Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Program Specific Resume Samples

Are you interested in what the resume of an ideal student candidate in your field would look like? Over the summer we have have been working on a project to create a series of binders that house resume samples for each individual program. So far we have created resume samples for the following faculties:

- Faculty of Education
- Faculty of Business
- Faculty of Humanities

Each resume lists a number of positions that students in your program may have worked during their time at Brock as well as volunteer positions, clubs on campus, languages, technical skills, and more! These resumes can also serve as inspiration for anyone interested in exploring unique opportunities to fill their own resume with.

If you are interested in viewing any of the resumes from our completed faculties, drop by Career Services and we will be more then happy to let you take a look!

See you soon!

- Ashley

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Your Future After Graduate School

Brock University is home to a growing number of graduate programs at both the Masters and PhD level. Career planning is a crucial aspect of any graduate students' educational experience. Having a Masters or a PhD is not a free ticket to your dream career - there is still a lot of work to do in order to guarantee yourself a job after graduation. Luckily, Career Services is equipped with a fantastic new resource called Navigating Your Career Search, a graduate student career resource guide by Shane LeBlanc which can assist you in choosing an appropriate career path and helping you prepare for a career in academia or for a private and not-for-profit sector.

The earlier you start considering your career options, the better. LeBlanc suggests finding ways to prepare yourself for your career while you are still working through your graduate studies. Don't allow your education to be your only relevant experience! Having real world experience on your CV or resume will significantly increase your chances of finding relevant employment after completing your graduate studies. Find ways to make yourself stand out among the other post-graduate students - be creative!

The guide also mentions ways of identifying your own abilities and understanding the transferable skills that you obtain during your graduate studies. LeBlanc suggests writing down all the tasks that you completed during your graduate studies, describing what was involved in the completion of these tasks, and outlining the skills and strengths that you developed in order to be successful in this area. This type of in depth personal reflection will allow you to understand your own strengths and weaknesses and the ways that your graduate studies have prepared your career and will provide you with information to include on your resume, cover letter, or during interviews. If you need help brainstorming a list of potential skills acquired by a graduate student can be found in the back of Navigating Your Career Search on page 53.

A final area of LeBlanc's graduate student career guide that should be highlighted is his detailed over view of what to include in a curriculum vitae (CV). He presents a list of different sections to include on a CV as well as a description of the potential experiences to list under each heading. He also provides tips on selecting appropriate references. One of the services available to students and alumni at our career centre is a drop-in CV review. So if you have any questions while preparing your document or you are interested in having someone read over it for you feel free to stop by!

I highly suggest all future, current, and past graduate students stop by Career Services and take a look through Shane LeBlanc's Navigating Your Career Search guide. Our Career Assistants are also more then happy to assist you with your graduate school preparation and career search.

Plan ahead and consider all of your options. But most importantly, enjoy being immersed in what you love!

- Ashley, Sr. Career Assistant



Further reading available in the career centre for graduate students:
  •  The Academic Job Search Handbook (4th Edition)
     by Julia Miller Vick and Jeniffer S. Furlong
  •  The Chicago Guide to Your Academic Career
     by John A. Goldsmith, John Komlos, and Penny Schine Gold
  • Post-Grad Studies Binder
    Brock University, Career Services
  • How to Prepare Your Curriculum Vitae
    by Acy L. Jackson and C. Kathleen Gecheis

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Shop for Jobs 2012!

It's that time of year again - time to pay your tuition, time to start thinking about how you're going to make money this year and therefore time to start preparing your career documents to apply... if you haven't already started, that is!


There are a bunch of new listings popping up on our Career Zone, for both on and off campus positions, but you can ALSO check out our annual Shop for Jobs event, which is happening again in just one month! The event is occurring on September 11th from 12-6pm at the Pen Centre. You have exactly 33 days; plenty of time  to get your resume in gear and practice those interview skills!

You can check out our online workshops for resume writing, cover letter writing, and interview skills all on our Career Zone website, under "Workshops" from your dashboard. You can also check the Career Services website for more information on resume writing, interview skills and also for using resources like Interview Stream!

Interview Stream is a really useful program where students can create a free account, and film themselves being "mock interviewed". All you do is login, choose some questions you'd like to be asked, and the program sets up a computerized interviewer who will ask you these questions while you're being filmed. Why is this helpful? Because it forces you to recognize your potentially bad habits that pop up in interviews and elsewhere. You can watch the video back to see if you touch your hair or face a lot, whether you're fidgeting, or maybe to see that you use words like "ummm" or "like" too much! It's always good to self-check and Interview Stream is a really useful way to do that. You can also send in your video to our full-time staff at Career Services where it can be looked over and sent back to you providing further feedback. You might also choose to book a real mock interview with our department before you head to the event by emailing khammond@brocku.ca, or even check out some of the Interview resources we have in the Career Resource Centre!

You can also bring your resume and cover letter into the centre and a Career Assistant would be happy to look it over for you! It's a drop in service so you don't have to make an appointment! Come in anytime between 9 and 4pm until August 24th, and then between 9 and 4:30pm starting in September!

Remember: choose the employers you'd like to meet with at the event and tailor your resume to each specific one. Don't just print off 10 copies of the same resume - it's better to apply to less positions and tailor each document to the specific companies than to hand out a bunch and be general. This is because employers want to know that a) you took the time to decide where you'd like to work and why and also b)  what you think qualifies you for their specific position. We can help you with all of this stuff right here in the centre :)


For some other tips and tricks, and a list of the participating employers, check out Jack's Facebook Page to view the event and also check out the Prezi!

Good luck and see you soon!

Brittany