Now that it is almost the middle of the semester some students may be wondering what they can do with the degree they are working towards. The job market for freshly graduated university students can be frightening: thousands of companies, millions of options, it is easy to get lost in the sea of job hunting.
Fortunately, there are several resources out there for Concordia students. Here are a few for those who want to get an early jump on their job hunt, or for those who want to see what jobs are available in their field.
Firstly, there are resources readily available to students on campus. The Career and Placement Services (CAPS) offers help for students who want to apply for internships, entry-level positions, summer time or part time jobs. They also have several other resources at their location on the Sir George Williams Campus.
“We offer students one-on-one help, as well as group help when deciding how to format their resumes, search for a job, or perfect their job interview technique. We also have several career fairs. The next one is in February for the Arts and Science students,” said Andre Gagnon, coordinator of CAPS.
In addition, CAPS offers workshops through the Counselling and Development department. The workshops are offered throughout the school year and cover a vast range of topics. One workshop directed at first-year students is “Choosing/Changing a Major.” This workshop offers the Myers Briggs Type Indicator to determine your personality type and the information to help students choose a major. Session One is on Oct. 7 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Session Two is on Oct. 14 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Second- and third-year students can attend more specific workshops concerning jobs and careers such as “The Job Interview: How To Communicate Who You Are and What You Can Do” where students learn how to market their skills. The workshop is being offered on Oct. 14 from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Loyola Campus and on Nov. 6 from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
If students feel that attending workshops takes too much time, or they are too shy to go to CAPS, they can always turn to the Internet for solutions. There are few job sites offering help to just-graduated students, but there is one: www.monkeysuit.ca which is directed at helping students. The web site was created by a team headed by Peter Varaklis, the president of monkeysuit.
“We’ve been around for about a year and so far we have had a great response from both employers and job seekers,” said Varaklis.
Varaklis explained the web site works in direct correlation with the ExportEdge program, an internship program offered to university students and recent university graduates. ExportEdge offers six month paid internships in a variety of fields. The way it works is job seekers submit their resumes on the monkeysuit web site and employers are able to peruse them and look for valuable resources for their companies.
“We do a preliminary screening of the candidates for the companies and then we set up the interview between the job seeker and the company,” said Varaklis. It is free of charge to post your resume on the web site.
However students who choose to go out looking for a job should not be complaining that there are no resources around campus or beyond campus.
“This is a very specific group of people that feel there aren’t enough resources out there for them. We’re trying to offer them another option so they can broaden their options,” said Varaklis.
CAPS is located at 2070 Mackay St. Their web site is http://caps.concordia.ca. Or students can call at 848-2424 ext. 7345. If students are interested in attending a workshop, they can sign up online at http://cdev.concordia.ca. Workshops at the SGW Campus are held in room H-440 and at Loyola in room AD 103. If students want more information, go to the Student Success Centre on either campus: SGW in room H-481, ext. 7369 and at Loyola room AD 103-9, ext. 4330.
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