Heartbleed Bug --> Password Changes

If you haven't heard about the Heartbleed bug, I would suggest that you take some time to read about it.

In short, it is a bug that makes your private information ---> public.

To protect yourself as much as possible, you should consider changing a few of your passwords. Mashable.com has put together a very comprehensive list of accounts that may or may not be affected by the bug.

Here's a summary of suggested accounts for password changes:

Social Networks

• Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Tumblr

Email Accounts

• Google and Yahoo + Gmail and Ymail

Stores and Commerce

• Amazon, Etsy, and GoDaddy

Videos, Photos, Games & Entertainment

• Flickr, MineCraft, Netflix, SoundCloud, and YouTube

Financial Accounts

• USAA

Other

• Box, Dropbox, GitHub, IFTTT, OKCupid, Wikipedia, Wunderlist

Jewel's Random TidBits - If any of these accounts are linked to an email account you do not check often, you may want to log-in now. Many of these websites/companies sent out informational emails on how the Heartbleed bug may affect your account.

#MyDreamIs... Tweet Your Way to a Scholarship! - Adobe Big Dreamer Scholarship

In 140 characters you could win a Nikon Digital SLR camera, a year of Adobe Creative Cloud and a year of Chegg Study!

All you have to do is tag @Adobe, @Chegg, and #MyDreamIs... in a tweet describing a dream you would like to see come true. Check it out here!

*Rules:

1. Be 16 years of age or older
2. Be enrolled in an accredited U.S. University or high school with the intent to attend college
3. Be registered with Twitter and submit your application through Twitter before the deadline

*DEADLINE: 11:59:59pm on Sunday, April 6th, 2014*

Jewel's Random TidBits - I have noticed that tweet-style applications are a trend now - even with some job applications! This is why it's always good to practice sending your messages across as concisely as possible.

Create a Job Agent

Let the career site find the jobs for you!

So you're on the job/internship hunt but you have other responsibilities (family, school, work...) to look after and you have no idea how to be effective in your search. How about letting your career site find the jobs for you?

When you create a job agent, you input what you want in a job. You can specify location, part-time/full-time, department, and title among other criteria. You can then set up the job agent to send you notifications when a job pops up that matches your preferences. Or you can turn-off notifications and just run the job agent each time you log into the website. Good sites for this include LinkedIn, Glassdoor.com, and Indeed.com. University career pages are great places to create job agents for internships since the postings are generally highly targeted and descriptive.

Jewel's Random TidBits - For a more targeted hunt, go to the career website for the specific company you want to work for and create a job agent there!

Follow Your Dream Company on Twitter

I've been using Twitter for a little under a year now and I'm learning how it can have its professional benefits in addition to being social.

Does your dream company have a Twitter account? Follow them!
Does your dream company have a recruitment/job Twitter account? Follow that account too!

I've learned so much about the companies I follow on Twitter that I may not have paid attention to in another form of media. Corporate tweets can include anything from news about the company, changes in leadership, new developments, office buildings, employee highlights, company culture, and more. As I mentioned in my previous post, recruitment season is upon us and it is important to research companies before any type of interview or career fair. Following the corporate Twitter account of the company you plan to speak to or interview with is a great way to have some of your research done for you.

Think about it - in the midst of learning about your friends' meals, new shoes, or vacation plans, you can also learn that Company A just renovated their Northeast headquarters or that Company B just hired a new CIO. Those quick tweets can turn into golden conversation topics in an interview, introduction, information session, networking dinner...you name it!

Readers: the follow is worth it! :)

Jewel's Random TidBits - If you read what others say about the company through their retweets or mentions, that can also be a good way to learn about company culture and image.

2014 Oddball Interview Questions

So I signed-up for a Glassdoor.com account several months ago and I would recommend you to open an account too! It's free and you get to learn more about companies you're interested in working for. When preparing for interviews, the 'Interviews' section on the website is INCREDIBLY useful. It's full of past interview experiences and the contributors generally let you know whether or not they got the job. Check out this page for more info on opening a Glassdoor.com account!

One of the other features I love about Glassdoor.com is the articles they occasionally send through email. This one is really interesting since I know that we (college student job-seekers) are deep in recruitment season. Of-course, with recruitment season comes....interviews!

Glassdoor.com created a list of the 'Top 25 Oddball Interview Questions for 2014' and I think it's a good article to read before your next interview!

Here are my favorite 7:

1. (#3)"If you were a pizza deliveryman how would you benefit from scissors?" - Apple
2. (#7) "If you were a box of cereal, what would you be and why?" - Bed Bath & Beyond
3. (#8) "Do you believe in Big Foot?" - Norwegian Cruise Line
4. (#9) "Why is a tennis ball fuzzy?" - Xerox
5. (#16) "You're a new addition to the crayon box, what color would you be and why?" - Urban Outfitters
6. (#17) "How does the internet work?" - Akamai
7. (#25) "Have you ever been on a boat? (Creative Open-ended question)" - Applied Systems

How would you answer these questions?

Jewel's Random TidBits - In one interview I was asked to describe what I do for fun. I talked about cooking and blogging. :)

NCWIT Aspirations Award

Hey readers! :)

So I blogged about NCWIT about two months ago and now I'm back with some more NCWIT love!

As I mentioned earlier, I learned about NCWIT through the Aspirations in Computing competition. Well, the 2013-2014 application round is coming to a close soon!

The upcoming deadline is Thursday, October 31st! So, if you're a high school young woman interested in pursuing a future in technology (or if you know one), be sure to visit the Aspirations page to learn more then apply!

It's definitely worth your time just checking out the program. :)

If your application is successful, here's what your reward includes:

• $500
• A laptop
• Two engraved trophies - one for you to take to your school and the other for you to take home
• A trip for you and one parent to North Carolina to receive your reward!

Sounds good right, right.....APPLY! Feel free to send me any questions you have about my experience with NCWIT.

I wish you all the best!

Jewel's Random TidBits - One of my success drivers is one day being in a position in life at which I can help fund a scholarship or create a whole new scholarship of my own!

Scholarship Feature: iOS Scholarship for Women in Technology

Hey everyone!

I'm back with another scholarship opportunity. Check out the iOS Scholarship for Women in Technology!

THE DEETS:

Scholarship: $10,000          Deadline: November 15th, 2013 (winners notified by December 16th, 2013)

Application Process: (1) Submit your resume and (2) submit an app proposal as a single PDF document.
Requirements: (1) You must be a woman majoring in computer science or a related field, (2) You must at least be a sophomore in college, (3) You must also accept an internship offer from Apple if you receive one

As I always say.......

APPLY - APPLY - APPLY!

If you qualify....apply....you never how far you'll get until you try!

(ooh...that was some cool rhyming there :) )

Anyway, keep me updated if you win! - I LOVE hearing success stories! :)

Jewel's Random TidBits - I found this scholarship through the winners' Facebook page for NCWIT (See how useful they are?!)

Word Choice

I've been writing a lot of emails and cover letters lately and the realization of how important word choice is has really caught my attention.

It's becoming a habit of mine now to check the definitions of certain words and decide if that is really what I want to say before I move on to the next thought. Choosing words correctly is so important for conveying your message properly and presenting yourself in the best way possible.

Check out this web resource I found to help improve writing style through proper word choice: Writing Center Word Choice Style Section.

The section is broken up into six sub-sections that each touch on a specific issue in word choice. My favorite is the sub-section entitled "Use Concrete, Sensory Language". I love when a piece of writing can send its message in fewer words rather than a long winding piece.

No matter what your major or path in life is, effective writing plays a very important role in harnessing your success.

Thanks for reading!

Jewel's Random TidBits - I spent an extra special amount of time choosing my words for this posting. :)

NCWIT

In 2010 I was introduced to the National Center for Women in Technology through their Aspirations in Computing program.

After a successful application I was named a national semi-finalist and a Texas winner. I was invited to a ceremony at Rice University in Houston, Texas where I met the other winners (national finalists, national semi-finalists, and Texas winners). We were treated to a delicious brunch and had the chance to listen to talks from powerful women in various technology fields.

Organizations like NCWIT are so important for furthering diversity in technology fields. 

Check out their Facebook pages to learn all of the cool details about the organization and the award - https://www.facebook.com/ncwit and https://www.facebook.com/aspirationsaward.

Jewel's Random TidBits - Check out who sits on their Board of Directors, Executive Advisory Council, and Leadership Team!

Scholarship Feature: 2013 Advancing Aspirations Global Scholarship

Hey y'all!

I found another great scholarship focused on furthering female STEM education! Check out the 2013 Advancing Aspirations Global Scholarship.

Here are the deets:
Deadline - July 26th at 11:59 pm EST
Format - Research Essay
Prizes - (2) $5,000 ; (8) $1,500

APPLY - APPLY - APPLY

You get to choose from six different topics to write a well-developed essay in 2500 words or less -- so get to writing! Let me know how it goes for you - especially if you win! :)

Jewel's Random TidBits - I found out about this scholarship from the NCWIT's (National Center for Women & Information Technology)'s Facebook page. I am a previous winner of their Aspirations award. I'll make a post about them soon but for now, check out their website : http://www.ncwit.org.

Your Social Media Image

Keep it clean!

So yesterday I spent a good amount of time polishing my LinkedIn profile. In the list of people who had recently viewed my profile, I found two names of recruiters for internships I had applied for literally just last Friday! My reactions were surprise that employers seriously search potential employees on the website and relief that my profile was well on it's way to being complete or being an "All-Star" profile as LinkedIn calls it. But that wake-up call really made me think:

If employers actively look up my LinkedIn profile, then there's nothing stopping them from actively looking up my other social network profiles.

So yes, our parents, professors, and advisers were right! If you care about your professional future, watch what you say and post! That means Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Vine, Blogs, and whatever else you have.

Jewel's Random TidBits - Even if your profiles have the tightest privacy settings, there are ways of getting past them. Whatever you post on the internet is permanent.

Scholarship Feature: BlackBerry Scholars Program

Scholarship season is NEVER over! Be sure to keep your eyes and ears constantly open for scholarship opportunities because there are hundreds of them out there.

Here's one that fits in perfectly with the theme of this blog: the BlackBerry Scholars Program.

To be eligible you need to be a female student entering her first year of study in an accredited Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics program. The deadline is 5pm on June 26th, 2013 and you'll need two recommendations. This scholarship offers FULL tuition for four academic years so it's definitely worth your while to apply!

APPLY - APPLY - APPLY!!!

If you are chosen for this scholarship, I want to know! Send me a message or leave a comment below. :)

Jewel's Random TidBits - I found this scholarship on www.fastweb.com. If you haven't as yet, you should definitely make an account on that website and check it often for scholarship matches.

Hello!

Yes, that's me! Well, that was me three years ago.....

I'm posing with the competition robot my robotics team built my senior year of high school. For three years, this was basically my life. If you've never heard of the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), you should check them out here! While you're at it, check out my team - Robonauts - Team 118! Anyway, I'm sure I'll have many more posts about robotics. This post, however, is to introduce myself and the purpose of this blog!

In short, I'm a female engineering student doing my best to encourage other females to pursue engineering.

At engineering schools all over the U.S. there are programs geared towards the exact same thing. But I know that it's always good - and sometimes more encouraging - if you hear about a real personal experience from a real female engineering student. So if you know anyone that could find this blog useful - be sure to pass it on!

Jewel's Random TidBits - One of my team's major sponsors is NASA and our name 'The Robonauts' is based on Robonaut the humanoid robot.