MAking the Most as a Transfer Student

“Nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity.” – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

After graduating from high school, I had not decided where I wanted to go for college because I was not sure about what I wanted to do in my career. This was the missed opportunity that I was dealing with, so I studied at a community college to learn about what I wanted to do while staying nearby and spending time with my family.

Even though I was taking the same classes in a community college with great teachers just like my peers at other universities, I was still missing the social aspect from my college experience. This was primarily because, in community college, there weren’t many active clubs and since everyone lived in different areas, had different schedules it was hard to meet outside of school.

Throughout the 2 years in community college, my goal was to finish my transfer units as soon as possible so that I can transfer to a university and grow socially and professionally. Half a semester before I was going to transfer, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Initially, I was very disappointed that I was most likely going to have to attend school virtually especially because I was waiting to transfer for the past 2 years and get the college experience in person.

After seeing that there was no other option, I decided to take a positive approach to this. Even though I was not sure how long I would be in this virtual environment, I decided to MAke this experience count. Involving myself in business clubs such as the Marketing Association, and the International Business Association gave me the experience I needed to build my resume for internship and job opportunities.

I joined a few business clubs, specifically the most active ones. Most of these clubs were not even related to my concentration in accounting, yet I decided to join because all concentrations of business are in many ways connected. Another reason I joined multiple organizations was to join the workshops that were hosted to listen to a variety of people’s experiences from different backgrounds and companies.

Source: Marketing Association

Through my search for a club that helps members grow not just professionally, but also build a community, a friend recommended me to the Marketing Association. That semester, I also joined the events committee and worked with other committee members to plan social events for MA. At the end of the semester, when officer applications were out, I decided to apply for the position of Fundraising Director. Even though I got rejected, this gave me the interviewing experience I needed to ace future interviews, one of which was for the same position in the next semester. I ended up getting the position of Fundraising Director in Fall 2021, on my second attempt. After having the experience of leading a committee and growing within the role of the Fundraising Director, I am going to be the Events Director next semester.

From the various workshops from different organizations that I attended throughout the year, some of my key takeaways as a business student were:

• Step out of your comfort zone - apply to positions that you think you even have a 1% chance of getting.

• Even if you get rejected once, learn from your mistakes and re-apply - I take notes on my answers after interviews and see how I can improve those responses the next time.

• Stay active on LinkedIn - Staying active on LinkedIn by posting, commenting, or even liking often grows your network and helps you get noticed by recruiters.