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Successful job searches start early

Rebekah Hammond - Science & Tech Editor

It's the early bird that gets the job when it comes to students looking for employment.

Whether it's summer or full-time work students are looking for, taking a proactive approach to job searching is important in today's competitive labour market.

"It is competitive and you can't wait until April or May until your exams are done to work on looking for work," said Susan Forseille a co-ordinator at TRU's Student Employment Centre. "You have to have a strong resume, strong cover letter and a plan of action in place. That means you have to have a sense of what type of work you want, where you want it and where do you find it."

First year BA student Will George knew what kind of work he wanted and sought it out. After volunteering at Fort Langley last year where he did historical tours and interpretation, George knew he wanted to find a similar job this year.

"I'm looking for a [job] in the historical field, like heritage and tourism...because it's fun," George said. "Employers are taking resumes for summer work now, so I wanted to get mine out there first."

Wanting to make contacts and see what heritage jobs were available, George looked someone who might have connections in the heritage tourism field and found TRU's Student Employment Centre.

"I [took] advantage of the opportunities that the Student Employment Centre has," said George. "I went to see if [Forseille] had any job opportunities with historical things.

Together, Forseille and George formed an initial work action plan with his first choice of potential employers and contact information as well as a back-up plan. Afterwards, they created a master cover letter and resume which they tweaked and customized for several individual employers.

George applied for several jobs including ones at Barkerville, Fort Steele and Kilby.

"He'd already done some volunteer work [at Kilby], so that was an excellent opportunity," Forseille said.

George didn't have to wait long for a reply.

"I sent off all those resumes and I just got an application back today (the day after sending them out) saying that Kilby is hiring," he said.

Though not all searching students will necessarily get good news the day after sending resumes out, strategic planning and organizing can give students an advantage in searching for jobs.

"Making connections is really important because it's what lands you the job, pretty much," said George, including that students should also "get someone to read over your resume just like an essay you'd hand in to a professor."

Whether students are looking for summer work or full-time employment after graduation, the foundational principles for looking for work are the same: a good cover letter and resume and knowledge of the particular labour market they're interested in, according to Forseille.

Additionally, taking initiative to seek out and meet potential employers and being persistent gives students a head start on others looking for work; it also looks good to those who may be hiring.

Ann Eppinger, manager of Kamloops' Visitor Centre, has hired students from TRU in areas such as history, education and geography. She looks looks for a few key things, such as experience and organizational skills, when reviewing resumes. Things that usually deter her are too-small fonts and two-paged cover letters.

"I like to see a very short cover letter of a paragraph or two. Some key things I look for is experience in frontline work; they don't have to tell me what the experience is, they can say that in the resume," she said. "I love it when they bring their resume in and I can have a two minute chat with them at the counter. I know not all employers do, but I love to meet them."

Often, face-to-face meetings lead to jobs.

"I know students that have maybe done six or seven of those meetings and have five, six, seven job leads that never hit a website because [employers] already have a number of quality resumes and they don't have to go to that next level of recruitment," Forseille said.

When it comes to differences in looking for summer or long-term employment, "I think the biggest difference I see in students is time," she said. "There's a little bit more flexibility in summer work and sometimes [students] are more motivated by wages, sometimes they're more motivated by getting experience that would be beneficial for their career goals."

"Graduate students are often more selective in looking for meaningful jobs in their area of interest as they've spent a lot of time and money getting specific degrees they believe they'll enjoy, said Forseille.

If you're a graduate student and don't find a job right after finishing school, don't loose heart.

"The stats on that is that the average student, when they graduate with experience, can take anywhere from two to eight months to really attach to the labour market effectively," Forseille said.

TRU's Student Employment Centre is a useful tool for students needing job-search advice. In addition to having an informative website with a regularly updated page of job postings directed at students and graduates, there are also staff members who are readily available to work one-on-one with students.

"For some students, it may just be resume and cover letter development, most of the time, though, we're working with them to develop work search action plans," Forseille said.

"We'll utilize our resources," she said. "We'll give them whatever advice we can to help them connect with it. It's better to put more energy into fewer jobs than sending the same resume to a hundred different companies and not hearing back."