Hello group members! This week we will be discussing your personal and philosophy and career goals. I will begin this discussion by telling you about mine and I would love to hear about each of yours.
For me my personal philosophy is to live each day like it's you're last. You only get one life in this world so you need to make the most of it and, live it to the fullest. I live my life so I have no regrets, and I won't ever look back and say, "I wish I would have done that." That is one reason why I chose to go to college. I wanted to make the most of my life and get the most education I could. I feel like we as IDS students each should have a philosophy and if ever asked in and interview or by someone in general, have a great answer to tell them! Now you may not have a personal philosophy yet but you must have a motto you live by, what is it?
We as IDS students all have career goals since we have chosen to go to collge and picked this major. For some it is business and others it is engineering, for me it is the health field. The health care industry has always been a passion of mine since I was little. I love how the human body works and its functions. I feel like with this field of study you either love it or hate it, for me it truly provides me joy. Once I graduate I hope to find a job working in a hospital with one on one patient contact. Whether it is bedside or just trying to help improve their quality of life somehow, I want to help people. The IDS major has allowed me to explore areas of study that will help me in the health care industry along with having a minor in health sciences. I am looking forward to entering the real world and beginning this journey my life holds in store for me. What are your career goals, and how has the IDS major helped you in the process to achieve them in the future?
Best of luck to everyone!
Stephanie Hart
Monday, October 26, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Blog Post # 6: Professional Documents, The Resume and Cover Letter
Hello everyone, I hope all is well. This week we will be discussing professional documents including the resume and the cover letter. At this point (college) we know how important a resume is in getting that perfect position within a company, or institution. We all got into college and probably had to write some derivation of a professional resume, and I am sure most of us have worked at least a few jobs, which required a resume to even be considered. I have often wondered how much a resume actually matters when a person is applying for a position, and I guess that really depends on the situation, but I believe it is very important. Often we are told that the key to securing the right job depends on who you know, rather than what, but that may or may not be the case. What do you all think?
An interesting point that defends the theory of a resume being important, is the fact that it will help a potential employer to better understand out interdisciplinary degrees. A professional resume will most likely list our education first, and with an interdisciplinary degree, we can adjust the description of that degree a bit depending on the position we are applying for. For example, I have applied for a job in public history, so I put Humanities before political science, and when I have applied for jobs at law firms, I put Political Science first, so that the emphasis is placed on that particular area of study that applies more to the position being applied for.
It seems important that the professional resume show how multidisciplined we IDS students are in terms of the variety of jobs we may have had, or at least how we have used interdisciplinary methods to work in a certain position, or perform a particular task. Do you all believe that a resume should focus on job variety or task variety within a particular position?
The cover letter is also a very important part of the application process. I believe that this also gives the applicant the opportunity to grab the attention of the potential employer by explaining our IDS degrees, or, more specifically, how our multi-disciplined educations make us a better fit for that particular job. When speaking with employers, many say that the cover letter will generally make or break an applicant's chances. The cover letter provides that initial, (first impression), of the applicant. How much weight do you believe is placed on the cover letter. Has it become obsolete? Has the resume itself become obsolete?
Of course, we have already discussed in an earlier post the important of an e-portfolio, so do you think that the E-Portfolio is enough? The next question is how does an employer even get an E-Portfolio? In my opinion, the good ol' hard copy resume is still extremely important in the application process as it gives the employer a good "first impression" of an applicant, and then the E-Portfolio could be given in the resume for further reference.
An interesting point that defends the theory of a resume being important, is the fact that it will help a potential employer to better understand out interdisciplinary degrees. A professional resume will most likely list our education first, and with an interdisciplinary degree, we can adjust the description of that degree a bit depending on the position we are applying for. For example, I have applied for a job in public history, so I put Humanities before political science, and when I have applied for jobs at law firms, I put Political Science first, so that the emphasis is placed on that particular area of study that applies more to the position being applied for.
It seems important that the professional resume show how multidisciplined we IDS students are in terms of the variety of jobs we may have had, or at least how we have used interdisciplinary methods to work in a certain position, or perform a particular task. Do you all believe that a resume should focus on job variety or task variety within a particular position?
The cover letter is also a very important part of the application process. I believe that this also gives the applicant the opportunity to grab the attention of the potential employer by explaining our IDS degrees, or, more specifically, how our multi-disciplined educations make us a better fit for that particular job. When speaking with employers, many say that the cover letter will generally make or break an applicant's chances. The cover letter provides that initial, (first impression), of the applicant. How much weight do you believe is placed on the cover letter. Has it become obsolete? Has the resume itself become obsolete?
Of course, we have already discussed in an earlier post the important of an e-portfolio, so do you think that the E-Portfolio is enough? The next question is how does an employer even get an E-Portfolio? In my opinion, the good ol' hard copy resume is still extremely important in the application process as it gives the employer a good "first impression" of an applicant, and then the E-Portfolio could be given in the resume for further reference.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Blog post #5: Professional Opportunities & Job Skills
At this point in our academic life, most of us are not going to school just to have fun, we are planning on getting a degree so that we can obtain jobs in a professional setting.
Here is a link to the UCF career site which lists skills that employers have ranked in order of necessity. http://www.career.ucf.edu/ployers_Are_Seeking_16_74.aspx After looking at the website, did the information surprize you? What are your weakest and strongest skills? Do you have any plans on improving the weak skills and if so what are they?
How do you think interdisciplinarity can be used in your professional life? If you have some professional history already, what is it?
A lot of UCF programs require you to participate in volunteer hours, internships, or externships, if you have done these do you think it has helped you in your professional development at all? If you haven't done these, find and list 2 professional organizations that you think would be useful to your target career.
I know this week has you answering a lot of questions but they are all very important. EEmployers are eneviatably going to ask you what your stongest and weakest skills are, so it is important to recognize it early so you have time to think about it and adjust if necessary.
Here is a link to the UCF career site which lists skills that employers have ranked in order of necessity. http://www.career.ucf.edu/ployers_Are_Seeking_16_74.aspx After looking at the website, did the information surprize you? What are your weakest and strongest skills? Do you have any plans on improving the weak skills and if so what are they?
How do you think interdisciplinarity can be used in your professional life? If you have some professional history already, what is it?
A lot of UCF programs require you to participate in volunteer hours, internships, or externships, if you have done these do you think it has helped you in your professional development at all? If you haven't done these, find and list 2 professional organizations that you think would be useful to your target career.
I know this week has you answering a lot of questions but they are all very important. EEmployers are eneviatably going to ask you what your stongest and weakest skills are, so it is important to recognize it early so you have time to think about it and adjust if necessary.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Blog Discussion #4
Hello all. The discussion for this weeks blog involves critical thinking. Specifically, how it relates to being Interdisciplinary. First, what is critical thinking? I prefer to define it as a purposeful and reflective judgement about what to do in response to various observations, readings, writings, discussions, or arguments. There are various other definitions though, but they are all similar.
So how does critical thinking relate to being interdisciplinary? In what ways do you use it in your areas of study?
For myself, the best example is using the construction of logical arguements as learned in mathematics and applying it to understanding psychological principles. In this case, I am essentially looking at problems and such in one discipline while applying techniques from another.
So how does critical thinking relate to being interdisciplinary? In what ways do you use it in your areas of study?
For myself, the best example is using the construction of logical arguements as learned in mathematics and applying it to understanding psychological principles. In this case, I am essentially looking at problems and such in one discipline while applying techniques from another.
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