Chris' blog
Class of 2008, Economics and Business Major, from Appleton, WI

At the beginning of my career here at St. Norbert I had no idea what I wanted to do and no clue what I wanted to major in and if someone would have told me that I was going to be an economics major I would have laughed at them since I didn't even know what economics was. Finding a job and graduation was so far off that I never gave thought even once to making a resume or trying to gain experience and accomplishments to put on it. Well the times have sure changed... Had I taken my future job search into consideration my first few years here I sure would have spent a lot less time playing video games. After realizing last year that I had nothing to show potential employers except an average GPA and 3 years of summer work experience for my Father's business, I figured I better get out and acquire some of the skills and experiences that employers are looking for.

I began working on my computer skills on my own time. Considering computer skills are essential for most business jobs, I began taking some free lessons online and found a lot of resources providing free tutorials on how to use all the different Microsoft programs (Excel, Word, Access, etc.). Now I can do almost anything I'd ever want to do in any of those programs and I have some great skills that will be valuable to almost any employer. Proficiency with computers and certain programs is becoming more important every day, and those who are able to work well with them are becoming more valuable, while those who are not are beginning to get left behind.

In addition to becoming more computer literate, I began to look for ways to gain job experience. Some obvious ways of doing this is to get an internship or a job with a company where you can gain some relevant work experience to what you want to do in the future. I don't have much time for a job, but I was able to find a company that was willing to hire me to do a project for them on my own time. I get to pick my own hours and work whenever I have time and it's been working out great for me. I'm making money and gaining relevant work experience. Another thing that I would recommend is to try to use your class projects as opportunities to help local businesses. I've done class projects that I got graded on, but instead of doing something simply to hand in and get a grade, I did my project for a local business. I did great work for them that they couldn't afford to have done otherwise and my teacher loved the fact that I helped out the business. I also have a relationship now with that company and I another reference.

Leadership experience is one more thing that can be fairly painless to attain, and very valuable. It doesn't matter what you've been in charge of or how many people you've had underneath you, but showing that you're able to take a leadership role is a very nice quality to have. Considering the amount of sports teams, social groups, and clubs there are on college campuses, there are a ton of opportunities to get involved and gain some experience as a leader whether it's a team captain, math club president, student council, etc. It all looks great and there's gotta be SOMETHING that you can find interesting enough that you won't even mind spending the time to take care of your responsibilities.

Well that's all I got for now, but I'll write again soon. Thanks for stopping by.

Chris Schmitz

Thanks for stopping by to read my blog. This is my first post and I hope it's entertaining and informative for everyone who gets a chance to check it out. I guess I'll start out with a little information about myself first. I'm a senior at St. Norbert and I am an Economics and Business major. I currently am working as a host at the Black & Tan Bar and Grille and am doing some independent research for a printing company in Green Bay called Van Lanen Inc. On top of that I am a captain of the Men's Tennis team here at St. Norbert and an economics TA. This will not be my last semester at St. Norbert as I am coming back at least one more semester to finish up my business major and take a couple more economics classes so I will be graduating technically in December of 2008.

My time at St. Norbert has been great and I have mixed feelings about leaving. I'm definitely sad that I'll have to leave school, but also excited about what the future will hold for me. I have a lot of important decisions to make in the next year or so that will have a big impact on the rest of my life. The biggest of these decisions, in my opinion, is determining where I'm going to get a job. Since options are pretty limited for people with no experience, I've been trying to gain experience as much as possible. I started calling around to a few different people I knew in the area and asking if they would like me and one of my roommates to do some independent market research for them. After a couple tries I found someone who was happy to hire us since we obviously were a lot cheaper than hiring a bigger company to do the work. Now I have a project that I can do on my own time to gain some experience and make a few extra bucks on the side. I'm going to keep looking for opportunities like this so that I'll have more stuff to put on my resume and keep making money on the side. I wouldn't have been able to pull something like this off though without knowing the right people. Who you know is a big deal and having a good word put in for you by the right person can help you out more than you'd think. I've been trying to set up more connections within the area so that I'll have a few options when I graduate and I won't be forced into taking the first opportunity that comes my way. It's crazy how many people you know through your school, family, and friends that can potentially help you in your search for a job. Since I want to work in the Green Bay area and I'm not graduating this summer, I'm planning on teaching tennis at the Green Bay Country Club to meet more people in the area who will be able to help me in my job search and to make some decent money. I'm not trying to say that knowing people is more important than being a qualified candidate, but it sure helps out.

So that's my plan for the future, but there's a lot of other things that will happen along the way that I'll be sure to inform you of.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog.