ClickNSmart Team

Interview is one of the most important part toward your career path. The purpose for an interview is for a prospective employer to know more about your skill and knowledge.

How can you best prepare for a job interview?
1. You may want to check the company’s website (if there is one) in advance;
2. You should know your own interest and skills;
3. Prepare for an opening statement that tells a profile of who you are and your interest in the position;
4. Don’t forget to ask for the recruiter’s business card;
5. Dress appropriately in interview attire. You want to give a good first impression and look like one who can be an asset to the profession;
6. Don’t forget to ask questions to the interviewer about the position and the requirement to succeed in that position. This will show the interviewer that you’re enthusiastic about the job.

What you may want to do after an interview?
1. Be sure to send a formal thank you letter to the person that interviewed you. In the letter, you may want to share with him or her about the project discussed during the interview.
2. Continue to maintain contact with the person you interviewed;
3. When you decide to pursue the career field, you should send a letter by stating something like ” if you hear any job opportunities, i would really appreciate hearing from you. Thank you so much for your time and consideration.”

FYI: We also have an article on how to write a good resume as well at: http://topuniversity.clicknsmart.com/2010/05/how-to-write-a-good-resume/

“Preparation is the key to career success”

Written by ClickNSmart Team

ClickNSmart Team

When attending multiple career fairs at California State University Long Beach (CSULB) and University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), I found out about the following information:
* What a graduating student can expect from the job market
* Which college degrees present the most job opportunities in the current time.

If you are a high school graduate and/or a college freshman, who is deciding what college degree you want to pursue, then you may want to consider the following 5 college degrees that are currently highly sought  in the workplace:

• Health Care Degree

Desirable degree : Nursing, Physical Therapy, and Pharmacy.

• Business Administration Degree

Desirable degree : Business Administration and Marketing

• Computer Science Degree

Desirable degree : Computer Science, Technology Support, and Information Technology and System

• Accounting/Finance Degree

Desirable degree : Accounting and Finance

• Engineering Degree

Desirable degree : Biomedical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering.

Note that the above 5 degrees are not in any particular order. If you would like to find out more about a specific demand of each of the degree above, please feel free to find out more at:

The US Bureau Labor Statistics: http://www.bls.gov/oco/

We hope that this article can be beneficial for you.
Written by ClickNSmart Team

ClickNSmart Team

A cover letter should accompany each resume. It is used to support what you mentioned in the resume. A cover letter has a life expectancy of about 8 seconds. In this short amount of time, you must achieve the certain goal.

Goals of the Cover Letter:
- Clearly mention your skills and knowledge
- Explain how these credentials can make the best contribution to company
- Persuade the reader to continue on your resume

Rules for Cover Letter:
- Target the message
- Relate your skills and experiences to the specific position in the company

Focus on what you have to offer:
- Describe how your experiences, knowledge, and accomplishment
can benefit the company
- Write clearly to the point
- Check your letter for grammar error
- Use the same font that you used for the resume

Send your letter to specific person:
- Make sure you have the correct spelling name and title
- If you don’t know the person’s name, use “To Whom it May Concern”

Do not forget to sign your Cover Letter

Written by ClickNSmart Team

ClickNSmart Team

GRE or GMAT score can be very important to improve your chance of admission to graduate school. A GRE test is usually required if you want to apply to most graduate programs, whereas a GMAT test is required by almost all top Business Schools in the country. A low GPA and a higher than average score on GRE or GMAT test score can increase your chance for graduate school admission. The ideal case is a combination of high GPA ( >3.5) and high GRE or GMAT score. Top universities like UCLA, Harvard, Standford require high GRE or GMAT score and high GPA. Some of my classmates with a relatively high GPA were not admitted to top graduate schools just because of a low GRE/GMAT score. This is so sad. GRE/GMAT test is not as easy as SAT or TOEFL test. I took one myself and got a high score on the GRE test. A combination of average GPA and high GRE scores got me into M.S. in Material Engineering program at Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, UCLA. I want to share my success experience with you all.

Below are some advices on the GRE/GMAT test preparation:

1. You should train yourself with adequate GRE/GMAT preparation. You will be confident taking the test when you are fully trained yourself. Confidence will make a difference in your test score. That’s true!

2. Get GRE/GMAT practice tests inside the GRE/GMAT preparation book and spend lots of time to practice ( ~ 4 hours a day).If you have a discipline and motivation to prepare, you will be ready for the test.

3. You should practice at least 5 months before the test day. Last minute preparation does not work for GRE/GMAT test. A lot of my friends start study 2 months before the test and they all get low score. My experience, I started 4-5 months before and got a really good score. Practice! Practice!

4. Good preparation book is very important. Some of the test question will be similar with the book. Not all the books are helpful. The three preparation books I’ve used are: Kaplan, Official GRE/ GMAT prep book, and Barron.

Suggestion: study really hard, be confident, and prepare ahead of time.

Written by ClickNSmart Team

ClickNSmart Team

The economy today is different than the past. In the past times, an engineering graduate could easily get a job. However, nowadays Engineering graduates are tough to get hired. Therefore, It is important for those of you that are still attending college to choose a specific engineering degree that are in demand today.

Below are the tables that show the growth in employment and job outlook by Engineering Specialty, based on United Stated Department of Labor 2009-2010 (www.bls.gov).

From this update data 2010, Biomedical engineering has the highest job growth, whereas Chemical Engineering and Electrical Engineering are tied as the lowest employment growth among all fields of engineering.
Now that you have this information, it is important to carefully choose what kind of engineering degree that you ought to pursue for your future career.

Written by ClickNSmart Team

ClickNSmart Team

If you are looking for a job internship, here’s are the following to-do-lists you should prepare:

1) Prepare a resume in advance
If you need help in preparing a resume, here’s an article about tips on writing a good resume:
http://topuniversity.clicknsmart.com/2010/05/how-to-write-a-good-resume/

2) Go to career center at your university
Make an appointment with a career counselor and discuss about your interests and the kind of job internship you’re looking for. In addition, don’t forget to ask for career advices to your counselor. Some universities allow their students to have access to the online career center, so take advantage of this opportunity.

3) Sign up for career-related workshops
There are many career workshops available throughout the semesters, so be sure to attend these workshops: resume writing workshop, job-search workshop, etc.

4) Go to Career Fair
You should attend all career fairs available both on-campus and off-campus because the more company representatives you meet and talk, the greater the chance for you to get an internship. In addition, networking with company representatives may also help you secure a full time job offer once you graduate.

5) Use the Internet for job search
There are many career websites such as: Monster, CareerBuilder, LinkedIn, and others that you should explore. Nowadays, more and more employers are hiring many qualified applicants via online because it’s less expensive to do so. Therefore, you should also use online career sites when looking for an internship.

Good Luck and Be Confident that you will get an internship.

Written by ClickNSmart Team

ClickNSmart Team

Going to college is becoming more and more expensive today than ever before. College education is also becoming more important than ever before as most high-paying jobs require applicants to have some college education in their resume. If you’re coming from a wealthy family, Congratulations! Your parent will pay for your college tuition and you don’t have to worry about choosing to go to public university or private university anymore because either way, you’re covered! However, if you’re like most of us that come from an average income family, then you need to find a way to pay for your college tuition. Below are some popular ways that students finance their own education:

1) Apply for Scholarships - It’s surprising that students sometimes do not take advantages of various university-sponsored scholarships or private-sponsored scholarships available to them. Go look for scholarships available at your college or university. Best way is to go to your school’s website and enter “Scholarship” in the search bar. This will direct you to various link related to scholarship search.

2) Work Part-time - some students choose to work in-school due to time-flexibility, whereas others choose to work outside for slightly higher pay. Either way, some sort of part-time work is popular among students to get additional income to pay day-to-day expenses. It would be great if you can work full-time while going to college in the evening simultaneously; however, some students may feel overwhelmed.

3) Apply for Government Grants or Financial Aids - Depending on the states of your residency, you may qualify for different government grants or financial aids. For example, in California residents with average GPA are qualified for CalGrants; however currently California cut significantly CalGrants due to state budget problem.

4) Apply for Student Loan - I put this the last option since student loan is one type of loan that is almost unforgivable, meaning it will accumulate during your lifetime until you pay it off; moreover, even if you declare bankruptcy, this student loan will stay with you. Some student loans, not all, are forgivable if you join some type of non-profit organizations like Peace Corp, Red Cross, etc. However, you should really consider your option before borrowing from student loan.

We hope that you find this article helpful when you are thinking of some ways to finance your college education.

ClickNSmart Team

ClickNSmart Team

Have you ever wondered and tell yourself ” I am a busy professional and work all day long; I have a family and kids at home and I don’t have time to continue my education even if I want to.”

Nowadays, you can continue your education while keeping your full time job. One advantage of continuing your education is that you maybe able to get promotion and a salary hike from your company. Many of the top universities offer distance learning programs that are designed for a busy professional like you. Many of these online degree programs can be completed in anywhere (from home or work) and anytime at your convenience.

The purpose of this program is to enabled employed businessman, engineers, and other professionals to enrich their knowledge beyond the bachelor education level. This program is designed for high qualified employee, who do not attend the on campus MBA or Master of Science education yet still have interests in the learning cutting edge knowledge in business and technology.

There are two prestigious online programs offered by the TOP universities like University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Columbia University of New York. Students in both of these programs have the same equivalence educational rigor and experience as with their on campus counterparts. The transcript degree will read as Master of Science degree and will have no “online designation”.

Written by ClickNSmart Team

ClickNSmart Team

I have interviewed 50 college students that are recently transferring into top universities, like: UCLA, UC Berkeley, and Harvard Universities. The purpose is to find the “smart” way of transfer from community colleges/ junior 2-year colleges to 4-year institutions. Below are some of the tips I would like to share with you guys based on my inteview result and also from my personal experience as well:

“Smart” way to transfer to Top University:

1) Finish all your general education (GE) requirements before transferring to 4-year university

If you don’t finish this general education (GE) requirements while you are in junior college, you may need to take more GE courses once you are attending the 4-year university.

2) Strive to get a high G.P.A

The truth is that “G.P.A Matters” when you want to transfer to top universities. The higher your G.P.A is during junior college, the higher the chance of getting admitted into top university of your choice. For some impacted majors (business, psychology, economic, and other popular majors), many of these universities may set a minimum G.P.A for admission to their program.

3) Prepare your personal statement in advance

The university admission officer reads more than 10,000 personal statements each year, so they could easily tell various personal statement (made only 1-day before submission v.s made 3-4 months before submission). The admission officer look at well-crafted yet brief personal statements that show the quality of you as a person (besides academic quality, since they can easily find out from your academic transcript) and how you would benefit from the program you apply.

4) Get recommendation letters from Professors that know you personally

Some universities often ask for few recommendation letters. If so, ask only professors that know you personally; this way, they can provide you with good and meaningful recommendation letters rather than the generic recommendation letter based on template.

5) Contact the School and Have a Campus Tour

Almost all of the students that I interviewed, including myself, went to campus tour before sending out application; moreover, during the campus tour, try to also contact the school admission to find out criteria and any tips for admission to the university. It is very helpful for you to find out whether you like the campus or not and also to get admission tips before you applying to these universities.

I highly recommend that you follow these tips. If there is any further suggestions, comments and tips on how to transfer to top universities, please feel free to leave comments on this article so that the reader may benefit from our discussion.

Written by ClickNSmart Team

ClickNSmartTeam

Business major is a top choice almost for everyone. In this bad economy, the demand for business major graduates is always higher than any other major. Business is not as straightforward as many people believe; the business curriculum in general focuses more on the analytical and the critical thinking part, which are both important skill in addition to the soft communication skill . Business knowledge is a key element for your future success. There are more opportunities by majoring in business. Business majors can choose various concentrations, such as: Finance, Accounting, Marketing, Human Resources, and  General Management.

Here’s are the average salaries for these majors, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistic (www.bls.gov)

~ Median Annual Earning ~

• Management Analyst : $68,050
• Accountant : $54,630
• Economist :$77,010
• Financial Analyst : $66,590
• Human Resources : $42,420
• Marketing research Analyst : $58,829

Management Analyst : Salaries for management analysts vary based on experiences, location, and expertise.

Economist : has the highest median annual salary, but the starting salary for bachelor’s degree was $35,752 in 2007. For master’s degree has an annual salary of $43,731. And for Ph.D, the salary starts at $52,912

Human Resources : has the lowest annual salary compared with other business fields. For human resources position with a high school degree, the average annual salary begins $26,685

Nowadays, many people are getting an additional business degree on the top of their technical degrees (science or engineering degree) in order to be competitive in the job market. Therefore, I would strongly recommend adding some business knowledge, either through traditional brick and mortar schools or through distance learning (online) business degree program that many universities offer.

Written by ClickNSmart