Megan Walz Blog

Communication Is Key With the impending graduation date looming over us, we approach the point where we need to start acting like the adults we are becoming. One key skill adults learn is the art of good and effective communication. Gone are the days where we were children and could cry or pitch a fit in an act to get what we wanted. No, now we have to use our words and be mature. Communication is not taught through text books or lectures, but rather through usage and practice.  Coming into college, I had no sense of public speaking. I would get nervous standing in front of a class to present a project. After taking an "Intro to Public Speaking" class, I learned some effective skills that I could use and practice however the real skill I gained from this class was the confidence in myself and what I was talking about to no longer be nervous.This skill became very useful in the upper level classes I had to take for my major. In fact, one of my teachers actually co...

First Is the Worst, Second is {Sometimes} the Best The hardest part about growing up and going through college is knowing that at the end of those 4 years you need to find a job. No one tells you how nor do they tell you what to write down as your major. For me, I went through at least 5 things I wanted as my major starting with Biomedical Engineering followed by General Business, Marketing Analytics, Sports Marketing, and now I landed into essentially a consulting role in the auto industry. My choices in what I wanted to do varied vastly during my late high school and entire college career. Many people put too much stress onto finding and picking a major that they feel will be "the one" for them. Well, let me tell you that rarely is there ever a "one" major for anyone.  Going through sorority recruitment, I often talked to young freshmen girls who were either "I am majoring in pre-med" (which isn't a real thing) or those who were like me when...

Money Matters When leaving for college, the first thing you think of is the fact that you are now a full-blown “adult” regardless of how untrue that really is. A hard lesson learned when I became an independent adult was the true value of budgeting. In high school, the money I earned didn’t go into a savings account but rather straight to whatever outfit I wanted or activity I wanted to attend. I never learned the true value of saving my money for a rainy day because I never envisioned that rainy day to ever actually happen. My parents have always instilled a sense of responsibility to my siblings and me, especially when it came to paying for things that were not priorities. Thus, when I made the decision to join a sorority it became my financial responsibility to pay for the hefty dues that came along with it. Sadly, after frivolously spending my money in high school I had close to no money in the bank. I quickly came to understand what it felt to actually be a poor college s...

Roommates Won't Always Be Friends My college career has been riddled with plenty of unsuccessful roommate situations beginning freshman year and ending with my senior year. I am all about hitting the grindstone when it comes to studying for classes as a college degree will be your best tool when it comes to hitting the job market. However, my freshman year roommate hit the grindstone a little too hard and insisted the room be silent all the time with no visitors. Unfortunately, this was not my ideal living situation. However, when it comes to living with roommates, compromising is of upmost importance. Luckily she moved out second semester to another room down the hall and I was left with a room all to myself. Lesson learned from roommate 1: don't rock the boat too much because things will work out in the end.  When my sophomore year began, I decided to live in my sorority house. With that living situation came 78 roommates, 4 of which lived in my individual room. Livi...

Create Your Own Opportunities Being in college comes with the ultimate goal of finding a job. Most people, like me, also need to land an internship opportunity during their college career in order to achieve their coveted full time job opportunity upon graduation. One tough lesson to learn with all of this stress looming over my head was that these jobs were not the type where you can simply apply online and attach a tiny resume and hear a call back that you got the job like it was when I got my first few part time jobs in high school. No, these jobs required effort, a padded resume, and the art of networking. When I had first begun applying for internships the summer before my junior year, I was not the least bit of a "young professional". I had no clue what I was doing. I applied like crazy to jobs I found through the UGA Career Center website, LinkedIn, and all of the other job websites that existed. I spammed employers with my {barely there} resume in the hope th...

Cherish The Time You Have With Family In my family I am the oldest of three kids- my younger sister is 3 years younger than me and my younger brother is 8 years younger. When growing up, as is customary with the oldest child, I was always breaking down barriers with my parents that my siblings were then able to waltz on through such as later bed times and phone privileges. I had always felt like my parents were holding me back and not allowing me to grow up and be the "adult" I thought I was. When it came to high school (especially my senior year) fights became more prevalent and often ended with me yelling "I can't wait to leave this place and not have to be here with you" to my parents. At the time, I had no other way I could express my growing hostility towards them and I had felt like I deserved to be treated more like an adult with less restrictions and rules than my siblings.  Sadly, with all the fighting and hostility in the house I had grown...