Ask Dr. Ross
"Ask Dr. Ross" answers the important and nagging questions parents and potential college students raise about higher education. Topics include preparing for college, avoiding student debt, and secrets to good grades. Hosted by award-winning professor Catherine Ross, Ph.D., and student producer Ashley Worley, listeners can ask their own questions by emailing ADRquestions@gmail.com.
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Ask Dr. Ross
How Do I Prepare for My Career in College?
There's plenty of debate about whether or not college truly prepares you for a career. Between homework assignments and research projects, how can you build a resume that helps you succeed after graduation?
Let's find out.
This week, Dr. Ross and student producer Ashley Worley explore the best resources and tips for college students/recent grads navigating the job market. Joining us to share her expertise is Dr. Rosemary Cooper, UT Tyler's Executive Director of Career Success, and Ebony Walker, a grad student juggling her new job as an adjunct English professor. Together, they share the real-world career experiences of both faculty and students to address the unique challenges of finding work in today's market, connecting students with career development resources, and breaking into creative industries. No matter where you are in your career journey, this episode has the practical advice to help you take your next steps.
Have questions about finding your career path during college? Email us at ADRquestions@gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you!
Stay tuned to the Ask Dr Ross podcast. It's created to give you info to succeed at college. Our hosts are highly qualified. Dr Catherine Ross is a member of the University of Texas System's Academy of Distinguished Teachers. She's also a popular professor of 19th century English literature. Ask Dr Ross is a community service of the University of Texas at Tyler.
Speaker 2:Welcome to another episode of Ask Dr Ross. I'm here with my wonderful producer, ms Ashley Worley. I have two guests here Dr Rosemary Cooper, who is the director of our UT Tyler Office of Career Success. Our other guest is one of our recent MA graduates, ms Ebony Walker, who is now one of our lecturers in the college's Department of Literature and Languages. What we're going to talk about today is everybody is very concerned these days that you go to college and you spend all this money and then what are you going to do when you get out? And not all of the courses that we teach, not all the majors we teach, have an automatic career path. Not everybody is going to want to be an accountant or an engineer or a nurse, and so we have a lot of other things going on, and the first thing we wanted to do was to talk to you, rosemary, about the Office of Career Success, about its creation and about your reasons and hopes and dreams for that.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, and thank you guys for having me. I appreciate it. So the office was created in 2018. So this is our what our almost seventh full year and so the structure of the office is a bit different than what you see at probably most universities and colleges. We truly do provide a holistic approach. We look at the whole student, not just the career development piece. So we hear any and everything, just like a lot of our faculty do about the students' lives, what's going on currently, what their goals are, highs and lows so we hear about it all.
Speaker 3:When we created the office, we chose to go the route of creating career coaches for each of our academic colleges. Our thoughts were to be those individuals that really create transformational change and not just be an office of transactional services, you know. So we've embedded a career coach in each of our academic colleges, and so it's a decentralized model, if you want to look at it that way. That makes it just real practical. I mean, first of all, it's real convenient. The students walk out of class and there you are right. So, aside from the coaching model itself, just the nature of our work is somewhat different than what you see in most career services type of offices. Our approach is very customized to each student, so we don't provide the same information to every student, because every student's different. Every student has their own story. Now, on the flip side, of course, we're there to provide support and supplement for our faculty in the classrooms Everything from resume writing, cover letter writing, mock interviews, career assessments, really trying to find your path, helping the students find their way. So we do all of those what we call standard career development programming. But it's the real coaching that is different. So our goal is to meet with the student initially and when I say initially, we're talking at freshman orientation, just making them aware and then also providing them kind of a quick guide, if you will, of what to expect or look for over the next four years. The idea is to assign that student to a career coach and then that's their person for the next four years. It's important to us for it to function that way because, just like our own family, we want to have somebody that we feel comfortable with. They kind of know our story, that kind of thing, and they're able to stay in tune with us during that whole journey. Right? So our coaches again are hearing everything about work, life, balance. You know school, life balance, things like that. We're hearing about it all.
Speaker 3:Aside from that, of course, we're the conduit between the student and the employer. We have a number of different roles, wear a number of different hats, but it's also our responsibility to know what the employers are looking for. That's a big piece of this. So it's one thing to kind of get the student prepared, but prepared for what? So we got to have our ear to the ground and know what the employers are looking for and we got to know what's trendy. We have to know what standard practice in different industries. We've got to know the jargon, the language that's used in different industries.
Speaker 3:And again back to the career coaching model. These coaches are set up and have backgrounds in each of these areas, if you will, and we often visit with employers. We travel around the state and around the region and go to the actual site of the employer, go into the facility and find out what they're looking for and what they need. Now it's something that we've been doing in the last couple of years. We've been taking groups of students on these site visits, and so that's another huge plus for us. And so it's one thing for the student to hear about a certain career, but it's completely different to be boots on the ground watching and hearing what they do in that industry.
Speaker 2:You know and I think that's so important because we were talking about this earlier we were interviewing some folks from the English department and they were talking about how, you know, everybody thinks that English professors and English classes are like they are in the movies, and same thing with doctors and lawyers and accountants. They have these stereotypes and anybody who's in those professions will tell you that isn't the way it really is.
Speaker 3:And if I could just tell you some of the stories, gosh and y'all seen them too over the years. Just students that you know, they don't know what they don't know.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 2:A lot of times they don't know what they want to do, or they come in thinking they want to be something their parents want them to be, and I can't tell you how many times I've had a student come up to me in tears and say my mother wants me to be a nurse, but I don't like anatomy.
Speaker 2:Or I really want to be an English major, but my parents don't think I can do anything with that, and so our job is to help them see what they can do with the things we're teaching them, and so it sounds as though your office and your career coaches are a vital link in that process and one of the things I've always felt as a teacher especially English, because English has this stereotype of well, what do you do with an English degree? In fact, there's a lot you can do with an English degree, but I don't always know where the slots are out in the community, and so it sounds like you all are out there finding out in the Tyler area, in East Texas area, or even in the larger state, I suppose 100% and that's again part of our responsibility is we can train the student all day, but for what?
Speaker 3:What are we training them for? Right, we've got to take care of the other end of this right, and that's knowing what the employer's looking for. What are the industry norms? You know, and how is the market? How is it changing? You know so much impacts the workforce, everything from politics to economics. You know it changes the reality of things, and so our goal is to be as practical as we can and give them all the tools they need and I say this to students all the time you're paying for these services all the tools they need. And I say this to students all the time You're paying for these services Enjoy them, please. You know we want you to, and I think a lot of times the students, just like I said, don't know what they don't know. So I'm all about old fashioned advertising, right, get out there and tell them what's available to them on this campus, and not physically here on the campus, necessarily. We've got plenty of online and distance students.
Speaker 2:You know we serve all of them Well and that was one of my questions. As you said, you talked to the freshmen at freshman orientation, but about half of our students are transferred, so they come in there may already be a sophomore or junior. What kind of contact do you have with them?
Speaker 3:Great question. We're part of all orientations for one and transfer orientation is now required. But that's a big piece of it. Again, we don't want it to be where the student has to chase down these things. Right, that's the worst setup you could have, right, it needs to be provided to the student and let them be aware of it. So, anyway, we have standard programming that takes place every year and then, of course, depending on kind of what's the hot topic, we'll talk about that.
Speaker 3:Salary negotiation is a big one right now. We get them prepared for the career, we show them how to apply for the job, all these things. But let's say they get the job, now what? How do we talk about the sensitive things? You know the money right, and so we cover it all from long before you ever get started until after you've landed the job how to operate in the workforce, like workforce expectations. What does it look like to function with others? You know, and outside of the classroom you know, it's a little different dynamic. So we train on those kind of things, a lot of the soft skills that the faculty may not have a chance to really talk about in the classroom because they only have a set amount of time to talk about the content itself. Right, the academic content.
Speaker 2:Now I want to turn over here for a minute, but Ebony is an example of one of our former students who has found a career. But I'd like you to talk, especially in the presence of Dr Cooper, who has certainly heard a million stories. How did it feel coming here? Because I know when you first came here you were going to go to law school.
Speaker 4:Yes, I was. You were actually the reason I became an English major. I came and, honestly, I chose law because nobody else in my family had ever went to college. So I was a first generation college student and being a lawyer just sounded successful. It just sounded like a successful career. So I came here, I majored in political science and I took I think it was your 2323 class.
Speaker 2:It's a British survey course, just a basic core class for everybody's got to take one of them.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and I had always liked English, it was easy for me. And you said, like, why haven't you ever considered it? And I was like, well, I mean I don't know. And so I went and I talked to my advisor and I found out that I could double major and still graduate in the same amount of years. And I'm kind of a cautious person. So I was like, well, that gives me a backup. And I mean, at that point I still planned to go to law school but I figured it wouldn't hurt to have a second degree.
Speaker 4:I literally thought I was going to law school until my senior year and then I said, oh God, I don't want to do this and I decided to go into the master's program. But I do think that a lot of it had to do with just how tight-knit the English department here is. I really knew all of my professors. I talked to them. They were there, they were willing to speak with me. Dr Wu, who was our former chair, was very much always there telling me like it's still possible to have a successful career and be in the humanities. So I didn't have to force myself to go down this career path. That to me just was one of the big ones, right, like doctor, lawyer. Those are the things you hear when you think about a successful career, but I no longer felt like that was something I would have to do.
Speaker 2:In a way, what she's telling us right now is exactly why your office exists is because we need people to talk with all of our students. But you know, so many times I mean they're happy to get to college and they figure that's the next step, but what is the step after that? And the step after that? And, as you mentioned, the career world is changing so rapidly. So even if you did start out thinking I definitely want to be a lawyer and I'll be good at it and forget, dr Ross is enticing me off to be an English major by the time you got finished, the law world and admissions to law schools and what they're teaching in law schools and all of that are going to be different. And I'll give you another example.
Speaker 2:One of our sons is a lawyer and he had his heart set on being an environmental lawyer. Guess what? There aren't very many jobs out there doing that, but there are a whole lot of jobs out there doing family law. And he was already a debater and a good political scientist, and so he ended up going in that direction. But he didn't know that his dream of one kind of law was pretty unlikely and I think he struggled for a little while, even though he was, you know, doing this quote thing that sounds successful. As you said, it sounds like you're successful. So career success office hardly existed when you first started.
Speaker 4:I mean, I think it probably had existed but I didn't know about it. And also I think back then it was a little less apparent how many resources were available for students. I think now I see like posters everywhere, we have like events. I know that the career success team does events because when I was in grad school I helped like set up a couple of them, so I think that helps a lot. When I was an undergrad I didn't know about all these things. I remember the first time somebody was like we have counseling that they offer you at college, and I was like what? And they were like yeah, you pay for it. Like we have so many different things that is already included in your tuition. That just wasn't as well advertised.
Speaker 2:Well, and I also think it's not just that it's not well advertised. I think it's also that students are so busy going to class and they're not really sure what it is they want to do anyway. I can't tell you how many times a student has told me, you know, I think I want to do something in the math area, but I'm actually pretty good in English and maybe I could do that too. Or we've got a biology student who says you know what I love? Science fiction. I want to do something with that. I mean, there's a lot of crossover and it ends up being too much.
Speaker 2:I think students get confused, and I know a lot of students are really anxious about finding work and finding good work. So I'm so thrilled that we have somebody who is enthusiastic and as talented as you are, because you know, I've known you since the beginning. In fact, rosemary is a bit of a story too, a career story, because I think you started out as an administrative assistant and you are now Dr Rosemary Cooper. You might want to talk a little bit about how that happened, because I think that's kind of illustrative of the way people find their paths in life.
Speaker 3:A hundred percent. I was just saying earlier I'm such a poster child for this and not to talk about myself, but I know myself better than anybody else right, but we do have stories, and other people's stories help younger people figure out what's going to be happening next. I say that all the time. So I did start here at the university. Like I said, a quarter of a century ago, my title was secretary and that was very common to use that term back in those days, and at that time I had an associate's degree and I actually had a daughter at that time, and so I did all the things, got married, had children and then finished school.
Speaker 3:So I did it the hard way, not the wrong way, but the hard way. I'm from Nashville, came here and I worked in the music business in Nashville and so I worked on Music Row and with you know all the seemed like all the glamorous stuff singers, songwriters, you know all these famous people and everything Met a Texas guy and moved here. So then I had to reinvent who I was. Who am I now right? So I came to the university and I was always an academic kid. You know always very much that person, and so I did what I do best, which is that you know I mean, I'm not a sports person. You know I'm not. I don't have all the other talents. That's my talent, right, or my gift. So went to school and, as time went on, got my bachelor's here at UT Tyler.
Speaker 5:Here at.
Speaker 3:UT.
Speaker 3:Tyler, oh yes definitely Got my master's in 2009. I had just had twins and then pursued my PhD and graduated with my PhD in 2015. So I'm saying all that to say that higher education has become my career Again. I know me best, but I came from a world of entertainment. You know, all this was in my flashy, cool stuff, right? But I never dreamed that. You know I'd be doing this 25 years later. You know, and it has been such a blessing to me and to my family, you know, and I'm a first-generation college student Mom and dad neither graduated high school, both have GEDs. So I'm saying all that to say that they were the most supportive people ever, but they also are very vocational type individuals. So, as much as I sit here with a PhD and such a proponent of higher education, I equally have a heart for those who do vocational work, because we need them all. We need all of us to make this work, and so sometimes, believe it or not, college is not for everybody, and it's OK. It's OK that it may not be for you.
Speaker 3:So, again, I've been there. I've had to rethink about who I am, what's important to me, what's practical, and I started out one way had changed my major. So all those things. From personal experience, I can tell the students it's okay if you change your major. Don't feel like you weren't smart enough or you weren't good enough. Thing is, you've got talent. I believe this firmly, that everybody was born with a gift or gifts you know, and so you will find that. You will find it, and oftentimes you know what it is, but you're afraid to take the next step and go. Well, what can I do with this gift, though? You know, what can I do with this talent, and so it's such a thing for me. I'm so passionate about it because I lived it.
Speaker 2:Well, and I'm really glad you tell that story, because all of us have stories. Mine was that I did finish college before I got married, but then I went straight on to working with my first husband in education at a different level, and then one day I woke up and realized I felt like I was at a dead end and I wanted more. Everybody said, well, there's no jobs in higher education right now. And I said, but I love to study, I love to learn. But I changed my major three times in college. I was pre-med and I had high math scores and I ended up being an English major. But in between times I was a history major and then I was an American studies major and then finally, I was an English literature major.
Speaker 2:But I kept following you know the strengths, but also the things that interested me, because the thing I always want to tell my students is that you want to find a job that will feed you not just your pocketbook, but will feed your soul and your intellect for a long, long time. But I found that my early teaching career just wasn't getting me there and I was teaching at really fine independent schools in Dallas, texas. They were beautiful places, they were smart people. I was respected, the kids were motivated, their parents were motivated. I was respected, the kids were motivated, their parents were motivated. But I hit some sort of a personal wall and so I went to grad school and they said you'll never find a college job. And I just went I'm doing it anyway, you know, and I went through a lot and I was pretty impoverished for a while. But one of the things that happened is OK. When I finally did finish my degree and oh and I'll just add this halfway through my PhD work, I got cancer and everybody thought I was going to die and I thought, well, I sure don't want to do that right now.
Speaker 2:So I finished up and went out on the job market and there were over 250 graduates that year in my field and there were five jobs in the whole country and I'm going. Well, I guess there wasn't meant to be. No, I'm going to try anyway. And I chose to apply to three of them and I got interviewed by three of them and I got offered two of the jobs. One of them was University of Colorado R1 school, very prestigious.
Speaker 2:I didn't want to go to that place. I didn't want to do that kind of work, I was really ready to get back in the classroom. Another one was Middlebury, which is a fabulous liberal arts college, like where I'd gone, but it was way up in the far northeast and it was freezing cold up there. You know, I ruled those out and I went for the three ones in the middle and one was UT Tyler and I've been, like you, 25 years here and I've watched the place grow and change and it has grown and changed around me.
Speaker 2:To some extent the job I thought I'd signed up for is not the same that I do now, but I have been able to do what I think I'm pretty good at. So when I look back at the people who said, you'll never get a job if you have somebody who says go ahead and try it, like you're doing for us, like your office is doing for us, but also helping students to find the connections, because sometimes you just don't know what's going on out there. So, for example, you know, here you are Ebony. I think you've settled on the fact that you're pretty good at being a college teacher and you want to keep doing it. But guess what?
Speaker 4:It's still a stepping stone, like now I'm an adjunct professor. I'm getting obviously some career steps in, but getting to that next step of becoming a full time professor is the middle part of doing all the things. An adjunct professor is basically a part time professor where usually you teach the-level English courses 1301, 1302, that are core courses that all majors have to take and because of that there's usually a lot of them. So usually colleges hire adjuncts to teach those sort of courses because we can't have as big of class sizes.
Speaker 2:Right. English classes at that level have to be small, so we've got to have a lot of teachers, but we never know from semester to semester how many teachers we need right. So that's one of the slippery parts about this step in your career. But you are training to be a full-time lecturer, or perhaps if you go on the PhD right. So from the job skills standpoint it's a good step.
Speaker 3:Oh, 100%, 100% it's funny you should say that about pursuing advanced education, and so that too is a part of our office in that we help students get there. So that may mean kind of navigating what an adjunct faculty position may look like, kind of how to get your feet wet, how to get your foot in the door, but then getting ready to submit your statements of admission for PhD programs. We work with students in submitting their letters for admission to medical school, pharmacy school, you name it. So again, that's all part of career development. Pursuing higher education is part of it.
Speaker 2:Also, you were telling us, before we started recording, that you're starting to apply now for next year's set of jobs. And here's the woman her office, her coaches can help you sort that out. You don't just have to take it on by yourself anymore. Tell us what the task is, Ebony first.
Speaker 4:Well, right now I'm applying for full-time positions, but those positions are a little more difficult at my level because I only have a master's. So in most college-level jobs are usually looking for someone that they can tenure, so PhD students. But you can get a job. Usually it's like a lecturer at that level and right now at our college we have a lecturer position opening that I am applying for. But there's also a position at TJC.
Speaker 2:Tjc is our local junior college, tyler Junior College, but yeah, and then, of course, there are like dual credit positions.
Speaker 4:So those are the kind of jobs I'm looking at now, because I would like to have a full-time position before I start getting my PhD.
Speaker 3:Right, and I think for our office, in a case like yours and even if it wasn't Ebony, but let's say it's someone else who is in that transition period, if you will the goal is to show the employer how valuable you are right and then where your pursuits could take you. I'm also adjunct faculty here at the university, so I can speak to that a little bit too. I'm the only staff member with the PhD, but that is valuable in that I can impart that to students to kind of help them find ways to get their foot in the door. They're not quite there academically yet because they're generally young, like you, and they're still going through the motions, going through the schoolwork and things like that. But it's a matter of telling that employer how valuable you are right and kind of knowing where you want to go. They'd be crazy not to want to take you right, and so that's our job is to help you put that on paper.
Speaker 2:And do you also help with things like credentialing, so, for example, if you know how to use AI or if you know how to use Canva or our various learning management systems, so there are things like that. You can help students to kind of build their resume.
Speaker 3:Yes, definitely. So one thing is really hitting home on your skills, so I want to mention that. So if there are particular platforms that you use and I don't necessarily mean you, ebony, but any student uses that pertains to the industry that they want to go into, that again is why the coach comes back into play. That coach knows what those platforms are. They know the language, you know everything's got an acronym, you know in different industries. But being able to then make sure that student puts the correct language on the resume so that the employer knows that, it's very important in engineering because there are a lot of systems, a lot of technology goes into play there Our health care, our nursing students. There's a lot of specific jargon they use and that's also really important because we talked about just the nature of the workforce how much it has changed. I'm 52 years old, so I've been around the block just once so far. But it's different when you apply for jobs now.
Speaker 3:So a lot of industry they use application tracking systems and they're called ATS. That's the letters we use, right? But what that boils down to is a lot of these larger organizations and companies they have an online platform where the applicant will submit their resume, cover letter, that kind of thing. Well, if the resume doesn't have the correct skills listed, acronyms used, things like that, that system will automatically spit the application and resume out, so that individual never gets a first look. Now remember, this is not a person doing this. This is a technology, a machine.
Speaker 3:So we as a staff have to understand about these application tracking systems. We have to know which companies use them and to make sure that your resume is absolutely the best it can be right to give you the best shot at getting reviewed. So knowing about the technology that's used when it comes to recruiting is super important for us, and also knowing a little bit about the acronyms, the technology that's used in some of these industries. We're not experts in those areas, but we have to have a little bit of knowledge about it, and we get that from meeting with the employers. So it's incumbent upon us to make sure we know what the employers are looking for, otherwise we're of really no use to you, the student. You know We've got to know what they're looking for. That's the best way to set the student up for success Knowing the technology, the platforms, that is, and then understanding or having the student understand why it's important, and then being able to put that on paper.
Speaker 2:I would think the other thing too is it's lonely looking for a job, you know, and now you've got a coach and Rosemary's staff there with all these things available. I think we did something pretty amazing, though We've done it for several years now. The Career Conference. You want to tell us a little bit about the Career Conference?
Speaker 3:Yes, absolutely so. Every year since 2018, we've had a Career Success Conference and it's a very unique type of event. It functions very much like any type of professional conference that anyone would go to, no matter what industry Generally about 100 or so speakers, and so there are individual sessions. Type of professional conference that anyone would go to, no matter what industry Generally about a hundred or so speakers, and so there are individual sessions. Students choose the sessions they'd like to attend. It's a one-day event and these speakers are from all walks of life and all industry, and it's been our goal to really make sure we have speakers that reflect our academic areas. So we want to make sure all of our students have at least one person there, right, that speaks their language or they can see oh, that's what a career in that industry is like, right and so they're generally mid-level management to C-suite type individuals. What's C-suite Executive level?
Speaker 3:And it was a goal of mine to bring back a lot of our alum, because what better way to show the student look, you know, here's Johnny. He was here just five years ago, graduated with an English degree, and look at him now he is now at the ABC affiliate in Dallas. You know, writing their storyboards or whatever you know, writing for their shows, producing their shows, things like that. So there was no better way, we thought, than to bring some of our alum back. So over half of all of our speakers were alumni, successful alumni, and, like I said, you see some alum that come back or any of the speakers for that matter and they're young. Some of them are my age and older. We want seasoned veterans, we want people who've been around the block twice, you know, who can show the student what it's like. But we also want a young crowd too. So when, let's say, we have an 18-year-old student, you know, if they see someone who's 25, they can relate to them honestly, just so much easier. You know they can say, oh, in five years I could be doing that. Oh my gosh. Of course there's nothing more genuine than an organic relationship. When it is naturally built and you don't force a mentor and a mentee together, they really don't click and that kind of thing.
Speaker 3:At this event we had speakers who saw Ebony, you know, and they were like, oh my gosh, they started a conversation, really personally clicked. Then they found out what the student wanted to do and then, lo and behold, at the end of the conference I've got a phone number. I then can go to lunch with this individual. I've got somebody who can talk to me when I, let's say, my family is not around to ask these questions of, or whatever, and then I've got somebody that they really do have my best interest at heart. So we've seen a lot of relationships being created like that.
Speaker 3:Also, what it did, it allowed our alumni to come back and so they're giving by way of their time, and that was a big piece of it. But it also allowed our students to have again a foot in the door at some of these businesses and organizations. So these were, like I said, mid-level to corporate level executives, things like that. Well, they're at these companies, running these companies, they know what they're looking for, they know the type of talent they're wanting. Well, now we've got a direct in with that organization, that company. We've seen so many successful relationships being built. We've seen students go into internships and full and part-time positions with these companies by way of that conference. It's just a magical day, because how often do we get to do?
Speaker 2:this. I was at the very first one when you all started it and I thought it was a great idea. And we literally call off classes. Most of us do, some people don't. The one thing I will say is that I was really surprised at how few of my students used it last year, which surprised me, because I could tell that you all worked really, really hard to streamline it for the majors. That's a common problem with college students. You can bring them to the water. You can't always make them drink. And when I listen to what you've done and I think about what wasn't available eight years ago or nine years ago and what is available and you know, the big crisis for higher education right now is it costs so much and what are you going to do when you get out. Well, you're telling us we'll help you find what you're going to do and we're not going to just find a job, we're going to find a career.
Speaker 3:Just thinking about how the job market is different now and it is overwhelming to the student and I know that I have kids that go to UT Tyler currently, and I have a daughter who's already graduated and I have to stay in tune with the job market, just as their mom. You know, I want to make sure I know what they've got to look forward to and things like that, but it is overwhelming for the students. There's so much that we all want to teach the students so much in an academic year and there's obviously never enough time to do it all you know. And so being prepared for life is one thing. You know. Students come here all the time and they're not ready for life, you know. And then you've got the load of coursework and things like that, and then all of that builds and then all of a sudden it's time to find a job or a career, and so looking for a job is a full-time job.
Speaker 3:I can speak for all of my staff for sure. We very much recognize that. We also have seen by way of our work that the support system is not the same in every family for every student, and I go back to the holistic approach in that you truly have to have a heart for this work and to be willing to sit there and, for one, just listen to what's going on in their lives but then also know the resources to direct them to the right places so they can get help with these other things that are not in my world, but being a resource for them and being a support system for them. We all have heard this and we know people in our own lives the nuclear family mom, dad, three kids and a dog kind of thing and everybody's happy and it's, you know, unicorns and rainbows. That's not real, you know. I mean, everybody's got something going on, everybody's got a story. It's just really the way we see it.
Speaker 3:Again, it's just it is what our work, it is what we do and what we love. But you've got to be willing to be their support, and a lot of the students just they just want to come back and go. It's almost like saying, hey, mom, is that okay? What do you think about this? I wrote that. Now, is that all right? And it just takes three minutes to sit there and go. You know what? I love that, or you know what? Let's word it this way, you know, and that's it.
Speaker 2:Now, Ashley, what are you thinking about all this? I bet you've got a lot of questions.
Speaker 5:Well, I mean, actually y'all did a fantastic job of answering a ton of the questions that I came here wondering about. Part of the whole reason that I asked you about this, I was like, hey, we should do a career success episode is because, even though I'm just a sophomore, I'm trying to think about how to get into the workforce, like what that experience is going to be, like what things I can do to prepare, and I knew the career success office was here. I didn't really know much else about it. The first time I went in there was to knock on the door and drop off our card and be like does anyone want to do this?
Speaker 3:podcast episode.
Speaker 5:No, we saw it and the first thing we said we're like, oh my God, this is amazing, you know and so that was all I was really curious about is finding some of the experiences that students have getting into the workforce, finding, you know, like you were talking about a career that you love and not just a job. Me personally, I feel like I'm almost in a weird place there because, like I love movies, my end goal is to have a film production studio, and it's like one of those jobs that doesn't make any money. Until it makes money, it's an investment for a very long time.
Speaker 2:Well, I remember you said to me once that when you were getting ready to come to college, everybody talked about STEM. The only place you could get jobs was STEM, and here you were more of a creative person and you weren't sure there was going to be anything out there for you. And it sounds to me as though Dr Cooper's office, dr Cooper's folks, are the ones that can help you find those things.
Speaker 3:To that point. You talked going off into this creative industry and all that, and of course I'm all about that, I love it. That's what it sounds like you're wanting to do. We had a lot of other students with the same dreams like that, you know, and so what we've been able to do is to find peripheral industries or peripheral jobs. That again, it gets that individual in that industry. They may not be the filmmaker, they may be what do you call it? A gaffer.
Speaker 2:Showrunner or gaffer.
Speaker 3:So I mean you may start out there doing that, right, but your end goal is to be a filmmaker, right. So we've had that experience where we now go and find those peripheral roles or industries that connect to the one you want to be in, because the ones you're talking about in particular, you're right, it doesn't make money until you're really in that final role. That's where you're really in your superstar. You know at that point, right, and so what we have to do is kind of walk the middle line, if you will, in helping the student understand the practical nature of it all, and then the other side of it is never deterring them from what they really want to end up doing. But we try to be the voice of reason, you know. I mean you got to be use common sense in a lot of this. You know, it's just that, absolutely, there's absolutely no way you should ever give up that dream. But you got to be practical and how are you going to get there? So that helps us kind of establish those steps for them.
Speaker 3:You know we offer the career assessments and some people may say, oh, career assessments, whatever, right, they are truly helpful because some of them are more of an interest inventory that we talked about. Others really highlight the students' strengths. So what were the natural gifts they were given? Right, what are those? And then try to build on the strengths you know. Don't find all the things that you can't do and try to build on those. You want to build on the things that you are already naturally good at doing.
Speaker 2:I just wanted to give Ebony or Ashley a chance to see other questions or things that you would love to hear from Dr Cooper about.
Speaker 4:Well, I guess I would start by saying I think that student engagement is so difficult and now I'm teaching and I see it and I'm like God, was this how I was? And on a certain extent, yes, because I feel like what I'm learning now is like there was this huge resource that I could have used. That I didn't, maybe early on I didn't know, but I definitely did. By grad school I definitely knew, and I think that for me it was like this sense of I don't need help with that and I you do. I feel like if I am going to give anybody anything in this, it's that you do.
Speaker 4:Looking for a job is not easy. It is a lot. Honestly, I think it helps a little bit that I am an English major, because it's a lot. It's way more writing intensive than you would think, but it doesn't always intuitive, like people think they'll just know what skills people are looking for. You don't. So I can say that for anybody listening. Do not take it at face value that you think, oh, I know what I need to do, because you probably don't Go ahead and reach out and ask for help and take advantage of these resources while you have them.
Speaker 5:You've just given so much like wonderful information as we're starting to close it. Is there like a piece of advice for preparation for finding your career or what to do as you're getting ready to get out of college?
Speaker 3:For me this is what I tell the students that I see the students in my actual classes is never discount something you've done. It may be something you've done in the classroom, it may be something you've done as a volunteer, it may be an actual job you've held, but never discount those things because they all add up to something right. I've had students tell me just the other day in class. One of my students said I asked him where do you work? Oh, I just work the front counter at the gym at our Harrington Patriot Center and I'm like you don't just do anything, you work the front counter at the Harrington Patriot Center is what you do. Look at all the customer service skills. I don't even know you and I can tell you this huge, long list of things that you know how to do, because you told me that there's so much that we all have done. Don't discount your story, who you are and what you've done, because it is all valuable and just let us help you put it in writing. So that's my two cents.
Speaker 2:So well, that was pretty interesting. I enjoyed that. I guess that's a wrap, ashley.
Speaker 5:Yes, ma'am, this has been the Ask Dr Ross podcast. Thank you so much for listening in with us today, and if you have questions about college life or any of the topics that we were talking about today, please send us your questions to adrquestions at gmailcom. We'd love to hear from you. In the meanwhile, we'll see you in the next episode. Thank you very much. This is Ashley Wortley signing off.
Speaker 1:Bye-bye.
