Farewell Blog
Greetings fearless readers!
‘Tis time for me be bid thee all farewell (at least for now). But never fear, grasshoppers! I will try to post a couple of blog entries after I am settled a bit in LA to let you know how the move goes and what it’s like to work for a creative corporation. When I finished working for SI Career Services, I posted a “farewell blog” for the students here to share with them a step-by-step resume guide, filled with all the major tips that I had encountered while providing advising help and resume reviews during my time there. And here I shall do something similar, except I’m going to give my advice if you’re a prospective student and also some advice for new students.
The Prospective Student checklist:
1. Yes, you need to submit ALL items on the admissions package list! You can find this list here: http://www.si.umich.edu/applying/applying.htm. If you see it listed, then you need to submit it.
2. The SI website has everything you need to know. Really! It’s totally brilliant, although sometimes things are put in rather odd places (but that’s just my unauthorized opinion). :o) Go to: http://www.si.umich.edu. Want to know about jobs and financial aid? It’s on the website. Want to know a student perspective? It’s on the website. Want to know about course offerings? Yup, that’s right—it’s on the website. Housing, student projects, internships, research news—these basically round out the big topics I’ve been asked about the most and I always end up pointing folks to the website for the general information.
3. Be passionate in your admissions essay. Everyone has something that they’re totally geeked about and you do too! SI needs to know how your time in the program will help you reach your goals. Your essay is the best way for you to show your personality to the admissions committee, despite the fact that you are on paper.
4. Be sure that your letters of recommendation are great. Carefully choose who you want to write letters for you. They should know you as a person as well as things like your learning style, working style, and your ability to pursue your goals. Make it easy on them too—provide pre-addressed and stamped envelopes or collect the envelopes from them and send them to SI all at once. Also remember to give them plenty of time to write the letter with a firm deadline attached.
5. Numbers aren’t everything. Yes, your GPA is important and so are your GRE scores (and TOEFL scores for our international friends). However, SI sees you as more than just a few numbered scores. Ergo, #3 and #4 are very important to help give the committee a well-rounded picture of who you are.
6. Come to the open houses. You’ll never truly know if a program is a good fit if you don’t actually visit the place. Sometimes this isn’t possible, which is why SI provides so many resources like the video content on the website and student blogs. However, if you are able to make it to an open house I highly recommend it! If you prefer an individual visit, then that is also a great option and you can arrange those through the admissions office by emailing si.admissions@umich.edu.
7. Know how the MSI program is structured and differences between the MSI and PhD programs. The best way to do this is to start reading up on the different specializations (MSI) here: http://www.si.umich.edu/msi/specs.htm. Be sure to click on the specializations themselves so that you can see what kind of curriculum requirements go along with each one. If you’re confused or curious about the difference with the PhD program, then you’ll want to also read about the doctoral side here: http://www.si.umich.edu/phd/default.htm.
8. Remember that the MSI program is a professional degree. The emphasis is on practical engagement and skill development to help you get a bigger steppingstone in your professional career. Think in a goal oriented fashion and you will find your time here much more directed.
9. Ask questions! You can always email the SI Admissions office at si.admissions@umich.edu to be put in touch the right person to answer your questions. Very often the right person will be a current student, like I have been, and you don’t have to worry about bugging us. Don’t be bashful—better to know the answer than to wonder what the answer might be.
10. Be patient. Applying for grad school can be frustrating and waiting for questions to be answered sometimes can also be frustrating. Just know that here at SI we do our best to answer things as quickly as possible. Sometimes things might slow down (i.e. you don’t hear from us within a week) because of academic calendar holidays, SI major events, or other factors. Something to help speed up your application is to make sure that everything gets sent in on time and as much in one piece as possible. If you can collect your items that need to be mailed in and put them all into one large envelope, it will make things much easier for the Admissions Office. It will be easier for you too because you'll have peace of mind knowing that everything has truly been submitted on time.
The newly admitted student checklist:
1. Everything listed above for the prospective checklist applies to you too. :o)
2. Everything will work out and be just fine! That is your motto. :o) Trust me when I say: enjoy your last summer before graduate school.
3. Financial aid will happen, but sometimes that means having to work a few more hours, trying harder for other/outside scholarships, or take out loans when you might not want to. If you’re planning to go through graduate school, there’s a certain amount of sacrifice that you have to accept. Budgets are wonderful. :o) Be a black-belt grasshopper and embrace it for all it’s worth!
4. You will have absolutely no problem finding a good job that pays you decently while giving you good practical experience—and you will probably find said job during your first week of classes, so don’t fret! You can get familiar with resources early, however; do this by looking at the financial aid page here: http://www.si.umich.edu/applying/fin-aid.htm. Now, when I say “look at” I mean really look at everything. Click on all of the links, read all of the content, learn about your options.
5. You will also find housing, and you can definitely live in Ann Arbor without pledging your first-born and giving the clothes off your back. :o) If you need a roommate, you can see who else is looking for a roommate when SI launches the online newly admitted student forum on Course Tools (usually around mid-May of each spring). Start with the SI housing page here: http://www.si.umich.edu/stulife/housing.htm. I found my apartment by using http://www.apartments.com and http://www.rent.com. Some people have used http://www.craigslist.com as well. If possible, you will probably want to come visit a few places before you sign a lease—just make a day full of appointments and go to your top 5-10 choices and then make a decision. You can search for housing until the next Big Bang, so at some point you’ll just have to make a decision and go with it. Trust me, I understand—I’m getting my own housing set in LA right now. Finding housing is all about persistence, so be persistent and good luck!
6. Let go of the specialization labels. To a certain degree, your specialization might matter, but in the end your own personal direction will be what defines you, not a specialization title. Each specialization is very flexible as it is, so you really don’t need to feel like you’re locked in to something. Out in the professional world, they don’t care so much about what specialization you are but more about what you can tell them that you are capable of doing. Which leads me into my next point…
7. Focus on doing! Can you explain what you know through practical examples? This is your goal: to illustrate what you know in theory through practical projects, either individual or group, and definitely client projects. Libraries, archives, corporations… it doesn’t matter who they are, they understand working for clients and working with other people (i.e. group work) and they appreciate it when you can illustrate your knowledge through real examples.
8. Infuse your projects with your personal interests. Got a final project to do? Well, what are you interested in? Try to create a project that addresses your issue of interest and you’ll find that not only do you enjoy your project more, but you have a nicely focused experience as well. Professors here will be more than happy if you show self-direction. People thought I was a little batty for being so entertainment focused while I was here, but all of my entertainment-focused projects got me the job I wanted in the end.
9. Find your niche during your time at school. Maybe you excel at academic work or maybe you are a pro at practical projects and working with clients. Either way, you have to know that you can’t be everything and do everything all at the same time. I was in the latter category and so I made sure to make the most of it and used it to my advantage in my job search. There is a lot of responsibility on your own end to make your grad student career rewarding and successful—use all the resources you can find to your advantage and for good advice.
10. In the end, everything is up to you. The beauty and difficulty with graduate education is the autonomy that comes with it; and SI gives you a lot of it by providing as much flexibility as possible. This means you have to take charge of your destiny. No one else can hit the pavement for you and get you your job except you. There are tons of resources to help you along the way but you must work on your resume and cover letters, do excellent networking, and learn how to showcase your talents so that you become the #1 candidate wherever you go.
So, there end my words of (maybe) wisdom for you. For prospective students, I wish you all the best of luck in your endeavors! To the newly admitted students, I congratulate you and also feel free to look me up in the student-alumni network database when you start your first semester. I’ve had a really great time in my two years at SI, UM, and Ann Arbor. I came from having to go through a total 180-degree career change and from a super boring job that just about killed me. And now I am getting the opportunity to put my stamp on the world of electronic records management as the Digital Archivist for the Disney Internet Group. It's been a lot of hard work for me with all the highs and lows that come with it. But dreams really do come true and I am ever thankful to SI for helping me with that.
I must give special thanks to the following people:
- Laura Elgas who is not only a fantastic person to work for, but also a totally amazing MSI admissions manager.
- Marsha and Heidi in the admissions office who are so very helpful and kind, even when SI events are putting them through the wringer.
- Joanna Kroll in career services who is getting fresh baked cookies for life because that’s what I promised if I got my dream job at Disney. :o)
- Kelly in career services who is totally fabulous and knows a lot about relocating and moving (which I have needed as of late).
- Xiao-wen, advisor extraordinaire! Thank you for counting my credits and making sure I did, in fact, graduate. :o)
- Judy Lawson, for doing more work than I can imagine and keeping SI running smoothly and sanely.
- And last, but not least, my faculty advisor Michael Cohen for truly “getting” what it is I wanted to do. I got some great advice about courses and help with my transition into graduate school courses.
And for the last official time, I will sign off. Thanks for being such great readers! I'll see you under the palms... (or a big mouse-eared hat :o)
-maw
Posted by maryaw on May 04, 2007 at 12:08 PM | Comments (0)
Late entry!
Hello, fearless readers!
I'm writing this on the plane to Los Angeles, California for a really exciting interview with an entertainment company. I got to leave behind the strangely snowy April weather in Michigan for the sunshine and palm trees of the west coast. I'm super excited because they're flying me out and putting me up at a really nice hotel--according to Hotels.com, I should be able to enjoy a very nice buffet spread to rival the likes of Las Vegas. :o) Being a bit of a foodie, I have to say I'm totally geeked because I can't think of anything better than a brunch buffet! On the more serious side, I've been getting all of my materials organized for the past week--I have decked out my new MacBook (her name is Lola :o) with all my preparatory materials to make sure I really 'wow' my panel of 9 (yes, 9 people... holy wow!):
- I took my portfolio files offline and put them onto my desktop for easier access so that I can show them some of the projects I have and currently am working on which apply directly to the needs of their organization
- Additional notes and solutions that I have been brainstorming with the information I have from my first interview on the phone
- Employment forms, as requested
- An abbreviated CV (it's really just a compilation of the major skill sets and jobs that I've had--for easier access
- And I have been looking at the the websites that my job would be related to for a little extra research
"Distracting?", you ask. Oh, how you have NO idea... We are really down to the wire here at school--last day of classes is on April 17 (next week) and I get to walk in my cap and gown for graduation on April 27. President Clinton is the commencement speaker on April 28, so I'll be going to that also even though the crowds are going to be absolutely crazy in Ann Arbor! My parents are coming to see my graduation and they are very excited about being able to see Clinton speak. So, in addition to figuring out graduation stuff like picking up tickets for Clinton's speech and getting my cap, gown, tassels, etc. I am off interviewing in LA and trying to get work done while keeping my head on straight with all my excitement about this position in addition to final projects and papers.
My usability evaluation group is wrapping up our final report and presentation which should be pretty good. We've done a really good job which is reflected in our grades and the feedback from our client. I'm really glad I took this class because it has helped me to understand a full evaluation of a product and service.
My archive internship is just about wrapped up. I also preparing my final presentation and deliverable which I hope will be really exciting for everyone else to see. I came up with a non-traditional solution for the web portal timeline. It just isn't linear and linear is boring for this type of project--through exposure at SI to things like networked diagrams and cluster maps and a serendipitous discussion on the SLA News Library email listserv, I decided to propose that the "timeline" be a networked diagram to show associations between collections. I think this will help researchers much better in the long run, it will be totally different than anything that the Bentley has had thus far, and the functionality will suit the nature of the collection really well (Computing History at UM). I need to finish flagging the multimedia items that I would like to select for the first version of this portal before the end of this week, however; it's going to be a busy week.
My outside cognate course on film theory is also weighing heavily on my workload. I have to give a mini-lecture/presenation this week about my final paper and I've checked out what feels like half of the library in addition to the electronic journal articles stored on my laptop. Hopefully on my red-eye flight back from LA Monday night I'll be able to start chugging away at this really seriously. I have to confess, the whole class just went completely on the back burner this semester. Not something I'm totally happy about, and certainly not proud of, but unfortunately I don't think it was unavoidable. The final paper for this is due around April 23 so I'm really looking forward to the 17th, b/c then I'll only have to work on this paper and can really get it done. I'm trying to do a comparative historical analysis in sound technology developments but I haven't been able to nail down the focus just yet. Rar.
Work has also been busy. 'Tis the time of the year when the Knowledge Navigation Center gets busy with last minute technology and software woes that need fixing. SI just recently had Visiting Days for the newly admitted Fall 2007 class which was great! Busy, but great--everyone seemed super enthusiastic and I was able to organize an amazing number of current students who wanted to participate in the student activities. There were lots of questions about the new specializations, which you can read about here: http://www.si.umich.edu/msi/specs.htm. And financial aid (always a hot topic): http://www.si.umich.edu/applying/fin-aid.htm. I've also had quite a few questions recently about "what can I do with an MSI degree?" and how the interdisciplinary approach can apply to many different paths. It's worth pointing out some great information and tools on the Career Services page of the SI website:
- Follow career paths through course choices: http://www.si.umich.edu/careers/with-an-msi.htm
- some statistics: http://www.si.umich.edu/careers/MSI-profile.htm
- Companies that have hired SI grads: http://www.si.umich.edu/careers/who-is-hiring.htm
It's also worth looking at students' previous projects and practical experiences:
- Exposition was the poster session at Visiting Days and it was really cool to see everyone's projects: http://www.si.umich.edu/stulife/student-projects.htm
- Learn about the practical engagement credits that are part of the SI curriculum: http://www.si.umich.edu/outreach/pep.htm
- Look at previous internships: http://www.si.umich.edu/outreach/dfe-previous.htm
And take a peek at the job search tools provided by SI Career Services: http://www.si.umich.edu/careers/resources.htm
I can attest to the greatness of these tools! :o) They have definitely helped me out during my job search and interviewing processes.
Ok, so this post is coming late to you all and if you've emailed recently, I must apologize for getting back to you late! I got back to Ann Arbor from California earlier this week and am now getting to my emails. Happy trails and I'll be updating you with the most exciting information early next week!
Posted by maryaw on April 13, 2007 at 09:57 PM | Comments (0)
This is what distraction looks like:
Hey everyone! Ok, I know I am way overdue for my NYC adventure details... I promise they are coming! And pictures will come along with them. That's actually the hold-up--I have a lot (a lot = about 250). Patience, dear grasshoppers, and all things in due time. :o)
In other news, there has been so much happening here! I thought I'd share a whole lot of everything starting with announcement of the 6 new MSI specializations. You can check them out here: http://www.si.umich.edu/about-SI/news-detail.htm?NewsItemID=589. I think it's pretty cool because the new specializations are covering areas that you can really get into deeply through coursework and practical engagement but they haven't been stand-alone specializations yet. They really address the issues that students are interested in, not to mention that employers are looking for this also. I have to say, I am totally geeked for the program to be making this change because I think it's a smart move. But I'm also bummed because I'll graduate before I can try some of it for myself!
Which leads me into my next update. Offers are coming in and all I have to say is, holy moly how on Earth am I supposed to make up my mind??? Yowsers! Out of respect for each place I've applied to and interviewed with (and still interviewing in a couple of cases), I won't divulge the details at this point until I've made my final decision. It's going to be tough though and I'm really glad I was able to help organize and go through January's negotiation skills workshop because it's coming in handy now. :o) My main concern in negotiation at this point is getting enough time from each place to weigh my options and make a good decision. It's hard to ask a place to wait longer but it's necessary for me to make the best decision.
Also, if you've been looking at the online course catalogue lately, you'll notice that it's being updated somewhat frequently. Hang tight and just enjoy the browsing experience! :o) As is stands right now, it's pretty close to what it will end up being in the fall but still subject to change. The good thing is that the new foundations are listed now, so you can definitely see those. For incoming Fall 2007 MSI students, I have some words of advice--take your foundations early in your studies. They're called 'foundations' for a reason--because they really do create an actual foundation of knowledge. Aside from this extremely helpful factor of having a good foundation in the information field, completing these courses during your first year really frees up your schedule in your second year (or following years, for part-timers). A lot of people come into the program and change their minds A LOT. Getting the foundations completed helps you to understand the field as a whole and that's a really good thing to have as a perspective. Ok, I'm getting off my soap box now... :o) And here's the link to the online course catalogue: http://www.si.umich.edu/courses/.
Visiting Days is also coming up--exciting times! If you're an admitted student and you're able to come to Ann Arbor, March 24-26, I highly highly highly super duper extremely recommend it! If you lost your RSVP link, send me an email (maryaw@umich.edu) and remember to put the words "School of Information" and/or "Visiting Days" in the subject line so that it doesn't get tossed in my spam filter. I'll send you the link again so that you can let us know you're coming. If you're a little worried about cost, don't forget that SI will cover your lodging expenses while you're here. Yes! It's for real! I didn't believe it either when I was admitted, but it's a really nice gesture and helps a lot for those of us who need things in my previous blog entry (The Financial Aid Game). :o) If you can't stay through Monday 3/26, also don't worry about it--I would say the most important day is Sunday 3/25 when you will have the most information sessions and outings with student groups at SI. I've been organizing the student volunteers and it's looking like a really great event; everyone around here is very excited to meet the newly admitted students. :o)
So, other than all of this, I am suffering from some rather distracting distractions, what with the job offers and all. Homework is frustrating because all I can think about is making a huge life decision... But my usability evaluation group project is coming along really nicely--we are totally rockin' it, if I do say so myself. :o) The group is very motivated and we stay on top of our work and get things done early; I think I would say it's one of the most successful collaborative experiences I've had since I've been here. My new archive internship is also going really well--I'm trying to blast through it and get it complete or nearly complete before the semester is finished! :o) I really enjoy working with my mentor and the staff up at the Bentley Library on North Campus. I'm learning a lot watching them do what they do as archivists and I appreciate their proactive approach to incorporating technology into their archive system. My external cognate is also coming along--I finally have found my niche in that class by doing the information research for each week's film genre. And I feel really good about having my Course Tools online project site set up for everyone else because sharing all of the great resources I've found means a lot more to me than simply finding so much information and keeping it for myself. I need to work on my final paper research, though, which is proving more difficult. My biggest obstacle is finding enough time to glue myself to the interior of the graduate library, actually. ;o)
Hmm... well, I guess that last statement should really be my cue to do some homework, eh? ;o) I've been very good at procrastinating today--the weather is warmer, the snow is just about melted, and the days seem longer with the earlier Daylight Savings Time. Losing sleep really sucked, but the daylight is awesome!!! I also got my first business website up live on the Web today for my sister's new restaurant. Hip, hip, hooray! But dealing with the terrible usability of her hosting service made me really glad that I will be able to enact change for the better when I graduate.
Ok, I'm really going to wrap this up now. :o) I got caught up on my emails today, so if anyone sent me something this weekend and I didn't get back to you, please feel free to send it again. My email 'crashed' late Saturday and I didn't get it back for about 24 hours so I don't know if anything was lost. Many pardons! (Thanks be to my new MacBook that I bought today to replace my Dell--now I can get my PC fixed, finally!) Until next time, fearless readers!
-maw :o)
Posted by maryaw on March 13, 2007 at 12:33 AM | Comments (0)
Time keeps whizzing by...
Hello, Readers! :o)
Well, I’m just about to head to NYC for a long weekend. I’m very excited because it’s going to be my first trip to The Big Apple, despite the fact that I’ve been around the world and back. Better late than never, eh? While I’m there I’ll be visiting with the New York Public Library, particularly the Bronx. I interviewed with them a couple of times at the ALA Midwinter Conference in January so I’m really looking forward to seeing how they work in-person. While I’m there, I will also be meeting with a librarian from Entertainment Weekly which is pretty cool—I got this connection through an alumnus of SI and I’m ever so grateful! Now that I’m getting ready to graduate, myself, I am hoping to pay the favors forward in the future. :o)
Today I spent all morning in Kerrytown (a historic district of Ann Arbor) to interview with a software development firm called Menlo Innovations. They did a very different type of interview experience in that all the possible candidates gathered together for “Extreme Interviewing.” We changed partners multiple times and worked in pairs while Menlo staff observed our work processes. We did things like draw mock-ups and plan the development process of a fictitious software package. It was definitely engaging but exhausting! I’m still a little mixed about my experience—I think the company has a really unique and fascinating business model, which I appreciate. But I’m still not quite sure if I want to go such a straight-up techie route. Not that I would be doing programming, but the work only involves working on technology innovations and I think I might be the kind of person who needs more variety.
I also have been asked to participate in the final panel interview for the LA County Public Libraries which will be next week. The packet of information came on the perfect day a couple of weeks ago when Michigan was in a wintertime deep freeze! The thought of palm trees and a sunny beach nearby was just too much. :o) I’m very excited to interview with them as well, and not just because they are in a place that has fantastic weather!
I’m still waiting to hear on a government/corporate library—I think should know something more in another week or so (the suspense is killing me!). I also put in quite a few job applications last week that sounded really interesting. They were all in the realm of entertainment and media. Some were with big companies like EA Entertainment (video games), LucasFilm, Warner Bros., and even TheKnot.com (a wedding planning site) that is looking for an online community coordinator. How cool is that? :o) I think the variety of jobs available out there and the way skill sets are overlapping is a really interesting phenomenon. But I think it also creates some problems in that most places are still looking for standard fields that they have hired from before like marketing/advertising. Luckily I don’t mind explaining how my skills and abilities can really help an organization. And considering that there are quite a few places interested in me at this point I’m also feeling pretty secure in my job hunt so far.
This semester has been very unusual as far as my classes are concerned. On one hand, things are working like clockwork. For example, my user evaluation group project is coming along really nicely. It is totally addictive in its fascination factor and we are making some great reports and providing good data. This week we are conducting a huge survey and I think our responses might be pushing about 100 at this point which is really cool. Our client, MBooks, even posts our reports as they come in! Talk about publicity… :o) You can see those by looking at this page from the UM Library website: http://www.lib.umich.edu/usability/projects/MBooks.html.
My archives internship hit a snag, though, so I had to change sites to accommodate my needs a bit better. It was a little disruptive but definitely for the best and I’m really excited about working at the Bentley Historical Library on North Campus. I’ll be helping an archivist put together the History of Computing at UM online resources. I’ll be doing things like helping to design and build the website for this collection, conducting a research gap analysis, and maybe even help with things like future PR/marketing materials for a fellowship that starts in the fall. I’ll be starting on this next week when I get back from NYC and will probably work quite a few hours.
My film class (external cognate) is also coming along. I’m coming to terms with the totally different culture of a different department and learning practices. Today I gave an informal presentation on archival and library research that I conducted regarding film censorship in the 1930’s, and especially for the film Baby Face (1933) which starred Barbara Stanwyck. It was very cool and my information searching skills definitely came in handy! I decided that this was not the time to follow the old adage, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” So, in the interests of being able to share information better, I created a Course Tools project site (CTools is an online course and project building service run by UM—it has its quirks but can be very useful). I digitized a lot of information and manipulated very muddy microfiche text in Adobe Illustrator so that everyone could use the information better. It was a big hit and I’m really happy with that. I’m going to try and use my interest in technology to do some comparative historical research on technological innovations in filmmaking for my final project in this course. I figure, if I’m the odd duck that brings in Quicktime video clips, then I might as well use it to my advantage for my final project! :o)
Hmm… let’s see, what else is going on here at SI? Well, there is the Dean search which is pretty interesting. Various candidates have been visiting the school, giving lectures, and meeting with students. I certainly won’t be around to see much of the end of this process, but I think it’s pretty interesting to be here while it’s currently going on.
I also just signed up to exhibit a project for the annual ExpoSItion—an annual event where SI students show off their work to the newly admitted visiting students and potential employers. (http://www.si.umich.edu/stulife/student-projects.htm) I am going to be showing my sample animated graphics catalogue which I made for the library cataloguing course I took last semester. Over spring break (next week), I’ll be starting to layout my poster and will probably use most of the material from my PowerPoint presentation (which totally rocked, if I do say so myself! :o) and then I’ll be using my laptop to show the HTML/CSS site that I coded to show the design example of what a database-backed catalogue might look like.
And yes, next week is “Spring Break” – not much of a ‘spring’ if you ask me… (the wind it howling outside right now), but oh well. :o) The annual Alternative Spring Break folks are getting ready to depart this weekend. They’ll be going to NYC and Washington, DC this year. If you don’t know much about this, you can see the details here: http://www.si.umich.edu/outreach/asb.htm and here: http://www.si.umich.edu/pep/asb/.
Ok, so I’ve given up trying to paste photos from the ALA conference into this blog! I’ll be making a Flickr page when I get back from NYC and I’ll put up my photos from that trip along with the ALA conference for you to see. I’ll keep you posted on the job front and let you know about upcoming events around SI! I think this pretty much wraps up the latest in my crazy busy life. Until next time…
~ maw :o)
Posted by maryaw on February 22, 2007 at 11:09 PM | Comments (0)
