Posts filed under 'jobs & working'
Volunteering isn’t all soup kitchens and senior living centers-in fact I’m almost daring enough to propose that there is probably a nearly-perfect volunteer opportunity for everyone-but clearly there are probably a few exceptions. : )
Obviously you’ve already been accepted to college, so why should you keep volunteering after high school? Well, if you think about it, it’s kind of a “Win-Win-Win” (to quote Michael Scott).
- Will it help me find my “niche” around here, and help me meet new people? Check.
- Will getting outside of myself and helping other people help me beat homesickness? Check.
- Will it look darn good on my résumé? Check.
See? Win-Win-Win. I’d actually like to throw some more “Win”s in there because there are many, many other benefits of volunteering. Want to give it a shot?
If You Like to Read…
- Reading is Fundamental: Help select books for local programs, organize book events, read books aloud and/or tell stories, fundraise, and raise awareness about children’s literacy.
- LibriVox: Volunteer to read for LibriVox, which provides free downloadable audiobooks of books in the public domain. You can even get a group of people together to read play-style with different voices for each character.
- Read This to Me: Spend an hour or so a week reading things sent in by blind or low-vision people to them over the phone (hey, you’re on your phone all the time anyway, right?). This can be anything from a magazine article to a phone bill.
- Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic®: Record books and/or text books for the blind and dyslexic at one of the many RFBD centers nationwide.
- Local Library: Local libraries are always on the lookout for volunteers to help stock shelves, read at story time, or man summer reading program tables. Contact yours and see if they need any help.
If You Like Working (or Making Art) With Your Hands…
- Habitat for Humanity: Volunteer to help build homes for the needy, either in your own community or in more exotic locales!
- Play Music at a Hospital or Hospice: Many hospitals or hospices offer volunteers the opportunity to play either in their lobby or for their patients. It’s an easy way to share your talent and brighten a few people’s days.
- Be an Arts & Crafts Volunteer: Community, children’s, and elderly programs are a great place to share your love of an art or craft. Search your local area for volunteer opportunities to teach art, sewing, knitting, crochet, or any other art to those around you-and if you can’t find an opportunity, make one!
- Make Baby Blankets: If you like to knit, quilt, sew, or crochet, check with local hospitals and children’s hospitals to see if they accept donations of baby blankets. Many provide blankets to low-income families who may not have much for their babies.
If You’re a People Person (or an Animal Lover):
- Ronald McDonald House: Ronald McDonald houses are a haven for families whose children are in the hospital. You can help out by volunteering in a number of ways: planning events, fundraising, cleaning, hosting game or movie night for the families, or even bringing by treats, snacks, or dinner.
- Holding Babies: Did you know that many hospitals actually have a spot for volunteers who want to hold babies? Many babies born prematurely or abandoned need physical contact during their developmental stages. Contact your local hospital (or children’s hospital) to see if they have a spot for you. (This does tend to have a waiting list… The hospital near my apartment has a wait of 2 years!)
- Big Brothers & Big Sisters: Make a big impact by doing little things-hiking, cooking, playing basketball, or even just hanging out-with a kid who needs a friend. It can be as little as 4 hours a month.
- Animal Shelter/Veterinarian Office: Animal shelters and veterinarian offices are often glad of a helping hand washing and walking animals, cleaning, feeding, etc. Call around your area and see who needs you!
If You Want to Search for Yourself…
- Volunteer Match: Search out volunteer opportunities in your area from a huuuge list!
photo: Together 1 by flaivoloka
September 29th, 2008
Congratulations-you’ve finished (or are about to finish) a year of college! Planning on heading home for the summer?
Dealing with Parents
Every parent has a different reaction to watching their child go off to college-and an equally different reaction when they come back home for the summer. However Mom or Dad deals, it’s best for you to be prepared to have a couple of conversations with them about how you both expect things to work out.
If your parents seem to be slipping back into thinking you’re still in high school, you might want to sit down and compromise on some updated house rules. After a year on your own, you probably don’t need to be woken up, and you might feel resistant to a curfew, but you also need to take into account that Mom & Dad are giving you free food and rent.
Bottom Line: Living at home involves some give-and-take from both sides, so be willing to compromise. If your parents insist on a curfew, try to get one you both feel is reasonable. Work out house rules so that you all feel respected as adults.
Getting a Summer Job
Every summer the job market is flooded with college kids looking for summer work, so the sooner you can get into the market, the better! It’s a good idea to have family or friends back home keep an eye out for possible jobs for you even before you get out of school.
These ideas about making money over break and the Pay for College Blog’s winter break job ideas might be helpful, too!
Bottom Line: However you choose to spend your summer, don’t miss out on this opportunity to build up some more cash for the next school year (or your future) while you’re enjoying your free summer stay at the comfortable Mom & Dad Residence Hall!
photo: Awesome House 2 by reznor70
May 29th, 2008
It has been a little over two years since I wrote a check for my first car payment–I bought it the summer before my junior year of college, and because of some hard work (and the help of a trade-in) I was able to keep the payment low enough that I could afford it even on a college student’s miniscule budget.
To celebrate my 50th post here at Surviving College Life, I’m going to let you in on the ten car-shopping tips that helped me really drop the price of my car!
- Know What You Want. If you’re on a budget, you probably aren’t buying your dream car, but it is still important to know what you want. Know the exact specs of your future car–not just the make and model, but the details, too–how many airbags and cup holders, power steering, manual or automatic transmission, manual or power windows, alarm or not, everything. Choosing exactly what you want beforehand will give you the confidence to tell a dealer NO when they try to sell you something “bigger and better.” (And they WILL try to do that!)
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- Know What It’s Worth. Too many people walk on to a car lot with only a vague idea of what the car they want is worth, making impossible for them to spot a good (or bad!) deal. Whether you’re buying new or used, you should find out the current value of the car you want to purchase. The Kelley Blue Book’s list of car values is a great place to start.
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- Pre-Set Your Monthly Payments. Before you even set foot in a dealership, you need to figure out your ideal numbers, especially if you will be financing your purchase. Pencil out how much you can afford to put down, and how much you can afford to pay each month. Find your “upper limit” number for a monthly payment, but don’t tell the dealer a number that high! Don’t forget to figure it tax, license, and registration. When you’re sitting down with your sales rep, make him figure out your total monthly payments and give it to you in writing.
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- Shop Around (and Don’t Be Shy About It). I’d recommend going to at least 3 dealerships when you’re looking for a good deal. Make sure you get the exact same car so you can compare prices accurately, and if you can, get the number in writing before you move on to the next. Also, don’t be shy about letting salesmen know that you’re shopping around–it can sometimes get them to give you a better deal if they feel a little insecure.
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- Ask for a LOW, LOW Price. For some reason, a lot of people don’t do this. In fact, a lot of people walk in to a dealership ready to pay the retail price. But to get the best price, you need to start low. Lower than you think they’re willing to go. Then you work up from there, negotiating until you get a price you like. Salesmen will NOT offer you a price unless it works out well for them, so you just need to worry about getting a price that works out for you.
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- Be Ready to Walk Away. Nothing makes the point that you are serious about your price requests more than your readiness to walk away. I continually repeated to my sales rep that if we couldn’t get the price I was looking for, I didn’t want to spend any more time there–and I meant it. I could just have easily bought a car somewhere else, some other day. No rush. He responded by getting the price down to where I wanted it, and even figured out how to include a car alarm without raising my price by more than a couple dollars a month.
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- Bring in Backup. Bring someone along when you go shopping–or at least during final negotiations. (Preferably someone who knows about cars!) Having someone to back you up will give you a confidence boost, and give you someone to talk to if you’re tempted to make an impulse buy. Salesmen can be intimidating, so it can really help to have someone on your side.
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- Get a Co-Signer With Great Credit. You’ve probably seen car commercials offering something like “a 4.5% APR on approved credit.” That means if you have a high enough credit score, you can get a really low interest rate if you finance your car. If you’re in college or even your early twenties, you probably don’t have a perfectly stellar credit score yet. Instead of forfeiting those savings, try to get a parent or grandparent with a good score to co-sign for you so you can get their low interest rate.
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- Shop Summer for the “Clearance” Advantage. The new year model cars usually appear on the lot around the end of summer, and that means that dealerships want to get rid of their current year’s stock ASAP! Shopping towards the middle of June through the middle of July can garner you great deals on current year stock, because they basically go “on clearance.” Plus, it’s still a brand new car!
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- Shop Sunsets. Timing is everything when it comes to car shopping–not just the time of year, either, but also the time of day. If you want to up your odds of getting a good deal, go in to make your final purchase towards the end of the day. Salesmen work on commission, and they’ll want to get their last sales of the day wrapped up–that means they’ll be more likely to work through a deal quickly and maybe even negotiate down more. (Shopping on the last day of the month can also result in a lower price out the door since dealerships want to meet quotas for dealer discounts given to them by car manufacturers if they sell a certain volume of cars for the month!)
Happy car shopping!
photo: Keys 1 by tap78
March 27th, 2008
Now that you know the basics of résumé writing, let me fill you in on some of the most common questions college students have about how to write a résumé. (And don’t forget, you can download the sample résumé at the end of this post!)
How Long Should it Be?
A good résumé will be only about 1-2 pages. There is no strict requirement that it be ONLY one page; you can definitely stray onto a second page if you need to-just remember to keep your wording concise.
Even if you don’t have a lot of experience, try to fill in at least one page. You can always add more details about your previous positions or extracurricular activities to fill the white space.
How Far Back Should I Go When Listing Jobs?
My personal opinion is that you can list anything you did during high school as long as you are still in college. Once you graduate college, it’s better to rely on your collegiate achievements, and let high school go.
Do NOT list anything from pre-high school years, like your reading award in 6th grade, or your babysitting job in 8th grade. I can almost absolutely guarantee that your potential employer does not want to read that far back into your life. In fact, listing that far back will probably make you look like you haven’t achieved much since then-so be on the safe side and leave that stuff out.
Can I Put My Cell Phone # as a Contact #?
Yes, but make sure your voicemail sounds professional! It needs to say at least your first name, and make sure it is appropriate for potential employers to hear.
Same goes for your email address–I suggest getting a secondary email address that is just “YourName@emailservice.com” to use for professional purposes. You could also use your basic school account if appropriate.
What is a Cover Letter? Do I Have to Include One With Every Résumé?
A cover letter is a brief letter stating which position you are applying for, why you are interested, and what qualifies you for the position. It’s a great opportunity to personalize your message to a particular employer and add information about your personality, which may not come through in your résumé.
You should definitely include a cover letter with your application and résumé. It will show your potential employer that you took some extra time to customize your communication for their business, and it also positions you to come across as mature and professional. If you apply by email, include the cover letter as the body of your email, and your résumé as an attachment.
Monster.com has a nice collection of sample cover letters that can help you get started.
Where is that Sample Résumé Download You Promised?
Download your sample résumé right here! Just remember to replace all the sample info with your own info!
photo: Big Apple by windchaser
March 25th, 2008
It’s hard to know how to start a résumé when you haven’t had a lot of job experience. Luckily, there are some handy tips and tricks that can help you make your resume look healthy even if you haven’t had a lot of jobs.
Check out the steps below, and you’ll have your own résumé written up in no time. (Check back next time for a downloadable .doc copy of this sample résumé!)
- Primary Contact Info
This is easy-just your name, your primary contact number (cell phone is fine) and your email address. TIP: Make sure your email address & voicemail are professional! It’s easy to set up a new email account, and an inappropriate email address could cost you the job!
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- Addresses
Usually you could just put your address with your primary contact info, but college students have a unique situation. Your “Current” address should be wherever you live now-your dorm, apartment, or wherever. Your “Permanent” address is probably going to be your “home” address (parent’s house, grandparents, etc.).
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- Education
Even if you are just out of high school, you should still list this. If your GPA isn’t so hot, you can leave it out.
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High School: Make sure you at least mark down the school name and grad year.
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College: Write down your current grade level, Major & Minor (if you’ve chosen them), and school. If your Major GPA (the GPA listed for all the courses in your major) is higher than your overall GPA, you might want to list both.
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- Paid Experience
This is your previous work experience. You can enter anything relevant-even if you’ve maintained a website for your mom and only gotten $20 for it, that’s still paid experience!Try to use “active” verbs, and use specifics if they help you seem more capable. Instead of “Was in charge of answering phones” you “Managed call center with 4 lines.” Especially write down anything unique or valuable that you did to change your workplace for the better.
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- Extracurricular Activities
Use this space to list your unpaid activities, like volunteer work, club participation, honor society, etc.
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- Computer Skills
Employers are very interested in computer skills, so feel free to write down things that seem very basic or easy to you (like “blogging,” for example. I wrote that on a resume and it was one of the key things my employer wanted to talk about during the interview).
Next time I’m going to be offering a downloadable copy of this sample resume, plus I’ll write up some more résumé tips (like how far back to list, how long it should be, etc.) so don’t miss out!
(Update: Here’s a link to those extra résumé tips–you can also find the free download there!)
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March 20th, 2008
Have you ever googled yourself, just to see what would come up? Well, you might not be the only one.
A few months ago I read an article about how a LiveJournal blog kept one student from being admitted to Reed College in Portland. I looked a little further into it, and found out that over the past year articles about Facebook & MySpace affecting students’ ability to graduate and find jobs after high school have popped up in the Washington Post, U.S. News, and the New York Times. In fact, my own supervisor told me that he googles potential employees before hiring!
Protecting Yourself
With potential employers-and colleges-able to gain access to MySpace, Facebook, personal blogs, and lots of other information online, you need to rethink the “anonymity” of the internet. Here are a couple ideas that may help you protect your privacy online:
- Limit Access. Facebook and MySpace both offer options that limit who can view your profile; they also have options that allow people to view only the portions of your profile that you specify. Most blogs have this option, too.
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- Google Yourself. Seriously. Run a google search on your name, and see what comes up. Try the other popular search engines, too. If there is anything questionable-that includes inappropriate jokes or anything-try to get it taken down!
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- Guard Your Words. If you have something to say that could possibly taken the wrong way by a potential boss or admissions officer (or anything that is too personal for them to know), you’re better off NOT posting it in a public place. Instead, keep personal comments safer by writing them in more private correspondence like emails or IMs. And if someone else leaves a questionable comment on your page, better make it private or delete it-just to be safe.
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Oh, and if you don’t like your current job or boss, you might want to leave that tidbit out of your profile. Just in case.
Promoting Yourself
Facebooking college committees and employers don’t have to slow you down-in fact, if you play your cards right, it could even be a good thing. Why waste the opportunity to promote yourself if they’re looking anyway?
Think of your social networking sites as dual-purpose-not just as a place to connect with friends, but also as a sort of virtual résumé. It’s totally fine to have appropriate personal info & photos up to share with friends-your future boss will probably still hire you even if you have a penchant for action movies-but don’t neglect to point out your strong points, and even past work experience (if you feel comfortable sharing that).
You can also use sites like Facebook, MySpace, or a personal blog as a portfolio. If you’re an artist or a writer, for example, consider posting some of your pieces for viewing (unless they’re copyrighted by someone else, like work you may have done for a previous employer). It’s an easy way to offer access to your body of work.
photo: cloak 3 by vivre
February 14th, 2008
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