Next Weekend

Next weekend I am going home and I could not be more excited! Every year when I come back to school, I always get caught up with everything going on here...schoolwork, FOOTBALL, sorority stuff, and just hanging out with friends, that I always forget that it has been so long since I've been home. I am an only child and my dad died when I was four. So, it has always just been my mom and me in our household. My mom has become my best friend and I talk to her all the time. Over the summer she was diagnosed with an autoimmune muscle disease. She's been getting a lot better since she found out what was wrong and we are hoping that it will go into remission over the next few years. Just being able to go home and spend time with her will make me happy. I am looking forward to next weekend to be able to relax, enjoy my mom's company, and escape from all the craziness of school. Home is where I always feel the best. :)

Cover Letters

Some advice that I agree with is that you, as a potential employee, have to be proactive and contact the company instead of just being passive. Putting yourself out there and getting in touch with the hiring manager is the best way to get the job. Also, I agreed with the parts of the tutorial that mentioned selling your abilities and what you can do for the company. You need to research the company and know how you can benefit the company. Being able to explain your abilities and the benefits you have given to other companies will make you stand out more to managers.

The one thing that I disagreed with is putting a postscript after the cover letter has already had its closing and signature. I find that to be slightly tacky. It may be a good technique and it may really work in getting a hiring manager to read your cover letter. However, I do not see myself using this technique when writing my own.

The section that I found most helpful were the sample cover letter and the cover letter checklist. I found these to be most useful because they give me a direction in writing my own cover letter.

Interviewing Tips

The first article I read,"Worst-Case Scenerio Survival Tactics for Job Seekers", gave helpful hints on how to avoid problematic situations that can occur before or during an interview. Some of the situations given included being late for the interview, forgetting to bring copies of your resume, not knowing how to answer a certain interview question, and calling the interviewer by the wrong name. This article is especially helpful at this point of my life because I will have interviews coming up over the next year or so. All four of these scenerios are realistic and seen throughout numerous interviews. The article gives suggestions about calling ahead when running late, apologizing for not bringing copies of the resume beforehand, stall or ask for clarification if you do not know how to answer the question, and apologize and correct yourself if you call the recuiter by the wrong name.

The second article is titled "Minor Matters that Make Your Interview". This article included information about how to prepare for the interview. The article suggests that you lay your clothes out the night before to make sure that you have everything all neatly pressed. Other suggestions included eating a light breakfast and staying away from food with onion and garlic, knowing how to get to the interview and where to go once you get inside the building, and how to present yourself once you get out of your car. This article shows that first impressions are really important and that you should be aware of your surroundings when you get out of your car and are preparing to enter the building.

In the next ten years...

There is so much that I want to accomplish over the next ten years. I feel like the majority of my life has lead up to this. I would definitely say that my biggest fears are failure or being unsuccessful. Because of this, I have always set goals for myself and look forward to watching everything pan out over these upcoming years.

First and foremost, I see myself graduating from Clemson, which will happen in December of 2009. I see myself spending the remainder of my time here getting awesome grades and preparing and applying to pharmacy school. If all goes well, I will end up at MUSC. If not, I don’t exactly know where I will be but it will be a school just as challenging- just a little more expensive because of out-of-state tuition. But post-graduate life is all about paying off student loans right? I know I’m looking forward to it. I plan to graduate from pharmacy school when I am about 27 and finding a job quickly after that.

I plan on getting married and starting to have kids. I want 4 children as of now but that could change. Two or even three kids would suffice. However, before the children start coming around, I would like to travel around the world. This would be a great way to gain experience of other cultures and see what the rest of the world has to offer.

In the next ten years, I want stability. I am very independent and need to be able to stand on my own two feet without depending on someone else. But most importantly, in the next ten years, I just want to make an impact. I want someone to say that I impacted their life and it meant something. I want to continually show my mama that she did the most amazing job raising me single-handedly.

And while these 10 years are happening…I want to enjoy ever minute of it :)