How often a person goes out to eat can have a massive effect on their budget. Grabbing food outside of the house seems cheap on a day-to-day basis. The average…
Teamwork: finding a role and winning as a group
Teamwork is one of the most important soft skills in the working world. Those who cannot work productively with others will not find as many opportunities as professionals who have learned…
Motivation makes the business world go ’round
Finding out what motivates an individual is important when creating effective communication, professional success, and finding happiness in work. There are two sources for motivation. The first is an external…
Driving in Portland: Are you wasting money?
Portland State is a commuter college. On-campus housing, and even housing near campus, can be very expensive. The majority of PSU students are heading to school from further away than…
Are you feeling entrepreneurial?
Previous articles in this column have focused on how to score a better-than-average job after graduation. However, what if you don’t want to work for someone else? There is a…
Communication and context: seeing the whole picture
How often have you been involved in a conversation that you either did not understand at all, had no place participating in or did not care about? Do you know…
Making it: a gift giving guide for broke students
The holiday season is here, and for college students this means there is a looming threat of spending money on something other than books, food and rent. Buying holiday gifts…
Organize your time or waste it
“Busy people get things done.” According to the preeminent authority on procrastination, Timothy A. Pychyl, Ph.D. of Canada’s Carleton University, procrastination is an avoidable part of life if students can…
Take better notes, get better grades
It’s about halfway between midterms and finals for students at Portland State. Some students have only just begun to wonder how they are doing in their classes. Maybe a particularly…
Learn how to handle credit cards before they handle you
In a paper titled, “Money Attitudes, Credit Card Use, and Compulsive Buying among American College Students,” James Roberts and Eli Jones write that American culture is shifting from fearing debt…
Good grades aren’t good enough: Part III
The previous articles in this series focused on what students can do for themselves to broaden their opportunities. The key is being deliberate and active. This article focuses on what…