As a high school student, I rarely took notes and pretty much only carried my textbooks home for show. Honestly, I don’t know who it was I was keen on impressing with my fake study habits, as my parents weren’t in the habit of breathing down my neck and all of my friends knew damn well that I tended to do my homework at school the following day, usually in the hall five minutes before it was due.

In high school, my study habits and note-taking skills had little or no time to really blossom. If I had been under more pressure or had gone to a larger or more competitive high school, it’s possible that I would have been ready to take notes as speedily and efficiently as my fellow freshmen could the first day of class at Cal State.

My first week of college was an excruciatingly eye-opening one for me. The professors all started right in with the lecturing, no first-day coddling and explaining and handing out of textbooks, just some syllabi and immediate lectures. This caused me to have big, wide, freaked-out eyes that looked around the lecture hall in a panic as I realized everyone else was as ready to start the lecture-giving, note-taking, student-teacher relationship as the professor was.

I was not ready, and would get so behind writing down one all-important professorly sentence that I’d totally miss the next few crucial statements or explanations, and would only know that I’d missed something that was probably pivotal to my understanding of the whole concept, but I’d have no clue exactly what the precious bit was. And you can really only ask the person sitting next to you “What did he just say?!” once, or you risk pissing everyone off and looking like an idiot (which I was, as I hadn’t used my four years of high school wisely and learned how to effing learn before I waltzed into the post-secondary phase of my education.

Once I’d made it past the academic probation hurdle, I got to bask in the crushing defeat of realizing that while I may have been just smart enough to have gotten away with not having to apply myself in high school, I possessed nowhere near the intelligence it would take to glide through college without fine-tuning my study skills. Trial by fire sucks, but it is effective. I didn’t enjoy having to tell my parents that I’d just blown a semester’s worth of their hard-earned money, nor did I take any pleasure in having to admit to myself that I was going to have to work my ass off in college just like everyone else.

The end result of many years of college-level note-taking and learning was this: First of all, I was never going to excel at the freakishly quick and complete note-taking style a lot of other students seemed to have; it was like they all went to some secretarial school at night and learned shorthand, unbeknownst to me. Also, I only have time to listen to a lecture once, so no audio-recording lectures and re-listening to them for me. Which meant that I had to figure out how to listen to the whole lecture, not lose chunks of pertinent info while struggling to write verbatim every line that spilled from the professor’s lips.

My perfect solution was to take limited key-word notes in class. I’d read the chapters that were to be covered before class so I had an idea what the instructor was talking about and what I was or wasn’t clear on. What the lecture didn’t illuminate further, I’d jot down. My lecture notes were basically like a shopping list of stuff to look up in detail and learn completely later. And by “later” I mean that same day, as soon after class as possible.

I learn information best by having a question, reading about it, writing down the info, and reviewing it later. Anything I couldn’t grok through the text, the lecture, or my own research (I inherited my Grandfather’s science reference library, and all the stuff not written in German is quite helpful) I’d force from the brain of the professor during office hours. If they didn’t explain it so I could understand it in class, I’d make them do it again on paper until it made sense.

It’s such a waste to have spent a few years getting really good at something, and then to never again have a reason to use it to that same degree. The learning how to learn I’ll use for the rest of my life, but not so much with the note-taking. It’s all right—it was satisfying to have learned how not to suck at being a student and to never again have to feel like the least prepared doof in the room.

Further Reading and Resources:

Five Best Note-Taking Tools

The Art of Taking Science Notes

How To Improve Note-Taking Skills

Posted by Alexa Harrington

image credit: eileen barroso

An informational interview is one of the more valuable modes of discovery for really understanding a given career. There’s no better way of figuring out what the job actually entails on a daily basis, what the education requirements might be, and what type of person would do well/be happy in said career. And that right there is the best part of the interview: figuring out the personality type that meshes so well with someone’s chosen field, and listening to them explain how they got from Point A to Point B on their career path.

The circuitous routes are fascinating, the direct I-Knew-What-I-Wanted-To-Be-Before-I-Could-Walk routes are compelling for their intense focus, and then there are the one-eighties who about-face partway through and head in the complete opposite direction. Honestly, when I’m at a dinner or a party and I’m forced to abandon my reclusive tendencies and talk to humans I don’t know, finding out how they got where they are professionally is much more interesting to me than what it is they do all day.

The Pursue the Passion project has an entire section of their site devoted to archived informational interviews. The idea behind the project is amazing all on its own:

Pursue the Passion started as a group of college students who had no idea what to do with their lives after graduation. The solution to their dilemma was to hit the road and explore different career options by interviewing people about their career paths. They found a sponsor in Jobing.com, bought an RV, and started exploring the possibilities. Sixteen thousand miles and hundreds of interviews later, their concept has turned into a flagship program of the Jobing Foundation.

Equally fabulous is the collection of interviews they’ve archived. Most of the interviews are conducted by the PTP team during the annual tours they take in their RV. Interviews are also conducted by high school students who’ve hit the school project jackpot and get to pick the brain of an adult currently living the teenage interviewer’s career dream (stuntman, video game designer, etc.). It’s a learning experience, so the teachers approve, and it gives the kids a much more realistic picture of what their fantasy job involves.

Pursue the Passion interviews are listed by Industry, by Name, by State or by Title.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

image source

For any prospective college student (graduate student or undergrad) in the throes of the college application process, you might want to read this hilarious post by Tenured Radical, aka Claire B. Potter of Wesleyan University. It will give you insight into the application process from the letter-of-recommendation writer’s point of view, be they high school teachers or undergrad profs.

The post will help you to understand how much those educators do for their students. And the portion of the post where Tenured Radical goes off on the schools who will be receiving these applications and letters for their asinine, inelegant, time-sucking system is truthful, satisfying and effing humorous.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

image source

Some (unfortunately not all) colleges and universities offer career advice and practical, in-depth assistance to their alumni, regardless of how long it’s been since they walked across the stage. More recent and less-than-recent college graduates can receive free career help for life from their alma maters.

Not all schools offer this incredibly helpful perk; medicine, nursing, law, and journalism schools tend to lack in this arena. Which is unfortunate and probably not in their best interest—nothing says Academic Excellence like unemployed alumni.

If the economy is affecting your career and you require some wisdom and advice, call your school(s) and find out what they have to offer with regards to pearls of career wisdom.

Further Reading and Resources:

Back to School—For Career Advice
Business Schools Gird For Wall Street Woes
College Alumni Get Career Help, Sometimes For Free
Career Advice From Your Alma Mater (30 Years Later)
How to Find Job Search Help
Weighing a New Industry For a New Job Outlook
Graduates Return to Warwick Business School For Career Advice

Posted by Alexa Harrington

image:quinn.anya

To state the obvious: Education is not just the formal classroom/teacher/textbook parts of one’s life. There’s also the being out in the world part, away from homework and exams, and continuing to deposit new information and ideas in one’s head. That’s an important phase, because unless you’ve managed to figure out how to get paid to go to school, at some point your formal education will com to an end, they will ask you to leave, and someone chucklehead will tell you to get a job and stop with the learning already. Which means that the majority of your life will be spent in the less formal, self-educating phase.

There are several ways to accomplish this independent knowledge absorption. Taking an interesting class or two is great if you have some extra time and superfluous cash. A cheaper option is removing yourself from your standard routine and spending a Saturday afternoon in a new place. Unfamiliar terrain and new input is good for the brain and you’re bound to learn something. And there’s my other favorite informal education option: books, which are free if you go to the library.

I adore books, and libraries are as close to a Cathedral Moment as I get. I spent my childhood and into my twenties collecting books. Before I hit thirty, I’d used up all the bookshelf space in my house. Because I refuse to end up an old woman surrounded by unsafely leaning stacks of books, that meant no more buying books or asking for books as gifts.

That’s a turn of events which would have sucked a lot more if I hadn’t re-discovered the public library. Now I’m a total library spaz and my husband makes fun of me for having the Seattle Public Library’s Web page as my browser’s homepage. I obsessively check my holds list and my checked-out items. I’m a dork I know, but it’s free books. How can you not love free books?

Penelope Trunk just wrote a post about how to not waste time by making bad book choices. Knowing your book likes and dislikes and what hasn’t worked for you in the past is good information to keep track of. However, I would also like to add a simple piece of wisdom my book-addict stepmother imparted to me.

First let me point out that my stepmother (who is not evil and whom I love very much) reads more books than I do, easily three times as many, possibly even four times as many. When I asked her once, in a cheerful and casual tone, if I could see her life book-list (all the books she’s read thus far) so I could copy it down and get some good book ideas, she laughed at me (not with me) and asked if I really thought I was ready for that. Which scared the crap out of me and I have never laid eyes on her list, nor have I ever asked to see it again. With any luck, she’ll die before I do and I’ll finally get a chance to look at the thing.

Enough with my morbid sense of humor; here’s her wisdom. I told her once that I tended to never give up on a book I’d started—I keep reading even if I’m not enjoying it. Some people can just read a few chapters, decide the book is not for them, and be done with it. Once I start, I feel like I should slog on through in case the wonderful bits are hidden in the last paragraph. My awesome stepmother said that she rarely gives up on a book. She said, “Even a book I really don’t like can teach me something.” My stepmother doesn’t tend to fill a room with words, so there’s not a lot to choose from. But that particular sentence is one of my favorites.

Other Book Lists (Not My Stepmother’s) With Which to Informally Educate Yourself:

Century of Books
The Guardian UK Observer’s 100 Greatest Novels of All Time
The Hugo Awards 1946-2008
The Hungry Mind Review’s 100 Best 20th Century Books
Library Journal’s Most Influential Fiction of the 20th Century
The Man Booker Prize List 1969-2007
Modern Library’s 100 Best Nonfiction Books
Modern Library’s 100 Best Novels
The National Book Awards 1950-2007
National Book Critics Circle Award 1975-2006
Orange Prize for Fiction 1996-2007
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction 1981-1995
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction 1996-2007

And here’s the be-all, end-all mother lode of book lists: The Booklist Center. It will overwhelm you in less than five minutes but it’s totally worth it.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Regardless of who you are or what life situation you find yourself in the midst of, there are bound to be some misery-infested moments. School, work, and just plain day-to-day life have wretched bits that bring on the urge to shake your fist at the sky and demand some answers.

If every day, all day is like that for you, then I would suggest some changes. But if the unpleasant moments are just threads running through a solid, generally happy and contented life, you’ll be fine and can take the advice of Sergeant Felipe Perez (Williams College ’99) to “Embrace the Suck.” You can read his post on his blog, The Accidental Soldier, at his Alma Mater’s blog, EphBlog, or below.

Army port-a-potties the world over (I can speak to the US, Germany, Kuwait, Qatar, and Iraq, at least) are full of some of the crudest, funniest, and wisest graffiti ever. My personal favorite, scrawled or scratched into at least one potty in ever place I’ve ever been, is “Embrace the Suck.”

“Army Strong,” “Army of One,” “Be All You Can Be” aside, “Embrace the Suck” is the real Army motto. The wisdom is simple and powerful. War sucks. Soldiering sucks. The Army sucks. Deal with it. Get over it. Accept it. Embrace it.

I think I’m close.

Just came back from 5 days in the woods. Slept in the dirt. Got rained on. Tore my hands up taking machine guns apart in the dark. Got real stinky. In short, it sucked.

But on day three or four (we lose track), we had hot chow trucked out to the woods. It had stopped raining. The sun was setting behind the North Carolina woods, through a break in the rainclouds. The truck was blaring 80’s R&B as they pulled up, and we convinced them to open the doors and turn it up. Before long, plate full of lukewarm spaghetti in hand, funky buddies at my side, and bad music in background, I was as happy as can be. It wasn’t long before our pint-sized First Sergeant started screaming about something or other, but it was wonderful while it lasted.

Better yet, last night, our field days over, we rolled back into the FOB. I’ve never been happier to see broken showers, a crowded tent, and a dining hall full of bland food. I’m learning to embrace the suck.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

image: Bryce Muir

It seems so obvious that basing decisions about college majors and careers on one’s personality would save the individual in question much angst, time, energy, tuition and frustration. And yet college students tend to choose their major according to whatever career path they pulled out of their asses while sitting (a) at the dinner table, their parents demanding some answers about their teen’s future; or (b) in the high school counselor’s office, wading through college admissions paperwork.

Neither of those scenarios is ideal for making sound life choices. I’m a firm believer in the philosophy that the major a college student chooses is of much less import than people seem to freak themselves out with by believing. Quite a few college students make themselves miserable spending four years and thousands of dollars earning a degree that isn’t the best fit.

College is hard enough, even when one is eyebrow-deep in courses they love. There’s just no reason to pursue a major (and certainly not the matching career) that makes you contemplate chucking it all and escaping to an island with nothing but mangoes and naked time.

To assist in the decision-making processes of weighty life-choices that will no doubt affect the path your life takes, here are a smattering of the multitude of books available for perusal:

10 Best College Majors For Your Personality

50 Best Jobs For Your Personality

The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need

How’d You Score THAT Gig?

Career Match: Connecting Who You Are with What You’ll Love to Do

The College Board Book of Majors

The Princeton Review’s Guide to College Majors

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Author’s note: this is a refurbished older post. It’s still relevant and I’m on vacation.

For anyone who has just graduated, this advice may come too late. But if you’re still in the throes of your higher education, Lifehacker.com has a solid, reader-written list of everything they wished they’d been told before they left college for the real world. It’s a pretty long list, but contains useful tidbits nonetheless. Looking down from my worldly and wise vantage point (total crap—I’m 34 but most days I feel more like I’m 12) I can also see that a lot of the words of wisdom are correct. The picture of post-college reality I had when I was 18 turned out to be severely false.

While I was reading through Lifehacker’s article, I was wishing someone had let me in on all of this need-to-know information. I was irate for 0.7 seconds, and then I remembered the teenaged me and couldn’t imagine that charming young lady sitting still long enough or opening her ears wide enough to ever actually hear some adult’s sage advice. So for all I know, I was appropriately advised with regards to college, life, and reality and I just don’t remember.

It’s worth your time not to make the same mistake. Also, reading advice online is way less annoying than having to sit and listen to some pedantic uncle carry on about his glory days and why YOU should help him to re-live them by following in his footsteps. Or, conversely, Uncle Whatsit hates his life and whippersnapper you should follow his advice to the letter so YOUR life will be fabulous and he can finally achieve his smashing success vicariously through you.

Don’t be anyone’s puppet. Live your own life, make your own decisions and all that. But sometimes older people do have smart stuff to say (usually because they’ve screwed up hugely and have since learned from their mistakes). You can read the Lifehacker thing, pay attention to the choice bits and skip anything smacking of pedantic uncle.

A few choice bits:

“No one cares about what grades you got.”

“Learn that there are things that are very valuable and are not taught in school.”

“If you’re not ready for higher education, then travel.”

“Your major doesn’t necessarily determine your future career path.”

“Don’t get caught up in what other people want you to do.”

“Everything you just learned means nothing in the real world.”

“No matter how prepared you are for Real Life, you’re not. It’s hard, stressful, and sometimes cruel. When your parents said, ‘College was the best time of their lives’, they weren’t kidding.”

“Use your vacation…don’t be that guy.”

“Get to know something abut each of your co-workers. Even, or especially, the quiet or odd ones.”

“Never stop learning and studying.”

“Don’t be afraid to look stupid…..I’ve met plenty of people I didn’t like, but I have yet to meet anyone who didn’t have SOMETHING they could teach me about.”

“Get out there and do things. College gives you plenty of easy opportunities…”

“Real life isn’t like high school, but some workplaces are.”

“The most important skills to remember from college include how to write clearly, how to think critically, and how to get along with people who are not like you.”

“Don’t be afraid of anything.”

“It’s just a job.”

“People you went to high school with won’t matter in 2-3 years. Quit worrying about them.”

“Floss. Exercise. Like, a lot.”

“Build your own life, don’t leech off of someone else.”

“Just because you have a degree doesn’t mean you know everything.”

“Don’t get a credit card from those companies that come to campus and offer a free t-shirt if you apply. They aren’t really your friends and don’t give two craps about you.”

“Be completely honest with yourself and others, even if it means taking a risk. Tactful bluntness will carry you much further in life than telling people what they want to hear.”

“Time and time again—financial literacy.”

Posted by Alexa Harrington

According to the Wall Street Journal, recent college grads are giving up on trying to find a decent job in the currently crappy job market, and are opting instead to spend a year or two working and/or volunteering for one of the following world-improvement organizations:

Peace Corps
AmeriCorps
Teach for America
Jesuit Volunteers
WorldTeach

The applicant and enlistment numbers for these organizations have been increasing over the past few years. The Peace Corps numbers for 2007 were the highest they’d been since the 1970s, and Teach for America has had a 36% increase since last year.

The job market does kind of blow at the moment, but I think a large part of what drives the twenty-somethings to do what they can to change the world for the better is that they are a pretty aware generation as far as the plight of their fellow man goes. As good as this stuff looks on a résumé, I find it hard to believe that huge increase in low- or no-pay enlistment is due to a bunch of shiny newly-grads wanting to add some stellar bullet points. I think they might just be nice. In which case, I’m very impressed.

Further Reading:

Why Teach for America
College Grads Are Not Just Chasing the Almighty Dollar
Obama: Can We Get a Little Service Here?
2 School Entrepreneurs Lead the Way on Change

Posted by Alexa Harrington

This exquisitely informative article in the NY Times will help to lessen the shocking dose of reality that might otherwise paralyze the newly graduated twenty-somethings who’ve recently been unleashed on the job market. It sucks to have finally figured out the bureaucratic red tape that is student loans and financial aid, and now you’ve got a whole new mess of paperwork and money-related crap to wade through and comprehend.

The article explains quickly and simply what a newly-minted adult needs to know about retirement, health plans and taxes. These are good things to know about (and to avoid screwing up) sooner rather than later.

Posted by Alexa Harrington