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April 3rd, 2014

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Its National Financial Capability Month!

Sound like a boring celebration to be having? Think again!

Consider what saving enough money to pay off your student loans could mean. Could you make the downpayment on a car next year?

How will you know unless you have to tools to take control of your finances?
CollegeCFO has you covered there. 

We just rounded up a selection of our favorite personal finance resources to help you figure out everything from student loans to budgeting.

Browse through our brand new library and take control of your finances!

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March 29th, 2014

From Stephanie, Social Media Specialist

• If you are applying for a creative role ditch the traditional resume format and use tools like http://vizualize.me or http://resumup.com/ to create an infographic about yourself.
• With 77% of employers Googling you, why not use that as an advantage? Create a landing page that will make you stand out from your competition, with the additional benefit of having more control over what is found out about you on the Internet.

From Val: Design Studies Student,

• It should be appealing to the eye so it should be clean and readable.
• Use a grid to align all the information to give it an organized look.
• If you are looking for a job in your major, list the classes you took so they can see the relevant information you learned.
• Too much type condensed together will not look good and will get the eye tired.
• Only use one font and play with the different options of Bold, Italic and Regular. I would only use two colors. Neutral tones like gray will make it elegant.

From Charlotte: Economics Student,

• Use as many numbers as possible to describe your achievements. Numbers help quantify the impact of what you have done. This could be the number of people that attended an event you organized etc.
• Always list experiences within the sections from most to least recent. The more recent and relevant experiences should typically have more bullet points and information. As you get further away from high school, you will want to reduce the amount of high school activities on your resume.
• Use strong and varied action verbs to explain what you did with each role. Repeating boring verbs such as “managed” over and over does not give an accurate portrayal of what you actually did.

• Keeping consistency throughout your resume. The same font and font size are key to consistency.

• A resume should be like an advertisement of you and your accomplishments. Make yourself look great by placing all of your impressive skills and experiences where they can be easily seen. (list experiences from most relevant to least?)
• Avoid all grammar and spelling errors, as well as any inconsistent formatting.
• One full page is the perfect length.

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March 19th, 2014

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What’s the real gender difference in salary? Georgetown University’s Study, “What’s It Worth? The Economic Value of College Majors”, can now tell you exactly how much you can expect to earn annually based on your gender. They provide statistics about the median expected salaries for students receiving Bachelor’s and Graduate degrees, broken down by gender, race, ethnicity, percentile and industry. Check out their major findings here.

While we were reading this report, we found some interesting facts:

In EVERY category of college majors, male students can expect to earn more than female students.

The largest disparity is in the Social Sciences with a difference in median earnings of$18,000. This is followed closely by Physical Science majors ($17,000 difference), Business ($16,000 difference), Agriculture, Industrial Arts and Law ($15,000) difference.

CollegeCFO wants to take a step towards closing that gap by providing the same personal finance education for both men and women. No matter what you expect to earn in your future job, we want to give you the confidence to take control of your finances! With increased confidence of women (and the increased understanding by men about confident women), this gap will close! Let’s start here with personal finance.

If you want to learn more about other findings made by the Georgetown University Study, especially the difference a Master’s degree could make to your future salary,check out our post on collegecfo.org.

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February 20th, 2014

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3 Essential Facts About Financial Literacy

1. Wrong decisions about financial literacy can lead to bankruptcy. Making mistakes can be so easy, especially in personal finance. Your money is valuable. Don’t get caught making costly avoidable errors.
2. Financial literacy among college students hasn’t improved. Don’t contribute to the statistic. Study up! CollegeCFO has plenty of great resources to find out about personal finance. If we’re missing something that would be helpful to you, let us know!
3. Does your school offer a personal finance class? You should find out! If it does, you should take it. Your financially stable future self will thank you. But if your school is one of the hundreds of colleges that don’t offer personal finance classes, look online. Free online courses are everywhere (soon to be even at CollegeCFO).

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February 13th, 2014

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We hear you! With your crazy schedule of lectures, exams, and social life, its hard to keep it all together – especially when it comes to thinking about getting a job or internship. Our team of interns understands completely! They’re in the same boat as you, preparing for interviews at colleges around the country. They’ve pooled their “Favorite Tips for Successful Interviewing” to help you get a jump on the competition. 

1. Wear something you feel comfortable in. How you dress is how you present yourself. You are essentially the ‘logo’ of your brand. (Stilettos or dirty jeans should NOT be your first impression. You’re smart and successful, show that off instead!)
2. Be prepared. Research everything about the company and get a full understanding of what they represent before you go into the interview.  If you show them you know a lot about the company, the interviewer will see you as a dedicated employee who shows great interest for the position.
3. Appearance is key. Never show up to an interview in casual clothes. Wear professional clothing no matter what, even if the interview says casual. Depending on the interview, you can dress in either business casual or business formal… And remember to smile!
4. Ask questions. At the end of the interview when interviewer says ”Do you have any questions?” always ask! It shows you have an interest in their business.  If you don’t have a question it will seem as if you don’t really care for the job. However, avoid questions like “how much will i get paid” or “what are the benefit packages you offer.” Interviewers hate these questions and think that all you care about is the money/benefits and not the company.
5. Practice practice practice. (I had my dad interview me over the phone from another room.)
6. Don’t be afraid to sell yourself! Also, energy and interest win the day!
7. Have a 90 second “elevator pitch” about your background and how your background has brought you to the job you are currently interviewing for.
8. Know as much background on the company as possible. For example, I like to look at the 10K, 10Q, how much their stock is going for, and their market cap. I also use this website called hoovers.com to get a general summary of the company and a list of their competitors.
9. Words count! Say please and thank you at every possible point and always send a handwritten thank you note to everyone, even the assistant who helped you set up the meeting. If your handwriting is terrible, get a friend to help. First impressions matter!
10. Confused about which fork to use? It’s all going great. You’ve had your third interview and they LOVE you so much that the CEO is taking you out to a dinner. Wow! BUT a utensil blunder will make her hesitate to put you in front of their best clients. Here goes: Work from the outside in. The salad fork is smaller and always placed to the left of your dinner fork. A dessert fork is either brought separately or at the top of the plate. Don’t use that one for the salad. And when you are through with your salad, place the fork at a diagonal at the top of your plate which will indicate to the waiter the plate can be removed. (Don’t forget to hold the fork towards the END, not near the top. Don’t grip too hard.) The most important tip of them all: When in doubt, wait patiently and follow the lead of the most senior person at the table.