Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays. Who doesn’t love a holiday dedicated to eating, watching football, and spending time with friends and family? But as a college student I have grown to appreciate this special holiday even more for one reason: good food. As a commuter, 95% of the food I eat, I have to cook myself. I love cooking and I’ve enjoyed getting better at it, but I miss having someone to cook for me. That is why Thanksgiving is so great.

Right now, as I’m writing I’m thinking about how fantastic it will be to sit down at a beautifully made table with turkey, stuffing, goodies galore when all I had to do was show up. (In all fairness to myself, I did spend four hours yesterday baking desserts to bring to Thanksgiving dinner, but I was very excited to try a new Key Lime Cheesecake recipe, so it was fun work.) Then when the dinner is over and the kitchen is filled with leftovers, who get to go home with plates filled with turkey and apple pie? The college student that’s who! And with that the beauty of Thanksgiving lives on for the next week through turkey sandwiches and an assortment of homemade pies for every meal. Ah, it’s good to be a college student!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Disclaimer: This post reflects the thoughts of the author and is not meant to offend anyone mentioned or associated with the post.

I may have underestimated how busy I would be when I decided last spring to sign up for six classes for the fall semester (7 classes if you include the 1 credit Co-Op course). “It won’t be so bad!” I told myself as I submitted my class schedule, which was stacked with two honors courses and an 8am twice a week. To top it all off, I am in the process of searching for a six month Co-Op internship in North Carolina that I will start in January. In addition, I run a dog service business part-time with my boyfriend all while commuting to campus. Looking back I realize that I was a bit unprepared for just how much work I would be in for this semester.

Fortunately, I have learned a lot from my super busy semester. These are a few tips that have helped me along the way.

1. Make Lists

Lists have made my life astronomically simpler. I am a very visual person, so by making a list every week with my school work, things I need to do for my Co-Op search, and all outside events, it allows me to plan accordingly and ensure I get it all accomplished.

2. Remove Distractions

I could spend hours and hours on social media and doing random internet searches. I love to cook and I get lost in cooking blogs and finding the best recipes. That being said, it can be a huge waste of time. One of the best things I’ve done is put my phone in another room while I’m studying and using some good old fashioned self control to stop myself from opening Facebook in a new tab while writing that World Civ. paper.

3. Manage and Plan your Time

College students are typically swamped with things to do. Between school work, jobs, sports, clubs, and everything else we have going on, it’s easy to get overwhelmed.   I have found the best way to manage my time efficiently is to plan out each day, with what I want to accomplish, and then prioritize each thing that I need to do.

4. Set Aside Time to Relax

It is very important to find time to decompress and enjoy college. Even taking a night off can make a huge difference. One of the most rewarding things is getting to have a Netflix marathon after a busy week.

The Enrollment Management Committee of the Manning School of Business is pleased to announce Drop-in Advising Sessions! All sessions will take place in the lab, Pasteur 205 on the following days:

Thursday, October 23rd 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm
Monday, October 27th 9:30 am – 11:00 am
Thursday, October 30th 9:00 am – 10:30 am
Tuesday, November 4th 11:30 am – 1:00 pm
Wednesday, November 5th 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm

Registration for Spring 2015 semester courses begins on Monday, November 3rd through iSiS student self-service (based on enrollment appointments). Please make an appointment with your advisor or stop by one of these sessions to talk about your schedule for the spring!

Disclaimer: Anything written in this blog represents the opinions of the author, and no one else. Each blog is written lightly, and is not intended to offend any of the mentioned businesses, locations, students, or staff.

“I wish someone had told me this when I was your age…” This is the good old prelude that everyone 14 through 25 hears enough to feel indifferent. Fortunately, I am discovering that the information that follows this introduction can be extremely valid. For example, the advice about resumes that my boss has been sharing with me and my co-interns has opened our eyes to the purpose of a resume, and how to use one properly.

The advice he has given us so far is written below.

1)      Your resume won’t get you hired. What it will do, though, is get you through the door. Very few people have been hired based on words written on one sheet of paper. The goal of the resume is to do one thing: to pique the interest of the prospective employer and to bring you to the next step, which is the interview.

2)      Looks matter. Your resume must be esthetically appealing, as humans are apt to pay more attention to things that are appealing to the eye. This doesn’t make the prospective employer shallow. What it does mean, is that they are serious about who they want to hire. A visually appealing resume shows them that you care, you pay attention to detail, you care about your brand, and want to give off the best possible impression to those around you.

3)     Tell a story. Humans like to be walked through information in an eloquent yet concise manner. Your resume shouldn’t solely explain what you did in your previous positions. It should explain how you impacted the company’s business, how you helped them reach their goals (mission statement, yearly goals, ROI, etc.), and, most importantly, what you did differently to make your time there matter. Examples and numbers are effective ways to show evidence of this.

4)     Don’t just apply. It’s important that you don’t send along the same version of your resume to a bunch of companies. Tailoring your resume for a specific position will give you a leg up on the competition. It will help you learn more about the position you are applying for, and show the prospective employer that you understand what the company is looking for and that you hold the characteristics they are looking to attain in an employee.

At the end of the day, most people don’t land positions because of their resumes. Nevertheless, every bit of effort helps. Also, often it’s worth absorbing advice given by elders – even if they start it with a cliché lead. Good luck & resume on!

Disclaimer: Anything written in this blog represents the opinions of the author, and no one else. Each blog is written lightly, and is not intended to offend any of the mentioned businesses, locations, students, or staff.

I have hit a turning point in my internship. I had the most terrifying phone call of my life today.

Today began as a day just like every other. I picked up the phone to call some prospects in California around 11:15am (8:15am their time) as I do just about every day. I am greeted by a calm man, and I proceed to share with him why I am calling him. He allows me to introduce our firm and I feel a slight wave of relief as he listens without interrupting my pitch. As I finish my last sentence, I am taken aback when the man erupts into a fiery rage. He has gone from cool and collected to livid and hollering in about 10 seconds.

As I respond to his hollers rapidly with the responses I practiced in training, I can see my coworkers gather around me in anticipation. I continue to do my best to try to calm the prospect and hide my shocked reaction at the same time. Unfortunately, my face is already tomato red. My coworkers stare at me for the tiniest bit of explanation for my red face. To them, it sounds like I am having a productive phone call with an inquisitive prospect. Little do they know…

In another attempt to appease the executive on the other line, I hand the conversation over to a senior wealth advisor. The conversation continues between them – emotions still roaring – with no success.

I was left confused, offended, hurt, and very red from blushing in shock.

The experience has both scarred me, and empowered me. I still have no understanding as to why the man on the other line was so wild, and I probably never will. That’s not what matters though. For me, this served as practice to be on point. It reminded me how crucial it is to know your material, for any and all positions you hold, and to know how to articulate that material.

At the end of the day, the man on the other line earned nothing from his behavior. I, on the other hand, gained more practice and confidence. So, I move forward!

Disclaimer: Anything written in this blog represents the opinions of the author, and no one else. Each blog is written lightly, and is not intended to offend any of the mentioned businesses, locations, students, or staff.

I have officially chosen gas over mascara. As I stared at my online banking account, it was clear to me that I had to choose to spend my last available 20 dollars on one of these two necessities. My heart leaned toward mascara, but my brain knew that I wouldn’t be able to make it to work unless I made a sacrifice. So, I filled my tank.

This is only one of the many pivotal changes that have occurred this summer due to my new responsibilities as an intern. Below, I will list some others.

1. I no longer listen to Kiss 108 or 103.3 AMP Radio. The upbeat hip hop and pop songs that once represented long beach days and late nights now ring in my ears and seem to be limited to about 5 songs on both of these stations. Instead, I have resorted to 92.5 The River and Oldies 106.7 which calm me, and don’t remind me of my commute to and from work, filled with traffic and anticipation of my arrival home.
2. Emails are no longer a professional buffer and alternative to phone calls and texting. Instead, they are an everyday tool for communication between both people I know very well, and don’t know at all.
3. My collection of flats has transformed from cute shoes I wear with cropped jeans to shoes sitting at the floor of the passenger seat in my car, only retrieved as a functional shoe to wear while driving.
4. Weekends are no longer a time to hang out with whomever whenever, but are instead a time to strategically plan activities and people to see. My time has become more valuable and I certainly don’t want to waste the limited amount that I have free.

I am quickly learning that internships teach you more than how to be professional and how to write a signature on an email. This summer is teaching me how to manage my time, and how simple luxuries such as music and attire hold much more value as you enter the professional world.

On the upper hand, most of my work involves phone calls, which means that the people on the other line can’t see my mascara-less eyes, right?

Disclaimer: Anything written in this blog represents the opinions of the author, and no one else. Each blog is written lightly, and is not intended to offend any of the mentioned businesses, locations, students, or staff.

We are finally in the prime of the summer. The rain of May has dwindled into flowers and beach weather in June. Vacations have begun and the fourth of July is around the corner.

The view is a little different than usual on my end this summer. Instead of waking up slowly and working late into the night as a waitress, I am waking up with the rest of the commuters and hitting the hay shortly after the sun sets. The yellow that surrounds me is not that of the rays of the sunshine, but the light yellow-tan color of the walls of an office building and the blue of the clear sky has been replaced by the blue background of the desktop that I work on seven hours out of the day.

This summer I am working at a private wealth management firm in Marlborough, Ferris Capital. My job, along with five other interns, is to help the firm with business development. I am to learn the ins and outs of the company in order to learn Ferris Capital’s specific mission and value-add and to broaden my knowledge of the finance industry, and to reach out to prospective clients.

When I tell people my summer plans, they either think that I am “on the right track” or absolutely crazy to willingly give up my summer as a 20-year-old to an office job five days out of the week. Only time will tell which is true…

Here, I plan to write roughly once a week about my experiences during the internship. I am posting the first three a little late, so bare with me on the order of the posts.

Feel free to reach out throughout the summer by commenting on the post via Facebook or emailing me at Thalia_Chodat@student.uml.edu with questions about resumes, internship/co-op searches, interviews, internship attire, time management, etc.

Wish me luck!

Disclaimer: Anything written in this blog represents the opinions of the author, and no one else. Each blog is written lightly, and is not intended to offend any of the mentioned businesses, locations, students, or staff.

UMass Lowell is a trick. It has the immense variety and amount of resources that universities tend to have, but at the same time it has something different mixed into the large community. What makes UMass Lowell different is that it gives students the opportunity to become a tightknit team of professionals and students who have the same goal: to learn & to do their best in every endeavor.

I can speak to this specifically from my experiences as an undergraduate studying at the Manning School of Business. The first week of my freshman year I was thinking, “Does anyone know that I exist? If I fail, does it even really matter to anyone here?” Boy, was I foolish to think that. It didn’t take long for several of my professors to know me by name and to inquire about my life and background. And, they actually cared.

Now, as I conclude my sophomore year, the same community from the Manning School of Business is supporting my efforts to better my academic and professional careers. One individual in particular who I have had the pleasure to meet and spend some time with is Dean Kathryn Carter.

Dean Carter seems to be this omnipresent figure at the Manning School of Business whose job is to advocate for our education and success on a large scale. It’s easy to forget about her daily tasks to support the Manning School of Business because she is not present in our classes or dorms. Fortunately, the Manning School of Business’s Dean’s Student Leadership Council has organized the first ever Dean’s Forum to increase one-to-one interactions with students and the Dean.

In her own words, Dean Carter describes the Manning School of Business in her Dean’s Message here: http://www.uml.edu/MSB/About-Us/Deans-Message.aspx. A quote from her message that explains why the Dean’s Forum is so important for the MSB is, “The Manning School of Business is administered with a ‘students first’ philosophy, which makes professors, advisors, staff, administrators and the dean accessible to students.”

The Dean will be in Pasteur 301 on Thursday April 17^th from 12:30pm to 1:45pm. She will chat a little bit about the Manning School of Business advising changes and the new Pulichino Tong Business Building to be completed in 2016. Afterward, she will leave the floor open for students’ questions and comments about anything at the University and specifically the Manning School of Business. The purpose of the forum is to let students know that the Dean is a resource for them and that she treasures students’ perspectives.

Registration for the Fall 2014 semester begins April 15th! The Manning School of Business offers drop-in advising sessions to cater to your busy schedules. These sessions serve as a stress-free resource for you to continue your educational career. To help you decide what classes you need to take, we have organized Drop-in Advising Sessions in Pasteur 205 on the following days:

Friday, April 4th 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Monday, April 7th 1:00am to Noon

Tuesday, April 15th 12:30pm to 1:30pm

Wednesday, April 23rd 9:00am to 11:00am

There will be faculty members on-hand as well as a representative from the Dean’s Office who will be happy to answer any questions you may have. We can help you figure out if you are on track, what classes you need to take to move forward with your degree, how to add/drop concentrations, and more.

To learn more about what you need to do to prepare for next semester, look here: http://www.uml.edu/registrar/