Yesterday I looked at the calendar and realized there are less than two weeks left in March. Two weeks. That means we will soon be entering April. Let’s be honest: April is the last month of the spring semester…most students only have a week or two of school in May, and one of those is the week of final exams. So, when you break it down, there are only about five more “real” weeks of school when you take away Spring Break. Wow. That was the first time I’ve really broken it down to that extent, and I’m immediately worried. Like most of you, I’m sure you still have no idea what you want to do with your life. That sounds a bit extreme, but the time for finding a job before graduation is narrowing down, and to be honest that scares us. All of our lives, we have been ending one chapter and beginning the next already knowing how the story will play out. We attend elementary school, and then we go to middle school, high school, and the like. Now that we’re actually finishing college, where do we go next? We’re used to this structured lifestyle and being told what is expected of us. However, this is the moment where we decide how the future will play out. Again, that scares us. Or at least it scares me.
I am sure you are trying to polish your resume so that it is suitable for career fairs and online job applications. The truth is that everyone is doing the same thing, so how can you make yours stand out? Well, for those majoring in subjects such as business and politics, a detailed description of your accomplishments will most likely suffice. However, what about those with more visual majors, such as film and design? Luckily, there are plenty of websites that can help portray your work in ways that words cannot. Etsy.com, for example, is an online fashion and accessory website where those studying design, fashion, and the like can place pictures and descriptions of their products for others to view. To add even more appeal to the website, people can shop through the individuals’ items and actually purchase them online. This way, not only can a student display his or her works of art for employers to view, but they could possibly acquire some compensation as well. My friend, Giuliana Raggiani is studying fashion design at Parsons The New School for Design in New York City. Last spring, she studied knitwear design at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London which helped to land her a position as a Knitwear Design Freelancer at Anthropologie. She uses Etsy.com to display products she has made and to show potential employers how her determination has played out. Her page can be viewed here. For those of you who are studying something other than fashion, there are still other options available.
Personally, I am majoring in Telecommunications and Film with a sequence in Media Production and minoring in Photography, so I was very interested in finding a website where I could display my work online for potential employers to view. In order to show my videos and media production reel, I created a page on YouTube.com and Vimeo.com. Both of these are online sites where people can share videos and portray their work. My channel can be seen here. I am sure everyone is very familiar with YouTube; Vimeo is a great website that is coming into its own as a more “professional” video sharing website.
In order to display my photography, I had many options. There are websites where you can create a page of your work for free. The source I use is called Wix.com. Through this, I was able to choose a layout that worked the best with my work and then easily edit and manage all of my information. My page can be viewed here. I could create tabs so that one could easily learn more about my work and then contact me if at all interested. Another website that is great for displaying pictures is Tumblr.com. This website is more of a “visual blog” but it is free and very easy to use. I also have a Tumblr account; mine is for my own personal use to display pictures and quotes I find and want to keep in one place, but it would be ideal for showing artwork as well. My page is at: http://smalldoseofhappiness.tumblr.com/. One can easily embed pictures, audio files, and videos, so it would be a great tool for those needing a place to display their products which need to be viewed rather than simply written about. If you are not interested in Photography and want to start a blog about a topic related to your studies, Tumblr is a great resource for that as well. I have a blog for Study Abroad Italy (SAI), a program I went to London with last spring to study Photography. I am now a student ambassador for the company and use the blog not only to promote their company, but to also share my own personal travel tips and stories. It can be viewed at: http://studyabroaditaly.tumblr.com/. I encourage everyone to at least look into creating a page of his or her own so that he or she may be able to stand out from competitors. When you think about it, five weeks is a lot of time to create a webpage. Five weeks…
Melissa Smith is a Senior at the University of Alabama studying Telecommunications and Film, with a focus on Media Production, and Photography. Last Spring semester, she studied Photography in London and hopes to return to work there post-graduation! She currently works at the Center for Public Television and never turns down an opportunity to meet new people for friendships and networking. Follow her blog as an ambassador for Study Abroad Italy (SAI), the program she studied with in England at this link and check out her video portfolio here.