“Life after OWU: alums talk post-college” |
| Life after OWU: alums talk post-college Posted: 17 Nov 2010 07:06 PM PST
Chesser, a religion and politics and government double major, is currently pursuing a Masters in Divinity at the Methodist Theological School of Ohio (MTSO). Chesser said that his education definitely helped to prepare him. "In many ways, my classes over-prepared me for my master's work," Chesser said. "My workload for MTSO is actually a lot less than I had at OWU. I think more than anything the extracurricular activities prepared me for my life after college. The lessons I got from all the things I did with the Chaplain's Office guide a lot of what I do in my life. It's from those activities that I really learned leadership and team work." He said that the most difficult part was actually looking for a school. "I prepared as good a resume as I could, had good grades, good test scores and good recommendations, but I got turned down by most programs, with many saying their Masters or PhD level Religion programs were experiencing major cuts, and that they could only take a couple of students from the entire nation," Chesser said. While Chesser said that he enjoyed the way he can relate to people now, he misses the sense of unity that OWU provides. "I miss major events and causes that everyone kind of came together and celebrated," Chesser said. Chesser said that current OWU students should adjust their expectations of what life will be like after graduation and be prepared to do a lot of work. "You have to be prepared to work your way up the ladder," Chesser said. "Also, if you're going to school, do a lot of research about your grad school, and make sure it's the type of environment in which you want to live." Pickens, a computer science and East Asian studies double major, is currently working as a software engineer at Lockheed Martin. She develops flight simulators to train military fighter pilots. "It is a fast-paced environment and has been extremely challenging, which is good," Pickens said. "It has its ups and downs, but overall I am very happy with where I'm at right now." Pickens had interned with Lockheed Martin during her junior year at OWU. She said she was then "lucky," because they made her a job offer as long as she graduated with a degree in computer science. "Internships are probably the most important thing you should do during college," Pickens said. "Companies don't like to hire people with absolutely no experience." Pickens said she did not feel OWU prepared her well for the working world; she said that it was difficult to make connections in order to get an actual job in the field. She said that, if she had a chance to do college over, she might have considered a school with a computer science department that receives more funding. "When I started my job at Lockheed I felt horribly unprepared and out of place," Pickens said. "Even interning there the previous summer hadn't prepared me for the demands of a real job in computer science... Fortunately, most companies understand that college doesn't teach you anything extremely useful for the real world and are patient enough to give you some time to catch up on your own. It has been a very stressful past couple of months." Like Chesser, Pickens said she misses the sense of community that being at college provided. "I miss my meaningless clubs and I miss my fun frivolous classes that broadened my mind rather than progressed my career," Pickens said. "I miss the bubble and hate the fact that I have to start rebuilding my social life from scratch yet again." Pickens said that it is important for current students to keep their grades up and to be persistent when applying for jobs. "Don't get discouraged by rejections," Pickens said. "If you don't get a call back, call them back yourself. Do everything you can to let them know that you really want the opportunity and are very excited to work for them (even if you aren't). They want to hire someone who cares and will put forth extra effort." This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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