TheMadGrad

Currently regretting not going to Frostburg State University and taking The Science of Harry Potter Class…

I came across this Graduation Speeh today on TED, by Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon. The whole speech is wonderful, but the end (pasted below) really struck me.  I think these are important questions to ask yourself at any point of your life.

How will you use your gifts? What choices will you make?

Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions?

Will you follow dogma, or will you be original?

Will you choose a life of ease, or a life of service and adventure?

Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions?

Will you bluff it out when you’re wrong, or will you apologize?

Will you guard your heart against rejection, or will you act when you fall in love?

Will you play it safe, or will you be a little bit swashbuckling?

When it’s tough, will you give up, or will you be relentless?

Will you be a cynic, or will you be a builder?

Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind?

I will hazard a prediction. When you are 80 years old, and in a quiet moment of reflection narrating for only yourself the most personal version of your life story, the telling that will be most compact and meaningful will be the series of choices you have made. In the end, we are our choices. Build yourself a great story.

Ok, so I think we can all agree that MTV isn’t known for having the most educational shows. (Jersey shore anyone?) While the history channel is the peas (depending on your nerd level), MTV is definitely the dessert, the guilty pleasure.

That’s why I was surprised to find “hired”, a show where they follow recent college graduates on interviews. They have a variety of fields- salons, makeup company, pr studios, ect. I found it really interesting to watch the people on their interviews, and listen to the interviewers critiques on their resumes and answers. It’s funny bc from an outside perspective it’s completely obvious who is right for it and who isn’t.

I wasn’t able to embed the video to this post, so follow this link to watch the episodes available online. It’s a great chance to see what hiring managers are looking for and talking about, behind the scenes.

PS- I love the question the tv company asked, “What tv character do you most identify with?” I’d love to ask this as a question for any interview!

Only in college…

Happy Friday Mad Graders!

Sometimes it seems like the pressures of being a young adult are endless. We have to find the perfect job with little experience, pay our bills on en entry level salary, and oh yes… find that perfect life companion! If you are like me, it’s hard to be single in your early twenties. Starting off in your career, you want to put in as many hours at work as possible, to prove yourself and get ahead. This leaves you little time outside of work to hang out with your friends, and pursue hobbies like volunteering, music, working out.. let alone dating! The easiest way to meet guys or gals is at bars. But what happens when you reach 25 (like muah) and start getting over the bar scene? Sure , happy hour is fun with coworkers, but the 3 vodka sodas and dancing until 2am is suddenly not as exciting and easy to recover from as your college days.

Well finally someone came up with a solution. I found this site via my favorite blog A cup of Jo, today and laughed incredibly hard. Every one of my single friends is like me- sure we’d like to find that special someone, but our Moms (and aunts and sisters etc) REALLY want us to find someone. This site Fabover50 started a site, Date my single Kid, where moms can put up their single kids and browse others to set them up. I signed my mom up (sorry mom!) so I could browse the list of poor, lonesome single kids.

I think my favorite part of this site is the descriptions the moms write about their eligible kids. It’s like- “She’s smart, loves God, working out, puppies, rainbows, saving children from burning buildings, paying her bills on time, practicing her instrument, driving the speed limit, drinking ONLY occasionally and cleaning the house!” I mean no mom sees faults in their kids right? I mean screw finding us dates, these moms need to start writing our cover letters for employers!

I can’t wait to see if anyone finds a match on this.. or find out if the kids (and I’m talking big kids in their 20′s to 30′s here), even know their parents put this up. And does it come with a dowry? I can see the headlines now- “My darling daughter Tessa, for only 20 cows!”

I’ll leave you with my favorite “He lives in my apartment. get him out of here!”

looking at the sky, originally uploaded by *cinzia*.

I saw the movie “The Last Station” over the weekend, and it was absolutely beautiful. It got me obsessed with everything Tolstoy and I’ve spent the days since looking up quotes by him, stories and voraciously reading Anna Karenina, so I can move on to War and Peace.

I love this quote by him:

In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.

How many days do you spend staring at your computer, papers, and phones without stopping to notice all the wonderful things going on around you? This is an excellent reminder to take a break, look up from our work and admire the colors, scents, textures, people, nature everywhere. It’s easy to get wrapped up and focused on your work, but life’s too short to not take a break once in awhile and “get distracted.”

Back again for Two Cent Tuesdays and today we have a fairly common question from a recent graduate.

Mad Grad,

I’m just graduated, moved home and I am starting to look for a job. I’ve been hearing a lot about the dismal job market though. Should I be concerned? Help!

Justine

Justine,

Trust us when we say you are not alone in this question. Although the tumultuous economy over the past few years has lead to numerous layoffs and businesses closing their doors, things are finally starting to look up. It is often thought that during a decline in the economy people are more apt to introduce new ideas and entrepreneurship has a chance to thrive. I think we have seen many examples of that recently, especially with the help of technology and social media. With that being said hundreds of new companies have sprung up over the past year because people were willing to take a chance when they had nothing left to lose.

From what I have seen lately there are a lot of jobs out there. On top of that, many of the openings seem to be for fresh out of college motivated and anxious young people. As you mentioned you are starting to look and looking is only half the battle. You could search job postings online for months, instead try to be strategic. Even if you can narrow down the type of work you want to do your search will be much easier.

Target specific companies that are appealing to you and even if they aren’t hiring request an informational interview so you can get a foot in the door and an idea of what it would be like to work there.

The number one thing to do right now is network! I cannot express that enough. Reach out to everyone you know send them your resume for feedback or to pass along. Ask questions to friends, parents anyone who has crossed your path and see if they can help you land a job. Be bold,  courageous and above all don’t be afraid to ask for help! (Seeing as how you emailed us, you are already past that stage!) Good luck and let us know if we can offer any more advice!

Best,

The Mad Grad

by http://www.flickr.com/photos/adidafallenangel/

I came across this great site SoulPancake created by Rainn Wilson, one of the funniest men alive (Dwight Shrute anyone?).

“Soulpancake is a place to speak your mind, unload your questions, and figure out what it means to be human”

…I’m in!

I was browsing around on the site tonight and found this thought-provoking post, “What’s your two-word poem?” After a lot of “soul-pancake” searching, I came up with mine: SPEAK UP. I think this is the greatest thing I’ve learned in my 25 years of living. In order to have successful careers, friendships, relationships, marriages, you need to speak up and say what you are feeling. Too often, we forget that unlike the sorting hat in Harry Potter, people don’t always know what we are thinking.

What’s yours?

“Be careful how you interpret the world:  It is like that.”  ~Erich Heller