Lindsey Pollak's "Getting from College to Career: 90 Things To Do Before You Join the Real World"

So I recently joined the professional networking website www.gurunation.com and from there, I found the profile of Ms. Lindsey Pollak. In her profile she listed the book she had written "Getting from College to Career: 90 Things To Do Before You Join the Real World". I was interested in the book, so I ordered it off of Amazon. I started reading it tonight and so far it is really great! It is a very easy read, and everything is broken down into small sections. I think I might carry this book around with me everywhere I go. If I just have a free minute or two I could do a little reading here and there. I also think it is really great that she has all 90 of her tips listed in the Table of Contents, so you can easily go back and find a tip to refer to it.

One of the tips she talked about is figuring out what you look like online, including, but not limited to Facebook. She recommends that you Google yourself and see what comes up. She says "...if you don't exist in Google, you don't exist at all." Well, I just Googled myself, and apparently I have a fairly popular name. I am a lawyer, I play lots of different male college-level sports, and I have various other jobs too (haha). This blog didn't show up until page 5 of the Google results. I feel like that is not very good "Googleability" for me, although, from reading the page titles of the other Jordan Becker's in the world, they might be hard to beat. Pollak suggests getting profiles on several networking websites other than Facebook, so I will work on that. She also suggests writing reviews for books or short papers and submitting them to professional organizations you are involved in, for me, that would be ASID.

I feel like I have a lot of work to do, but atleast this blog is a step in the right direction! I exist on Google, just not until page 5.

Job Opportunities in this Tough Economy

I keep in touch with one of my friends from our Interior Design program who just recently graduated. She is having a really hard time finding jobs, which makes me very nervous for this upcoming May, when I will be job searching as well.

I am putting my portfolio together this semester and it really has made it "hit home". Graduation is just a few short months away and I don't know if I am ready! I am ready to get out of the dorms, but I am not sure how ready I am to be job hunting.

I also have become interested in working for Disney World (doing design work). Boy, their website is hard to figure out! I found the section that talks about the design work they do, but in order to see if there are job listings, you have to create an entire profile, and to be honest, I didn't understand all of the questions the job profile application was asking.

Hopefully my classes this semester will help me get ready for the real world. And if not, I always have my wonderful Professors to back me up!

IDEC Design Competition

It's the start of a new semester, and my last semester (as an undergrad)!!

Before the semester had a chance to get busy, I chose to do a design competition outside of class for the chance to win a little extra cash. The competition was sponsored by the Interior Designers Educators Council (IDEC) and was a group project that was time-sensitive. You only had 14 days from start to finish and the project had to be recieved to Regionals by February 1st. It was a busy two weeks...

I chose to do this project with two of my good friends (and classmates) Rachel and Ashley. The project was to design a learning commons (about 4000 s.f.) for a university. We were supposed to combine technology with sustainability.

This was a really great project for me to do for several reasons. 1) We have not done any projects concerning educational spaces, and won't do any before I graduate and put my portfolio together. 2) It was a learning experience! My team interviewed two of the Library Professionals that work at my University's library and I learned so much about our library! I can text message and Instant Message my library and they will answer questions for you! (How cool is that?!) 3) This project really helped me get familiar with systems furniture (particularly Herman Miller) which is perfect timing because one of my classes for this semester is Corporate & Institutional Design and we have to use systems furniture for our project.

We sent in our project last Friday. We don't find out if we go to Nationals until the end of February. It is going to be a long wait!