Designs On The Spirit Of Your Career.

Recently The Sartorialist, a site dedicated to Fashion and Photography, published a photograph of a young design student working in class.  The photographer used this shot because the subject is dressed fashionably.  Not high fashion but appropriate for herself, the place and the work. The moderator of the site, who is also the photographer, captioned the picture by saying, 'It was so nice to see fashion students that actually dressed like they wanted to be in the fashion business.' You can see the photo here.

This post promptly got major flak largely from students who complained they should not have to dress like they are working in a business just because the are studying to work in that business.

The moderator's reply was thoughtful and informative. You can read it here .

His reply is worth you consideration.  Basically he said that ' Yes he understood that busy students don't have time to get 'dressed up' for school'. He had been one and he understood that part of the complaints.

However, he pointed out, if you are dedicated to achieving a place in an industry it is helpful to consider when you will be ready and how you will know you are ready for your career? College teaches the essentials, basics critical to your work. Schools rarely teach the many other elements which will make up your career. Managing your time, bookkeeping, promoting yourself in your industry, all must be done by you for you to obtain a place in your profession.

Right now there is only so much you can do, you really are busy trying to complete your degree. But consider putting a little care and time into your appearance. Whatever your career designs dressing the part is a useful step toward your career.  Give it a try.

Rear-View Mirror Check.

Automobiles are equipped with rear-view mirrors to provide drivers with information about what maybe approaching from the rear.  Drivers on Planet College find rear view mirrors particularly useful for keeping track of approaching law enforcement.  An occasional check in the rear view mirror while driving keeps drivers on track and generally legal. This habit, acquired from driving, can be useful in other areas of life.  For example, am I on track to get where I want to go? Planet College exists to remind and re-remind average college students that the goal of their quest is graduation. A diploma. To assist that quest Planet College  offers a brief survey of past posts.

If you are planning on travel this summer and your plans are not set this report from could be informative.

Planet College emphasizes and re-emphasizes the importance of how you spend your time and this post explains that basic concept in detail.

Summer is the optimum time to increase earnings. More work means more more money and what student on Planet College doesn't need more money?  Additionally as Jacob learned and is reported here more work could mean unexpected trouble.

And finally, for graduates exclusively Planet College has this.

This has been a brief review of Planet College previous post.  Although students often need little reminder to have fun during this time at the risk of being redundant if not superfluous, Have Fun This Summer!

Maybe You Can Too.

The busy demanding day-to-day atmosphere of Planet College provides many opportunities for enterprising students to put their skills and ingenuity to work to benefit themselves and other students.

One such example occurred at a large urban west coast university recently. The link for the story is here.  If you read the story you will learn that a frustrated student, frustrated with the whole bookstore routine, found a partner and proposed a solution. As you can read that simple act generated benefits for the partners and many other students as well.

Their actions are laudable, commendable and will likely benefit themselves and other students for sometime to come.

Which brings Planet College to you.  What have you seen? What have you thought of that you haven't given a serious try to? Anything? Something?  If there is a notion, a concept or a germ of an idea occasionally on your mind why not give it a try? Whatever it is, get a friend, get a partner, make a simple plan and try.

The students reported in the article are probably not much different than you. They made an effort and that effort made a difference.

Maybe you can too.

Attention Graduates; This Is Water.

This is an animated sound recording of the commencement address given by the American Author David Foster Wallace to the graduation class of Kenyon College in 2005.  Planet College regards this address as essentially helpful and useful for graduates and others on Planet College as well. Please regard Mr. Wallace's words carefully and take them with you when you leave campus.

Payment Deferred.

Planet College regularly emphasizes the essential principle that hard working students like you  be paid for their work.  They should receive  earnings in a timely fashion following what ever tasks or contribution or work they performed.

College students are generally known to be some what more literate than the general population.  They are also usually desperate for cash.  Money.  Some enterprising individuals and even groups attempt to exploit this combination of skill and need to get students to get people to work for nothing.

This is what they do.

You have probably noticed while looking through job postings the term 'payment deferred'  in an offer of employment ad. This typically means that the worker,  whatever their contribution, will not be compensated for their work.  The ad usually explains that the payment will be forthcoming upon ( or contingent upon) some future event.  Often this event is the actual sale of the item which the student/ worker has contributed to.  These types of ads commonly appear in reference to writing which the ad poster wants done.  ( There are other kinds but the writing one is so common it makes a good example.)  Essentially the ads say something the sense of which is " write a script and when I sell it I'll give you some money. "

That is the approach.  Not quite an outright scam.  Who knows, maybe those involved really think they will be able to sell your work.  Maybe.  But. Basically you will be working now for possible payment in the future. Even if they do sell it what binds them to paying you?  If they hadn't paid you yet and the work is done, why should they pay you when they actually receive any money?  Sound like a deal?  No, no it doesn't. 

That is the Planet College report on 'payment deferred.'

Added Benefits.

Planet College emphasizes the benefits of finishing your degree and regularly publishes information about these benefits. It has been widely acknowledged for some time that graduates, workers with degrees, earn more than those without.  That is a benefit a real substantial benefit. There are other additional benefits and one Planet College would like to point out is health care costs.

Health Care and its costs have been widely discussed recently. Opinions, formulas and predications about health care and its cost have now become integral parts of most political campaigns. Traditionally, for college students the cost of health care has not been high on their list of interests. Too many other more immediate cost compete for college students few dollars.

Soon after graduation, however, most graduates find that health care costs become a factor in their finances. Unless a student is still on their parents health insurance he or she begins shopping for some kind of health care.  This is where possessing a diploma begins to become financially useful. Surveys have shown that college graduates pay less over all over time for health insurance.

That is it. That is a benefit. Graduates pay less for health care insurance than those with out a diploma.
Over time, your money, your earnings, you save some of that money with a college degree.

That is a plus. Graduate. You'll earn more. You'll save more.

Rootie-Toot Tutors

The entrepreneurial spirit is actively engaging many, many students on Planet College. The urge to make something of your own in your own way is  is irresistible. One student, Devon, who did so tells his story here.

During my last year, I was a business major, there was a contest for Entrepreneurial proposals. It had a cash prize and was only open to business majors. I decided to enter but I knew I needed a partner to make it work. I knew Marlene from Student Government. We were on the events council together and put on some programs that went well. A couple of slams and some djs. I liked working with Mar, she could get things done but she's totally chill. When the entrepreneur competition came up I asked her if she wanted to partner. She's an ed major but only one person had to be in the business department to enter. We put together our proposal, it was for a tutoring company, and we entered. The winners were announced and we did not even place. A lot of people liked our idea, though, so we decided to do it anyway.

Our plan was a tutoring company that focused on local families. We would higher tutors from school and assign them to individual students we had found as clients for our business. We made up a catchy name for our business and distributed flyers at locals schools and churches for parent's who wanted their child tutored by a college student. 

Because Mar is an Ed major she knew a lot about lesson planning and student assessment. She is also organized to the max so she took the scheduling and payroll and general administration stuff. I've always been a good talker and sales comes naturally to me so I met the prospective clients and if it looked like a fit signed them up.  Our focus was younger students who were not functioning at grade level. Mar would figure out what the student needed and I recruited the tutor from the students who applied.

Our plan worked OK for a while but after about a year business fell off seriously so we decided to fold it up. I don't think I'd do it again but I sure learned a lot. First of all, it is a lot harder to get someone else to work than it is to do it your self.  We had a lot of problems with tutors who did not show up. I'd have to call around and find some body real fast or else I had to do it myself.  There was a lot more to it than we thought.

Mar and I are still friends but we won't be working together on anything.  That's another thing we learned; real world business is a lot different than planning school functions.

That is the adventure of one entrepreneur on Planet College.