2018 MATC Scholars Program: Mr. Spencer Thompson

Mid-America Transportation Center Author

05/22/2019 Added

2 Plays

Description

Mr. Spencer Thompson, the Recruitment Coordinator for the College of Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, discusses how to "Build Your Education Degree".

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[00:00:06.656]This is going to be from Mr. Spencer Thompson.
[00:00:08.540]He is the recruiting coordinator for the College of
[00:00:11.930]Engineering and he's going to talk to you a little bit about
[00:00:14.440]building, building the degree. I think that's the title.
[00:00:18.310]Okay, so Spencer take it away up there.
[00:00:21.361]How are you guys doing?
[00:00:22.460]Good.
[00:00:24.124](mumbles)
[00:00:25.807]All right.
[00:00:27.347]What did you guys do this morning?
[00:00:28.570]Woke up.
[00:00:29.619]Woke up, okay.
[00:00:30.611](laughter)
[00:00:31.851]You're like me. It's how you bond.
[00:00:34.739]That it is.
[00:00:36.554](laughs) So I'm not going to try
[00:00:37.510]and say too many things that Dale talked about too,
[00:00:40.217]but my main thing is to kind of go over
[00:00:42.750]the majors that you'er interested in and how to
[00:00:44.990]transfer them over to the University,
[00:00:47.140]and kind of how that looks.
[00:00:48.990]Were there some people here that were interested
[00:00:50.990]in an engineering major? That's really what I cover.
[00:00:55.823]Perfect this is great.
[00:00:57.733](mumbles)
[00:00:58.780]That's all right. I did my undergrad here, and
[00:01:01.520]I did my master's here actually in
[00:01:03.430]higher education administration.
[00:01:05.140]And I did a lot of my focus on transfer students.
[00:01:09.370]So I have fairly a sense of background in working
[00:01:12.260]with you guys, and trying to make it as seamless as possible
[00:01:15.500]to kind of transfer over to the majors
[00:01:17.475]that you're interested in, and just really
[00:01:18.860]make sure your not wasting time and money
[00:01:21.340]because that is the biggest thing.
[00:01:23.500]That's the biggest type of pitfall with transfer students
[00:01:26.600]because transferring especially from like a
[00:01:29.388]community college to a big university, it takes a lot of
[00:01:32.630]communication. It really does.
[00:01:35.353]How many of you guys are like over two years with
[00:01:38.320]community college classes?
[00:01:40.510]Maybe I should do credits.
[00:01:41.343]Say like over forty credits earned.
[00:01:44.750]Or around--You have over forty?
[00:01:46.980]Thirty, anyone around the thirty range?
[00:01:50.180]Thirty, twenty.
[00:01:53.285](mumbles)
[00:01:55.227]Maybe twelve fifteen range, kinda around those?
[00:01:57.610]So were just starting out some of those too,
[00:01:59.160]which is good.
[00:02:00.260]Get a few more classes.
[00:02:02.470]So the main thing, who knows here exactly
[00:02:04.930]what major they would like to go into?
[00:02:07.035]Hopefully some of you guys have a pretty good idea.
[00:02:08.840]What do you want to go into?
[00:02:10.306][Female Audience Member] I'm going into
[00:02:11.356]environmental engineering and
[00:02:12.832](mumbles)
[00:02:18.131]Okay, so pay attention.
[00:02:20.083]That's awesome; That will be good for a lot of those
[00:02:21.745]transfer credits.
[00:02:22.578]And then did you say you're (mumbles)?
[00:02:24.346][Female Audience Member] Yeah, I'm in business management--
[00:02:25.875](coughing drowns out speaker)
[00:02:26.914]Okay.
[00:02:27.790]So anyone else?
[00:02:29.305][Male Audience Member] (mumbles)
[00:02:33.794]You're a semester in right now in community college.
[00:02:35.586]Okay, so one of the main things.
[00:02:38.150]Hopefully you guys have kind of started this process
[00:02:41.140]You've got the four-year institutions that you're going
[00:02:43.580]to be wanting to transfer to.
[00:02:44.417]And you get those bachelor's degrees.
[00:02:45.920]You know, even if it's a list of two or three,
[00:02:47.560]you're not really quite sure which one you may want
[00:02:48.810]to do just yet.
[00:02:50.440]And make sure you start contacting those main people
[00:02:53.000]for your specific programs.
[00:02:55.270]You can co- co-minor, accounting minor, everything.
[00:02:58.920]You should have one contact person that's either an advisor
[00:03:01.600]or student coordinator like me.
[00:03:04.063]And that should be your main contact.
[00:03:05.497]And you should be contacting them every single semester.
[00:03:08.610]You should be saying, "Hey, these are the classes that
[00:03:11.007]"I'm signing up for.
[00:03:12.087]"I just want you to double check and make sure that
[00:03:14.127]"these are going to transfer. I'm not spending the money
[00:03:17.127]"I don't have to, or in classes that don't transfer."
[00:03:20.650]And it needs to be an every semester thing.
[00:03:22.960]Does that kind of make sense?
[00:03:24.799]'Cause I've worked with so many transfer students
[00:03:26.560]that are two years in.
[00:03:28.220]You know they come in with 50 credits,
[00:03:30.540]and they're like, "Hey, I'm going to be doing
[00:03:32.087]"an engineering major now."
[00:03:33.330]And I'm like, "Okay, only 12 of your credits transfer
[00:03:36.500]into our program."
[00:03:37.960]And they're like, "Uh-oh. So I pretty much have to do
[00:03:40.207]"all four years again."
[00:03:41.584]And I'm like, "Yeah."
[00:03:42.550]That's 'cause they did not come and talk to me
[00:03:44.536]as soon as their first semester in community college.
[00:03:48.520]And with engineering, honestly,
[00:03:49.980]engineering is really specific.
[00:03:51.560]There's only like five elective classes in this major.
[00:03:53.960]There's no English classes and foreign language.
[00:03:56.270]It's all math and science.
[00:03:58.720]You know if you're all like business administration,
[00:04:00.920]and then you're getting a bunch of minors and stuff,
[00:04:03.000]you guys have a lot more room for those elective classes.
[00:04:05.580]But you still want to make sure that you're
[00:04:07.030]hitting every one and not doubling up on
[00:04:09.479]some that won't transfer.
[00:04:12.127]Does that kind of make sense?
[00:04:12.960]That is the biggest thing and the biggest pitfall
[00:04:14.600]that I find for transfer students is they don't
[00:04:17.560]contact anybody within the major they're going into
[00:04:19.930]until they're already like two years in.
[00:04:21.810]And then they're like, "Okay, now what do I do?
[00:04:23.495]"I missed my next step."
[00:04:25.360]So if you haven't already, contact the colleges
[00:04:29.320]that you're going to and find one contact person
[00:04:31.470]for that major.
[00:04:32.410]Does that kind of make sense to everybody?
[00:04:34.303]Um-hmm.
[00:04:35.136]Any kind of questions about that?
[00:04:36.700]The best way to go about that, maybe?
[00:04:42.040]Honestly, if you do that, you'll be fine.
[00:04:44.260]And you'll kind of understand.
[00:04:45.631]You'll start creating those relationships
[00:04:47.495]and kind of find exactly what you need to,
[00:04:49.890]where you might know what that majors do after you graduate.
[00:04:51.820]And what kind of jobs and internships you want to get into.
[00:04:55.410]Hopefully you're kind of starting
[00:04:56.510]to look at that as well, so.
[00:04:58.920]Dale said be sure you transferology, right?
[00:05:01.991]I'm sure you know that word.
[00:05:03.230]Honestly, I hate that system.
[00:05:05.726]It's kind of a mess.
[00:05:06.920]I like our (mumbles).
[00:05:09.383]Have you guys heard of that one or seen that one?
[00:05:11.200]Okay, let me show you guys.
[00:05:13.070]Hopefully this still works.
[00:05:16.530]All right, we're just going to go Google.
[00:05:20.158]I want to tell you guys if you need-- (mumbles)
[00:05:26.183]I want to tell you if you need anything with our website,
[00:05:28.500]you type in U-N-L and then whatever you need.
[00:05:31.520]And it is like the first or second link.
[00:05:33.480]Do not try and navigate our website.
[00:05:35.730]It looks kind of cool and edgy, the tabs are an
[00:05:38.360]absolute mess and made it complicated, so.
[00:05:42.040]UNL
[00:05:43.240]course
[00:05:44.856]equivalency.
[00:05:45.870]Thank goodness it gave me equivalency because
[00:05:47.943]I'm a terrible speller, so.
[00:05:50.780]First link, go to the community college I'm going to.
[00:05:56.526](mumbles)
[00:05:59.063](mumbles)
[00:05:59.896]What's it called?
[00:06:01.038](mumbles) community college.
[00:06:03.016]Let's see if that's on here; let's see.
[00:06:07.400]Here we go.
[00:06:08.407]Is it this one, AC?
[00:06:09.847]Yeah.
[00:06:10.680]When we click on that, it reads, if I can scroll down,
[00:06:16.430]these are all classes that transfer from that college.
[00:06:21.320]This is super-easy to look over.
[00:06:25.430]This has the ACE--how are the ACE requirements are filled.
[00:06:28.700]These are the general elective boxes that you need
[00:06:31.258]to pick for most majors.
[00:06:32.390]So, my engineering students have to take the 8 and the 9
[00:06:36.010]and the 6 and the 7.
[00:06:37.890]So this is where you find that.
[00:06:39.670]So this is the ID for the community college that you're at.
[00:06:44.250]And this is the one that transfers over to UNL types.
[00:06:48.362]The UNL course equivalencies, be sure you write that down,
[00:06:51.230]You can literally type in any institution in here,
[00:06:53.397]and it will just give you a very similar list in how it
[00:06:55.930]transfers specifically to UNL.
[00:07:00.380]So honestly, you can start.
[00:07:02.420]What my students, my transfer students, do with me
[00:07:05.400]is my engineering students will contact me every semester.
[00:07:08.609]And they'll be like, "Okay, these are the classes
[00:07:10.227]"that I signed up at, Southeast Community College, Metro,
[00:07:12.917]"whatever. Just want to double-check that they're
[00:07:15.027]"going to transfer over."
[00:07:16.353]So start doing that with the people that you're talking to
[00:07:19.360]right now, the institutions you're
[00:07:20.760]fighting to transfer over to.
[00:07:22.480]Right now, go over your transcripts, classes that you've
[00:07:25.810]taken currently and then the institution
[00:07:28.190]you're going to go to, and see which classes are
[00:07:30.090]going to transfer.
[00:07:31.232]Does that kind of make sense?
[00:07:32.522]Um-hmm.
[00:07:33.355]It's a little bit of a process.
[00:07:35.620]If you need some help, I left my cards in the back.
[00:07:37.460]So you can always grab one of my business cards,
[00:07:39.090]and maybe I'll (clicking drowns out speaker).
[00:07:41.751]But I love helping transfer students.
[00:07:43.980]I just love making it as easy as possible for you guys
[00:07:46.570]because I know it's kind of rough when you don't have
[00:07:49.213]like a direction or anything, and you're just kind of
[00:07:51.110]taking classes to take classes, so.
[00:07:54.672]Course equivalency test, we can do that one.
[00:07:56.983]That was a huge problem.
[00:07:59.536]Any questions about that?
[00:08:05.104]Any questions about the transfer process?
[00:08:07.312](speaker drowned out by clicking)
[00:08:09.465]How do you move on from transfer to
[00:08:11.586]getting into an institution?
[00:08:15.870]One thing that some of my research got to is
[00:08:21.250]getting involved on campus.
[00:08:23.610]Getting involved is actually a pretty big deal and
[00:08:27.227]can really help lead towards more internships and things
[00:08:30.840]that are related to the field that you might go into,
[00:08:33.530]but I really know how hard it is for transfer students to
[00:08:36.830]kind of get that going when you've already kind of
[00:08:38.800]maybe felt disconnected from the campus a little bit.
[00:08:41.140]You know, you're coming in at the end of your degree.
[00:08:43.540]You don't really know anybody.
[00:08:44.600]You're just trying finish these few classes off
[00:08:46.490]and pretty much be done with school
[00:08:48.220]as quick as possible, right?
[00:08:50.270]But getting involved can really help you, even it it's
[00:08:51.910]just for one or two years,
[00:08:53.130]joining organizations that pertain to the field
[00:08:55.610]that you want to go into.
[00:08:57.190]For example, here at UNL we have over 700 organizations .
[00:09:00.990]You know there's professional ones all over the board
[00:09:03.010]where they're working within the
[00:09:04.330]field that you might be with,
[00:09:05.410]business management, accounting, anything along those lines,
[00:09:08.610]or anything that anyone else is interested in.
[00:09:10.350]Just something to put on a resume to show that you are
[00:09:12.517]kind of balancing that.
[00:09:13.350]But I also know that you guys are probably needing for a
[00:09:16.531]few part-time jobs too.
[00:09:17.364]Anyone at all working a
[00:09:18.300]part-time job while doing this?
[00:09:20.187]Anyone working full time jobs trying
[00:09:21.810]to do this too?
[00:09:22.643]Balance this?
[00:09:23.476]I know that's really tough too, really bad.
[00:09:26.940]But trying to get involved will help a lot too
[00:09:29.610]even if it's just like the group or organization that meets
[00:09:32.190]once a month.
[00:09:33.413]Like, even that's just fine, and do like some volunteer work
[00:09:35.620]every now and then, something along those lines stuff.
[00:09:39.252]Yeah, and you know, yeah, you can actually start
[00:09:43.550]to reach out to these organizations
[00:09:45.300]before you're even a student there.
[00:09:47.320]Again, go to Google, type in UNL
[00:09:49.720]and then like organizations.
[00:09:50.794]It'll give you the whole long list.
[00:09:53.631]And if any of those sound interesting, they all have
[00:09:55.130]contact information, like who do you need to contact
[00:09:56.897]to get involved.
[00:09:58.353]Then you're like, "Hey, I'm thinking about transferring
[00:09:59.877]"here next semester. I just want to know what your group
[00:10:01.727]"does, how I get involved."
[00:10:03.263]You know, things like that.
[00:10:04.390]You can start that process right now.
[00:10:06.551]So I would really recommend doing that as well, so.
[00:10:09.610]Just stay connected with campus, and that'll be good,
[00:10:11.710]feel a little bit more familiar.
[00:10:13.330]It will help you meet some students
[00:10:14.470]that are in a similar program that you are in,
[00:10:16.000]so you can form some study groups, things like that.
[00:10:18.760]And that will really help you kind of succeed
[00:10:21.960]a little bit better because that was again one of
[00:10:24.340]the pitfalls for transfer students is that when they
[00:10:26.070]do transfer to the institution, they take that
[00:10:28.920]disconnect kind of like hinders their academics
[00:10:31.498]a little bit, honestly.
[00:10:32.817]So if you can find a connection...
[00:10:37.970]And that's a little off topic, but it
[00:10:39.632]really is gonna be great, but it really does help.
[00:10:43.887]Any questions about organizations?
[00:10:53.642][Spencer] I might not know all the specifics on that one,
[00:10:55.742]but I know (drowned out by off-screen voice)
[00:10:59.516]Yeah, its pretty much like this giant super animation tube.
[00:11:02.776]You know, they're doing (mumbles)
[00:11:04.632]They're doing culture events about raising awareness.
[00:11:06.870]But then we also have professional organizations here
[00:11:10.430]for accounting, business management, which I would really
[00:11:12.620]recommend getting involved in one of those too.
[00:11:15.959]If you join a student organization for a college,
[00:11:17.145]they always need a treasurer or something like that,
[00:11:17.978]you know.
[00:11:23.249]Does that kind of make sense a little bit?
[00:11:24.460]Okay, cool.
[00:11:27.319]Yeah, just joining any, just any organization
[00:11:29.410]even if it's just one, that's perfect, that's great.
[00:11:34.410]Anything else on your mind?
[00:11:49.221]Yeah, I went to school all four years here.
[00:11:51.600]I was in (speaker drowned out by audience sounds)
[00:11:54.375]I just totally used to love this place.
[00:11:56.075]I don't know, so I am biased.
[00:11:58.440]And I've been doing this job for five years,
[00:12:00.350]so I got my (speaker drowned out by audience sound)
[00:12:02.500]pretty well.
[00:12:04.642](audience laughs) I know exactly what to talk about
[00:12:06.737]and what's done.
[00:12:09.057]And that's why I want to kind of know what's
[00:12:11.010]important to you guys, I mean all of it.
[00:12:12.650]Now I know as transfer students, at least from
[00:12:14.992]what I've read, so you can tell me different too,
[00:12:16.720]but you guys just kind of want to finish.
[00:12:18.980]You're done with this school thing.
[00:12:22.152][Male Audience Member] Here for the experience.
[00:12:23.080]Yeah, you're here for the experience.
[00:12:24.250]That too.
[00:12:25.227]And that's just the thing with big universities, too,
[00:12:27.010]that sometimes maybe two-year colleges might not have
[00:12:29.953]is just all those organization options.
[00:12:33.080]And then we also have research too, which is a
[00:12:35.050]pretty big deal, which I always recommend getting involved
[00:12:38.050]in that because that's essentially like the job
[00:12:40.150]you're going to go into or work most of the time.
[00:12:42.090]And that's the hands-on experience that's going to be
[00:12:44.630]perfect for your resume when applying for when
[00:12:47.083]you're about to graduate too.
[00:12:48.660]And that research is paid, too, which is really nice.
[00:12:53.060]What a lot of my students do is, because we're
[00:12:55.800]a research field institution, that means all of our
[00:12:59.940]professors are doing some sort of research in field,
[00:13:02.770]what they do is they just go reach out to professors.
[00:13:05.137]They're like, "Hey, what kind of research projects
[00:13:06.637]"are you working on and
[00:13:07.470]"(speaker drowned out by audience) exist?"
[00:13:10.274]Usually this is before I give them their past of it.
[00:13:12.740]But they're like, "You need help with any of it? Or can I
[00:13:14.807]"come in and just like chat with you or anything?"
[00:13:17.450]And usually that professor is going to be cool,
[00:13:19.097]like, "Come in, do some work for us two or three times
[00:13:22.200]a week, something like that."
[00:13:23.550]And that hands-on experience again is pretty good,
[00:13:26.370]and it goes a long way.
[00:13:28.660]Because what I tell students the most too is just being
[00:13:33.850]proactive is possible on the campus that you are on
[00:13:37.100]with organizations, with internships,
[00:13:40.630]with now working with professors.
[00:13:42.007]And when you graduate, "I need a job" will not be an issue.
[00:13:44.887]Honestly, if you're proactive, it's the students that
[00:13:48.590]only go to class all four years, that don't do anything
[00:13:51.610]outside of that, those are the ones that struggle
[00:13:53.530]to find a job.
[00:13:56.430]Yeah, so just get involved in some sort of way,
[00:14:00.648]and that'll honestly open up so many doors.
[00:14:05.957][Female Audience Member] (drowned out by audience sounds)
[00:14:32.123]Yeah.
[00:14:32.956]Like trying to bring that over
[00:14:33.789]into the college, right,
[00:14:34.737]as well, right?
[00:14:35.570]So you need competition, but that year, as well
[00:14:38.076](speaker drowned out by audience sounds)
[00:14:39.849]If you can find an organization that does that, and like
[00:14:42.313]I kind of mentioned earlier, start reaching out to them now.
[00:14:45.260]It's never too soon to be like, "I'm thinking about
[00:14:47.795]"coming here next year," or whatever.
[00:14:49.449]"I just want to know more about what you do,
[00:14:51.964]"and how I can get involved."
[00:14:52.797]And they will love that, honestly.
[00:14:54.090]They want to recruit as many people into their organization
[00:14:56.470]as possible, so.
[00:14:59.150]I'll stress another one big thing, and a major thing
[00:15:02.480]you may want to go into.
[00:15:03.630]Start checking basically now how your credits that you're
[00:15:06.590]working on will transfer (mumbles).
[00:15:22.127]Oh, man, they make so much money.
[00:15:23.280]That's crazy, but you gotta have a crazy amount of
[00:15:25.220]patience for math and science and you gotta love
[00:15:27.730]problem-solving, being challenged, designing all of those
[00:15:32.570]nerdy things.
[00:15:33.590]You guys like those things?
[00:15:35.230]Yes, so maybe engineering is for you. (audience laughs)
[00:15:40.222](laughs) You know, a lot of students think that though,
[00:15:41.770]too, though.
[00:15:43.240]They look at that heavy math and science
[00:15:45.619]and they're like, "No."
[00:15:46.650]That was honestly me when I was a senior in high school.
[00:15:48.990]I'm like, "No, I'm gonna pass on that."
[00:15:50.600]But we have so many tutoring resources, that's free tutoring
[00:15:54.790]for calculus, physics, chemistry.
[00:15:56.450]It's every day in our engineering lab, except for Fridays.
[00:15:59.500]Sorry, it's Monday through Thursday.
[00:16:01.650]But it's just a free resource where you can go
[00:16:02.947]and get help anytime.
[00:16:05.648]Engineering's a grind.
[00:16:06.950]Honestly, it really is.
[00:16:07.900]I had engineering friends in college, and they studied
[00:16:11.600]a lot longer than my business degree, so.
[00:16:14.700]It's definitely really worth the investment,
[00:16:17.260]especially if you can get through those first two years,
[00:16:19.180]which are just calculus, physics, and chemistry.
[00:16:21.820]Then junior and senior year is all application of those
[00:16:25.020]into real-world projects.
[00:16:27.640]They are changing the world in every way,
[00:16:29.560]and engineering has allowed this in every aspect.
[00:16:32.280]Their job is like 100% and their average starting salary
[00:16:35.800]is like 65 to $70,000.
[00:16:38.248]So it's a pretty rough life.
[00:16:46.810]If you are just really undecided have no idea
[00:16:50.337]what you want to go into, like
[00:16:51.170](audience coughing drowns out speaker)
[00:16:52.950]I mean, honestly, going into something like business
[00:16:55.210]or psychology, something very kind of, I in no way
[00:16:59.113]do I demean this, but generic, very kind of basic
[00:17:02.120]that covers a very broad field of a lot of ideas and things.
[00:17:06.460]Just getting a degree opens up so many doors for you
[00:17:09.330]for so many jobs.
[00:17:10.370]Like I got a finance degree, for example.
[00:17:12.130]I went and did banking for like two or three months.
[00:17:14.160]I absolutely hated it.
[00:17:14.993]It was the worst.
[00:17:15.830]It was too stressful, and I didn't feel like upselling
[00:17:18.050]every Wells Fargo product they owned. (audience laughs)
[00:17:22.040]So I quit, and I was like, "I want to go with students and
[00:17:25.637]"be like close to them."
[00:17:26.710]So I go to guidance counselor jobs at high schools
[00:17:31.312]and stuff, and apparently you need a
[00:17:32.145]teaching degree for that.
[00:17:33.180]So I'm like, "Well, I don't want to go back to school and
[00:17:35.157]"do two years for a teaching degree.
[00:17:36.717]"I want to use my finance degree in some way."
[00:17:39.690]So I found an admissions counselor job right here on campus.
[00:17:43.600]And that's where I get to travel around to different states
[00:17:45.630]and talk to high school students and tell them about UNL.
[00:17:48.658]I actually loved that.
[00:17:49.617]I just love talking to students, parents, and getting
[00:17:53.480]them excited about the college and finding out
[00:17:55.856]what they're interested in.
[00:17:58.177]And I guess that whole story.
[00:18:00.110]I just kind of saying, you know, you might get a degree
[00:18:02.140]in something, but you might keep your career
[00:18:03.834]into something completely else.
[00:18:05.970]The degree just opens the door.
[00:18:08.040]It just tells companies that you saw something through,
[00:18:12.210]and you can accept a challenge, you can problem solve.
[00:18:16.220]Does that kind of make sense a little bit?
[00:18:18.138]Just get the degree.
[00:18:18.971]Honestly, it'll change everything.
[00:18:29.750]So I still to do, I do data.
[00:18:32.570]I run data for recruitment, like where all my students
[00:18:36.580]are coming from, all of their academics, stuff like that.
[00:18:39.340]So I still get the data portion a little bit, so I run
[00:18:41.820]those reports, and I have to do reports
[00:18:43.158]at the end of the year.
[00:18:43.991]So that's kind of nice.
[00:18:45.070]'Cause that's what I loved about finance was the data.
[00:18:47.248]Yes.
[00:18:48.159]I didn't like selling products to people.
[00:18:50.544]That was boring.
[00:18:53.062]What's that?
[00:18:54.769]No, no, marketing's not for me.
[00:18:58.207]But then I got my master's here in
[00:19:00.250]higher education administration, really focused on
[00:19:03.000]transfer students, and I really love that.
[00:19:05.609]And working with a university, you get 15 credits for free
[00:19:10.060]that you can use every year.
[00:19:11.426]So I got my master's all for free, which was really nice.
[00:19:14.523]Find a company that will pay for your graduate degree
[00:19:17.353]because a lot of companies will, or at least they'll have
[00:19:18.970]some sort of like, we'll pay for 75..
[00:19:28.620]Essentially I get 15 credits for free.
[00:19:30.898]A graduate degree is only about 36 credits.
[00:19:33.241]So it took me two and a half years
[00:19:34.420]to get my master's for free, which was really nice.
[00:19:37.210]So work for a college too.
[00:19:41.394]But a lot of companies will give you again 75% off or
[00:19:45.066]85% off your tuition, and stuff like that
[00:19:47.790]to pursue a master's degree.
[00:19:48.970]So you may not pay a cost of a master's degree.
[00:19:52.550]So many people will pay you to get a master's degree.
[00:19:58.901]But first get that undergraduate degree, man.
[00:20:00.523]Again, honestly, it'll open up so many doors.
[00:20:03.327]It really will, even it it's just business administration,
[00:20:07.010]something generic that you can take in
[00:20:08.544]a lot of different directions.
[00:20:10.140]It will be huge.
[00:20:20.851]A little bit of both.
[00:20:24.890]I can't speak for the technical skills.
[00:20:27.060]But it's a piece of paper that shows that you're getting
[00:20:29.807]credit that you know a lot about these skills
[00:20:32.058](drowned out by audience sounds)
[00:20:36.252](drowned out by audience coughing)
[00:20:37.390]Yeah, so I'm sure you have to know something for that.
[00:20:40.275]You know with my engineers, the engineering jobs
[00:20:42.430]that they apply for, they have to take actual tests
[00:20:45.100]from the companies that test their knowledge.
[00:20:47.950]So yeah, it's a professional license too.
[00:20:51.690]They have to take the PE, professional exams.
[00:20:54.633]Like in accounting, an accountant usually has to
[00:20:56.580]take one of those too.
[00:20:59.740]Yeah.
[00:21:00.610]But yeah, start looking at jobs now and seeing
[00:21:04.050]what they're looking for in their resumes,
[00:21:05.780]like what do you for years require experience in this field?
[00:21:10.083]Start searching now.
[00:21:11.947]Don't wait 'til senior year and then--
[00:21:13.771](speaker drowned out by audience sounds)
[00:21:14.804]should probably find a job.
[00:21:15.637]It's like you should know beforehand. (laughs)
[00:21:18.470]Does that kind of, yeah?
[00:21:28.803]When I was in high school, I though I was going to be
[00:21:30.315]a psychology major because I always loved talking to people
[00:21:33.925]and everything and helping them.
[00:21:35.619]And then I learned that you needed a foreign language,
[00:21:37.440]and I am awful at foreign language. (audience laughs)
[00:21:40.230]Like I did not like Spanish class at all.
[00:21:42.470]The only thing I learned was la leche.
[00:21:44.170]That's all I can recall. (audience laughs loudly)
[00:21:51.197]I know.
[00:21:52.030]That's all I can remember.
[00:21:53.524]So I'm like, "I don't want to do foreign language."
[00:21:55.130]I'm like, "Oh, business degree.
[00:21:56.037]"You don't need foreign language for that.
[00:21:57.347]"Sounds good."
[00:21:58.348](audience laughs)
[00:21:59.650]So I don't know, when I went to college too,
[00:22:02.200]I knew, I kind of knew I guess, that I just need
[00:22:05.870]four years of something, and then I will figure out
[00:22:08.080]the rest after that.
[00:22:09.565]So you need the degree, and that's why I never changed
[00:22:11.570]my major a bunch of times 'cause that puts you behind
[00:22:14.205]and adds time.
[00:22:16.695][Facilitator] Alright, let's thank our speaker.
[00:22:18.796](applause)

The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!

You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.

Tags:
ntc
matc
nebraska transportation center
mid-america transportation center
matc scholars program
scholars program
spencer thompson

Comments

0 Comments

2018 MATC Scholars Program: Mr. Spencer Thompson

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments