began to realize something; this was the life. I’ve worked in a lot of places; I’ve called a cubicle home before (not literally), and although I realize that such a place is ideal for a working environment, having a corner office with a view was actually something that I really, really wanted. I’d never thought about it until that very day. The whole day I felt more in tune with my work, and with the office as well, and it was really quite exciting.

What I’m trying to tell you all is this: you want a corner office. Trust me. The thing is, you have to work for it; so do it. Work hard. Then work harder. And it will be yours. And hopefully, it will be for more than just a day. And when you get there, and your office smells of rich mahogany and leather bound books, it will all be completely worth it.

Opportunities Abound

Hello! My name is Josh Jacobs, and I’m the new Marketing Intern here at the Office of Career Services for the 2013/2014 school year! I’m a senior here at UT studying Graphic Design with a double minor in Art and Advertising, and I look forward to writing more posts like these in the future! Enjoy!

Let me tell you a little bit about my experience here at UT.

I remember my first day of college was scarier then I had ever imagined. By scary I mean really overwhelming; you’ve got classes (if you can find them), roommate drama, and absolutely no idea what constitutes as a meal or not at the Grill. There are a lot of things that you aren’t told before your first day of school, and a lot of times that can make for a crazy first year experience. But by the end of their first year of school, most people have figured out how to deal with all of those things and manage to continue on through their college career happy with simply completing their courses and living out the rest of their years here as easily as possible. If you’re reading this, I’m hoping that you are less like them, and more like me.

My freshman year, I was nominated by the Office of Student Leadership for the award of “Most Involved First Year Student.” By the end of my freshman year, I had become the Marketing Chair for Student Productions and was a heavily involved member of Extreme Elite and Honors Council, all while maintaining my Honors student status at the University. However, I did not win that prize; the girl who ended up winning had done all that while also researching and developing a program for teaching English to the underprivileged minority communities in the area (or something of that nature) and simultaneously was the president of 3 or 4 clubs...as a freshman.

I also applied for a position on the Honors Council Board and RHA in the same year, and got neither. Did these things get me down? No. Today I am the Vice President of Student Productions, an RA in Brevard Hall, and the Marketing Intern at Career Services. I’ve held two other jobs and had a life changing internship this past summer, and on top of it all, I’m still an Honors student.

What I’m trying to say is this; you and I attend a University of opportunity. The ratio of things to do versus the amount of people at this school is crazy; between clubs and greek life, on campus opportunities, and prospects in the community, there is simply too much going on. So think of it this way; in a world where the job market covets those who do, those who go the extra mile, I believe that students here at UT have an amazingly unique advantage over students at other campuses. Our advantage is that for anyone who wants  involvement or opportunity, all they have to do is reach out and grab it. Apply for something. If you don’t get that position you want, by no means are you to give up. Try again. And when employers look at your resume showing a rich and full college experience, I guarantee you that you will stand out.

The opportunities are out there. Go get them!