Welcome UCSB students! My name is Chris Velez and I am one of the Career Services Peer Advisors this year. The Career Peers help students find the information they need about assessments, jobs, internships, and graduate schools in our Career Resource Room (CRR)! We have put together a list of the best resources the CRR has to offer for both new and returning students.  

10. Graduate School Binders- Thinking about graduate school after college? Our graduate school binders contain information about graduate programs, standardized examinations, grants and scholarships.

9. Major Brochures- Perfect for first year students who are not sure what field they want to major in. The handouts contain information about the major and career options.

8. Handouts- The CRR has a informative handouts on jobs, resumes, cover letters, internships and interviewing. These are very popular and helpful resources.

7. Career Assessments- Take an assessment test to determine your interests (Strong Interest Inventory) and personality type (Myers-Briggs). A Career Counselor interprets your results and can help you apply them to your major or career goals.

6. Career Binders- The Career Exploration wall is filled with Career Binders containing up to date information about each field. They also have information on graduate school and internship options.

5. Career Manual- This resource offers information on jobs search tools, internships, graduate/professional school options. This manual was designed by the Career Services staff and made very useful for UCSB students.

4. Workshops- Career Services offers a wide range of workshops every quarter. The workshops include resume writing, interviewing skills, and graduate school/career information sessions. Pick up the Schedule of Events calendar at the CRR so you don’t miss out!

3. Drop-in advising- Need your resume critiqued by a Career Counselor? Stop in Monday through Friday from 10a.m.- 4p.m. for drop-in for a 15 minute session with a counselor.

2. Gaucho-Link: Connect with local and national employers who have available job openings, internships and campus interviews. You can also create your resume and cover letter with Resume Book and submit it to employers through Gaucho-Link. Check it out!  

1. Career Staff- The peers can help you find the resources you need for jobs, internships, and graduate school. If you have any questions, ask us! You can also make an appointment with a Career Counselor for individual counseling.  

We encourage every student to use all of the resources in the Career Resource Room. Career Services is located in the pink building (building 599) located next to the Humanities & Social Sciences Building. Our office is open Monday through Friday from 8:30am- 4:30pm. For more information about Career Services, check out www.career.ucsb.edu. We look forward to helping you identify and fulfill your career goals!

As college students, I’m sure you have all been told several times how important it is to get involved in the various opportunities your campus has to offer. Joining ateam, becoming an active member of a campus organization, or simply attending social events are all ways of doing so. With so many choices, though, how should you decide which opportunities to take advantage of and which are just not worth your time?

First and foremost, consider which options sound the most appealing to you. If joining the human rights group or working for the school newspaper does not interest you, it doesn’t matter how good either will look on your resume—you won’t gain much from the experience at all. In order to truly take useful and valuable knowledge away from a position you hold, whether it be as a teammate, a co-worker, or a leader, you must enjoy what you are doing and feel passionate about what you are working for.

While engaging in activities or jobs that help boost your resume is definitely of great importance, it should not be the only thing causing you to take on such a responsibility. However, if you yearn to be a lawyer and the District Attorney’s office hires you as an intern, you have every reason to devote your time and energy to excelling in the position. In other words, take advantage of the opportunities that bring you closer to achieving a goal about which you are passionate or landing a job in the industry of your dreams upon graduation, but don’t waste your time on those that don’t matter to you.

Another thing you should consider is how much of your time you are willing to spend on an opportunity to be involved in campus life. As a student, your first priority must be to do well in your classes. If you’re getting straight Cs, don’t expect the top medical schools to accept you just because you are working at Student Health, interning at the local hospital, and volunteering at a women’s clinic. While those are indisputably all great things to be doing if being a doctor is your calling, your grades must be up to par as well. In other words, don’t let your extracurricular activities hinder your ability to excel academically. If your internship or job is soaking up too much of your time, find an opportunity more conducive to your schedule and workload.

Lastly, keep in mind that any experience is only as good as you make it. You should be devoted to excelling and actively learning in any position you hold or job you undertake. Simply slapping a name or company on your resume won’t get you very far if you have nothing to show for it. Future employers will want to know what skills you acquired from interning for a company. So, if all you did while you were there was get your supervisor coffee and make photocopies, putting that internship on your resume probably will not mean much. 

In conclusion, get involved with the opportunities that interest you, don’t let them affect your schoolwork, and be proactive and driven in any task you undertake. Not only will you have something to add to your resume, but you will have learned some important lessons and enhanced your college experience along the way!

Since my last blog, a lot has changed and a lot has remained the same in my journey towards graduation and entering the realm of life after college. While I am still unsure about my post-June 14 plans, my state-of-mind has continued on in a positive direction. While making the transition out of college and into the real world seems intimidating right now, it only constitutes one small step in the grand scheme of things.

Let me take a little step back? I've wasted hours upon hours of my time since the beginning of my senior year stressing out about what the next chapter of my life will include. I've searched the web, attended meetings, and talked to countless individuals about possible internships, job ideas, or grad school options.  I've contemplated my options, stressed about which is the best of the bunch, and worried that I'm going to end up unemployed and living at home once the last of my days as a Gaucho have passed.

Here is where the big change has been made? I've told myself to stop panicking! For the most part, I've been able to do so as long as I constantly remind myself that anything I do will be an experience, an important part of the journey, and only the very first step in the direction towards my future career. Whether I choose to go teach English in a foreign country, acquire an unpaid internship, or find a less-than-ideal job to hire me, chances are it will not be what I end up doing in the long run, but will have a positive impact on my knowledge or skill base, outlook about my future, and, ultimately, on what career path I choose to follow.

Another important fact that I've come to terms with is the current state of the economy. Because most businesses are being forced to cut costs and consequently lay off many employees, now is not the best time to rely on being hired by the company of my dreams. On the other hand, now is the time to do something that interests me and provides me with some sort of practical experience. I've realized that as long as I continue to be an active learner in whatever field I next enter, I will walk away with something I didn't have before. So, when it comes down to it, no journey I embark on next year will be a waste of time or a setback.

I'd like to end with a quote that I came across one day while reading the back of my Starbucks coffee cup. It read, "The irony of commitment is that it's deeply liberating- in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life." It is indeed ironic that making a commitment (setting a decision in stone) can have a liberating rather than a constricting effect. In applying this concept to my current situation, I've realized that it's time to start narrowing down my options and begin taking the steps toward committing to just one. Once I've made a decision about what exactly it is I'm going to do, my concerns will naturally dissipate.  I'll then have the ability to really start enjoying this new and exciting chapter of my life!

So it has been a while since I’ve written a blog and that is partly because of the time I spent back home during break reflecting on the past quarter. Before I left for break I was informed that I did not get the REU research internship in Delaware. I was literally crushed when I found out because I was looking forward to researching AIDS during the summer but I learned that things do not always work out the way you want them to and I am okay with that—I realize rejection is just a part of life.

After hearing the news I started to think about how other students must feel when they do not get jobs or internships. Learning to cope with the rejection is a touchy subject and I never realized how sensitive I was to it. I am glad that it happened though. If it were not for this experience I would not have been able to see a different side to the world of internships. I also realized that it was not the end of the world.

My tactic to deal with the rejection was to move on and look for a new internship—that is just the way to deal with these kinds of things sometimes. Almost by stroke of luck, I received an email from my Sociology advisor informing me that there was a research internship available through the same program funded by the National Science Foundation.

This is my second chance at landing an awesome summer internship. The program I am applying to is actually on the UCSB campus and pays the same rate as the REU program in Delaware. The subject for this internship is researching the different societal methods which affect and are affected by nanotechnology. I know—nanotechnology? What am I thinking applying to a program in nanotechnology?

Actually, I am glad that the subject is not one that I am totally familiar with because I enjoy learning about new subjects and tying them into what I already know. Nanotechnology seems like an up-in-coming and wide reaching field of study and I am actually excited to see if I can learn more about its affects on society—especially in this globalizing society we live in.

My goal for the next few weeks is to develop a comprehensive and innovative statement of interest for this program and brush up my resume to make it seem more professional. I know it will be hard work and I have already started doing some research on the field to get a better background on what I am getting myself into. I’ve set up an appointment with an advisor at Career Services to look over my resume and critique my application to make sure that I did not mess up anywhere—it’s always a good idea to get a second opinion.

If I can land this internship I will be more than satisfied with myself because it has been a seven-month long process so far trying to secure a summer internship, so at this point I sort of feel it is about time I actually get one that I am interested in. This should be interesting!

My experience in the UCCS program was extremely fruitful. Between the summer of my sophomore and junior year I participated in this research intensive program while beginning my first internship. I was very nervous to start this program because I knew I would be one of the youngest people in the group and I honestly did not know what to expect.

The first step for me to take was getting an internship. I actually did not land my internship until the second week of the program, which is sort of rare since most of the other students in the program had secured their internships during the previous quarter. I ran around the state capitol with copies of my resume and hoped to get an interview.

This was definitely not an easy process, but I quickly learned the importance of networking and developing what is heavily referred to as “thick skin” in politics. I went through countless interviews after interview until finally I got an offer from a Legislative Assemblyman named Tom Berryhill. I took this offer because the prospect of getting first hand knowledge of the logistics behind how the California State budget is passed really intrigued me. Also, I wanted to learn about the way state politics works so I figured what better way to accomplish this than by getting into the action on the “battle field” as many like to call it.  

While interning in the capitol, I got the opportunity to do thorough policy analysis on bills in line to be passed. This was a great learning experience for me because things like as such are not taught in any classes you can take at a university. Also, I got the opportunity to see first hand how deals and pacts are made to get advocates for certain measures. This was really interesting to witness because it made the formality of politics much less daunting since I was able to see how informally certain things actually do get done. Getting this “behind-the-scenes” experience has really helped my cohorts from the program and I gain an edge on our fellow colleagues.    

I made friends with other interns and began to thrive in this politically-driven climate. I had never known politics could be so empowering until I began this program. There were a few of my cohorts from the UCCS program working in the capitol as well so the convenience of having more familiar faces was beneficial because of the networking opportunities that developed between my agency and their agencies.   I felt extremely lucky to have been able to grow in and learn through such an amazing program. The reputation held by the UCCS program at the state capitol is phenomenal and anyone interested in a political career should definitely consider applying to this program.

Aside from the priceless experience, I was able to gain unique confidence I doubt I would have gotten from any other internship—especially for being my first internship. I highly recommend anyone at least slightly interested in this program apply to the UCCS program or the UCDC program.