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(female interviewer) Are there positive things you appreciate
and the like after graduation?
You really focused on the challenges.
Are there some things you look forward to?
(female 2) Making money [laughing].
That is a plus. Making money. Traveling.
Ever since I've been working I travel a ton.
So once a year I make a goal of mine to go somewhere I've
never been.
And last summer actually, I went back to France.
I'm originally from France and I haven't been back in 16 years.
So I went back for a month.
And that was refreshing and I think that's the best part
after college.
Making money and being able to buy things you want.
And being able to do things you want.
And for me I'm big on traveling so I travel all the time.
You wouldn't be able to do that as a poor college student.
So that's a plus.
(female 3) My transition was really short.
[inaudible] I graduated and three weeks later I started
working full-time. Two year's straight.
And then two weeks before I started grad school was my
last day of work.
So I literally had two weeks from undergrad to work and two
weeks from professional work to grad school.
So I didn't have a lot of time in-between.
And I think that was one of my regrets.
I should have -- maybe waited a little bit longer.
Just so I can have more time for myself.
So I could just kind of figure things out.
That was-- When I look back I say I should have maybe waited
a month before I started work or maybe I should've maybe
taken that summer off before I started graduate school.
Because it was stressful.
[laughing] Trying to wrap up what I do at work and then
starting something completely new.
I think, something positive that came out of it was,
yeah the money's nice. But I gained a lot of skills too
as a working professional. I work here on campus.
And I network with a lot of people.
With my colleagues, with directors, and deans.
They get to know you and you get to know them.
And I think because I was at university I was always
surrounded by young students, I think that motivated
me to go back to school too.
Like I knew that I was going to go back,
but I think a lot of my friends were like,
you know if you're going to take a year or more off you're
never going to go back to school.
And I'm just like, no, I am.
Seriously they did not believe me.
Students just finish undergrad and then go straight to school.
And I said I wanna work and get some experience first and
then go to school.
And I think grad school would much rather have students
get done, work a little bit, get some experience
and then go to school.
'Cause your experience in grad school would be just be that
so much better.
A lot of my colleagues have -- they've like my age,
a little bit older.
They've had a lot of experience and they bring so
much to the classroom.
And I do know a few of my colleagues who have just
graduated last year and started
and they don't talk a lot. Like my classes
are really small, so all we do is discuss.
Talk about our experiences, talk about all these different
things and they don't talk a lot
'cause they don't have experience.
Maybe they aren't as assertive or confident.
Cause I was really shy too when I was an undergrad.
And those two years when I was working I learned so much and
became so much more confident. And you just learn
all these different skills as a working professional.
And then transitioning to grad school and
having that, you know is a completely different
person going with grad school. I knew I should be
here, I knew what I wanted to do, why I was there.
And so, you know, if your friends say you're not gonna
go back to school if you take a couple years off,
and go and prove 'em wrong. I sure did.
[laughing] I sure did.
I'm back in school and I think, you know,
you just have to be focused and listen to yourself.
Because you know yourself best.
(male) Well I guess I'm not gonna lie.
Right when I graduated I was really,
I think I was a little affraid of the unknown.
I was so used to having things,
having class on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Having my workday set for Tuesdays and Thursday.
And then, of course, a wedding
or a funeral on Saturday or Sunday. But after I graduated
I really didn't know what was going to happen.
I was in the process of applying for tons of different jobs.
And the job market kind of fell down when I just
graduated, so it was tough. I admit it was
extremely tough. But throughout all of that
I was able to find a job at Regions Hospital.
And this is what my work week looks like.
[laughing]. Work, work, work, work, work.
If you can handle that, that's what we're all going through
right now is we're working. And you gotta really understand
why you wanted to work.
And the reason why I chose to work was to gain the
experience I need in order to get into grad school.
It's imperative for me to understand what some of the
therapists do in their workforce so that I can build
a greater understanding of what I want to do.
And sort of solidify what plans I want to make or what
plans I want to pursue in the future.
So, besides from making money and being able to pay off some
student debt, some student loans,
I have gained a lot of experience throughout the one
and a half years that I've been there.
Just with being able to work with patients,
being a little bit more personable with the physical
therapists and getting really good recommendations.
[laughing] I learned a lot.
(interviewer) Some people submitted questions at the end
of our session last week so I want to make sure to get
through a few of those. Last week our conversation
was interviewing and cultural differences that might
come up in interviewing.
So some people asked the
questions about how did your interviews go?
Were there cultural differences that you had to
work through?
Did that impact your confidence?
Please talk about the job interview process that you
experienced as you applied and as you've been going through a
job search.
(female 1) I hate interviews.
[laughing] But at the same time,
you know, it definitely gives you a rush.
Once you kind of go through it,
it was really good. I've had-- I think my situation's
a little bit different. I knew, like graduating
from high school, that I wanted to work
for Admission Possible. So like five years at the
U, I still want to work for the Admission Possible.
So that was like the one position I applied for.
I wasn't going to be able to apply for anything else.
And then I was like, okay, maybe I should apply to some
other places. So I applied, I only had two interviews.
One was Admission Possible and I had another interview.
'Cause those were the only ones I applied to.
I mean, the one with Admission Possible -- it's a nonprofit
-- they're really different with their interview.
I'm always nervous. Sometimes I think I'm socially awkward.
[laughing] But you know, once you're there,
the one thing that I kind of learned at [counseling ?],
like the most important thing that you're ever going to
solve in life is yourself. And that's the one thing
-- okay it's not the one thing --
but it something that I brought with me when I went to
interviews. I'm here now, like they saw something
on my resume that they like, ya know. So I'm here to
sell myself to this organization or this company.
And I think, culturally, I didn't feel any cultural
barriers when I was in my interviews.
I applied to both organizations, two organizations
that really focused on working with minorities.
So you know, what I brought to the table was they really
enjoy, they really loved what I had to say about what I knew
about working with minorities myself.
So it wasn't a big deal.
I don't know. I think once you kind of start
you always have jitters, but once we start
talking about ourself and really practice talking
about ourself-- I told my co-worker
"I'm going to a panel; I'm going to have so much fun
'cause I love to talk about myself!"
[laughing] So, you know, you talk about yourself.
You talk about your experiences.
Your experience at school, with your past jobs,
and you've obviously done something good in your four or
five years in college or in your life.
You know, there's always something that you can always
highlight on. And I think one of my problems is, one
of my supervisors told me, is I could be really modest.
You know, I do a lot of things and when people ask me what
I do it's like, I don't know, I just kind of work and stuff.
But really highlight the little things that you do.
Because that really, if you could really talk with passion
about what you've done. Either if it's with volunteering
work or-- When I did my interview I talked about
working in my class project.
Ya know, I was at Carlson, and I was the only Asian girl
in a group of like, white people. And so, like, we
had a diversity project. And I really talked about
that. Ya know, it was really odd at first,
but then-- And I talked about my struggles in class and
like, how I overcame that. And you know, when
you do that in your interview, they really like it.
Once you can talk about something that you were like,
something that you overcame, employers love that.
When they can see that you've done something out of your
element or something you felt uncomfortable about
they know that if you're working with them then, if you were
[after your] struggle then they know that you can overcome that.
Because that's what type of person you are.
[inaudible] Sorry.
(female 2) I think for me, when I went to Target the
interview process was a little different than other jobs I had.
During my time at Target I learned a lot.
Target really trains you on how to interview.
They do tons of mock interviews,
which is, you sit down
with a supervisor. Not your own,
but another supervisor, and then you do a run-through
of your interview skills. So having that practice I would say
interview, interview, interview. If you're not comfortable,
videotape yourself, 'cause you'll notice yourself
do weird hand gestures, [inaudible] you don't know.
But pay attention to those things.
Practice makes perfect. For me, I think that before I started
work at Target I didn't really understand how important
that culture aspect was.
But after being at Target for four years when I do
interviews -- I just had one yesterday actually with a
consulting firm. And when I started asking questions,
one of the questions I asked them was,
tell me about your culture. Tell me about your company's culture.
I think one piece is that you really have to know
who you are. You have to understand the kind of environment
you want to work in. The kind of person you are
and how you can excel. I knew I wanted to work
in a place that was diverse. I knew I wanted
to work in a place that was flexible with their schedule.
That would allow me to work from home.
So that culture aspect is not so much that I'm home,
or I'm a female or this or that.
But once you know who you are you know the kind of
environment you excel in, you start to pick that up.
And you start to-- Just like they're interviewing you,
you're interviewing them. You want to know if you go
into that company, or that organization are you going
to excel because the culture fit is there. I think that's one
piece that I took away from my experience at Target.
The way I looked at Target is it was a very good experience
and I grew a lot and it made me smarter.
It made me smarter on the way I want to work,
and I really be into that [inaudible] add to the potential.
Going back to that culture piece, it's so important.
I'm surprised that not all people want emphasis on it.
But the way you're going to excel if you end up in a
company or organization where you fit in well.