To Be Content in Life You Must Get Radical

May 25, 2008 - 11:00 am , By Editor

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What is a radical career? And does it involve surfing? These were the questions I had when I met up with Sally Hogshead, a noted advertising creative director turned author and motivational speaker. (And yes, she recognizes the humor in her name, so I’m not going there.) Sally’s new book, Radical Careering, explores the 100 best ways to live your work life, all presented in a simple, yet startling original way.

“I come from advertising, so the format of the book to me was inseparable from the content,” says Hogshead. “I know how to communicate with people so they’ll respond. If you’ve been to the career section of the bookstore, you know how awful it is. It’s dark and scary and there’s all these losers hanging out there. I’m not one of those people! I needed something that reflected me.”

Hogshead started her career exploration path after her own ad agency, which opened on Sept. 10, 2001, faced a rough future.

“I learned a lot of lessons; my own path had been seemingly easy, but after 9/11, I realized I wasn’t charmed. Essentially, this is what I learned: you are driving your own train! You have to create your own path and be passionate about what you do; otherwise, you’re just a victim of circumstance. That’s radical careering.” Read More »

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Grades Dropping? Hope You Like Taking the Bus…

February 20, 2008 - 3:00 pm , By COED Staff

Controversy is brewing at the State University of New York at Old Westbury, where school officials have recently started to enforce an old rule that requires on-campus residents to maintain at least a 2.0 GPA.

The New York Times reports that one student, whose grades slipped due to an illness during exam week, received a letter informing her of this policy only days before the spring semester. She was also dropped from the meal plan, and her ID card no longer allowed her access to her dorm, making even clearing out her belongings difficult.

Some schools, such as Seton Hall and SUNY Farmingdale, have GPA minimums as well, but lack Old Westbury’s zero tolerance policy, instead offering tutoring and academic monitoring to low-performing students. Other schools offer free or reduced-rate housing to those with high GPAs. Read More »

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Making Connections

November 26, 2007 - 4:55 pm , By Editor

I didn’t go to an Ivy League school or graduate at the top of my class. I didn’t even come from a family rooted in my field (not all connections are from mommy and daddy). But somehow, right out of school I landed a job as a broker at one of the top investment banks on Wall Street.

So how did I do it, you ask? Bribery? Sneak attacks? No! I became a networking rock star.

Here’s how to do the same:

Begin with the network you already have.
Think about the people you already know: school alumni, your local bartender’s cousin, that pal from your summer waiter gig. Even if they are not working in your field of interest, don’t be afraid to politely ask them to put you in touch with people who are. Read More »

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Studying Is for Losers

August 1, 2007 - 6:00 pm , By COED Staff

studying My parents love to talk about the worth of a liberal arts education. You go to college, you take a wide range of classes, you work hard, you get somewhere. Simple as that. Sort of like that whole ‘American Dream’ thing. But does taking a bunch of different classes and working hard really equal post-graduate prosperity?Other people, evidently, are asking the same thing. A big story in The New York Times recently cited, with grave horror, the decline in achievement among guys in relation to those up-and-coming girls. A lot of guys, though, suggested in their comments for the article: why bother?

Still, to this day, I wonder what the point of taking classes like Astronomy and ‘Math in the Arts’ (a real course at Connecticut College, when I went there) and Music Theory was. A perfect example of a useless class is the latter. I would definitely consider myself a musician. Read More »

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Why I Went: Harvard Wouldn’t Take Me

July 19, 2007 - 12:00 pm , By COED Staff

smart kidIt wasn’t by choice.

I attended an elite boarding school in Massachusetts (via scholarship, thank you very much) for the sole purpose of attending Harvard. I loved Boston, and I had dreams of going to a place where my intelligence would be respected, not mocked.

When I started applying to schools in the fall, my GPA was high and I had a ton of extracurriculars. Things looked good, but my parents, who had just moved to Michigan for work, insisted I plan out some alternatives. Of course. Thankfully, they had moved to a place with a great in-state school; even when I applied to U of M, I didn’t dread the idea of going. It just wasn’t in my top five. Read More »

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