Barbie: On The Road Towards Becoming a Positive Role Model?

4:20 PM College, Career, and Coffee 0 Comments


As of a few days ago, the Barbie brand under toy company Mattel has undergone one of the biggest changes in its history. Introducing new Barbie dolls that actually reflect the women today. With new body types, hair textures, and a variety of skin tones, Barbie is making a statement that they want to be relevant and a positive role model for young girls.

After coming under growing scrutiny in recent years for creating unrealistic body standards and contributing to the specific criteria of who is beautiful, Barbie needed to make a change. This video from TIME magazine explains what the Barbie brand is doing to make positive change and align their brand with the criticizes of women around the world.

Even with the new variety of dolls available to consumers, I believe Barbie still has not shown a full range of what women look like. However, one must consider the operations behind producing such a variety of products. Retailers now need to make space for the new dolls and their corresponding clothes for each body type.

Regardless, the Barbie brand decision to change is a great step towards promoting healthy body image and everyone is beautiful in their own unique way. Check out the video to learn more about Barbie company and the changes being made.

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Dynamic Duo: 2 Must Reads from Tina & Amy

12:52 PM College, Career, and Coffee 0 Comments



Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are a dynamic duo, known for their hilarious humor and great real life friendship (#friendshipgoals). These two women are not only gifted with the ability to make you cry laughing, they use their platforms as celebrities to stand up for women and the sexism we see in the media. Check out this video for some good laughs and great advice to women.

Both Fey and Poehler have come out with their own memoirs filled with not only funny childhood stories but about the challenges of being a women in comedy. I strongly recommend listening to their audio books instead of reading the physical copies. Both women narrate their own books, making each chapter even funnier than if you simply read it.


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LOVE What You Do

2:14 PM College, Career, and Coffee 0 Comments


Love this Ted Talk! Not everyone knows exactly what they want to do in college, and that's perfectly okay. Don't settle for just any job, find what your passionate about and turn it into your career!



"The things we have in our head that we think are impossible, are just milestones waiting to be accomplished."

What are your unique strengths?

What is your hierarchy for making decisions?

What are your experiences?

What do you love?

Who inspires you?

What does success mean to you?


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Women Entrepreneurship On The Rise in Asia

4:35 PM College, Career, and Coffee 0 Comments



Many times when I think of successful businesswomen my mind goes to top executives in the United States like Marisa Mayer of Yahoo or Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo. But what about other parts of the world? An recent article in Forbes magazine noted that women leaders specially in the field of entrepreneurship is much more common in Asia than in the Western part of the world.

According to Forbes Magazine, HSBC Private Bank release a study showing that "two in five entrepreneurs in Hong Kong, Singapore and mainland China, or about 40%, are female with nearly half under the age of 35. In Hong Kong, the numbers are split nearly even, with women entrepreneurs making up 48%" Women in western countries only made up 31% of entrepreneurs.

The article does not go into why there is a such a difference in the statistics. I cannot help but wonder what the root cause creates this difference in the world? Is there just a greater window of opportunity in places like Hong Kong? Do countries in Asia have business culture that encourages and pushes for entrepreneurship?

Check it out at forbes.com!

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Writing a Professional Thank You Note

3:25 PM College, Career, and Coffee 0 Comments




1. Decide what type of thank you note to send. Three common types of thank you notes are; Typed notes that are printed, put into printed envelopes, and mailed, emailed notes, and hand-written notes. Notes sent through snail mail are preferred by most formal companies but sometimes due to time constraints an email will have to do. 

Bonus Tip: You can always do more than one. For example send an email the day of and a handwritten note a week later.

2. Make it personal and sincere. Reference the interview you had with them. Maybe you really enjoyed learning how they started their career or you have the same alma mater.

Bonus Tip: If more than one person interviewed you, you will need to send a personal note to each.

3. Be concise. Express your appreciation and reiterate your interest and qualifications.

4. Proofread. I cannot emphasize this step enough! You can have an amazing interview and completely botch it with grammar errors and spelling mistakes. I recommend having a peer look over it as well.

5. Follow up. Don't worry if you don't receive a reply, often the people interviewing you receive 100's of emails a day and frankly just don't have the time. If two weeks go by with no news feel free to reach out again.


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Why Are Their So FEW Women Leaders?

4:23 PM College, Career, and Coffee 0 Comments



We could all use a little inspiration to kick off our new year. Sheryl Sandberg the current COO of Facebook and author of Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead shares her three pieces of advice for women aiming to reach the top in the workplace in this TED Talk.



Sanberg's coined phrase "lean in" has caught on in the discussions about women in the workplace. To lean in, in the words of Sandberg, means to not pull back when it comes to your professional career when you want to start a family. This challenges the idea that women cannot achieve their professional ambitions and be a mother at the same time. Take a look at this video for her simple advice on how to do both. 

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Fitness & Your Crazy Schedule

6:27 PM College, Career, and Coffee 0 Comments


Whether your still in college or just starting your career it can be challenging to eat healthy and to fit workouts in your schedule. Here our five of my favorite fitness tips!

 1. Drink lots of water! It sounds super cliché but it really does make you feel so much better and not to mention it helps your skin! I carry my reusable water bottle with me everywhere I go. That way drinking water throughout the day becomes more of habit then a chore.

2. Ditch the soda! As tempting as that soda machine is in your cafeteria, nothing good can come of it. (See suggestion #1)

3. Schedule your workouts! I use to just workout whenever I felt like it but then I started to make excuses, "I won't have time to do my hair", "I only have 30 minutes", "I want to sleep in", and the list goes on and on. So I decided to make a change and began blocking out time on my calendar for workouts. The result has minimized my long list of excuses and has increased the time I spend at the gym.
          
Bonus Tip! You only need 10 minutes for an insanely effective workout! Also you can work out anywhere with a floor (no equipment or gym needed)! Check out this free 10 minute workout and there are many more online.




4. Meal Plan! When I first heard of meal planning, I thought it was the strangest thing. How could I possibly know what I want to eat a week from now? That's crazy! Then I realized planning out my meals helps me to buy only exactly what I need (Cost Savings!). It also helps me make healthier choices because I have no excuse to order pizza or eat something else I would regret. Every Sunday I make my grocery list and plan out my meals for the week. Pick any day of the week and make it your meal planning and prep day! Always allow for some flexibility.

Bonus Tip! Here is a template to help get you started!


5. Find a workout buddy! Working out with a friend can make it a lot more enjoyable, plus you can keep each other accountable!

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LinkedIn: Common Mistakes College Students Make

7:51 PM College, Career, and Coffee 0 Comments


LinkedIn is becoming quickly becoming an essential tool to utilize for your online presence. Essentially a digital resume, LinkedIn can provided a more detailed description of past work experience, your educational history, and other details that will not fit on your traditional resume such as interests or volunteer groups. Newly added to LinkedIn is the ability to add past presentations and documents onto to your profile. You can showcase your best work in a simple and effective way, making it easy for employers to see tangible examples of your skills.

Joining LinkedIn during college is the perfect way to build your network before hitting the job field. Connecting with classmates now provides you with contacts who in a few years will be working in all different industries. Beyond connecting with classmates, it also provides you with an easy way to stay up to date with mentors, internship co-workers, and other contacts you meet during your college career.

Here are some common mistakes collegiate students make when developing their LinkedIn profile:

  • Posting an "unprofessional" photo: Don't use a selfie you took on a random weekend at a party or a tiny picture of you next to mountain. This photo is a first impression of your online presence. Save your casual photos for Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Make sure your profile picture clearly shows your face, ideally from the shoulders up.

  • Labeling your Professional Headline as "Student": Your professional headline appears underneath your name, giving a quick snapshot as to your current employment. If you do not have job at the moment or one related to the field you would like to pursue do not post that you are a "Student at                 University". Utilize this short headline to post a description of who you are or what you want to accomplish.

  • Not utilizing school projects: During your collegiate career you will complete many group and individual assignments, presentations, and projects that could be a valuable resource for your LinkedIn account. Showcasing work you are proud of online provides future employers and connections with an example of your writing or presentation skills. A business analysis for your finance class or a presentation on a information systems network can show your experience in the classroom in a more visual way. This can be much more effective than listing skills and accomplishments.

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Developing an Effective Resume

11:07 AM College, Career, and Coffee 0 Comments


Throughout your college career your resume becomes an essential tool to have for your career building future. This one piece of paper explains who you are and what you can bring to the table for an internship, job opportunity, or even to share with a mentor. As I've developed my own resume there are some tips and tricks I have found that helped me create a solid resume:

1. Use a template! There a millions of resume templates on the web these days. Many of them are free. They taking care of the formatting for you, so you can focus on content and wording. Below is an example of a simple yet slightly unique resume.
Download at hloom.com

2. Experience doesn't have to be paid! You may feel that you do not have a lot of formal job experience related to your career field. However, a leadership in a club on campus or volunteering for an organization can be just as relevant as a formal internship. It is all about how you describe your responsibilities and tasks.

3. Use your school's career center! Most colleges have a career center with staffed professionals who's job it is to help you prepare you for life after college. This includes developing your resume. Take advantage and seek out advice from one of your career counselors. They especially can help you with wording when it comes to describing your work experience.

4. Customize your resume for the job you want! Some work experience will be more relevant than others depending upon the job or internship you are applying for. Take a look at what the employer is looking for in a candidate and make edits to your resume accordingly. 

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Interviews: A Double Standard

11:49 AM College, Career, and Coffee 0 Comments



 Entering the job market after college can be a tricky task, especially as a woman. The endless applications to fill out and interviews to attend can feel overwhelming. The following video shows just how different the expectations are for women especially in the interview process.  



Being a strong and educated woman in the workplace is certainly not easy. Yes, it is 2016 and a lot has changed over the years but the concept of working mothers and women serving as company executives is still relatively new. Unfortunately, women are still held to very different standards in the workplace and therefore they are expected to display their achievements and strengths differently than men.
My challenge to you is to think about how can we fix this? Do you think the women in this video come off to strong? Why do some perceive them so differently from the men with the same responses?  

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