A Guide to Careers & Employment (Part 1) (Hiruni)

I’m hoping that my neglecting to post for a while can be excused this time, because I’ve got some exciting resources for you to try! (Well, as exciting as writing resumes and planning your career can be…).

If, like I did, you spent your whole high school career focusing on study rather than employment, the world of part-time jobs and applying for them can be a little daunting. I experienced this first-hand when I applied to several jobs last year and only successfully obtained an interview for one. Thus, I decided to ‘get serious’ about my job hunting skills and make use of the University’s wide range of career services.

1. Careers Online website– it doesn’t matter what year you are in, as a student of the University this will be one of your most valuable tools in searching for jobs and keeping up to date with the many events that Careers & Employment have to offer. Both ‘outside’ employers and the University itself advertise job openings here. Not to mention there are research participant opportunities, voluntary opportunities and access to course specific career events.
2.  Careers Drop-In services– each faculty offers a drop-in service where you can see someone one-on-one to ask general career advice or for some feedback on your job application. I found this particularly helpful for getting a second opinion on a resume and cover letter I intended to hand in, i.e.- what to include/exclude, what skills to highlight, formatting my documents, etc.

I hope you find these useful, particularly since I now wish I had used them more often in first year. Since this post is getting a tad too long, I’ll also be posting some general advice on internships in Part 2.