When I think about the future, I feel as though there is a
huge cloud over my head because it is filled with a great deal of
uncertainty. It is impossible to predict
where I will be in 3 years let alone 5 or 10 years from now. I have not even made a clear decision about what
I want to do for the rest of my life.
I feel as though my life choices so far have created a
pretty decent path for me to follow into the future. Being an economics major at the University of
Illinois, I feel as though my options are endless. Since economics cover so many different types
of fields, I feel as though I can adapt to countless types of jobs. One negative about the major is that while it
is a very broad based major, that means that I do not necessarily have a
specific specialty. I know the parts of economics
I thrive in and I know the parts where I struggle greatly in. I am not an accounting major who only has one
real career path. I have countless
possibilities and it is my job to find my way and choose the right one. I know that the future has a lot of risk, but
if I can find the right career for me, I feel as though I will be able to
minimize that risk and thrive in the future.
I am a junior, and over the summer I had an internship. It was not the best internship in the world,
but it was a great learning experience for me.
I think that I got a leg up on a lot of kids my age who are now focused on
starting their internship process.
Working last summer gave me a great experience, especially for my resume
which is going to be a key factor for whether or not I will be able to find an
internship for this next summer. If and
when I find a great internship for this summer, I believe that I will be able
to really find myself at the place I work.
I know that it is not possible to predict whether I will work at the
place that I intern at this summer, but I know that it will only bring me to
higher places in the future. The better I
prepare myself now with getting great internships, the more income I will be
able to start off at with my first real job.
Although I am very nervous, I am confident I will find my way in life
very soon.
I have two older siblings.
My sister is 22 years old and she is now in medical school. She has not needed to test the job market out
as she went straight from college into applying for medical school. My brother on the other hand is a great
success story. My brother is 25 years
old and he started working for the company he still works for when he was 18
years old. My brother is already making
an insane amount of money that is difficult for me to even comprehend. My brother works as an insurance salesman for
a company that is run by a family that is from my hometown. He is absolutely incredible at what he
does. He makes a ton of money and he
saves about fifty percent of it which is amazing. He has never really had to go through the job
market because he has always had his job, but he has his whole life
together. I honestly would predict that
he will work at this company until he retires.
He has already made his way pretty high up the company and I feel as
though he will only keep getting farther and eventually be either the chief
executive officer, chief financial officer or the chief operational
officer.
In terms of my financial future, my brother is without a
question my biggest role model. I know
that he will always be there to guide me and help me find my way in this
world. It is so nice to have somebody in
my own family who has gone through the market and came out on top. I hope I can be as successful as my brother
and create very little risk for my economic future.
It is okay to not know what you want to do with your life at your age. I was the same way. It is also okay to try something that doesn't end up being a good fit for you. You learn from the experience and move on. But for that to happen, you need to be positioned well enough that you can find that second job. We'll talk about this issue in class on Monday.
ReplyDeleteAre you getting any coaching on how to respond when doing an interview, the sort of interview you have at the Career Fair? The key now is not to know that right path, but to assure that there are opportunities along several different paths. Having a good interview along with having a well crafted resume is the place to start.
I asked these things because while reading your piece, while I could get your drift I thought you didn't say it very well at all and you were quite repetitive. I wonder if you are aware of that. If you reread your post, do you spot redundancy? It seems to me that if you interview like you write in this post, you won't get many asks, even if you otherwise know what you are talking about.
There is also the matter of saying specific things when the situation requires them. You said you know your strengths and weaknesses regarding economics. Was there a reason to mention that? If so, that reason should be brought out into the open. While you don't need to give a full listing, it would have been good to give an example of a particular strength and a different example of a particular weakness. That then might have been followed up with the question - should I be working on my weaknesses to shore them up or should I be finding things that appeal to my strengths? These questions are obvious follow up. I say them here, because you don't need the redundancy to get enough words to your post. There is ample material for that as long as you just look.
Rereading my post I do sound repetitive. Fortunately, I am a much better interviewer in person. I have always been a quick talker. I am a terrible writer and I do acknowledge that. I know that sometimes my thoughts will become circular.
ReplyDeleteI am being coached as to how to answer specific questions while at interviews or settings such as the career fair.
I have no problem talking about my strengths and weaknesses and I actually like when people ask me about my weaknesses because that allows me to delve into my personality traits and how I am a very hard worker and am willing to learn and improve on anything.
An example of that is I sometimes struggle comprehending all that has to do with inflation. Even though I struggle to learn about the topic at first, I realize that, and I work extra hard to make sure I can fully understand and grasp all of the surrounding inflation.