Prepare for your Future, Now!

My major requires a lot of stuff. Two projects once a week, mid-term after mid-term, hundreds of pages for reading, programming project after programming project, group projects, etc - pretty much everything is a project! They call is the ISYS junior core, they take all of the students who had just entered the ISYS major and they put is in to one block of four classes. We have to take these classes at the exact same semester and they must be taken together since almost everything we learn is intermixed with the other classes. This allows for group projects and assignments that cross class borders. I actually like it quite a bit because there is so much to learn and you can see how all your different subjects intermix to form that entity that is your profession.

On top of all the homework, the professors tell us more things we must focus on, preparing for internships AND the masters program all ISYS people can do; we can get our bachelor's and master's degrees at the exact same time. This all adds even more to our workload because applying for an internship is essentially looking for a summer job that is really prestigious and getting prepared for the master's program requires studying for the GMAT and getting really good grades in our classes. It is fun, but takes so much time! We have to cram so much in to our schedules in such a short amount of time, it is almost impossible to find all the time needed to accomplish it.

What really gets us, is how much we have to prepare for internships. They are important, they will help us get really good jobs in the future, and allow us to grow in our work skills, but man, what it takes just to get anywhere with these things are ridiculous!

I want to bring up the example of the career fair I went to last week. Many great and powerful companies were there, trying to draw in the best talent they can attract to their companies. One walks between all of these different companies, asks questions, and selects which ones they would like to learn more about, maybe they will leave a resume for future reference; me, I go for all the free food and stuff they give everyone. You find the companies you like, you apply for their positions, and then you wait for an interview, weeks pass, and nothing comes of it. But you were told to find an internship, so you just keep on going, looking for the next available internship opportunity.

To be honest, I don't like career fairs, all these companies are talking to hundreds of people to fill in one to about five positions. People say you go to network, but in reality these recruiters do not really remember who you are to often, and after you get their cards to keep in contact, you do not know what to say or ask that the possibility of an email slowly dwindles. That and most of the companies at the career fairs tend to not be the best in all circumstances. But at the same time, I love the process of trying to find an internship! One must find creative ways to present themselves, they must research, develop themselves, and continue to learn from failure, that is something I like from these fairs.

In the end, there is so much to work towards to finding a career, and it is great my program is striving so much to get us focused on starting now, because that is what you have to do to find the bets fit for you, it is a competitive world out there and the sooner we start planning on it, the better our chances are in the future.

Do I know what I want to do exactly? Not really, there are too many possibilities, but one thing is certain, my major is not going to make it easy for me to just toss it aside and not know what I want to do.

Apartment Search, Walt Disney World, and Finals

Apartment Search
My apartment search was one sweet ordeal. I actually enjoyed myself! Women tend to have shopping addictions, well I think I have one for real estate. I noticed when I was in Brazil and responsible for all the missionary housing, I did like to see other missionaries’ apartments and compare what one had compared to another apartment. I looked at around seven different apartments on my search and I had an even larger list of other places to look at. I found really social places, the locations of partydom at BYU like King Henry, Liberty Square, etc and in all honesty, I really did not want to pay $350 or around there for a shared room and so little space, even though the social life has got to be great at those places. I noticed many apartments directly south of campus are tiny, overpriced, and really have no parking at all. But hey, if you want to practice your parallel parking skills, south of campus is a great place to be! I look at amenities, quality of locations, the apartments’ grounds, etc. It was just fun going from place to place and deciding what I like and what I did not, discovering what I wanted and the layouts that were perfect for me.

In the end I have decided on renting at Stadium Terrace. It is located just north of the stadium (who would had thunk it?). It has everything I need! Great parking locations, it is really close to the Tanner building - let’s face it, now that I have completed all of my GEs and most of my classes for my minors, it is time I actually spend time on my major, and all of my classes are going to be in the Tanner building – each apartment has two fridges, six people per apartment with three shared rooms and two bathrooms in the place, and the rooms are actually big enough to not have the bunk bed situation and still have room for all your stuff. It was strange when I found it, I had looked at a lot of places and in the end, Stadium Terrace was the only place that felt right for me. Maybe it was the really attractive girls I saw after taking a quick tour of one of the apartments . . . who knows. So get ready next Fall semester for some fun parties at my place!

Walt Disney World Internship

This summer I am in for a blast at my Walt Disney World Internship. It is a college program they offer for students to get out to the park, work in the park to learn the why behind Disney’s magic, and also enter an internship situation with a large corporation. Did I mention I get free access to the park with a lot of great discounts? I leave April 21 and I am driving there. Road trip baby! It gives me a good excuse to see the country.

I have a feeling I will be posting quite a bit about that situation experience because 1) I won’t have hours of homework to keep me from actually posting a blog, 2) I will be more excited to share what is going on, and 3) it will just be a blast!
So look out for those posts starting once I hit the road April 21. The internship goes until August 13 so I will have all summer in Florida, working at fun park and playing on the Floridian beaches.

The Relief of Finals
I am so excited that finals are here! Honestly, I like school, but sometimes I just get so overwhelmed with everything that I have to do in a semester that I just need a break (hence going to Disney World for the summer).

Today I have already completed two of my finals. What a relief it is to just leave the BYU testing center after having pumped out everything in your brain on paper! It is even better when you get some pretty decent scores!

I have come to the conclusion that finals are just a way to make all us students feel stressed out! They give us only two study days before the finals to sit down and review everything has been taught during the semester and then you are given a 100 question test where you have to regurgitate everything that you just barley pumped back in to your brain. And then they make you do that four more times on all your other tests that must be done within a five-day period. Why do you think they put us through that torture? Really, testing is no real effective way to see how much you have learned, it is just a great indicator at how well you can cram and memorize. It’s not like they actually expect us to learn and put in to practice what we learned in class right? . . . You know, come to think of it, if I would actually internalize the principles I learn in class, rather than try and memorize everything I need to for the final that I learned over 12 weeks within a two-day period, maybe the tests would be easy? Nah, that is too hard to do, I’ll just keep goofing off and partying, then cramming my head full for the finals. It makes it easier to forget all that boring, school stuff anyways.

Choices, choices

Life comes at you fast! Recently I have been thinking a lot about my life. What classes should I take next semester? Should I do an internship in Brazil or stick to the United States? Do I really want to spend $1,000 just for an LDS singles cruise? Out of all the girls I am crushing on, who should I get to know at this time, who should I hang out with, who should I ask out on my next date? (Dating consumes about 90% of my thought time). What should I do for homework at this very instant? Should I move out and have a social life, or should I stick it out at home and save thousands of dollars in a year? Why does life have so many questions!?

It is incredible to me how much life has to offer and how many options we can choose from. There are a lot of great and horrible choices, as well as good options and bad options. It seems we are always being put in to positions to make choices rather than being able to do every single thing we want. Life is so cruel making us make sacrifices in order to live it. I am not in any extreme life or death situation, but I sure feel like there are a lot of huge decisions on my plate at the moment, and all of them have immense benefits.

With regard to school I can take the business core right now and graduate in 2011, but if I do that I wouldn’t be able to do a joint Bachelor/Master program. Decision, graduate that much sooner and be rid of the curse of homework or add on a whole new degree of homework and graduate with a Master’s.

I have a few offers to take internships in Brazil, of I take them, I could progress in my desire to do international business, but then I run the risk of jeopardizing a promising future at my current job.

Dating, well, that is just a completely different animal (plans to write a future article on that). Let us just say, I do not know the first thing about women, so therefore I am having an interesting time learning the old-fashioned way, ie, going on dates and messing up a ton.

Moving out of my home in to a student apartment would increase my non-existent social life by a ton. But then I would have to spend a lot more money, sleep in a room with an entire other person, be away from my mom’s home cooked meals, and a nice quiet place to study.

Choices, decisions, options, what is up with that? Maybe if I restore Soviet Russia they can choose my life pursuits for me.

Well everyone, choose your options well, because there are a lot of them!