Great Advice from Grads @ B2B…I experienced it!
Last year, I attended the annual Backpack to Briefcase conference at the Burnaby campus. It was a little tough going to school on a Saturday – but by the end of the day I realized it was worth it.
Backpack to Briefcase (or B2B for those in the know) gives recent grads and students about to graduate a chance to spend a day preparing for that dive into the great unknown – moving from school to work.
There’s a lot to think about when you put away the term papers and the textbooks – and B2B is a great way to get a handle on what’s out there. When you start to think about networking and negotiating job offers, internships and interviews, resumes and recruiters – your head can start to spin!
That’s why it was great to learn about the financial situations that students can face when we graduate – and some tips for living debt-free. Being debt-free might seem like just a dream for a lot of students – but I realize now it’s not as far off as it might seem.
We even got a chance to network with employers and recent alumni and ask them questions about transitioning to work from school – after we got some networking tips and strategies, of course! I’ve always struggled with networking – it seems so forced and stiff a lot of the time, so it was nice to practice with other students like myself, and talk to some employers and alumni as well.
And it was great to hear from actual SFU alumni who have become successes in the working world – particularly some of the internships, volunteer opportunities and other programs that they took advantage of right when they graduated. Being an Arts student, it was nice to hear a Psychology alumni speak about her actual, real-world job (and she wasn’t a Psychologist!)
Remember to ask lots of questions, and to take part in the networking. The alumni at B2B have graduated, they’ve made it – they have lots of wisdom to bestow. All in all, it’s just nice to find out how SFU students can make the change from school to work – all in one day.
Chatter from Chelsea