Kema Christian-Taylor, Author at Job and Internship Advice, Companies to Work for and More | WayUp Blog

3 Jobs on WayUp for Animal Lovers

Getting paid to play with animals? These jobs are a dream come true! Whether you’re constantly on Buzzfeed looking at pictures of cute puppies, or begging your RA to let you own a pet, you have to check out the positions below.

Dog Walker at Lucky Dog Pet Care, LLC

It’s hard having a jam-packed schedule and wanting to make sure you don’t neglect your dog. That’s where Lucky Dog Pet Care comes in, matching pet owners with reliable dog walkers so that dogs get the attention they need and pet owners can breathe easy, and focus on check off the items on their to-do list. (So in this role, you’re basically a philanthropist.) You should apply if you’re obsessed with dogs, and you’re ambitious – the right candidate for this role will get to wet their feet with content marketing, biz dev, and a variety of other projects!

Kennel Technician at Doggie Dude Ranch and the O’Cat Corral

Based in Watkins, Colorado, the Doggie Dude Ranch and the O’Cat Corral is a boarding and daycare resort for dogs and cats. As Kennel Technician, you will be taking care of cats and playing with dogs, making sure that the animals are happy and that their rooms are well-kept. You should apply if you love taking care of cats and dogs, have a great worth ethic, and a positive attitude!

Doggy Daycare Pack Leader at Walks and Wags

Walks and Wags is a pet resort dedicated to the physical and social health of your dogs! As Pack Leader, you will be in charge of giving dogs the best pet care possible — especially when it comes to their health and safety. You should apply if you’re attentive to detail (and especially the needs of the dogs!) and you work well with other people.

Apply today so that you can play with adorable animals (and make a quick buck or two)!

What Can I Do With An English Major?

One of the most common responses you’ll get when you say that you’re an English major is the quizzical, “Oh – what do you plan on doing with that?” Maybe you chose your major because your passion is to analyze the meaning behind the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg in The Great Gatsby (can you live?!). You certainly didn’t choose it to have a quarter-life crisis about how that passion may never turn into a profitable career.

If you’re worried about what you’re going to do with an English major after graduation, you should know that holding an English degree can lead to a myriad of career choices – not only in teaching or in publishing but also in business, law and many other professions like Researcher or Content Writer. Renowned filmmaker Steven Spielberg majored in English at California State, Long Beach, former ABC World News anchor and broadcast journalist Diane Sawyer majored in English at Wellesley, and Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, got her English degree from Stanford. Their careers prove that your major does not define your career path – you have the power to create your own narrative.

Working your narrative involves identifying the transferable skills you gained from studying English, skills that are valuable in almost any role. What are those skills? Well for one, you can’t go 5 minutes on the job search without seeing a listing that reads, “Must have excellent communication skills.” As an English major, you’ve been asked to clearly state your ideas or your interpretation of certain texts, and you’ve also developed valuable writing skills, formulating complex, concise and insightful papers each week. Your articulate communication skills are indispensable in any workplace – whether you’re brainstorming ideas in a meeting or writing emails to clients.

Because you’ve not only had to analyze, compare, and contrast different texts but have also had to read and understand thought pieces written about those texts, you have critical thinking skills. Critical thinking will allow you to understand different perspectives and make logical, informed decisions. Your eagle eye for grammatical errors and literary nuances signifies a fierce attentiveness to detail, minimizing carelessness in the workplace.

Make sure to talk to your professors about the skills they are trying to instill in you and think about what you’ve learned from your past English courses. This will help you to think of even more skills that you can reference in future interviews – skills that will help you show just how qualified you are as a candidate. More importantly, you’ll be able to breathe easy the next time someone asks, “So, what are you planning on doing with that degree?

3 Easy Fixes to Minimize Stress at Your Internship

It’s easy to feel stressed at your internship – there are so many things on your plate (and all over your desk) that you feel like you don’t even know where to start. Luckily, there are a few simple things you can do to avoid feeling a sense of panic when you wake up every Monday morning. Check out the fixes below – they’ve worked for us!

Close out all those tabs.

If you have a small heart attack just looking at the number of tabs in your Chrome browser, that should be enough of a signal to start closing out. Let’s be real, working on everything at once is daunting and unproductive- especially when you consider the number of times you’ve had to shut the whole browser down because of all your open pages.

If there’s a website or page you need to return to later, make yourself a to-do list for later in the day, and email a few of the links to yourself. It may even help to send yourself emails with subject lines categorized by project, like “Research Links for Marketing Proposal” or “References for Blog Post.” You’ll get a lot more done by segmenting and prioritizing your tasks – not to mention, you’ll be a lot less overwhelmed!

Handle the small tasks as they come up.

Whether you’re answering an email or giving your boss a quick summary of your progress so far, it’s so easy to take one look at small, simple tasks and think, “I’ll just do it later.” However, these tasks have a way of piling up and getting out of hand if they aren’t handled in a timely manner. If you’re not working on an important project, handle these small tasks the second they come in – and figure out an efficient system to complete these tasks quickly. For example, if you’re handling customer service emails, you can have canned responses ready to copy and paste, allowing you to reply within seconds–or if you have to give your boss weekly updates on your work, keep track of all your projects daily so that compiling and consolidating everything is a simple, smooth process.

If you have one of those days where you have to put smaller tasks on the back burner, make sure you have a good system for catching up on your work. We recommend Boomerang, an email scheduling tool which allows you to return messages to your inbox when you have more time to reply.

Stop skipping lunch.

Too busy to grab lunch? We’ve all been there, but you’re not doing yourself any favors by missing out on your midday meal. A study published in the Nutrition Journal showed that inadequate nutrition during lunch lead to “emotional (irritable and frustrated), physical (tired and hungry), and cognitive (difficulty concentrating and poor decision-making) symptoms.” You’re not doing yourself any favors by decreasing your productivity – or killing your chances at a positive attitude on the job!

So, whether you bring your own lunch, make a sandwich run or hoard a stash of fruit and pretzels near your desk, just make sure you’re taking care of yourself at work.

We hope these tips will not only help you to be a productive intern but a happier one as well! Be sure to share your stress-relieving tips in the comments section below.

3 Things We Can Learn from That Awkward Cara Delevingne Interview

If you don’t already know by now, one of the most awkward interviews ever took place this week. Two anchors from Good Morning Sacramento interviewed Cara Delevingne, a model-turned-actress who made an appearance in Taylor Swift‘s Bad Blood music video and who recently starred in the upcoming film, Paper Towns, based on the novel by John Green. Cara fired off a few dry, but humorous responses to the interviewers’ unoriginal and condescending questions before a random third interviewer slid into the conversation with no explanation (we’re still wondering who ok’ed that decision), and added, “You seem a lot less excited…Are you just tired?”

From there, a quick descent into a complete lack of professionalism on the anchors’ part (what, are we in high school?) occurred, as the anchors prodded Cara and her “bad” attitude. Aside from preparing ourselves for some serious second-hand embarrassment, what can we learn from the way this interview is conducted? Here are our 3 takeaways.

1. There is such a thing as a bad interviewer.

As much as you as a candidate should focus on making a great impression, there are times when your interviewer doesn’t put his or her best foot forward. Take this one for example – not only did the interviewers clearly not take the time to get to know who she is, mispronouncing her name “Carla,” but they also asked questions like, “Are you able to focus because you’re so busy?” (#what) and made unnecessary comments like, “You seem a bit irritated.”

2. Regardless of how your interviewer is acting, you still need to respond respectfully.

Yes, you may get a few strange or obvious questions – but even if your interviewer looks you in the eye and asks, “Are you aware that the sky is blue today?” you should still be able to give a tactful, professional response. It was clear Cara was not amused or impressed by the anchors’ behavior, but regardless, she gave each question a thoughtful response, discussing her admiration for John Green’s book and her passion for acting (you go, Cara!).

After all, it’s clear from the way the anchors discussed Cara’s attitude that people will talk about you. If you’re able to keep your cool and give your best answers, there’s ultimately no basis behind the negative comments they may say — not to mention they’ll just make themselves look bad in the process.

3. Sometimes people won’t get you, and that’s ok. Someone else will.

It’s obvious that the bright and cheery TV morning show facade coupled with Cara’s more muted, reserved behavior didn’t mesh well, and Cara’s reactions were easy for the anchors to misinterpret. “She was in a mood!” one of the anchors said after Cara left, and Cara later tweeted that some people just didn’t understand British sarcasm and humor.

As you go on job interviews, you’ll come across a few instances where you really feel like you aren’t connecting with your interviewer, and that’s fine – all that means is that the company may not be a great culture fit. So chin up, and try not to take any of it personally – you’ll go on a lot of different interviews, and you’re bound to come across employers who understand your personality and know that it will be a great fit for their company.

Choosing Between Job Offers? Consider This Factor

You’ve applied and interviewed for several jobs and – lucky you – you get not one but two or more offers (probably because you applied through WayUp ;)). There are a lot of important factors to consider: salary, hours, work culture and environment — but if you’re looking to really develop your career, you need a company that believes in your abilities and will also actively work with you to develop them. That means that you should always choose the company that’s going to invest in your success.

A company that will invest in your success is going to put resources in place to support your growth at the company. It may come in the form of a mentorship program, like IBM’s “buddy program,” which pairs new hires with an experienced employee who will help them to adapt to the company’s culture and expectations as quickly as possible. It may come in the form of skill-enhancing classes–at WayUp, we pay for our hires to attend General Assembly classes in their related fields to help them become masters of their craft. Best case scenario is the company that supports your growth beyond the workplace – companies like Bank of America will pay up to $5,000 to fund graduate school studies in a job-related field.

So, as you decide between offers, be sure to ask each company about the resources in place to ensure your success. After all, a company that is willing to invest in your career growth is a company that values the capabilities of its employees – that’s exactly the type of employer you’ll need early on in your career.

Achieving Your Career Goals, As Told By Olivia Pope

You just went from WayUp boss to real world employee, graduating and scoring your dream job. Life is pretty great right now, but you can’t stop there — you’ll need to start thinking about your next move. Is your goal recognition? More responsibility? A higher position? Whatever the case, there’s only one person who can teach you how to become a major power player: Olivia Pope, played by Kerry Washington.

Welcome to Achieving Your Career Goals 101, gladiators.