Career Blog
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We often neglect our personal growth for the benefit of our career development. However, what many of us don’t realize is that personal growth is actually a key ingredient in reaching important professional milestones. Here are three personal growth tips that will also boost your career development.
Tip no 1: find your interests
It’s not always easy to identify one’s centres of interest, whether it is due to a lack of self-knowledge, a reluctance to change or the mind-boggling number of possibilities, which is in fact a blessing. Fortunately, the Telfer Career Centre offers an array of activities that allow students to pinpoint their interests and preferences. Moreover, these activities count towards the Career Development Certificate.
Tip no 2: focus on continuous learning
A Bachelor’s Degree. An MBA. A Ph.D. Society tends to judge us based on our level of education. However, to evolve as a professional and develop a better “sense of self”, it is imperative to learn beyond the classroom. Striving for excellence, challenging oneself and learning new things ─ even if they have no obvious professional utility ─ is essential. Also, to broaden your horizons and enrich your intellectual capital, why not take elective courses from other faculties? It will sharpen your judgment and help you make better decisions in your projects as well as in your career path.
Tip no 3: give back to your community
What better way to grow personally and professionally than to volunteer? In addition, community involvement is very well perceived by employers, as it allows candidates to know themselves better, gain skills and expand their network. The University of Ottawa also provides students with numerous ways to get involved in their community. As a Telfer Career Centre ambassador, I’m part of a team of volunteers who actively engage with Telfer students 3 to 4 hours a week. This experience has allowed me to know more about my preferences and career goals.
There are numerous ways to develop a strong professional sense of self, and the Telfer Career Centre offers you a wide variety of activities to help you in this field.
Check out the Calendar of Events on Career Launch, and don’t hesitate to sign up!
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Everyone has been using technology for school in new and exciting ways this year, but the costs can add up. From extra monitors to ergonomic office chairs, learning from home seems to imply a lot of hidden costs. Fortunately, here are three FREE apps for productivity and organization that make online school a whole lot easier!
No 1: NOTION
Notion is an all-inclusive platform for notes, planning, and knowledge/data management that has taken the internet by storm in recent weeks. Luckily, I started using Notion long before they started working with content creators and can assure you it’s worth the “hype”! Notion users can take advantage of features like headings, highlighting, to-do lists, and many more. Users are also able to contact others, and it’s super easy to add media content onto pages!
For more advanced needs, Notion also comes with database elements ranging from text, number, and tag select – and more advanced options such as formulas, relations, and roll-ups. My personal favourite use of these databases is to create a course schedule organized by week, type (lecture, reading, assignment, etc.), and topic. Then I add a single select column called “confidence” where I rate each topic from 1 to 5 stars which really helps with effective studying since I can prioritize what I actually need to work on.
No 2: AIRTABLE
Hopefully, all the database talk of Notion didn’t confuse you, because that’s what Airtable is all about! Straight from Silicon Valley, Airtable is a database system that presents itself like an easy-to-use spreadsheet, with cloud collaboration services on top! Although I haven’t found it too helpful in my academic life, I’ve been loving it in internships for project management!
Bases can be started by importing data, starting from scratch, or using one of Airtable’s hundreds of templates. Some templates might be beneficial to the average student for apartment/job hunting, grad school applications, house management, and study guides preparation. But really, with all the field options (text, numbers, tag selects) and the more advanced uses like lookups, barcodes, and functionality buttons, there isn’t anything that can’t be tracked or planned with Airtable.
The world of databases can be hard, but the best part of Airtable is that it’s free for personal use!
No 3: OFFICE LENS
The final app on my list is Office Lens. There isn’t anything too exciting to say about it, but it’s become an online school staple! Office Lens is an intuitive PDF creator that makes it easy to take pictures of pretty much any piece of paper, and upload/download them to many different outlets. The best part is that it doesn’t have a page count limit like other free PDF scanner apps. How many of us have started taking pictures of our 12-page midterm only to get a pop-up saying you can only upload 10 pages at a time? Never send that embarrassing “Can I please hand this in two minutes late because of an uploading issue?” email to a professor again!
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Planning is an integral process that applies to various disciplines in life. Artists will envision their paintings before creating their final masterpiece. Athletes will plan their workout routine and diet to reach their fitness goal. If something is important to you, then sufficient time will be spent in planning the process before setting out to achieve it. So, when it comes to your career, no less effort should be devoted to planning how to reach your future aspirations.
Here are six steps to creating a career-focused action plan:
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Determine your career vision
If there is no target in front of you, any attempt to throw a dart will be both meaningless and pointless. Similarly, without a precise vision in mind, you will quickly lose the motivation and purpose in the proceeding steps. For that reason, it is important to take the time to set up a career vision. The more defined your vision is, the more tangible your target becomes in your mind.
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Set SMART Goals
“Setting goals is the first step
in turning the invisible into the visible.” – Tony Robbins.
This is one of the crucial steps in your action plan. Setting precise goals for the short and long term will allow you to allocate your efforts and time appropriately. It will also help you stay focused and allow you to measure how far you are from achieving your vision. There are many goal-setting models available; perhaps the most effective and commonly used is the SMART model.
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Gather information on different requirements and resources available to reach your goal
Once you have set goals in place, the next step is figuring out the requirements and the resources available. In addition to researching, networking can provide you with a lot of industry and professional information related to your field. For that reason, you should leverage networking platforms such as LinkedIn and keep a watch out for different networking events hosted on the Calendar of Events in Career Launch and the Telfer clubs social media pages.
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List the tasks to be performed
Now that you can see the target, know the distance to your target and have gathered some insights on different throwing techniques – it’s time to take a shot. Based on the information gathered in the previous step, list the action items that are required to attain your goals and highlight the resources available for each task. As one of your tasks, register for workshops offered by the Career Centre that focus on career management skills such as resume writing and acing your interviews. Some of these activities can also count towards your Career Development Certificate.
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Track your progress
One of the main features of an action plan is that it allows you to measure your progress. Have something on hand like a visual template that can help you track your progress for each goal and remind you of the next action step. Here is a sample to get you started.
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Reflect and Reassess
People and companies continuously adjust and refine their plans to adapt to their situation, which makes planning a dynamic process. Job requirements, qualifications and processes are changing to satisfy the market’s needs. Therefore, take some time to reflect on the relevance of your goals and tasks, modifying them when necessary.
As we start this academic year, I invite you to take some time to create a career action plan if you don’t have one already. Be sure to make the best use of the resources available to you, especially the services offered by the Career Centre.
Resources
Developing a personal action plan
Goal setting
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As students and professionals, you may already have developed several job-search strategies: a solid resumé ready, multiple job alerts set up, and a vast LinkedIn network. But did you know that practising mindfulness can also help you optimize your job‑search results in many ways?
Searching for employment while pursuing a degree is stressful even under the best circumstances. As we are approaching our very first virtual fall term, we need all the tools we can get to remain focused despite uncertainty. Here is how you can use mindfulness to optimize your efforts and results.
What is mindfulness?
According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, mindfulness is “an invitation to step out of the clutter and really focus on what we are doing, thinking, and feeling in this moment. (…) It’s also a skill developed by deciding to slow down and taking the time to pay attention and be curious about things that we’re experiencing and things that we see around us.”
How can you apply it to your job search?
1. Cultivate intention
By taking the time setting a clear intention regarding your job search, you will focus your time and energy on what really matters whether it’s determining your top 10 employers; finding your true professional purpose; setting short- and medium-term networking goals; or completing your self-marketing package.
Need help setting a clear career intention? We can help! Book an appointment with the Career Centre staff through Career Launch.
2. Remain mindful of your accomplishments and progress
As you evolve in a professional, volunteer, or extracurricular role, pay attention to your accomplishments and the skills and knowledge you are gaining. It will boost your confidence, help you set new goals, and make it much easier to update your self-marketing tools.
Looking for some guidance on how to remain mindful while updating your self-marketing tools? Book an appointment with the Career Centre staff for a resumé or LinkedIn profile critique through Career Launch.
3. Practice mindful breathing
Looking for employment while studying full time is like a marathon… for your brain. Give this precious organ some love by practising daily breathing exercises. Research shows that mindful breathing can increase awareness of our thoughts, regulate emotion, enhance attention, and reduce stress. All these improve your brain efficiency.
Don’t miss the free, weekly virtual mindful meditation sessions offered to all students via Zoom.
Learn more about how you can apply mindfulness to your job search with the following resources:
How to apply the art of mindfulness to your job search
Mindfulness: A resource for your job search toolkit
5 mindful habits you can adopt to boost your bob search
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It’s never too early to start planning for your career! Whether you’re in your first term of university or your last, it’s important to start thinking about what you’re going to do once you graduate.
Career planning involves identifying where you want to go and how you’re going to get there. It’s about weighing your skills, interests and values in relation to the different job opportunities out there. It is one of the most crucial — yet most often overlooked — steps before graduating. Career planning will allow you to set clear goals and be on track for success!
Now that you understand how important it is to start planning for your career, where do you start? Well, below are some tips to help you!
Understand what you like and dislike: It’s important first to understand and reflect on what you like and don’t like to do. Moreover, make a list of what’s important to you in a career. This will help you understand what type of career you would like to pursue.
Explore options: Now, after considering your likes and dislike, explore different options that may suit you. You can do this by reaching out to professionals, either in networking events or through LinkedIn. Do your research!
Make career goals: Once you’ve done your research, the next step should be to start setting goals. Set both short-term and long-term goals. Write these goals down and maybe even share them with a friend. Hold yourself accountable for them!
Look for learning/training opportunities: After you have made these goals, research the steps that you need to take to achieve them. Usually, this would involve developing certain skills. Consider the skills you already have, as well as the skills you would like to gain or develop. Now, look for learning and training opportunities. These opportunities could come from workshops, online courses or professional development activities.
Career Centre: The Career Centre has many resources that can help you plan your career. These resources include workshops, resumé critiques, career testing and more. They are easily available to you, so take advantage of them!
