You graduated high school then went to college because that’s supposed to be the next step you take, you weren’t sure what to major in so you majored in business. Now, four years have came and gone and you’re wondering what’s next. At the time, taking a broad degree seemed like the right thing to do, but now you’re overwhelmed by the choices. Here is a few specific options to consider:
Human Resources
• Manage employee life cycle
This is the hiring and firing aspect. HR will help with recruiting then setting up interviews with potential employees. After an employee is hired HR is in charge of onboarding the new employee and making sure that all the required documents are provided and paperwork is filled out.
• Process payroll
A computer will most likely be used to process payroll however, math will be a required skill. This is vital and needs to be exact as this is the reason employees come to work. HR is also in charge of processing bonuses and expenses.
• Conduct disciplinary actions
If you are being harassed or mistreated at work, this is the people you call. They are in charge of handling and recovering a situation. Anytime an employee is written up it should go through HR. They also need to be let known when an employee is fired or they will be the people doing the firing.
Entrepreneur
• Create a business
You decide you want to be your own boss and go on a business venture of creating your own business. There are a lot of options to consider when starting this venture like: size, product, location, etc.
• Create business marketing plan
It is very important to have a plan. Get with someone who has experience in this field and be okay with the fact that majority of new businesses wont make any profit in their first year. You will need to know about all of the legalities involved in a start up.
Accountant
• Money management
Think bookkeeping then delve deeper. This position is needed for any business. You look at how company money is being spent vs how much is being earned. You will be in charge of reporting balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements.
• Auditor
There are many different types of accountants. One being an auditor. An auditor is in charge of assessing the financial operations within a business and making sure that everything is being done in a legal and appropriate manner.
• Tax accountant
Tax accountants deal with taxes, making sure that they are being properly reported by a business. They work closely with payroll providers to ensure everything is being done to a legal standard and that no mistakes are made. During tax off season they might do things like perform audits, offer advice on investments, develop financial plans, or help with asset management.
Those are just a few specific options out there for you to alleviate a little bit of the stress on this new and exciting journey. Remember: its okay to change careers and start over. Do what makes you happy and what fits your lifestyle needs.

Picture this: it’s 6 am, that blaring alarm beep goes off for the last time. Today is graduation day. After a long 13 years years you’re finally done. Except you’re not. Now you have four years in college to look forward to. Look forward to? What’s there to look forward to? It just seems like another four years of sitting in a classroom, taking notes and doing homework.
So, you start college and enjoy it, you meet a lot of new people, learn a lot of new things and time flies. You learn to love it and learn that it is more than just homework and notes. Now, you have three weeks left. Whats next? 17 years spent in school to get a piece of paper. In reality it is not just a piece of paper. This paper opens door after door for you. It is a symbol of all of the long hours and hard work you’ve put in. You are now able to say “I did it.”
What are you supposed to do when you’re done? Do you need to jump right into a career? Travel? Take a break? There is no right answer, do whatever you feel you need to do. There is no set timeline as to where you’re “supposed” to be. Graduation can be so rewarding but yet so stressful. I reached out to some former college graduates for some advice to help with the stress and this is what they said:
“Things will happen at their own pace. The opportunities meant for you wont pass you! And if an opportunity comes up you don’t feel ready for, that opportunity wouldn’t be in front of you if you weren’t ready,” said Tiana Lang.
“In my experience even though you feel like you don’t know what you are doing, when the time comes to need to know it, it will all come to you,” said Hayley Taylor.
“You won’t ever know the outcome unless you try. Always go for what you feel you deserve. The worst someone could say is no. All it takes is one yes,” said Angelica Mantey.
“Don’t stay stuck at a job you end up hating just because at one point you thought it was your dream job. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to do it anymore. Your dream job may change more than once an that’s okay. And don’t ever take advice from someone who benefits from you staying where you are if you’re unhappy,” said Ashley Akin.
“The very thing they’re putting you down for, is the very thing you should be doing,” said Lacey Oltman.
“Get out of your comfort zone and do things that scare you. Most often the scary steps are the best ones to take. Apple for all of the jobs – even if you’re under qualified, even if its something you’ve never done before. If you’re interested in it just apply because I promise you there’s ten other people that aren’t qualified either who are applying. Your personality might just outshine the rest and every job is trainable. Being friendly and like-able is key. Market yourself wisely. Carry yourself well and are new friends everywhere you go. Connections will get you further in life than education, experience, or skill ever will,” said Taylor Hall.
So with all of this I say put yourself out there and don’t be afraid of making mistakes. Life will look different but then you will find where you’re comfortable. Keep pushing, you’re almost there!

Looking to join a club, make some new friends, or hear different insights on a particular subject? You can get all of that and more from the common reader book club. This club is deigned to give students the opportunity join a community and hear other individuals opinions as well as voicing your own on a particular subject. This semester the book chosen by the faculty members is “Heads of the Colored People” written by Nafissa Thompson-Spires. This book is filled with many short stories about black lives and the struggle and injustices they experience. Following reading the book, students, faculty, and sometimes a guest speaker will meet in a classroom and have a campus wide discussion. 

“It’s really the idea of trying to figure out ways to try to help us come together as a community so that we can meet each other, so that we can have these conversations,” said Doug Julien. The common reader book club is a way to take a break. Take a break from the day to day work and do something fun. Students will get the opportunity to meet other people from outside their major and see different perspectives on the same topic in a way that maybe they wouldn’t have even thought about to look at it before. This year, they have a large focus on transformative text and social responsibility. 

When you bring a group of people together and give them a topic to study, it is likely that someone will have been able to pick up on or see something in a different light than another did. “She saw something and the way she answered made me see something in the text that I hadn’t seen,” said Julien. That is the amazing thing about a club like this. We often can be very narrow minded and taking a moment to listen to others and listen to how they interpret something gives us a chance to be a little more open and less narrow in our thinking. 

The faculty members have taken an older idea and branched it out into something new. This is actually the first time that they are trying out this idea as a book club. Prior to this semester, it was a class that freshman were required to take called IS 1100 class. With it being new the attendance is spotty and always ranging in numbers. Julien hopes to expand and make it more well known. In order to do that he would like to place a whiteboard at the front of the main buildings with a list of the days events. All of them, not just based off the common reader book club. With having a whiteboard with the days events it is more targeted. People are able to just focus on what is going on that day, rather than having all of this “noise” distracting them. 

One challenge this club faces is the time it occurs at. Julien mentions it being during a time when students and faculty are able to take a lunch break. Some people don’t mind having something to do during that time, but he does feel like that is a part of the lack of participation. He also feels like it is already difficult to get people to come to classes and events in general. If a communal meeting area like a pizza place or a coffee shop were to be brought to campus, the club would probably move to a place like that to create a more casual environment. Another challenge for the members is figuring out a way to more incorporate the zoom students into the discussion and bridge the gap between the zoom and the in person experience. They do plan to get theses kinks worked out to where everyone can partake equally. 

Whether you commute or live nearby there is options to attend. They offer this club on zoom and in person. “The language that I sort of adopted over time is like, try to be a merchant of opportunity, I’m selling opportunities, not successes, not any of those kind of things,” said Julien. Take this opportunity to try something new, to branch out, or just as a learning experience. Join us in UC 210 from 12:20 to 12:50 every Tuesday! Anyone is welcome. 

Taylor Hall

Imagine going to school, being a single mom, having a full time job, and running an organization, Taylor Hall does that and so much more. She is working on her Master of History with an end goal to hopefully become a college professor. Life really changes the things we think we want, for example, in Taylor’s case, she originally wanted to become a lawyer, or move over seas to teach English for a couple of years. Her life took a turn and she had a kid. Hall talks about how kids are life altering for the better and she wouldn’t change it for the world. Her kid is now two years old and made her so much stronger and given her all the happiness she could ever want. She doesn’t regret any choices her younger self made, because if it weren’t for those, she wouldn’t be doing the things she gets to do now. It’s hard for her to even imagine her life without her son, Patton.

“It’s so hard to find really like cute little boy clothes, you’re stuck with either doing dinosaurs, animals, or like Nike apparel,” said Hall. After a lot of research was done  she was able to get a business license to start this online venture. She named it PG Styles, with the hope to get those stylish boys clothes out to the people around her. The name stemmed from her son, and is actually his initials. One day, if she ever has the time, she hopes to expand and make that business into an in person store or wherever else it takes her. This started as a side business for her when she was a stay at home mom and she was taking a break from her schooling. She would like to see it grow but it isn’t on her top priority list. 

Taylor Hall is a woman of many skills. Besides her clothing business and school, she works for the Miller County Sheriffs office. There, she spends her day preparing paperwork for the judge and prosecutors office. About once a week she will actually sit in on criminal court. Following the court session, she will assist with making sure the inmate gets back to the jail. “It’s always interesting and definitely um.. crazy, uh.. but fun and I love what I do,” said Hall. She says that this is not a forever job but it will work for now. Her father is actually a state trooper and he got word about this opportunity and through word of mouth, she was able to score the job. 

Having family in the first responder field and being around that field herself, Hall took part in creating an non profit organization. This organization is called Beyond the Badge. Beyond the Badge focuses on helping and raising money for police and other first responder fields in and around Texarkana. Anyone can join and take part in the things they do. To raise money the will put on fundraisers. Some of their fundraiser include: golf tournaments, selling t-shirts, raffles, and many more. Any money that they raise goes directly to the cause and none to themselves. However, there is a $25 a year fee for members and that money will go toward buying t-shirts and snacks for meetings. The meeting happen usually once and month and there they will make game plans for the events to come. There is a lot of behind the scene jobs that the board members will take part in during their spare time. Hall, specifically is in charge of the social media, marketing and membership management. She has taken a lot of the marketing skills she learned from this organization and applied that to her boys clothing business as well. 

“If any little thing had gone differently, like, we wouldn’t be where we are today” said Hall.