Wednesday I attended the Liberal Arts Symposium. The first session I attended dealt with involvement within UCO, or at least that is how it was described. In reality it was a focus group about what students liked and didn’t like about UCO, their advisors and other such matters.
One of the students brought up a point at how their advisor or professor would tell them something, or nothing, and then they would later find out the information was false. This became a great discussion about advice from various sources and the need to document and research everything yourself.
I love advice. However, it astonishes me how many people will take advice to heart and accept what people say as law. I believe in taking advice with a grain of salt and verifying the information by conducting at least some sort of research. A search engine is a great place to start.
Senior VP of Human Resources and Corporate Resources at Chesapeake Martha Burger, once told my leadership class that when she has meetings there is a general rule, to assume positive intent. I like to assume that everyone who gives me advice is providing me heartfelt information. I also know they are human and humans make mistakes.
So let me give some advice, but take your own knowledge and common sense and see how my advice can apply to you and your situations.
- If someone says you cannot do something; try anyways. The experience and knowledge you will gain is worth the effort.
- If someone says something is not typically done; create a new path. I know at many colleges they recommend internships for some juniors but mostly seniors. I prefer gaining knowledge as soon as possible and had an internship after only one PR class, my sophomore year. How else am I supposed to know, for sure, that the career path I am trying to take is what I actually want to do?
- Listen to everyone, take advice and utilize what you learn to benefit your circumstance. Just remember to verify the information given to you.
Inspiration: LA Symposium focus group
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