It is your hope of hopes, your dream of dreams. It is the job you have been salivating over ever since “Career Day” in kindergarten. It is your dream job. From time to time, Sweeps will delve into what it takes to be an astronaut, fashion model, CIA Analyst, male prostitute or Ben Affleck’s agent … well, maybe not Ben Affleck’s agent.

If there is nothing you crave more than the thrill of owning a company, or if flipping through Forbes gives you goosebumps, you might have been bitten by the business bug.

“If I owned my own billion-dollar business, I don’t know what I would do,” said freshman undecided business major Greg Dimitropoulos. “I could buy an island and breed animals just so that I could hunt them. Nothing looks better on your wall than a nice Squirrelagator; that would be awesome.”

However, owning your own business and making it successful is a lot of hard work – and it can be easy to get lost in the process. “Entrepreneur” isn’t exactly a job with a clearly defined major associated with it. Management is probably the most common, but business administration and marketing also can prepare you for life in the fast lane.

This means you are going to have to buckle down fast, because it is really important to start working on the core requirements as soon as possible. In order to gain entry into 300 and 400 level business classes, you must have at least 60 semester hours under your belt, as well as a 2.75 G.P.A.. You must also obtain a “C” or better in a handful of business courses and complete several more.

Ellen Anderson, assistant director of the Career Planning and Placement Center, emphasizes that students should really focus on getting out there into the business world and networking with as many people as possible through internships, job fairs, guest speakers and at “Meet the Firms” night.

“Any kind of experience you can get [is good],” said Anderson. “[Try] getting an internship with someone who is an entrepreneur themselves, and just picking their brain can be really useful.”

Sitting down and actually talking with someone who has already traveled down that road can really set you in the right direction. You may even look up former NIU alumni to seek guidance. Some alumni don’t even wait for you to come to them. This semester, well-known NIU graduate/success story Dennis Barsema actually co-taught a leadership class along side assistant management professor Jon Briscoe.

Anderson said another good option is getting involved with the NIU Cooperative Education Internship Program, which exists to assist students in finding career-related work experience and organizes job fairs.

Once you have gotten your bachelor’s degree, you have several different options as to what to do next. Your best bet, says Anderson, is to find yourself a job working for a larger company to begin with.

“Try and get an inside job with a company you would like to emulate,” Anderson said. “Learn from the inside for a few years and you’ll be in a better position to start your own business.”