Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include links to the recorded webinars.
For most Yorkville University students, the ultimate goal of pursuing higher education is to land on a fulfilling and rewarding career path after graduation.
Getting one’s foot in the door at their dream job straight out of school, however, requires a lot of hard work and determination, as well as the development of those ever-important, post-graduation job search skills.
To those ends, Yorkville University’s Career Services team has developed an ongoing series of bi-weekly webinars aimed at teaching students just that.
“These career development workshops will help students and graduates to learn a range of skills that can help them be more successful with job searching and establishing themselves in the corporate world,” said Linda Folster, one of Yorkville’s Career Advisors.
By participating in the biweekly webinars – which are held every other Thursday – students gain access to resources and tips on topics such as interview preparation, resume writing and personal branding, as well as identifying and eliminating gaps in their professional preparation.
Webinar attendees will also have the opportunity to become better acquainted with the Career Services team, the members of which are available to provide individualized, one-on-one support to help students in their transition to new and exciting careers after graduation.
This term’s Career Services webinars will take place as follows:
It is estimated that 70 to 95 per cent of jobs are never advertised. This is known as ‘the hidden job market’, and you will learn the variety of strategies employers use to find candidates, and how you can match their approach so that you can find work. You’ll also discover what is meant by ‘the labour market’, why it’s important to your career exploration, where you can find information relevant to the jobs that interest you, and how to use this information in making important decisions. The final topic is building your professional network, because it’s the connections you make as opposed to the postings you find that can open the most interesting opportunities.
Job searching is hard work and doing so during a pandemic creates unique challenges. It is important to learn how employer and job seeker expectations have changed, and how employers have adjusted their recruitment methods, so that you can adapt. One aspect of this is adjusting your mindset – meaning that persistence, patience, openness and flexibility are now more important than ever. Equally important are being creative and resourceful and keeping your ‘pandemic skills’ current. This webinar outlines the particular challenges of job searching during COVID-19, along with strategies to stand out as an applicant while keeping yourself grounded and focused on your goal.
Job searching requires a set of skills, and these are changing during the pandemic. Within this very competitive environment, if your resume and cover letter are not laser-targeted, you won’t get noticed. Your task is to make it easy for employers to see how you fit and what you can do for them. Apart from the usual tips for targeting, it’s important to develop “pandemic skills”, upgrade your education, and use terminology employers are screening for. Today’s buzzwords include “remote”, “#readytowork”, “Zoom”, “shared documents,” and “flexibility across time zones”. This webinar covers several strategies to prepare for your job search during COVID-19 while staying engaged, adaptable, and hopeful.
Online job boards are an important part of a job search, yet 80 per cent of jobs are never advertised. Plus, with the countless job posting sites, it is hard to know which ones to use. It is also crucial to understand how applicant tracking systems are used to screen candidates so you can use tips to increase your chances of getting screened in. Another piece to be aware of is employment scams. Many new entrants to the labour market, such as students, are vulnerable to them. Generally, employment scams have common elements – high paying employment, business opportunities, or “get-rich-quick” schemes. This webinar builds your understanding of how to effectively job search online while avoiding the pitfalls.
We often think of a designer, actor, or other Creative when these words come up – a designer’s portfolio includes a range of samples of their projects; an actor’s demo reel contains clips of onscreen performances. In the same way that a designer or an actor would create a folder or link with samples of their best work in order to sell themselves, any job seeker – whether in a creative field or not – can create a collection of pieces of work relevant to their job target, in an effort to add something distinctive to the overall sales pitch. This webinar covers a variety of different artifacts that can be included in portfolios and demo reels, plus multiple ways to showcase your samples.
