Shelby

Two Sets of Eyes Are Better Than One

For some strange reason, many people would rather hand over their resumės to a complete stranger, than pass it along to a friend or family member. Our resumės contain information about our education, past experiences, and achievements, all of which our friends and family know about, but yet, it is a document that many people feel too vulnerable sharing with their peers, or people close to them. It’s strange that we would hide our resumės from those who will be most honest with us – like it is some sort of sacred document, or personal diary.

Protecting your resumė from people that will give you honest feedback is one of the worst things that you can do for yourself, as another set of eyes can catch small errors that you may have missed on your own. What seems like a top of the line resumė to you, could look quite average to your peers, or even worse, potential employers. If you want the perfect resumė, you must take advantage of all the people and tools set in place to help you.

Laurier’s Career Centre provides countless resources for students looking to improve their resumės. First, I would recommend attending the Resumė Writing Workshop. Second, I would recommend stopping by a weekly Career Centre Resumė Drop-In Booth on campus where one of your Peers (who is trained on resumės!), can provide you with some tips for improvement. Having your resumė viewed by a peer, or a Consultant means you have nothing to lose. But handing in a resumė (that has never had a second set of eyes) to a prospective employer means a job to lose!

Laurier’s Career Centre, and Peer Advisors, can help you craft a resumė that you will be proud to show not only to employers, but also your friends and family.

“Luck Favours The Prepared” – Louis Pasteur

It’s midterm season and we all know what that means; twenty minutes to find a library cubicle, half an hour to grab your coffee from Tim’s, and a level of stress on campus that is almost palpable.

But why are we so stressed? My dad often says to me, “you’re a student, you don’t understand stress,” but from my perspective, we as students put more stress on ourselves, than anyone else I know.

I believe that most of our stress stems from our own poor time management skills. We are given assignments and informed about exam dates well in advance, but somehow, we always end up cramming the night before and we are never as fully prepared as we could, or should be. We carry the same poor time management skills all the way up until graduation, and once again, we are stressed when we can’t find jobs straight out of university.

We still have over half of the academic year ahead of us so we should use this time to learn from our mistakes and prepare ourselves for the future. Start your job search a little earlier in the same way that you would (or should) start your exam studying a little earlier. Stop piling on the stress and start taking preventative measures so that you can land your dream job in the same way that you would score that A+.

Take advantage of the four years you are given in university to actually prepare yourself for what’s to come after graduation.

Destination: Success

September has snuck up on us once again, and already people have begun thinking about where they will spend their Christmas holidays, or where they will vacation over Reading Week! People are always quick to plan for their holidays, but why not be as quick to plan for their careers? A career lasts a lifetime, so why not put the same relative effort into career planning that you would for a 7-day all-inclusive vacation?

The first step is to determine your preferences. Are you a beach bum or an adrenaline junkie? Do you want to work 9-5 in an office, or would you prefer an irregular, unpredictable schedule? Conducting informational interviews with professionals working in your field of interest is similar to seeking out vacationer reviews. How long is the flight to Jamaica? How many years of post-graduate school are required? Doing your research and talking to people with first-hand experience will help shed light on your future goals and help you narrow down your final destination – whether it be on a beach or in a court room.

After you have decided on where you want to travel (your career target), you can begin accumulating the money and experiences needed to pave the path to your destination. Identifying relevant summer or part-time jobs and strategically volunteering in places you would like to work someday are a step in the right direction. The money you save to pay for your vacation is very much the same as the experience you are banking to qualify for your career goal.

As you can see, planning a vacation and planning a career are very similar, and they most certainly do not happen overnight. Start thinking about what you can do presently, that will help you get to where you want to go in the future. Begin banking your experiences early so that you don’t miss your one-way flight to success.

Put Your Best Tweet Forward

Everyone knows that when applying for a job, first impressions are important. We often dress nicely, act politely and put our best foot forward during interviews because we want to leave a positive and lasting impression with our potential employers. But what if a first impression was already made of you before you even walked through the building doors? Before you even had a chance to introduce yourself? This has become a common reality for those who choose to have a social presence online. Social media has become a useful tool for employers to distinguish the suitable candidates from the unsuitable as words on a resume only say so much. In a recent interview, I was [half] surprised to hear that my employer had looked me up on Twitter –which was foolishly not private–‐ prior to selecting me for an interview. While I may have tweeted a few things that were NSFW, I was fortunate enough to redeem myself in person and to my surprise, I landed the job. The interviewer was kind enough to share some insight from an employer’s perspective and now I am passing this information onto you. He had said that the way you conduct yourself online creates a first impression for people that otherwise do not know you. The key is to think about your audience before tweeting that wisecrack joke or uploading that binge–‐drinking photo. Is it something a potential employer would find appropriate or entertaining? If not, you might want to reconsider. Social media can be either a blessing or a curse depending on the way you choose to use it. It has the potential to help you land an interview, as well as the potential to sabotage any chance you once had. Just be sure to always put your best foot forward, whether online or in person, because you never know when your first impression will occur.