What is this thing, and why am I doing it?!

Welcome to my blog!

What exactly is this thing, and why am I doing it? Hold on. Let me explain.

My name is Alexandra, and I'm a student at The College of New Jersey. I will be graduating with a degree in Interdisciplinary Business this May. I have recently added Professional Writing and Psychology minors, which is where this blog comes into play.

In my professional writing course we have been studying various means of communication, including blogging. We have all created blogs in order to understand the concept first hand.  I have been writing in what I would consider to be an "online journal" since the beginning of Freshman year three years ago via Tumblr for fun and sanity (oh, how therapeutic free writing can be...!), but I would like to concentrate on something more serious here.

I interned with Johnson & Johnson over the summer and was asked to stay on part-time once school began. I gratefully accepted. I have a large amount of respect for J&J and the emphasis the company places on ethics, which is vital in every business setting.

Have you ever read The Credo? I studied it in Business Ethics freshman year, and all I could think was, "This is the business plan of my dreams!" Take excellent care of the people that matter the most, your customers, always do the right thing, and the rest will fall into place.

This job is my first taste of corporate life, and I found I really enjoy seeing the full scope of the business. I'm interested in what others both in and out of my group do in order to get a full understanding of the impact we have on people around the world.

I have been wanting to learn more about the pharmaceutical industry as a whole, and I will be using this blog to facilitate my exposure to different aspects. I will post links to pharma news that interests me, as well as my experience in the business. I  plan on touching on relevant entry-level stories, such as how to get into the business, and why it may be a great fit for a variety of people.

In addition to industry specific posts, I will be posting about business in general. I am currently taking an Organizational Psychology course, so I will be pulling a lot of information from that. Some topics we have studied are motivating workers, types of workers and management styles. I work with a wonderful and supportive group of people at J&J, so I certainly have enough to talk about there!

I have worked while in school (as many as four jobs at once, though some could just be considered inconsistent "gigs," i.e. petsitting), and I have come into contact with all types of leadership styles, most motivating and inspiring, and some not so much. I often find myself comparing and contrasting my experiences and have learned that the people you work with can make or break the enjoyment of a job. I am excited to connect my experiences to organizational psych.

In addition, I will write about my experiences during my Senior year, including my full-time job search, which has been in full force since before the school year began!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy,

Alex