Saying goodbye in the work place

By Neysa Herrera 

To say goodbye in your work place is one of the most difficult moments when you have established real friendship with some of your coworkers, and shared the most amazing experiences of your life with your supervisors and team.

During four months working with the Liberal Arts Career Development office I have grown enormously in my personal and professional life. It was a learning- challenging experience from the very beginning that make me realize how capable I am to go even further from I have already gone.

The first month of my internship, I was a scared girl wondering if she could ever be part of this new environment very different from the one she was used to. But there was one thing always on my mind: this was the opportunity to learn as much as possible about the work place and I was grateful to have it because I knew this experience will provide me with great skills and value and the job market that I always wanted.

Through the weeks a spent there, I was corrected many times by my boss and supervisor, and every time that happened I struggled a little but that wasn’t because I didn’t know corrections and mistakes were part of the process (that was something I have always had clear), that was because of my self-pressure. I am aware of the fact that I have always been a hard with myself since my motto in life is: “If you are going to do something, do it right”. Sometimes being that hard with ourselves, it not a good thing. Sometimes, you have to allow yourself fail to learn from your mistakes and have enough strength to not to struggle and just say: “ok. I have mistaken in this and I am going to work on solve it”.

At the end of this experience, this internship has made me closer to that person. I am personally and professionally stronger than I was four months ago. The fact that I had taken challenges and gotten through the obstacles have convinced me that I am more skilled and capable that I thought and for that I have to thank every single person I met along this journey. I have gained lessons that will stay with me the rest of my life. Also, I have built relations that I need to maintain for how valuable they are.   

So, at the end of this article, I woud like to say thank you to Lisa Snodgrass and Kathryn Travis, my guides in this path, Janna Parke, Bronwyn Huddleson, Maureen Corbett, Tanvir Rahman, Shelby Oyer, Ashley Wagner and Shahd Khawaja for providing me with this great experience. This is not a “good- bye” this is a “see you soon”.

Thank you!

The Importance of Alumni Panels

By Neysa Herrera Cuello

Alumni are ambassadors of their Alma Mater and are vital in the guidance of new students. This tye of events reflect the importance of networking also, they are crucial for undergrad students in joining organizations.

These networking events are an opportunity for students in undergraduate programas to learn about graduate students career path and to identify how alumni’s choices made during their in – college years have provided significant benefits to their work life. Alumni could be a good resource of information in discovering options in your college or major career.

College of Liberal Arts Alumni Advice Panel offers the opportunity to Purdue students to meet and greet young alumni with Liberal Arts degrees through a one and a half hour event, where students can do networking with outstanding graduates as they ask them about their experiences in colleges and made decisions throughout their career paths.

This event will be hold in Beering Hall; on Novemer 19^th, room 1284; from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm.

All Liberal Arts students at Purdue University are invited. This is a great opportunity to start building your own career path.

If you need more information about the panelist and the entire event, go to:

http://www.cla.purdue.edu/alumni/calendar/Alumni_Panel_and_Networking.html

Don't miss out!!

My internship abroad experience

By: Neysa Herrera Cuello

Leaving my country, my family and friends; living in a very different town from my natal Cartagena has been the scariest but amazing experience of my life.

The idea of moving to another country with a different language, style of life and a whole different system, creates a great deal of anxiety. The labor world will always be unknown and a bug source of fear for senior students expected to be in the labor market soon, even more if your first contact with that world will be in a country with different culture, norms and values in the work place. So, as a twenty years senior student from Cartagena, Colombia, that never had traveled out of the country without her parents before, my biggest fear was not to be able to adapt myself well in the United States and to function in a location that is thousands of miles away from my comfortable zone with friends, family and the system I am used to. It was a rare combination between fear and excitement.

It has been three months now since I started my internship in the Liberal Arts Career Development office and I can tell I have learned a lot more about myself in this three months than I did in the five years in my home university because of facing the unique and real challenge that this experience represents. Every day at my internship is a testing one, the fact that I have been able to go through the obstacles and learn from the mistakes I have made, has contributed to make me a mature person with an increased confidence in myself, capable to lead in a global environment respecting and valuing other cultures in order to learn from them.

The cultural immersion that this internship has provided me with a strong understanding of business practices and learn more about what it takes to be successful working abroad as well as giving me the opportunity to network with professionals in another part of the world.

Speaking about the benefits that this experience has brought to my life, I have to tell that not only I have gained professional skills in an international context, but also I have developed language skills related with business communication in the best environment possible – a place where I speak the language in real situations and I am forced to do it.

Interning abroad has provided me with personal life enrichment and fulfillment that I am sure it will stay with me for the rest of my life. I feel confident to sell myself in front of employers as the one asset that they are looking for, and I am not afraid to prove it. I believe that tomorrow’s companies need employers with the capacity to understand global environments, and this type of experiences give you that value in your Resume. My internship in the LACD office has been a continuously learning experience and a life training. It has been a journey where I have met very capable and skilled people who I have learned a lot from. Also, I have gained good friends. You don’t get all experiences at once by always living in your comfortable zone. My tip is: Take the chance, go out and explore the world by yourself! 

Life is a journey.

By Neysa Herrera

Few days ago, I met with a good friend of mine. We were talking about business and life. I love those sort of conversations. They make you re-think your ideas and philosophize about the path you are taking in life while you are drinking a warm cup of coffee.

She was telling me she was worried about her daughter Victoria because she is not sleeping enough at night. She barely eat because she has to be studying every time for an exam to be admitted in the medical school. Well, she is a nuclear engineer who is working on the cure for cancer. I don’t understand why she is so worried about her, it makes total sense for me. I know she wants to do huge things and change the world and I am sure she will. That sacrifice must be rewarded.

So, this is what I want to talk about here. Sacrifices are rewarded someday, some way and you will notice. But if you don’t make any, how do you expect to get want you want or live what you always have dreamed of? Life it is a path, yes! ... A journey.  It is a lane where you have to achieve things (goals) and make sacrifices to become in the person that you want to be. In your professional life, you have to follow a Career path that goes from your first day of elementary school ad that will last throughout your entire life.

In this journey every single goal achieved is not an ending but a beginning of a new adventure. The fun with it, it’s up to you. It depends on the passion that you have about your goals that makes you to be the best in every singles thing you do.

So, definitely your future it’s up to you; it’s up to the sacrifices you make along your career path. It’s up to your decision between having fun with your friends in a party or stay at home or in the library studying for your exams. Be aware that every single step, every single move counts for benefit or harm. You decide how you want those moments impact  your life.

Take the control of your life, of your career. Life is a journey but make sure you are the manager of yours. Don’t let life randomly kick you into the professional you don’t want to be. And always remember to advance yourself.

So you want to find a job via Social Media?

By: Neysa Herrera

If you are in the job market: got recently fired, soon to graduate from college or university or looking for career opportunity; this information might be useful for you. All you need to keep clear is that searching for a job is all about marketing a product, you.

Immediately, when you are looking for a job, an entire process begin. You build your resume obsessed by applying to every opening you find, to make sure you find something that fits well in you background. You also begin to remember and contact old friends to let them know that you are in the market and to ask for placement help. Then, you have created all a networking campaign emailing your contacts, using online tools like LinkedIn, hoping that someone knows of a job opportunity that feeds your needs.

Since many people find jobs in the traditional way: chasing jobs and companies through webpages and newspapers, you need to know that Social Media offer an interesting new way to interact and meet potential employers. An example case of the above is David Murray’s who found his ideal job via twitter as assistant webmaster of client services for the Bivings Group; several months later, he was promoted to director of social web communications.

As people interact and connect with many others, Social Media offers very powerful opportunities to network. David Meerman, in his article The New Rules of Marketing and PR, makes an analogy to cocktail parties: “(…) Just like a physical cocktail party, if you are unemployed and looking for work, the people you meet may be I a position to introduce you to that perfect employer”. The best part about Social Media is that the opposite is also true: Nowadays, smart employers are looking for the perfect asset to their companies in a certain job via online.

So, knowing that employers are looking for employees through the Social Medias if you want to make Social Media part of your job search, you have to know how to market yourself in the virtual world. The most important things for you to pay attention the most  are: First, content, (what you publish should be interesting for employers and should show your abilities and skills); and second, the ability to understand that Social Media could be a great instrument to get job opportunities, as long as you use them in a strategic and professional way.

In conclusion, if you want to get a job, go viral in social media sites such as Facebook, twitter and LinkedIn. In order to do it, instead of being ad advertiser, you have to become a publisher of content that employers are eager to consume. Keep always in mind that, once you decide doing your job research though Social Media, you have to realize that it is not for make friends, and post hot photos. Remember that you want to target employers, not to increase your list of party contacts.

Make them believe that no one can do it better than you

By : Neysa Herrera

Nowadays, the job field is very competitive. Like a pool full of sharks. Every single professional these days is supposed to be a shark. It is not enough just to be good, you have to be great; you have to be the best to get it.

In order to get there, to be the best, you have to accomplish many levels of training, which means you have to go through a long path to prepare yourself as a competitive professional. It is not a one day thing. That path starts since we are little, right when you start to figure out what you are passionate about. That passion will be the motor to achieve your goals and to stand up every time you fail, because…yes! You will fail many times but those experiences are steps in the training. They help you to learn from your mistakes and to do everything better than you did it before.

After knowing your passion, “you start to move your life in that direction and every decision you make from what you eat to what you do with your time at night turns you into who you are tomorrow, and the day after that. Every single day when you look at yourself in the mirror you visualize who you want to be, and start sculpting yourself into that person”[1]. So, you got to start doing things that suit you in that profession that you believe in. That is what the best professionals do. First of all, they have to believe in themselves to, then, make other people (recruiters) believe in them.

When the job search starts, the way you organize your application, your resume and letter of interest shows if you are a good candidate or the best.  You must know what recruiters are looking for and if you could be the best asset for their companies, if not, don’t apply, you will be losing your time. Remember, good is not enough, today good jobs are reserved for great professional.  So, at this point, my tip for you, is to take a fair time to read the entire job application – it will make you understand what you should highlight in your resume to stand up in the pool of  applicants-; research about the company you are applying for and establish contact with some intern members to know it better with the purpose of learn what the company culture is, and if it fits with your expectations – you don’t want to work in a place where you don’t feel comfortable with-.

Once your application is accepted, and you get an interview, you must be ready to show yourself as a product that companies want to buy (it’s a little hard if you put it this way but is the ugly truth) as they are going to pay you for using your skills to benefit the company. In this sense, make sure you show yourself as a very important candidate for that position from the beginning, from your outfit to the way you sit on the chair. Remember, if you don’t show a winner attitude and have self-confidence; if you don’t demonstrate to them that you are the one and only person that they need for that position, they will choose someone else.

 

[1] Source: http://lolchamp.com/make-the-decision-early

Keep always your end in mind.

By: Neysa Herrera Cuello.

I have always had the desire to leave Colombia and inmerse myself into a whole new experience named world. Since I was I child, of maybe 13 years old, I had this relentless desire to become a lawyer, one of the better ones from Harvard.

By the time of my last year of high school, while a lot of my classmates and friends didn’t know what they were going to do with their lives, I thought I had everything figured out.  I got three things clear: I loved reading and writing I didn’t want to be related with math, I wouldn’t be a doctor as my mom wanted and, I wanted to be a lawyer. Even though I knew I wouldn’t study my major in Harvard because I wasn’t ready to leave my parents and Colombia yet, I knew I would do my masters in International Law there.

When it came time to fill the application for the University of Cartagena, I was sitting in front my computer stuck on this question: what major are you applying for? I didn’t know what to answer. When the list of majors deployed for me to choose one, I had this strange feeling and I couldn’t stop looking the Social Communication option. I was in a dilemma between law (my chosen major since I was a child) and Communication (an option that just came up). How could it be possible? I asked my mother who was standing next to me what were her thoughts about Communication and what if I’d take that major. She said: “It is you decision; nobody will carry the weight of a career but you. So, you decide how light or heavy you want it to be”. Those words have echoed in my head until today. It is my motto.

I remember how nervous I felt that day. My arms were literally shaking. I couldn’t stop thinking that I would die of hunger as a communicator; I would be unemployed, living with my parents my entire life, and, if I was lucky, I’d get a job where I ‘d earn just enough to survive. That day when I talk to my dad by phone I had to explain my unexpected decision. But how could I explain it if I didn’t understand it, either. I could say it was a gut feeling.  However, the hardest thing was about to come. When my friends got the news, they started judging my decision. Some of them said “How could it be possible that a girl as smart as you are would have chosen Social Communication. What a waste!” Some people who were a little bit nicer asked: “So you want to be a Barbie talking and buzzing about others people life in TV?” -I respect people that play that role, but that was definitely not what I wanted to be.

I have been listening this sort of thing along this five years of my undergraduate program. But since my first day of classes I just loved it! I love Communication, I love every single thing that I learn about it. I don’t care about people judging about it, anymore. I believe that every person can decide what path should take to achieve what they want. I wanted to influence other’s people life in some way, I wanted to have a voice to change aspects that I want to change in my hometown, in society, or in a company that I work with. Communication gives me that voice, that power to change things. I don’t picture myself in any other different major.

At this time, I have left Colombia to live new experiences and challenges just like I wanted to. I am not in Harvard studying law. I love where I am at this point: doing an internship in Communications at Purdue University, learning what I am passionate of, meeting new people, preparing myself for applying to get a job in Strategic Communications and overall, being an adult, far from my parents and family. So, I would say that you don’t need to plan your life like an agenda. Let everything to take place at the right moment but also, have where you want to end in mind and how you will reach it. That doesn’t make you a ship drifting into which the wind drags in different directions.