00:01
Jeanine Ikekhua
The views and opinions expressed during eye on the triangle do not represent wknc or NC State student media. Your dial is currently tuned into eye on the triangle on wknc 88.1 fm hd1. Thanks for listening. College is Extremely Hard One of the things that makes college so hard is that during this time, college students are supposed to figure out what career path they want to embark on. This is an extremely difficult decision. So therefore I decided to enlist Director Marcy Bullock to help students out. Director Marcy Bullock is the Director of the Professional Development in the Career development center at NC State. She also teaches USC 202, which is a Career Identity class, and she also teaches USC 401, which focuses on helping college graduates transition out of the college life.
01:05
Jeanine Ikekhua
Director Bullock is also the host of a podcast called PAC Career Chats that we will talk about later in this podcast. In this interview, we speak specifically about the specific tools that college students need to find their career path.
01:20
Jeanine Ikekhua
Thank you for coming to Eye on the triangle. Ms. Marcy Bullock. We are so excited to have you.
01:26
Marcy Bullock
Thank you for having me, Jeanine. It's great to be here.
01:30
Jeanine Ikekhua
So we are going to talk about essentially trying to figure out what career path you want to pursue. This is a very common topic and common question amongst college students because, well, we're all at college trying to figure out what major we want to major in, trying to figure out what types of jobs we want to get. So it's nice that you are able to come here and talk to us about that.
01:52
Marcy Bullock
Wow. I'm happy to be here. What an honor.
01:56
Jeanine Ikekhua
So my first question is, well, obviously like the overarching big question is, how do I figure out what career path I want to pursue?
02:05
Marcy Bullock
I love that question. What a great place to dive in. Because literally you've been asked that question probably since the time you could talk like, what are you going to be when you grow up? And that question has continued to evolve all the way till when? Now you're in college and you have to select this major and you feel all this pressure to know what you'll be doing forever. So I'm going to throw it back to you for a second and just say, what was the first thing you can remember you wanted to be when you grew up? Jenny, just to use this as an example.
02:38
Jeanine Ikekhua
No, you're good. I wanted to be a businesswoman.
02:41
Marcy Bullock
A businesswoman. Love it. And are you thinking about studying business now?
02:47
Jeanine Ikekhua
Absolutely not.
02:50
Marcy Bullock
So when I was growing up, I wanted to be Olivia Newton John in Greece, and that was A long time ago, if you've ever seen the musical Grease. And my life has changed as well. So I believe that we get these nudges. And I love to use that example to students when they're thinking about how do I pick this career? And it's almost like there's hints about what you should be doing in the future. So for me, I got this nudge that I love to perform. I love to be in front of people. When, when I was a young child, I guess, like, we'd be explaining games to new kids on the block and everyone would talk over each other and there'd be a lot of confusion on the new kids face, kind of like deer in headlights.
03:35
Marcy Bullock
And finally someone would say, shut up and let Marcy explain it. So I got this nudge that I was good at explaining things when I was on the soccer team when I was your age in college, I was the captain at UC San Diego. I got this nudge that I loved bossing people around, that I loved winning, that I loved helping people. People reach their potential. And actually, I do all of those things now. I just didn't know what it would be when I was an adult person. And also for you, it's interesting, new jobs are starting all the time. Like the CEO of Infosys is named Ravi Kumar, and He recently predicted 133 million new jobs in one year. That's by 2022. So I almost want to say, take the pressure valve off. Don't worry about the job.
04:25
Marcy Bullock
Focus more on who you are, what energizes you. And look at how you can monetize that, how you can generate revenue so that you can put food on the table that ties in your interests, your skills, what you're good at, as well as what's important to you and your values. So I know you said you started with businesswoman. What are you heading towards now?
04:51
Jeanine Ikekhua
I don't know, like the exact. Well, I want to be a podcaster. That's what I want to be.
04:57
Marcy Bullock
Well, perfect. You're doing this right now. I mean, you're interviewing me. And podcasters can make a lot of money. And so you've changed from businesswoman, but you haven't really changed because that is a businesswoman. You know, I mean, you're going to be an entrepreneur. You're going to have your own company, and you're going to find sponsors and have interesting conversations with people that I can't wait to listen to your podcast whenever that comes out. I know you're already at the radio Station. So you're getting great experience. But in addition, the Career Development center has some programs to assist students, to give them some structure, to kind of figure out who they are. And one of them is called Career Identity Program.
05:41
Marcy Bullock
And I'm really proud of my team for the Career Identity Program because we have been recognized nationally and actually even internationally for this program. So universities around the country are trying to copy us. And what we do is we start with first year students from the summer before they start college. We did a zoom meeting with them because they could just tune in wherever they lived. And we started these conversations and then we have a whole safety net that follows them throughout their first semester of college with different workshops and coaching sessions. And students can go right to the Career Development center webpage and enroll in Career Identity Program. It only takes nine hours for the whole semester, or you can do it in two semesters. And through that program you get this certificate and you'll get a pin.
06:33
Marcy Bullock
And it's just a special thing that helps you find your direction.
06:39
Jeanine Ikekhua
That's good. What are some of the activities that students would be doing in the Career Identity Program?
06:45
Marcy Bullock
Yeah, that's a great question. I actually just did one last night. So I was over at the well, rec center and I had group of students and we did the values activity. So one thing we do is we give you a stack of cards. Instead of having, you know, hearts and spades and clubs and diamonds, we have values listed on this deck of cards. And with each value, it might say something like family. And then there's a definition. It might say something like challenge, integrity, money, helping society. And there's a series of 30 plus values. And students basically open them up, put them all out on the table. It's a really interactive activity. And they start to rank their values. And that is great because then we just talk about it and we say, how are we living our values?
07:40
Marcy Bullock
How do our values fit in with the career choices that we make? And we just love that activity. And I always use the house analogy for values. I say, if you're building a house, there's a foundation. You have to have it or else you can't live in your house. And that's just like a foundational value. It is your deal breaker. You will not negotiate a foundational value. It holds up your life. Then you have the framing and drywall of the house. Those are your core values. That's second most important. And then you have your minor values, which are like the furniture and the bed. Well, you could live without that, but it makes your life really nice. So we have all those different kinds of values that we help students identify in that activity.
08:23
Jeanine Ikekhua
That's really cool though. By the end of the program, will students know for sure what career they want to pursue or will they just have a better sense?
08:33
Marcy Bullock
Well, you know what, it's so hard to answer that question. Some students that are alumni have said, I definitely learned a lot about myself. I mean, I just never took the time to do these activities. It's like I spent more time planning spring break than life after college. So we get, I mean, our feedback is amazing when it comes to, would you recommend this program to a friend? But can we guarantee that you'll know what you're going to be doing? No, because life will change, things will be thrown at you, but I think you'll have the skills you need to be able to pivot and move in the direction that's right for you.
09:11
Jeanine Ikekhua
Yeah. Outside of the career identity program, like what can people do on their own to try to sort of just figure out what career like they want to pursue?
09:22
Marcy Bullock
Yeah. And actually they can do this on their own. Interestingly enough, we offer it virtually so they could just self pace through the whole program or they could do hybrid if they want to have some in person, or they could do all in person if they don't want to do a program like that. I recommend just in a regular week of life, you pay attention to what is getting you excited, what lights you up, and you pay attention to what drains you, what sucks all of the energy out. And honestly, if you do that in a week of life and you write it down, it could be something as simple as I organized my closet, I explained how to tile the floor to my roommate. And you start digging into that, you see some examples of how you might want to spend your life.
10:11
Marcy Bullock
And you spend a third of your waking hours in your life, in your career. So I like that activity. It's called the strong weak plan. In other words, you write down what strengthens you and you write down what weakens you. And I recommend you talk to your career coach about that. Everyone is assigned a person depending on their college. Which college are you in?
10:35
Jeanine Ikekhua
Humanities and social science.
10:37
Marcy Bullock
Wonderful. So your assigned person is Sarah Wilde. And everyone who has a college, if you're in Sciences, West, Wade, if you're in Engineering, Glenda Darrell. Every college has one. And I would recommend talking to that person. Just setting up an appointment on EPAC, can just Google EPAC on the NC State webpage and you can have a 30 minute conversation and set up a strategy for picking your major and picking your career.
11:05
Jeanine Ikekhua
Where do you find your college career advisor? Is it like on a website somewhere?
11:09
Marcy Bullock
Yeah, it's absolutely on the Career Development center website when you click on about us and we have some offices, different colleges and we link to all of those. For example, if you're in College of Ag and Life Sciences you have Sarah Lane and she's over in Patterson Hall. If you have Textiles, you have Jeff Sakharov and he's over on Centennial. So it's really easy to find that information. And again, if you just log into epac, if you just remember to google that, it will actually show your person and the times they have open. So it's super easy. Plus we also have hours now where we're available in the new academic Success center and that's over in the Hill Library. It just opened during COVID so a lot of students haven't even visited it yet. But it's super nice.
12:00
Marcy Bullock
And if you go over to the Hill Library you can just walk right in. And on Tuesdays 1 to 4, there's drop ins and Thursdays 9 to 12 there's drop ins for the career counseling staff.
12:15
Jeanine Ikekhua
We're going to go ahead and address some fears, some common fears that I personally have. I think a lot of college students have. If I just like finding a career because it is a very stressful thing to do and it can be a lot of times. So my best, my first fear is what if I don't figure out what career path I want to choose?
12:37
Marcy Bullock
Yeah, that's scary, isn't it? I think that it's wonderful that you used what I call the F bomb. And some people say the F bomb is a different four letter F word. But honestly I think fear is what holds people back the most. And also fear of failing. Like what if I choose the wrong thing and I'm not good at it? So fail is my other F bomb. And I honestly think it's identifying it and feeling it feel is a good F bomb. Just acknowledge it. Acknowledge that this is super scary. That we're in a really hard time right now with a global pandemic that everything is uncertain, that nothing is guaranteed. And then be brave and walk through it and you will become stronger through every challenge that you face, every struggle you overcome.
13:30
Marcy Bullock
I don't know anybody that's lived an interesting life that hasn't overcome some really hard struggles. It strengthens who you are and it defines who you are. So talking to your fears with your career counselor can really help you work through it and realize that the worst case scenario if you don't pick, you'll pick something. But what if you don't pick the right thing? Is that you'll change. And people change on average six times in their life. When my daughter went to NC State, she started in engineering. Two weeks later she texted me, said mom, how quickly can I change? Everyone in this college is a nerdy boy. And she was not nerdy or a boy. So she ended up switching. She now works at Google, you might have heard of it. I'm super proud mommy.
14:17
Marcy Bullock
And honestly like that job didn't exist when she was in college. She didn't know that she would be doing what she's doing now. User experience researcher. I don't even think at that time that title was used. So that can reassure you and just help you take a deep breath and say go one day at a time, friend.
14:37
Jeanine Ikekhua
Yes, definitely. One day at a time. The next fear is at what point in college should I be completely sure of what career path I want to pursue?
14:48
Marcy Bullock
I don't think you're ever completely sure. And I like your question. It's so cut and dry. Like I just want the answer. You know, it's like a fortune cookie. I open it, I'm good to go. But life throws you so many different things that you won't expect. I would love it if by your sophomore year you had a major you talked to someone over in academic advising because they're wonderful to help you look at your eight semester plan. I would love it if by your junior year you had an internship or a co op, some kind of experiential education because that gets you test the waters out and all of those things help you to feel more confident to go to some career fairs. Maybe sophomore and junior year. Those are going on in this current time virtually.
15:41
Marcy Bullock
I would love it if you had an opportunity to update your Resume and your LinkedIn profile by your junior year. That way by senior year you might know what your first job's going to be. And that's great. Do your first job, try it. And it could be a springboard to learn about where you want to go next.
15:59
Jeanine Ikekhua
Yeah, that's really good advice. My next fear is, well, this is a question for you actually, but what are some other like common fears that people have about like finding career paths that you've encountered in your career?
16:13
Marcy Bullock
Yeah. Oh my goodness, it is super scary from the standpoint of just like I know I'm going to be spending so much time in this job. What if I hate it? That's a big fear. And what if I don't like my coworkers and I'm miserable? And I always tell people, then change because you spend more waking hours with the people at work than your loved ones. So it's kind of important to pick a group of people that you feel comfortable around and that, you know, you can enj. I don't think that life should be horrible. So I think some fears are, what if the job market changes? What if I am not offered the perfect thing when I first graduate? And I'll say, yeah, you probably won't be in your dream job initially.
17:00
Marcy Bullock
You might have to start in something that will let you pay your dues a little bit and move up. But if you do it so well, your supervisor will notice if every task they give you go above and beyond, you're quickly going to be promoted. I just had an alum in my class yesterday, Cecily Sonner, and she was a TA of mine. I met her freshman year and she's lived in New York, came back to Raleigh, and she had this interesting thing that she told my class, which was, you know, recently she said, I got promoted and it was because I stood out. I was taking so much initiative. I would post things on LinkedIn about what's happening in my industry and my boss noticed it and now gave me more responsibility.
17:46
Marcy Bullock
So I think a lot of the fears you have can be related to will I be happy? And a lot of that has to do with taking some risks, trying things out, learning from it, and then using that knowledge to move forward and just not be feeling like you're locked in. There's this gig economy now where you could be a lawyer and a yoga instructor. So you've got your kind of passion project over here, you've got your money making thing over here. So there's lots of opportunities to find what will really be reinforcing for you.
18:21
Jeanine Ikekhua
You have a podcast called wolfpack Career Chats. Can you please talk about that just a little bit more?
18:28
Marcy Bullock
Wolfpack Career Chats, yes. Our podcast is... It's about alumni who have overcome struggle. And that actually addresses your question about FE too, because then you realize that I'm not the only one. And we've had over 20,000 students listen to Wolfpack Career Chats. You can find it on whichever podcast app you use. Spotify over 100 episodes. And many of our conversations are really juicy because it gets into the reality of life. Of finding out that things don't always go the way that you think that they're going to go and that you can come out stronger on the other side. We also do some how to in Wolfpack career chats, like how to do a career fair, how to do a resume, what questions to ask in an interview. So I encourage all your listeners to subscribe.
19:19
Jeanine Ikekhua
That's all the questions that I have for you. Thank you so much for coming to Eye on the Triangle.
19:24
Marcy Bullock
Thank you for having me. I enjoyed our conversation. And go Wolf Pack!
19:29
Jeanine Ikekhua
The music in this episode has been North Oakland Ecstasy by Squad of Bee, licensed under the YouTube audio library. This has been Jeanine Ikekhua for WKNC Radio. Thank you for listening today's episode. You can listen to more episodes at wknc.org/podcast and you can also tune in every Sunday at 6pm to hear new episodes from Eye on the Triangle.