Career Services Informer

An interesting fact seemingly shared by almost all accomplished people is that they had a mentor. Bill Clinton was a protégé of William Fulbright. Sigmund Freud was mentored by Joseph Breuer. Carl Jung by Sigmund Freud. Bill Gates by Warren Buffet. Oprah Winfrey by Maya Angelou. Henry David Thoreau by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Hilary Clinton by Rev. Donald James. Helen Keller by Anne Sullivan. Aristotle by Plato. Plato by Socrates… The list goes on.

What exactly is a mentor, anyway? A mentor can encompass a wide variety of roles. They can be someone who models appropriate behavior, offers encouragement, opens the door to opportunity, keeps you accountable, and inspires vision. Having someone who is willing to share their experience with you can make a big difference, however cliché that may sound.

Surprisingly, despite many obvious benefits, mentorship has been cited as one of the least-utilized tools for advancing one’s career. A career survey indicated that only about thirty percent of respondents reported having a mentor, and roughly twenty percent said that their company had a mentoring program in place. In addition, as an advancement strategy mentoring ranked lowest, far behind the most popular choices of obtaining additional education, seeking more responsibility at work, asking for promotion, and networking. With that in mind, the goal for this article is to explain how to form and sustain a meaningful relationship with your potential mentor(s). (more…)

Co-operative Education can be an excellent way of enriching your academic experience and narrowing down your potential career options. Employers increasingly cite real-life or internship experience as one of the most desirable qualities in applicants. With that in mind, here are four essential tips for getting the most out of your co-op experience:

Set personal and career goals, objectives, and expectations

In the beginning of your work term, discuss your goals, responsibilities and expectations with your employer(s). Ask any questions you have about the organization and your position. This can prevent some major obstacles or misunderstandings down the road. Make sure any goals you set are SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely) and relevant to your long-term professional goals. List the traits that you would like to see in your ideal co-op position. What do you hope to get out of the experience?

Show initiative, drive, and commitment

There are various ways you can demonstrate your motivation and enthusiasm to your supervisor(s) and coworkers. Regularly ask questions, volunteer to take on interesting projects, and set regular meetings with your supervisor(s). You may not always get to do the most interesting tasks, so accept any “grunt work” without complaint, showing you’re willing to do your best no matter the situation. Regularly attend informal or social events to maintain good relationships and network with people in the organization.

Track your accomplishments

After your work term is over, you’ll want to be able to reflect on what you got out of your co-op experience. This will not only enrich your co-op experience, but it will also help you clearly articulate your skills and qualifications in future job or volunteer interviews. Throughout your work term, maintain a journal or portfolio to record details of any projects, lessons, and achievements you have had as a co-op student. Also, consider using tools that will help keep track of your accomplishments like www.idonethis.com.

Use multiple resources to stay informed about future internship opportunities

Make regular visits to Symplicity to stay in the loop about on-going and future co-op postings. Also remember that many job and co-op openings are never posted, so network with colleagues, professors, friends, and family to identify these hidden opportunities. Career Fairs and departmental student unions and groups are excellent means of networking with others. Social networking sites like LinkedIn are also recommended. Take the initiative to conduct informational interviews with key people who may refer you to interesting opportunities. Visit SFU Career Services or attend career workshops to learn about networking and conducting informational interviews.

Eric Kang, Career Peer

Eric is a returning Career Peer Educator and Career Peer Coach with SFU Career Services. He is studying toward his Honours Bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology & Biochemistry (MBB) and Statistics. In his spare time, he enjoys hiking, juggling, and drawing.

I wouldn’t classify myself as one of those people who can walk into a room and meet people easily. Though I’ve been making an effort to push the boundaries of my comfort zone, I’ve always been an introvert by nature. Unfortunately, as a business student, networking seems like an important skill to learn.

When I recently won a ticket to a networking event through an information session at SFU, I told myself I had to go. Luckily, the event was a “mingle,” a smaller, more informal networking event. In contrast to a large and formal career fair which would involve elevator pitches and resumes, I figured this would be a good place to test the waters.

When the day came, and I dragged myself out and expected the worst. I swallowed hard and walked in, vaguely recognising a few other people from the information session. Were they as nervous as I was? A few minutes went by, and suddenly there I was, talking with someone I hadn’t known only a moment before. The surprising thing was that it actually wasn’t that bad. At first, there was a moment of panic when I realized I should have dressed in business casual rather than my casual black pants, nice tank top and cardigan (oops), but it could have been worse.

When I started talking to people, I realized they weren’t the kind of cold, reserved professionals that I had feared. They were just people like anyone else – quite friendly and easy to talk to. I also found some common ground with some of the other students there who were also at their first networking event.

Towards the end of the night, after I had gotten over my initial haze of nervousness, I had an epiphany. I wasn’t the only one who felt out of my comfort zone: a couple people hadn’t ventured out of the corner all evening, and a few others had mechanically talked to and exchanged cards with every person in the room. Luckily, I’d managed to behave very appropriately and confidently by avoiding these extremes.

Though I can still count on one hand the number of networking events I’ve attended, these experiences have driven home a few tips that I wish I’d known in advance:

1. Bring business cards. It’s quite common to exchange business cards at the end of a conversation.
2. Dress for the occasion. Depending on what event you attend, this may be a full on suit or business casual.
3. There is no need to talk to every single person in the room. A few meaningful conversations are less exhausting and more manageable.
4. It’s OK to take a breather and hide by the appetizers with the other students, but set a goal to not make this your entire evening.

Even though I haven’t talked to many people since those events, I’d say it was still worthwhile. The confidence I gained from recognising I am in fact capable of walking into a room full of strangers and striking up conversation has stayed with me and transferred over to other areas of my life as well.

If you’ve been procrastinating over whether or not to attend your first networking event, here’s my advice: just go. Not only could you eliminate (or at least reduce) your understandable anxiety and hesitancy, but you could even impact other areas of your life. Somehow, class presentations have become less nerve-racking. If this still isn’t enough of an incentive, keep in mind that you could encounter very good odds of winning a door prize.

Jennifer Gutzmann

Jennifer is a Career Peer Educator at SFU Career Services, and a fourth-year business student pursuing a career in Human Resources. She loves being with people, and wants to do something to help others.