Qwentin Kok
After attending to the cover letter workshop, I learnt how to write an
effective cover letter to my future employers. Although I have to
show my strong interested and my abilities that able to manage the job
in the cover letter, I learn that I should minimize using the "I am"
sentence. I would write the cover letter with objective sentences
instead of writing the "I am" sentence.
Secondly, I would remind the potential employer to contact me in the last paragraph of the cover letter. I would put my telephone number again in the last paragraph and list out my available time to answer their phone calls. By doing so, I would able to show my willingness of getting the job, and make the cover letter sound serious.
Lastly, I found this cover letter workshop is very useful to me. Before I attended this workshop, I did not know how to write a cover letter. Now I have confident that I am able to write a persuasive cover letter for my next job application. I think that everyone should go to this kind of workshops before they apply for their first job. Moreover, it is very convenient for people to attend the workshop as we do not have to make reservations before hand. Likewise, the service provided is free of charge and everybody is welcomed.
Andrew Chang
Every speaker in this semester had given us one common advice, which
is to build a network early and use it wisely. That is why I have
decided attend a network building workshop. Over 80 percent of jobs
out there are unlisted and can only be discovered by effectively using
a personal network, our workshop leader said. This makes building a
network a primary task for us who are graduating within a year. I
think we have heard enough about how important a network is by now,
but the more important thing is about how to build a network, and how
to build it efficiently.
One thing out network workshop leader said truly caught my attention. She was talking about how to establish and build a network while attending an unfamiliar social event. I think this happens to me often that after attending an event, I walked out without much information. I would be hoping and waiting for the hosts of the event would treat me as a guest and show me around, but usually they are just too busy. I would notice others in similar situation as me, isolated and waiting for help, but I am too shy or afraid to make the first move. Our workshop leader suggested a good method to change this. She suggested that people in this kind of situation should change their attitude from being a guest to becoming a host. Pretend you are a host and start welcoming the people that seems to be in need of help. Ask them if you could help them to get some drink or food, or to show them around. Try to be as helpful as possible. No one would be offended or scared off from a helpful person. Although this sounds pretty easy, but I think it still needs a lot of practice. The important thing is that I have my attitude adjusted some. Next time in such situations, I will try not just sitting there and expecting for help, there must be people just in need for help as much as I do. This networking method might not be useful yet for us students, but I think it would be more and more useful in the near future.
Kanwal Jeet Bhullar
I attended a resume workshop at the Simon Fraser University Career Centre.
The workshop was a very beneficial learning experience. It clarified
important facts of what potential employers look for. It also improved my
resume in many different ways including content and format, which were two
major topics of the workshop.
Content is obviously a very important key to a resume, but not everyone states the most important information. Having work experience, volunteer experience, and education are all vital parts of a resume, which should be stated. Also it is important to provide details pertaining to the qualifications one has, not just listing them off. The Career Centre also provided tips on what employers look for in a resume, from key words to demonstrations of certain qualities.
A résumé's format is extremely important due to the limited time an employer is willing to spend per resume. It is very easy to let the format of your resume slip, but some employers do not have the time to "dig up" the information somewhere in your resume. As an example, having education on the second page of your resume is not efficient due to it being probably a student's most valuable asset to a company. Employers must be able to quickly see the information that they see value in.
The Career Centre provides very important skills in how to make oneself employable. This is done, not by work experience or education, but by presenting information in a clear and concise manner to a potential employer where it truly shows the qualities one brings to a company. Being able to market oneself is a skill that is truly necessary in today^Ňs highly competitive world.
Ada Ling
I have recently attended a course called "Great Conversation" offered
by my work place. This course helps me to develop my communication
skill. In a networking world, communication plays a major part. The
self-presentation is very important and conversation is one of the
ways. In the course, I am able to learn how to say things in a way
that a good and strong impression is given to the other parties. It
is very useful especially in handling complaints. I also learned that
careful choice of words is important. Differences in wording a
sentence have different meanings. We have to be very careful in using
and understanding words in a conversation. Therefore, learning a
great conversation is crucial in both work and social world.
Neil Chicoine
On the evening of November 21st , I attended the Living and Working in
the United States workshop put on by the career centre here at Simon
Fraser University. It was very informative and interesting even though I
entered the workshop expecting a larger spectrum of information. Jeff
Peterson from Dorsey & Witney addressed the group about the varying routes
to obtaining work visas in the United States.
This workshop was very appealing to me because I have been seriously contemplating the idea pursuing my career as a mathematician in the United States for the last few years. A very good childhood friend of mine has his dual citizenship and has been a computer programmer in the Seattle area for the last four years. He really enjoys the different culture that Americans display, but I still wonder if I would enjoy it myself. I would like to spend no more than ten to fifteen years south of the border and through the information from the seminar , I learned that I can get a Treaty NAFTA visa and work on a one year basis for a company as long as my job description entitles some form of mathematics. This type of work visa is relatively cheap and easy to obtain and is the preferred visa for recent university graduates. After each year, I can renew this visa but after approximately five years, I will probably have to upgrade to a H1B visa which is more expensive to get, but hopefully by then, I will have proved my worth to the company and they will take care of the legalities behind attaining this new visa. The H1B visa is good up to six years, then in order to stay in the United States I must apply to get my Green Card. I have no wishes to get my Green Card, because once attaining, you must pay American taxes no matter what country you reside in. I do plan to head back to Canada with some great experience, some American money saved up to convert to Canadian dollars. But if the job is right, and my life is heading in a positive direction, I might just stay in the United States for longer than I currently plan.
I was hoping Jeff would have addressed the group on the different taxes that each country imposes but he said he did not know enough to give us accurate answers. I am very happy that I went to this seminar for I have learned some very important information about obtaining work visas.
Diana Wong
I am in co-op this semester and am working as a QA Software Tester at
Crystal Decisions Corp. My main responsibility is functional testing.
Since QA (Quality Assurance) is the career field I would like to
pursue after graduation, this work term is of special meaning to me.
Among the goals I have set for myself for this work term, one is to learn more about the company and that is achieved successfully. For example, I visit the Company's internal website almost everyday. It provides a great source of information about the Company - its past, its present, and its future. On the technical side, I have learned a lot about actual QA work. We learned about testing methodologies in CMPT 275, the Software Engineering course, but not the challenges we might face in the field.
Sean Amundsen
As my Professional development exercise I joined an organization
called Leaders of Tomorrow (LOT). LOT is an organization that teams
up students with local business leaders as part of a mentoring
program. For me, this was an opportunity to explore my career
opportunities with the aid of my mentor.
A secondary objective to LOT is to facilitate individual network building. In addition to meeting my mentor and other business leaders, I have met many other students with varied backgrounds. Each student member volunteers for one of five committees, so in addition to the aforementioned benefits, I am also getting volunteer experience, as I am currently responsible for the updating of the LOT website http://leadersoftomorrow.bc.ca/.
Hank Chiang
Networking, using people you know both on a personal level and
professional level as a source of information, is the most effective
method to locate job openings that are not advertised. They are also
the ones who can provide you with information and advice about the
field you are interested in. One of the statistics our
advisor brought up at the beginning of the workshop really caught me
by surprise - nearly 85 percent of all jobs are not advertised and
most people fail to take the advantage of networking and miss out on
these job opportunities.
During the workshop, the advisor gave us an overview on ways to build our network and ways to improve our networking skills. One of the topics that really impressed me was the information interview. Information interviewing involves talking to people networking skill. One of the topics that really impressed me was the information interview. Information interviewing involves talking to people who are doing the type of work you want to do and gaining more information about the field.
I list some tips she mentioned during the workshop that I think are useful when preparing for my own information interviewing:
Pezhman Samimi
The Career Services Center had held a very valuable workshop during
the semester that provided some tips for interviewing. Although
previously I had never taken into consideration the details of the
interview process, this workshop brought to attention very interesting
ideas and presented a more structured approach.
To start with, a breakdown was made of The 5 knows, without detail being: know (1) yourself, (2) the career field, (3) the employer, (4) the job, (5) the interviewer. These are essentials that are to be considered even before the interview begins. Another helpful idea during the interview is the exercise of what is referred to as the STAR method. The crux of this is to communicate personal qualities via previous experiences. To briefly outline: (S)ituation: describe the situation, (T)ask: what were you trying to achieve, (A)ction: what did you do to achieve your results, (R): what were the results.
Perhaps the most helpful ideas were those pertaining to the intended meaning behind many of the questions posed by the interviewer. In other words, what it is they are actually looking for in a certain question. So for example, asking about a time you delegated a project effectively, seeks leadership skills, or a time you made a bad decision, seeks admission of mistakes and the ability to have learned from them. Overall, this was an effetive workshop and will certainly be of great help in preparing for future interviews.
Alex Hadimulya
I joined the co-op program this semester and during one of the
meetings I had with the Faculty of Science co-op program co-ordinator
(Mr Edgar Simons), I learned alot about how I can be successful in
interviews.
The first tip I learned was that it is important to make eye contact when being interviewed. Second of all, I have to make sure that I answer the questions confidently and avoiding talking too long. Thirdly, I learned that I should mention any personal experiences I may have that relates to the question being asked. This catches the interviewer's attention because it shows that I am different than any other applicant. Finally, it is also important to make sure that I leave a positive impression with the interviewer because if the interviewer doesn't remember me after the interview is done, I won't have much of a chance of getting the job or even a second interview .
Johnny Yeung
I am part of the Leaders of Tomorrow (LOT) Program which is a Student
Mentoring program sponsored by the Vancouver Board of Trade. The
one-year program aims to "bridge the gap" between post-secondary students
and local industry leaders. The LOT Program so far has been an extremely
rewarding experience. My mentor is David Smail, the manager of Business
Development at Andersen LLP.
I was recently invited to Andersen's Canadian 50 Best Privately Managed Companies Awards Night. I leaped at this opportunity to mingle and meet with some of the top executives from our country. Other events that I have participated in include roundtable lunches with Victoria Withers, General Manager of Mid-Market Solutions at IBM Canada and Dave Cobb, Chief Operating Officer of Orca Bay Sports Entertainment. In the new year, planned events include a Career Fair for all LOT Students. I have also been actively involved with volunteering for the program as a Database Developer and as the alternate Co-Chair of the Membership Committee.
Being a student, you always hear that effective "networking" is one of the keys to success. The LOT Program has provided a great environment to hone and develop my business networking skills. Some key lessons that I have learned so far from my experiences:
Rocky Chan
Resume writing is one of the most important skills that will help me
to get a job. A resume is usually the first impression that I will
make with a prospective employer. Hopefully, after looking through my
resume the employer will give me the opportunity to make a second
impression. A resume is also an example of my communication and
organization skills. Due to these reasons, I decided to go to the
resume workshop held in the SFU career centre.
The workshop gave me a lot of great ideas on how to fine-tune my resume in terms of content and format. The content is a very critical part of the resume because it will give the employer a rough idea of what kind of employee you might be; therefore it is very essential to state all the important information about yourself. Information such as education, work experience, and volunteer experience have to be stated with clarity, it is also a great suggestion to explain how your experience relates to the job that you are applying. Using "keywords" is also a great idea, because some employers will look for it in the screening process. The format is the second critical part of the resume. The career centre staff also shows me a lot of examples of different kinds of resume formats. This gave me ideas on how to adjust my resume accordingly for each type of job that I might apply for in the future.