What first year students need to know about Career Development.

When entering into your first year of college, you are bombarded with more information then you may know what to do with. From how to live on your own to how to develop a career there is much to be learned. It can all be so overwhelming and confusing at first, especially when not everything being said is important. However we are going to tell you exactly what you need to know about career development and only the important stuff of course! We are going to tell you exactly how to get on track to land your dream job!
The first and most important thing to remember when preparing for a career is that the staff in the career development office is more than available to help you succeed and get a head start on a career of your choice.
Don’t know what career you want yet? We can help you with that! Come in and take our FOCUS test to help determine what career field would be right for you. This multi level test informs you of a major that is right for you based on interest, personality, and goals. Once you are done taking the FOCUS test feel free to participate in “What can I do with a major in….” A resource that shows you exactly what type of jobs are available with a degree in that particular field. It can also show you how to break into these jobs.
Have you picked a degree but still want to get ahead? Career Development can tell you exactly what skills and qualities employers are looking for and help you figure out how to acquire them. They can also assist you in creating a resume, updating your resume, or using your resume to help you obtain a summer job or internship.
Finally the last and most important thing you need to know is that learning does not just go on inside the classroom. The best way to really take advantage of all college has to offer stay on track and focus on your career and make it the best 4 years of your life is to do more than just sit in a classroom. Get involved! Attend the club fair in September to see all the wonderful clubs and organizations Chestnut Hill has to offer. Consider volunteering or participating in service opportunities through campus ministry. Attend school functions and have fun at them with your friends! And finally pick a club organization or sport and get involved. Stick with it. Become part of it and make them like your second family. I promise it will make all the difference in your career development and you won’t regret it.
College as well as life is a wonderful and beautiful thing full of opportunity. “Life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around every once in a while, you might miss it” So take time to stop and take advantage of all Career Development at Chestnut Hill has to offer!

This blog was created by Emily Elizabeth Sanders

KAPLAN Applying to Graduate Schools Seminar: How to Become a Successful Applicant.

We all remember the process we went through when applying to colleges: personal essays, countless letters of recommendations, SAT scores, academic grades and extracurricular activities were all vital in getting into our “dream” school. If you’re thinking about applying to graduate school after your undergraduate studies, the process will seem all too familiar. On October 24^th, Chestnut Hill College invited a Kaplan specialist to speak to students on the ins-and-outs of how to prepare a sterling application. Like undergraduate applications, the graduate school or schools look at all the required statistical information (grade point average, as well as GRE/GMAT or LSAT test scores) but take more time assessing your qualitative attributes, or who you are as an individual. Essentially, as the speaker emphasized, it is more about who you are and how well you can convince them that they would benefit from your enrollment.

One of the common misconceptions when applying to a graduate program is that the test score and GPA speak for themselves. This is not true!  Your test score and GPA not only needs to match the criteria of the program but is pretty much the “key” to unlocking the door to having your application considered. This is where your personal experiences, letters of recommendation, resume and any other unique information come into play. How well you did on the test will not secure you a spot.

However, on the other hand, thinking that your “awesomeness” will guarantee you a spot (especially if your grades don’t match their requirements) is not a sure shot either. Your experiences, recommendations and other character enhancing materials, although important, will not be enough to grant you consideration—and that is if your application even gets glanced at. The numbers are what get you into the right hands in the first place.

The main factor to think about before you even begin compiling your application is money. As if undergrad hasn’t put you in enough debt, you have to really decide if the money you shell out for the program is going to ensure you a better career. But before you can even decide if you can afford it, make sure grad school is right for you. Think about where you want to be, research that title and what the benefits are if you decide to complete a graduate program. The test alone costs a few hundred dollars to take each time, especially if you have to retake it.  Not to mention the cost of attending grad school is often times paid for by you, out of pocket (which is definitely not cheap).

So if you’re thinking about furthering your education, consider these tips beforehand:

Is this particular program/school the right fit? Research your choices and narrow down what school has the most to offer.

Can you afford it? If you are already in the workplace, some companies offer to pay for it if it is a requirement for your field.

Make your experience (personal and professional) work for you. Graduate schools are looking for well-rounded individuals so the more multi-faceted you seem the better chance you have of catching their eye.

Study, study, study for the test! As mentioned before, it costs several hundred dollars to take it each time and you can only take it a certain amount of times in a five-year span so a bad score can hurt your chances.

If grad school is your next stop, be sure to be prepared. And remember to treat your application as though it is a snapshot: you want the most flattering (and honest!) image portrayed that will be guaranteed to stand out from the rest.

*This blog post was written by Griselle Rodriguez

The LSAT

According to the United States department bureau of labor statistics, the average lawyer makes approximately  $112,760 per year which translates to $54.21 per hour. If you are anything similar to your typical college, those numbers seem as appealing as a Steve’s cheese steak. However, becoming a lawyer is a tough task. Not only is the journey to get there an arduous one with 4 years of undergraduate college followed by another 3 years of law school. 

Once you get over the additional schooling, it’s time to consider the competitive environment to get into law school. Law schools have notoriously low acceptance rates. For instance, in 2009 Yale University (considered by many to be the premier law school in the nation) had an acceptance rate of a mere 7%, Stanford University was slightly better with 9%  while Harvard accepted 11.8% of its applicants. Despite those numbers, potential applicants have not stopped applying as 129, 414 people took the LSAT’s in December of 2010.  With that much competition, it’s important to find a way to distinguish yourself from the rest of the ”pack”. That’s where your LSAT performance comes in. With a strong showing at the LSAT’S, you can increase your chances at being accepted by your law school of choice.

So how does one increase their chances of mastering the LSAT’s? Preparation, lots and lots of it. The LSAT’s consist of five 35-minute multiple choice sections followed by an unscored writing sample section. The breakdown of the test is as follows:

“Logical Reasoning“

In these sections, a short paragraph is presented and you are asked a question based on its contents. You may be asked to identify the main point of the paragraph, find an answer that must be true based on the paragraph, find an answer choice that weakens the argument made in the paragraph, or find an assumption made by the paragraph. Each section of logical reasoning is 35 minutes long and contains a total of 24 to 26 questions.

“Reading Comprehension”

This section contains four longer passages of about 500 to 600 words. Each passage is accompanied by five to seven questions based on the passage. The questions ask you to identify the main point of the passage and to make reasonable inferences based on the passage. The reading comprehension section is 35 minutes long and contains a total of 26 to 28 questions.

“Analytical Reasoning”

This section contains four “games,” each accompanied by five to seven questions. Each “Game” describes a basic scenario that is accompanied by a list of rules. The questions ask examinees to identify what must be true and cannot be true based on the rules given.

 The score of a LSAT taker is determined by adding the number of questions correctly answered by the test taker and fitting them to the scale of the test. The aforementioned scale is from 120 to 180 points. Approximately 60% of test takers tend to score between 140 and 160 when they take the LSAT. Only 12% of people will end up getting between 160 and 170, a meager 3% will examinees will be fortunate enough to score a 170 or above. To increase you chances of scoring higher, make sure you answer every question even if you are guessing because the LSAT does not penalize for answering incorrectly.

The information, above, was taken from the following sites:

 http://www.admissionsconsultants.com/lsat/test.asp

http://www.ilrg.com/rankings/law/index.php

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/25/a-sign-of-the-recovery-law-school-applications-fall//1/asc/Accept

Skype in the Workplace

 

Since its inception in the minds of creators Janus Friis (Denmark) and Niklas Zennstrom (Sweden) in 2003, the voice over Internet protocol technology known as Skype has grown exponentially. In fact, the online service had approximately 663 million registered users as of September 2011. What started as an idea has come to change technology and our everyday habits. Not only is Skype used by college students everywhere to talk to their friends and family, it has also started to be used by workplaces all around the United States. So, just how has Skype changed the workplace?

Interviews – Do you live hundreds of miles away from a potential place of employment? Years ago, you would have to pick your best suit and head to whatever city the company you were looking to be employed by was located. However, Skype has changed all of that. Now, all you have to do is sit in front of your computer or laptop and you can be talking to your potential employers. It’s important to keep in mind that the rules for an interview still apply which means that you should dress well for the interview. Moreover, make sure that the room you are sitting in is clean and organized. Whether face to face or on Skype, first impressions still do matter.   

Conference Calls – Would you like to make a presentation to a boos that’s on vacation or is overseas? Perhaps, you are in a situation where you have to taalk to several people at the same time. In either situation, Skype will be your new best friend. Skype gives office workers the capability to talk long distance or include several people in the same conversation.

Those are just two of major uses of Skype in the workplace, the creative possibilities that Skype provides are endless. If you have used Skype in a creative manner, we would love to hear from you. Let us know in the comments section!

Phone Interviews

Apart from being a Social/New Media Assistant for the office of Career development, I’m also a Resident Assistant for the Residence Life Department of Chestnut Hill College. During a meeting with my Residence Coordinator (my supervisor), we were discussing her future job options once she leaves Chestnut Hill College. She brought up the fact that she had interviewed at several places (including Penn State University) and she had a phone interview lined up in the upcoming weeks. Earlier on in the year, I had heard about phone interviews but this truly got my interest piqued regarding phone interviews. After asking some questions of other job seekers, I learned that phone interviews are quite important for job seekers With that in mind, I fully immersed myself in research and came up with some tips for those who will have to face phone interviews in their quest to locate jobs.

First, it’s important to know that employers use phone interviews as a way of  identifying and recruiting candidates for employment. Furthermore, phone interviews are often used to screen candidates in order to diminish the pool of applicants who will be invited for in-person interviews. They can also be used by companies in order to lessen the costs of interviewing a candidate who is out-of-town or out-of-state.

After figuring out what phone interviews are used for, I conducted some high-class research in order to find out some tips for a successful phone interviewing tips.

• Use a landline - Although cell phones are the choice of communication for most of the younger generation, when it comes to a phone interview, you should play it safe and use a landline. Don’t allow outside noises or a choppy cell signal keep you from an awesome opportunity. Making the call from a landline leaves less room for misinterpretation and cuts the odds of disconnection to a minimum
• No pets allowed – Look everyone loves their pet but no one is going to think any less of you if you move your pet for the duration of the interview. If you conduct the phone interview from home, do it in a pet-free room. Make sure your cat, dog or bird is occupied and safe in another room, so barking and meowing is out of earshot. As cuddly as they might be, don’t give a pet the opportunity to be a distraction during this important phone call.
•  Be ready! – Prepare all of the materials you will need for the interview and be at the location of the call at least five minutes early. The interviewer can call early. In fact, some hiring agents use this as a tactic to test candidates. If you want to take it a step further, have a physical copy of your resume and the job description in front of you during the call. Type up a bulleted list of items you want to cover during the conversation.

Hopefully, now you are prepared for any future phone interviews that come your way. Good Luck, Griffins!

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs: 34 Reasons the 22nd Annual Job Fair was a Success

On March 21^st Chestnut Hill College hosted 2012’s 22^nd job fair. The fair was composed of several different types of employers from government jobs like the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support all the way to the neighborhood friendly WAWA. Sorgenti Arena was filled with Chestnut Hill undergraduates as well as many graduate students and members of other colleges.

The job fair was a great chance for students to show off their newly polished resumes and for other students it was a chance to learn what employers were looking for. Job fairs are not exactly meant to get someone a job on the spot, though eventually it may turn into an opportunity, but instead they should be used by students as confidence builders and opportunities to make connections with potential employers or someone that may lead you to employment.

So if you attended the job fair and didn’t walk away with a job don’t be discouraged. In all things you gained some experience and knowledge that will be beneficial in the future. For those that were not able to make it to the job fair do not be alarmed at all the opportunities you missed. Career Development will meet with you on the 3^rd floor of SJH – North Corridor.

If you do not have time to come see us, log into our Blackboard site.  Look under “Jobs-Full-time” of the 22^nd Annual Job Fair Directory which will show you all the employers that came to the job fair!

*This blog post was written by Aaaron Simpson’ 14

Greater Philadelphia Teacher Job Fair 2012

Job Fair History and Details

                For those of you who may have missed the Greater Philadelphia Teacher Job Fair, here is some important information on what happened the day of the event and how you still have a chance to get involved! Beginning approximately twenty years ago, institutions of higher education in the Philadelphia area decided to gather their career service departments together in order to exchange information and ideas. Fourteen years ago the twenty-seven institutions formed what is now known as the Delaware Valley Career Planners, this Consortium’s sole purpose today is to sponsor the annual teacher job fair.

This year the job fair was held on March 15, 2012, from 9:00am-3:30pm at West Chester University. Students at Chestnut Hill were preparing before this day; however, with forty-seven pre-registering for the event and thirteen additional students who registered the day of the event. As a tip for future candidates, pre-registering for the event is always a great idea.  There are two advantages: first, the price of admission is just five dollars instead of the fifteen at the door; second, you are able to enter the fair an entire hour earlier before other candidates. All together the event drew an estimated 2,000 job candidates, final numbers have not been posted yet.  Around 200 employees present from various school districts around the area such as: Philadelphia, Cheltenham, and Upper Darby just to name a few.

 

Scholarship Information

Whether you attended the Job Fair or not, there is still another opportunity available from the Delaware Valley Career Planners. As a student in one of the DVEC Schools, you are also eligible to apply for one of the Hannah Amgott Memorial scholarships! If you will be completing your degree or completing coursework for certification in May, August, or December of 2013 you are able to apply. Created to reward students exhibiting excellence in the pursuit of education, up to five awards of $1000 each will be offered, based on merit. Details and applications are available in the Career Development Office on the 3^rd Floor of Saint Joseph’s Hall, come in as soon as possible; the deadline for applications is April 6, 2012!