Unleash your creativity to stand out among the crowd - Phi Chi Theta

MONEY | MATTERSCAREER | MOVESafter you finish—unless you don’t mind having twopayments instead of one for the next 10 years.Have your loans forgiven. Instead of repaying themthe hard way, there are many professions that offerstudent loan forgiveness including teaching or workingas a public defender.Communicate with your lenders if you are unableto pay as agreed. As a loan officer, I recommend thisfor any other type of debt. Let lenders know that youcannot pay as agreed and work out a plan with them.For student loans, this may include economic hardshipdeferment or forbearance: reducing or suspendingpayments due to unemployment or low income. Sometimesthe repayment period can be increased to 20 or25 years. Another option is income-based repayment,so your payment never exceeds a certain percentageof your income and it naturally increases over time(hopefully). These plans can also include student loanforgiveness after 25 years of payments are made. However,do not make the decision to modify paymentslightly. Not paying as agreed can have adverse consequencesfor your credit score and has the potentialmake lenders less willing to lend to you in the future.14In short, I recommend going with the advice givenin the beginning. Do whatever you can to keep fromincurring the loans in the first place. If you must incurstudent loans, manage them as much as possible andtry to keep them as small as possible. If all else fails andthey become unmanageable, talk with the lender. Studentloans are exempt from bankruptcy, so once theyare there, they are very difficult to get rid of any wayother than paying them off.For more information about federal student loans andrepayment plans, please visit: https://www.dl.ed.gov/borrower/BorrowerWelcomePage.jsp#main_content_starts_hereMelissa (“Missy”) Bolin (Gamma Iota) is currentlypresident of the Denver alumni. She has a Bachelorsdegree in International Business and a Master of Sciencein Finance. She is the Graduate Advisor for the GoldenKey International Honor Society. Professionally, she isa loan officer of a credit union in Boulder, CO. She wasa former winner of the Naomi L. Satterfield MemorialScholarship.Images: scottchan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net‘Tis the Season of Job SearchingWith the holiday season upon us andthe uncertainty of our economy,many will be searching for a job.Here are three quick tips that hopefullybring you some holiday motivationto find your next job:Go for your dream job.Try to target at least five to seven dream companiesthat you want to work for. The next step is to thoroughlyresearch your dream companies with criteriabeing location, company history, current projects andcompany culture. Keep a daily or weekly log of new jobopenings or developments and apply on their websitefor future openings. Many companies keep databasesof résumés to search when filling positions, but itdoesn’t mean that you should apply once and forgetabout it. You should monitor each dream company ona regular basis for developments.Get on the social bandwagon.Online tools can be helpful with your job searchstrategy. I can’t count the number of times that someonehas told me that they think Twitter is stupid andhas no real use. On the contrary, Twitter can be veryuseful. I follow a select number of recruiters and mydream companies via my Twitter account. Most often,employers and recruiters will list open positions thathaven’t been posted online except for Twitter. Tweet-MyJOBS (www.tweetmyjobs.com), aimed at Twittermembers, provides instant notification of job openingsvia text messages.LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) is another great andsometimes an underappreciated online tool. LinkedInhelps you manage your professional identity andengage with industry professionals. Some may say thatit’s no more than an online résumé. This is where I disagree.It’s much more. It allows you to network withincareer-specific contacts and networking groups. Itconnects you with industry professionals that you mayhave never crossed paths with. It also is a great startingpoint to find out about local and regional networkingevents.Step out and be social.There is no doubt that most of your job search willtake place online or using your computer, but that isjust half the battle in finding your next job. You needto network. No, I don’t mean social networking. I’mtalking about networking within your peers. There aremany opportunities out there to network and almostone event every day of the week. Networking eventssuch as industry conferences, informal gatherings,mixers and church events are good sources of potentialjob contacts and jobs. Networking is crucial to jobsearch success and to job longevity.Job search alert.Global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmaswants to help job seekers overcome the struggle oflong-term unemployment. The firm’s 26th annual twodaynational job search call-in takes place on December27 and 28, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (CST). The call-innumber is (312) 422-5010. Job seekers can get moreinformation about the call-in at firm’s website (www.challengergray.com) and blog (challengeratwork.wordpress.com).15