- lesscollegestress
- Sep 4, 2022
After graduating in 2021 from Bucknell University, I started working as a consultant consultant at a firm named West Monroe. In my day-to-day, I work to help companies build their data platforms, determine data tools to use, and build dashboards to allow companies to see and understand their data in a more visual way. At Bucknell I majored in Computer Science and Economics with a minor in math. Through my time at Bucknell I had work experience with two internships, a day shadowing a Bucknell alum, and a part time job tutoring computer science. When it came time to apply for jobs in senior year, I wanted to go into a technical field to work with people on a daily basis. This brought me to technical consulting roles. In my job, I am able to apply the skills I learned in both of my majors, as well as collaborate with peers that have both technical and non-technical backgrounds. Outside of my day to day role, I have worked with West Monroe’s corporate social responsibility team to help plan a company wide day of service in which employees work with nonprofits in their local communities! I am grateful for my time at Bucknell which allowed me to explore my different areas of interest and career options!
- lesscollegestress
- Aug 28, 2022
Hi! My name is Ashley Ryan and I am currently in Commercial Real Estate doing Project Management for Avison Young in NYC. I graduated from Penn State in 2021 with a major in Criminology and a minor in Human Development and Family Studies. I originally went to college with the intention of being a lawyer and was lucky enough to intern under a judge for several summers.
In 2020, when the world felt like it was ending due to COVID-19, I began to second think my career plan. I took time to decide if law was a career I was genuinely interested in or just something that felt familiar. That fall, I made the hard decision to not go to law school. This left me in a state of anxiety and confusion with what I was going to do next. My dad works in real estate and suggested that I get my real estate license to have as a “back up.”
Following my graduation from Penn State in 2021, I took my real estate exam and passed on the first try. I was thrilled and now felt a sense of security in my future. I was lucky enough to get an opportunity to work at Avison Young, a global real estate company, doing Project Management and Business Development. This was a job I had never even heard about, yet its description matched everything I was interested in. I am currently in charge of helping manage multiple commercial real estate office build outs from beginning to end. I am constantly on the go, checking on different job sites and meeting new people every day.
A year later since starting at Avison Young, I can happily say that I am so thankful I made that hard decision to change my career path senior year and I am now doing what I love. I hope my story can inspire some of you to not always stick to what you think you should do in life, but rather take a chance and see where you can end up in your career.
- lesscollegestress
- Aug 21, 2022
We all know that the media, on both sides of the political spectrum, spreads negative news. But why?
The podcast attached (I recommended Freakanomics last week) features a Dartmouth professor who studies excessive media consumption and how negativity stimulates the human brain.
A researcher states, “Humans have a built-in negativity bias.” The English language features more specific words for negativity, as well as morality, than for positivity. These divide people and their perception of others into good and evil. Our media taps into “the power of bad.”
The newspaper principle “If it bleeds, it leads” has jumped off the charts. Our television and social media outlets capitalize on this very successfully. Newspapers, whose market share has dropped dramatically, are guilty too, but with less impact because a reading consumer is not hearing a powerful voice and the intense, alarming music introducing it. Research shows that US media is more negative than it is in other countries where there is less of a profit motive.
What does this have to do with college admissions? Since we are attracted to negativity, rather than focusing on great student outcomes, we are drawn to stories about the low acceptance rates at elite colleges and salacious stories like Varsity Blues. Are we really surprised that there is corruption in college admissions, or is just fun to see celebrities punished for their elitism? Nearly every college website features promising research projects, award winners, and growth. Can we skip opening an Ivy website and click on a top-ranked public research university instead?
All of this has given me some personal insight. While there is more bad college news out there I could post, I try to share positive news and alternate options to unlikely colleges. Finally-I have an answer to my lackluster social media insights! While being irate might earn me more clicks, I accept my algorithmic limits.
