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Freshman Year of Life is a collection of essays curated by the MindSumo Community on life after college. The essay writers explore themes such as money, work, home, family, friendship, love and many more in discussing the truth about life post-college graduation. The book is organised in three chapters: Work and Money, Home and Belonging, Love and Relationships. 

I like how the book begins with discussing work and money because that’s usually the first thing a college graduate would be consumed with, I know I definitely was. It was interesting to note that some of the essay were written by Americans who’ve lived through challenging political climates such as the 2008 financial crisis and 9/11; I can only imagine the hopelessness and bleak perspective on life you’d have to go through that and figure out how to navigate life after college. The essay I connected with the most from this chapter is titled ‘Wait for It’ by Chloe Angyal. I related to this essay so much because I, like her, struggle with being patient and waiting to hit milestones in my career. It wasn’t that I had a problem with working hard for my career, I really didn’t, if anything I enjoyed hustling and found it to be rewarding. It’s just that as I'm going through the process of building my career I perceived the mundane things such as job-seeking, interviews, admin tasks, basically the whole period of waiting for my milestone, as seemingly meaningless because of how unfulfilling it made me feel. But I was wrong. Waiting is a part, and perhaps even a crucial part, in the hustle and grind. It’s not doing nothing with your time, it’s allowing yourself to have trust with the universe and taking a leap of faith. Acknowledge it. Accept it. Appreciate it. Move onward and upwards. 

I connected with the second chapter for a number of reasons; firstly I myself am raised third-cultured and have been moving from place to place from a young age to currently as a young-adult, secondly I have a mostly introverted personality so I’m very familiar with the feeling of disconnection with surrounding and not knowing where I belong. Home was never a physical place or destination for me, it was a journey which sounds odd to say because you’d expect home to be still and stable. What I mean is that it’s more of a feeling, and I feel home when I’m living for life; when I’m doing the things the bring me purpose and have meaning to me. The narrators of this chapter talk about adventure, self-discovery, travel, which sounds exciting but then they also talk about some of the pain and sorrow that can come along the way. This chapter explores so many levels and I enjoyed reading all the essays! 

I thought that the last chapter would be mostly about romantic love but I was delightfully surprised that the curated essays discussed love beyond romantic. I like how some of the narrators give practical advice to readers. Each of the essays reach towards a personal and intimate space, and I thoroughly enjoyed that! These essays really do tell the truth about the freshman year of life, whether it’s discovering a hidden meaning or bring nuances in perceiving life after college. Your freshman year of life will be tough and you probably don’t need to be told this, I know I certainly didn’t, but it’s your experience and your journey so make it count. Good luck!

This book was gifted to me by my older sister as a graduation present last year. It was perfect because when I read it I instantly clicked with everything the essays spoke about. This is a great gift for anyone who’s graduating college or reaching a milestone in their young-adult journey, and it’s also a lovely commuting companion! You can read this book however you want, perhaps chronologically, or by picking the essays to read at random, or finding one’s that suite your interests and/or current situation  and read them as you go along. The final verdict: 10/10! A very much needed read for all freshgrads. To all my fellow 2019 graduates: here’s to the rest our freshman year of life, cheers!

Mindsumo is problem-solving bounty for student

Solving challenges on MindSumo is fun. Winning challenges on MindSumo is really fun! We want to make sure all of our student users have a great chance to win whether it’s the first time they’ve solved or the 100th. Follow these 5 tips to get better ratings and win points (cash) for your work!

1. Include Media

The core to a successful MindSumo submission is a unique and useful idea, but you also need to effectively communicate that idea.

Including an image, chart, diagram, mockup, or other visual can help challenge judges better understand your idea.

Including a video with your submission is great too (put a YouTube or Dropbox link at the top of the submission field). It can be a demonstration or just you on your webcam discussing your solution. Keep it short!

2. Organize Your Submission

Giant walls of texts are difficult and annoying to read. Separating your thoughts out into several paragraphs and easy-to-read bullet points is a great way to go. Separating those bullet points to match the numbered deliverable items (1,2,3,4) is even better!

Bolding key parts of your entry and italicizing persuasive points helps readers understand your tone.

This isn’t a college essay with a page count, communicate your ideas quickly and effectively, not with as many words as possible.

Putting all your info into a .PDF with images or a powerpoint, prezi, slideshare, or other presentation is what our most consistent winners do! (Be sure you submit text as well)

3. Cite Some Sources

Your own unique ideas that are based on speculation can be helpful to companies for sure, but backing them up with real statistics lets companies know you really did your research, and that your idea is based in current facts and trends.

4. Follow the Instructions

Almost every challenge has a set of numbered deliverables. Typically these are the exact items the host wants to make sure you address. Make sure you list your response to each one in your submission

Reading the introduction is going to get you into the headspace of where the challenge is coming from and better frame your solution.

Many challenges also have “things to consider” that will help you refine your idea once you come up with it.

5. Say Something Original and Valuable

The goal of most MindSumo challenges is to source new ideas! If you’re proposing a new scent for a shampoo, they’ve probably already considered apple. Maybe an apple-cranberry-kombucha shampoo with a corgi logo might catch that challenge host’s attention!

Another example: Companies know how to use social media. If you tell them to “promote idea X on Facebook”, you aren’t providing any valuable information for them. If you’re going to suggest social media promotion, make sure you include novel posts, suggest target markets, and make up new hashtags with explanations of why they’ll catch on!

It can be fun to quickly put together an idea to try and win a prize, but putting an extra 10 minutes of effort in to organize your thoughts, snag an image, and cite a source will make you much more likely to win $$$.

This will be the first in a weekly series of posts for MindSumo Influencers and anyone else that’s looking for tips and tricks to get the most out of their social media shares. Whether you’re promoting a product or just trying to catch more likes, check in each Wednesday afternoon for strategies to maximize the impact of your posts.

Have you ever asked yourself: “Why didn’t I get more likes on my new profile picture?” Well, it’s probably because you posted it at 11:00 PM on a Monday. You may have not realized it but the time of day that you post a new status, tweet, or picture changes how many people see it, how many likes it will garner, and the overall impact it will have on the digital world.

Read on for sharing tips from some of the most popular social networks:

Facebook

Thursday and Friday are your best time to post, because everyone is excited about the upcoming weekend and are starting to get tired of work.

The optimal time of day would be 1-4 PM in the time zone where most of your friends are. If you post at these times, you are likely to get a few likes initially, and then prominently displayed to users that are on their commute home or are bored at their desks.

Twitter

For Twitter, try to post at lunch time, and then again in the evening. You can catch people flicking through their feeds while they chow down (post at 12-1 PM local time), and then again after they finish their day (post at 5-6 PM local time).

Don’t worry about posting twice! People don’t always catch everything in their newsfeed, and you don’t want them to miss your message.

Instagram

Instagram has two periods of heated activity. After work when users can view photos of their friends at the beach without the added agony of being at a desk themselves, and before bed where people view their friends photos before they drift off and likely dream that they’re on their phones as well.

Post to Instagram at 5 PM to catch the after work crowd, or at midnight to capture those laying in bed in the light of their phone screens.

LinkedIn

Considering it’s the professional social network, it’s not a huge schocker to find out people are on their LinkedIn most often from 9-5.

Make sure that you post on a weekday, and try to do so at 12 PM to catch people scouring for new jobs on their lunch break.

Take a look at the infographic below for more stats, details, and reasoning as to why the timing of your post can be the difference between starting the next web-wide conversation, or talking to yourself in an empty digital room.

Check out MindSumo - a site where students solve problems for companies and win cash for good ideas. The experience and prizes are great and the opportunity can even be showcased on a work resume; however, you need a “.edu” email address to sign up.