Mason Grad Insider

Whether you are just starting your graduate career or preparing to finish, as graduate students, we are all focused on preparing for our career after graduation. For many who are going to graduate school to break into a new field, this task can be more daunting than our studies, as it takes time and effort to find the perfect job, especially when each listing requires or strongly recommends 1-2 years of experience. To make sure that everyone is equipped to take the career world by storm, I am going to share tips that can help you gain experience in your field of study/industry and land your dream job.

Being a graduate student can be one of the biggest time commitments that you have ever faced. Not only is there class time, but you also have to attend countless professional development workshops, build relationships with faculty, and get through mountains of reading.

Procrastinating can also be looked at as a habitual stress relief that can be done inadvertently, hindering one’s success. It is no surprise that having the habit of procrastination affects productivity and the ability to plan ahead to achieve short-term and long-term goals.

I was held accountable, got to have mental moments of well-being with friends, at times explained what I was working on and teaching it to the architects and being taught in turn. Their questions taught me to dive deeper and find how to explain what I was reading to an audience outside my discipline, which in turn made me a better teacher of Gender Studies and History.

Meal prep is essential for us working adults (as many of us graduate students are), both to bring to our jobs and to those evening classes. Meal prep is great for many reasons–when you meal prep, you’ll be eating more nutritious food, healthier portions, and saving a lot more money than if you were eating out for these meals.

While it is enticing to stay warm under the covers and binge watch your favorite season of the Walking Dead or Scandal, consider how to use this time that would yield the greatest benefit to you academically. If you are not sure of what to do during this timeframe, consider the following ideas that can keep you engaged with your academic goals and will help you remain mentally thawed.

In a 2016 Internship & Co-op Survey that collected responses from almost 300 organizations and across 20 industries, the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) found that “employers begin recruiting interns eight months before their start date; for co-ops [cooperative education programs], this window is six months.” It is never too early to start thinking about applying for these opportunities for next summer.

Here in the DMV, we are lucky because we do get to see the leaves change and for someone who grew up down in the low country of Georgia’s coast line, this has been an amazing sight to behold. My favorite time to hike through the many national and state parks we have in the region is the fall, and I bet you can guess why: the fall foliage!

It is now fall and I still enjoy getting outdoors and the perk of the DMV is that you get to enjoy the fall leaves, a thing I never got in GA. Don’t get me wrong, on the plus side, it is forcing me to write my dissertation, which I guess is a good thing. However, I can’t shake the feeling that I need to be outside and in fresh air.

Whether you have things under control or not, we all should find time to reflect on our resilience. At Mason, we define resilience as: Enhancing the capacity for successful adaptation in the face of stress, challenge, and adversity.