Everything Begins with Self Motivation

Keeping life interesting takes being able to tap into your inner being and revisiting the things you are passionate about. Learning and achieving new skill is a great way to update or reinvent your career.

To help you reach this goal, I came across a series of websites that focus on motivating yourself to learn. This website is generally for students, but I find that the information is applicable for anyone. This website explains the importance of incorporating new skills in your life in order to keep your career vibrant and fresh.

So think about what it is you want to learn. What are some of the things you want to accomplish in your life? See if you can achieve them in a small time frame (2-3 months). Let me know what it was you learned and how it applied to your career at Camille1619@aol.com.

WHICH GRADUATE SCHOOL DID I CHOOSE.........

WAIT FOR IT........WAIT FOR IT........

YEAH!!!!!!!! WHOOOO HOOO!!

INFORMATION INTERVIEW #4

DATE: 2/25/2010

COMPANY: Duke University
TYPE: Private College
LOCATION: Durham, NC
TITLE: Career Advisor
EDUCATION: M.S in International Affairs from Duke University/ B.A in Psychology from Georgetown University
INTREST: Sushi

WHAT DID I LEARN OVERALL FROM THIS INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEW?
I learned that Duke University has the best medical and engineering programs on this side of the U.S. I was quite impressed with the university and its many historical buildings. Albeit al of the glorious history, I found the interview to be quite life changing for me….I know I can be a bit dramatic. However, I really enjoyed the interview and I loved the description of the job. The career advisor is not just sitting and waiting for students to come through the door but they are working on projects, teaching courses and mentoring students.

WHAT WERE THE POSITIVE’S AND NEGATIVE’S OF EACH INTERVIEWEE’S JOB?
Positive – I love this job!! I love that 60% is counseling students one-on-one 30% is programming and teaching and 10% is recruiting.

Negative – I see that in this role you are working with a variety of students with varied backgrounds and with majors that you may not have much experience in. I can see this as a difficult process for you as a counselor and for the student as well. In this role I will just have to spend extra time studying each major.

COULD I HAVE DONE ANYTHING TO IMPROVE THIS INTERVIEW?
This interview was unique because it was a lunch interview. We went to a sushi restaurant and I was a little uncertain if my etiquette skills were on par or not. I have to revisit my grandmothers old etiquette books to see how to politely and with style, to have a dinner interview. I feel overall that I did well, I was just am paranoid of getting food stuck between my teeth, LOL!!

ASSUMING THAT I STILL WANT TO PURSUE MY ORIGINAL CAREER DIRECTION, WHAT IS MY STRATEGY FOR SEEKING A JOB IN THIS FIELD?
This job is the one I want. I could happily work as a Career Advisor for the remainder of my career. So I have thought about how I can build my resume up to fit a job like this. I know that counseling is the main role of this job so I would like to build my resume by working for job/career firms, vocational government offices or work as an entry level Career Advisor for a community college. I know I will get there; I just have to be patient and choose my jobs wisely. (More on my plan later)

INFORMATION INTERVIEW #3

DATE: 2/25/2010

COMPANY: UNC – Chapel Hill
TYPE: State College
LOCATION: Chapel Hill, NC
TITLE: Assistant Director for Career Exploration
EDUCATION: M.S in Counseling from California State University/B.A in Sociology from same school
INTREST: Soccer

WHAT DID I LEARN OVERALL FROM THIS INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEW?
The college saw a need to respond to an overwhelming amount of students whom did not know what career they wanted to pursue. Therefore the school made a position called Career Exploration that I find refreshing and much needed.

WHAT WERE THE POSITIVE’S AND NEGATIVE’S OF EACH INTERVIEWEE’S JOB?
This position may not be such a good fit for me. I feel that as a Career Exploration assistant, one is too distant from the student. Once you help the student find their direction that is the end of the counseling. This aspect does not appeal to me.
In this role, one will need to teach resume improvement courses as well as group counsel students that need more vocational help. I believe doing this would appeal to my need to teach and really “walk” with the student on there journey.

COULD I HAVE DONE ANYTHING TO IMPROVE THIS INTERVIEW?
In this interview, I was a bit late arriving there. This to me, would have been a deal breaker for me but the interviewee was so kind to me about it. I appreciate her kindness but I am upset that I was late. I hope this never happens again.

ASSUMING THAT I STILL WANT TO PURSUE MY ORIGINAL CAREER DIRECTION, WHAT IS MY STRATEGY FOR SEEKING A JOB IN THIS FIELD?
If I were interested in this position, I would first try to find jobs as an advisor for different undergrad programs in order to build up my resume. Doing this will give me a diverse perspective on other careers and it’s corresponding majors, so that when you counsel students who need help identifying a major/career that fulfills there interest, you can administer more efficiently. As important as this position is, this career path is not as appealing as a Student Counselor, Career Counselor or Retention Counselor position. However, the information was good to know.

My Life as a Poem

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Research Begets more Research

I am just overwhelmed today!! When I woke up this morning I did not feel like today was going to be stressful at all. Every Sunday, I map out a plan for the week of what I am going to do, when to start an activity and when I plan to finish it. I also put in all of the “extra” stuff that I do such as, volunteering at the homeless shelter, teaching interns in fashion design, and meeting with my networking group. Right now I am in the middle of a waiting game. I am trying to patiently wait for my admission answers from Winthrop and NC State. So while I am waiting, I have added new projects on to my list and I think they are driving me crazy!

PROJECT #1 – Research potential internship sites/info interview candidates

I had to put these two things in one category because both go hand in hand. So while trying to research potential candidates, I realized that Charlotte’s higher education opportunities are more abundant then I realized. I actually found a website that outlines all the colleges in the USA , which I am using as my jump-off point for finding candidates. However, as I started to delve deeper into the research I found a website that gives me a more distilled list of schools that have TRIO and Upward Bound programs (which services the population that I want to work with). Now I have to reformulate everything to fit hitting these schools up HARD!! Also, I have to keep researching more stuff to get the info I need about these government programs. That’s the point where I became overwhelmed. I need a nap, LOL!!

PROJECT #2 – Narrow down my job choices

So today was also supposed to be dedicated to re-doing my resume to fit changing careers and making a “Functional” resume. Well, I usually start this process looking at what requirements potential colleges want in a counselor. While I was looking, I realized that different higher learning institutions have different kinds of counseling and different counselors have different credentials. I was totally envious of this one woman’s background, which is now my new role-model. Her name is Mrs. Greason and she works as the Sr. Mental Health Counselor at the North Carolina School of the Arts. I must meet her…..she is definitely on my info interview list!! Anyway, this prompted me to really narrow down what I want to do and in what kind of setting. Here is a breakdown of what I came up with for my future:

1-5 year plan:
• Student Counselor/Advisor (Community College)
• Student Advisor (State College)
• TRIO/UPWARD BOUND Counselor (Community or State /College)
• Career Counselor (Community or State /College)

5- 22 year plan:
• Director of TRIO/UPWARD BOUND Services (Community or State /College)
• Director of Career Counselor Services (Community College)

***SIGH***I am overwhelmed again. I can’t wait until this grad school phase is over so I can work at helping people reach their goals. I am tired of think about me right now….I want to start thinking of others. I just need a break…that’s all.

My Interview at Winthrop University

If you are following my blog, ya’ll know that I have applied for graduate school at Winthrop University and North Carolina State University for a Med in Community Counseling.

Now for both universities, I will be interviewed by the faculty and staff before entrance into the program. On February 12th, 2010, I was sweating bullets from 8am – 2pm in the longest interview of my life at Winthrop University!!

Let me tell you what happened…..

INTRO SPEECH – So they eased your fears by giving you a nice PowerPoint about the program and how to get your state licensure to be a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC). By the way, the process to getting this licensure is nothing short of cutting off your finger for admission. I mean, I will have to take 60 CREDIT HOURS (OMG that is a lot of classes with mean a lot of money), 2 years worth of 2000 counseling hours and you have to take a 5 hour test!! OMGeeee!!

ESSAY – Then after the soothing PowerPoint, they lead all 42 of us to a computer lab to type up a 300 word essay on the subject of counseling. In specific, they wanted you to write about if counseling is an ART or a SCIENCE or both. I mean can you imagine writing a paper in APA writing style for only 45 minutes!! Surprisingly, this activity was quite easy for me and enjoyable out of everything.

GROUP ACTIVITY – Then after feeling all overwhelmed, we had to go into a small room that was being videotaped by the faculty. In there you had to pretend to be the counselor and the client and act out a counseling session. That was the most embarrassing to endure because everyone was watching you. SIGH…I need a drink after that!!

GROUP INTERVIEW – This was a part that I wish I could have changed. The faculty then called each person and asked them one interview question. You had to answer in front of everyone. That format was a bit nerve wrecking but I made it through with my sanity still intact!

After all of that, I just want to crawl into bed and stay there for 2 days!! I don’t know what is going to happen at the NC STATE interview. I will let you know then.

Wish me luck on the next one!!