Career Management

Instructor-directed workshops

• Academic Job Search: Discover the Path to Success

  This workshop is designed to inform graduates seeking careers in academia with insight into the stages of an academic recruitment cycle and an overview of labour market information. We will emphasize where to find employment opportunities and typical salary ranges, as well as important strategies to develop for pursuing a career in academia.

  Learning outcomes:

  • Describe the process of a typical academic hiring cycle.
  • Identify the significance of each stage in an academic hiring cycle.
  • Write and practice an introductory speech to present to an academic committee.
  • Identify at least three effective strategies to utilize for an academic job search.
• Ethics and Professional Etiquette

  This workshop will address how you can improve on your interpersonal and behavioural skills in the workplace. Topics of discussion will include working well with others, how to effectively communicate through different channels, appropriate body language, how to dress for success, and how to use technology properly in a professional setting.

  Learning outcomes:

  • Make a good first impression and showcase your best self to potential employers and future colleagues.
  • Use social media and email to communicate professionally.
• Finding Time for Time Management

  This workshop will introduce concepts of time management to graduate students. Concepts introduced will include the role of short and long-term planning, breaking down larger tasks into smaller ones, focusing, tracking one’s workflow and self-monitoring. The workshop will help you control your stress levels and achieve better grades.

  Learning outcomes:

  • Understand the importance of time management in achieving academic success.
  • Identify at least three strategies that you can implement to enhance your current time management and use in a major paper assignment.
• Get LinkedIn! How to Use Connections to Strengthen Your Job Search

  This interactive workshop is designed to inform graduates seeking industry careers on how to effectively use LinkedIn to build connections, seek out employment opportunities and leverage your professional brand. You will have the opportunity to start creating and/or enhancing your LinkedIn profile during the workshop and will also be able to explore alternative social media job search platforms and resources for industry positions.

  Learning outcomes:

  • Describe the purpose of using LinkedIn as a job search method.
  • Understand the importance of having a professional online reputation.
  • Write an effective skills summary statement to include in a LinkedIn profile.
  • Identify at least three methods for connecting with jobs and industry on LinkedIn.
  • Explore alternative social media job search tools and resources for industry positions.
• Interview Skills

  This workshop provides an understanding of the importance of conveying soft skills in an interview setting and subsequent key strategies to prepare for a successful interview. By participating in collaborative discussions and activities, you will demonstrate how to effectively convey soft skills in an interview to make a favourable impression for a potential employer.

  Learning outcomes:

  • Understand the importance of soft skills in the workforce and how to convey soft skills in an interview.
  • Identify at least three strategies to enhance soft skills.
  • Identify at least three strategies to prepare before, during and after an interview.
  • Apply the STAR technique to effectively answer behavioural-based interview questions.
• Mining your strengths: Understanding Your Professional Skill Preferences through MBTI (Myers-Briggs) Assessment and Interpretation

  The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Instrument provides an awareness of your preferences in the areas of how you work, communicate and problem solve. By participating in this introductory workshop, you will have the opportunity to not only complete your own MBTI report, but also examine how your personalized report influences your leadership and professional dispositions when working with diverse groups in an organizational setting.

  Learning outcomes:

  • Examine the history of MBTI-type preferences and their relevancy in today’s professional realm.
  • Describe your professional predispositions using MBTI-type preference concepts as identified in your unique personality profile.
  • Identify work style, communication and problem-solving preferences when working in diverse groups with multiple and distinct personality styles.
• Non-Academic Job Search

  This workshop explores job search strategies. It provides an overview on how you can effectively create networking opportunities and build relationships that can lead to career opportunities. It will also provide information and tips on how to effectively prepare, answer and ask recruiters questions. The second half of the workshop will provide further tips regarding online and face-to-face etiquette as well as job search resources and tools.

  Learning outcomes:

  • Identify the purpose of networking and at least three networking strategies.
  • Write an effective networking goal.
  • Identify key components necessary to develop personal branding strategy.
  • Indicate at least two job search resources that will enhance your ability to conduct a job search.
• Preparing for Your Career: Goal Setting in Grad School

  In this workshop, you will learn about a project management approach to managing your career. Career and life goals, implementation of strategies and goals, and evaluation will be discussed. There will be in-class activities in which you will write out your goals, steps to implementation and gaps to fill.

  Learning outcomes:

  • Explore your career and life goals.
  • Plan strategies to reach your goals.
  • Plan for the short term in order to build the foundation to meet your goals.
• Resumes and Cover Letters

  This workshop will focus on the fundamentals of a resumé. It will increase your understanding of how a resumé and cover letter are used in the job search process and to target the resumé and cover letter toward a career goal. You will learn how to compose a resumé that focuses on your strengths, experience and talents that relate to the position. Finally, you will gain further awareness of the formatting and structure of a resumé and cover letter.

  Learning outcomes:

  • Determine how your unique skills, knowledge and experience best fit the needs of a particular position.
  • Identify important components, structure and formatting of an effective resumé.
  • Distinguish the key components, structure and formatting of an effective cover letter.
• Stress Management

  This workshop will provide an overview of the nature of stress, how it can be managed and introduce some stress management techniques which graduate students can use. Topics covered will include identifying the symptoms and sources of stress, taking steps to stop sources of stress, venting/communicating with others, being resilient and self-monitoring.

  Learning outcomes:

  • Understand the importance of stress management in achieving academic success and overall wellness.
  • Identify at least three symptoms of stress.
  • Identify your major stressors.
  • Identify at least three strategies that you can implement to reduce and manage your stress.
• The Academic Job Process: Statement of Research Interests and Teaching Philosophy

  This workshop is designed for doctoral students who are preparing to apply for tenure-track faculty positions in academia. This workshop will discuss the points that should be covered by a Statement of Research Interests and a Teaching Statement.

  Learning outcomes:

  • Describe your academic identity.
  • Reflect on your research interests and teaching philosophy.
  • Formulate a Statement of Research Interests and a Teaching Statement.