My definition of education continues to evolve and when I saw this great video from SkillShare on Amber Rae’s blog, it changed my view just a little bit more. Check out the awesome work SkillShare will be doing in your community and sign up to help them do it!

I have personal goals for both my mind and body, I have career goals and I have academic goals. It would be entirely too long (and entirely too time consuming) to post all of these in one post so let me focus on just one set of goals today.

Career Goals

I feel like I should already have an amazing career. Like I should already be a quarter of the way up the proverbial corporate ladder.  Unfortunately the economy has had it’s ups and downs (mostly downs) and that hasn’t quite happened for me yet.

However, I have found that I love marketing– more specifically new media– and I love the services industry. I am fortunate to have found a job that combines both of these things. Job: check.

Goal:

To create and grow the company’s web presence and to demonstrate this growth with measurable results. I aim to be an asset to my company and to add to my portfolio so that future employers can see what I am capable of.

What I have to do to get there:

Develop a social media strategy for my company and for my personal brands. This is SO hard for me, because I am the type to jump right in. I want to send that first tweet and use every new media outlet as soon as it is available. This year I will take time to study the work of successful social media marketers. I will read about developing social media strategies and I will embrace every aspect of social media marketing– even the boring stuff.

I will have an actual plan on paper (read: digital eco-friendly plan) and I will track my progress.

When am I going to do this?

Inquiring minds want to know.  I’ll keep you posted on this one.

Academic goals coming soon. Stay tuned.

Student burnout is very real. So real, in fact, that I’m feeling it right now. Trying to keep the balance up between love (i.e. school) and money (i.e.) work is a lifestyle that is not for the energy deficient. This isn’t the first time that I’ve started to feel like I can’t keep up and that a few things are going to have to be left undone, because a nap is on order. I know that leaving thing undone, because a nap is in order may be a daily event for some people. I envy those people. My personality just won’t permit it.

The reoccurrance of this inconvenient feeling of exhaustion led me to do a bit of research to uncover if the student burnout is a real thing or if I’m simply a nut job. I also set out to find a remedy. And so, I present my findings

Background Information and Causes of Student Burnout

• The term “burnout” was introduced in the mid ’70′s and defined by Fraudenberger as “to fail, to wear out, or become exhausted by making excessive demands on energy, strength, or resources.” (source)
• The three dimensions of student burnout according to this study are emotional exhaustion depersonalization, decreased and personal accomplishment
• In order to treat student burnout, you must identify what’s causing it. I’m fairly certain that this tidbit is speaking more to university psychologists…I don’t think they are encouraging students to self-medicate
• Job stress and academic workload are two common causes of student burnout
• A student’s personality can have a substantial impact on student burnout; different personality traits relate to the different dimensions that I mentioned above. For example, extroverts tend to become more emotionally exhausted than introverts
• A burnout may be as a result of stress, but the two things are not synonymous. Being burned out means that you lack motivation and that you feel “dried up” (source)

You can take strides to prevent student burnout by living a healthy lifestyle. Make sure that you’re eating right and getting regular exercise. (I’ve got that under control.) Also, give yourself time to relax and time to be creative (this is where I struggle!) Don’t take on more than you can realistically handle (story of my life!). While preventing the burnout is the best way of dealing

Coping with Student Burnout

• Smell the roses. If you’re going to slack off on your school work or real work, at least put the time to good use. Let your inner artist out, enjoy an incredible meal and don’t do anything that seems like a drag!
• Surround yourself with positive people who will encourage you to get back on track (after you enjoy yourself for a bit)
• Get organized. Make a to do list in order of priority. Everything can’t be a priority, so think really hard about it.
• Rest up, because you’ll have to get back on track sooner or later and, quite frankly, the sooner the better.

I’ll be taking my own advice this weekend.

Cons of going back to school during a recession/economic crisis/whatever you’d like to call it

• It’s more difficult to get a loan, especially if you will have to take out private loans
• Interest rates are out of control
• If you’re collecting unemployment, the government has a great deal of control over how many classes you can take and what time you can go to class…if you don’t tell them about it, you might end with without your unemployment compensation benefits

Pros of going back to school

• Economic crisis is temporary…your education is not (EduDegree)
• It will give you a competitive edge when the job market does bounce back
• It may be the only time that you will have the time and/or motivation to pursue higher education

My Take

If you wouldn’t go back to school under normal circumstances, you shouldn’t do it now. Once you have your undergraduate degree, higher education should be something your pursue because you enjoy it, because you’re passionate about it and because you have a genuine desire to learn. It’s a waste of your time and money if you’re only there to try and advance your career. Having a competitive edge means more than just having a degree, it means having an understanding of an industry and a passion for it. Sooner or later the employer who hired you for your graduate degree will catch on.

In the end, the pros and the cons don’t matter. If you are passionate about an industry and excited about learning, then graduate school is for you, regardless of the economic situation. It’s a personal decision before it’s an economic decision.

You may notice, I’ve put an e-mail subscription option in the side bar. You can now subscribe to Chasing Education so you don’t miss any of my posts!

I thought that this project might make for some interesting blog posts and sure enough…here is the first (of many, I’m sure).

I spent an entire day thinking about what forms of nontraditional media exist outside of the internet. (It’s a little sad, I know!) And then it dawned on me…I vaguely recalled a news story of someone selling advertising space on their body. One google search later and LeaseYourBody.com is on my nontraditional advertising radar.

LeaseYourBody.com allows leasers (or regular people) to create profiles telling advertisers why their body would make the perfect advertising medium. Leasers also get to choose the price tag for their different body parts and list which body parts are not for lease!

So how many people see this as a viable marketing medium? Not very many. The most recent press covering Lease Your Body’s unique operation dates back to 2005! It also appears that their website has not been updated in quite some time. I clicked over to their forums to see if I could find some leasers who might have stuck around, but the newest post was from May of this year and it had no replies.

So now the burning question is, why did leaseyourbody.com fail? Or, better stated, why does it appear to be failing?

My first thought was about how ironic it would be if the company’s failure was due to ineffective marketing. More research showed that there was no other company out there serving as a middle man for people looking to lease out advertising space on their bodies and advertisers looking to buy the space. (I had no other successful marketing campaigns to compare it to.) It looks like there is just not a lot of demand for this niche service.

And so now the question is, why is an advertisement on someone’s forehead not effective? I will be the first to admit that I would be looking that company up on my iPhone before I even fully passed the guy (or girl!) wearing the temporary tattoo on his (or her) forehead/neck/arm. I have yet to find any research on the topic, but I’d love to hear your opinions on why this was/is a failure!

D Sharon Pruit

Remember in September of last year when Chasing Education was in it’s infancy and I recapped my GRE experience? That was 20 pounds and a whole lot of learning ago. Well Chasing Education has recently had a lot of visitors searching for information on the GRE and wondering what to do about their suffering with GRE math. (You lurkers can come out and ask a question or two now!) With all of these lurkers visitors wondering about the GRE and how they can do better, I figured it would be courteous to revisit the topic.

I mentioned in my last post about the GRE that I would have purchased the Kaplan GRE math workbook and that I would not have used the Barron’s math workbook. Now that I look back on it, I have an even clearer head about than I did immediately after taking the GRE. It would have been beneficial to have used a variety of different prep books for the math section, because I was generally unprepared for the questions that were given to me when I sat down to take the test. I could do math, as far as I was concerned, and I didn’t think to review the fundamentals before I jumped into a GRE workbook or two. If you find yourself struggling with the math section of the GRE and you haven’t set a date yet, I recommend that you give yourself 6 to 8 months to prepare. Use different GRE math workbooks and use books/websites that outline the fundamental concept of algebra, trigonometry and geometry. Yes, you’re supposed to know these concept already, but up until you decided to take the GRE, you

hadn’t used any of them in quite sometime. (Unless your undergraduate degree was in a hard science, but if it was, I suspect you’re not really struggling with the basic mathematical concepts that the GRE covers.)  By using a variety of different materials (I would start with the basic mathematical concepts before you jump right into a workbook), you’re preparing yourself for the different types of questions you’ll encounter when you take GRE.

This is not the last you lurkers will hear of the GRE. So comment (you know, in the box below) and I’ll be happy to answer the questions of my fellow scholars!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mindaugasdanys/3766009204/

I have just two more classes left before Summer semester comes to an end. I am amazed with how much I have learned in such a short amount of time. I have discussed the impact of educators on the lives of those they teach before. I had “one of those professors” this semester. Not only is he an educator, but he’s an entertainer and when you’re entertained you learn more. I learned so much, in fact, that I found myself applying the concept that I read about and discussed in class to my past and present experiences. I will spare you all a summary of the topics covered in class, but I would like to share with you a (hopefully mildly entertaining) application of that which I learned in class.

For most of my undergraduate career I worked as a customer service rep for a well-known mega-retailer. My job was to return and/or exchange products that were defective or unwanted. My job was also to ensure that these procedures were conducted according to company policy. That is, within 30 days, with a receipt, cannot be damaged, dvds, cds and computer software must be unopened and so on. Not surprisingly, customers who found themselves a week outside of the return policy or with an open dvd often became frustrated. I was not sympathetic to their frustrations. The policy is the policy, it’s written in English and Spanish on the back of the receipt and I’m not going to read it to you, because if you can’t read you probably shouldn’t be out shopping by yourself. (I may have actually said this to a customer or two…or more.) Also not surprising was that my sarcasm, passive aggressiveness and general disregard for the emotions of this company’s customers led the customers to become enraged.

Needless to say, customer rage was my favorite topic covered this semester. I saw the issue of customer rage through different (and more mature) eyes. It’s a problem that can easily be avoided when you prepare your employees who are in constant contact with your clients. A company must make it known to their contact employees that the company’s goal is happy customers. In my situation at the retailer that will remain unnamed, I was more concerned with upholding company return policies than I was about customer satisfaction. Had I been rewarded for creating happy and loyal customers, the company would have been better off and I would have been far less bitter.

Empowering employees to quickly resolve issues on their own is essential. The longer a client waits for conflict resolution, the more upset they become. The perpetuation of an unpleasant situation is what leads to rage. As a consumer, chances are you don’t get upset because of one mistake or one unpleasant employee. It’s a culmination of bad service and lack of resolution.

While learning about customer rage, what it is, how it happens and what can be done to prevent and resolve it, I read examples of exceptional companies who are making life easier for their clients and their employees. One company has allotted a $10/day budget for employees to spend on a customer who had an unpleasant situation. No need to get a manager to comp the wi-fi or send a fruit basket, the employees are empowered! Another company makes sure that none of their contact employees remain in contact with customer for more than 4 hours at a time. AMAZING! If someone had thought of that back when I was a customer service rep, I may have been a very different person today.

I’d love to hear your customer rage stories whether you were on the giving or receiving end!

While I never necessarily planned to get a Phd, I’ve never really pictured an end to my academic career. However, in order to continue my education after my M.S. in Hospitality Management, I have to write a thesis. The task is so daunting to me that there is a strong possibility that had my program required me to write a thesis, I may not have applied. I’m now two weeks into the program and I realize that my education isn’t going to end with a Master’s degree (at least I hope not) and I have to face my fears.

I found some inspiration this week in the form of two PhD students who made is through their Master’s program and are almost done with their PhD program (and they are only in their mid 20′s!)

With the decision to just do it made (or at least almost made), I have one year to decide the subject of my thesis. That’s one year to explore the industry. And I have one blog where I can share my findings. I decided to pursue a Master’s in Hospitality Management and Tourism because I enjoyed my work in conferences and conventions. After two weeks of my Management of Hospitality and Guest Services Organizations class, I’ve found that I love services too. Let the exploration begin!

I’m sorry I abandoned you for so long. To ease the heartache you’ve experienced, I am here to provide you with an extra special announcement.

I submitted my application to graduate school!

Remember when I sent out a possible-too-subtle message to my professors who had not written letters of recommendation for me? (See this post to jog your memory.) I’m so thrilled that I was able to overcome that obstacle. But the application is only half the battle. Until this point, the only concern I had was getting those letters of recommendation submitted and writing my academic goal statement. It hasn’t crossed my mind that I might not get accepted and if I don’t get accepted, I would have to go through this entire process again. Oh how I hope that, in the unfortunate situation that I have to apply to graduate school again, it won’t take as long as it did the first time.

On a different note, I thought that being unemployed would give me an opportunity to brush up on my skills (piano skills, writing skills, yoga skills), but I have spent so much time looking for a job, thinking about looking for a job and stressing about looking for a job, that I have done hardly anything else. I’m sure that those of you who know me are not surprised…not even a little bit…not. at. all.

Thanks to great friends and an even greater boyfriend, I have left the house to experience the single week between Winter and Summer that we have here in Florida. We went out and supported the Central Florida Hospitality and Lodging Association at Bacchus Bash, we enjoyed the most commercialized Cuban food in North America at Bongos Cuban Cafe and we smelled the flowers in College Park. I am hoping and wishing and praying and dreaming that I will have a job by the end of the month so that we can go smell the flowers at Epcot.

Until next time!

xoxo

-L

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ijames/ / CC BY 2.0

We’ve all have had them. Well…I hope that we all have had them.

memorable professors

The reasons that they were memorable differ. However, at various times throughout your life you’ll be reminded of the lessons you learned and the memorable professors you learned them from.

Some of my favorites include…

a high-energy, absolutely hilarious business law professor. His mission was for everyone to succeed in his class and to actually learn something while succeeding. He may have given away the occasional answer to a multiple choice question or two on test day. He made everyone laugh which, in turn, made everyone remember what they learned through laughter. Business law was the only college class for which I still have my notes!

a young PhD student who felt my pain. My last semester in college I has to take the infamous capstone class which required one long, stressful and complicated project. A few of my teammates abandoned ship when I needed them the most. I emailed my professor in a panic at nearly midnight on a week night. He called me within 5 minutes (despite the fact that he was home with his wife and children). He told me not to panic and that we would rectify the situation.  Maybe a caring professor (or boss) is not a “real world” experience, but the world would surely be a better place (at least for college students) if it had more caring educators and employers.

a young go-getter who pushed her students to find their inner creative genius and use it in combination with typical business skills (i.e. budgeting, planning, marketing, advertising). I did my best work in that class. In academics, there is no better feeling that taking a step back and admiring your work. A professor who pushes you to do the kind of work that your future employers will be impressed with, is a memorable professor.

Which professor do you remember or which professor will you remember?

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