Many times people find themselves working hard on many different tasks only to find out that the only person that notices the results is them.  I have felt this way many times and it really does not bother me, but I decided to give myself a reward and off I came to Denver, CO to visit some old friends. We have spent the weekend skiing, having bonfires, and relaxing. It has been a wonderful weekend and I still have another day of skiing ahead of me. Also, while here I received an e-mail congratulating me on making the IUPUI top 100 Students list. This is a list that is compiled every spring that consist of the top 100 juniors and seniors on campus.  I found out the hard way last year that this is a difficult list to get on.  The committee takes into consideration the students grades, extracurricular activities, and a letter of recommendation from a faculty member on campus.  I am very proud of this honor and it shows that working hard for a long time really does pay off. Also, this week I was asked to begin blogging for the Indianapolis Star. This has been a wonderful week of surprises and they have all made me very happy. Not only are all these great things making me happy, but in less than two weeks we have spring break!  I have so many things to be excited about right now I do not what is the best. When I return to school I have a paper due and some other tasks to complete, but it is going to be difficult to concentrate with spring break just around the corner. I am sure I will be able to get these things done then start letting my mind drift.

I am sure many of you are thinking, what is a Recorder?  That is a VERY good question!  The Recorder is the manager of student records for a school.  What does that mean?  I keep track of everything you take and make sure you meet all degree requirements.  To make it even easier to understand...

I’m the one who puts the degree on your transcript!

It sounds easy.  In fact, it only takes 20 minutes to put degrees on over 100 students’ records.  Unfortunately, it is getting up to that point that isn’t so easy.  I check each student’s record individually to make sure all degree requirements are met.  For three or four days after grades are officially on transcripts I shut my office door and start going through records.  I often feel like my eyes are crossed from looking at the monitor for so long.  However, it is all worth it when I get to send the e-mail that says CONGRATULATIONS!!!

There are lots of other things I do, too.  I see students who have questions about graduation and want to make sure every requirement has been met.  I really enjoy working with students and seeing them finish their degree.

My favorite day of the year is Commencement.  Yes, it is Mother’s Day, but seeing students cross the stage, being handed their diploma cover and shaking hands with the dean can bring tears to my eyes.  This can be a fantastic Mother’s Day present.

Just think, in a few weeks or a few years, I can celebrate with you when you cross that stage!!!

I have been in school for nearly 4 years now and I can only remember one day where we had cancellations due to bad weather. Now, in the last 2 weeks we have had 2.5 days off. Many people used the time to catch up on school work, but others used it to relax or play in the snow. I enjoyed the extra time off because it gave me time to catch up on much needed movie time. Also, I was able to catch up on some reading for my classes. The part of the weather that I did not enjoy was how terrible Indy is at cleaning side streets. The city did a good job cleaning the main roads, but the roads in my neighborhood are still not clear and it has been 5 days! The school did a fantastic job in getting the word out that school was cancelled and they made it very easy for students to gain any information that was needed. For the most parts my professors did a good job in letting us know what to expect for the upcoming classes and they seemed understanding. I was a bit upset one day because I got all dressed up to play in the snow and none of my friends would come out and play with me. So I decided to make snow angles. Ok well enough complaining about things all in all the snow was not bad and I enjoyed the extra time off. Now, we have about 3 weeks of classes and then it is spring break. After spring break soccer gets going into full swing again and I am looking forward to getting outside and having practices. We have been practicing, but it has been indoor and only about an hour long sessions 4 days a week.

They are officially opening our new blog up to the public with this round of post and I am anxious to see what kind of responses we get from people. Until next time stay warm, stay safe, and keep working hard.

Yesterday I was at Borders looking through endless shelves of wedding planning books and found myself (surprise!) a little bored. (Let's hope my fiance doesn't read this.) So I wandered off and eventually found myself in the career section. Did you know that as recently as the mid-80's most bookstores did not even have dedicated career sections? Yesterday I counted 7 shelves and quit counting after 200 books. If you search for "career" in the book section of Amazon.com, you get 305,077 results. It's overwhelming. How does anyone even know how to start when they are bombarded with so much information?

It can be even more disorienting if you take the time to read through the titles of some of the books out there. First up are the dozens of resume and cover letter guides with trumped-up titles such as "The Damn Good Resume Guide", "Cover Letter Magic!", and "Don't Send a Resume" (really? - don't buy this one). Then you find yourself looking at books that portend gloom and doom for your career. It's hard to walk away with a positive outlook on getting a job when more than half of the job search titles read like this (these are all real books!):

• "I Hate My Job Handbook"
• "Life's a Bitch and Then You Change Careers",
• "I Don't Know What I Want, but I Know It's Not This", and
• "Addicted to Unhappiness"

Do I have a point to make? I think so. In today's society, more than ever, what we do for a living helps define who we are. And while no one person - no author, professor, career coach, or Assistant Director of the Kelley School of Business Career Placement Office (yours truly) - can tell you what career is right for you, some resources are better than others. Books? There are some good ones - and even more not so good ones. The Internet? Great for research - not always so great for actually finding a job.

And this is precisely why we have a Career Placement Office here at Kelley. Career exploration should be fun. Really! You should take time to enjoy exploring your skills, values and interests and investigating the myriad of career paths available to you. If there is a particular book or website that might help you - we'll point it out. If you want more specific job search guidance - we can help with that too. Just want to talk about possible careers? Come in with or without an appointment. We are here because you will never find the book, "The Complete Resume and Job Search Guide for a Kelley Indianapolis Marketing Major Interested in Public Relations Who Wants to Stay in Indianapolis After She Graduates".

Have any ideas for future postings? Internships? Career Fairs? Thoughts in general? Let me know and I'll be happy to incorporate your opinions into upcoming postings.

Another soccer season ended.  Soccer’s a great game to play.  For the past eight years, I’ve been coaching soccer for my children’s teams.  I have three children.  My daughter is currently a sophomore in High School and I have two boys, both in eighth grade.  Yes, they are twins.  When they are both in their soccer uniforms, even I occasionally have a difficult time telling them apart.  I started coaching soccer when my daughter was in second grade.  It’s been a great deal of fun. 

This last year, I coached a team for my boys’ grade school in the Fall and an indoor team this Winter.  It’s great seeing the kids start to mesh as a team and really trust that the other players will be in their position.  When everything comes together it’s like composing an orchestra. 

At Kelley, my primary undergraduate course is F301 Financial Management, part of the group of classes we call integrated core.  Integrated core combines together three courses, Finance, Marketing and Operations.  The really unique aspect of how we present these classes is that the Core project provides students an opportunity to work with a local company to develop a new product, set up a marketing plan, produce an operating plan, and evaluate the expected financial performance to determine if the company should proceed with the new product offering or not.  It’s one of the unique experiences in Kelley where students not only learn in the classroom and from a textbook, but then apply the concepts to real-world situations.  As teams evaluate the projects they learn many things that can not be learned in a classroom setting. 

As I coached my sons’ soccer game, the struggles the team had to connect reminded me of the Integrated Core project experience that many teams go through.  We had several new players join our soccer team this winter.  

Working in a team to develop a new project is just like working on a soccer team.  As a team member, you wonder whether your teammates will put in the effort needed to succeed.  Will they be in position when you are ready to pass the ball to them?  Or won’t they complete their task and miss the well placed pass to make the goal.  After time, you learn who your fellow team mates are and who you can trust to complete their task on time and be in position to score the goal.  

The hardest part for some team members is delegating, just like convincing the soccer players that passing the ball is more important than the inevitable failed attempt to dribble the ball in toward the goal, ignoring your open teammate.  One person cannot successful win a soccer game, run a business, or complete the Integrated Core project.  When all the team members work together, the team is unstoppable.  Many of the teams that worked together this fall had a semester, the members worked together and were ready for the passes.  Pass, strike, score! 

Every semester, there is usually at least one team with the student hoping to ride on the tails of their teammates.  Every semester, this student finds out the inevitable truth that while the other team members pull together to pick up the slack, they’re not part of the celebration at the end.  It’s a great learning experience, one that happens frequently a work.  Will your co-workers complete their tasks or will you end up picking up the slack.  Ultimately, just as the co-worker is that fails to complete a task is written up for nonperformance and eventually fired or let go, the nonparticipating student is also docked for non-performance.  Ultimately the most successful people are the ones that you can count on to make the pass and position themselves for the next pass.  Pass, strike, goal! 

So how did the boys’ winter soccer season go?  We’ll it wasn’t quite as good as the fall, where we were undefeated in our League and took third place in our regional tournament, but we had a great deal of fun.  It was the first time for this group to play indoor and they learned a great deal.  Eventually, we clawed our way up to third place in the league.  It was great seeing the kids pull together, trust each other, position themselves for the pass, and score.

 

Hello All,

How is everyone doing? It’s been an interesting few weeks, a lot has happened yet it feels like nothing has really happened…have you ever felt like that? School is going great (we are closer to graduation of course); I have my first (or second, I can not keep track :)) test tomorrow. But weather is not looking good so it might be rescheduled for later in the week; either way it would be fine because I actually studied over the weekend for this test. Yes, for the first time this semester I actually spent last weekend doing homework- not all the time, but a big chunk of it-- which made me feel quite productive.

Here is a trivia game for you, what do these mean? ETI, FTF, NDPGR, DPGR, QPAI, QPAD, QPP: Extraterrestrial Item, Fried Thai Food? There are all sorts of acronyms that I’ve learned at my new role at work, most of these won’t make sense unless you make something up or you’ve been there for a few months. There are tons of acronyms at the office, but what company does not have a huge list? Even at home we have acronyms; it is part of a company’s culture and let’s face it, it sounds way cooler to say M&A than mergers and acquisitions. Needless to say, work is going great. I am learning a lot and I am quite busy with some projects. There is one project, however, that is very, very important and I can’t tell you about it or I would have to kill you all and frankly I rather not. Now I see that all the ethics that we learn in class does make a difference…sometimes you’ll find yourself working on projects and/or for companies that deal with a lot of classified information—so ethics, both personal and corporate play a huge deal in the real world.

On another note, there is this sort of challenge that I am making myself do. The challenge is to collect blankets and other bedclothes from my house and friends and pass them around to homeless people around the city. It has been extremely cold this winter and honestly just walking to the car can be extremely painful, so just imagine having to be outside all the time. Anyway, I challenge you to do the same thing if you can. You do not have to do pass clothes around, but you can always do something good for other people, like smiling to your fellow classmate…it can make a huge difference.

Well peers, I am off. Watch out for the weather and keep it simple.

Jaime

Meetings, Meetings, soccer, Meetings,

That is the theme of my life right now. When entering college I was told to get involved as much as I could. At first I sat back and I was like well how do I do that? Everyday people were telling me to join this club, go to this meeting, try this out. After taking it all in a bit I decided that I was "too busy" with soccer and school, so that first semester I did not join any of them. However, after realizing that I really was not overwhelmed with work I decided to give a few clubs a try. I first joined the Student Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC), and then I joined the Kelley Blog team, now I am a part of the Kelley Web team, and I have volunteered at and attended many other events. For many people joining clubs and teams may seem overwhelming, but I really feel that they can open up many doors. When I first entered the Kelley School of business I kind of took it for granted, but now that I am a part of many different behind the scenes events and I truly feel like we have the best school on Campus. The professors, faculty, and staff really work very hard in order for us students to reap as many benefits as we can. Many students do not realize this, but if you ever take a walk on the top floor of the business school and just listen for a minutes you can hear many conversations going on between various people and most of the time they are trying to, make this better, change that, or help this person out. Ok, now off of my tangent and back to the theme of my life.

The semester is in full swing and soccer is getting there too. Every week I sit down and write a list of things that I have to accomplish that week. I have found that this list has had two things in common every week this month, meetings and soccer. The Kelley school is working vary hard to get the new blog up and running and at the same time they are trying to give the webpage a new fresh look. Also, my SAAC committee is gearing up for our community service month in March. Along with this, we are trying to plan an Easter egg hunt, a student athlete appreciation dance/event, and many other things in order to try and give back to the people who give to us.

Ok apart from my "busy" life, last week was the Internship fair on campus. It was held at the new art building. Many interesting companies were in attendance including (Rolls Royce, Duke Reality, and Walt Disney just to name a few) it was a lot of fun to talk with various people from throughout the community. However, now time is of the essence as I try to figure out who I want to apply too and where I really want to end up.

On a closing note there was this Super Bowl thing where this team from Indianapolis won, but who remembers about that already? Basketball season is in full swing and the Chicago Bulls are doing great. Also, pitchers and catchers report soon and the Cubs get to start off 0-0 with the rest of the league.