Tag Archives: Networking

You’ve Graduated, Now What?

Posted on by
Reply

 

College graduate holding "Now What" sign

College Graduate

By: Brittany Bluford

Millions of college students will walk the stage, get their diploma, and enter the real world looking for one thing…a job. Unfortunately, recent college graduates have a higher chance of being unemployed than finding a job. The typical time it takes a recent graduate to find a full time career is one year, but there are three alternatives for jobless graduates to invest their time in and add to their resume.

  • Internships

Internships provide on–the-job training in a particular career or field. Although they are common for college students, they are a great option for recent graduates. These on-the job training opportunities have grown in popularity because they offer flexibility experience and look great on resumes. Recent graduates can dedicate a few hours a week to internships and the rest to their job search. Both paid and unpaid internships are available, and there is a possibility of being offered a job at the end of most internships.

  • Volunteer Work.

There are several local and international volunteer organizations looking for professionals with certain skill sets. Commitment ranges from regularly to once a month, and there are hundreds of volunteer areas. Different areas include: fundraising, administrative and special events. You can choose to contribute to a great cause alone or in a group. Also, your volunteer experience can be included on your resume if it’s relevant to your career goals. Check your local volunteer database for opportunities.

  • Networking

Have you been lucky to find a great opportunity because you knew a friend of a friend? Remember the girl who got a job because she knew the right person? The saying goes, it’s not what you know, but who you know, and it’s proved to be true in many cases. Life is all about connections: shaking the right hand, starting a conversation with the right person and handing out business cards to the right people. Take advantage of the alumni events your college gives. Also, there are many groups that connect graduates with professionals in their field. Today’s technology allows networking through social media. LinkedIn is a fairly new site designed for students, graduates, group and professionals to make connections. The network also allows your connections to write recommendations for potential employers to view.

These options are a way to occupy time after graduation and still become a more attractive job candidate. Whether you intern, volunteer or network, you are much closer to landing your dream job.

Facebook Incorrectly Mimics Real Life

Posted on by
Reply

 

By:Liana Fahie

I never quite understood the entire appeal of online social networking. It always seemed to appeal to peoples’ vain side, often times promoting relentless self promotion. Some people swear by the notion that once we aren’t Facebook friends we’re no longer friends in real life. Ian Bogost presented some convincing arguments about the way structure of Facebook’s network and how it leads to a mesh of different relationship hierarchies that should be separated. The only current remedy for this is privacy settings that enable you to show select bits of information to certain people; but a finer granularity is needed now that the user base has exponentially grown and anyone is allowed to sign up. Professors are interacting with students, colleagues, family, and friends all at the same time and the politics involved in who can see aspects of your life not only about you but extending to others that you know is a tremendous balancing act.

The problem is that it lumps everyone that you know under a single category;the “friend,” whether you met this person at a party last night, went to elementary school with them, or you have known them pretty much your whole life. Today with the Internet and the explosion of smart phones, people are able to carry Facebook everywhere they go. This leads to the depersonalization of the relationships and interactions with people. For example, you can probably change your birthday to occur once every 3 months and people will tell you happy birthday every time. As they don’t remember when your birthday is, they just digest the information that the site is showing them.

Ian’s notion of a collapsed sense of time is accurate, as Facebook does not allow you to specify a time period on the relationships that you have. The example that he gave of a guy posting that he was engaged and receiving congratulations as if it just happened is very true and is similar to my birthday example from above. However this sense of time can play into the strategy that the owners of Facebook want. They want you to update your profile and status right away when things happen, as if your Facebook profile is an extension of your physical self. In this way updating Facebook and letting people know of important changes in your life, products you like, etc., contributes to their overarching goal of Facebook being your second life.