The Search is on for Summer Jobs!

The warm weather is quickly approaching and we're all getting ready for that dreadful search- the search for summer employment. Here at Career Services, we do our best to make your summer job search as effective and pain-free as possible. Here are a few tips: 

How to Find the Perfect Summer Job

The key to finding the perfect summer job is remembering that it might not currently exist. As important as it is to look for positions that align with your personal goals and passions, remember that gaining valuable experience comes in many different ways! Rather than looking strictly for a job within your field of study, focus on finding a position that interests you- even if it doesn't necessarily fit into your "perfect job" category. Many skills are transferable and can be used in various roles, so instead of asking yourself what type of job you want, ask yourself what kind of problems you would like to solve or what skills you'd like to gain. 

Where to Look

Go to Careerzone (careerzone.brocku.ca) to take a look at positions that are available on and off campus. Many on-campus summer jobs have the potential to extend into part-time positions in the school year.  Here are a few on-campus services that you could apply to this summer:

• Brock Dining Services
• Brock University Students' Union (B.U.S.U)  
• Brock Human Resources
• Recreation Services
• Student Life and Community Experience

Off-campus jobs also have their benefits, here are some general job search sites that can help you land a position within the Niagara Region:

• http://www.jobbank.gc.ca
• http://www.jobgym.com
• http://www.indeed.ca
• http://www.wowjobs.ca
• http://talentegg.ca 

When to Look

Don't wait, start now! One of the biggest misconceptions students have regarding summer job searching is that they have to wait until the summer to start. Many employers prefer to begin their hiring process months in advance. You can find summer job postings as early as January! Start your process now and make your chances of getting summer employment higher. 

How to Prepare 

Preparing for your job search can seem difficult at times. Drop by the Career Resource Centre or email us at Career@brocku.ca for interview tips and job search strategies to help you land a summer job that you enjoy!




Lydia Collins
Senior Career Assistant

Advantages to having a Part-Time Job while attending Post-Secondary School

Working part-time while attending university or college has many benefits. Some students may shy away from work because of the belief that they won’t have enough time for their studies if they are also working. The fact is that there are many on-campus jobs available for students that are extremely flexible and adaptable to student’s school schedules.

Check out the links below. Here you can find many different part-time on-campus jobs. Career Zone has both on-campus and off-campus jobs.

·         Career Zone

·         Brock University Student’s Union (B.U.S.U.)

·         Brock Dining Services

·         Recreation Services

·         Student Life and Community Experience

Working Off-Campus

If you can’t find work on-campus, don’t be worried about working off-campus. Employers who hire students are aware that you are in school and usually expect that they need to be flexible in order to accommodate your schedule.

Be sure to discuss schedule flexibility in an interview. It is important to be honest with yourself and the employer. If the employer requests that you work a number of hours that you feel are too much in addition to your studies, then let the employer know. If you turn down the job, you will at least have gained interview experience.

Benefits working while attending College or University

As a Senior Career Assistant, I see many students who have been well educated, but lack real world work experience. Education is important to have, but employers also like to see candidates who have work related skills and experience. This type of experience can be gained through volunteering, internships and jobs.

If you have any other questions about working on or off-campus, stop by the Career Resource Centre in the Learning Commons; or check out our resources online at http://brocku.ca/career-services]

Nella Paris
Senior Career Assistant
Psychology Major (Honours)

Working for the Weeke... Summer?!

"Wait a minute," you ask, "is this going to be a blog about finding a summer job? ALREADY? I only JUST found myself a part-time job!! I am all job searched out!"

"YES!" I answer, "this IS a blog about finding a summer job because guess what: to find the summer job you want and need the very best time to start is now."

Now is the time to start searching for that summer job because now is when the employers have begun to post them. The #1 mistake that students make when looking for summer employment is waiting too long and missing out on all of the great opportunities they could have had if they had just started a month or two earlier. And even if it is a little early yet, you don't want to wait until you're absolutely swamped with assignments that you just don't make the time to job search. Therefore, start now! And to help you out even further I am going to give you a few handy steps to follow on how to find yourself a GREAT summer job!

1. Check out job boards today! If you're looking to work on or off-campus, the Career Zone Job Posting Board is a great place to start! Each position is listed by area, and the board lists jobs from the Niagara Region to the GTA, including a wide variety of positions. Then too, if you stop by the Career Resource Centre and we will provide you a handout with a list of various job search sites for federal, provincial or municipal work, including summer camp sites and community directories! Also check out our website for some handy sites.

2. Once you've found a few jobs you'd like to apply for, update or create your resume and cover letter! Ensure to customize each document to the specific jobs at hand using an achievement based writing style! If you don't know what that is, why not check it out by coming on in for some handouts or a resume and cover letter review?

3. Have your documents done early. That way you can leave your application for a day or two to check back on, and also so you can have a fresh set of eyes look it over for you (Career Assistants in the Resource Centre perhaps?)

4. Follow up. Once you've applied for your position, do not hesitate to send a follow up email within a week of the application deadline to ensure that an employer has recieved it. This will show the employer your eagerness for the position at hand, and also give them a reason to remember your name when they do finally look over your documents!

5. Don't be discouraged if you're not selected. Summer job search is competitive, with many students searching you are bound to miss out on a few. Don't get stuck in assuming you've got a job in the bag and only apply for a couple of jobs- leave yourself room for flexibility and as many choices as you can give yourself!

6. Finally, set a deadline for all of this. For each step above, set a date of completion, and ensure that you give yourself enough time to complete it all in case something comes up. To help with this planning,  make sure you use the SMART Goal System to help you out!

Hope these tips prove helpful! Feel free to stop by the Career Resource Centre between 9am and 4:30pm Monday to Friday to discuss job search strategies or for anything else!

Brittany
Sr. Career Assistant

Advantages of Part-Time Jobs

So it's a brand new school year and classes are well underway. What are you going to do to fill those spaces between lectures, before (or preferably after) you're done your assignments, and to make some extra cash?

...Well, you're going to apply for a part-time job, of course!

Working during your studies poses many valuable advantages to your university career. Just as a few examples, you will:

• Be able to learn valuable transferable skills such as organization, teamwork, professional etiquette, customer service...the list goes on! Not to mention you might have the opportunity to take part in other professional development opportunities depending on your employer
• Meet new people & network with professionals - not to mention you will also have the opportunity to snap up some wonderful references from your employer
• Expand your resume and gain experience for your future career path (your part-time job may even open up doors for you in the future and turn into full-time work!)
• Learn more about a specific field and/or industry
• Help finance your education and other expenses
• Diversify your schedule and take a break from schoolwork/other commitments

So as you can see, working during university has many benefits, even for the modern-day busy student. If you're interested in part-time work, check out CareerZone for current opportunities both on and off campus. For more general searches, take a look at the Find A Job section of our website, or as always, stop by the Resource Centre for more tips & tricks.

Happy job-hunting!
Lia

PS. It's wonderful to be back writing the blog for 2012-2013. Looking forward to an exciting year!

We're Hiring!

It's that time of year again, students are in the midst of their summer job search and starting to think about employment for next fall. Now is definitely the time to begin your search! If you're looking for a great on-campus job for the summer and/or next fall that will work around your academic schedule and provide you with some awesome work experience...

...Well you're in luck - Career Services is hiring!

We're looking for students to fill various positions within our department, inlcuding:

• 5-6 Career Assistants to staff the Career Resource Centre in the Learning Commons
• A Social Media Assistant to effectively represent Career Services on social media networks and to work on various marketing campaigns
• 3 Plus Program Assistants to work with our Mentorship Plus, Experience Plus, and Experience Works programs

For more information about these positions and to find out how to apply, visit Career Zone to view the full job postings.

Don't forget to get your resume and cover letter reviewed at the Career Resource Centre before submitting your applications - put your best foot forward!

We look forward to hearing from you and welcoming new staff to our team!
Best of luck!!
Lia

Work and Freshman Year

Your parents have probably been asking “have you found a job yet?”, “do you have enough money to eat?” along with all the other nags that come with leaving the nest. But they’re right… will you have a job through your first year of university? If you won’t, how will you afford parties in addition to everyday necessities? Your parents won’t have bottomless wallets forever you know.

First year can be a bit nerve racking in general. It's normal to be anxious about balancing the work load with simple but time consuming things like laundry or cooking. I know people who haven’t worked a day through their university career, whereas I’ve always held two jobs throughout school and summer. Who do you think will be more prepared to for a career once they graduate? If you don’t learn how to prioritize now you’ll fall behind the others. By starting in your freshman year you'll accustom to a school-work life and it'll be a cinch once fourth year comes around.

By working part-time you learn how to prioritize, develop work ethics and learn from your mistakes (like calling in sick way too often) – plus you’ll have some pocket change for a rainy day! If your schedule during the week is full it's worth applying for weekend jobs like a pizza place or the movie theatre.
University really isn’t as difficult as people make it out to be. As long as you stay on task you’ll be fine – unless you work better under-pressure, then you’ll definitely need coffee change for plenty of late nights.

If worse-comes-to-worse you can explain to your employer that you need to focus on school and respectfully wish to be on a leave of absence until the holidays. No employer should make you choose work over academics if they have your best interests in mind. You do need to keep your marks up because your first year marks could come back to haunt you in your final year.

It’s time to check-in and grow up! You’re getting tossed into a bigger world and the time to adjust is now. Check out careerzone.brocku.ca for job postings within the Brock community or navigate to “Find A Job” through brocku.ca/career-services for an extensive list of job search resources.

Welcome to University! Good luck and best wishes on surviving Frosh week!

Sam

Career Zone

The Job Board has been updated!

Career Services, in association with the BCDO and Brock Co-op offices, have been working to update the job board (now called Career Zone) with Orbis Career. The system can be accessed through this link and you must sign in with your Brock ID. This ensures that the postings are secure and exclusive to the Brock community.

The system will recognize your student account and provide the most relevant job postings to you. So, if you are a part-time student & are not eligible for Experience Works positions, they will not show up on your screen. If you are a co-op or business student, additional postings provided by the BCDO and Co-op offices will also be visible to you. CareerZone is customized for you so you don’t have to sift through irrelevant postings.

Another cool feature in CareerZone is a calendar of our events throughout the year which will include workshop schedules and employer showcases.

Quick Tip:
Once you log on with your student ID you will be navigated to your dashboard. To search for work, click Job Postings and the most recent submissions will be on the home screen. To do an advanced search from here click Search Job Postings. You can save your searches for quick access later as well as your resumes! It’s pretty easy.

*Note to Alumni*
We’re here to help you transition from the academic world into your career. CareerZone is available to you in the same manner as current students...minus the co-op opportunities. So keep your eyes open for employer showcases and job fair events on the calendar too!

*Note to Employers*
If you are interested in posting a position on CareerZone you must complete a one-time registration form in order to post. Once you have received a username and password you may post as many positions as you’d like.

*Note to Faculty & Staff*
If you’d like to post any positions to the job board please complete your account registration and use the username & password provided to log in. Once you have an account you can post as many positions as you’d like, get access to our workshops and online resources.

*Note to Community Members*
Once you have registered, you may post jobs for babysitters, tutors, yard workers etc. to be listed under our Casual Job Board. 

Experience Works

With September approaching so quickly, you might have thought about applying to some of the on campus jobs listed on our Career Services Job Posting Board. Working on campus is a great opportunity – with perks like flexible hours, a convenient location and competitive wages they are an attractive option for students looking for work.

But, what if you see this thing at the top of a job posting?

This indicates that you need to be eligible for the Experience Works program to apply to specific jobs. Experience Works enables students to build their transferable job skills by providing funding to faculty and staff to hire students for on-campus positions. To be approved for this program, you must complete a Student Profile and your eligibility will be determined by the Student Awards & Financial Aid office. You will receive an email letting you know if your profile has been approved or not usually within 1-2 weeks depending how busy the office is.

If you’re approved, you will obtain a valid Experience Works Approval email that you can attach with your application to Experience Works jobs.

Don’t forget! You are required to re-apply for Experience Works each term.

For information on how to be approved for Experience Works visit the Student Awards & Financial Aid: Work Study site

To find Experience Works positions visit the Career Services site.

- Lia M