Career Girls in Training

Hello all you little people out there in internetland!

It has been quite awhile since we last hit you up. And in the mean time both Magnolia June and I (Georgia Rae) have landed interviews on Tuesday for grown-up summer internships.

Number Crunching Those Summer Days Away (maybe)

My potential internship would be with the Federal Reserve of the city in which my brother currently resides. I had been looking for a summer gig there so I could beef up my resume, hang out with my brother and sister-in-law and convince them that they need to start making me some nieces and nephews.
I applied online though the university's insanely-hard-to-figure-out-how-to-work job search website (It really is a great resource, but they should give freshman a mandatory tutorial on how to work that shiz). The minute my mother found out about this possibility she was on the horn digging up every connection she held in the financial world. After an hour long conversation with my 10th grade English teacher's son who used to work for the Fed, I was starting to get pretty jazzed up myself. And once I got the official email requesting that I schedule an interview time slot, I became ecstatic. So all thats left to do is bone up on the Federal Reserve, make sure my suit is presentable, pick up my business cards, and wow their pants off with my winning personality.

She's Making My Dreams Come True (Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo)

After bemoaning the status of her jobless, internshipless summer with her Leetle all semester long, Magnolia June finally decided to do something about it. Filling out applications with the other plebeians is obviously below her. When she decides to be proactive she really goes for it, going right to the source. So she got the email address of the Development Officer for Central North Texas Make a Wish Foundation and submitted her plea. She obviously wowed with her outstanding cover letter and radiant resume as she was penciled in for a phone interview on Tuesday. Down in the Big D, Magnolia June would be shacking up with her sister, brother-in-law and her precious little niece, Princess Sophia. She'd be taking names, kicking ass, and granting wishes.

However, as we all here at 3 Girls know, nothing is ever certain until you have signed on the dotted line. Only this past weekend we were frolicking in the 70 degree weather, biking in the sunshine, antiquing, and house hunting. We let ourselves fall absolutely in love with the cutest little green house that ended up being out of our price range with no chance of the owners coming down. So now we are back in the housing market. Just like the weather here in Oklahoma, our futures change every day. Our goal by May is to all have landed internships as well as a house for next year (preferably close to campus with original hardwood floors, but really, we're not picky).

The top reasons why being single on Valentine's Day is......Awesome.

So the most commercial holiday ever has finally arrived... Valentines Day. And two-thirds of us here at 3 Girls are single and ready to mingle. While we are truly happy for Belle Starr and the catch that she landed a year ago, we decided that for the rest of us, it would be just a night with the girls. So after helping Belle pick out the right outfit that says, "I'm so in love, and I look great in the Valentine's colors of red or pink," we headed on out. Georgia Rae and I, along with out guest poster, Leettle, came up with our top reeasons that being single on the big V is sooooooo much better. 

• No sharing of candy. You get to eat the whole box all by yourself without having to stare cheesily into someone else's eyes.
• Personal hygiene becomes an "option". Not unlike every other day when your living the single life; showers don't need to be daily, legs don't need to be shaved on the reg, and nobody cares if you only brush your teeth once a day. The only person you need to impress is yourself. And lets face it, we have pretty low standards.
• No pretending to like all that cheesy heart shaped jewelry. Kay and Jared have been pushing real hard this year. You shouldn't have. But seriously, you really shouldn't' have. 
• No anxiety while you watch the door for those over-priced arrangements of greens and baby's breath, with a few roses thrown in, that may or may not be delivered.
• No hour long fashion show figuring out what to wear to dinner when your signifiant other wouldn't even notice if you showed up in your pajamas.
• You get to have a dinner with your girlfriends where you don't have to worry about what you wear or what you order all while getting to make snarky comments about the lovebirds who chose Chili's as their uber-romantic Valentines destination. 
• You don't have to worry about being expected to put out at the end of the date.

What's a career girl to do?

          With almost three years of higher education under my Urban Outfitters braided vintage belt, I feel like I'm ready for some out of Oklahoma real world career girl adventure...... or an internship will suffice.  So I've taken all the classes (about two majors worth, we'll call it diversity in disciplines), edited, reedited and tweaked my resume, learned to compose a cover letter in under ten minutes, printed my business cards and of course, chosen the perfect interview/everyday in the real world business outfit. However there's still one thing missing......I don't have that internship.  Which is not due to lack of research on different companies or the type of internship I'd want to take on.
            Just like on my path towards the right major, I've jumped around a lot on what exactly I want to spend my summer doing. I started researching internships about a year ago.  Why would I already look at internships while still having trouble committing to a major, you ask? Well simply put, when faced with stressful or overwhelming situations I react in one of two ways, and sometimes both: napping the day away or looking to the future for things I can plan or organize. Doing this makes me feel more in control; lists and schedules calm me down.  I'm the kind of girl that as soon as the schedule for next semester's classes are up I'm already making my own schedule. I'm sure the fact that this happens right around midterms is completely coincidental.  Here's what I'm getting at; I've looked at internships with children's hospitals, nonprofits, schools, and more recently event planning companies, large event venues, and organizations needing interns for program development.  To help you understand my internal battle its like this: in the numerous majors I've dabbled in, only two have come close enough for me to consider future type plans, and according to the little duo of Kent&Deb, they support your dreams up to four years; therefore only one of those majors could win.  The two that I struggled with deciding on are Human Development and Family Sciences with an option in Child and Family Services (I was around 30 hours from graduating) and Hotel and Restaurant Administration (latest major working double time to finish in four years).  My heart is all about helping families and children and my head is all about making a living. However, last week it was like BOOM or BANG or maybe BAM. I'm not really sure what the exact sound effect was but nevertheless I got a sign, an epiphany, a "hey you, here's the answer!" It actually makes a lot of sense, combining those two things: helping others and planning events. There it is; I can have my cake and eat it too.  I can do something that I feel passionate about where I'm making a difference, all while still being able to pay the bills.
            Now that I'm a second semester junior and finally feel like I've got my life mission figured out, it's time to do some real down and dirty work to land that perfect internship.  I've looked at the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Susan G. Komen For the Cure, the YWCA, among others.  I feel like this process would be a million times easier with some kind of connection to get me in, ya know?  That perfect resume, efficiently written cover letter, and fashionable attire will only get me so far. Who knows, maybe Mr. CEO of Something Cool or Miss President of Pretty Things will get a sign telling them I'm awesome and they need to make it their immediate mission to recommend me to the events or program development director so I can finally be a career girl instead of just playing one in a blog. Until then I'll be applying for internships, working on the right amount of firmness in my handshake, picking up my business professional outfit from the cleaners, and practicing my answer to the worst ever interview question "So tell me about yourself."
               Does anyone have any suggestions for getting an internship or better yet does anyone want to offer me an internship?

Greetings from Frozenwater

Ok, that may be the word on the slopes, but I don't think they were talking about us. I doubt they even know who we are.  Nonetheless, I put this picture up for 2 reasons: It's snowpocalypse around here and I just love anything Anne Taintor.

We're going on our 45th snow day this semester or somewhere close to that and for the first time in my 21 years all I pray for is.......NO MORE SNOW!!! Seriously, the first 30 snow days everyone tweeted "Yay no school! Thanks Burns, you da man!" however now its more like "Burns, I've ran out of things to do, I love not going to class but only if its my choice. Skipping makes me feel rebellious without breaking any serious laws." I don't know about the rest of the snow covered state/nation but I think most of us here in Frozenwater are ready for the sun to come out and the penis in the fountain to melt.

How does everyone else feel about all the snow? Any suggestions for combatting cabin fever.

Georgia Rae goes to the fair. The career fair.

Today I embarked on one of the greatest rites of passage for college students. I attended my first ever career fair here at OSU to find a summer accounting internship. It was my first foray into the adult job searching world. I have worked in a CPA's office before... however not in one that is not owned by my mother. So it is beyond time for me to get on this.
Mistake number one. I spent about 30 minutes figuring out exactly which way the resume paper was supposed to be inserted in the printer to get the watermark facing in the right way. I went through at least 13 pages of resume paper before I got them all going in correctly.
Mistake number two.  Being the studious student that I am, I waited until after my classes were over to head down to good old Gallager Iba for the event. By the time I arrived it was only about 30 minutes until the scheduled shut down time.
Mistake number three (which was really the fault of the university). The career fair was scheduled on the eve of Snomaggedon Part Deux, so some of the employers were no shows. And most of the ones that did show had begun packing up by the time I showed up. Even the registration table was about to close up when I arrived to pick up my name tag.
Mistake number four. I had been told by the wonderful people in career services that I would need to make about 20 copies of my resume, in all actuality I handed out about 5.

I was not at all prepared for just how awkward of a situation this would be. You are expected to walk up to the potential employers and astound them with your resume, witty small talk, and a firm handshake all in around 30 seconds. I really should have felt more in my element, with my long history of awkwardness, especially in public settings. Also, with all my grace and all the ice still on the ground, my 4 inch heels were not the best shoe choice. Luckily the career fair utilized the escalators so the only time I publicly tripped down the stairs was in my house. Population: 100 girls.

Any tips for career fairs? Or job/internship offers?

Where do we start?

After many failed attempts at finding "the perfect major", searching for a house instead of studying, and realizing we lack focus on anything of importance, we decided we needed to get it together.  Well actually Georgia Rae just got bored while visiting her mom and created us a blog.  It makes sense though, what do most 20 somethings do when they need to be focusing on the future...... avoid reality and occupy their time with hours of unproductiveness.  Writing a blog is a great way to make us feel like we're doing something important and worthy of our time.  Besides, we think we're uber interesting and humorous girls.  Here's a little about the three of us.  Ohhh our post names came from a date party one year.  The theme was "Barndance" so naturally we felt to get the full experience out of it we need to make up ranchy names.

Georgia Rae*

I enjoy crunching numbers with my freshly sharpened pencil.  My life plan is to make more money than the clients I prepare tax returns for. I'm an expert at telling awkward stories that people uncomfortably laugh at. The only time people get my stories is when I am reenacting a time I fell down the stairs, off a bed, over a small animal, or somehow managed to trip while standing perfectly still.  Long awkward story short I like lots of numbers especially when they are on my paycheck, people don't get my stories, and I'm extremely clumsy.

Magnolia June*

I'm a commitment-phobe who secretly wants that ring by spring. I've had more majors than Brigham Young had wives. I've finally landed on a major that highlights what I'm best at: going out to dinner, enjoying stays at the W hotel, and throwing champagne brunches. I have a tendency to believe my humor is far superior to others and if you don't agree with me then I question your intelligence level. I am a firm believer in awkwardness but then again thats probably just because I'm so good at it. 

Belle Starr*

Although I am approaching super senior status, I'm probably the one that's got it the most together. I spend my days reading 900 page text books in a single sitting, designing virtual spaces that will probably never actually materialize, acting like an architect major while gaining my interior design degree, and being consumed with anything that doesn't include my social life. I am currently in the middle of a white girl quarter life crisis: becoming fluent in Spanish and dreaming of adopting a Japanese baby, all while refusing to admit that I'm stuck in the buckle of the Bible Belt instead of on those California beaches.  

*Disclaimer these blurbs are hyperbolized versions of how we see each other.

Its time to sign off now because Belle Starr needs to go to sleep, Georgia Rae needs to do her homework, and Magnolia June needs to.... well honestly she's probably just going on Twitter. Hope ya'll come back now. 

We don't actually have pets yet... Or a house.

- Belle Starr, Magnolia June, and Georgia Rae