How to prepare for a job / admission interview

The time of the year is there to apply for summer internships, summer jobs, college programs and so on. Usually, interviews will be part of the admission procedure, regardless of what you apply for. This post will mainly be about preparing yourself for the contents of the interview and not so much about your appearance during the interview because although your appearance is important, the contents may be more important.

First thing to do is to find which person(s) within the organization is/are going to interview you. Knowing this is useful so that you can search for this/these person(s) on the Internet to get an idea of his/her/their interests and activities. Once you know this, you can tailor your interests to fit his/hers/theirs. It may also make you less nervous to know who sits opposite of you. 

The second thing to do is find out what you can add to (a department) the organization. For an employer or university, it is important to know what you can add to their organization so that they can see whether your needs match theirs. If they have a certain need and you happen to be able to bring them that need, there is a perfect match between their needs and yours. During the interview, knowing what you can add also gives fuel to a discussion about which person(s) within the organization can help you add your knowledge and skills to the organization.

And of course, the things mentioned above can be found on the  Internet.

Thirdly, you may want to print stuff. Your motivational letter and résumé you submitted are the documents they go by when preparing the interview with you, so you will look more prepared if you printed your own stuff compared to "excuse me, may I take a look at the letter you have there?" Your printed documents may also serve as a reminder during the interview.

Fourth, now that you have taken a look at the documents you have submitted, put yourself in the shoes of those who are going to interview you and consider what they might ask based upon those documents. Which things may require further explanation? Are there things unclear in your letter or résumé? Be prepared to answer this kind of questions, because they will be asked. 

Potentially other relevant documents for me.

Fifth, after printing the documents you have submitted, also take other possibly relevant documents with you.  Diplomas and certificates are evidence for what you have written down on your résumé or in your letter. They may also serve as another reminder of things they may ask about. It may, for example, be helpful to have a list of your study results with you in case questions arise about it during the interview. Seeing the course name and the grade your teacher gave you may also help you remind how you obtained that grade.

The last thing to do seems like a no-brainer, but take notes of everything you might be asked about as you are preparing yourself for the interview. Write down key-words that just must be used in your answers and also take notes of the questions that arise from your side as you are getting ready. One reason for doing this is that you will definitely forget some of the things you wanted to say/ask as you sit there. The nerves will grab you, empty your brain, and make you lose some of your memory. The other reason is, again, that you come across prepared. Coming across prepared is always a plus, because in your work and study, you will also have to be prepared for tasks. Being prepared also shows interest in the function/position and the organization. 

These are my tips for preparing for the contents of a job/application interview. Have you ever been so nervous during an interview that you forgot what you wanted to say/ask? Have you done some of the above for interviews or maybe you have never even had an interview yet in your life? Let me know! 

How to organize yourself and your college stuff

We all know that awkward moment when you stand in front of your door and you realized you forgot your key. We also know that moment that you were convinced that you had your books packed for class and that, once in class, it turned out you did not have them with you. This exactly why organization is important, but sometimes it is difficult to awake the discipline inside yourself and actually start getting organized. There are different tips and tricks and today I will share some of my own with you. In an earlier post, I gave tips for saving room. Some of these tips might complement the tips from that post. 

Files can hold very much paperwork and protect it at the same time. In Dutch, they are called ordners, and for a reason. Not only can you easily and chronologically order your stuff in the files, but with tabs, you can also make sections for the paper work of each course. No more searching for old lecture notes or papers that might be handy for a follow-up course. As long as you file everything, you will not loose anything! I always keep lecture notes with the printed powerpoint slides of that lecture and add the readings to them, so that I have everything ordered by class session.

In order to know which documents are in which files, you need to use labels. You can keep them very general, such as 'Bachelor, year 1' or 'Master', but if you need several files for one semester or year, it might be wise to label them by course. I have, in fact, gone as far as to label them in the same order as they are in my files: 

I also value mail partitions. Sometimes you get mail that you only have to store, other times you get mail that requires you to undertake some action, such as transferring money to another bank account. Or maybe you just want to have papers within reach of your arm, regardless of what it is and how often you really need it. Mail partitions are the solution, as long as you use one shelf for each type of mail or documents. This should also help you keep track of your private finances. 

It is also tempting to make a mess of the drawers inside your desk. I know all about it and the only solution is to keep your discipline, so that your drawers will keep looking like this: 

Note the divider between the front and the back of the drawer. This way you can also keep things and items for different purposes separate from each other. 

I also like to keep my books together. When you read a series such as Twilight, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, or Gossip Girl, this is fairly easy, but with college textbooks, you might need to rethink your methods. While you can order by colour, I prefer to order them by general, overarching topics, so I keep methodology and statistics books together, I have a section for psychology books, a section for interpersonal and conversational skills, and so on. 

Last but not least, we often forget stuff because we start packing at the very last moment. It is therefore wise to keep a look on the clock and pack your bag the night before your 9 am class next morning. It is an advice my 7th grade tutor gave me, when my class was fresh in junior high school and still afraid to forget books because forgetting something could result in expulsion and detention. In college, no teacher will remove you from class when you forget something, but for yourself it is handier to be prepared. So, pack your stuff in time so that you can remain organized outdoors, after the aforementioned indoor organization advices. 

What do you do to stay organized? Or is your (part of your dorm) room an 'organized chaos'? Do you have other tips to become and remain organized? We probably all have our own ways, so everyone gets wiser by the exchange of information ;) 

Five ways to live on a budget

Many students around the world live on a budget since studying is not cheap. There are tuition fees, books and other supplies for your study, but you also need to eat, pay rent and/or public transportation costs, and many other things, and not everyone is blessed with rich parents or parents who are willing to pay the college experience for their grown-up children. No matter the cause of your limited budget, here are five simple tips you can follow if your months are longer than your money. 

First, check whether you really need the latest edition of your textbooks or that an earlier edition will suffice. The earlier editions are often offered second-hand on the web, so they are cheaper than the brand-new editions. If you even do not manage money-wise to buy books at all, check at your library whether your course books are available there. In my faculty's library, they have the textbooks at the desk that are not for lending, but for short-term use within the library. You go to the desk, ask whether you can use the book for X hours and bring it back when you're finished. Our library also happens to have the readers of all departments for instant use. Also check whether your faculty has this, because this can also save a significant amount of money. And, now that we're on the topic of books anyway, you might as well check out whether your teacher has written the actual textbook(s) needed for the course. I once had a teacher telling us that she would not mind sending us all other chapters of a book  via e-mail that she had written and published. 

The second advice I can give is to try to print as much as you can with two pages on one sheet of paper. This, of course, depends on the lay-out of the text you're printing, but it has occurred to me a couple of times that I was deceived by the lay-out on the computer screen and therefore printed one page per sheet while I could easily have printed two pages per sheet. If you use the two pages per sheet setting for all your prints (other than official documents, such as papers, essays, and theses, that must be handed in!), your print costs can be reduced by almost 50% !!!

Thirdly, it might be useful to find out whether there are second-hand shops within a reasonable distance from your campus. What is a reasonable distance is different for everyone, but a reasonable price for students is probably not! Second-hand stores are usually closer to reasonable prices for students than the 'normal' stores, unless it comes to collector's items. If you have no objection against using things already used by others, going second-hand is an ideal option for those living on a budget. 

My fourth advice is to keep track of the sales and other special actions of the shops. Since a few years, I am  under the impression that there are more weeks in a year that especially clothing stores have 'sales' racks throughout their shops than that they have not. Also be aware of shops that are about to move, renew the interior of their building, or going bankrupt. These shops usually try to get rid of as much stock as they can by reducing the prices like crazy. This one is for people who do have an objection against used things, but who are also on a budget. Since many fashion trends are also allowed to be worn for a longer period of time, buying during the sales does not necessarily mean that you're dressed old-fashioned next season! 

Last, but not least: think economically! Weigh the costs of an item versus its perceived usefulness or benefits. For example, some biological foods are more expensive than non-biological foods, but biological foods yield a stuffed feeling faster than non-biological foods, so you need less of them. Besides, biological foods really are tastier, so you also weigh the price-quality balance. Also try to find out for which grants and compensation you are eligible as a student. This may cost some time and reading tough paper work, but it might be worth it. Thinking economically is really not that difficult, you just have to make a cost-benefit analysis and be realistic and honest to yourself. If you see a super cute cardigan that does not fit with the rest of your wardrobe and therefore ends up unworn, it might be a waste of money, no matter how cute it is. 

These were my advices for living on a limited budget, but I'm sure that you have your own ways of figuring financial stuff out. How do you manage? Are you the lucky one who get everything from the parents? Or are you okay with taking a loan and having debts for the first years after your graduation? 

Finding your pair of glasses

During high school, the classrooms were so small that you could take a seat in the back of the room and still see clearly what happened in the front of the room, given that your teacher had a readable handwriting. In college, however, the average classrooms are bigger and arranged so that those with not-perfect-but-decent sight either need glasses if they want to attend and follow lectures from farther back in the room or need to find a seat in one of the front rows. Others might have worn glasses for longer than they can remember. I belong to the latter category and I am also the kind person who does not manage to squeeze contacts onto my eyeballs.

So, imagine you are at the optician's shop. You know you need a pair of glasses because otherwise the lectures become very tiring for your eyes and for you. The glasses themselves won't really be the problem: the optician will find which ones are most suitable for your eyes. It's the frame that results in endless considering, trying, deliberating, and weighing one frame against the hundreds of other frames.  Fortunately, glasses today are considered a valuable accessory that can really add something to your outfits. There are countless styles and colours of frames so that there is always a frame that looks good on you. I figured that the fashion-conscious college students could use some advice.

First, look at the prices. Not only at the prices of various optician shops and their price reduction actions, but also at the deals they have with insurance companies. If you get your glasses at a place that does not have a deal with your insurance company, where they sell haute couture designer frames only, while you really have bad sight without glasses, the price might go up into the hundreds of euros. On the other hand, it has occurred to me that I had to pay nothing at all for my glasses due to a nice action of the optician shop, combined with a deal with my insurance company.

Now you have decided which optician shop fits your budget best, it is time to find out which frames they have and how these frames look on your face. It might be helpful to take someone with you for this part of the task, especially if you have very bad eye-sight. For example, without my glasses I can see sharp for only 10 cm / 0.1 yards, so I am highly dependent of what others say about how the frame looks on me. In order to decide what looks good on you, you need to take into account several things:

• The shape and the size of your face. Each frame looks different on each face. Sometimes, a very subtle difference in the shape and size of the frames can make the difference between looking stupid and looking great. If you happen to have a very small face, like I have, you might want to point this out to the optician who is helping you. He or she is likely to know which frames in the shop are fit for your face without referring you to the children's glasses.
• Your complexion. Just as you buy clothes and make-up adjusted to your complexion, you also need to find a frame that matches with your complexion. Again, a subtle change in colour or tint can make a major difference for how the frame looks. I once tried a frame that was black on the outside and very deep, dark brown on the inside. Just a second later I tried a frame that was black both on the outside and the inside. The second hardened my face far more than the first.
• The colour of your eyes. Glasses in general tend to push your eyes to the background. It is therefore often advised to allow yourself some heavier eye make-up if you wear glasses. However, you may as well get a frame that matches very well with your eye-colour and even enhances it and thereby does not push your eyes to the background. 
• Your clothing style and personality. It's the same as with clothes: people will notice when you feel uncomfortable with what you're wearing. This even goes for your glasses, so make sure that you have a frame that fits your personality and clothing style. Obviously, if your glasses mismatch your clothing style, you won't feel comfortable about wearing them. Also, if you, for example, very often wear purple, it might be wise to find a purple frame, too, so make sure everything matches.

Last but not least, don't be afraid to ask the optician for help. As I pointed out in the first point, they are likely to know which frames they have in store for your face size. These people sell glasses and advise clients about the purchase of glasses and frames every day. Sure, some will have a better sense of style than others, which is why it is important to take someone with you in case you have very bad eye-sight. The last time I bought new glasses, though, I was helped by someone who managed to find a few frames that made my heart skip a beat and that were not too large for my face. 

So, these are some things to take into consideration next time you need new glasses. I apologize if you just bought new glasses and, after reading this, come to the conclusion that you bought the wrong frame. If you found this post and want to show the world what you got, don't hesitate to comment and insert a link to a photo of you with your glasses on. Of course, you are also free to share your thoughts on glasses in general and what you think of this post. 

Extracurricular activities ...

... and how to choose them.

Today, we live in a society where a degree certificate alone doesn't do any more when applying for your job. Everyone will tell you to take a few jobs, join boards and committees, and find internships and other stuff that makes your curriculum vitae look nicer. Another reason why I post this today is because the new year in college just started and the ambitious people might want some guidance in choosing their extracurricular activities.

Personally, I don't think anything is wrong with some activities besides the studies because they can enrich your social life and they can help you develop aspects of your character. If you happen to hate doing oral presentations in front of groups, it will actually help you if you have to do it in order to show the (financial/whatever) state of your student club to its members. If you get sick at the mere thought of having to talk to people (don't take this too literally), it might actually help if you find a place where you do get in touch with many people without getting too close too soon.

So, what are a few things to keep in mind when choosing an extracurricular activity?

• How much time is it going to cost? Can you still study enough to pass the majority of your exams and write your papers without coming across as THE lazy ass on whatever activity you choose?  If it does cost very much time, can you handle working more and sleeping less? (this is actually a health-related consideration, but still important!)
• How does this activity make you stand out from all other students who are obviously also involved with extracurricular activities? Many students have jobs and/or are on boards and committees for various organisations, so your future employer will see many resumes similar to yours. Unless you have done something more or less exclusive.
• Is it an activity you can enjoy? Most activities require you to be present or available for X amount of time and all the time you invest in your activity can't be spent on other things. With the average schedule of college students, it's better to do something you like, so that your activity gives your positive energy that you can use for further studying or something else. 
• How does this activity add something to my CV? In our department of Pedagogy and Educational Sciences, we have some people who gather interesting activities for their students to do, which are related to our field and help us to get some field-related experience that is like whipped cream on top of your hot chocolate. 

I took all of the above in consideration. I weighed, deliberated, talked about it and thought some more. I didn't want to do anything that could possibly interfere with my lecture schedule (time); I was not the type for having to party and drink on a frequent base (enjoyableness); I wanted to do something that not many people say they do (exclusiveness), and I wanted my activities to be broad yet also related to my major (add to CV). In the end I came across two activities that I am still involved with and still enjoy. I actually made promotion in one of them. 

If you - for whatever reason - don't manage to find something DURING the year, it might be worthwhile searching for summer activities, such as jobs or internships. I did a summer school past summer, which was a course I wanted to do throughout the college year, but it always would interfere with lectures, which made me postpone it. 

Most important is that you choose something that suits you and where your 'colleagues' suit you. I also quit some activities after a while because it just didn't work with me and the others. So, do you agree with this list? Do you think I should add some more? Leave a comment! 

How to rock your studies academically

The new college year has recently started or it is about to start for most of us. Whether you are a freshman looking for advice on how to succeed in college or an older student who has set goals and resolutions for this year in college, I am here to offer some advices for success. However, if you have severe problems with studying, it might be more helpful for you to see a counsellor or any other advising person at your department.  


First of all, it is important that you do something you like. If you like the topics covered in your courses, or at least the majority of them, you will become intrinsically motivated, which means you are learning for the sake of learning, rather than that you are learning to have a good grade on your final (= extrinsically motivated). However, if you have chosen a course you happen to strongly dislike for the bigger part of it, I would recommend to orient on switching majors or courses. 


Academic rock is a new music genre that will be popular this fall. It includes the contents of textbooks as lyrics being put on the music of the hottest artists and bands. This way, studying your statistical formulas, anatomy, economical models or international treaties becomes much more fun. Okay, I initially meant this to be a joke with the title of today's post, but it has been said that singing the boring stuff to the melodies of your favourite songs actually helps you remember the stuff better.


And that was only the beginning of studying tips you may or may not have expected. Another one is to change locations while studying. According to experts, your brain matches the incoming information with the context and physical surroundings. The necessary variation can be created by switching between studying on your own and studying with friends; studying inside and outside; studying with or without background noises, and even by changing seats during lectures and other classes. So, do not take the same seat in the same wing in the same building every day.


As I told you before, I always have text markers in my pencil case. If you have them, why not use them? Marking the important lines in a text makes you read with more attention, so that you can mark the important sentences afterwards. Using a different colour for each subject will help you remember everything better. 


Pretend you are the teacher and read your textbooks aloud. Also try to explain your subject matters in your own words. Many of my teachers have actually recommended this method, although I feel my throat getting strained when reading aloud too much. However, I do try to explain stuff in my own words if I am not sure I understood the paragraph and it makes the not-so-well-understood stuff simpler for me. 


As with skin care, I can also recommend it here: living healthy! Call me a health-nut, but I really function much better if I sleep at least 8 hours per night; get enough vitamins and minerals, aka eat and drink healthy;  do at least 30 minutes of moderate exercising (including moving to and from the lecture room), and go outside for the same amount of time. I also have the window of my room opened all day long if the weather allows it and since my desk is next to it, I catch a nice deal of fresh air, keeping my mind fresh. Feeling physically and mentally well is almost a condition that must be met before you can start studying well.


One of the more well-known advices is that you should not cram all studying for an exam into the one night before the exams. It is better to spread your studying sessions for an exam over a week (if possible) and to do one subject in the morning and another in the afternoon. In order to make this possible, it is important that you keep up with reading for your lectures and practical classes. Stick with the schedule your teacher hands out or make your own schedule; either way, it is necessary to make sure you do not have to read all stuff the night before your 9 AM final. 


I think I have now mentioned the funniest and best tips. Feel free to comment if you have additional advices and tips, or if you have a funny experience with any of these tips. If you have actually written your statistical formulas or whatever on lyrics to a certain song, I love to read these! I am always fond of song parodies!