Don’t Let The Snow Fool You – Summer is Just Around the Corner!

By: Allison Lougheed, Peer Advisor

I know most of you, in light of all this snow, are not even thinking about summer. However, the reality is that we are already half way through the semester! This means that working towards securing a summer job (if you have not already done so) should be an active part of your life right now. I know you are thinking between this terrible weather and the stress of midterms that the last thing you want to do is refine your resumé and search for jobs, but let me offer you a bit of a strategy and hopefully motivation.

If you are like me, you have already begun working towards getting ‘beach weather ready’. So just like you dedicate time each week to going to the gym and eating healthy, why not try to dedicate time each week to job searching? Be sure to set aside time in your planner each week to search for jobs on Navigator and other major search engines and customizing your cover letters and resumés. Just like you set goals at the gym, make it a goal to do one informational interview each week for the next six weeks leading up to the end of the semester, or attending one of the five workshops offered at the Career Centre each week to achieve your ‘Career Development Certificate’. All of these steps will not only help you land a summer job, but will also help you in your career planning journey by developing a network of valuable contacts.

So although we are not exactly in the summer mindset, it is important to designate time and set weekly goals for yourself during your job searching and career planning process, rather than waiting until the final weeks of the semester when many of the summer jobs have already been filled!

The Valentine Career Planner

By: Emma Dickson, Peer Advisor

Well, it’s that time of year again. Red and pink hearts all over the place, special edition chocolates for sale, love is in the air. Whether you feel like this is an annual celebration of love, or just a marketing ploy, there are some valuable things to be learned from Valentine’s Day. Depending on your past experiences and mindset at the time, everyone has different feelings toward the day. There are a few different types of people involved in Valentine’s Day: The Avoiders, The Extremely Love-Struck, and those that think Every Day Should be Valentine’s Day. Each of these Valentine styles can be connected back to career planning and job searching.

The Avoiders:
These are the people that at any cost will stay away from anything involved in Valentine’s Day. When it comes to career planning, these people do not think about their career or plan for what they are going to do when they are finished school. They feel like all of this will just work out and fall into place. Unfortunately for them, when the potential for a career relationship appears, they are missing the essential skills to wow the employer with their resumé, experience and interview skills.

The Love-Struck:
These are the people that are 100% into Valentine’s Day. They will wear pink and red for every day of February and buy half of the store’s supply of chocolate and novelty stuffed animals holding hearts. They are the Valentine marketers delight. In terms of career planning, these people may fall for a career quickly without being judicious about their choice, often ending up with a short-term love relationship, and not an enduring and meaningful one.

Everyday Valentine’s
These are the people that are often in long-term relationships and don’t necessarily take part in February 14th festivities. Instead, they feel that everyday should be special, and it shouldn’t all be focused on one day of the year. In terms of career planning, these are the people that would consistently take time to research careers and prepare for interviews and routinely interview people in their field of interest. At the end of the day, they know where they are, where they want to go, and what skills and experiences they need to get there – because they recognize the value of doing it consistently, across a large span of time.

Which type of Valentine’s Career Planner are you?

Volunteering: A Sacrifice of Time Worth Making

By: Shanelle Weber, Peer Advisor

Many people avoid volunteering because they feel their lives are busy enough as is and don’t want to sacrifice time away from school, family and friends. Before you decide to not make the sacrifice, let me explain to you how volunteering may just be the ticket to helping you reach better career opportunities:

Volunteering enables you to meet new people. Networking is the number one way of uncovering job prospects and also provides you with inside information about an industry, company or area of specialization.

Volunteering helps you to build skills and gain experience you otherwise would not have had. These experiences can be invaluable for building your resumé and cultivating references on your behalf. Not to mention the fact that volunteering shows initiative – a desirable trait in a candidate.

While the career-building benefits of volunteering are obvious, there are other pros as well – an escape from academic pressures, increased personal values and self-esteem, and above all, giving back to your community.

To begin finding a volunteer position that is relevant to your interests, try searching http://www.volunteerkw.ca – use the ‘search by your area of interest’ tool. Also check http://www.wlu.ca/volunteer.

Using your spare time to contribute to a volunteer position is definitely a sacrifice worth making to help you gain momentum in your career-exploration.