College Magazine: Major Changes

via weheartit

Choosing a major at the age of 18 or 19 can seem like an impossible decision to make, which is why many college students go in undeclared. But even those of us who decide from the outset that we're going to major in biology or English or something else tend to change our minds.

Fifty percent of college students who declare a major change that major, and many do so two or three times, MyMajors.com Founder Dr. Fritz Grupe told Gayle B. Ronan of MSNBC. While your happiness is most important, it can be costly changing your major once or twice. It can also mean spending more time on your college campus.

In the interest of saving you money and time, here are some steps to take so you can settle on the perfect major as quickly as possible.

1. Test the Waters

If you're undeclared, go to step two. If you've declared a major, take courses in your subject area or prerequisite courses in your first semester or two. Julia Held, a first-semester sophomore at Temple University, declared biology as her major when she enrolled. She signed up for a chemistry prerequisite, “realized how much I disliked chemistry, which is a HUGE prerequisite to biology, pretty much when I stopped going to class, and had no desire to take any further classes in that field,” she said. If you like these classes, you've probably locked in the right major for you.

 

To read the rest of this post I wrote for College Magazine about changing your major, click here.

College Magazine: How To Sell Yourself At Job Fairs

 A job fair is not the time for companies to pitch themselves to jobseekers, but for jobseekers to pitch themselves to the companies, says expert Kathy Siravo, product and event supervisor at the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and philly.com. What this means is that, “The most important thing students need to bring to a job fair is their A-game,” said Rachel Brown, director of Temple University’s Career Center. There are a few steps you can take to ensure you’re putting your best self forward. 

 

Step 1: Research

According to Siravo, whose job involves the organization of job fairs, the first step is to do your research. “We have a website for each of our job fairs where we list the companies who will be present,” Siravo said. Most job fairs should have a list of presenters available online. Before attending the event, you should research the companies that will have tables at the event, being careful to familiarize themselves with the company’s mission, its available positions and the skills you need for those positions.

 

Step 2: Resume

Another part of your homework is making several copies of your up-to-date resume. When you attend the event, you should keep these in a folder. A big mistake job fair attendees make is handing a folded resume to a recruiter, Siravo said. She was also quick to warn that jobseekers need to make sure their resume is in “tip-top shape,” which means it should be free of grammatical errors, easily readable and tailored to the position you’re seeking.

This article was written for College Magazine's Career/Success section. Read the rest of it here.

College Magazine: Welcome to Rejected Resumes

Are you worried your resume might cost you that coveted internship? College Magazine to the rescue! Each week in Rejected Resumes, we show your resumes to the experts so you can get to sleep at night. This week, we’re checking out a College Magazine editor’s resume. Although she got the job, she made a few mistakes we’re hoping to save you from making. Here are some tips that apply to every resume:

 

1. List your most relevant experience first.

Here, the editor's most relevant experience was serving as associate editor on Wooden Teeth literary magazine, which is listed at the end of her activities section.

 

2. List relevant experience and customer service or retail jobs separately.

In this resume, the applicant lists two jobs in the food industry, and all of her relevant experience is filed under Activities. She should have had a section for Relevant Experience that was separate from her other work and her clubs and activities.

 

To read the rest of the first Rejected Resumes post, click here.