Author: Logan Baumunk

5 Reasons You Shouldn’t Stress About Your College Major

Society has made us believe that we need to have our whole lives planned out by the time we step out in front of the crowd and grab your diploma at graduation. How can someone really have their career, college and future plans all made out at 18 years old when they haven’t even had a real taste of what the world has to offer?

Students who go into college undecided are looked down upon, but they might be the real masterminds of the whole college experience. Coming from a guy who changed his major six (yes, six) times, I have finally come to terms with the fact that your major is definitely not something you need to be worrying about.

1. Your Major Doesn’t Decide Your Future

Part of the reason why I switched my major so many times was because I felt like I needed to decide what career I wanted for the rest of my life. With so many different options in the world, how could I possibly decide on just one? “Just one” is the detail that people, including myself, focus on too much.

People change their career paths all the time, and it has become a modern decision that has led to praise. Although it takes a lot of courage to make a college major (or career) change, it’s not impossible to do. If you’re not feeling satisfied or accomplished with the path you chose in college, there is nothing stopping you from going down a different path but yourself.

2. Employers Aren’t Focused On Your Major

When creating or modifying your resume, how much space does your college major take up compared to all of the experience you would like to include? For the most part, employers couldn’t care less about what you majored in. What they really care about, however, is the experience you have relevant to the position they’re hoping you can fill.

3. College Has Enough Stress, So Forget About Your Major

With horrors like midterms and finals, loans, maintaining grades with a social life and being on your own, why subject yourself to worrying about something that in the end doesn’t really matter?

Like I mentioned before, your major doesn’t decide your future, so worry about the things that do. Details like grades, extracurriculars and who just died on this week’s episode of American Horror Story should be top priority, rather than worrying about how your major is controlling your life.

4. College Changes You

For me, college was an entirely different ballpark than high school. It was the place where I really grew to be the person I am today, and that person is so far from who I was back as a freshman.

College is nothing but new experiences and access to information you’ve never seen before, and it has a way of molding you into a successful member of society. That being said, your goals and aspirations are also very likely to change throughout the whole college experience. Starting my college career as a zoology major and finishing off as a journalism major, I can proudly say I’m not the person I was when I sent in my first college application.

5. It’s All About The Skills

A college major is basically just a namesake. Each department has a focus on skills that individuals need to succeed in that area. For example, English majors will have strong writing skills that extend to excellent grammar, attention to detail and a more qualitative look at life. Engineering majors, on the other hand, usually have a more analytical mind. These skills can be used in other fields besides the department in which you learned them from.

Being a journalism major, I have come to be able to gather information skillfully while also being able to properly hold an interview. This has extended me into getting working in radio, independent business and even some event planning. None of those have anything to do with journalism, but because I hold on to the skills I’ve learned from it, I have experience in fields behind the walls of my major.

Your college experience should be spent focusing on more important things than your major. Many have let an educational title define who they were, despite how much they grew and changed over the course of finishing their degree. Your major can be a great ball and chain in your future job endeavors, but only if you let it be.

5 Things Your Parents Told You to Put on Your Resume That You Really Shouldn’t

Resume writing is a daunting task for even the most seasoned job seeker. You’re basically selling yourself to employers on a piece of paper with very limited space, and there are things you definitely need to avoid. With all the things that could go wrong, you’re most likely to go to your parents for help in this time of need.

Of course, your parents will give you some great tips on what to include and what not to include your first time around, but how much of what they say is true? Often, parents have had their current jobs or careers for the last 10 to 20 years or more; since a lot has changed within the job market (particularly the internship and entry-level job markets), their advice is probably a little outdated.

Here’s a definitive list on what to avoid including on your resume, despite the wise words of your parents.

1. Objective Statement

Including an objective on your resume takes up space you could use to include experience information, references or even links to published work if you submit online. It is redundant to include an objective in a resume because employers are already aware that your bottom line is to be offered a position within their company.

2. High School Information

Those of you with a college degree or who are in the process of completing a degree do not need to include their high school information (like the name of the school or your high school GPA), unless it is totally relevant to your position.

It is safe to say that if you were accepted into an accredited college or university, you’ll have a high school diploma or similar credentials in your arsenal as well. If employers are really curious about your high school alumnus, they will ask you about it during your interview.

3. Irrelevant Previous Jobs

When applying to big boy/girl jobs that offer luxuries such as a 401K or a dental plan, it’s okay not to include that grocery store job you had one summer in high school. Employers look for past job experiences relevant to the position you’re applying for, so it wouldn’t be in your best interest to include your brief stint as a pet store associate when applying for a position within a bank’s corporate office, unless there’s an important and obvious parallel in terms of skills.

4. Controversial or Long-Winded Hobbies

You may consider your knitting skills to be off the charts, but it’s not necessary to include irrelevant, controversial or long winded hobbies on your resume. Employers are very likely to ask you what you do in your free time, and that’s when you mention your hobbies that don’t take too long to explain or could come off too controversial.

For instance, explaining to your possible future employer that you spend your weekends picketing for certain political causes could make you come off as a liability risk, or maybe you have a really out-there hobby (“I like to wakeboard while wearing a Santa Claus costume in lakes up and down the West Coast!”); if it’s too hard to explain in one or two words and it doesn’t relate to the job, take it off your resume for now. Keep things short and sweet, and think in your own best interest.

5. Political Affiliation

No matter how strongly you feel about politics, the safest option is to keep your personal beliefs out of your resume (that is, unless you’re applying to something in the political realm). Instead, add a couple organizations you’ve worked with or are working with currently.

Political affiliations are a very personal attribute for many, and this could lead to an employer tossing your resume in the trash or an awkward encounter during an interview. This is a piece of information that could be brought up during the interview depending on the position, but unless you’re applying to be Paul Ryan or Hillary Clinton’s personal assistant, don’t include it on a resume.

Although your parents have come through with some great advice in the past, resume writing has changed over the years and it wouldn’t hurt to make sure you’re armed with the best resume specifically for you. Although resume writing is definitely one of the more difficult tasks with job hunting, after reading up on these tips, maybe you’ll be the one your parents go to for help.

5 Totally Avoidable (and Utterly Cringe-Worthy) Mistakes I’ve Made In Job Interviews

Job interviews are stressful enough as it is: Your hands sweat the whole time, you stumble through your answers and you develop a stutter that came without warning, so don’t even get me started on what you should be doing before you even head to an interview.

Some might overlook the entire interview preparation process, but as a college senior who has been to dozens of interviews, I have plenty of horror stories that could’ve been easily avoided had I taken more time pre-interview to get it together. Trust me, you don’t want to repeat what I did.

1. I Missed an Interview and Then Lied About It

After applying and hearing back for an internship at a local radio station during finals week of my junior year, I ended up missing the scheduled interview because I mixed up the days. After reading the email confirming the interview and not writing it down, I ended up realizing it only an hour after it was supposed to happen.

I told the employer that a final had ran late, so I couldn’t make it that afternoon and rescheduled for a later date. Moral of the story? Triple-check when your interviews are (WayUp actually has an interviewing scheduling tool), and more than anything, don’t lie!

2. I Wore a T-Shirt With Half-Naked Marilyn Monroe on It

Over the summer, I usually live and work somewhere other than where I go to school, and employers usually want to interview people in April or May. It would be a bit of a commute to interview across the country and make it back for class all in the same day, so thankfully, some employers will agree to a video interview.

This all seems straightforward enough, but in my case, I not only forgot what time the interview was, but because of this, I also had to rush to the interview donning a t-shirt that had a scantily clad celebrity on it.

That day, I wore a shirt featuring a half-naked Marilyn Monroe but planned on changing well before my interview that afternoon. In the span of a minute, my dog began to uncontrollably bark at the innocent UPS man at the door and my future employer video-called me for our interview. He not only saw my black lab barking like Cujo but also the unmistakable figure of Marilyn printed on my body.

Note to self: On the day of an interview, don’t wear a shirt featuring half-naked Marilyn.

On top of noting down when the interview is scheduled, if you have a video call interview scheduled, don’t wear anything scandalous. Stick to the professional clothing as much as you can that day because they could end up calling earlier than you expected.

3. I Didn’t Research a Company Beforehand (and Almost Joined a Scam)

Last summer, I applied to a position with a company that was looking for active participants interested in helping with the protection of Minnesota’s ecosystems. Of course, the Captain Planet inside me screamed with excitement and I agreed to an interview without even really looking into the company.

That was a mistake.

Showing up to an interview without knowing exactly what the company does would be like showing up to a midterm without having ever showed up for class. This is also a very good time to recommend at least looking into employee reviews that you can find with a simple Google search.

After doing the research after my interview, it turns out, the company that had reached out to me lures optimistic college students in with hopes of saving the world and what not, but it doesn’t actually do anything outdoors other than make employees canvass in local communities. This meant going door-to-door asking people if they would like to donate and learn more about protecting their local ecosystems from pollution and construction projects. They also had thousands of one-star ratings all across the board and were known to fire people if they didn’t meet their quotas of signatures each week.

The bottom line? Lots of time and energy would’ve been saved on my part and their part if I’d just headed to Google before heading over the the job application and subsequent interview.

4. I Lied on My Resume

While working at a call center for a test scheduling company one summer, it was mildly embarrassing to explain to my supervisor that my fluency in Spanish and French that were listed on my resume extended to the comprehension of two semesters of each in school.

During the interview, I knew I was under-qualified for the position so I added a couple things that I thought would make me look better. I was far from fluent in both French and Spanish, and once I started the job, I’d forward all of the non-English calls I got to some other representative. Part of the reason I had to eventually go to my boss was out of guilt for not being able to help those innocent callers, but also because there had been a growing number of Spanish calls being forwarded around to tellers and nobody knew who was doing it. Yikes.

Lying on your resume is a horrible practice that could lead you to becoming the office embarrassment for a place you don’t even work at. Noting that you have skills and experience you actually don’t have in your arsenal could lead to some pretty awful situations. You’ll be put on the spot and have to make a stage exit similar to Ashlee Simpson getting caught lip-syncing her own songs on Saturday Night Live.

5. I Came Off Too Cocky

If I were an employer, humility would be one of the golden traits that I would look for in a future employee. Nobody likes the overly cocky office tool who talks about his weekends partying with D-list celebrities and puts on his sunglasses before leaving the building. Don’t be that guy.

While interviewing with the owners of a quirky hat shop in a hipster-populated area of Minneapolis, I didn’t realize until after that I had talked myself up way more than what was necessary. I had answered every one of their questions while somehow making it relevant to something about me (and not in a good “self-promotion is awesome!” way).

I am far from the D-list-celebrity-partying-sunglasses-in-the-office guy, but I had just come from working in a leadership position elsewhere, and I was still living off of my past glory. The hiring managers had apparently thought the same thing and didn’t offer me a position after thinking I could just survive off of my ego.

Cockiness can be a very hard trait to overcome because, like myself, you’re proud of all the accomplishments you’ve achieved so far in life. We all get that you’re proud, but don’t live in the past. Employers are looking for those interested in making a change in their life with the help of their company. They don’t care about all of the great things that happened in your last job; they’re looking for someone open to new experiences and looking to the future. It’s not healthy to be living in the past, and it can also deter you from getting that much desired job.

Everyone has their own interview horror story, but it’s important to realize what went wrong and how you can improve for the future. Learning from your mistakes and making sure no careless errors are made could land you the dream job you’ve always wanted. As for me? Let’s just say I’m googling companies way earlier now, and I put that Marilyn Monroe t-shirt in the back of my closet.