Throughout your time in college, you’ll find yourself taking similar classes over and over, usually because they are required for your major. In the midst of all of that, there is usually room for a few electives and picking those is never as simple as it seems. Yes, most students look to take easy electives that will give them the credits they need to graduate, but we shouldn’t forget that these are opportunities to expand our knowledge in different areas and possibly apply this to a future career.

With that in mind, here are a few classes that you may have not thought about but could be helpful and worth your time.

 1. Law and Criminology

Yeah I know, unless you’re majoring in it, law doesn’t sound the most appealing, but a lot of schools offer classes on a variety of different types of law, which is actually really cool and of course, super helpful. The law is something nearly everyone is aware of, but not all of us really know how it works, what it means and what consequences come with it. A class like this can open your eyes to the law-abiding world we live in and some of the restrictions that come with certain industries.

For example, if you are a business major, a business law class will be super beneficial in showing you the ins-and-outs of the industry and will hopefully give you some leeway into what you might encounter in the future. Also, chances are that you’ll get to meet a lot of important figures in the world of law, and there’s never anything bad about doing some networking.

2. Public Speaking

Gives you chills just thinking about it, right? Speaking in front of a large group of people can be quite intimidating, and we’ve all seen incidents where nerves take over and someone freezes up, which is super embarrassing!

Luckily, most universities offer classes that are meant to prepare you for this, because in the real world, it is a super important skill to have. Don’t be scared to take a class like this, especially since mostly everyone in the class is taking it for the same reason. It’s totally worth it, and you really won’t have many other opportunities to practice public speaking before you graduate.

3. Digital Media

This can really be any reporting or journalism class that is offered at your school. I’ve found that classes like this can be super helpful in a variety of circumstances as these classes get you talking to people, doing research and exploring your personal interests even further.

To go with that, they can even be pretty fun, especially a digital class in which you build your own site and post regularly (it’s a great way to create a portfolio that can be shown to future employers!). You also become more experienced in the new wave of websites and social networks and employers love that.

4. Foreign Language

Pick any language! I can’t even tell you how helpful it is to be able to show an employer that you have studied (and hopefully learned a lot about) another language and culture.

No, you don’t need to be an expert Spanish speaker or fluent in Chinese, but the fact that you expanded your horizons by studying another culture shows employers that you’re constantly improving yourself. To better this opportunity even more, try studying abroad in a country that uses the language you take.

5. Marketing

Recently becoming a quite popular area to study, marketing is a very interesting area of study, as every business and industry in the world uses it. It is also a great way to expand your thought process, learn about potential markets and even make some money. Really doesn’t sound that bad, right?

Universities offer a lot of different electives to students, and opportunities like those listed above are only meant to help you, rather than hurt you. Take advantage of these classes before it’s too late!

The post The 5 Types of Classes That’ll Give You A Career Boost (No Matter Which Field You Want to Go Into) appeared first on Job and Internship Advice, Companies to Work for and More | WayUp Blog.

Before I had any idea what the word “love” meant, I loved books. I loved words. I loved the way a book could make me reconsider and reevaluate the world I live in and the people I interact with. I loved the way a book could quicken my heart with its words, bring tears streaming down my cheeks while I, sniffling, turned the next page, and leave me lying awake at night long after I set the book down by my nightstand, with so many thoughts churning in my head.

I still love the way books affect me, though college has shifted my pleasure reading time into a more academic one. Still, many of the books I have read for my classes were just as enjoyable and mind-changing as any of the ones I read before college. I could tell you the books that signaled great changes in my life: How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell, The Giver by Lois Lowry, When All the World is Old by John Rybicki, and now, in college, Louise Glück’s Averno. Each of these books taught me something about challenge, the world, love and loss, and identity, things which I am still mulling over today.

If you’ve been wanting to find some books that can get you thinking or feeling new things, check out the books that changed everything for these college students.

1. The Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

“The Series of Unfortunate Events series by Lemony Snicket forever changed my life. It sounds dumb, but the series is such an introspective and thoughtful series for children that exhibits heavy themes that are important for children to know and for adults to engage with as well. The series is what began my love for reading in the fourth grade and that’s why it changed my life! I truly think I am a better/smarter student because I started at an early age with this series.” – Matthew, Louisiana State University ‘20

I remember reading this series as a kid as well, and I was always fascinated with the mystery of the Baudelaire children’s family history. For a dark but humorous and complex mystery, The Series of Unfortunate Events series is the one to get you thinking about people’s motivations for doing what they do, while also giving you some down time from reading all those academic textbooks for classes.

2. Breaking Clean by Judy Blunt

“The book Breaking Clean by Judy Blunt really helped change my perspective on certain aspects of my life. It helped me realize that I could break out of the norms of the life I was born into and do more. From reading this book, I found that change is inevitable in life. It is just something that you may have to be thrown into sometimes and hope that you swim instead of sink.” – Sarah, Clemson University ‘18

College is such a big change in our lives, it can be scary, intimidating, and daunting to try and tackle alone. But reading about change as a positive thing is helpful during this time in our lives, and it’s comforting to find identification with the fact that life itself is just one change after another.

3. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

“Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand has made me really step back and look at the way governments act and how society reacts to today’s newfound income inequality. It’s made me realize that some people want complete autonomy in everything they do and they don’t believe in sacrificing themselves for anything lesser than its value. Others believe that no one should be left on the streets or be denied “basic human rights.” This book has made me question where I stand on issues like government, capitalism versus socialism, altruism, and society’s perception of what is right and valuable to myself or to others.” – Anna, Presbyterian College ‘18

With all the recent political and social drama happening in our increasingly global world, college gives us a space to explore where we stand on such important and influential issues. Books like Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged can especially give us even more perspectives to consider when making such decisions on personal values.

4. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

“Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. I love that Scarlett will go to any lengths necessary to protect herself and those she loves. I find her strength and perseverance inspirational after everything she had to go through.” – Laurel, Presbyterian College ‘17

For the pick-me-up you need when life and college get tough, Gone With the Wind offers that strong female protagonist who, even when her world is becoming unrecognizable, fights to keep her integrity and changes with the times, showing her as a role model for persevering through difficult challenges.

5. The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity by William P. Young

“The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity by William P. Young changed my life because it gave me a different outlook on how to have a personal relationship with God. It showed me how to have faith when life throws storms my my way. Also, I read it when I was having a hard time in my life and it restored my happiness.” – Jessie, Midlands Technical College ‘19

Some of us college students find comfort not just in the strength of a strong character, but also strength in a certain faith. While The Shack offers a Christian perspective on the relationship one develops with God, it remains a book that at its core stresses the value and meaning of love even when it seems that love is gone.

6. Bluets by Maggie Nelson

“Bluets by Maggie Nelson changed my life. Not only did I read it at a time in which I related to it acutely, but it also pointed me in the direction of the form I’m most interested in studying (lyric essays), and inspired me to write one of my own. Bluets changed the way I thought about form, loss, and the experience of pain.” – Jozie, College of Charleston ‘17

A collection of short lyric essays that read like poems, Bluets explores “personal suffering and the limitations of vision and love, as refracted by the color blue.” For anyone seeking solace and emotional expression through words, especially if you are trying to find some sense of meaning for what lies in the future, this book is one to consider.

7. East of Eden by John Steinbeck

“I graduated a year and a half ago and recently read East of Eden by John Steinbeck. I found it to have a certain profoundness to it, a treatise on human nature. I think what I loved so much about it is that in it Steinbeck examines, without fear, some of the most common human flaws (and virtues) that we see around us or in ourselves. It is not a fantastical story that could never have happened; it sounds an awful lot like a story that was real, that happened to a family in California many years ago. I think the main thing I got out of it was that humanity is beautiful. Terrible sometimes, but beautiful. We have the power to choose between good and evil; we are terrible because we choose evil, and we are beautiful because we choose. And all because “thou mayest.” – Isaac, California State University-Chico ‘15

I recently finished reading East of Eden myself and found some of the most haunting and inspirational and thought-provoking moments and sentences written in that book that I had to take my time thinking about it, because there was so much to unravel. It’s a beautiful book that I highly recommend to anyone who wants a story about a family and what it means to love and be loved.

I’m adding many of these books to my summer reading list, because soon I’ll be out in the “real world” having to look for a job, and books can be both escapes from and guides to this bustling, creative, uncertain but exciting world we live in. There is always something to be said of humanity in every book we read. Especially in college, when we’re trying to figure out who we are and why we do what we do, reading books can give us that much more insight into who we can be and what we can do in the world.

The post 7 College Students Reveal the Book That Changed How They Thought About Everything appeared first on Job and Internship Advice, Companies to Work for and More | WayUp Blog.

As a college student and a creative entrepreneur, I am always on the lookout for books and articles all about getting there. I think reading books has been one of the best motivators for me when I feel stuck in my work on my website, my articles for WayUp or my work on Her Track.

If you’re a fellow college student with big dreams and goals for the future, my best tip to get motivated or inspired is to pick up one of these fantastic books!

1. #GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso

Can I just say that I am obsessed with this book?  Don’t let the title scare you; this book is for everyone, not just women. Sophia Amoruso is very blunt and comical, and she talks about everything that allowed her to get her clothing empire, Nasty Gal, off the ground with no loans or investors whatsoever. Sophia Amoruso emphasizes the idea that a person must earn his or her success and be very smart with their finances. She is also very assertive about her point of maintaining the company values herself, not just expecting them for others.

2. You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life by Jen Sincero

This book is often compared to #GIRLBOSS in its comical and blunt tone; in fact, it ‘s described as a “verbal meat cleaver” in it’s Google profile. Jen Sincero is very relatable and displays a bit of that teen angst that millennials tend to enjoy. If you’re up for some comical advice on being a “badass” (excuse my language), pick up this book.

3. Becoming the Boss: New Rules for the Next Generation of Leaders by Lindsey Pollak

I love the title of this book! I truly believe that business does run differently nowadays. As millennials who don’t have a lot of respect in the professional world due to stereotyping, the ways in which to “become the boss,” so to speak, have changed. Lindsey Pollak begins with her story of “becoming the boss,” making her a very relatable writer. She provides clearly defined rules and actions for millennial leaders to follow through with.  

4. Do Over: Rescue Monday, Reinvent Your Work, and Never Get Stuck by John Acuff

This is an excellent book for college students, especially those who feel they are stuck in the wrong career path and aren’t sure where to go. John Acuff talks all about doing it over and reinventing your work rather than throwing it away. Acuff has said that he took 16 years to write this book, and the long wait doesn’t disappoint. If you need to reset and update, this book will help you do it.

5. Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind by Jocelyn K. Glei

This book is seriously amazing! I truly believe that routine is a life changer. Glei talks about various well known people who feel the same way such as Woody Allen, Twyla Tharp, and Ross Bleckner. Glei covers how to lay down a routine and get into your groove. She talks about every possible aspect of a routine, from specific morning routines to utilizing certain tasks such as meditation. If you want a step by step for your day to day, this book is your best bet!

What are your favorite books to encourage leadership, creativity and learning? Have you read any of these? Let us know in the comments below!

The post The 5 Best Books for Young People with Gigantic Dreams appeared first on Job and Internship Advice, Companies to Work for and More | WayUp Blog.