College Choices
As a member of Phi-Tetta-Kappa, with good math grades, able to speak 3 languages, being a minority, I think I have great chances of going to good colleges. So here are the following:
Harvard University Extension School
Harvard University Extension School is not Harvard College. You don’t go full-time, you don’t live on campus, the tuition is cheaper, does not have the prestige and the academic requirements are lower. But being part of the Phi Tetta Kappa gives me some access to scholarships, and the teacher staffs are very good and come from good backgrounds. It is an affordable and provides the same education quality as Harvard College. It possesses 20 liberal arts degree, among them economics. So this is going to be my first try.
Columbia School of General Studies
The same from Harvard University Extension School applies here. But it is located in New York City. Also, a lot of meeting between the World Bank and the IMF happens to be in Columbia. When I went to Columbia, it was interesting that they let students go to others classes; you can just jump in and learn, and have access to the staff. Columbia does not offer scholarships, yet the name and the location may enable me to have a part-time job to cover it. It offers more subjects than simple economics, it seems to be its niche.
Baruch College
The best CUNY in New York. Baruch asks for high mathematical comprehension, which I have. My grades are good for them. It hosts a graduate degree program there too. Yet I will try my chances to other schools that I am inclined the most. One thing to point out is that the New York Federal Reserve and the SEC hires here. So it may be a pro for Baruch.
A career in Finance
A career in Finance is the one I am looking the most. Is probably the career I am looking the most. Besides the sales agent, asset manager or risk analyst, there has been a flourish demand on Quants. Quants are professionals that use highly-mathematical models to do trading. They are very common on the bank industry since many trading are now made by computers instead of being made by humans. The career usually requires a mathematical background, econometric tools, and high knowledge of software since you have to transform the mathematical analysis into algorithm that can be processed by the computers. It would mean to me to learn a lot more of mathematics, and use it to analyze reality, to measure it, and to be able to hold the most sophisticated knowledge in the most quantity. For me, knowledge is important, but also is the ability to make money and this career goes hand in hand with it.
A career in Economic Research
What is knowledge for knowledge? When an idea (a marketing product) does not generate money, it’s because is not valuable for the market. And being paid $182k as a senior economist at the IMF definitely shows how valuable you are for the world! Economic Research at the IMF focuses more than in economic comprehension. It may cover inequality in the world, woman and society, hunger, luck in career success, environmental externalities, global warming policies, and so on. However, the common denominator is big use of statistics data, mathematical models, lot of empiric reading, and doing advices. The IMF recruits people that have at least an M.B.A., but also have designed some programs for student who have just graduated, and looks for majors in economics, statistics, mathematics, finances or computer science. In short, a good career for someone who wants to save the world, mathematical models, developing its knowledge and who is very opinionated.
A career in Organization Development
I like to coach, to teach and to read. While coaching and reading drive me towards a manager position, or teaching and reading towards a teaching position, I think the qualities are better used as an organization development consultant.
“The change process supports improvement of the organization or group as a whole. The client and consultant work together to gather data, define issues and determine a suitable course of action. The organization is assessed to create an understanding of the current situation and to identify opportunities for change that will meet business objectives.”
Looking for change, seeing an organization in all points of view, meeting objectives, taking action. Doesn’t that sound so interesting? And also the education requirements. An Organization Development consultant comes from backgrounds like organization development, organization behavior, psychology, education, management and/or human resources.
A career as a Political Advisor
Is there something that is even more fascinating, that is Political Advisor. As one, you are 100% dedicated to the public. You are paid to do good, to change the world, to make rules that affects everybody, that affects a country. The power to change the country, what a dangerous weapon. Yet the title is not president but advisors. Political advisors generally advise to high political positions in diverse areas. Their background varies, but as Yehezkel Dror they must be people with a large framework selection, historical analysis, mathematical simulation, human behavior and organizational knowledge. But the difference with other is that public service is more rigid. Law usually shapes decision-making at times constraining it; media –which is intended to dumb people because smart people read magazines, journals and newspaper- usually boycotts because they don’t have enough knowledge to understand the whole decision and it is complemented by bad communication on behalf of the authorities. Also, you usually have different sublevels of power, and planning requires to be implemented and be done by others that may boycott or not know what to do, so you are not as powerful as you think. But is rewarding as you know that you are planning long-term, making policies (the most powerful way to use knowledge), influence people, and be admired but many people as having gone so far.
You majored in What? By Katharine Brooks is one of the books that try to help lost and low-confident students in their search for a career plan and career realization. Its major difference between others may be that it focuses on chaos! As contradictory this may sound, it is actually about a chaos in a sense that you don’t have every detail planned but is more about keeping opportunities open. The book provides some good examples and activities in order to find out what are your strength and passions. A good book if you don’t know what introspection and Google is for.
The first chapter was explaining how majors and careers are no linear anymore. And therefore we can rely on chaos theory to rescue us. Chaos theory – which should be better called Chaos-approach to Personal Development- focuses on the ability of knowing our self to try to control part of our future. The future is impossible to predict, as a single event may change it. However, we can influence it to some degree. To do so we have to know where we don’t want to go, and try to be flexible to all other desired outcomes. At the same time, it tries to tell us that as chaotic events may seem, there are actually some sort of pattern on it. Finally it talks about attractors –that seems to be a bend of motivation, conflict and misbehaviors – but it really don’t explore more throughout the book.
Following chapters prepare oneself to introspection, by helping students try to focus on what they like, what skills they have, what experience they have gone through. Chapter number 3 provides some interesting mindset for student to identify themselves to it, yet literature that supports it has proved inexistent through Google. These chapters however, prepare very well the student to be more confident of the way to see their personality and how they interact with their behaviors. Besides, it gives a more light on how different “mindsets” may interact in a company. Because of the importance of this chapter, it should have highlighted more the Myers-Briggs test and should have stressed the importance of seeking feedback with a career advisor. One point in favor is that we are seeing companies trying to bring new perspective (looking for creativity for productivity improvement, marketing mix or management operations) by looking for a more diverse workforce. This chapter should have been explored with more details, in order to give students more possibilities how they can perform in an ever-changed job market. If the mindset has been used, it should have focus on frameworks and how they can make money. If instead the title approach was used, a list of skills will be useful.
Probably the most useful activities have been again the one for the mindset. It helped me to know which mindset I posses, on what degree I posses it and therefore what to work on, and what mindset I am weak on and need to focus on it as a priority. For example, a creative mindset is crucial for providing innovation and coming up with new solutions. It is useful on management, marketing, economics topics and so on. There are many incentives as well as rewards for a creative person. Despite of the big demand, yet I haven’t explored or train myself. I think I posses some creativity, by for example, analyzing a problem on not-traditional variables that may give more insightful answers. Yet, problem-solving should now be my priority when I begin to approach creativity.
The book is a soft book because it targets students in college. What is disappointing though is that it is intended to be used at the end of one career. This should not have been the case. An early identification of one “mindset” can better help on looking and developing skills for a career. It can give focus on what classes to take and what experience to look for. Instead, the student reaches the end of college and realizes he or she does not like his or her major at all, or a lack of certain skills may not make her have a comparative advantage.
Economics:
· American Economic Association: The American Economic Association (AEA) is an association which purposes are: i) the encouragement of economic research, especially the historical world and statistical study of the conditions of industrial life; ii) the issue of publications on economic subjects: iii) the encouragement of perfect freedom of economic discussion. The association publishes many Journals: The American Economic Review, The Journal of Economic Literature, The Journal of Economic Perspectives and The American Economic Journals. Its membership fee is 35 USD.
· Association of Environmental and Resource Economists: The Association of Environmental and Resource Economist ( AERE) focus on environmental and resources economics. They promote meetings and workshop that present research of the members. AERE publishes two journals: Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, and Review of Environmental Economics and Policy. It charges a membership fee of 27 USD
· National Association for Business Economics: The National Association for Business Economics (NABE) is a professional association for business economist and those who use economics in the workplace. They have several subject-oriented roundtables for Corporate Planning, Financial, Health Economics, International, Manufacturing / Industry, Small Business / Entrepreneurship, Real Estate / Construction, Regional / Utility, Technology and Transfer Pricing. It has a quarterly journal, called Business Economics and offers several certifications, as well as conferences. The student membership is 30 USD
Finance:
· Association for Financial Professionals: The Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) targets treasury and finance professionals. It focuses on providing information such as news, economic research and data, certifications, events and training. It does not have journals; instead, it provide several surveys that focus on key financial indicators such as Payment Survey, Liquidity Survey, Financial Risk Survey, Business Outlook Survey and Compensation Survey.
· Association for Accountants and Financial Professionals in Business: The Association for Accountants and Financial Professionals in Business (IMA) has as mission to provide a forum for research, practice, development, education, knowledge sharing, and the advocacy of the highest ethical and best business practices in management accounting and finance. Its membership provides professional development training, networks and communities, publications, conferences and events, career services, research and information, ethics center and helpline. It also provides students access to different scholarships.
JHONATAN MONDRAGON
SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS
§ Clerical skills: Typing at 55wpm, Scheduling, Filing, Photocopying, Faxing, Photocopying
§ Software: Mac OS, Windows X, MS Word, MS Excel, MS Powerpoint, MS Outlook, Filemaker Pro and Taxwise
§ Languages: Spanish, English and French
EDUCATION BACKGROUND
LaGuardia Community College, Long Island City, NY September 2010 – Present
Major: Business Management
GPA: 3.5
Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society
Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru March 2006 – December 2009
Major: Political Science
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Food Bank for
Intake
§ Received clients and assisted them with the organization's paperwork
§ Surveyed clients to determine their eligibility for Food Stamps, translated for Spanish and French speaking interviewees
§ Made copies of paperwork; handled different schedules for different tax-preparation departments, sent clients to the tax-preparer and made "210 New York School Credit" for qualified clients
Catalonia Trade & Investment – New York, NY November 2010 – December 2010
Data Entry-
§ Made copies of all business cards
§ Scanned business cards, fixed minor errors and exported to Microsoft Excel
§ Exported the files to FileMaker Pro and kept an updated and organized database for all business contacts
File Clerk
§ Checked and distributed documents and correspondence fast and organized. Ensured every official document was signed
§ Maintained hard copies of memos, official letters and receipts
§ Filed the archives in their respective folders following a time-entry order procedure
§ Photocopied and scanned records of administrative documents
WarCab Internet Café –
Customer Service Associate
§ Ensured that each customer received outstanding customer service which included troubleshooting, and explanation of software as well as cloud computing
§ Informed customer of time limit or availability
One of the experience I've been looking forward, was to take the Myers-Briggs Test. It is one of the three theories that intend to explain success in a job, along with The Big Five and the Emotional Intelligence theories. At first I felt that the test was not fitted for me: it didn't felt accurate and aligned to my vision and explanation of the world. I really felt the answer may not be accordable with my ideaw. However the test was very accurate in the end.
There was a curious event however. I took it two times. The first time I came up as an inventor, because I answered mostly by historical behaviors. When I was a kid, I loved to break out problems, also studying software and math alike. I loved to read a lot, a thirst that hasn't disappeared along the years. My emotional center was towards loneliness, I always dreamt of a machine, being able to do whatsoever alone and focus what I like about more, because others really never mattered to me.
There is an event that changed all my life: The Wall Street Journal. I have always been a reflexive guy, liking to wonder why things happen, and how to control its effect. This has pushed me to research a lot of scientific majors, among them psychology. Psychology triggered an amusement for human behavior, especially, for human misbehavior. Among other information, I found I was a not-so-severe ezquizoid. I took this as a threat: ezquizoid people lack people-skills, thus they are regarded as simple, not-ambicious and incapable people. This make others hesitate and deny opportunities for success to ezquizoid. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is a journal dedicated to white-collar workers, which usually find in the journal a guide for lifestyle, vogue, wines, investments, and work success. It is not uncommon to find article about management, explained by psychology theories. I investigated more and ended up on literature about Emotional Intelligence. Fascinated by it, I began to change myself following the recommendation it had. Therefore, when I took it a second time, my test gave me as a Fieldmarshals. This probably takes into account my belief that knowledge should be useful, unbiased and as complete as possible. In every stage of my life, I always thought against irrational ideas and concept, from the existence of god, the sustainability of socialism and communism, the idea that free market is still based on the ideas of Adam Smith, and other irrationalities that appears along the way.
I am really happy of having what I think have two great personalities. Inventors are known for their creativity and smartness. At first, I confess, I felt very insecure: being half-half two personalities may make me more flexible, but it will not give me the ability to maximize my personality’s quality. However, I make up a plan. I will be an economic advisor, school dean, economic media reporter, economic minister or economic consultant and niches related. Let me explain myself: my inventor side makes me turn knowledge into product or ideas. At the same time, provides me with the knowledge, the character and the leadership for debate economic affairs. These two abilities combined make me perfect for taking very specialized knowledge and converting them into reforms. And my field marshal side makes me gather support and loyalty from different people to create the product. My inventor side again is able to upgrade and reform as needed, while my fieldmarshal helps me uniformize, communicate and push for my reforms ideas, as well as to stand against pressure to turn it down. What is good to point out is that I posses both the Judging and Perception Lifestyle. The judging makes me able to set the vision, the goals and resolve any conflict as well as crisis without hesitation that may destabilize the organization, important to inspire direction in an organization when there is a crisis or a shift. But my perception lifestyle, a more flexible and spontaneous image, let my organization feel free to try ideas, debates, and flourish their creativity to give value to the organization. Once I read why a city’s wealth to its population is bigger than a smaller town’s wealth to its populations: in a bigger city, there are more people interacting, communicating, inspiring, dreaming; all this energy and passion being released by every single person in contrast with a rigid, boring and stressful organization.
