Southwestern Advantage Blog

As a college student, you know internships are important. You know there are many to choose from. So, how will you find the right one for you? How will you become the right person for them ? How will your internship springboard you into a fulfilling post-grad career? Let’s start here... 3 Qualities of a Great Internship Challenge You may have expected “experience” to be first on the list, so why would challenge rank higher? Ask yourself this – wouldn’t the more challenging internships offer you better experience by default? Wouldn’t a future employer be more interested in your history of taking on challenges? The fact is, dealing with challenge is synonymous with meaningful experience. The bigger the challenges the better the experience. Don’t be fooled by that “internship in the fashion industry” where the day-to-day responsibility is to fold t-shirts at the mall, or the glamorous experience interning in Manhattan on Wall Street where the day-to-day responsibility is to pou...

From the fall of 2010 to the spring of 2013, I lived in the Rocky Mountain states. I spent one year in Montana, one year in Wyoming, and one year in Colorado. Now, if you’ve ever been out that way, you know two things: 1) it’s absolutely beautiful, and 2) it’s not very densely populated, especially Montana and Wyoming. One thing that this means is that to visit any city other than the one where you live, you have to drive at least an hour, sometimes three or four. I don’t know about you, but I get highway hypnosis pretty bad if I don’t keep my mind occupied while I’m on the road. So, when I would drive anywhere, I liked to call people on the phone. As you can imagine, though, sparsely populated areas don’t have the best reception. (If you don’t believe me, just watch any wireless provider commercial—the coverage maps are almost non-existent over the Rockies.) This led to some fairly awkward phone conversations. “Guess what happened? <static static> bro...

Hey friends! Have you ever been at work and felt as if you were getting stuck mentally? In other words, you thought: "This can't be done," or "Hitting that goal seems impossible!" Of course you have, because we all have. We all tend to limit ourselves at times -- we get stuck in a comfort zone, and some irrational fears start chattering. Here's a principle of human nature that we can use in these moments. NLP shows us that questions are the answer. When our brain hears a question, no matter how unreasonable the questions may be, it automatically imagines an answer to it . Try it for yourself. Pick something that you feel like you cannot do, or never do very well. Then, ask yourself this question: " What would it be like if I could do ____ really well? " Example: "What would it be like if I could sing really well?" Or "What would it be like if I took action instead of procrastinated on my to-do lists?" Your brain automat...